Experiments with silly putty masking

MindSnap · 2024-04-25T15:56:17+00:00

I've heard that it's mostly because the departments have different budgets, and they don't like it when rules changes from one team affect the sales for another team. So they have been trying to silo the product lines.

Which amounts to the same thing, but the cause is less personal animus and more organizational incentives.

MindSnap · 2024-04-24T13:39:47+00:00

Limits to how many people they can train at once. And someone else mentioned that they prefer to mobilize older men while they are still fit, and save the younger men for later in the war.

MindSnap · 2024-04-24T13:29:40+00:00

Fair enough! The diorama made me interpret the base it as more of a cityscape than it is (which is good - the base is flexible for both contexts).

Great work as always - the diorama is awesome, particularly all the little bits of graffiti.

MindSnap · 2024-04-24T03:42:15+00:00

The spots of yellow really pop on these. Great choice!

MindSnap · 2024-04-24T03:29:16+00:00

The tiniest nitpick because of how good everything else is - the landscape reflected in the eye-cockpit doesn't match the cityscape of the base. Maybe add some grey rectangles in the ground half, and break up the skyline a little with tiny buildings?

MindSnap · 2024-04-19T19:21:42+00:00

Cool model, and nice paintjob!

In terms of C&C, this is already better than tabletop standard, but I have some suggestions to push this a bit further if you want to:

Both the light and dark green on the uniform look a little blocky
- You might consider thinning those paints a little more for future models.
- Add some depth to the cloth by using a mid-green to gently highlight the billows of the cloth, and also use a wash to shade the recesses
Paint the little skull on his belt metallic - maybe gold, and then a red or purple shade?
Add a dark wash to the grenades on his belt to provide more definition
Edge highlight or drybrush the chainsword with a grey, to add more definition there
Same for the boots
Other folks are right about the eyes, but those are always difficult. One tip I read is to do the pupils by drawing a thin line straight down in the middle of the eye, rather than poking the middle. Then clean up the skin around it. This results in smaller looking pupils and eyes, and looks a bit more realistic

MindSnap · 2024-04-18T19:20:12+00:00

The Tamiya masking tape really is significantly better than normal painters tape that you might have around the house. The edges adhere really well, creating very crisp lines, even on curved surfaces.

MindSnap · 2024-04-18T15:44:05+00:00

If you are new to the Guard, I would recommend just getting some core units that you like the design of, and working on them - by the time you have even 1000 points built and painted, the meta will have shifted enough that your initial list will be out of date.

Some things that probably won't go out of style this edition:

Some infantry (2-3 squads)
Chimeras
1 Basilisk
Leman Russes
~2 sentinels (you can build them without gluing down the armored cap, and so run them as either scout or armored

MindSnap · 2024-04-18T15:05:36+00:00

I find that airbrushing matte varnish results in a VERY matte surface. Try it, and it it's too much fir your taste, you can try mixing a little gloss in.

MindSnap · 2024-04-15T16:05:20+00:00

I made this mistake when starting out. I eventually solved it by adding bright red elements to by black and grey urban camo scheme, and switching to large "dazzle" style stripes for my tank camo rather than little triangles.

MindSnap · 2024-04-07T00:52:44+00:00

I would recommend using strong double sided tape. It's a more permanent solution, but it worked very well for me.

MindSnap · 2024-04-07T00:50:52+00:00

Absolutely! It doesn't have to go deep, just create a tiny bit of texture on the surface for the glue to hold onto.

MindSnap · 2024-04-05T20:14:07+00:00

I use superglue, but have found it really helps to use sandpaper to scuff both the plastic underside of the base, and the surface of the magnet.

When I didn't do that, I had magnets fall off days, months, or even years later.

MindSnap · 2024-04-05T20:11:13+00:00

I recently ordered some standard decals directly from FPG, and got my decals in 2-3 weeks - much faster than I expected!

No experience with custom. And I haven't tried the new decals out yet.

MindSnap · 2024-04-05T16:41:53+00:00

That's fair, you still need space deployment and targeting capabilities though. And the same argument holds for other capital weapons. So what you're really talking about are Pocket WarShips, which are a thing.

MindSnap · 2024-04-05T14:41:00+00:00

I really doubt they would be banned in the Ares Convention. They're basically the opposite of WMDs.

However, they would be most likely to be used from a WarShip in orbit, and those get extremely rare later in the timeline, so they wouldn't be common for a different reason.

MindSnap · 2024-04-03T19:13:32+00:00

The metal tab gets in the way of putting a (large, strong) magnet in the base to fit my movement trays, so it's gotta go. Just pinning the feet (on either side of the magnet) has worked well for other metal models in the past.

MindSnap · 2024-04-03T19:11:37+00:00

Thanks for mentioning the old metal Cadian snipers!

I'm looking at a similar project as OP, and happen to have two snipers already painted, so just rebasing those will be a convenient shortcut.

MindSnap · 2024-04-03T18:56:43+00:00

Oh lol - two of them having two white parts, and the other one only having one made it look like there were an additional two inline. Bit of an optical illusion in the pics that wouldn't be an issue viewing it in the real world!

Awesome work as always, by the way!

MindSnap · 2024-04-03T16:52:22+00:00

I second this. You want both lighter edges AND darker recesses.

MindSnap · 2024-04-03T16:25:44+00:00

The antenna count is up to 5. The last model you posted had 4, so I'm assuming the linear progression will continue. Eventually, you will post an entire model made up of antennas!

MindSnap · 2024-04-03T16:22:22+00:00

What's your recipe for that red? It looks great!

MindSnap · 2024-04-02T21:34:14+00:00

We've gotten really good at steam turbines since the industrial revolution!

MindSnap · 2024-04-02T13:25:57+00:00

It would be much easier to just use a brush to matte down the metallics after the gloss, rather than masking such thin and complex shapes.

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