My new army... again?! Short Forge World Review.

Aloa! Long time no see mi amigos!

I've been busy painting my Fantasy army for the up and coming campaign and I've been putting lots of time into hobbying in the past few weeks. I will post pictures of them up soon when the secret army is out.

For now, I'll just show what other army I'm working on at the same time. Chaos Renegade Militia!

This is what I've bought...

2 sets of conversions, 1 set of weapon arms, 1 set of vehicle crews and the Chaos Renegade Psyker set. This is enough to start me off to my 2,000 point list. Awesome!

Have to warn you guys that my camera is sick. It can't really focus well an all that, so I think I might need to take it to the doctor or just replace it...

Conversion set. Nice...

Chaos Renegade Vehicle Crew. I bought these just to make sure my vehicles will look real Chaos when I convert and paint them...

The arms that come with this set is amazing. Love the pointy finger. Never had enough pointy fingers...

This is the part where I go crazy. £ 10 for 2 models. 2 FREAKING FORGE WORLD MODELS FOR £ 10! That is £ 5 each! It's almost cheaper than any character/single model you can ever find in the GW Direct store.

The thingy that comes with this set. Oh, and 2 bases too...

The weapon arms set is a really good deal. You get the Vox Caster, which means extra model! I bought this set just for the coolness of the guns. I need more meltas and plasmas anyway...

I'll be quite busy with assignments these few days, but I'm pushing my hobby time and stretching it. I normally sleep around 3am in the morning and wake up around 9am to continue work.

Stay tuned for the next update! :D

Citadel's Warhammer Basing Kit Review

I'm sure many of you are eager to take a look inside this box here. Since the Warhammer basing kit was released, I was quite excited as I know that GW can really make great basing kits since the Warhammer 40,000 basing kit.

Well, as you can see here, there are 5 little containers that hold the slates and resin base.

I poured all the medium and large basing slate into another container just to give it a wash. Rinsing it from all the resin dust is a good idea. Here you can see the main difference of the large and medium slate. I love the slates... They make good natural rocks.

Those that are black are obviously wet while the grey ones are drying.

The brass etch that I will almost never use. Ok, maybe I might use some of them just to make the base look good.

Here is what you are looking for, the resin base. Click the picture to enlarge and see if some of these might suit your sci-fi needs, as some of them actually can fit well. But honestly speaking, I won't be using much of them. I just want them slates!

Hope that helped you with your decision on whether or not to buy the Citadel's Warhammer Basing Kit.

GW Skull White VS Vallejo White Primer

The Vallejo White Primer was airbrushed on. It makes the GW Skull White look yellow.

Enough said.

"I'll have to airbrush over the GW's Skull White part again..."

Product Review - Mr. Hobby's Limonene Type Mr. Cement

Well, for the first post of the new year, I decided to put another product review. I should show this in more detail, so I will do a continuation when possible.

I've bought this Mr. Cement from Mr. Hobby's hobby range. As we know, the famous Gundam plastic kits came from Japan, so we should also know that they have their own hobby products made from Japan that are really good.

I bought this for only RM 15. Which I think I can find it cheaper elsewhere. The contents of this bottle is a lot! And you only ever need a little of it. This plastic glue here real powerful. Just a little bit of it swiped on the surface and when you bring 2 plastic bits together, it would bond in about 20 seconds.

As you may already know, plastic glue like this one here, will glue your miniatures together much stronger, but not as fast as super glue. One thing I like about this is that it doesn't glue to your fingers.

To explain the Limonene Type as stated on the bottle. It actually means that the solution will give off a citrus scent, unlike the conventional plastic glue. This really helps if you can't hold your nose long enough for the smell of the plastic glue to go off.

If you squint your eyes hard enough you can see that this bottle also comes with a brush that is attached to the cap. Makes it easier for you to reach those nooks and crannies of the miniatures.

With that, I've been assembling more Orks last night. Especially the Lootas and Burnas I've got from the Ork megaforce.

I didn't glue it fully yet, for painting purposes, but the Ork Burnas just look so cool!

I want to fit 15 Ork Burnas in a Battlewagon into my new Ork list. That will be lots of burny fun!

Product Review - Vallejo Glaze Medium and some test painting on the Eldar!

What a great way to start a post with 2 objectives in mind. To do a little product review on the Vallejo Glaze Medium and to also share how I will be painting my Eldar Ghost Warriors. I can honestly say I have been quite busy lately thanks to the mound of assignments I've been working on, but nevertheless, I'm gonna squeeze about an hour or two dedicated to my painting.

