Pro-Tip:Plastic putty

This, together with the Micro-Mark seam scraper, is one of my most valuable assets. Plastic putty can be used for almost everything. It really shines when you have to fill those nasty joins in warped kits. Of course, you could use Kneadite (green stuff) or Milliput. But that means 5 minutes of kneading and 10 minutes of wrestling with it to go where you want it and not where you don't want it.

Tamiya makes a putty as well. It has more "tooth", but it also requires solvents to thin and remove. Which is a downside. The Vallejo putty is water soluble, and in order to remove the still wet putty you just dab a Q-tip in water and wipe it off. A definite win.

One of the other uses for plastic putty is to quickly add volume to something. In this case I've demonstrated on a dozer blade for a Hellhound.

You can of course use plaster of paris together with the pigments in order to bulk it up. But the benefit of using the putty is that you can remove it without damaging your paintjob. Since you put it on BEFORE the paint! ^_^.

In just three-hundred easy steps you can go from grey to rust and mud coloured!

To achieve the effect in the picture I just dabbed the putty on the dozer blade and where appropriate distressed it further with a scalpel blade and toothpick. Make sure you don't go wild (it's easy to do) with it and add it everywhere. For a mud/rust effect add it on edges and where mud would usually collect.

Using pigments over the putty creates some sort of "micro structure" on top of the rough structure created by the putty – that is if you've worked it enough – creating a pretty convincing 3D-effect without much effort.

You can order Vallejo putty almost everywhere. I prefer the one that comes in a tube instead of a bottle. But it's still the same stuff, the tube based putty is just easier to apply. YMMV of course.

Happy puttin' :)

Watch out for Vallejo Washes!

Look at the areas around the flamer. Notice the lighter areas.

Totally unacceptable. And yes, I shaked it for about 3 minutes, only water added for dilution. This doesn't happen with Games Workshop washes, or any other washes I have around...

So... test your newly bought washes on something other than your brand spanking new FW-kit before using them. They're supposed to darken, not lighten the areas. Luckily this was the first of many layers and it can be rescued.

Review: Metallics shootout

Top: Vallejo Liquid Gold Gold(!), Old gold, Rich gold, White gold, Silver & Copper
Middle: Citadel Tin Bitz, Boltgun Metal, Chainmail, Mithril Silver, Dwarven Bronze, Shining Gold & Burnished Gold
Bottom: Vallejo Model Color Old Gold, Brass, Bronze, Gunmetal Grey & Silver.

While assembling and painting the Warhound I noticed that my assortment of metallics was pretty small and dried out so I had to order some. And while browsing around Maelstrom I noticed that they had the alchohol-based Vallejo metallics. Paints I've always been interested in but I haven't found a proper review on them so I've always been kinda hesitant.

Now it might've been the beer, the pills or both. No matter what I ended up with six alcohol-based paint pots in my parcel two weeks later…

Intrigued I opened them up and decided that even if they contain alcohol, there will be no brush-sucking when painting with these colors… for sure! They smell bad and I figure they taste just as bad if not worse.

The quality of the paint is far better than the smell. Being alcohol based the paint goes on really smooth and shiny compared to the acrylic metals I'm used to. And even though they dry quick thanks to the alcohol I had a hard time trying to get some visible brush-strokes. 

One of the downsides is that you cannot be as fast as you are with acrylics. If the alcohol doesn't evaporate before you put on the next layer you will rub off the layer of paint underneath.  A small price to pay for some really shiny metallics in my opinion. 

As you can see from the, far from scientific, comparison the liquid gold is way shinier and less bold than the Citadel equivalents. Even the Vallejo Model Color feels cartoony in comparison. The mica-flakes (the stuff that makes it sparkle like Edward) is actually some kind of metal in the Liquid Gold range which I suppose helps. It also makes for a smoother appearance and somewhat easier handling. Although you cannot introduce any moisture to the paint or it will rust! Pretty cool if you ask me! ;)

It's not a paint range you'd use daily. Or at least I won't since I'm a brush-sucker and most likely will mix up the brushes and get sick. The smell of alcohol is also somewhat disturbing, even though you get pretty funny after a while. But the upside is that on larger projects, like the Warhound, you can get that real smooth eye-popping metallic color without messing around with acrylics that needs thinning and a really careful hand not to look messy. 

So all in all, if it wasn't for the need of alcohol to clean the brush, and proper ventilation I would give the range four grots out of five possible. The final verdict is:


Three grots and a snotling! 

Review: Vallejo Black Lava

Together with the Malifaux stuff I recieved earlier I also got this jar of "Black Lava" from Vallejo.

After reading about basing with this stuff on The Pit of Oni I got kinda intrigued. Basing minis is kinda messy and you always end up with a ton of sand everywhere. Something I'm not too fond of since the cats already make my apartment feel like a gravel pitch.

The jar of lava!

It's made up of some sort of PVA based paint (that's essentially what manufacturers call "acrylics") & small beads / sand. Vallejo says:

Gritty black paste of natural stone and pigment, can be textured and built up and mixed with other mediums.

So I opened it up, picked a 25mm base from GW and slathered on some of the paste with a large brush. I also added two of the "stones" from Games Workshops 40K basing kit (Medium basing slate) and one small slate from the Gale Force 9 range directly onto the paste to see if it would stick. After about 30 minutes under the lamp it was dry to the touch and the stones felt like they were glued on. So it was just a matter of adding paint to it and it was done!

Colors used. Finished base on top of the protective lid from the jar.

As you can see from the picture. The lava dries glossy. Nothing to worry about since the paint dries kinda matte and you'd put on some varnish to protect your minis anyways.

There was no problem with the stones coming off, even though I was pretty aggressive with the drybrushing. So unless you're doing something really scenic with your bases you can skip the glue. Another bonus is that there were no sand coming off, something that usually happens even though you add another layer of watered down PVA to seal the sand.

It's black, which means you can drybrush on top of it. No more need for priming, putting on a basecoat, washing it and then drybrush. And the granules are small enough to feel realistic with 28 – 32 mm "heroic" figures. And you could add some rougher grit if you like to break it up a little.

I'd totally rate this product a 2+ with re-roll. There are more uses for it than just bases. You could use it for a first layer of "mud" or represent rusty parts on vehicles. Paint it on scenery, like walls and buildings, to give it a bit of a rough surface since GW discontinued the Rough Coat spray. Or you could build it up in layers for more scenic bases. The possibilities are endless!!! (Almost ;))

On the workbench

It's more Ultrasmurfs!

I tried out the new Vallejo Polyurethane primer (more on those later) on some AOBR marines that I use to learn how to paint marines quickly (harder than it looks). While I had the airbrush assembled and running I decided to try out zenital highlightning which has been covered in a bunch of tutorials lately.

All in all, it's a pretty straightforward technique and it yields really nice "blended" highlightning. Check Awesome Paintjobs tutorial on 13th Co. Space Wolves for an indepth look at how to do it.

The new Vallejo primers are nothing short of awesome. As you can see in the picture, the black is black, and the grey is a lighter shade of grey. Kinda inbetween white and the grey Games Workshop use on their plastic sprues. Which I find really nice. Colors don't get as muted as they do with The Army Painters "Grey Uniform".

They dry to a matte surface that's not chalky. Which takes paint really well.

What I really liked about the primers is that they're consistent. No more mishaps due to a bad batch of primer, blocked nozzles etc.

Oh, and of course, you don't have to run outside. \o/

Click the picture to see a full size example of the primer applied. Another layer could have been applied to the leaves without any significant loss in detail.