Field Report: Golden Demon Spain 2011

Volomir's blog has a great set of photos for us contest photo junkies!  I'm always a big fan of seeing what folks come up with in Europe and seeing the different styles flourish and change from Demon to Demon.  Big big thanks to Volomir for posting such a great set of photos.  I have a feeling I'll be looking to these for inspiration for some time to come!  Head over and take a look!

I really love the Sigmar diorama.  Very cool idea and fantastic presentation.  What's your favorite from the Spanish set this year?

Field Report: Storm Eagles Army Profile

Since I posted a look at my own army yesterday, I thought I would direct the community to one of those armies that helped inspire me over the years.  Grimteef has always been a source of inspiration for me, and his work always touches on a note of subtly or goes over the top with incredible detail.  With his Storm Eagles army, it's all about the colors subtly playing off each other to build a beautiful composition with each model.  So where can you get a good look at his army you ask?  What corner of the internet could such a wealth of imagery be held?  Why, in the DakkaDakka.com Army Profiles article section of course!  Head over to Grimteef's Storm Eagles army profile for a bunch more photos of this fantastic army.

The Army Profiles section on Dakka holds a lot of great work.  If you're looking for inspiration on a new force, it's a good spot to stop by and browse!

Field Report: Zorcons Imperial Dwelling

Digging around the web I was drawn into the blog Zorcon's Word by a thumbnail of what looked to be a great example of mixing homemade terrain and store bought 40k panels.  The thumbnail shot didn't lead me astray either, as when I clicked and got a close look, I found a fantastic looking building with functionality and design in mind. 

The building comes apart, and there are places for models to stand along the stairway that doesn't look out of place in the slightest!  The use of space between the Cities of Death panels is just right and adds a much needed respite from the over-detailing that is usually prevalent in the kits.  The balsa looks fantastic and makes good use of layering to create an almost ornate look.  And at first I thought it was moulding panel cut to size! 

Be sure you head over to Zorcon's Word and check out what he's up to with this building, along with some more shots of the thing pulled apart. 

I love finding terrain around the web.  It's usually one of the first things I look to when it comes to casual browsing.  It also makes me want to break out the bigger tools and get working on a table and terrain set of my own!

Field Report: Volomir's Blog

Trolling around through From the Warp's blogroll's, I stumbled across a great blog full of amazing shots of a ton of great models.  It's called Volomir's Blog, run appropriately by a modeler/painter called Volomir.  He's an amazing painter and I've only just skimmed the surface of the blog which has a huge backlog of entries!  From his own WIP shots and finished work to a lot of great competition models from the various contests he's attended/judged, the blog screams inspiration from every corner. 

The photo above is just the latest from Volomir's painting station, and an amazing sample to start with!  So what are you waiting for?  Get over there, subscribe and get your inspired on! 

Field Report: Majortom11 Zenithal Airbrushing

DakkaDakka.com member MajorTom11 recently posted A Full Breakdown on how to use an airbrush to help you achieve dynamic lighting effects on your models.  Step by step directions with great diagram break downs of the techniques described make it easy to follow with depth that many similar walk-through articles around the web seem to lack much of the time. 

If you're still on the ropes about airbrushing or even how to approach it, you should definitely check out our Airbrushing Tag for a lot of great links and even a little of our own thoughts on it's uses for miniatures! 

There are so many applications for this great tool and it's wonderful to see it finally breaking into the wargaming community at large after seeing it for so many years on the fine scale modeler scene!  Read, learn, try it yourself!

Field Report: Airbrushing for Figurines

Mathieu Fontaine has just posted an excellent tutorial and guide for using an airbrush on miniatures.  He covers everything from types of airbrushes to troubleshooting problems.  Check it out here: Akaranseth Tutorials.

We've also got a whole series of articles on using an airbrush, with several videos.

I'm using my airbrush to base coat and put the first shades and highlights on my Fire Hawks.  It is a great time-saver!

Field Report: Adepticon Custom Tables

Chicago Terrain Factory has an excellent write-up of some of the non-40K terrain and tables at this year's Adepticon.  Tons of other great stuff there as well; check it out: Chicago Terrain Factory.

I love the Pirate City and Warmachine City tables.  There's just something about a table with a large water feature that I love.  What was your favorite?

Field Report: Painting Mantis Warriors

With this coming Tuesday being the due date for my transfer application, to say that my hobby time has been lacking is a slight understatement.  Luckily, my network of hobby friends runs nice and deep with a ton of great stuff coming out all the time! 

Today I'm bringing another faction from the Badab War to your attention, The Mantis Warriors.  My friend daKing has been a renegade commander for a few years now when Bell of Lost Souls Badab War campaign book was just starting to come together.  In one of his latest posts on his blog daKINGsays he breaks down his method for painting his force. 

Head over, check it out, and leave him some comment love!  If you've got a good link for the Badab War, shoot it to us at ThePaintingCorps@gmail.com so we can feature and share it with everyone here! 

Field Report: Dante's Painting Tips

Our good friend CMDante has put together a post full of painting tips on his blog Dante's Inferno.  Things like brush care, holding sub-assemblies, wet palettes and brush selection are covered with some quick ideas on each. 

My favorite tips from the bunch are the use of larger brushes and the brush stroke directions.  These are two things you really don't think of as major factors when you're painting a model, but they are important to saving time and creating smooth looking blends and surfaces. 

