UMS "Agram" : Making PIETY HILL < Articles < Hobby

Making PIETY HILL

Marko Paunović, 22nd August 2020

In this article, I'll be doing a centerpiece terrain for an old west type table. For a while now I've had an idea of doing a hilltop church with a small cemetary for my games of Malifaux and writing this article presented a perfect excuse for such a project.

Idea and planning

I always say when you start any larger project you should plan ahead first. Take your time and explore your options, design the terrain (in this case), decide what materials would be best, see if you have all the tools at hand and most important check if you have enough glue. There is no worse thing than running out of superglue on a saturday evening when you have a sunday's worth of working planned out.

The idea behind this terrain comes from a terrain I did for my gaming club in 2003. mainly for Mordheim and WHFB. It was done in the usual Vampire Counts style. The terrain exists to this day and has only minor damage and some small pieces missing as can be seen in the picture. However, as much as I love this terrain, it doesn't quite fit in the Malifaux world. And besides I wanted to see how differently I'd make this (more or less) same terrain 13 years later.

With the theme of the project decided, I know started to explore my design options. First thing I usually do is go for my home diorama/hobby library. Usually the first books I leaf through are from old masters Ray Anderson and late Sheperd Paine. The former has done some great Old west dioramas and his book The Art of the Diorama is a source of endless inspiration for me, the latter has done mostly military dioramas and his book How To Build Dioramas offers great advice and tips on building scenery and composition. For this project I decided to refer to Ray Anderson's diorama Piety Hill and thus have decided to name my project equally in hommage to this great artist.

So, with the style and theme decided upon, I began designing the outline of the terrain. It became apparent that the size of the terrain would greatly depend on the size of the church. Since I had an already existing terrain with church as a template I roughly copied the dimensions of the church. With the rough dimensions determined (13x10cm with 5cm high walls), I went ahead and started to draw the design of the wall elements. I wanted to build the model of this church as close to how a real wooden churches were built – by using wooden beams to construct the wall frame segments. Connect those segments and after they are errect, use wooden planks to make the walls. The design of the wall frame segments showed four different setups. One for the front side of the building (10x5cm) with holes for two narrow windows and a door, one for the back side of the building (two such frames would be needed as they are 5x5cm), one for the sides of the building with holes for the windows (four such frames needed as they are 5x5cm) and one for the side of the building and for the church belfry (8 needed – 2 for the sides and 6 for belfry, as they are 3x5cm). I would also need several wooden beam constructions/horns for the roof. When I had all this drawn in 1:1 scale on graph paper, I used a different paint marker (green) to mark how the moulding tool should look.

This sketch provided me with the lengths and ammount of material (tables in the drawing sketch) I'd need for the construction work.

For this project I will need the following materials:
- roughly 7 meters of 2x2mm linden slat
- roughly 1 meter of 5x5mm linden slat
- roughly half of a meterlong plank of 2mm balsa wood (they come in 10x100cm planks)
- 40x40cm of HD styrofoam
- superglue
- PVA glue
- gravel (three sizes)
- static grass
- pine trees (several)
- other vegetation
- sanding paper (2 sheets)
- foil for overhead projector
- thin card
- toothpicks
- one chain ring and two small hinges for jewlery boxes
- one bell from a Christmas decoration
- several tombstones

The tools needed are:
- scalpel blade
- scissors
- modelling saw
- pin vice (or an electric mini drill)
- brushes
– various sizes
– for painting/washing and for drybrushing
- pliers and pincers - icepick

Building the church

As I mentioned earlier, the size of the terrain and the layout of various elements greatly depends on the size of the church so it was only natural to start with the construction of the church first. Since I would need a lot of slats of various sizes which would require a lot of precise and repeated measuring, I decided to help myself and construct two tools that would be used to cut the slats into several desired lengths. Tool 1 would be used to cut planks 13, 30 and 50 mm long, whereas Tool 2 would cut planks 11, 20 and 46 mm long. The geometry of these simple tools would allow fast and precise cutting of the linden slats and true enough after only an hour I had cut almost 7 meters of linden slats into 181 differently sized would-be wooden beams. Using scotch tape I glued them all into groups so they wouldn't get mixed up.

Next up, it was time to construct the moulding tools to simplify the production of wooden frames and ensure the right angles of the beam connections (as much as possible). For this, I used one sheet of transparent plastic foil. I simply placed it over the sketch and glued the 5x5mm linden slats over the green marked areas on the sketch. Inside I put the linden slats of according sizes (I had previously written the sizes in red on the sketch for easier assembly) and put just a dab of superglue making sure it didn't run onto the plastic foil or the thicker linden slats of the moulding tool. A great advice is to use Rapid Cure. This is a chemical of sorts that instantly cures the superglue the moment it comes into contact with it. However it leaves some white marks which in this case won't matter as everything will get painted in the end.

