Mymeara Recipe

 Primed stynylrez grey. The rest are Pro-Acryl colors and Vallejo Airbrush Thinner.

Basecoat 2:1:1 Dark Jade, Glaze Wash Medium, Airbrush Thinner

Volumetric Highlights

2:1:1 Jade, Medium, Thinner 

2:1:1:1 Bright Jade, Jade, Medium, Thinner

Basecoat Turqoise, Brush on 1:1 Dark Turqoise and Coal Black. 

Volumetric Highlights 

2:1:1 Dark Turqoise, Medium, Thinner 

2:1:1:1 Turqoise, Dark Turqoise, Medium, Thinner 

Glazed into all the recesses with Dark Jade. Highlight with Bright Jade and Turqoise in their respective areas. 

For vehicles I add more steps in each color. 1:1 Bright Jade and jade then 1:1 medium and thinner. 

Metals are runelord brass and the seraphim sepia

Hair reference: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0-aCd0u5v-Q

 Canopies are airbrushed with magenta. Took two coats and a hair dryer in between each coat. 

 

bases: basecoat mahogany, wash with flesh wash. drybrush with beige grey. where there is stones they're neutral gray washed with paynes gray. 

Painting Ryza Sector Mechanicus

Shout out to The Crusade Eternal for the inspiration. Check out their terrain too for more inspiration.

Adapting Crusades recipe to my own to have walkways that are more yellow and rusted through. 

Everything starts with a white primer. 

Platforms: 
    1. Airbrush platforms AK11035 Sand Yellow.

    2. Wash platforms with Vallejo 70.506 Rust. 

    3. Wash platforms with Water and Dirty Down Rust at a ratio of 2:1.

        - While the dirty down is still wet, some pure dirty down rust is applied in select spots.  

    4. Paint guard rail panels with AK11105 Light Rust. 

    5. Wash guard rail panels with Vallejo 76.507 Dark Rust.

        - I didn't go back over these with light rust again like I will on the furnaces. 

    6. Paint thicker cables with Vallejo Metal Color 77.720 Gunmetal Grey

    7. Paint thinner cables with Vallejo Metal Color 77.703 Dark Aluminum. 

        - I washed these with the diluted dirty down wash to bring them into the rusted out color scheme. 

Skulls: 

    1. Paint the bone AK11116 Tan Yellow. 

    2. Highlight the bone with AK11032 Pale Sand. 

    3. Paint the metal parts with Vallejo Metal Color 77.703 Dark Aluminum. 

    4. Wash with Seraphim Sepia. 

Furnaces: 

    1. Airbrush furnaces AK11105 Light Rust. 

    2. Vallejo 76.507 Dark Rust is washed over the areas that will remain orange. 

    4. drybrush AK11105 Light Rust. 

    5. Paint metals with Vallejo Metal Color 77.720 Gunmetal Grey.

    6. Paint the maker panels Retributor Armour.

    7. Wash maker panels with Agrax Earthshade. 

Doors use the same sand yellow and are washed with sepia instead of dirty down. 

These aren't finished, and I'll update this post as I decide how to finish them. 

Layouts

The Bheta-Decima Killteam Set has the ability to double stack these risers, but they don't give you enough to do many doubles. Using a cantilevered platform allows more of the platforms to be used. 

A few more set ups

Wargames for Warriors 2024 Display Board

Classic Spiker Cactus

Supplies
- 240 Pack Craft Foam Balls (This listing has a good mix of sizes and was the most balls for the price.)
- Plain Round Toothpicks (I went through all 800)
- Mod Podge Matte Waterbase Sealer 16 oz
- Woodland Scenics Light Green Coarse Turf 32 oz Shaker (or another color you prefer)
- Hot Wire Foam Cutter / Sharp utility knife.
- Tacky Glue
- Rob the scale marine
- Finishing nails, metal washers. (optional. On some cacti I would push in finishing nails to add weight and keep them from falling over. You don't need to do this for the wider cacti but a little weight never hurt when working with terrain.)

