Announcing: Battle Ready Painted Productions and April's New Releases

I've got a lot of great news to share with you this month!  First off, I'm offering reduced rates on bulk painting commissions (as low as $4/model for army scale projects and discounts scaling to the number of models needing paint).  Table Top and Showcase painting schemes have all been discounted to give you tons of added value for your hobby dollar, check out the new low rates!

I'm also pleased to offer a new service here at the Lab, that I'm dubbing "Battle Ready" productions.  These are miniatures painted and ready for play, a great option for those who want to pick up a great looking squad or single model and add it to their force today.  

I've added five Battle Ready productions in the webstore, be sure to head over and check them out!

I've also got April's new releases to share with you.  They're posted in the webstore and ready for purchase!

This is a 5 pack of Loot Markers, now in a 25mm straight lip style.  For $5 you get three money bags, a map & dagger & compass, and a treasure chest.  These markers/tokens are great for use in Mordheim, other skirmish games, and board games!

This month I'm also proud to have my first line of Warhammer 40k bases.  These Relic Bases feature desert/cracked earth terrain, arcane crystals, and ancient hieroglyphic architecture.  Check out these 60mm "dreadnought" sized bases!  They come in a 2-pack for $9.

I have a complete line of Relic Bases, also in 25mm a 10-pack goes for $10.

For your larger models there's also a 40mm 5-pack for $8!  I'm really looking forward to doing for termis on these bases.

Thanks for stopping by and checking out this month's new releases!  I'm looking forward to sharing more Battle Ready productions with you soon!

A Day at Collector's Cache for a Wet Palette Workshop

This was the offer...

Take your painting to the next level? And for the low low price of free?  Yes, please!  

A total of thirteen of Collector's Cache's best and brightest new hobbyists sat down with me last Saturday to uncover the awesome mysteries of using a wet palette.  For many beginners starting down the path of painting (kind of like an Eldar path...) there's a few things that seem daunting.  One of which is trying advanced techniques, like blending.  A wet palette make blending a breeze.  You can blend two, three, or more colors together on the palette and come back to them over the course of your painting because they simply don't dry out.  In fact, if you'd like more specifics, check out this handy-dandy tutorial on how to make a palette and this one on its detailed use.

Here's some of the guys, hard at work on their models trying out highlighting, blending, washing, and shading. 

Time to plug Collector's Cache.  CC is located on the north-east corner of College Blvd and Pflumm Rd and has lots of room for activities.  Painting for instance, or playing your favorite table top game, or even dueling it out with friends with a number of card games (that's what they started with).  There's even cool vintage arcade games you can play in the back.  If you live in KC, you should definitely check it out.

After everyone had a few hours to try out the techniques I was teaching, it was 40k paintball time!

This is an idea Steve Feral came up with.  Each model is BS 3, T4, with 3 wounds, and each gun is assault 1, S4.  When your model takes a wound the shooter gets to put a blob of their color of paint on your model.  3 blobs of paint and you're out!

We played on a couple of pieces of unpainted Citadel modular board.  I suggested that we flick paint onto the model to represent wounds, that way paint gets all over the board too.  Hopefully they'll take my advice in the future... now, if everyone had an airbrush...

I had the good fortune of scoring the first wound!

As an Ultramarine I decided I would rely on tactics to win the day... and hopefully my snazzy highlights would stave off any incoming paintballs.

Things started to get mixed up quite quickly with three models dicing it up in the upper half and the rest of us having a menage a quad down below.

Ryan had the unfortunate honor of being first knocked out.  "Iceman" Garrett put him down, and as we'll come to see, Ryan wouldn't be his last victim.

When things heated up and only one table half was left I made a tactical withdrawal to the corner so as to gain the upper hand.  It might have worked if it weren't for the fact that I was only capable of rolling 1's, 2's, and 3's.  Except for armor saves, I saved 5 wounds only letting one slip through in the early rounds.