Once I had all the wooden frames for the bottom part of the church I glued them onto a balsa wood base. I now had the outline of my would-be church. It was time to construct the belfry and the roof. Using the same method, I made the roof horns – basicly a set of triangles glued to gether. To make those, I used only one mould tool as all I really needed was to construct the right angle between the horizontal and perpendicular beams. Once they are fixed, I just connected the hypothenuse of the triangle that would hold the roof. I made several sizes of the roof horn in order to have an appearance of a wobbly roof. When the roof construction was done, I glued 2mm balsa wood over it that would hold the roof tiles. (Note: I didn't glue the roof construction to the wall frames so the roof will be removable) With the roof construction done, I proceeded to make the belfry using 6 smaller wall frames and some roof triangles.

It was time to fill the walls with planks. Using 2mm thick balsa wood I cut strips about 30cm long and 5mm wide using an icepick. The shape of the icepick enables the bevelled look of the plank in one stroke (both cutting and bevelling at the same time). If I had used the scalpel blade, I would have to chamfer the sides which would prolong the process. Afterwards, I again resorted to my makeshift tools for cutting planks and made a bunch of 20, 30 and 50mm planks out of the balsa strips. These I then glued to the floor, making sure I followed a certain pattern. It does not matter which pattern you use, but you need to follow it to the end. In the case of my floor, I used the following pattern: 40mm-50mm; 20mm-50mm-20mm; 50mm-40mm; 20mm-50mm-20mm and repeat. I used a similar method for all the walls. Where the length of the plank protruded from the wall frame, I had cut the excess material only after the glue had set (which is best seen on the roof part). Once both parts of the church were done (roof and building) I glued them on a stick to make the undercoating with a black sprey easier and to prevent spreying over my hands.

Making the base

With the church done, I could now make the base for the terrain. Same as in the original from 2003, I opted to make it from HD Styrofoam. Although these days I opt for the more sturdier materials for the base (like MDF), I went for the styrofoam because I wanted the extra height that 3cm thick styrofoam provides. First, I drew the church outline with a marker and then arranged all the elements according to their position to the church. Once I had all the elements in place, I drew the outline of the top side of the base and around it the bottom side. Using a scalpel blade I cut the base along the outmost line. In several steps I cut the base until I reached the inner outline of the base adding more angle to the blade with each step. Once the cutting part was done, I sanded everything using sanding paper. I also made a couple of stone boulders from leftover pieces of styrofoam and glued them to the base using PVA glue and toothpicks as pins.

5x5mm linden slat was used to make the gate to the church graveyard. Using my electric mini drill (which can be replaced by a hand-held pin vice) I pinned all the pieces together and to the base again using toothpicks as pins. Once the gate was done, I made the wobbly wooden fence from toothpicks and balsa wood planks left over from church construction. Before adding texture it was time to dryfit the two pieces together. Upon inspection I discovered several damaged places on the styrofoam that needed fixing. Had I more time, I would probably have filled those with DAS airdrying clay. However, several strips of masking tape provided a perfect quick fix.

Texturing

At this point, I was nearing the end of the construction and all that had to be done before the painting was to add texture to the base. Before doing this, take a look at the picture of the old piece taken in 2016. You will see that there is a damage to the road just on the rim of the base. I'm not sure what happened or how it got torn off, but my best guess is that the styrofoam base was not fully protected before undercoating with a sprey so it damaged the undersurface of the base and during time the stress broke off this piece. In order to prevent this (as much as possible) I decided to cover about 5mm around the edge of the underside with PVA and thus protect it from damage. While it was drying, I took out all the gravel I was to use on this project:
- chinchilla sand – smallest grain
- GF9 medium basing grit
- chinchilla sand – largest grain

Once the PVA protection was dry, I smeared more wattered-down PVA on the surface that would become the road/yard. I first sprinkled over some largest grain gravel, next I sprinkeld some GF9 Medium Basing Grit and to finish I poured over the smallest grain chinchilla sand. If you sprinkle gently and with care you can end up with nice variations in texture – for instance the middle of the dirt road usually has some larger stones as opposed to the sides of it. When the road was dry, I repeated the process with the rest of the base, sprinkling the two largest grains over the ground part and smallest grain over the boulders and graves.

Preparation while waiting

While I was waiting for the texture to dry, I made the roof tiles from finest grain sanding paper. It has nice texture when painted. I also put metal pins to the pine trees I was going to use on this terrain. The easies method of pinning metal pins to the plastic trunks of the trees is to heat the metal pin using a candle and just stick it into the trunk. The heat will melt the plastic locally. As the pin goes into the trunk it gives over heat (to the trunk that melts) and once the pin is cool it will become lodged into the trunk without any need to glue it.

