Creating a Press-Mold to Convert Shields

A customer of mine asked for me to give his dwarfs some shields with a bosses on them. Bosses are the round centers usually found in Viking shields. Since I couldn't readily find 40 plain shields with bosses on them, I decided to convert them with a press mold. This post will tell you just how to make one and start casting with it!

Press-Molds are a great, simple way of converting a lot of models in a short period of time. In essence, a blob of putty is stuck onto a relatively flat surface and "pressed" with an indented tool. When the tool (or Mold) is removed, you are left with the reverse impression on the model.

Unfortunately I don't have step-by-step photos of how to create the mold, but it is fairly simple to describe. To create the mold, I used a piece of plastic tube from an old ball point pen. The edges of this were sanded to make it as "sharp" as possible. I stuck a pea-sized amount of Green Stuff epoxy putty inside. Think in reverse when carving the mold (The cast left by the mold will be the reverse of whatever you carve). To create the main dome of the boss I pressed in the back end of a paint brush. The rivet impressions were created with a toothpick.

Pictured here is the finished press-mold and a cast shield.

-To begin, I took some of the shields from the Dwarf Warrior box and filed away the emblems.

-Stick a small piece of putty on the shield and form it into a cone-like shape. This will aid in casting. The more of these you make, the easier it will be to estimate the size of piece you will need.

-Wet (or lick) the mold and press firmly against the shield. Any extra putty will ooze out the sides. If you sharpened the edges of the tube, it should "cut" the extra putty off and it will be easy to remove. If you get good at estimating the proper amount of putty to begin with, you won't have any waste to cut off.

-Carefully remove the mold, pulling it straight off the piece (not at an angle). Repeat as needed. I got these shields done in less than an hour.

Two Stormwolf ships and a Stormfang Gunship

Happy new year everyone. Better late than never, right? I've been neglecting my blog a bit, but still painting up a storm it would seem. I have a backlog of work to share, so without further ado:

Here are a few of the new Space Wolf ships. The Stormfang Gunship was painted back in December, and the other two Stormwolf ships were finished in January.

And for anyone interested, here are a few of the color recipes:

Hull: Basecoat The Fang (I use the spray from Games Workshop. It's very good). Shade with Earthshade in the cracks. Highlight Fang plus Russ Grey. Highlight Russ Grey on it's own, followed by Fenrisian Grey.

Yellow: Begin with several thinned layers of Ceramite White. Basecoat with a couple thin layers of Sunburst Yellow (The more thin layers, the smoother the coat will be. Smooth is better). Shade with a mixture of Golden Yellow, Yellow Ink, and a touch of Fiery Orange. Highlight with Sunburst Yellow mixed with white.

Silver: Basecoat Leadbelcher. Shade with Earthshade followed by Nuln Oil. Do a couple more layers of shading here and there with some thinned down Chaos Black. Highlight Leadbelcher. Highlight all the edges with Mithril Silver

A note on Mithril Silver: My original Mithril Silver ran out recently (The more recent paints before the new paint system. Hex bottles with black flip top caps). I mixed up a batch that is pretty darn close by using Valleo Game Color Silver and some White Scar. The white is necessary in the mixture. Try it out and compare, you'll see. I think the new metallic colors from GW are not as good as the old ones.

Skaven Warlord

Hi everyone. Up next is a Skaven Warlord with a converted weapon. The weapon is from the plastic Stormvermin box. I'll include some color recipes at the bottom.

Red Armor: Basecoat Mephiston Red, shade with earthshade wash (several layers). Highlight Mephiston Red, highlight Blood Red, highlight Blazing Orange, highlight Fiery Orange. Paint chips with black first, and then with Mithril Silver, leaving a thin line of black around the edge. 

Steel Blade: Basecoat Leadbelcher, shade with earthshade wash and black wash (several layers). Highlight with Leadbelcher. Scratches on the blade were painted with thinned down Chainmail. Highlight the edges with Mithril Silver. Glazes of Scorpion Green and Dark Angels Green were applied after. 

High Elves White Lions

There's been a bit of an absence here, but I've still been painting like mad. I've got a large backlog of work to share. First up is a unit of White Lions. I'll include some of the color recipes at the bottom.

White Fur: Basecoat Zandri Dust, highlight P3 Menoth White Base, highlight P3 Menoth White Highlight, highlight Ceramite White. Shade with a mixture of Seraphim Sepia and a little bit of Zandri Dust and water. 

