12/1/13: Finished: Alpha Legion Helbrute 'Lernaea'

Hey guys!

Happy December! Can't believe we're nearly done with 2013! Got some fun plans coming up in 2014, so stay tuned on the social medias, as well as here!

Its been a strange week! Last week and early this week, my girlfriend was in town, so that's dominated most of my time. I managed to clear my commission schedule though, so after she left, I had a little bit of a dilemma; what do I paint for myself! My Alpha Legion army is a constant WIP army, so I decided to do a little hack-and-slash and get my Helbrute converted and ready for the tabletop!

Here he is, in all his ugly glory! The markings on the base will be explained in the fluff later; I've wanted to go all out on this army, so not only are we going to see fluff, but a fully modelled display board as well!

The skintone on this model was the toughest part. Its a mix of Caliban Green and Pallid Wych Flesh, highlighted up to pure Pallid Wych Flesh. Mixing the color made the project a little tedious, but easily worth it in the end. The color sticks out perfectly and contrasts the dark turquoise of the armor.

Love the head on the model, though if I was going to do another, I'd probably throw a helmet on it. You can also see a minor mess-up on the waterslide transfer in this picture. Even the pros make the occasional mistake!

The detail on Lernaea's right arm plate. I opted for a quick hydra motif; I may go back in and play with it a bit, I'm only partially happy with it so far. Lernaea is the full name of the greek Hydra myth (the Lernaean Hydra fought Hercules, who bested it and completed his 2nd task), and I figured it was rather fitting!

I was aiming to have this bad boy finished by sunday, as I'm driving down to Farmington to pick up a new commission and play some 40k, and really wanted this guy to show off my paintwork. Its gonna be cool, my fully painted group playing on my fully painted terrain. I'll be sure to include some pictures!

Glad to have this project knocked out! I may do another one soon, but we'll see. I own 3 Helbrutes, and this is the only one I've assembled and painted. World Eaters, perhaps? Iron Warriors? Emperor's Children?! Next up is some more terrain for Good Games, the shop I'm visiting today (Wave One HERE), so expect pictures of the terrain again, as well as new pieces! Should have another Battleboard to do in that wave as well! Expecting Necrons and more Khador soon as well, so its going to be a busy December!

Stay tuned!

Granesh

8/6/13: Finished: Alpha Legion Cultist Squad #1

Hey guys!

So I wanted to show off a project I'd gotten done recently as an off and on project. As you all know, my current army is Alpha Legion Chaos Marines, and as a result, I've been painting a crapton of cultists! I finally managed to get the first squad done! I'm running them with 10 Autoguns, 7 pistol/ccw, 2 flamers, and the shotgun sergeant, mainly to keep with WYSIWYG. The pictures didn't turn out as nice as I'd hoped, but they'll do until I finish the army and get group shots. Anyways, pictures!

Little details like tattoos, markings, gems, etc, really add character to a horde unit like this.

I'm unsure about keeping the gob-cultists in right now; I may swap them out or rebuild some new ones that fit more with the current group of cultists.

The amount of skin on some of these models can be intimidating, but you've just got to buckle down and rock through it!

Anyways, figured I'd share these bad boys with all y'all! Back to painting!

Granesh

5/9/13: Tutorial: Painting your Realms of Battleboard Cheaply and Quickly!

Hey guys!

So after getting that Realms of Battleboard finished so quickly, and the positive response off the Facebook page, I figured I'd through up a little tutorial on how I got the table finished so quick. For those of you who weren't following the page, I got the board completed in just about five hours, off and on, on Saturday and Tuesday. Being the second complete board I've done, I knew what I was getting into and how to really rock the board out. Lets get started, shall we?

MATERIALS

Army Painter Fur Brown Spray

Black Spray Paint (Krylon, Citadel, whatever works)

Grey Spray Paing (I used Ace Auto Primer, its a mid grey-tone)

Brown Latex Paint (Lighter than the Fur Brown)

Several Large Brushes (For Paint and White Glue

PVA Glue (Elmer's Glue

Flock (A large bag is preferred, I ended up using 4 containers of the GW Flock)

Wal-Mart White Paint

Pallid Wych Flesh

Stormvermin Fur

PREPARING THE BOARD

The Realms of Battleboard has no release agent or anything on them, so you don't have to worry about washing them. Your first step is to spray the edges of the board with the Black Spray Paint. Don't worry about getting it on the board, we'll take care of it when we start painting.