Painting the base

After the texture had set, I undercoated the base using black sprey and it was time to paint the terrain. Unlike my minis, I like to use minimal/limited pallette when painting my scenery. These are the paints used during this whole project (manufacturer: Pebeo Deco):
- White (41)
- Antique White (69)
- Ash (70)
- Ochre (51)
- Brown (29)
- Grey (54)
- Black (55)

On all my scenery I use Pebeo Deco colours as I find they have just the consistency needed for quickly painting the terrain. They are quite rubbish for painting minis, mind you, as they are too thick. For terrain, however, they are perfect and their price of 3USD per 45ml bottle is well worth it. When the undercoat was dry, I painted brown all over the yard/road/graves area and just drybrushed the rest of the base. Using drybrush method (without cleaning my brush from previous paint) I applied ochre over the entire base. On the road part I added a final highlight of a mixture of ochre and antique white. Once that was done, I used black paint to pick out all the details – fence, stones, gate and when this layer was dry, I drybrushed them all with a mixture of black and grey. I highlighted it with pure grey. Now all my grey surfaces were the same, both wooden and stone. To make variation to them, I put a final highlight of pure white on the stone surfaces (stones and gravestones). I also added a highlight of ash to both the ground part of the base (without the road/yard) and the wooden parts. To end this part of painting process I decided to make hommages to two works of art very dear to me. First is the sign on the church gate that says Piety Hill in reference to Ray Anderson's work and the other is the two tombstones – one marked Arch Stanton the other marked Unmarked in reference to one of my favourite movies of all time. This being a terrain for Malifaux, I figured a reference to The Good, the Bad and the Ugly couldn't miss. All three signs I wrote using my 0,05mm micron marker (you can get those from Ebay for quite a reasonable price, and they come in several colours if you need them).

Vegetation

When I was done with painting, I glued the four pine trees to the base using PVA glue and assmbled all the vegetation I would use: tufts of flowers (found on Ebay), extra long static grass/fibres (Noch), Poison Ivy (ArmyPainter), and a wide assortment of tufts of various colours, sizes and lengths (Gamer's Grass). All these I would use on the base to hopefully get that prairie feel to the piece. Starting with the longest fibres and going to the shortest length tufts I glued each using PVA glue. In the end I added some flowers to the graves. With all the tufts glued, I still had some awkward empty places on the base so I decided to mix some static grass and glue it. I used green, pure yellow, ash and almost black green stuff to get the mixture of the right colour. When I was happy with the shade, I glued it using PVA glue once again.

Painting the church

While the flock was drying, I painted the church. I decided to go for the brownish interior and grey exterior. Inside was painted using brown, ash and antique white. Outside was painted using a mixture of black and grey, then grey and pure white as the final highlight. While this was drying I added some poison ivy to the base and proceeded to paint the bell. This element was the only one painted with paints I normally use for painting minis. Scalecolor Dwarven and Viking Gold and Vallejo Sepia Shade. When everything was painted, I added the roof to the belfry and glued the church to the base.

Adding the door that can be opened

During my build of the Malifaux modular gaming board for Figure Painter Magazine, I discovered a nifty little way to make doors that can open. Apart from a couple of linden slats and some balsa, it requires smallest (that you can find) hinges for jewlery boxes. The process of making is really easy, but you need to make sure the hinge is fixed between two plates both on the door side and on the frame side. This way, there is no (or little) chance of the door falling off during opening. Once it was done, I painted it following the process described above and when the paint was dry, I glued the whole thing to the church and the base.

Final product

The fitting of the door marked the end of the project and all that was left was for me to take it to the club to take a picture of it with it's older brother.

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Turnip28 demos at Black Queen H&MPC 2025

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Our most important weekend of the year, the BQ competition, was packed with content and everyone could find something for themselves - with all the lectures and workshops, I was very happy that there was a chance to play and learn new games!

Thanks to our dear friends from Slovenia, Vane and Luka from Amulet d20, we had the opportunity to learn and try out a game that has recently experienced global success, and is the dream come true for many painters and kitbashers in the hobby: Turnip28!

The game itself is simple enough for beginners: two armies (regiments) clash on the table, led by 3 nobles - one Snob, who is the most important part of the army, and 2 Toffs, who are slightly weaker. Each noble brings units with him - the Snob brings two, while each Toff brings one unit to the table. In total, each army consists of 3 nobles and 4 units.

What a table looks like with the guys gathered around it

Like most tabletop strategy games, the game is played in rounds, and during them the players change the order of activations. The player who is first in line activates one of his units or nobles, makes a move, and then the other player takes over the order, until all the units on the game board are activated. Nobles are important because they are activated first, and they issue orders to their units: attack, march, shoot. If you don't have a noble, if he is killed or missing, then your units are activated only after all the nobles have been played, which can put you in an awkward position.

