Terrain : Making tank traps from scratch

This tutorial is by my good friend Panagiotis. I asked permission to publish it in my blog and he gladly accepted (like he could do otherwise!). It's a very cheap, easy, fast and effective way to make tank traps and spice up your battleboard. Check it out after the jump!

In The Spotlight: Stillfrosty

Welcome to a new segment of this blog. In The Spotlight will be taking experienced, veteran, ambitious, under glorified and over glorified people and putting them under the microscopic glass. Will they be broken under the pressure of popularity or be reborn as a phoenix, lets find out!

Magnetising Stonehorn/Thundertusk

I got this beast of a kit just yesterday and I knew it in my heart that I had to built it ASAP. Problem is, I am still not sure which is better for my Ogre army yet, the Stonehorn or the Thundertusk. Well, why do I even have to choose between the two? Why can't I have both? Fortunately with a few magnets, green stuff, super glue and a little bit of magic you too could have the best of both worlds!

Sanguinary Guard brief painting tutorial

Since I posted pictures of my Sanguinary Guard yesterday, a few people have been asking how did I go about and paint them. How how did I do the gold armour especially. I will try to explain after the jump. 

Interchangeable Weapons for the Demolisher

Games Workshop has spoiled the Guard players lately with the introduction of some very versatile and nice models. I am talking about the new Leman Russ and Leman Russ Demolisher kits and to some extend the new Sentinel and Manticore (even though I must admit that the new Basilisk was a big disappointment). These new miniatures can be built with many different configurations so there is no need for conversions or hybrid (metal/resin and plastic) kits anymore. In order to make the most out of these models we should use a combination of magnetising and pinning the various weapons so we can to field it as any of the different variants.

Tutorial: Meltaguns for Guardsmen

If you are like me and like having a dozen meltaguns in your army then it's almost mandatory that you get these from the GW webstore. All the other options are just too expensive to consider except if you are particularly good as scratch building.

Upon looking at them you will instantly realise that these are made for Space Marines. The hand that is holding them is armoured and way too big for a guardsman. Also the weapon is quite large and can't fit easily on the model. Some adjustment is required to make everything work.

Easy to build urban terrain

This is an article I wrote a few years back for Firebase magazine when my friend Brandon was the editor. Since it features some of my guardsmen on the pictures, and the colours of the terrain are similar to my camo scheme I think it could be featured here as well. Special thanks go to my good friend Chara Lasithiotaki for her invaluable help. So here it goes:

Tutorial: Scratch building a radio antenna

Very straightforward and easy technique here but it will add a level of detail on your model. Many Forge World kits come with a base for an antenna but you can also add one your self on a GW plastic tank kit if you want to superdetail your model.

You will need the following:

• Hobby Pin Drill
• Very thin drill bits, preferably 0,5 mm in diameter
• Hobby Knife
• Guitar String
• Acrylic Black Paint
• Super Glue 

You can find the guitar string in any musical instruments shop. Ask for a spare higher E string (the very thinnest). It should cost less than 1 euro. You can use jewellery wire instead (like I have in the picture above) but  I have found that the guitar strings work better for this because it keeps straight.

We start by marking the center of the antenna base with a thin pen. Make sure it's as close to the center as possible.

We make a small guiding hole with our hobby knife so that the drill stays in place for the next stage.

Using the drill, we make a small hole in the same way we would if we wanted to pin something on it. It doesn't have to be too deep so don't overdo it. Make sure you are very gentle because these thin drill bits break very easily (trust me on this, I already broke three or four).

We cut an appropriate length from the guitar string and make sure it fits nicely.

Now it time to paint the antenna. I use my airbrush because it covers nice an evenly but if you don't have one make sure that you thin down your paint a lot if you are going to use a brush. If not you will not have a smooth finish and the antenna will look lumpy.

In order to get that little ball at the top, just dip the string inside the paint pot a few times, waiting about a minute for the paint to dry each time.

At the end is should be looking like this:

                     

When you have finished painting your vehicle, put a little super glue at the end bit of the string and place it inside the hole you made in the previous step.

Voila! It's very easy to do when you get the hang of it and it will give your vehicles this little extra something. Hope you find this useful!