I'm not an amazon affiliate, if you have a creator you'd like to support click their affiliate link and then purchase these and they'll get the commission and Amazon pays them out of Amazons pocket.

1. Collect your future cacti

2. Start with the biggest size and start connecting.  Using a knife or hot wire foam cutter make two flat sides and attach them with a toothpick and tacky glue.  It doesn't need to be perfect without gaps. That'll get fixed later.  Add balls offset to keep the weight even, and try to add balls in odd numbers. This helps keep the cactus look more organic and less structured.

3. Terrain should add to the game experience. With that in mind I made a series of barrier cacti to work as hedge's while the taller ones work as tree's.

4. with a  large tub I took painted half the cacti with mod podge and dumped the green turf over it.  What I should have done is mixed a dark green paint into the modge podge to cover the white better and so I could see where I'd missed applying glue.

5. To seal the flock in place I mixed 1:1 mod podge with water so that the flock was saturated and sturdy. I poked some toothpicks into the bottom and floated them above some scrap foam so that they'd drip dry. You don't want them glued down to whatever they're on. Repeat this so the entire cacti is flocked and sealed. You should dip a large round brush in the mix and tap the cacti so it flows through without disturbing the flock.

6. I decided to keep the natural look of the flock rather than painting them green. I mixed flock and mod podge together to a thick paste and filled in all the obvious foam gaps. I then painted mod podge on the cactus and shook flock over till completely covered.



Sealing this step I used a mix of 1:8 mod podge to water so it was sealed but didn't darken and was still soft. I lined a separate bin with towels and t shirts so they could absorb the drips and keep the bottom flocked and flat without tearing like paper etc.

7. Now prep the toothpicks and stick them into a big thing of foam so you can spray them all at once. If you're using a rattle can to spray these don't put them in foam.  You can stick them in before this and hand paint them, but it's much easier this way.

8. Once they dry I flipped them over in the foam and airbrushed the other sides of the toothpicks.

9. Cut the spikes off with a pair of hobby clippers.

10. Use a toothpick and start poking holes where you'd like the spikes. mix some mod podge with water 1:1 and dip the spoke in the mix.  Twist the spike in, and if there's too much excess glue wipe it off.  Diluting it with water is meant to prevent those big glue globs. These don't take a lot of adhesion to stay in place.

( Hands were covered in glue so no pic for this step. )


Impress your friends, strike fear into your enemies, and confuse your acquaintances with all your new cacti! The perfect addition to any table top wargame.

HTP: Caprice w/ Contrast

I primed these with really bad $1 rattle can paint first black then white zenithal and ended up having to scrub the dust off them. 

Metallic's laid down first to be shaded w/contrast. 

Shading the darker parts of the metal with basilicanum grey.

Thinned 1/1/1 SWG/water/medium to allow it to pool in interesting ways.  Used a very large brush to make sure that I wasn't leaving streaks and was able to have even coverage over the large flat surfaces.   I also shaded the lighter silver parts with pure space wolves grey.

Iyanden Yellow laid down directly.

Finished walkers.

Whole caprice army for Heavy gear blitz that I'm using for Horizon wars.

lore!

The forces of Sword of Oberon travel as a warship through space controlled by a singularly minded AI. Their consciousness is shared across every body and vehicle on the battlefield. Their roles are split into 4 distinct ranked decades upon Sword of Oberon reflecting their role on the battle field.

ISS decade consists of the foot soldiers. landing and sneaking hidden from the eyes of the enemy to extend the reach of their allies weapons. Securing objectives and taking out enemy sentries.

Bo decade is the smallest of the quads. They strike out with a flash of gunfire and skirting back to cover dancing around over extended enemy lines.

Esk decade is the main line of the forces. They're the spearhead force pushing into enemy lines, and the last to pull out once a mission is completed. While not as quick as their lighter Bo cousins, their drone launcher allows them to track enemy movement and use their quick boosters to dodge bursts of fire.