Well, since I want to paint my Ghost Warriors white in colour, I've been thinking a lot lately on how to make them so white and pure and yet able to make the details pop out. So the experiment begins. I sprayed one of my Dire Avengers white, ensuring that I don't miss a spot, not too thick and not too thin. Just nice.

Here's the thing in the spot light today! The Vallejo Glaze Medium, really cheap and good stuff too! The description at the back says "Retards Drying", so I'm guessing that it immediately thins down the paint and turns it into something like a wash, which is true.

You only need a tiny little drop from the bottle. From the picture below, I actually had too much, mainly because we have to add water and paint with the mix. Adding too much of the Vallejo Glaze Medium will seriously prevent your paint from drying...

My first attempt on using it actually let the Skull White + Vallejo Glaze Medium stay wet for nearly 24 hours! Well, technically not wet, but it became pasty...

I added some Bleached Bone.

Mix it a little with some water. And there you have it, Bleached Bone wash...

I spread the wash entirely on the mini making sure I didn't miss a crevice. And as you can see, the wash is actually very translucent. It really turns paints into washes.

After it dries, you can see that the armour is more defined. Though I had to dry brush the entire mini with Skull White again just to make the raised areas pure white.

After some painting experimentation, here's the end product. It does look as if it's radiating with white, but it's just not defined enough.

So on the latest test model, I used Fortress Grey mixed with the Vallejo Glaze Medium as a wash, which is actually better than Bleached Bone.

Well, that's the concept of my Eldar. I think I will darken it by using Codex Grey and mix it with the Vallejo Glaze Medium to glaze the mini. Oh well, that should do the trick in painting my Eldar Ghost Warriors...

"Gonna have to get busy, lots of things to do apart from painting!"

Review - Citadel Hobby Knife

Time to talk about this little tool here that I've been using since the start of my miniature painting days. The Citadel Hobby Knife.

GW is well known to make us pay the most for the simplest of things. I for one, bought the knife and live to enjoy using it. I believe that this knife is worth buying.

The blade is very sharp, and comes with a dozen of spare blades in the box. After more than a year's use of the knife, the blade will definitely get blunt over a long time. As you can see up there, I've decided to finally switch to a newer blade after such a long time.

The grip is quite comfortable and it won't slip off your hands when using it. The weight of the knife isn't that heavy at all, so you won't get tired of it. Though I've experienced cramps after a long usage of filing 20+ minis at once, use it moderately. The knife is very well suited in cutting certain plastic for conversions and modeling.

Why buy this knife? Simple, it's because it's worth investing in the tool that will ensure those unsightly mould lines would go away. Please, don't use those pen knives or craft knives as they're not as steady and would put you at risk of cutting yourself.

Final say, go get this hobby knife. If it's too pricey for your liking, there's always other hobby manufacturers out there that produce products as good as this too. Hope you enjoyed this review, I have to get back to work. XD

Review - What paint brushes should you buy?

Hope you enjoyed another comic strip by Master Darksol from All Things 40K. I like the fact that you can see the expression on that Guardian's face, it was so =__=" after he heard the pun. The pun guy really reminds me of Barney Stinson from How I Met Your Mother. Nice, thanks Master Darksol for this one!

Back to today's topic after I got a little attention from you. Today I'll be talking about paint brushes. I've been painting for almost a year and a half, so I've practically used up lots and lots of paint brushes. Some lasted me long, some died fast, and some were just victims of my lack of knowledge back then.

I'll be talking about some of the brands I've used so far. I've never ever thought of buying cheap brushes. Simply because I believe in quality. If the brush I'm paying for is meant to paint miniatures, it will do it's job splendidly.

The first brand is The Army Painter. Created by 2 gentlemen (I believe it's 2). These brushes are created by war-gamer painters for war-gamer painters. I hope you take some time to browse through their site and learn about how they make their brushes.

The bristles on these brushes have specific kinds of material used for specific brushes. It's to control the flow of the paint, the amount of paint it can hold and how it would release paint. I would say that it's a genius! The handle is made in a triangular shape so that our hands could hold it better. This helps those who have bigger fingers or hands. Simply because holding a rounded small surfaced object will cause your fingers to be tired.

The only thing is, for the more detailed brushes, I tend to hold the brush closer towards the bristle for more control. Meaning, it's very difficult to hold for the more detailed ones, though after some time, I got used to it and it was very good anyway.

Prices for the brushes are reasonable. That's why I got myself a new set of brushes. The Army Painter, recommended.

