The Painting Corps

On The Table: Star Phantoms

2026-01-26T16:36:00.001-05:00

What do you do when you don't feel like you've finished a project in a cool 15 years or so? Stomp your way into a full blown army full of throwback and retro models, new school bits and bobs, and a few techniques you haven't touched in just as long of course!

Enter: The Star Phantoms.

Friday Quick Tip: Gundam Nippers

2024-07-05T08:00:00.017-04:00

As some of you may have noticed, I've been slowly working my way back into the hobby pretty heavily. From consuming as much about the lore as I can, to learning the new fun stuff in the rules, to getting my mitts on the new hot models, it's been a wild ride to be back and active again.

One of the very first things I snagged was a new set of clippers. And let's just say, the clipper game has changed since I was grabbing my first set of GW clippers. One of those big changes was the overlap with the Gundam world. Gundam nippers are a different breed, and with good reason. The hobby over there needs precise and clean right away off the sprue for a lot of people and the better the 'nippers' the better the nip (?).

Doing a bit of online searching and I found these red handled beauties: the P.I.T.4.5 INCH Model Nipper. They're right in that sweet spot of good, reliable, and affordable.

I picked them up a year and a half ago and I have to say I'm super happy with them. As long as they make these little dudes will likely continue using them. They've seen me through Indomitus, Leviathan, and a number of boxes of models I'd rather not put into writing and still going strong. I highly suggest these as a go to for anyone in the market for a new pair.

You can find them here on Amazon.

If you have a favorite hobby tool you think everyone should be using, drop the link in the comments so we can check it out! It might end up featured here as well!

Friday Quick Tip: Easy Deck Plating

2023-10-06T23:42:00.000-04:00

Coming back to the hobby after what feels like a solid decade away was daunting. I just wanted to jump back in and get going. I had a plan of what I'd start with and it would change every couple of days. I eventually got stuck in with a Raven Guard Intercessor Kill Team that I would expand into boarding actions as a full fledged 40k army. In selecting that, I also needed to sort out just how I would build out the bases. I'd done a rusty space hulk basing before and wanted something that would simplify that down a little further. A little plasticard and some glue later, I think I've come across a basing style that is as simple as it is effective.

On The Table: Raven Guard

2023-07-03T09:33:00.002-04:00

After finishing the initial set for my Intercessor Kill Team, I decided to start in on the rest of the force and get the other kill teams/options worked up as well as the add ins for my 40k Boarding Action army!

Little did I know just how long that bit would take.

Reinforcements: Raven Guard Assault Intercessor

2023-06-26T08:33:00.003-04:00

It's been a long time since I was painting models, playing games, and looking deep into the internet for the best techniques for painting and modeling my figures. But here we are. Nearly a decade later I'm right back into the thick of the miniature wargaming hobby.

To start things off I've jumped back in with battle damaged space marines of course.

Maelstrom's Edge

2015-06-01T11:00:00.003-04:00

Over the last couple of years, hobby time has been at a premium, and what time I've had has been dedicated to a project that I can say I'm very excited to announce here! (Albeit a little late in doing so!)
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Reinforcements: Farseer and Warlock Jetbikes

2014-01-21T14:21:00.004-05:00

After a lot of work and probably one too many breaks, I've finally finished this set of conversions! I've learned a lot along the way for conversion work. This is also probably the most converting I've done in a while/ever.
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Reinforcements: Eldar Farseer

2014-01-17T12:09:00.006-05:00

Another commission model! A good work up to the trio of jetbikes I have on my plate for the next round of paint and a nice break from all of the Space Marines I usually end up painting!
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Reinforcements: Logan Grimnar

2014-01-12T17:45:00.003-05:00

Continuing to get myself back into the hobby, I've been working on some commission jobs for a few friends. To start things off I got cracking on a Logan Grimnar.

Army Surplus: NOVA 2013 Charity Raffle

2013-07-11T13:58:00.003-04:00

As part of their annual charity push, NOVA Open has a three raffles going on that anyone can participate in!

