So, with getting a lot of praise for the Dreadball gloves on the Silver Centurions (Really appreciate it folks :D), I’ve decided to put together a tutorial on how I did them.
The inspiration for giving them a go came from two places, the first was the front cover for Dreadball showing the fancy holo glove. The second was the Nidavellir Flames, a gorgeous Forgefather team. With a good idea in my head form these sources as to what I wanted to do I set out to find some suitable materials. I knew I wanted to have a slight curve to them so my first thought was clear plastic straws (these still might be suitable), but could only find coloured ones in any local stores. I then realised I had some plastic pipettes which I got off ebay, a hundred only cost a few quid:
Pipettes
Turned out they where perfect for the task, so I proceeded to hack ’em apart.
Stage 1
All I needed form them was the top section so using just a pair of scissors I cut them off.
Stage 2
I then proceeded to cut these into strips a little bit bigger than the size needed (worth having the mini handy for this)
Stage 3
Then it was a case of trimming it down to the correct width to fit in the “projector” part of the wrist and curve of one of the ends. Again I just used a pair of small scissors for this.
Stage 4
Next I curved off the opposite end, making sure I cut it to give the desired length. On my minis I made the gloves on the strikers about 150% the size of the ones on the jacks, just to make them a wee bit different but I also thought the strikers variation would be that little bit better. At the end of the day the length is up to you, so long as it fits onto the model 🙂
Paints used
Next up was painting them. Above are the colours I used for mine, but I recommend going for a colour that will compliment your team. All you need is a midtone, a lighter version of this, white and lahmian medium.
Stage 5
To start the painting I used Caledor sky right around the end of the glove coming up to where it joins at the projector. The best way to do this, and the following highlights, is using just the flat of the brush against the edge of the plastic.
Stage 6
Next was a 1:1 mix of Caledor Sky and Ice blue, going around the edge again but leaving a small section of the original colour near the projector end.
Stage 7
Next was the same again but with pure Ice Blue and again leaving a little of the last colour showing.
Stage 8
And finally for the edge was a 1:1 mix of Ice Blue and White, just on the top most curve.
Stage 9
The last paint to add is to the projector end. I wanted to leave this section clear to show the innards of the projector showing through, but because I needed to use superglue to affix them, this left the white residue showing all over the glove. This was done with a 2:1 mix of Caledor Blue and Lahmian Medium. Make sure your brush strokes are going from the left to right (using the picture above), as this means the strongest of the paint will be at the projector end.
Stage 10
Next is the same but with a 2:1 mix of Caledor sky/Ice Blue and Lahmian Medium. Just as before, leaving some of the original colour showing at the edge.
Stage 11
Next is 2:1 mix of Ice Blue and Lahmian Medium.
Stage 12
And finally the edge highlight of 1:1 Ice Blue and White. Then all you need to do is stick it onto the mini 🙂
And there you have it, a simple but effective way to give your models some Dreadball Gloves. If you have any questions or anything was not clear in the above please let me know and if you give it a go I would love to see your results 😀
DeathWatch Studios 