Airbrushed and Weathered Imperial Knight. House Cadmus.

This guy has been my labour of love for the last week. I wanted to try a chipped paint effect and this gave me the opportunity. He was painted using various techniques including pre shading and using washes though my airbrush. He still needs a few touch ups here and there but he is 95% done. He was a pleasure to paint, I really do enjoy "BIG" models, they are so much fun. I used Micro Sol and Micro Set for the transfers. Ive been using it for a few years now and the products really are great and a must try especially when applying such big transfers.
As you can see I magnetised the carapace weapons so they are swappable. The model arms, waist and head are all posable as well.

Commission Miniature Painting

Hello fellow hobbyists and gamers

I am now open to all commission work, I know many of you have armies or models that are still unpainted, or maybe you have a large centrepiece that you want painted but just don't have the time to do. Thinking of starting a new army but put off by the ours of painting involved. Im here to help and offer my service.

It could just a unit of troops or maybe a tank or monstrous creature. No project is too big or small. I also limit the amount of work I take on so my clients turnaround is quick without sacrificing time on too big a workload.

I am happy to paint your models, but also happy to build them too. I actually prefer to. My style of painting is to sub assemble most models and paint them in parts before the final build. It gives a good crisp finish and ensures the model is painted completely with no areas lacking detail.

I mainly paint 40K models and now Age of Sigmar (Warhammer) but I am open to painting any miniatures from any game. I have painted models from not only Games workshops great range but also Privateer Press, Wyrd, Soda Pop and Corvus Belli. I am happy to paint any model from any range of games

I have a established background in customer services and this is reflected in the service my clients get. I communicate all the way though the building and painting process to make sure that the model they receive is what they wanted. A high quality model they are proud to display at home and use in their games. I paint your models how I paint my own.

Painting Standards

I prefer to paint to good quality table top standards for the majority of my work. This is an example of my "Tabletop Standard"

I am also very happy to do those "BIG" centre piece models that give some gamers nightmares when it comes to building and painting. My turnaround on projects like this is quick and I provide models that really stand out on the table. The look so good they give you not only something to be proud of but a psychological in game advantage too.

Here are some examples of centrepiece models or units.

Work.

I prefer to build the models I paint but if you have an unfinished project then please don't hesitate to contact me. If your models are built already its no problem. I can work on any project no matter the stage you have the project at.

My Painting Techniques

Priming. 

I always use my airbrush to prime. I prefer to prime in grey paint and I use Vallejo surface primer. In my opinion its the best in the business of priming. For those dark "moodier" models I can use black primer and for more vibrant finishes I prime with white. But my go to colour is grey.

Colour Scheme. 

You tell me the colour scheme you require and I will match it. 

Shading and Highlights.

I use a combination of washes and oil washes to shade the models I paint. I also use my airbrush techniques such as pre shading to blend colours and produce schemes I am proud of every time. Highlights can be edged for a strong table top pop or airbrushed for a more subtle look.

Materials Used.

I use paints by Vallejo, Games workshop, Badgers "Minitaire" airbrush range and Reaper. I use airbrushes by Iwata and Harder & Steenbeck and my paint brushes are Series 7 Winsor & Newton.

Basing.

I can do just about any kind of base a client requests. From Snow bases to City rubble or maybe something with a deep forest look, Even a volcanic lava base. Look though the above examples and you can see my base work.

Weathering and Chipping.

I use various home made oil washes, forgeworld pigments and painting techniques to models upon request to give them that battle worn look if requested.

OSL or Object source lighting. 

Certain models really look great with a glowing weapon, power source or even creepy glowing eyes. On bigger models I do this with my airbrush. I think you can agree they look great.

Heat stain or Bloom.

I have perfected my very own technique to produce a very stunning life like heat bloom effect on weaponry should the client wish.
Costing
This varies based on the size of the project and the end result you the client are looking for. Please feel free to contact me. Give me as much detail as you can on your project and the end result you would like. 

I ask for 50% (non-refundable deposit) to cover expenses, I will send you pictures of the project upon completion before arranging shipping to make sure you are satisfied with the end result. The 50% remainder will be paid before shipping.

