Middle Earth SBG – Ancient Ruins Painting Guide

November 13, 2018 / Deathwatch Studios / Leave a comment

This guide is ideally suited for painting the bases I showed you how to make in this tutorial.

I’ve used the same basing technique for both my Azog’s Legion and my White Council, but with a few subtle changes to the painting in order to give them a different character. I’ll be going through the stages for both in full but there are only a few differences between them, but you’ll notice from the picture they end up looking fairly different.

Eerie Ruins

What you will need:

Citadel Rhinox Hide
Citadel Eshin Grey
Citadel Dawnstone
Citadel Ionach Skin
Citadel Pallid Wych Flesh
Vallejo Chocolate Brown
Citadel Death World Forest
Citadel Karak Stone
Army Painter Steppe Grass
Army Painter Mountain Tufts
Dark Green Leaves

Begin by basecoating the base with Sotek Green, then apply a heavy drybrush of Eshin Grey

Apply a medium drybrush of Dawnstone

Apply a light drybrush of Ionach Skin

Apply an edge highlight to the tiles with Pallid Wych Flesh

Make a mix of 1 part Chocolate Brown and 5 parts water and apply over the sanded areas

Make a similar mix with Death World Forest and apply over select areas of the sand

Apply a light drybrush of Karak Stone I’ve the sand and edges of the cork

Apply a very light drybrush of Pallid Wych Flesh to the sand

Apply some of the mountain tufts to the base

Use PVA to apply the grass around the tufts and across the sandy areas

Finally use PVA glue to affix some leaves to the base. This can be a little fiddly so I would recommend some tweazers

Dark Ruins

What you will need:

Citadel Rhinox Hide
Citadel Eshin Grey
Citadel Dawnstone
Citadel Ionach Skin
Citadel Pallid Wych Flesh
Vallejo Chocolate Brown
Citadel Karak Stone
Army Painter Steppe Grass
Army Painter Mountain Tufts
Autumn Leaves
Alclad II ‘mud’ weathering pigment

Apply a basecoat of Rhinox Hide to the base and once dry apply a medium drybrush of Eshin Grey across the base

Apply a light drybrush of Dawnstone, focussing on the edges of the tiles

Apply a very light drybrush of Ionach Skin to the edges of the tiles

Apply an edge highlight of Pallid Wych Flesh to the tiles

Use the same Chocolate Brown mix found in the Eerie Ruins guide and apply to the sand areas and exposed cork

Apply a light drybrush of Karak Stone to the sand and exposed cork

Apply a very light Pallid Wych Flesh drybrush to the sand and exposed cork

Apply the mountain tufts to the base

Apply a light dusting of weathering powder to the top and edges

Use PVA to affix some autumn leaves to the base to finish

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Middle Earth SBG – Ancient Ruins Basing Tutorial

November 8, 2018November 8, 2018 / Deathwatch Studios / 1 Comment

I absolutely love going to town on the basing of my miniatures. It’s just another excuse to add some character, variety and unification to your armies. It’s all about adding that story that really brings your miniatures to life.

The most recent basing I have been doing is for my Azog’s Legion force and today I’m going to show you what you need and how to go about making them.

I’ll be doing a series of tutorials on basing, both the modelling and the painting, so look out for future articles.

What you will need:

Cork Roll. I use a 2.5mm thickness, like this. This is readily available from most hobby stores, so if you do have a model train store nearby pop in and take a look. Just one of these rolls will easily last you the whole army.
Plasticard. I have so far been using a fairly thin, 1mm, variety. This does make it a bit easier to cut and model, but doesn’t look quite as good as a thocker variety.
Sand. I used Fine Sand from Basecrafts.
Mixed cork. Used for detailing. Can be found here, or like the cork roll can be found in hhobby stores.
PVA
Super Glue
Clippers
Modelling Knife

Building the Bases

Begin by breaking the cork roll down into smaller, circular sections. I used the base as a template and broke the cork off around the edge. Always make more than required as these can be used for extra levels and details.

