Custom White Balance (huh?)

Let’s continue our discussion of some basic photography concepts. Since the miniatures hobby is so visual, and since my website is so image heavy, I figure it’s somewhat pertinent.

You’ve all probably seen pictures on various websites and forums, where images have heavy yellow or orange tints. That, my friend, is usually the result of using incorrect white balance value.

What is white balance? Here’s the explanation from Wikipedia:

… color balance (sometimes gray balance, neutral balance, or white balance) refers to the adjustment of the relative amounts of red, green, and blue primary colors in an image such that neutral colors are reproduced correctly.

Let’s think this through. All sources of light have different color temperatures, measured in kelvin. I won’t go into the theoretical explanation of color temperatures, of which I myself only have a tenuous understanding. Suffice it to say that different types of light sources — the sun, a fluorescent light bulb, halogen light, tungsten light, etc. — all give off different color temperature. Our brain can “interpret” the different sources on the fly without us being aware of it and render the colors correctly regardless of the source. So a red ball has the same color whether we look at it in the sun or indoors or under a light bulb. Read the rest of this entry »

Mechwarrior Repair Bay: Disfiguration

In this basic tutorial I will show you step by step how to fix your mechwarrior miniatures that may have slight disfiguration due to bent limbs and other extremities. In this tutorial I will show you an example by using my vulture with a defective arm. The arm will not rotate due to the fact it is bent.

Disfigured arm

First remove the dial from the miniatures base. This is important as it will keep your dial from becoming damaged by later steps.

Remove the Dial

Select your hair dryer

Grab a hair dryer. Any hair dryer with variable speeds will work. Set your blow dryer to high. This is important as timing is key with this procedure. The plastic needs to be heated at a fast rate.

Place the setting on High

Be carefull not to over heat the mech!

Aim the dryer while on high heat to the specific area that needs adjustment. It is highly recommended that you heat the part for 5 to 10 seconds. If your miniature is a little thicker you can heat for a few seconds longer but do not exceed 15 seconds. It is also recommended that you rotate your miniature as to focus the heat on the specific part you are adjusting. The heat will loosen the plastic allowing it to bend easily

Rotate the Mech slowly

Hold the disfigured part

When you have reached the apropriate heating time quickly turn off your blow dryer and position the piece you heated where you would like it. It is important to be very careful as it will bend very easily. While holding your thumb over your heat dial and keeping your hand on the disired position of the part you are fixing, quickly run the miniature under cold running water. When the cold water meets the warm plastic it will cause it to instantly cool and shock the plastic to stay in the position that you are holding it in.

Coolant Flush!

Pat or air dry and reattatch the dial. You now have successfuly fixed a disfigured mechwarrior miniature. On a side note it is imporant to cover the heat dial as there is no lamination of the sticker and your heat dial could face water damage if not protected.

Fully repaired!

I would like to thank my good friend Zecks for taking the time to write up this article and for taking the pictures to help explain the entire process.  If you would like to see more photos on this Mechwarrior Repair Bay article please check the forums HERE

Painting Space Marines

Detailed Description of one way to paint a Space Marine Vetran Squad.

I decided that I would use the GW Veteran Squad, and work it out from there using the same color scheme I use for all my Marines.

Now bear in mind, most of those colors are for the small details.

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Painting Orks (Orcs)

A simple question asked on our message board (what colour is an Ork?) lead to a group effort on describing how they each painted thier respective Orks.

Of course, no guide would be complete without referring to the Games Workshop “Getting Started guide to painting Orks“.

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Introduction To Hobby Metal Casting.

by Col Croucher.

If youre a practical type of person who enjoys a challenge, then you would definitely enjoy the personal rewards & satisfaction gained from the art of hobby metal casting.

Your enjoyment will start right from the moment you start to build the simple equipment required. It is possible to create amazing things in metal with a home hobby foundry. With an understanding of basic foundry knowledge, and simple home built equipment is the key to your hobby metal casting success.

Model engineers, home mechanics, car & motorbike restorers would be amazed at the speed at which new replacement parts can be made. With the right kind of knowledge, many hard to get parts can be made right in your own home foundry…for next to nothing.
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Miniature basing tip

Thousands of you have written me, begging the question, "How did you make such a great base for your Golden Demon winning Elf??" When I woke up from my fruit-cake fueled nap, I quicked composed myself and wrote this little article:

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Non-Metallic Metal Painting

In this excellent article, used with permission from Dragonpaint's site, we look at painting Non-Metallic Metal:

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Assembling A Hive Tyrant

Many people have trouble assembling their Hive Tyrants, sometimes a stance wont be right, or it will be weighted to far forward or backwards. So first off, you'll notice that o­n the left foot is a large round piece, that piece evens out the legs so that it isn't lop-sided when you put it o­n the base.
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Painting with Vallejo Acrylics

In this excellent article from Darkmane, we look at painting a figure using Vallejo Acrylic paints.
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Stripping Miniatures Guide

Stripping minatures is easy, most people see a miniature with a really poor paintjob with a really low price tag but pass it up because they either dont know how to strip miniatures or think that its too hard. This is so easy, even Highland Piper could do it.

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