Vahn decade are the heavy hitters. slow and lumbering they're brought in when something absolutely needs to be raised to the ground. Once ISS decade paints a target for them a hail of fire removes it from the field.

All of these forces are of nearly one mind and consciousness. ISS decade foot soldiers are ancillaries controlled by the AI aboard Sword of Oberon. the quads themselves are not 'piloted' at all. there is no living soldier inside, but rather a positronic brain inside a cold, hard, frame.

HTP: Corregidor Bases

Color recipe for my Nomad/Corregidor bases.

HTP: Aleph

I've been working with the contrast paints alongside my traditional painting techniques to try them out and see what I can make of it. Here's some findings and recipes for the results when I choose to add to this force in the future. 

- Wraithbone primer over black zenithal. Magos purple is diluted with medium and water in a 1/1/1

- Not a fan of the wraithbone. it's spotty (it's a rattle can) but also it makes the models look like 90's computers. if you try to highlight with white it's too high a leap.  so reprimed black then white zenithal through my airbrush.

- repainted using inks. Not a fan of the golden because it's a bit glossy, but maybe that helped with the flow of the contrast. Mostly I wanted to make sure this layer was really thin so I didn't lose detail.

- Keeping with the idea that she's going to be primarily white, this time I painted her entire body with only the contrast medium. I loaded my brush with the diluted 1/1/1 magos purple and hit the details so the contrast could flow into the cracks still wet with medium. using all those water color painting skills here. around the armor plates where I wanted more depth to the purple I used undiluted magos purple and carefully lined the armor.

- Rudra gunbot with the thinned magos purple first, painting towards the bottom and shadows of the mini so the contrast pooled correctly.
- Iyanden yellow was next followed by blood angels red.  should have done the red first but it worked out.

- picked out the metal parts with leadbealcher, washed with space wolves grey, then highlighted with ironbreaker (pretty sure, or runefang silver)
- white armor edge highligted with white.
- purple is VMC 70.812 violet red, then magos purple over it, and repainted to highlight up to white just like I mix for marine lenses.

- The test piece for the metal recipe. I really enjoy the blues in the steel.

- gun is leadbealcher, then I put basilicanum grey over the 'brighter' metal parts.
- iron warriors metal went over the darker parts. and was washed with black templar.
- I later highlighted most of the barel and 'light' bits with ironbreaker, as well as edge highlighted the parts painted with iron warrior and BT.

- base is first the metal cross. it's iron warrior, then leadbelchear, finally iron breaker at the outsides. washed with basilicanum grey, then edge highligth with iron breaker.
- I filled in the little tech details of o-o and the rectangles with ironbreaker (maybe runefang steel) and then painted on the black.
- once dry I painted the o-o details with space wolves grey, and the rectangles with Talassar Blue.
- LOS line was painted with the silver vallejo aclohol paint and lightly glazed with blood angel red, not allowing pooling, just to tint it a fun red 'threat' line that's metallic too.

Progress keeps marching along.

Building City Fight Terrain

Terrain is the one model you use every game you play. Here's how to show it some love!

1. It's gotta be sturdy.
2. Have a plan.
3. Make it last.

Some general advice here. Whenever you make something, make sure you play the game you're making it for. There's subtlety's to how mechanics in the game work that aren't always apparent from the start. Also, don't wait till it's done to play games on it. Often I'll build a whole table and play on it a lot before making adjustments, or taking the time to paint it.  Nothing worse than spending months on a project and you find out something simply doesn't work, or isn't used the way you intended.

It's gotta be sturdy. 

Warping, weight, and damage over time are all things to take into account.  This comes down to the materials you use, and the tools you have access to.

Warping

Warping is common when using Masonite/hardboard. The product is great but you have to use adhesives that have a low water content.  PVA glue, even wood glue, can be absorbed by the wood causing it to bow up.  I use the masonite board with a textured white finished side and super glue my resin/plastic to it.  Followed by adding sand with wood glue.

Whenever possible use something sturdier, I learned the hard way and used some heavy books to hold the wood flat while it dried.