Glue one of the circles to the top of the base with superglue.

Once dry this will give you your first layer.

Due to some of the drying times involved I’ll always build a few bases at a time, usually enough for a warband.

Cut the plasticard down into small rectangular and square shapes. They don’t need to be uniform as the ruins are quite, well…ruined.

Using super glue attach each segment at a time to build up the paving on top of the cork.

Clip off the excess plasticard around the edge of the base. The aim is to keep to the circle but still retain an angular look.

That’s the second layer done. Normally I would attach figures at this point. It can limit your ability to paint the base but does ensure the mini will be a good fit.

Next up is weathering the plasticard. Using the modelling knife make scratches across the surface. The more you add the more beaten up the ruins will look.

Also use the knife to shave down the edges and add some bigger cuts.

Use super glue to add a few peices of the mixed cork across the bases.

Use PVA to add some of the fine sand onto small areas of the bases. I focussed on any cork visible on the top, around the mixed corks and in the cracks.

Once the pva was dry I added a layer to seal in the sand. This was acheived with a mix of 1 part PVA to 6 parts water. I add this to all my bases that include sand as it really secures everything and cuts down on wear and tear.

The beauty of the cork is it’s quite an easy material to cut and craft into unique features.

A simple slice like this and both parts can be used to make a staircase.

Glued one on top of the other they add that extra dimension and retain the circle shape.

You can utilise this to make some pretty funky and diverse ruins. Just remember to test fit your miniatures so you know they will fit and loook good.

you will need to cut the plasticard to fit the middle step, but the bottom and top can overhang to be cut down.

From there it’s just finishing them up just like the others by adding mixed cork, sand and a seal.

And there you have it. This is how I built and will continue to build all the bases for my Azog’s Legion force. I hope you all find it usual and I would love to see some of the bases you make using it, pop me an email at deathwatchstudios@gmail.com, find me on Facebook or Instagram.

Join me soon to find out just how I painted them as well.

All of my guides will continue to be free and open for use by anyone, but if you did find this guide helpful please support me with a donation, so I can continue to make great tutorials like this one!

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Tabletop Gaming Magazine – Star Saga Painting Guide!

December 31, 2017 / Deathwatch Studios / Leave a comment

Let’s take a peek at the latest article we have completed for issue 14 of Tabletop Gaming Magazine.

This month’s guide covers the villains from Mantic Games Star Saga, a sci-fi dungeon crawler set within the Warpath universe. Covering each of the 5 ‘bosses’ of the story set out within the Eidas Contract, the first mission book of what we hope will be many more. Here’s a look at the 5 big bads:

That’s only 5 out of 35 miniatures for the game, so keep an eye out for future guides for the rest of the miniatures!

How to Paint Inquisitor Lorr

September 7, 2015 / Deathwatch Studios / Leave a comment

I was recently asked for some hints and tips on painting, specifically the Inquisitor Lorr model I painted over a year ago, on my Facebook page. So I thought I would gather my thoughts a bit, try and remember the colours and techniques I used and share with everybody how I achieved the paint job on this guy…

So without further ado let’s take a look at the first section, the reds…

I started these off with a straight up basecoat of Khorne Red, giving a couple of coats to ensure I had a nice flat base to work from.

This was followed by a wash of Agrax Earthshade. This wash more than anything was to show where the grooves and folds in the cloth were in order to better guide the following highlights.

The first of these highlights was with Mephiston Red, slightly watered down and applied over a couple of coats to get a nice bold colour. Make sure you leave only the recesses, shown by the previous wash, the original Khorne Red.

This was followed up with a highlight of Evil Sun Scarlet, making sure to keep some of the Mephiston Red highlight showing.

I then mixed a wee touch of White Scar into the Evil Sun Scarlet and applied a Highlight only to the very edges of the raised areas and following this just a few dabs of almost pure white.