I ask that you the client pay for the shipping and handling of all the models. I will pack them and send a price before shipping them to you. Models are sent with insurance and tracking to make sure they arrive safely. I use either Canada Post or UPS. But if you wish me to use another courier then that can be arranged.

I only accept payment via PayPal.

Time involved.
This depends on the number of commissions I currently have and how involved the project is. I try to limit the amount of work I have on at any one time so I can give the projects I am working on my full attention. I work 5 days a week and at least 8 hours a days. 

How it works.
Contact me by email and let me know what you’re interested in having painted.
If I can help you I will and if you are asking for something that I feel I am unable to do at that time i will be honest with you.

So if your interested we can communicate via email and thrash out the details of your project. When we have all the finer points nailed down then we will proceed with the project.


Please feel free to email me on PaintingPlasticCrack

Cheers

Joes

paintingplasticcrack@gmail.com

Age of Sigmar. Week 2 Releases.

I have a feeling we are going to see weeks of AoS releases. Those Sigmarites really are taking over at GW central. I for one love the new models. These pics are doing the rounds on the forums
at the moment. GW must have real faith or hope in this new fantasy age. They have even replaced the Huge Space Marine outside GW HQ with a Sigmarite statue.

Age of Sigmar is up for pre-orders

Age of Sigmar, Free Rules from GW
Age of Sigmar Webstore Page
Age of Sigmar Army compendiums

Unless you have been living under a rock for the past year, Warhammer Fantasy (WFB from here on in) has been going though some monumental changes. The End Times brought about some huge centrepiece models to many armies and some really fantastic story lines. The End Times were GWs finale to WFB and when the campaigns and stories were complete the Fantasy world as we knew it vanished. Warhammer became Warhammer, Age of Sigmar

Im not going to debate here with GWs reasons why they decided to give WFB a massive overhaul in game mechanics and kill off everything that went before. Im not interested in that. What I am interested in is getting into this fantastic new box set that heralds in beginnings for the fantasy genre and starts it off with a big bang.

Lets start with the models, I'm sure you have seen them over on the various wargaming sites such as Bells of Lost Souls.

Bells of Lost Souls

BoLs has had some great coverage and has done a brilliant job of combining all the rumours and pics in one place for any hungry fan to go and look.

I won't regurgitate whats been said there, but here is a few pics of some of the models we will see in the Age of Sigmar box set.

Obviously the box set contains a huge amount of models, 47 to be precise and thats amazing value. Its got my interested in fantasy in a way I never was before. These simplified rules and cracking models swung it for me. Its a game I can see being able to play with my kids quite easily and have a lot of fun painting. Bravo GW you have done a fantastic job with this set. Even better is GW have produced a PDF with the rules which you can get from them for FREE. I have a link at the beginning of this post. Fantastic GW, I really think they have listened to their critiques and answered them loudly. They have even rewritten all the rules for current fantasy models and they too are free to download as compendiums. Your current army books rules maybe redundant but GW have replaced them for free. 

This is the most excited I have been about a GW release....ever. Thats the point fantasy was not being played as much as maybe it could. 40K is defiantly the big daddy of the wargaming hobby but I really believe GW have hit the ball out of the park with this re-release of fantasy. 

I pre-ordered the box set this morning and I plan to paint at least a model a day when it arrives. I will obviously track my progress here and hope you guys enjoy the painting I produce. My 8 year old daughter is super excited about "the gold ones" so I guess I will be playing Khorne. That suits me.

Right I'm off to download this weeks White Dwarf, just to build the excitement in me even further. I feel like a kid waiting for Christmas. release day can't come quick enough.

X-Wing Collection on ebay

I am putting my X-Wing stuff up for sale, Its a fun game but I'm working so much with my painting and full time job its just sitting not being played. I seem to be really enjoying painting at the moment and will use the money from the sale to buy something fun to paint. Maybe another Knight. The Taranis one featured a few weeks ago has now been sold and I have another one ready to be done. I also have some of those cool new robots to do. But I also have a bit of an itch to do some fantasy models. See what GW do with that in the next few months. Anyway here is the listing for my X-Wing collection.

X-Wing Collection for Sale, Job Lot. 32 Ships

Huge Star Wars X-Wing Collection for sale. Everything that came with the 2 core sets and the expansion ships is included in this sale. Nothing is missing and everything is in very very good condition. The 3 boxes I used as storage are included in the sale and make transporting and storing the game and all its components very easy.