1) Spray the Board with the Fur Brown Spray, keeping the stone and hill areas grey.

2) Spray the rocky areas and the hills with the Grey Spray Paint. Focus on the rocks, but you can spray a little bit around it to blend the rocks into the board.

3) Overbrush the board with the Brown Latex Paint. The texture on the board will do all the work for you, just don't streak the board. 

4) Overbrush the stone areas with the white paint. Again, don't streak it, just lightly brush it on and let the texture do the work.

By now, your board should look like this:

FLOCK THIS!

Its time to lay down some flock! Get your PVA Glue and your flock! Make sure you've got a surface covering, like an old tablecloth or a large poster, to collect the run-off.

1) Apply Watered down White Glue to the brown areas. Its up to you how much you cover, I prefer to have some of the base brown showing.

2) Carefully, begin laying down the flock onto the glue-covered areas.

3) Let it sit, then gently turn the board sideways and knock the flock off onto your collecting area. Put the excess flock back into the container.

4) Rinse and Repeat! Your Board will look nearly finished now!

You're not done yet!!

WOULD YOU LIKE SKULLS WITH YOUR SKULLS?

I understand all of GW's universes are wartorn, but do we need all these skulls? Lets start painting them!

1) Coat the skull areas with Stormvermin Fur.

2) Mix the Stormvermin Fur and the Pallid Wych Flesh, and overbrush it onto the skulls.

3) Lastly, drybrush Pallid Wych Flesh onto the skulls. They're a prominent part of the board, but keeping them in the same tones as the rocks makes it a little more shocking when people figure out there's a bazillion skulls on the board.

4) You're not done yet! There's bones all over the boards. Look on the hills, in the flat rocky boards, and other places. These just need a quick coat of Pallid Wych Flesh and they're done.

FINAL STEPS

At this point, you're done. You can matte varnish the board and be done. But there's a couple other things you can do. I went back through the dark grass, applied PVA again, and applied light grass. It just adds an extra variation and effect to it. While you're at it, line up the boards and decide if you need to apply any more flock. Clean up the black edges, any areas the black is still showing through on the board itself, and anything else you missed. Otherwise, NOW you're done!

I hope this helps everything trying to get a Realms of Battleboard done! It appears daunting, but tackling it in stages makes getting this project done extremely quickly!

Alrighty guys, if you have any other questions, drop me an email or hit us up on Facebook. Happy Painting!

Granesh

5/2/13: Back at it! Painting: Grots, Goblins, and Gremlins

Hey guys!
This is probably the worst gap in posts I’ve ever had! Not good! I’ve been super busy the last two weeks though, and now that I’m past everything, its nice to be finished. Lets recap, shall we? Over the last two weeks, I’ve:

• Completed my senior year of college
• Graduated college with a Bachelors of Art in Art
• Moved apartments in town and set up my studio again
• Got everything ready to go to Egypt in May

I haven’t really posted about it yet, but Smells Like Wargaming will be on hiatus from May 13th to May 31st, as I will be in Egypt, studying the Arab Spring and visiting many of the ancient sites as a graduation present from my parents. Most of my clients have already been informed, and any new emails will be handled when I return.
Going back though, it’s a great feeling to finally be graduated from college. I’ve got a lot more free-time now, which means more time for Smells Like Wargaming and more hours at the shop, which, in turn, allows me to pursue more vigorous and challenging projects. I’ve already got plans to finish my Chaos Space Marines for Tacticon in September, and I’ve got two other armies sitting on my shelf that need to get painted.
Speaking of painted armies, I picked up a box of Gretchin with some Graduation money I received, as it looks like I’m now painting that Ork army I’ve had sitting around for a bit. Love the grots, they’re easily my favorite unit in the Ork codex!