The whole lot was then given a thin glaze of Bloodletter to help blend the colours together.

The black was started off, surprisingly, with a base of Abaddon Black.

The best way I’ve found to keep blacks looking nice and dark is to keep this basecoat as the most prominent colour, meaning any highlights applied are only on the folds and ridges. Even then only on the most prominent and keeping them to the very edges.

The first highlight was applied Mechanicus Standard Grey over a couple of watered down coats. Keep only a little of the watery paint on the brush and apply only a little to the edges at a time, and make sure the previous coat is dry before applying the next. Each successive coat should be kept a little closer to the edge than the last.

Do the same as above but this time with Dawnstone and then Celestra grey, just make sure to always keep a little of the previous colour showing through. The final highlight is a very light of touch of white, only on the very tips and points.

To finish it off give it a light wash of Nuln Oil, like the reds to blend the colours together.

The glow from the plasma pistol was by far the trickiest part to achieve, but don’t be daunted to give it a try. All it takes is a little patience. One of the most important things to keep in mind when doing this is how the light travels to try and get a realistic looking effect. It’s tricky to get right and I find the best way to get a good look at how it would work on your model is to shine a torch or small light from roughly the same area as whats going to be your light source. Keep a mental note of where the light touches and where is shadowed.

This was applied once the rest of the areas around the light source were fully painted. I started it off by applying a very watered down coat of 2:1 Sotek Green and White Scar. You want about 4 parts water added in and only a light amount of the mix on your brush. Be gentle and apply the paint sparsely, building it up over several layers, getting the colour bolder towards the centre of the light source.

The next stage was to use the same technique as above but this time using only Lothern Blue and water. As before ensure you always leave a little of the last coat showing through. From here keep adding a little White Scar to the mix, and adding a coat of each mix, until it’s pretty much pure white being applied only to the very edges.

And there you have it. That’s how I did the main colours on my Gideon Lorr mini. If you have any other questions on how I painted this or any other figures you have seen on the site just give me a holler 🙂

Deadzone – Plague Painting Guide!

August 22, 2014August 23, 2014 / Deathwatch Studios / 5 Comments

With the main bulk of my Plague force fully painted and ready to rip some faces off, I thought I would share the methods I used to get them looking how I did these guys…

Flesh: Basecoat of Pallid Wych Flesh

Wash of 3:1 Druchii Violet and Lahmian Medium

Wait for the previous wash to dry and add a light wash of 3:1 Drakenhof Nightshade and Lahmian Medium

Once dry add a fine highlight of Pallid Wych Flesh

Blue trousers: Basecoat Kantor Blue

Highlight of Altdorf Guard Blue

Highlight 1:1 Altdorf Guard Blue and White

Fine Highlight of 2:1 White and Altdorf Guard Blue

Orangey Brown Sectons: Basecoat Tau Light Ochre

Wash of Agrax Earthshade

Highlight of Tau Light Ochre

Fine highlight of 1:1 Tau Light Ochre and Pallid Wych Flesh

Guns, Blades & Metals: Basecoat of Doombull Brown

Stipple on Trollslayer Orange then Fire Dragon Bright

Lightly drybrush Leadbelcher to the edges

Wash of Agrax Earthshade

Fine highlight of Leadbelcher to some of the edges and stippled onto larger areas

Green Spines & Armour Plates: Basecoat of Caliban Green

Highlight of Snot Green

Highlight of Moot Green

Fine Highlight of 2:1 White and Moot Green

Glowy Green Faces: Add a coat of watered down Moot Green on and around the eyes and mouth. This should be about 5 parts water to 1 part paint.