Ships included are

4 Tie Interceptors from 2 Imperial aces packs

5 Tie Fighters

1 Tie Advanced

1 Lambda Shuttle

2 Fire-sprays (both have very cool repaints, one has a broken off gun but can be fixed as the part is included)

2 Tie Phantoms

1 Tie Defender

2 A-Wings

2 B-Wings

1 E-Wing

2 Y-Wings

4 X-Wings

3 Head hunters (One of which has the end piece of a wing broken off, its included in the contents and a dab of superglue and its fixed. I am happy to do this for you if you request but wanted to make the winning bidder aware of the damage)

1 YT1300, Millennium Falcon (Repainted and given a cool engine glow)

1 GR75 Transport ship

All the extra mission paperwork that came with each expansion is included and unused. Reluctant sale due to time and space.

This would be a great start into the wonderful game of X-Wing. Its a great game for any hobbyist, family or gaming club. 

This item will ship on the monday following the end of bidding as long as payment has been made.

Forge World Airbrush Paint Release

So I've heard FW are / have released a range of airbrush paints. This is pretty exciting news to me. Always ready to try something new and hopefully ad to my painting arsenal I'm looking forward to giving these a try. However they had better be good. News is these are 18ml pots and they cost £3.75 ish. That's pretty steep when compared to Minitaire or Vallejo. Both have fantastic airbrush paint ranges and I am intrigued to see how the FW paints will compare. But my big issue is the pots.....the paint comes in pots not dropper bottles. Seriously somebody at FW made a big mistake in choosing this type of bottle for airbrush paint. Anyone who's using their airbrush to psint on a regular basis is going to say this is a mistake...a big one. Especially as the competition offers more paint for less money in more convenient to use bottles. 

I also found this video by Spud Tate about this very subject when I started trawling the internet for info on these paints. Spud I think has valid points which I agree on at the moment. But I still want to give them a go at least.
The range of paints do look really good though, I may transfer the ones I try into dropper bottles. But then that starts pushing the price up even more when you can get an easier alternative.

I'm thinking as more info becomes available and painters try them I may re-evaluate my initial thoughts on the product. But those bottles ?

Showcase, Imperial Knight from House Taranis.

So there we go, My favourite model to paint is done. Lots of lovely smooth panels. Using lots of techniques like preshading I painted this guy in 5 days. likely about 30 hours work in total. He's destined for eBay to fund the next project but if anyone is interested before he hits the auctions drop me a line here. More photos to follow. If anything that is my weakness. My photos really don't do the models I paint justice.

Imperial Knight, House Taranis. Work in Progress.

So the Tau project is done and on its way to the customer. It was a fun project but I prefer to paint BIG stuff.
So next up its an Imperial Knight. With the release of codex Skitarii I wanted to paint something that would be in keeping. Imperial Knight Titan? Yes Please. I didn't however want to go the route many others do with the yellow and black markings. So a flick though the Knights codex and then the companion book and I thought House Taranis fit the bill.

Mostly red with some white and black panels and some cool transfers afterwards I think this can look really nice.

So far I've subassmenbled the whole model and begun work on the armour plates. Im enjoying this model very much and so far its been wonderful to paint.
Here is some

Tau Commission, Objective marker. w.i.p.

Ive been commissioned to paint a Tau commander in some specific colours. Ive been waiting too long for this to come into the shop, but in the meantime I thought I would have stab at the colours the customer wants. I had this Tau Tower lying around for years and thought it would make a great objective marker. Here is a w.i.p shot of the yellow the client wanted. Preshaded with purple. The main body of the model will be very dark blue so I thought Purple was the ideal colour to pre shade the yellow. Of course this will be given to the client as an extra bonus for his patience. A freebie :)

Biel-Tan Wraith Guard

Ive been waiting on some models to arrive for commissions. Not one to be kept idle for too long I decided to paint up some Wraithguard. Ive not painted this craft world before and this was just an excuse to try some pearl effect paint. The usual paint scheme is white and dark green. I went for a more "real" natural green and then used the pearl white on the head and back vanes. The clothe I kept an off white to be more natural. Its not a traditional paint job.....but I think it turned out well.