Unboxed: Plastic Farseer

2013-07-04T09:30:00.002-04:00

For my upcoming commission project, my friend wants to do a Farseer and Warlock biker set. To do that, we decided upon the new plastic Farseer kit from GW! So, to show off the new kit, I've done a short unboxing. Hope this helps those of you who have been looking at the kit to see just what you can use it for!

Reinforcements: Falcon Guard Dante

2013-07-01T09:30:00.001-04:00

Falcon Guard Count-As Dante

As a birthday gift to a good friend of mine, I started this model a while back. Things of course didn't work to plan and I got side tracked for a good 9 months or so with school. Well, classes are out now (only one more course to go!) and I am trying to get my legs back in the hobby. It's been a while and most of this model was already finished it just needed some touch up and additional detailing. Thankfully it wasn't a huge project to finish this guy up and it helped me gain a little of that fine brush control that I let go when I work on canvas paintings.

It's just nice to be back :)

Unboxed: Los Bandidos Mexicanos

2013-01-23T08:00:00.001-05:00

A few months back, Blackwater Gulch ran a kickstarter that I decided to get behind. I had met Necros briefly at a past Dakkacon get together in Philadelphia once and I was taken by the idea of a warband game with the flair of the old west. In the end, I just opted for a single gang in the form of the Los Bandidos Mexicanos. I figured they would be a fun little project sometime down the line to break of the monotony of all of that space marine armor I seem to find myself painting.

Now that I've got my set, I figured I would share the un-boxing here. Lots of images after the cut!

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Space Wolves Rhino

2012-06-30T22:52:00.002-04:00

It's been a long, long time since I've had a chance to sit down and paint something for my armies. Things have been extremely busy for the last nine months and have started to finally calm down for a few weeks. It won't last of course, but it's nice to finish a new model when I can!

Art: XVIII

2012-01-25T09:00:00.001-05:00

XVIII

20"x16"Acrylic on Canvas

Some of you might remember the last space marine painting that I posted a while back. This painting was started soon after finishing that first piece and was to be in the same vein. The background went in quickly enough, but with life getting in the way, I couldn't find the time to settle in and work in the marine.

With a long break through winter, I was able to get back to the easel and broke out the paints again and in a single sitting, I finished the painting off, all while preparing a dinner!

I'm really quite happy with this piece and feel it as a natural evolution from the first marine. Future iterations would see much this same sort of evolution and a push toward more dynamic compositions.

If you're interested in seeing more of my work outside of the hobby, feel free to browse my art website/blog here. Thanks for looking and I hope you enjoy my work!

Reinforcements: Shadowseer

2012-01-11T07:28:00.001-05:00

After warming up the old painting hands with some space marines, I felt this model come together a little more naturally. The model is a commission for a friend of mine and is actually a gift for another friend who has just recently gotten into wargaming. Mutual friends from countless hours of MMO's and FPS's, I have 'known' this friend for some years now and hung out on more than a handful of occasions. Having a personal relationship with people who will end up owning models I work on makes it a little more special when I do a commission. While I'm sure every person that commissions me to do a piece appreciates what I do, you get to really know that appreciation more-so when you get to see those models in play against you!

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Reinforcements: Falcon Guard

2012-01-05T16:41:00.001-05:00

In an effort to get my painting hands back before I dive into a slightly more involved commission project, I thought I might start out with some simple tactical marines. The other reason for this squad is that I wasn't aware that my friend and I were going to be swapping gifts and when he told me my gift was being worked on, I had an instant flash of what I should do for a return gift!
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Terrain: Shipping Container

2011-11-24T01:00:00.002-05:00

Hello from the overburdened world of art school! I thought I would take some time to get the finished results of the shipping container up for everyone to check out. It really didn't take this long, I just haven't found time to put the finished piece up!

On The Table: Shipping Container

2011-09-27T08:00:00.000-04:00

As many of you might have noticed, things have slowed down to a trickle here on TPC. I've recently started classes at Maryland Institute College of Art and it's near completely wiped my free time from existence. I'm constantly trying to keep afloat in what seems an unending torrent of work. As a way to keep myself sane though, I've been working on a small project over the last week in the shape of the shipping container you see above!

