How I Painted 3rd Edition Tyranids | Paint Recipe

Like many Tyranid enjoyers, I find the cover of the 3rd Edition Codex to be a particularly evocative cover. It just has this look to it that oozes aura and dread that a seething mass of ever-hungry aliens with exude. As such, when it came time to pick a color scheme for my escalation league Tyranids, it was an easy choice. I actually used the hobby section of the 4th Edition Codex to find the right colors, so don't ever get rid of your old books! 

Tutorial | Sloop-of-War Conversion

This post is a sort of part 2 to the Converting a Brigantine post I made not too long ago. But, in the interest of each post being a complete bit of content in case this is the first one that you encounter, there'll be some repeat photos. The beginning steps are the same as you produce hulls for each ship type. 

Tutorial | Converting a Large Cutter

I went really big, now back down to the really small, to the second smallest seagoing ship-type in the game: a large cutter. But unlike all of my other Black Seas ships so far, this is not a Warlord Games model. This is a cutter from Hagen Miniatures, a miniature company from Germany. 

Tutorial | Making a Brigantine for Black Seas

Black Seas has a great set of models, but if there's one ship type you get a lot of, it's brigs. Not that there's anything wrong with brigs. It's just that, at least in terms of plastic models, you jump from tiny little un-rated brigs up to 5th rate frigates. And there's also a jump from the even more minuscule gunboats to the brig. Yes, there are resin models that fill those gaps, but they are harder to acquire as you have to get them direct from Warlord Games, which gets expensive, or hope you get lucky on Amazon or Ebay. Luckily, other folks have noticed this problem and have converted up some solutions. This is my attempt.  

Paint Recipe | When you watch the new Castlevania show on Netflix (Spooktober)

Before we get started, a disclaimer: I have never actually played Castlevania. My knowledge and enjoyment of the setting starts and ends with the Netflix Castlevania show, of which there are now two. The original featuring Trevor Belmont and had four seasons, and the latest series featuring Richter Belmont. I quite like both shows, so when it came time to paint a Vampire Lord for the Soulblight Gravelords, I took some loose inspiration from the show. 

Black and white just sets the mood for the season...

Paint Recipe | A Menage a Tie

Sadly, my pun is off by a bit, as there are more Tie fighter varieties in this post than three. I let myself sleep at night by telling myself that the bomber doesn't count as a fighter, and the Decimator is just kinda... a thing, and the Tie Phantom is there. The other three are actually fighters. Pun saved. Anyways, I'll do a quick paint recipe of these guys. Because they don't need much, and are honestly a little boring to paint. But, it's the classic scheme, and it needs going over. Eventually, I'll get to cooler color varieties. 

Paint Recipe: Rebel Squadrons

It's time for some of the OG, most iconic squadrons in all of Star Wars, the Rebel alphabet soup. Soon to be followed by the much more grey, much more annoying to paint Empire. In this post I'll cover the paints I use to bring color to the X-Wing, the Y-Wing, the B-Wing, and the A-Wing.  

Tutorial | Solving the New Screamer-Killer's Male Pattern Baldness

The 40K hobbying has begun, and it started with the latest FOMO box, Leviathan. I'm keeping all of the Tyranids and trading away all the Space Marines for even more Tyranids because Space Marines suck and I don't like their aesthetic. But do you know who's aesthetic I like even less? The new Screamer-Killer. It looks like it needs a toupee so as not to be mercilessly mocked. And besides, I like the look of the old Carnifex kit better anyways. With the power of converting, I can have the best of both worlds! 

Tutorial | The Spirit Tree

I'll be moving soon for work, and because of that I've been going through the many, many shelves of hobby stuff that I have. This has brought a lot of half-finished projects back up to the surface, and one of those was some old Hirst Arts bricks glued to a circle of cork. I figured that it would be a nice planter in the center of a market center, and I got halfway through that idea before it sat doing nothing for some years. Well I've been picking through the latest Dungeons & Lasers stuff from their Encounters Kickstarter, and they had this nice tree that I thought would be perfect for this project. 