What my demo game looked like

For my first turnip game, I had the honor and fortune of playing with our own Anna from Gardens of Hecate - we both wanted to try the game and now we had the perfect opportunity to learn the basics of the rules with the mentorship of the Amulet guys.

We got our regiments, which were pretty similar - we had a Snob, 2 Toffs, a large infantry unit with rifles, a smaller infantry unit with melee weapons, and a scout unit with rifles. The biggest difference was that my last unit was a cannon, while Anna's was a large hand-to-hand monster known as a Lump. I think her pink Furby Lump with glowing eyes was probably the most memorable figure on the table (kudos to the guys from Amulet on the miniatures).

p>The party itself started with Ana's initiative, and from the beginning started to win strategic points on the table. My response to her conquest of the field was to resolutely fire everything I had into her ranks. As I watched her troops slowly but surely fall under my fire, I got lucky and my scouts managed to get one of her Toffs in front of the firing squad - which gave me a pretty big advantage at the start.

Her troops continued to advance towards my side of the table, including a rogue who came uncomfortably close to me - and I tried in vain to attack him with my infantry, who were just out of powder. After failing to even scratch him, they fled, leaving room for the artillery to finish their job - and that unit definitely deserved a promotion in this game!

We finished the game quickly, because we had other workshops starting, but we are both excited to play a few more games, and with some other Agram members we are thinking about putting together our regiments - the number of miniatures needed is not large, and the creative possibilities are quite large!

Btw, the guys from Amulet gave us a lecture about their association and the activities they are planning - this year they have prepared H.R.E.N. 28, a turnip28 tournament, so be sure to check out their activities and projects - they are close by and you can visit them if you find something interesting!

Just some of the miniatures that the Amulet team prepared for the demo game - sugar at the end: Furby Lump!

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Naš najvažniji vikend godine, natjecanje Black Queen H&MPC 2025, bilo je krcato sadržajem i svatko je mogao pronaći nešto za sebe - uz sva predavanja i radionice, jako me razveselilo da je bilo prilike igrati i naučiti nove igre!

Zahvaljujući našim dragim prijateljima iz Slovenije, Vane i Luka iz Amulet d20, imali smo priliku naučiti i isprobati igru koja je nedavno doživjela globalni uspjeh, a predstavlja ostvarenje sna brojnih paintera i kitbashera u hobby: Turnip28!

Sama igra je dovoljno jednostavna za početnike: na stolu se sukobljavaju dvije vojske (regimente), koju predvode 3 plemića - jedan Snob, koji je najbitniji dio vojske, i 2 Toffa, koji su nešto slabiji. Svaki plemić sa sobom donosi jedinice - Snob donosi dvije, dok svaki Toff donosi po jednu jedinicu na stol. Ukupno se svaka vojska sastoji od 3 plemića i 4 jedinice.

Kako izgleda postavljeni stol s ekipom okupljenom oko njega

Poput većine stolno strateških igara, igra se na runde, te igrači tokom njih izmjenju redoslijed aktivacija. Igrač koji je prvi na redu aktivira jednu svoju jedinicu ili plemića, povuče potez, i onda drugi igrač prezume redoslijed, dok se ne aktiviraju sve jedinice na igraćoj ploči. Plemići su bitni jer se oni aktiviraju prvi, te oni izdaju naredbe svojim jedinicama: napadni, marširaj, pucaj. Ukoliko nemate plemića, ako je poginuo ili nestao, onda se vaše jedinice aktiviraju tek nakon što su odigrani svi plemići, što vas može postaviti u nezgodnu situaciju.

Kako je moja demo partija izgledala

Za svoju prvi partiju turnipa, imao sam čast i sreću igrati s našom Anom iz Gardens of Hecate - oboje smo htjeli probati igru te smo sada dobili savršenu priliku da usvojimo osnove pravila uz mentorstvo Amuletovaca.

Dobili smo svoje regimente, koje su bile poprilično slične - imali smo Snoba, 2 Toffa, veliku jedinicu pješaka s puškama, manju jedinicu pješaka s oružjem za blisku borbu, te jedinicu izviđača s puškama. Najveća razlika je bila u tome što je moja zadnja jedinica bila top, dok je Anina bila veliko čudovište za borbu prsa o prsa, poznatija kao Lump. Mislim da je njen roza furby Lump sa svijetlećim očima bila vjerojatno najupečatljivija figura na stolu (svaka čast dečkima iz Amuleta na minijaturi).