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On The Table: Leman Russ

2011-08-30T11:45:00.000-04:00

In a spark random inspiration I decided to remodel a Leman Russ that I've had sitting around in my cases for far too many years. It was in rough condition and had a few parts missing, but I though that with a little work and some real primer, it could work out nicely. With a dremel, a bunch of plasticard, and a lot of green stuff I got to work on creating a historically inspired, lived in tank.

A lot of tread heads will instantly recognize the directions I've gone with and some of the inspirations I've drawn from. From WW2 to modern tanks, there are a lot of little things all over this bad boy that tells the story that so many wargamers leave out of their models. These lived in touches create narrative, realism, and just make it more interesting to look at!

I'm not certain when this will catch paint just yet, classes have started back up for me and I'm really not sure how much free time I'll have in the coming weeks. But with some luck, I'll hopefully get things going on at least a few of the lingering projects on my table.

I hope everyone is doing well out there in hobby land, and if you've got a cool project you're working on, feel free to share it here! Especially if it's a neat new piece of armor! Happy Painting!

Reinforcements: Angels Sanguine

2011-08-24T08:00:00.001-04:00

It's been about two weeks since I finished the latest additions to my Angels Sanguine force. I had been working so feverishly to complete the two squads of Assault Marines before a gaming weekend at a good friends house that I found myself burning out a little from the push. In the end, I did get them completed before heading out for that weekend and they saw themselves on the table fully painted and ready to rip his army and others to shreds.

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Reinforcements: Sons of Medusa Servitor

2011-08-16T08:00:00.001-04:00

Over the weekend I was able to get out to a good friends place and get some game time in. While I was there I was letting some new gamers play using my Sons of Medusa and Angels Sanguine. This meant a little time sitting down to figure out some quick army lists for people to use. The Sons of Medusa being the most basic of the armies I have I was making good use of them and digging around for extra points at times when I couldn't quite make the point max dead on. Messing with the Master of the Forge options I started toying with the idea of taking some servitors to help flesh out the point totals from time to time, add a wound, and maybe a little more combat effectiveness to a unit that tends to sit back a lot.

With the thought sparked I came home from my the weekend away and got to work on cleaning, modeling and priming two servitors. The first of which you see above in his freshly finished paint, the second to come soon after.

Paint was fairly simple and straight forward for all but the skin tone. For the skin I painted the areas with VMC Cork Brown, washed with Gryphonne Sepia, touched up high points with Cork Brown, then highlighted with 50/50 Cork Brown/VMC Ivory, and a few touches of what looked to be a 25/75 of Cork Brown/Ivory. I then washed this back down with Devlan Mud and touched the highlights up a little with the 25/75 here and there.

Metals followed my typical metallic wash method with Chainmail as the base color, washed with Badab Black, touched up with Chainmail and a few areas given a wash of either Devlan Mud or Gryphonne Sepia.

Red was done with a Mechrite Red base color, washed with Gryphonne Sepia, touched up with Mechrite Red, highlight of Blood Red, and a final highlight of Blazing Orange. I washed this again with Devlan Mud and did a touch up highlight of Blazing Orange.

Black areas are Chaos Black line highlighted with Codex Grey and given a final line highlight of Fortress Grey leaving some of the Codex Grey showing.

The base was painted Bestial Brown and dry brushed with Bleached Bone before painting the rim with Chaos Black. Static Grass was added in typical fashion using Gale Force 9 Arid Grass.

After a Matt Varnish spray, I found he was still very shiny from the wash layers and hit many of the non-metallic areas with a brush on VMC Matt Varnish to kill it off.

The Sons of Medusa are bolstered once more with a new unit that is in keeping with their background and one that I hope will be useful in filling out an army lists from time to time! I have more of these guys to do still but 1/4 in a single night is the kind of progress I can handle!