Weight

Weight means the terrain isn't going to be bumped and shoot across the table. This is where choosing the right materials matters. Drywall compound is your friend here! Have some Munitorium containers? Pack some drywall compound in those bad boys. Want your ruin to be more solid on the table? Fill in some steps with insulation foam and smother them in drywall compound! Cleans up with water, you can break it off if you need! I have gallons of the stuff. Here's a step by step on how I did this with some classic soda can terrain.

Give it plenty of time to dry, and as it does you'll see cracks start to form.  For the taller building below, before I glued the roof on I coated the insides with a healthy amount of drywall, especially near the bottom.  for the shorter one, I piled it in before gluing on the tiles, then used wood glue to cover the drywall with sand, leaving some cool cracks that naturally formed.



Once you add sand and some paint, you really get a cool affect that helps add weight to the terrain and makes it look like the floors collapsed down! I also like to leave overhangs with the tiles here, sometimes adding details like cabling, or fallen support structures.

Another useful tool is to pick up some ABS Pipe (black plastic pipe) and use it to reinforce the levels of a sector mechanicus walkway.  Don't make my mistake and use PVC (white plastic pipe) because if the paint gets scratched off it's really obvious.

The pipe was cut with a miter saw and I used 2 part epoxy glue (do this outside, the smell is awful) and attached the pipe to the platforms.  I added some bass guitar strings and zip ties for added detail.  The plastic round bit is the flange from the back of my airbrush booth I put a 4" DIY snowglobe into.

Have a plan

There's a lot to take into account when starting.
- How much terrain are you going to make?
- Does your mat have roads? Have you laid out the bases of the buildings to fit inside those roads?
- Will multiple things fit in various places on the map? If not your table could become stagnant fast.
- How will the terrain block LOS?
- How will your terrain encourage player interactions?

For our latest project I gathered all the resin battlefield in a box terrain and laid it out on a city mat to make sure it fit between the roads well.

Then taking those pieces I made 3 template buildings that the rest of the terrain will replicate. This uses the most pieces, and helps streamline building.

Once done I built a prototype after a quick run to the hardware store!

I used 1/4" particleboard as a base and a 2"x3" plank of wood as a floor. it looks very obviously like wood but the proof of concept is there. Afterwards we used 1"x4" wood planks and a thinner base. Because these are solid resin buildings I had to drill into the walls and the base with a 1/4" drill bit and used a 1/4" wooden dowel super glued in place as a huge pin.  The resin will break before this thing comes off that base.

These buildings block LOS at ground level up to 3" from the front and side. They allow you to take cover, but be exposed, or be behind the walls on the back so I could still come around the sides and shoot you, and they're super sturdy!

Make it Last. 

Having durable materials and building things sturdy will go a long way to make sure your terrain lasts.  A few additional things to keep in mind. 

- Save the colors you used during the project.  (That's why I started this blog lol ) 

- Make sure it's stored well. 

Not everyone knows how much work goes into terrain. If someone at the shop is mistreating something politely remind them to be careful and how much work goes into making it.  I've never seen it done out of malice, only absent minded neglect.  That said, I've seen people stack heavy rule books on top of MDF terrain I spent months on. Or shoving terrain haphazardly around causing it to get damaged. Asking for their help in keeping the terrain nice has always stopped those behaviors.

Few things with storage. 

For weekly used terrain shelves are great or even ready to go on tops of tables. The less handling the terrain needs the better. 

Storing terrain loose under tables means it's getting bumped and damaged as players shuffle it around between uses. it also means that it collects all that game store dust, plus runs the risk of being kicked, or hit with chairs.  

Having bins from the start helps a lot as well. you can build your terrain to fit well inside the bin, keeps the dust out, and you protect the plastic from random kicks, spilled sodas, or whatever else. 

Most important of all, ask for help.  You can go fast alone, but you go farther together.  Our FLGS has a lot of folks who had the time to pitch in and we'll have more new terrain done in a few weeks than I could have done in a few months, maybe years.

If you'd like more pics of terrain we've made.