Sama partija je krenula s Aninom inicijativom, i od početka je krenula osvajati strateške točke na stolu, Moj odgovor na njeno osvajanje terena je bilo odlučno ispaljivanje svega što imam u njene redove. Dok sam gledao kako njene trupe polako ali sigurno padaju pod mojih pucanjem, posrećilo mi se pa su moji izviđači uspjeli dovesti jednog od njenih Toffova pred streljački vod - što mi je u startu dalo dosta veliku prednost.

Njene trupe su dalje napredovale prema mojoj strani stola, uključujući lumpa koji mi je došao neugodno blizu - te sam ga uzaludno pokušao napasti sa svojim pješacima koji su taman ostali bez baruta. Nakon što ga nisu uspjeli ni ogrebati, pobjegli su i ostavili prostora da artiljerija dovrši njihov posao - a ta jedinica je definitivno zaslužila promaknuće u ovoj partiji!

Ubrzo smo završili igru, jer su nam krenula druge radionice, no oboje smo uzbuđeni odigrati još koju partiju, te uz još neke članove Agrama razmišljamo o slaganju svojih regimenti - broj potrebnih minijatura nije velik, a kreativne mogućnosti su poprilično velike!

Btw, dečki iz Amuleta su nam držali predavanje o svojoj udruzi i aktivnostima koje planiraju - ove godine su pripremili H.R.E.N. 28, turnip28 turnir, te svakako bacite oko na njihove aktivnosti i projekte - blizu su i možete ih posjetiti ako nađete nešto zanimljivo!

Samo neke od minijatura koje su Amuletovci pripremili za demo partije - šećer na kraju: Furby Lump!

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Domagoj Krpan, 3th March 2025

AGRAM LEGO SECTION - Leonardo da Vinci's Flying Machine

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	U srijedu 26.2. u sklopu naše Izložbe minijatura i maketa Agram 2025, naša Agram Lego Sekcija je odradila svoj drugi projekt. Nakon Hogwartsa u 2024., prvi projekt u 2025. bio je Leonardov leteći stroj. 

	

	Kao što je već tradicija kod naše Lego Sekcije, prije izgradnje modela, valjalo se malo educirati o temi. Ovoga puta naš Mario Grgurev održao je predavanje o Leonardu da Vinciju kao izumitelju sa posebnim osvrtom na leteće strojeve.

	

	Ulaz na predavanje bio je besplatan, a prijave nisu bile potrebne!

	

	

	

	Izrada makete je rezervirana za članove Agram Lego Sekcije. 

	

	

	Ukoliko se želite uključiti u sljedeće projekte, javite se za više informacija na ums.agram@gmail.com .

	

	Sljedeći projekt bit će u travnju, a tema će biti Orient Express. Očekuju vas predavanja o parnim strojevima, parnim lokomotivama te o povijesti Orient Expressa, kao i o Orient Expressu u pop kulturi.

	

	Vidimo se!"
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Mario Grgurev, 27th February 2025

Star Wars Legion - Separatists Basing Article

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For the last year I’ve been trying to get my Star Wars Legion Separatists army ready for the table, so I can play a few games. One of the reasons I chose this faction (other than the fact that SW droids are great), is because droids paint, up quickly. I don’t need my army for this game to look display ready, I just want to get them ready fast, match their look from the films and be happy when I see them from a distance. To achieve this I’ve been fine-tuning their basing scheme throughout the year, and I’ve found a recipe that to me looks good enough, is relatively quick, and very easy to do (no brush control needed here). As I’m finishing my last unit for the game, I thought to share it. The scheme was originally supposed to look like Geonosis, but with time I’ve made it my own. But still this is fitting as the last unit I’m painting is the Star Wars Legion Geonosian Warriors (I love these sculpts - fiddly, but fantastic!)

I start out with a small ball of milliput that I place down in some random areas with my fingers. This is to create elevation. For me a flat base is always more boring than an uneven, elevated base.

I then use a sculpting tool (whichever I have on hand, doesn’t really matter as I’m not sculpting anything) with some water to smooth out the milliput, and make a few elevated areas.

I push a few small rocks down into the milliput before it cures. No need for glue here, that comes later. Also I’ve come to learn that uncured milliput and superglue is a very bad combo.

I crumple up a small piece of tin foil and poke it at the uncured milliput to create some texture.

Now the rocks will get fixed in place as I put a small amount of superglue all over the cured milliput, and the rest of the base as well. Then I use a teaspoon to sprinkle some baking powder all over the superglue. A minute later I wash the whole model under the sink, to get rid of excess baking powder.

I use a crackle paint from Citadel (Agrellan Earth) and cover the flatter area of the base with a good chunk of it.

When the crackle paint is dry I prime the model.