Tutorial | Welcome to the Jungle, How to Make Some New Terrain

After plucking the lowest hanging fruit for a jungle terrain joke, the quality of the rest of this post can only get better. After a streak of painting miniatures, I wanted to pivot to making some good old fashioned terrain again. I'll be moving soon, and as part of that I've been taking inventory of what I have. I found some MDF bases lying around and some palm trees I bought an eternity ago, so I though why not make some jungle terrain. Throw in some bits from Archon Studios and Reaper Miniatures and I was ready to make it specifically into Lizardmen/Seraphon terrain, but it could just as easily be used for games of Dungeons & Dragons.  

Tutorial | MDF Fantasy Terrain for Beginners

Are you interested in having a full tables worth of terrain for your wargames? Does the cost of Games Workshop plastic make you consider otherwise? In this post I'll guide you through the in and outs of using MDF terrain for your fantasy tabletop games. 

Tutorial | How to Take Photos of Your Miniatures

I have a bit of a love hate relationship with miniature photography. On the one hand, capturing the details of a well painted mini is absolutely important, and requires a white or black background to get those crisp photos. On the other hand, that background is boring as all get out. Minis are cool, but minis belong on the battlefield looking cool. They are part of the scene, and that conveys a story to the viewer that you don't completely get from a static, solid color background. In this post, I'll show you how to take cool miniature photographs, even if you don't have your own studio. 

Tutorial | How to Make Raised Platforms for Mordheim or Warcry

For about the past month I've been toiling away at creating some raised platforms for wargaming. This is terrain suitable for Age of Sigmar, Warcry, Mordheim, Frostgrave, you name it. I wanted to add some verticality to my games while holding onto some modularity so that my game boards don't all look the same. I've included some WIP pictures in previous posts, but I have now fully built, painted, and photographed my platforms. I have to say that I'm really happy with how they turned out, and now I'll show you how I made them, plus some glamor shots at the end.

Paint Recipe: How to Paint the Chaos Furies from Warcry

Get ready for a Paint Recipe by Space Dinosaur Minis, where I go in depth with a paint scheme, covering the paints, materials and techniques that I use to achieve my style. Today I continue my coverage of the original Warcry box (that should tell you my pace of painting) and paint the 6 Chaos Furies that came included. 

Paint Recipe: How to Paint Nighthaunt Updated

Get ready for a Paint Recipe by Space Dinosaur Minis, where I go in depth with a paint scheme, covering the paints, materials and techniques that I use to achieve my style. Today I revamp an old paint recipe of mine for Nighthaunt, using the Myrmourn Banshees.

Paint Recipe: How to Paint the Isharran Soulrender

Get ready for a Paint Recipe by Space Dinosaur Minis, where I go in depth with a paint scheme, covering the paints, materials and techniques that I use to achieve my style. Today marks the first of the Idoneth army to join my ranks, the Isharran Soulrender. 

Paint Recipe: How to Paint Gorslav the Gravekeeper from Cursed City

Get ready for a Paint Recipe by Space Dinosaur Minis, where I go in depth with a paint scheme, covering the paints, materials and techniques that I use to achieve my style. For the first time on the blog, we have a Cursed City model painted up, Gorslav the Gravekeeper. 

Hobby Table: Crossbowmen and How I Save Excess Paint on my Pallet

Get your brushes and clippers, and welcome to the Space Dinosaur Hobby Table, where I cover what I've completed recently in the Age of Sigmar hobby, along with my thoughts on the sculpts, how easy they're to paint, and any tips or tricks I can pass on to make your life easier. Today we're taking a detour from Games Workshop models and looking at some models from Fireforge Games, in particular their Foot Sergeants built as crossbowmen. 

Tutorial: Upgrading the Reaper Miniatures Encounter at Gallowgard (Spooktober)

Get your spooky brushes and clippers, and welcome to the second annual Spooktober event! Like last year, I'll be focusing on miniatures and terrain that fit in well with my death armies in celebration of Halloween, one of the funnest times of the year and (in my opinion) the gateway to the holiday season. In the third post of the event, I'm posting a tutorial of even more terrain in a similar vein to last week's build. 

 

Paint Recipe: How to Paint the Skaven Clan Skryre Warlock Bombardier

Get ready for a Paint Recipe by Space Dinosaur Minis, where I go in depth with a paint scheme, covering the paints, materials and techniques that I use to achieve my style. In this post we will cover the bombastic Skaven Warlock Bombardier, whose characterful sculpt has quickly become one of my favorites.