The Pile on the Desk

So I have a TON of stuff sitting on my desk waiting to be painted. I'm not there right now but this is a list of the things I can remember that I have. I'm going to put this list on the side of the page and keep it updated as best I can for what I have painted.

Warmachine

Cryx
Iron Lich Asphyxious
Deathripper
Classic Reaper
Seether
6 Bane Thralls
Warwitch Siren

Khador
Forward Kommander Kratikoff
Kommander Sorscha
Kommander Orsus Zoktavir
Kommander Strakhov
War Dog
Classic Juggernaut
Classic Destroyer x3
Kodiak
Beast-09
Mechanik Chief & Assistants
Iron Fang Pikemen
Iron Fang Pikemen Officer & Standard Bearer
Widowmakers
Kossite Woodsmen Unit
Kayazy Assassin Unit
Kayazy Assassin Underboss

40K

Dark Angels
Dark Angels Master of the Ravenwing

Witch Hunters
Witch Hunter Inquisitor Lord & Retinue
Witch Hunter Henchmen
Witch Hunter Inquisitor
Celestine the Living Saint
Witch Hunters Imperial Confessor Kyrinov
Witch Hunters Imperial Missionary Jacobus
Sisters of Battle Canoness x3
Witch Hunters Preacher
Sisters Repentia x18
Witch Hunters Callidus Assassin
Arco Flagellants x6
Battle Sisters 6 Squads of 10
Sisters of Battle Seraphim 3 Full squads
Sisters of Battle Exorcist FW Models
Lots of Others Like Heavy Weapons

Fantasy

Skaven
3 Boxes of Clanrats
Warpfire Thrower
2 Skaven Warlock Engineer
Skaven Doomwheel

Possible Color Schemes

New Scheme Needed!

So with the loss of my Sisters Army and after getting models to replace the old ones. Problem is I can't decide if I should resurrect the same colors or if I should do something new! I'm going to try do some work on one of those Army Painter programs online from Bolter and Chainsword.

On another note I finished up all of the objectives/strategic tokens that I was working on and started to finish the Bane Thralls that I have had sitting around. Below are some pictures that i took quickly with my cell. While not of good quality it gets the idea across.

Airbrushing 102

With some of the basics over with I am going to probably have another post or two on any other information I can compile and possibly help people with as well as just have some opinions as well.

So were going to start with my setup recommendations.

Airbrush - In general I would suggest starting with a dual-action top feeding airbrush. Why do I suggest this? The target audience for this blog is 40k and miniature war-gamers and were going to want to use the colors that we are used to thus hobby paints which are generally thicker. So we having gravity help us with getting our thinned paints through our brush is quite nice. Also for us having a dual action brush with let us do fine detail for cool bits and also we can go full blast and base coat.

Air - Get a compressor! Quiet or not you want to get a compressor even if you put down a good deal of cash its worth the constant and in the end free air that you get. There are a few things you should consider about a compressor as well though most of what I mentioned already but were going to cover it all and a little more real quickly.
Moisture Trap - There are two kinds, attached to the compressor and inline, it really doesn't matter which in my opinion but you need one. Moisture traps stop any water from getting out and into your line, airbrush, and thus onto your art. If you don't have a moisture trap water will eventually build up in the line and pass through the airbrush. When the water comes out your paint will spurt and be far too watered down and it will literally spit water downed color.
Regulator - Not as needed but still useful and often connected to the moisture trap. This will let you change the pressure of the airflow where most of these hobby works are done at 15-25 psi there are some people who work even higher. In the end unless you have a compresses that only works at 15 or 20 psi you should probably have a regulator so you can change the psi per application. Lucky for us most compressors come with one built in.

PSI - Speaking of psi like said above you will probably be working in a range of 15-25 but possibly even 10-35 or even further out. You do not want to be working on 100 psi even if your compressor can put that out its just too much. In the end you probably want to get something that can put out a consistent 35 psi just to cover all your bases.