I paint the base using a combination of reddish and brownish, earthly tones. I just slap them all over the base haphazardly and without thinking, as later they will be brought together with a shade and some drybrushing. Paints I used here were Mephiston Red, Mournfang Brown and XV-88 from Citadel, as well as Burnt Sienna from Golden SoFlat.

Shade with Agrax Earthshade.

Lightly drybrush with a beige/grey/whitish color. I use Tyrant Skull and Wrack White as these are actual Dry paints from Citadel, and I still have them lying around.

I finish off the base with a few grass tufts. The drier they look the better. I also put a bit of Seraphim Sepia wash into the middle of the tufts to bring their color tone down a notch. And of course finish with a black base rim.

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Posljednjih godinu dana pokušavao sam pripremiti svoju vojsku Separatista iz Star Wars Legion, tako da mogu odigrati nekoliko partija. Jedan od razloga zašto sam odabrao ovu frakciju (osim činjenice da su SW droidi sjajni) je taj što droidi brzo bojaju. Ne treba mi vojska biti na visokom nivou obojana, samo ih želim brzo pripremiti, da odgovaraju izgledu iz filmova i biti sretan kad ih vidim iz daljine. Kako bih to postigao, fino sam prilagođavao njihovu shemu baziranja tijekom cijele godine i pronašao sam recept koji mi se čini dovoljno dobrim, relativno je brz i vrlo jednostavan za izvođenje (ovdje nije potrebna kontrola kista). Dok završavam svoju posljednju jedinicu za igru, mislio sam je podijeliti s vama. Shema je izvorno trebala izgledati kao Geonosis, ali s vremenom sam je napravio svojom. Ali ovo je ipak prikladno jer je posljednja jedinica koju bojam Star Wars Legion Geonosian Warriors (obožavam ove skulpture - nezgodne, ali fantastične!)

Započinjem s malom kuglicom miliputa koju stavljam prstima u neka nasumična područja. Ovo je za stvaranje uzvisina. Za mene je ravna podloga uvijek dosadnija od neravne, uzdignute podloge.

Zatim upotrijebim alat za oblikovanje (koji god imam pri ruci, zapravo nije važno jer ništa ne oblikujem) s malo vode da izravnam miliput i napravim nekoliko povišenih područja.

Gurnem nekoliko malih kamenčića u miliput prije nego se stvrdne. Ovdje nema potrebe za ljepilom, to dolazi kasnije. Također sam naučio da je nestvrdnuti milliput i superljepilo vrlo loša kombinacija.

Zgužvam mali komadić limene folije i ubodem ga u nestvrdnuti miliput kako bih stvorio malo teksture.

Sada će se kamenje učvrstiti na svoje mjesto jer stavljam malu količinu superljepila po cijelom stvrdnutom miliputu, kao i ostatku baze. Zatim čajnom žličicom posipam malo praška za pecivo po superljepilu. Minutu kasnije operem cijeli model u sudoperu, da se riješim viška praška za pecivo.

Koristim crackle boju od Citadela (Agrellan Earth) i pokrivam ravnije područje baze s debelim premazom.

Kad se crackle boja osuši, stavim primer na model.

Podlogu bojam kombinacijom crvenkastih i smećkastih, zemljanih tonova. Samo ih nasumično i bez razmišljanja udarim po cijeloj podlozi, jer će se kasnije spojiti s nijansom i malo suhog četkanja. Boje koje sam ovdje koristio bile su Mephiston Red, Mournfang Brown i XV-88 od Citadela, kao i Burnt Sienna od Golden SoFlata.

Zasjenim s Agrax Earthshade.

Lagano stavite sloj drybrusha bež/sive/bjelkaste boje. Koristim Tyrant Skull i Wrack White jer su to stvarne dry boje od Citadela i još uvijek ih imam uokolo.

Bazu dovršavam s nekoliko busenova trave. Što suše izgledaju to bolje. Također sam stavio malo Seraphim Sepia wash u sredinu busenova kako bih smanjio ton njihove boje. I naravno završiti s crnom bojom po rubu.

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Sebastian Søgård, 13th February 2025

We visited: Imp’s Shop in Ulm

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Last year I had the opportunity to visit Ulm, Germany again, and I wanted to take the opportunity to visit a hobby shop that is significantly different from most I have had the opportunity to visit in other places.

The store itself is located in the very center of the city, about 5 minutes walk from the Cathedral in the heart of the pedestrian zone. Passing through the old town, I strolled through a neighborhood where an incredible number of old houses and buildings have been preserved, and it looks like the architecture was straight out of GW's Old World. Arriving at the store, I was very surprised by the content on offer - like most hobby stores, they had a range of new goods, but they also had a range of second-hand products, some of them vintage by all standards. In glass cases stood painted, used figures for sale, some of them have been out of production for a long time. Shelves with old books and games that are real treasures for collectors, and some items are new, packaged, but again not something I would expect on the shelves of a typical hobby store.