Allow to dry and then add a coat of 3:1:1 Water, Moot Green and White, leaving the outer most parts the original colour

To finish off add a dab of 3:1 White and Moot Green to the centre

Jackets, Straps and Pouches: Basecoat in Black

Add a highlight of Mechanicus Standard Grey

Highlight with Codex Grey

Fine Highlight of Celestra Grey

Wash with Badab Black

Belt Buckles: Basecoat XV88

Highlight with 2:1 XV88 and Yriel Yellow

Highlight Yriel Yellow

Fine Highlight 1:1 Yriel Yellow and White

Bases: The first step for my bases was done before any undercoating and was as simple as adding a coat of the GW texture paint Astrogranite. This gives it the texture, but with enough spacing between them to feel like a concrete surface. It also has the added bonus of filling and hiding the seam around the circular section around the feet and the slot in the base.

Once the rest of the figure was painted I then moved onto the base as the last step.

First was a basecoat of Mechanicus Standard Grey

Then a drybrush of Codex Grey

Another drybrush this time with Clestial Grey

And a final drybrush of Terminatus Stone

To make it feel a bit more natural I then added a coat of watered down Dryad Bark to most of the base. I reccomend a very thin coat, at least 5:1 Water and Dryad Bark

I then added small patches of a 5:1 mix of Water and Doombull brown to add further variation.

Finally I painted the rims of the bases black to tidy them up a bit.

And there you have it, nice and simple but good looking none the less, even if I do say so myself 😀

If I happened to miss anything that you want to know about, just leave me a comment 🙂

Deadzone – Rebs Painting Guide!

April 8, 2014 / Deathwatch Studios / 4 Comments

Here’s a guide as to how I panted up my Rebs Force.

The first thing to say is there were a few basic colours that stayed the same throughout the force; the armour, blacks, reds, metals and leather. So here’s a rundown of how those colours were achieved:

Armour: The armour was painted in the same fashion as my Deadzone terrain. Take a look HERE to see how that was acheived.

Blacks: Basecoat with Abaddon Black

Highlight of Mechanicus Standard Grey with a touch of Hawk Turquoise focussing on the top edge of the folds and raised areas

Highlight of Codex Grey with a touch of Hawk Turquoise

Fine Highlight of Fortress Grey with a touch of Hawk Turquoise

Was of Nuln oil mixed with a bit of Lahmian Medium

Reds: Over the Khorne Red base:

Layer of Mephiston Red leaving the recesses the original colour

Highlight of Evil Sun Scarlet

Highlight of 1:1 Evil Sun Scarlet and Tau Light Ochre

and finally a glaze of Bloodletter

Metals: Basecoat of Leadbelcher

Wash of Agrax Earthshade

Wash of 4:1 water and Tallarn Sand

Leather: Over a Dryad Bark base I added two highlights

The first is 2:1 Dryad bark and Ushabti Bone

The second 1:1 Dryad bark and Ushabti Bone

The rest is mainly the flesh of the different species and other small details which I’ll go into here:

Grogan Flesh: Basecoat of Zamesi Desert followed by a Seraphim Sepia wash

Once dry apply a coat of Zamesi Desert leaving the recesses the basecoat colour

Highlight of 2:1 Zamasi Desert and Menoth White Highlight

Fine Highlight of 1:1 Zamasi Desert and Menoth White Highlight

Yndij Flesh: Doombull Brown basecoat followed by an Agrax Earthshade wash

Once dry apply a light coat of Mephiston Red, leaving the recesses and a little bit of the underside sections the original colour

Evil Sun Scarlet highlight

Thinned Tau Light Ochre fine highlight

Bloodletter glaze

Sorak Flesh: Basecoat of Genestealer Purple followed by a Druchii Violet Wash

Once dry apply a coat of Genestealer Purple leaving the bascoat colour in the recesses

Highlight with a 2:1 mix of Genestealer Purple and Menoth White Highlight

Fine Highlight of 1:1 mix of Genestealer Purple and Menoth White Highlight

Human Flesh: Basecoat of 2:1 mix of Rakkarth Flesh and Pink Horror followed by a light Agrax Earthshade wash