Extras - As with most hobbys there are also things you don't need but are helpful to have and I wanted to help people find some of the ones I have found useful so far.

Quick Disconnect
This is a great little addition so you can just pop the airbrush off and bring it to the sink to clean.

Airbrush Stand
Most of us only have 2 hands and thus its hard to hold and airbrush and mix paint and move things around while one has the airbrush in it. Well a desk clamp with a airbrush holder on it is just perfect.
Iwata-Medea Cleaning Station

This is basically the above plus its a station that you can use to get rid of the extra paint, overflow, and use it as somewhere to spray the cleaner. That's it for right now.

You can check out the previous Airbrush posts below:
101 Part 1 - Airbrushes
101 Part 2 - Air
101 Part 3 - Paint

Photobox and Markers

Took some more pictures of already painted figures with the new photo box. So just a quick post nice and early in the morning. I will get some work done on the Markers and Part 2 of the Terrain today.

First off we have some Cryx.

Then some Skaven Slaves.And some Khador. Finally just a picture update of some of the markers I put up yesterday.

Up a little early but I probably wont paint until late tonight so who knows.

Objective Markers

So this is just a quick update for what I have been able to work on slowly.

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First we have the 2 already finished squads of Sisters of Battle then the Faith tokens I decided to make out of the rhino door icons. I need a few more of them so that when I run a larger game I can actually keep track of all of them but this should do for now.

I started work on the third squad just need to finish a few things with them and then glued down.

Finally, the other day I noticed I had this little box sitting around full of objective markers so I figured I would work on those. So I started putting them on bases after giving them a nice soak and scrub. I'm planning on tossing on some resin sand then painting them up.

Airbrushing 101 - Part 3

In this section of Airbrushing 101 were going to be looking at the last main part of the equipment the paint.
Paint
This is really a gigantic subject and in no way will I be covering all of it. I will be looking at airbrush specific paints and hobby paints and what you need to do to to make them work with an airbrush. There will be less comparison and this section is slightly different to those that precede it as I am no expert on paint.

Airbrush Paint - This includes Createx, Testors, One-Shot, and even Vallejo Air paints which are all made and formulated to be put through a airbrush. Each brand has different lines intended for different things such as painting cakes, nails, automotive, and t-shirts. They are all formulated for specific applications and while not necessarily for minis most of them will work. The nice thing about these paints is they will either come ready to be pushed through a airbrush or the brand will have some form of thinner they sell that is formulated to go through as a 1:1 or 2:1 ratios. Thus you only need to mix two things with no special formula thus it is quite easy for use. The one fault that these have is they are generally softer than hobby paints (although I would assume Vallejo Air wouldn't have this problem) thus don't take as much wear and tear and will rub or even possibly peel off if they are handled too much however a nice varnish or clear-coat should eliminate that problem.

Hobby Paints - These are the ones that we are all used to painting with on a daily bases and are intended to be applied via a brush. They have far more pigment and generally the pigment particles are larger and coarser than in Airbrush ready paints. Thus even with a paint being thinned well you may run in to problems with clogging more often. This is going to be where you have to work some magic with a nice mix of paint and other additives to get it through the airbrush with as little clogging as possible. People add lots of different things to thin down the paint water, windex, and flow-aid are just some of the things I have seen or heard of people adding to the paint to thin it and make it easy to push through the airbrush.

Ink/Washes - Not really "paint" but ink and washes are great for quick shading. Its almost the same as when you do it by hand but at the same time quite different. If you use ink and washes already then you should know how to use them. Nice thing for them is you can dilute them with something like matte medium or even water to get them down lighter than they were and possibly add other properties as well. Shading can also be done in other methods such as "pre-shading" but those are techniques that could possibly covered later.

While the above is mostly general information I do hope its somewhat informative. Possibly later on I can discuss more specifics such as how I mix my paint and how others do it as well. Maybe even some techniques that can be used to achieve better results.