New and Unexpected

Two full cabinets with shelves and boxes dedicated to DnD editions from the past

A large part of the store was dedicated to the local community, in my time During the visit, Magic was played, and the store is filled with players and hobbyists from different systems on different days.

The set was complete, I believe many people would benefit from having it in their collection

A large selection of miniatures of lesser-known games, including Schwartzes Auge RPG

After digging through the antiques in search of treasure, I filled my shopping bags and had very pleasant conversation with the owner. He was extremely kind throughout the visit, and helped me find things that I was interested in. My favorite part of the shopping was getting an Imp at Imp's Shop - if you're interested in seeing what it looks like when painted - visit our Black Queen Hobby and Miniature Painting Competition!

Imp from Imp's Shop!

And if your journey ever takes you to Ulm, be sure to visit this shop! If Ulm is not in your area, and you are interested in games and miniatures that are perhaps a little more mainstream or represented here, you can see Imp's offering on their website and web shop!

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Prošle godine imao sam priliku ponovno posjetiti Ulm u Njemačkoj, te sam htio iskoristiti priliku da posjetim jedan hobby dućan koji se bitno razlikuje od većine koju sam imao priliku posjetiti u drugim mjestima.

Sam dućan nalazi se u strogom centru grada, jedno 5 minuta pješice od Katedrale u srcu pješačke zone. Prolazeći starim gradom šetao sam se kvartom gdje je nevjerojatan broj starih kuća i zgrada očuvan, te izgleda kao arhitektura ravno preuzeta iz GW-ovog Old World-a. Dolaskom u dućan, bio sam jako iznenađen sadržajem koji se nudi - poput većine hobby dućana, imali su asortiman nove robe, no imali su i asortiman second hand proizvoda, neki od njih po svim mjerilima vintage. U staklenim vitrinama stajale su obojane, rabljene figure na prodaju, neke od njih već dugo vremena nisu u proizvodnji. Police sa starim knjigama i igrama koje kolekcijonarima predstavljaju pravo blago, a neki predmeti su novi, zapakirani, ali opet nisu nešto što bih očekivao na policama tipičnog hobby dućana.

Novo i Neočekivano

Dva puna ormara s policama i kutijama posvećeni edicijama DnD-a iz prošlih vremena

Veliki dio dućana je bio posvećen lokalnom community-u, u vrijeme moje posjete igrao se Magic, a u dućanu se tokom različitih dana nalaze igraći i hobisti iz različitih sustava.

Set je bio kompletan, vjerujem da bi mnogima dobro došlo u kolekciji

Veliki izbor miniatura manje poznatih igara, ukljućujući Schwartzes Auge RPG

Nakon što sam prekopao starine u potrazi za blagom, napunio sam vrećice za kupovinu i imao jako ugodan razgovor s vlasnikom. Tokom cijelog posjeta bio je izuzetno ljubazan, te mi je pomogao pronaći stvari koje bi me zanimale. Najdraži dio shopping mi je bila nabavka Imp-a u Imp’s Shopu - ukoliko vas zanima kako izgleda kad je obojan - posjetite našu Izložbu minijatura i maketa Agram 2025!

Imp iz Impove Trgovine!

A ukoliko vas put ikad odnese u Ulm, svakako posjetite ovaj dućan! Ukoliko vam Ulm nije usput, a zanimaju vas igre i minijature koje su možda malo main stream ili zastupljene kod nas, Impovu ponudu možete vidjeti i na njihovim web stranicama i web shopu!

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Domagoj Krpan, 4th February 2025

Preparation and painting with contrast/speedpaint paints – Cthulhu Wars

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In this article I describe my process of painting figurines with contrast and speedpaint paints. This is how I painted all the figurines I made for Cthulhu wars. I made them to be "tabletop ready", but I think that with these techniques, a higher quality figure can be achieved, with proper preparation and attention to the precision of details. An example from the pictures is an Acolyte model from the game.

The painting process was almost always the same, with slight variations in the primer and initial shading. The first step is of course the spray primer, which I started with white paint. This is where I did the most variation in the process because after a few tries, I ran out of white spray cans, then light gray, and ended up with a plain gray paint. I realized that the optimal color for this type of painting is light gray spray can – you want to emphasize the hollows of the figure, but not kill the shadow color (like you would with a black or dark gray primer). The light gray spray provides a good base for the shade colors that I apply in the second step, emphasizes the contrast with the white drybrush, and leaves me with the dark color that I apply in the later stages.