Silver: Basecoat Chainmail. Shade with a mixture of Nuln Oil and blue wash (repeat the wash several times in select areas; especially the blades). Highlight Chainmail, highlight the edges with Mithril Silver.

Purple Gems: Basecoat black. Highlight Liche Purple, highlight Warlock Purple, highlight with a mix of Warlock Purple and Tentacle Pink, highlight with a mix of Tentacle Pink and a little white. Add white reflections on the top. 

Green cloth: Basecoat Scaly Green, highlight by adding in white. 

Blue cloth: (The old recipe was basecoat Regal Blue and highlight with white, but as I've run out of Regal Blue, I came up with a substitution) Basecoat Macragge Blue, shade with Azurman Blue wash. Highlight Macragge Blue, highlight Ultramarine Blue, highlight Ultramarine Blue plus white. 

Forge World Salamanders Dreadnought and others

Hello again. I've got a few new additions to a Salamanders army. I'll try to include some color recipes as well.

First up is a Forge World Salamanders Dreadnought with magnetized arms. The Forge World Website shows the hammers glued to the front of the shield, which covers up all the detail in the scales. I glued it to the backside of the shield/banner instead, which I think looks much better. 

Green Armor: Basecoat Caliban Green, shade with Nuln Oil, highlight Caliban Green + Goblin Green, highlight Snot Green, highlight Scorpion Green. 

Orange Scales: Basecoat Blazing Orange (several thin layers), highlight Fiery Orange, highlight by adding in a mixture of Bad Moon Yellow and White (I have a spare bottle of this mixture handy. It's a useful color).

Next up is the new plastic Chaplain:

Black Armor: Basecoat black, highlight with darkened Eshin Grey (I put a little bit of black ink in my pots of Eshin Grey, to darken it just a bit. That way I can use that color to highlight straight over black without having to mix every time), next highlight with Mechanicus standard grey. Corners are given a touch of Codex Grey.

Bone Helmet: Basecoat P3 Menoth White Base. Shade with a mixture of Zandri Dust and Sepia wash. Highlight Menoth White Base, followed by mixtures up to Screaming Skull, followed by White Scar.

Purity Seals: Basecoat Zandri Dust. Shade with a mixture of Graveyard Earth and Sepia Wash. Highlight Zandri Dust followed by Menoth White Base. Finally touch some of the corners/edges with Screaming Skull. Lettering is added with thinned black. The red portion of the seal is painted with Scab Red, shaded with Nuln Oil, and highlighted by adding in successive amounts of Screaming Skull.

Next up are some of the new plastic Sternguard veterans. I converted two of them to hold a lascannon and a plasma cannon. This involved carving down the pre-cast shoulder pad portion of the right arm, in order to fit a new shoulder pad.

Yellow/black striped cables: From a black undercoat, basecoat the cable with Tau Ochre Light. Highlight with two thinned coats of Sunburst Yellow. Add a stripe "spiral" around the wire with black paint. This takes a lot of practice. Highlight the cables if you like, with darkened Eshin Grey (recipe above), and Sunburst Yellow + White Scar.

Next up are some Sniper Scouts. I was asked to paint the cloaks with a lava style camouflage pattern. One of the scouts was converted to hold a heavy bolter, and the scout who has his gun pointed in the air was converted to hold his weapon horizontally (to aid in transportation). 

Lava Cloak: Paint a rough lava pattern with white. Several layers works best. Next, paint over it with Golden Yellow. Using successive layers of orange and a touch of red, add variation to the pattern. Don't worry about being sloppy at this stage, and keep the lava lines wide at first. Once this is dry, go in with black and define the edges of the black spots, making the orange lines thinner in some places and wider in others. Highlight with darkened Eshin Grey (recipe above). When this is dry, drybrush a little bit of Graveyard Earth near the bottom of each cloak. Then give the cloak a light wash of Agrax Earthshade. 

Scout's Green Armor: One of the themes in this client's army is that new recruits have a slightly lighter shade of green armor. This armor was basecoated with a mixture of Caliban Green and Goblin Green. Shading was done in the cracks with thinned Caliban Green. 

Lastly we have a Drop Pod. This one has the interior troop harnesses removed, as it is intended for carrying Dreadnoughts.