It's back to the painting table for me.  Anyone have any other good quick general painting tips?  Ideas that might not have been covered in Dante's post?  Seen a good tutorial on blends lately?  A video to share?  Leave a comment with a link!  Share share share!

Field Report: Desert Dunes

I've been watching a series of articles over on LUDstuff! for a few days now and every update has been progressively more and more impressive.  Originally, I couldn't help but think the size and scale would hurt the final look of the project, but as it progressed I found myself more intrigued by the results.  The final photo above shows my worries were completely unfounded, as the individual pieces fit together near seamlessly. 

If you're looking for a neat, new way of creating some rocky outcroppings or, as is the case here, desert dunes be sure to check out what Warren has put together in this series:

Part 1
Part 2
Part 3
Part 4

And to those of you looking to build a river set, stay tuned to LUDstuff! in the coming days as Warren is also hard at work creating a river system as well! 

I'm fully intending to create a table with a desert theme, but barren landscapes are the last thing that interest me. Anyone have any good desert terrain links they would like to share? Leave a comment!  And be sure to give Warren some love for his awesome project!

Field Report: Airbrushed Blood Angels

Once in a while a new project log comes along that really catches my eye.  A lot of the time it happens to involve some of my favorite techniques and a few new tools and ideas.  Over on DakkaDakka, a thread that happens to fall into that category came along.  Eggroll has created a frankly beautiful looking Blood Angels army and has posted all along the way for everyone to learn and take some inspiration from what he's been doing.   

For the majority of the coloring, shading and highlights the army used airbrushing to amazing effect.  I have enjoyed every subsequent update and it's really been a great inspiration, I highly suggest you give the log a read!  You won't be disappointed!

It's always fun to find a truly inspirational army build like this.  Got a great project you're working on?  Share a link in the comments!

Field Report: Space Wolves

I've never hidden the fact that I love the Space Wolves.  One day I shall embark on creating a force of them for my own and they will be glorious.  Until that day comes though, I will have to live vicariously through the works of others and collect and cultivate ideas from around the web.  I found these fantastic looking Space Wolves on Tower of Heroes.  I absolutely love the subtleties of color variation on the armor plates.  You should definitely check out the other wolves from this batch.  Top notch work.

Am I alone in my longing for a Space Wolves army that's never come to fruition?  I can't be the only one who pines for the pale blue and savagery!  What's your favorite Space Wolves army from around the web? 

Field Report: Airbrushing Miniatures Links

The third in a continuing series of airbrushing articles:

Today we're sharing a few resources that we ourselves have dug through over the past months.  I'll be sticking to some of the more mini dedicated sites with a few more general info links for good measure.

Field Report: Team Tournament Objective Markers

Team Tournaments seem to be popping up all over lately and if you can limit the broken combinations they are a lot of fun.  Big Al over at Hogs of War has come up with some fantastic objective markers for an Eldar and Tyranids team.

Field Report: Hardboard Panel Terrain Basing

This was a handy little nugget I picked up from a friend, BDub, on the Austin community forum. I've always been a proponent of basing terrain pieces on a piece of hard board, in my case I always cut up a big 2'x4' piece of MDF into smaller pieces. With these hardboards, I believe I'll save a lot of time when it comes to city scape basing. That's not to say you're left out if you're not planning a city table, by picking out an appropriately sized piece and then cutting down you'll be saved some time and hassle as well for your organic shapes.

Field Report: Scratchmod

I am always digging for a new resource to soak up information from.  Usually it comes from outside of the wargaming community and I sift through the new ideas and techniques and play with the idea of using them in a future project.  Today's report comes in the way of SUPER weathering and vehicle destruction, Scratchmod shows you just how to go all out with no hesitation.  You could easily make use of these techniques for terrain pieces from old messed up models or find a nice balance between these and others to create a new, realistic, look on say your newest project (stay tuned :p).

Field Report: Modular Rivers

Warren of LUDstuff! has a nice look at how he put together his river sections.  Some really cool ideas on shapes for each section, giving the sets a lot of variety in the bends and turns possible.  He's also given a few examples of river types if you think your table wouldn't be suitable for a river set.  Head over and check it out!

Field Report: Nurgle Lord on Mount

You'll never guess what I was searching for to come across this fantastic Nurgle Lord on mount by Mike at SCW, but I'm glad to see Nurgle get some love for this model.  As a bonus he includes a few good photography tips.

If you've got an article you'd like to get some publicity for that's modeling and painting related, we want to know about it!  Send along a link to ThePaintingCorps@gmail.com!

Field Report: Tervicons

Wow!  Musings of a Metal Mind is creating a Tyranid+Necron force and these Tervicons are just fantastic. I love the idea of using the Nid Codex for Necrons.  These Tervigons become warp portals for more troops  to come through.  A fantastic idea combining the fluff of Necrons and the mechanics of the Nid Codex.

If you've got an article you'd like to get some publicity for that's modeling and painting related, we want to know about it!  Send along a link to ThePaintingCorps@gmail.com!

Field Report: Chaos Guard

SonsofTaurus has started work on a great Chaos Guard army.  Bits are from Fantasy Chaos and IG Catachan parts, but I'm getting a strong Mad Max feel.  Hmm, what would make a good Master Blaster?

If you've got an article you'd like to get some publicity for that's modeling and painting related, we want to know about it!  Send along a link to ThePaintingCorps@gmail.com!