Add a coat of 1:1:1 Rakkarth Flesh, Pink horror and Menoth White Highlight but leave the recesses the basecoat colour

Add a small amount of Menoth White Highlight to this mix and add a Highlight

Black Human Flesh: Basecoat of Doombull Brown followed by a light wash of Agrax Earthshade

Coat of 2:1 Doombull Brown and Ushabti Bone leaving the recesses the base colour

Highlight of 1:1 Doombull Brown and Ushabti Bone

Fine Highlight of 1:2 Doombull Brown and Ushabti Bone

Judwan Flesh: 2:1 mix of Mechanicus Standard Grey and Rakkarth Flesh followed by a light wash of Seraphim Sepia

Coat of 3:2 Mechanicus Standard Grey and Rakkarth Flesh leaving the recesses the base colour

Highlight of 2:1 Codex Grey and Rakkarth Flesh

Fine Highlight of 1:1 Fortress Grey and Rakkarth Flesh

Kraaw Flesh: Basecoat of Zamesi Desert followed by a wash of Seraphim Sepia

Layer of Zamesi Desert leaving the recesses the basecoat colour

Highlight of 2:1 Zamesi Desert and Menoth White Highlight

Fine highlight of 1:1 Zamesi Desert and Menoth White Highlight

Sphyr Flesh: Basecoat all over of Lothern Blue followed by a wash of Drakenhof Nightshade

Add a coat of Lothern Blue but leave the recesses the basecoat colour

Highlight of 2:1 Lothern Blue and Menoth White Highlight

Highlight 1:1 Lothern Blue and Menoth White Highlight

Zee Flesh: Basecoat of 2:1 mix of Mechanicus Standard Grey and Rakarth Flesh, followed by a light wash of Seraphim Sepia

Highlight of 3:2 mix of Mechanicus Standard Grey and Rakarth Flesh

Highlight of 1:1 Mechanicus Standard Grey and Rakarth Flesh

Teraton Flesh: Basecoat of Sotek Green followed by a Drakenhof Nightshade wash

Once dry apply a coat of Sotek Green in fine lines whilst leaving the recesses the basecoat colour

Highlight the fine lines with a 2:1 mix of Sotek Green and Menoth White Highlight

Highlight the lines with a 1:1 mix of Sotek Green and Menoth White Highlight

Blue Glowy Bits: Wash of 3:1 water and Lothern Blue about 1-2mm out from and over the ‘source’

Coat of Lothern Blue over the ‘source’

Coat of 2:1 Lothern Blue and Ceramite White leaving the edges the original colur

Final coat of 1:1 Lothern Blue and Ceramite White in the centre of the ‘source’

Lenses/Screens: I use the same method for these no matter the colour using a Dark, Medium and Light version of whatever colour I would like them to be…

Basecoat of Dark

Highlight of Medium but keeping to the bottom and right

Fine Highlight of Light again to the bottom and right

Final dot of 1:1 Light and Ceramite White on the bottom right corner

A tiny dot of white in the top left corner and a coat of gloss varnish can be used to further enhance this

And there you have it, thats pretty much how I painted my Rebs force. I hope this helps anyone else looking to get the same or a similar effect 🙂

Tutorial – Deadzone Terrain Part 2

March 12, 2014 / Deathwatch Studios / 3 Comments

Continuing on from the other days post on the Deadzone terrain; Part 1, I’m going to continue to show you how I painted up my set of terrain.

We left off with the salt still on the model, but the main colours laid down. Removing the salt is a fairly easy process, all you need is a mug of hot water and a light brush. The first step is to paint a coat of water over the whole of the model very gently and leave to soak in for a few minutes. Following this it’s a case of wetting the brush and lightly going over the areas where you can see salt. It should start to lift off fairly easily. For some more pronounced areas of chipping you can use a harder brush, such as a drybrush, to brush away the paint rather than just relying on the salt to give the effect. Most of the larger areas you’ll see on my terrain were created by doing this.