Pretty soon we were slugging it out and our guns got better, first to assault 2, then assault 3 with split fire!  It was the two Garretts and I left, and with a laugh Garrett #1 said, "alright, I've got three shots, I'm going to take both of you out with this one salvo," (between Garrett #2 and I, we had a total of 3 wounds left).  And you know what, he did it!  Three hits, three wounds, and three failed saves.  Everyone was cheering, it was really quite something.

Well, that's it for this week and a look at our painting day at Collector's Cache and a fun take on 40k paintball.  A special thanks to Steve Feral and his event organizing crew dubbed "Feral Events" for hosting me and footing the bill for all those wet palettes.

Hope you can make it to the next painting day at Collector's Cache!

An Infinity WIP: Haqqislam Hassassin Lasiq

I had the pleasure of painting my first Infinity model this week and playing my first game.  My first thoughts are that the gameplay is fun and the mechanics not overbearing.  Shooting is the main form of combat in the game and the strategy that goes into movement and positioning makes every aspect of your turn count.  I played with seven models and we finished our game in 30 minutes with ease.  All in all, I'd like to play more and experience what the different factions have to offer, hacking into someone's gun, and turning it off, sounds hilarious!  

The model I got was from Tommy R., who wanted to paint up this Haqqislam Hassassin Lasiq as a proxy Quarian Assassin for Mass Effect.  I wanted to do something special on this model, so in addition to non-metallic metals all around I embarked on an ambitious project to create mirror effects wherever I could...

I'm very pleased with his visor, which shows a nice desert landscape reflection.

The tiles are another beast, with some cracked and pitted, my brain began to fry trying to figure out all the different reflections.

After 8 hours of work total I'm not completely satisfied with the forward plates, so I've got a bit of tweaking left to do.  The model's due on Wednesday next week, so I have plenty of time for edits.  I'll have pics of what I come up with then!

That's it for this week and this tale of an assassin who is searching for a mirror that shows his good side!

Until next time!

Sneak Peek: April's Relic Bases

It's almost new release time for this month!  This week I'm giving you a first look at the 40k bases I've put together for April.  These bases have been dubbed 'Relic' bases for their strong ties to archea and the Necrons.  Each base is a hand-sculpted cracked earth dirt with a combination of crystals and/or fragments of monolithic architecture.  Pieces of architecture have hieroglyphics inscribed on them that echo those seen in the Necron civilization, but can easily be used for any representation of any ancient big-ass-structure-building-long-lost-race (ABASBLLR for short). I'm doing 25mm 10 packs for $10, 40mm 5 packs for $8, and 60mm 2 packs for the cool price of $6.  Relic bases will be ready for release in about two weeks, and they'll be available in the webstore and at KC metro hobby stores like Table Top Game and Hobby and Collector's Cache (which has recently begun carrying table top miniatures games)!

Let's take a closer look at this month's offerings...

I really liked the Crystal Bases that I made for scheme markers in Malifaux and wanted to do another take on them for 40k.  Something Necron sounded like a fine idea, so I added ancient architecture with undecipherable hieroglyphics for added awesomeness.  When in doubt I do my best to follow the formula (cool + badass = total awesome sauce).  It usually turns out pretty well.

Cracked earth works great for a desert/dead world dwelling race like the Necrons, and it looks great with crystals and chunks of rock too!

I'm saying these are 'Necron' bases, but I could definitely see space marine terminators trudging across these 40mm rounds looking completely hardcore in an alien landscape.

I had a lot of fun painting the last batch of crystals, and I'm looking forward to doing more!

Here's the 40's and 25's side-by-side.  I don't have pics of the 60's here, but that has mostly to do with the fact that they're only about 25% done.  They'll be ready by release, so never fear!

That's it for this week and the preview of this month's new base release from the Lab.  Be sure to come back next time and check out the female inquisitor I've done for a good friend of mine, Aaron J.!