Review: SWM Flight Deck Bases

2011-08-15T08:00:00.001-04:00

After a weekend gaming with friends, I arrived home Saturday night to a package from Secret Weapon Miniatures. Inside I found a set of beveled edge flight deck bases I had ordered earlier last week. These bases were released late last year and have been one of the base styles I've had my eye on for some time. Thanks to misterjustin, I finally have my mitts on them and have taken the liberty of photographing them out of the bag so that others can see what to expect should they pick up a set themselves.

The set.

60mm Top

60mm bottom

25mm Top

40mm Top

40mm Bottom

There is some flash around a lot of the bases, but it's nothing that a quick shave with a hobby knife can't handle. The tops of the bases are all immaculate and don't have any bubbles or warping. The bottoms of all resin bases tend to have some bubbles from the process but none of them ended up around the edges and there was only one larger bubble that I found and that's shown above on the 40mm base. Details are crisp and surprisingly fine. There are some bases that I was quite impressed by because of how well the textures take while staying so shallow.

I'm really looking forward to putting these to use in the near future. Right now I'm considering using them to build upon for some fun space hulk style basing for my Angels Sanguine. But really, these are cool enough to spark an entirely new project if I'm not careful!

Random: 'Overwatch'

2011-08-05T10:29:00.001-04:00

A day to myself and I sat down to the easel and finished the marine painting I had been working on. The piece, now entitled 'Overwatch' is a 24"x18" acrylic on canvas painting. The final photo above too me a few days to get thanks to the type of acrylic paints I was using, Open Acrylics, but I'm happy to say that it's finished and dry now and I am quite happy with the end results.

I used this piece as a reason to play with color, and saturated colors at that. The subject being a very basic Space Marine with not much in the way of detailing, it allowed me to explore texture and shape in a way that a super detailed armor wouldn't have. The background was kept basic and brought together mostly by impressionist styled paint markings.

Placement of the figure helps to bring him forward amongst all of the warm tones in the background. Not allowing him to be surrounded by the oranges, reds and yellows keeps from having him lost somewhere in the mid-ground and instead forces him to the foreground and into the viewers space. His sharp finish helps bring him to your attention as well amongst all of the loose brush strokes of the background.

I'm quite happy with the finish on the armor, the mottled texture helps to give the look of a field hardened fighter instead of parade ground highly polished plate. Using my fingers to help create the effect brought me more into the piece and allowed me to not be as careful and loosened me up to allow the effect to take hold.

The painting is far from perfect, but as an exercise in color and texture, which it was always meant to be, it has succeeded and allowed me to step away from the serious subject matter I've been delving into of late in my other works.

Thanks for looking, and I hope to do more paintings like this as a way to let go and have fun with my learning process! We'll have to wait and see what comes next!

Reinforcements: Angels Sanguine Assault Marine

2011-08-02T09:14:00.000-04:00

To give myself an idea of how the basic troop for my Assault units will look, I took a marine from the unit I've been working on the last few weeks and painted him to complete. It didn't take much doing as the majority of the work was already complete. The main things I had to do were gems and detail work. Metallics were given a touch up and black areas given highlighting.

The marine follows the majority of the color scheme laid out by the Angels Sanguine Terminators. But with additions of the yellow which was done through GW Iyaden Darksun followed by a highlight of 50/50 Iyadend Darksun/Ivory and a final Ivory highlight.

The shoulders were also done to help lay out colors and ideas for the army. I've gone with Second Company markings for this force, so yellow teardrops on the right shoulder. The left shoulders will have chapter badges, but because of how odd the placement is for this guy, it was hard to get right, plus, I wasn't really happy with just how it came out, so I will have to continue to work on the approach for the badges in the future.

The base used rust colored pigments mixed with VMC Matt Varnish to create a crusted and rusted look. I drybrushed this with GW Boltgun Metal along the edges of the plates. Mixing in more pigment brings out the matt/powdery look of the pigment while adhering it nicely to the surfaces.

I will be sure to do a full write up for the color scheme and how I approached everything when I post the reinforcements for the finished squads. Here's hoping a few tips come out of this force!