Next up, Citadel. Out best friends at GW who sells us miniatures also has brushes to sell for us to paint them of course.

I've actually used some of the brushes and found that the Fine Detail brush performed quite well. Though it's life span was short. Look at the brush closely and you may see the bristles have nearly fallen completely off. Citadel Brushes tend to lose it's bristles. Even when I use the Standard Brush, without reason, the bristles just keep coming out.

I used the Dry Brush to it's maximum potential and I find it very satisfying to use.

Bottom line is, for the price you're paying, GW brushes will last you, just not that long. I would consider them as "disposable/expendable brushes" for very rough use.

Some of us might have heard of Tamiya, some of us might not. These brushes are not that cheap and they actually last quite a while. I only use them when my other brushes need to "rest". But I think I won't be buying anymore of this brand. Tamiya makes car, plane, bike and other models, so their brush is more of a multi-purpose kind of brush. And the bristles always separate and fray after a while.

The wooden handle on this brush peeled off as a result of me accidentally leaving it in the water cup overnight. I was painting the night before and I immediately went to sleep forgetting about the brush, so the next morning the wood started to chip and peel off.

I've been using the Red Sable Kolinsky 0 by Vallejo since I've been painting my Tyranids, meaning that this brush here has lasted me more than 200 miniatures already. The condition is slowly deteriorating, but as long as the bristles are still intact, they're good. For the price I paid, I'm very satisfied with it.

The second brush was used for more extreme detailing. Though I find myself rarely using it. The paint tends to dry up right before I can even reach the miniature. So I'll just keep it till I need it. I use it to paint scripts on purity seals, but it takes a little bit of mixing with water to ensure the paint won't dry up that fast.

I'll be looking for more brands of brushes as I continue on painting, though we develop a favourite all time brush, it will eventually die out of extreme usage.

Remember DO NOT BUY CHEAP BRUSHES. Invest in some quality brushes and I can assure you, you won't be so frustrated to have dead brushes lying around.

"Been busy these few days again, though I'm painting whenever I have the time, there just doesn't seem to be enough time. Thanks for reading."

Citadel's Warhammer 40,000 Basing Kit Review - The insides

Now, I bet you guys who haven't bought this kit are itching to know what is inside... There are 46 pieces of resin for each base, 4 being for the large bases... Basically you're looking at 23 different pieces, that's all, meaning 2 of them will be the same, they are already seperated in the respective tubs.

The slates tubs are actually bits and pieces of resin, just like sand, nothing special about them...

I've put them out for a photo so you guys can have a closer look. Not all of them are here, guess I missed some of them...

I've already completed my Chaos Terminator Lord since I could do the base. So I used 2 pieces for him and some sand to fill up the spaces.

Once painted, it's hard to tell which is resin and which is the GW sand... Like I said before, the key here is moderation, don't overflow your base with terrain or it will look too "busy" and your mini won't be able to find a proper place to stand...

I painted the marine head following the Ultramarine's colour, as the Alpha Legion and Ultramarines hated each other...

I just didn't know what colour to paint the rim, I mixed the colour of the armour for it but it just looks weird. I didn't want to use grey as it would look like unpainted plastic. So I went with white anyway...

"Working on another Chaos Terminator Lord, so many to do, so little time..."

Citadel's Warhammer 40,000 Basing Kit Review

I've always searched online to get a better look at the Citadel Warhammer 40,000 Basing Kit, but rarely I get proper images of the contents of the box.

Anyway, today one of my shipment has arrived along with my very own basing kit. Priced at £ 12, same price with a Tyranid Lictor, Obliterator, and the Chaos Terminator Lord, this thing here contains a load of resin and a brass etched frame.

We'll continue on with some pictures...
(Size of box, just like the Chaos Terminator Lord box)

Yes, this is not a toy, simply because it is resin! I threw away the box already and I've rinsed and washed all the basing materials, except the slate of course.

The 40k Basing Set Tub has enough bases for at least 15-20 models per tub. There will be at least 2 of the same pieces and the quality of the sculpt is amazing!

There are bits and pieces of Space Marines, Chaos Space Marines, Sisters of Battle, Eldar, Necrons and Imperial Guards... There are lots of random things you can find in there like pipes, skulls, and dead missiles...

The brass etched frame looks really good, though I don't really know how to use them. I'll eventually figure out how to use them anyway...

I think this box here is worth buying if you have extra money and don't want to spend on more models, especially if you have to many unpainted ones.

I recommend this box set for players who want their models to stand out of the crowd!

"Time to work on the Chaos Terminator Lords..."