The next step, regardless of the tone of the primer I applied, was to apply the shade colors from GW. Which color it was, depended on the primary color I wanted to achieve. For example, for red, blue, and yellow, I prefer a purple, or at least an approximate purple shade. In the example of this model, I used Carroburg Crimson, which is a purple-red tone. Likewise, for green, I used Athonian Camoshade, but in retrospect I should have gone for a warm shade (like red), I like the difference in warmth between contrasting tones better. I colored the leather and books/papers with Seraphim Sepia, the easiest way to contrast the skin color later.

After the shade paint dried, I applied a white drybrush over the entire figure. This is the final step to prepare the figure for painting diluted colors such as contrast.

Let's start with contrasting colors. Given the simplicity of this model, I applied maybe two colors in total, but I did the same thing on more complicated figures. Red over the dress, paying attention to the separate parts I wanted more beige, skin color on skin, brown on the book and Skeleton horde for the beige parts (to get the dirty fabric effect). I used speedpaint medium on many of the dark contrasting colors to thin them out, but sometimes it didn't work very well. On large areas, such thinned paint leaves stains that need to be cleaned up.

The last step is to define the details of the model and potentially add highlights. In this case, I subtly touched up the red stain with a lighter red drybrush, painted the dagger with off-white, painted the belt, and added patterns to the open pages of the book. The model is now tabletop ready and the entire process takes about 20 minutes of painting. The only downside is that you have to wait for the various thinned layers to dry, but I usually plan on painting other models in that time.

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U ovom članku opisujem svoj proces bojanja figurica sa contrast i speedpaint bojama. Na ovaj način sam obojao sve figurice koje sam radio za Cthulhu wars. Ja sam ih radio da budu „tabletop ready“, no mislim da se ovim tehnikama može postići i veća kvaliteta figure, sa pravilnom pripremom i pažnjom na preciznost detalja. Primjer iz slika je jedan Acolyte model iz igre.

Postupak bojanja je skoro uvijek bio isti, sa blagim varijacijama u primeru i početnom sjenčanju. Prvi korak je naravno primer u spreju, koji sam počeo sa bijelom bojom. Tu sam radio najviše varijacija u procesu zbog toga što su mi se nakon par vojski ispraznili prvo bijeli sprej, pa onda svijetlo sivi i time sam završio na običnom sivoj boji. Shvatio sam da je optimalna boja za ovaj tip bojanja svijetlosivi sprej – želite da se naglase udubine figure, no ne i da se ubije boja sjene (kao što bi bilo sa crnim ili tamnosivim primerom). Svijetlosivi sprej daje dobru podlogu za shade boje koje stavljam u drugom koraku, naglašava kontrast sa bijelim drybrushem i ostaje mi tamna boja koju nanosim u kasnijim fazama.

Sljedeći korak, nevezano za ton primera koji sam nanio, je primjena shade boja od GW-a. Koja boja je bila, ovisilo je o primarnoj boji koju sam htio postići. Npr. Za crvenu, plavu, i žutu, preferiram ljubičasti, ili barem aproksimativno ljubičasti shade. U primjeru ovog modela koristio sam Carroburg Crimson, što je ljubičasto-crveni ton. Isto tako, za zelenu sam koristio Athonian Camoshade, no u retrospektivi sam trebao isto ići na topao ton sjene (poput crvenog), više mi paše raditi razliku u toplini između kontrastnih tonova. Kožu i knjige/papire sam bojao sam seraphim sepiom, najjednostavnije za odnos contrasta boje kože kasnije.

Nakon sušenja shade boje, nanio sam bijeli drybrush po cijeloj figuri. To je zadnji korak za pripremu figure za bojanje razrijeđenih boja poput contrasta.

Počinjemo sa contrast bojama. S obzirom na jednostavnost ovog modela, nanio sam možda dvije boje sveukupno, no istu stvar sam radio i na kompliciranijim figurama. Crvena preko halje, pazeći na odvojene dijelove koje sam htio više bež, boja kože na koži, smeđa na knjizi i Skeleton horde za bež dijelove (da bi se dobio efekt prljave tkanine). Koristio sam speedpaint medium za mnoge tamne contrast boje da bi ih razrijedio, no nekad nije najbolje upalilo. Na velikim površinama takva razrijeđena boja ostavi mrlje koje se trebaju sanirati.

Zadnji korak je definiranje detalja modela i potencijalno dodatno naglašavanje highlighta. U ovom slučaju suptilno sam popravljao mrljavu crvenu sa drybrushem svijetlije crvene, obojao bodež sa offwhite, obojao remen i dodao šare na otvorenim stranicama knjige. Model je time tabletop ready i sveukupni proces traje nekih 20ak minuta samog bojanja. Jedina mana je što čekate da se razni razrijeđeni slojevi osuše, no u tom vremenu najčešće planiram bojanje drugih modela.

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Mario Grgurev, 4th February 2025

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