I’ve always been a fan of goblins in fantasy and sci-fi settings. My primary Magic deck is Goblins, grots are just hilarious, and anything goblin-related is just cool to me. When I paint gretchin and goblins, there’s a couple of key points to hit on them.
Grots work better with lighter skintones. Games Workshop loves the concept of the older a creature, the darker it is. Warbosses should be a deep green, while grots need to be almost neon. I based mine with Waaagh! Green and slowly mixed in Moot Green for highlights. The highest points are pure Moot Green.
There’s more to Grots than just green! For me, the premiere Goblin artist is Karl Kopinski; he’s designed many goblin cards from the recent Magic sets, as well as much of the Goblin art for Warhammer Fantasy in the 90s, amongst other things, of course. A quick Google search will show it. Here’s an example:
 
As you can see, red is used to splash color onto the nose, lips, ears, and hands. It adds almost a cartoonish realism to them and breaks up the huge expanses of green.Simplicity is key! The green helps tie the unit together, but keeping a limited palette will really make the entire unit pop. I’m going with Speed Freaks for my Orks, so I’ve opted for Reds with a  touch of yellow, as well as tan and brown cloth sections for a neutral tone. The entire unit will flow together better and look more cohesive.
Simplicity is key! The green helps tie the unit together, but keeping a limited palette will really make the entire unit pop. I’m going with Speed Freaks for my Orks, so I’ve opted for Reds with a  touch of yellow, as well as tan and brown cloth sections for a neutral tone. The entire unit will flow together better and look more cohesive.

I can’t wait to really start on the army, but I’ve got a ton of projects lined up before it. I may get the unit done before I take off, however, so we’ll see.
Packing up my studio and moving is a hinder and a help; while I hate moving my studio, I always get bit by the painting bug hard when I re-setup my desk, so its nice to jump back into some projects. I can’t wait to see what being away from my desk for almost three weeks does though!

Lets get back at this, shall we?
Granesh

4/21/13: Smells Like Wargaming: Beyond Graduation

Hey guys,

So its been almost a week since I put paint to model, but my final semester of school is almost finished. I’ve got a couple of projects to turn in, a single final, and I’m graduating this saturday. I’ve gotta say, its super surreal to think that in less than a week, I’ll no longer be a student and be a full-time manager and artist. School, for me, has been a safeguard, a place for me to build Smells Like Wargaming, as well as many long-term connections to the Wargaming community and clients both national and international.

The real question is, however, is what does the future hold for Smells Like Wargaming? As an artist, I’ve found my niche and, if I so choose, I can always expand into other directions.



For those of you who don’t know, along with Smells Like Wargaming, I’m also manager at our FLGS, Durango Game Space. Anyone in the area should come and say hey! Anyways, having ties and connections via the shop helps secure me in the local wargaming scene, but various other games as well. Casual Magic: The Gathering, anyone? But through my job, I continue to work and expand the hobby through most aspects of my life. With school finally being out, I’ll finally have time to run more 40k events; I’ve been hankering to run a narrative campaign for quite some time now, I think its overdue!
Over the past couple of months, I’ve been setting a mental checklist of goals and projects I want to see obtained over the next year and beyond. So lets break them down:

• Both gaming and showcase pieces. Second place at Genghis-Con this year was a major step for me, but I know I can do better than that. I’ve got some painting AND sculpting projects set soon, so expect more non-gaming pieces to show up!
• The FULL completion of my Alpha Legion Chaos Army. This includes nearly 40 cultists, fully changeable Chosen and Marines, as well as markers, tokens, and, most importantly, a display board. Drawing inspiration from one of my favorite commission painters, GMM Studios, I know I can step up my game and get something incredible going!
• The completion of projects collecting dust. Thanks to commissions and trades, I’ve got two armies-worth of models that need to get painted. With idiots on eBay, I’ve got my Ork army to paint (minus Deffkoptas and other pieces…) and a Grey Knights force. It might even be time to repaint those old Imperial Guard!

• Checklists and calendars. Last summer, I was cranking out projects in under a week. Magilla’s Malifaux crews all took 3 to 4 days, TOPS, to finish. With school rolling, its been months. That’s unacceptable. Quality and timing has always been my forte, and I want to keep that going. Expect Google Calendars for clients, revamped customer service, and a refreshed painter.

I’ve also got plans to keep other artistic venues open, as well as various other projects, plans, events, and other endeavors to keep at, thanks to time opening up and my job at the shop.