Once you have the desired areas taken away it’s worth leaving the model to cool and then give it a quick rinse under the tap. This helps clear away any residue left over by the process.

Once all that was done I ended up with something that looks like this:

The next stage is to make it look a little nicer with some highlights. Using Ceramite white I gave it a fine edge highlight along the top of all the hard edges. Also to give a 3d effect to the paint chips I added a highlight to the bottom edge of each wee bit. This can take a wee while, but the effect you get from it is definitely worthwhile, and if your doing salt masking I would say essential. This is how it turned out:

As you can see it really enhances the whole look 🙂

The next stage was all of the metals. To start them off I gave them a good basecoat of Warplock Bronze:

Which was followed by a drybrush of Leadbelcher:

To finish this off and tone it back a little it was then given a wash of Agrax Earthshade.

At this stage the bulk of the work is done and the terrain looks pretty good, but to really make it pop there was a few bits of detailing still to add. The first of these was a little bit more airbrushing, although drybrushing would certainly work just as well for them. I started by giving them a light dusting of Mechanicus Standard Grey along any section that would be touching the ground, this was to represent general dust and dirt kicked up around the buildings. The second was a dusting of XV-88 mixed with a little Dryad Bark sporadically over the terrain to add to the grimy, used nature of the buildings:

A also used the same colours and effect on the tops of some of the terrain and the walkways to try and show the areas in which troops would have been moving about and the dirt and grime from there boots has dirtied the ground:

Another touch I wanted to add was some weapon fire effects/burning. I used the same brown as previously to set down a base, adding small dots for laser fire markings and a larger area on some of the vents:

I then added some black to the mix and added a smaller amount in the centre to finish off the effect.

Next up was blood splatter. Gotta have some blood splatter 🙂

I used the GW technical paint BLood for the Blood God for this, and have to say it is fantastic. Straight out the pot it looks great. The main difficult thing about it is just getting the shape and consistency of the splatter looking like it actually would. I would recommend taking it slow and steady, but also looking at some resources to see how real blood splatters. It sounds grim, but it helps. You also want to remember gravity, the blood will inevitably drip downwards if there’s any great amount so keep that in mind. Here’s a few examples of the effect I got:

The final thing I wanted to add was broken windows. I can’t remember where I first saw this being used with the Deadzone terrain, but the idea just grabbed me and wouldn’t let go.

I used some clear plastic packaging I had lying about cut up with a pair of scissors. It’s fairly simple to do, just cutting at angles and making sure it all is fairly straight and jagged. Before gluing always check to make sure you have a good fit, and it looks good in place. Once checked I just used a small dab of super glue to fix them in place. Honestly it can look a little haphazard from the back, which is why I’ve stuck with adding it to terrain pieces you can’t really see inside. Here’s an example of one of the set’s I put together:

And that, my friends, is how I did my Deadzone terrain. If there is anything you think I may have missed or if you would like me to expand on anything just let me know in the comments.

Look out later in the week for some pictures of the whole lot together 🙂

DeathWatch Studios

Commission Miniature Painting and Hobby Tutorials!

Tutorial

Middle Earth SBG – Ancient Ruins Painting Guide

All of my guides and articles will continue to be free and open for use by anyone, but if you did find this guide helpful why not buy me a coffee?

SUPPORT ME!

Middle Earth SBG – Ancient Ruins Basing Tutorial

All of my guides will continue to be free and open for use by anyone, but if you did find this guide helpful please support me with a donation, so I can continue to make great tutorials like this one!

SUPPORT ME!

Tabletop Gaming Magazine – Star Saga Painting Guide!

How to Paint Inquisitor Lorr

Deadzone – Plague Painting Guide!

Deadzone – Rebs Painting Guide!

Tutorial – Deadzone Terrain Part 2

All of my guides and articles will continue to be free and open for use by anyone, but if you did find this guide helpful why not buy me a coffee?

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