This is the result of casting two Hirst Arts molds I’ve had during an eight hour shift at work. The bricks generally dried within half an hour, allowing me to CAREFULLY remove the bricks and pour them again. I want to play around with projects like this and really get both Smells Like Wargaming and Durango Game Space known for great terrain and gaming surfaces. We’ve got some great projects already, but we can always improve!

So again, I’d like to thank everyone who’s supported me since I began Smells Like Wargaming back in 2010. Its been 3 strong years, and, with some work and careful planning, here’s to many, many more! This next week is opening up more, so I should be able to get some projects done before I move following graduation. Stay tuned folks!

Granesh

2/14/13: Nurgle Heldrake WIP and some SLW Gear!

Hey guys!

A week since I posted....I hate doing that....Things have been pretty busy on the Smells Like Wargaming front, as well as the Real Life world, so its not that I haven't been painting, its just I haven't been able to post! Lets just jump right into some pictures then!

Loving this Heldrake model! I've assembled 2 in the last week, and I'm sorely tempted to pick one up for my own collection! That S6 Ap3 Flamer is just too fun! Obviously, both shots are highly WIP, but you can see where I'm going with this. The first picture shows where its at right now, with the VERY VERY VERY orange rust all painted using Forge World's Orange Rust weathering powder. Plan is to get the whole model done up like this, do some minor clean up, then matte varnish it. From that point, I'll be able to work, wash, and weather the orange without myself or my desk looking like an Oompa Loompa!

I tried a new technique with the corrosion on the model. I opted for Vallejo's Black Lava for its chunky yet subdued look. Plan is to heavily wash and drybrush those areas to really give that corroded plague look Nurgle likes so much. 

As I said, there's still a ton of work to do on it, like nasty fleshy bits and some boney claws, but those are in the distance. Most importantly, though, is GenghisCon 2013! We're leaving at 5 AM Saturday morning to get there in time to enter the painting competition and relax a little bit. Thinking about hitting up the GW store in Denver, but we'll see! 

Anyways, anyone attending, keep your eyes open for a little Smells Like Wargaming gear! I'll be rocking this ghetto Smells Like Hat! I promise, I don't bite (hard, at least), and hey, you might get some cool SLW swag for saying hello!

Alrighty guys, I'll try to get another post up either tonight or tomorrow with a little magnet work I just got finished the other day, but we'll see how time permits! Otherwise, expect a TON of pictures from GenghisCon!

Granesh

1/14/13: Finished: Ivanka Coteaz; Lets all Welcome SLW's newest Painter!

Hey guys!

So I've got some pictures to show off, and some big news to drop for you all! Lets start with the news though, then work my way into the pictures.

As many of you know, I'm a senior art student in Durango, Colorado, meaning that I tend to be a fairly busy person. During the summer or holidays, my painting productivity increases but, when school starts up, I've tended to be fairly slow at getting commissions finished. Coupled with work (I'll be managing the FLGS in April), painting time seems to disintegrate. Not a good thing. 

So, in order to get my speed back up to where I want it, I've brought on another painter: my buddy RTGamer aka Ryan. I trust this man to do a good job and, if I was to commission a painter to get some pieces done, I'd go through him 100%. So expect his work to show up on the blog, he's a full-on member of Smells Like Wargaming now! I told him to do a post this week, so his work will begin to show up soon!

Speaking of work, though, I've finished Ivanka Coteaz and some more of her Warrior Acolytes. I should have all the Warrior Acolytes done tonight, and have some axe heads on their way from Ryan so I can do the Death Cultists. If it stops snowing here, I'll get some priming done too!

'On to glory me.....women!'

I also got in a game of 40k yesterday, pitting my nefarious Alpha Legion against the Hammer of the Imperium. Forgot how scary stock Leman Russ tanks were! My Combi-Meltas were on fire, and my Khorne Berserkers, Khorne Lord, and Sorcerer failed miserably against a building full of Imperial Guard. But it was good to get a game in against a friend of mine! Hopefully he's feeling better now, especially with his victory!

Alrighty, two goals for this week. First, to finish the Warrior Acolytes. Second, to finish that accursed Imperial Strongpoint I've had for way too long. My sincerest apologies to Corey and Sam, it'll be done this week!

Tally ho!

Granesh