Angry Griffin's Oldhammer

Blog

  • Citadel STC Synthetic Paint Brush Review

    So Citadel released their STC line of synthetic paint brushes – including detail brushes, glaze brushes, dry brushes and more – here’s my review of them.


    The full range consists of:

    Layer Small, Medium

    Base Small, Medium, Large, Extra Large

    Shade Medium, Large

    Dry Small, Medium, Large

    Glaze – one size

    Citadel claims that they have noticeable springiness and a different level of stiffness and snap-back compared to their regular brushes. This is definitely the case in practice – they don’t feel much like the normal range of Citadel brushes in use.

    So far I have tried the Small Layer brush, Medium Layer brush, Small Dry brush and Medium Shade brush. The Medium Layer brush splayed after the first use, unfortunately, where the Small Layer brush has proved to be excellent for use with metallics – which I am not keen on using with the sable brushes so it’s a good fit to use with those.

    The dry brush works well and it’s quite distinctly different to the standard Citadel dry brush – the springiness is noticeable and I find it works quite well, being predictable and easy to manipulate.

    The Shade brush works well and deposits washes at a controlled rate, so that’s a winner for me as well.

    I’ll pick some more up and see how the rest go. The Medium Layer brush I made the mistake of using a watered down paint with which raced up the bristles into the ferrule as soon as the tip contacted it – and no matter how I rinsed it or used brush soap on it afterwards I couldn’t get it to hold a point. I suspect if I had stuck to thicker paints with it it would have been fine.

    2 month update:

    I don’t much use the Small Layer Brush after acquiring the Brokentoad Fugazi brush set – the latter holds a much better point for longer. The STC Glaze brush is squarely my favourite from the STC range – followed by the Medium Shade brush, both of which I use daily.

  • Painting alternate dumpsters for Crisis Protocol

    Undercoat: Vallejo Mecha Black
    Basecoat: Citadel Waaagh! Flesh
    Corner wash: 50/50 Waagh! Flesh and Typhus Corrosion

    Mud/dirt – start off with the lightest colour first, sponge or stipple on Mournfang Brown. Then repeat the process with some Rhinox Hide lower down. Drybrush Verminlord Hide to taste and edge highlight the dirty areas with Ryza Rust.

    Drybrush the raised edges to simulate rubbing wear with Necron Compound, then repeat with Verminlord Hide towards the center. Repeat with Ryza Rust again.

    The lid is Vallejo Model Color Grey Black with a coat of Contrast Basilicanum Grey over the top. Edge highlights on the lid were done with Mechanicus Standard Grey.

    Text was done using Vallejo Model Color White Grey and the wine splatter on the back was done with Blood for the Blood God.

    Vallejo Light Rust Model Wash was used to blend some of the colours together – particularly the muddy browns at the base.

    The scratches were made using Waaagh! Flesh mixed with Army Painter Matt Black for the dent, then Army Painter Matt White with a little bit of Waaagh! Flesh for the highlight at the bottom.

    Gritty, dirty texture on the underside of the bit that the forklift tines go through was 50/50 Waaagh! Flesh and Typhus Corrosion.

    Slime on the upper right part is Nurgle’s Rot.

  • How to paint a Crisis Protocol dumpster

    The above Crisis Protocol dumpster was painted such:

    Undercoat: Vallejo Mecha Black

    Base blue: Citadel Thunderhawk Blue (several thin coats required for good coverage)

    Drybrush edges with Citadel Etherium Blue

    Lid: Vallejo Black Grey

    Lid edge drybrush: Citadel Dawnstone Dry

    All metal: Citadel Leadbelcher

    Recess for forklift tines: Citadel Abaddon Black

    Scratches: Citadel Abaddon Black with a line of Citadel Grey Seer beneath

    Grunge: Citadel Typhus Corrosion mixed with Vallejo Model Wash 76.505 Light Rust for the recesses. Straight Typhus in the corners/base. Typhus + water to help make the transitions slightly smoother. Sponged on in the areas that aren’t edges/recesses.

    Gloop: Citadel Nurgle’s Rot

    Rust: Stippled Vallejo Pigment Old Rust with Vallejo Pigment Binder in select sections.

    Logo: Citadel Grey Seer beneath Citadel Trollslayer Orange

  • Battle Report: 2021-05-15

    Today it was a Raven Guard Successor chapter vs. the Angels of Annihilation (Imperial Fists successor).

    500pt game which was largely decided before the second turn of the first round. A RG smash captain and Bladeguard Veteran squad were Master of Ambushed up the board and successfully charged an Outrider squad, between the two of them taking it out and consolidating into a squad of heavy intercessors, who were forced to fall back rather than shoot in their first turn.

    I think we are finding that 500pt games are sometimes easily decided like this – the Outrider squad was 30% of the total army points, and that’s a blow that would be hard to recover from (at least at our skill level…). As fun as it is to MoA a close combat squad up the board it would be a more fun game at a higher points figure, I suspect.

    We’ll try 1000 pts for next time and see if we can fit it in a reasonable timeframe. Despite the game being over relatively quickly it still took 2hrs to set up, play and pack away. It would have been quicker had it not been months since we last played…

    RG successor won, as you may have gathered. Terrain takeaway: Need more ruins!

  • Painting energy effects on Warhammer 40K thunder hammers

    I’m painting up some Raven Guard Primaris Intercessors squads where the sergeants have thunder hammers, and here’s the recipe I’m using to get the following look:

    The hammer started off being undercoated in Mecha Black and a base coat of Hashut Copper was applied. A wash of Canoptek Armourshade was next and once that dried a heavy drybrush of Ironbreaker followed. The contact face of the hammer then received some White Scar and a drybrush of Praxeti White was applied, brushing from the face back so that it faded the further it went.

    Calth Blue Clear was applied to the sides of the hammer. It dries a little more slowly than the Citadel washes so it’s a little easier to move it around to create a light to dark transition without having to get it right first time around.

    Talassar Blue was applied closer to the face of the hammer to help with the transition, then Drakenhof Nightshade was carefully painted onto the face in the recesses and further back on the hammer where there were still lighter spots visible in recesses.

    A little more drybrushing with Praxeti White and then some careful edge highlighting with White Scar got it to the point you see above.

  • 4K resin printer quality

    When you get it all tuned the quality of output is superb – it takes a LOT of zooming in to see the layer lines on this particular print:

    Imperceptible unless you have a macro lens pointed at it. Really quite incredible, particularly coming from FDM where layer lines are a fact of life.

  • How to paint very weathered Imperial Knights or vehicles

    This is my current favoured formula for very weathered/aged/battle damaged Imperial Knight miniatures. It’ll work on vehicles like tanks or armoured miniatures like Space Marines as well, but it’s probably easiest on the scale of a tank or Knight!

    I undercoated with Vallejo Mecha Primer in black, then base coated the silver section with Citadel Iron Hands Steel. The blue was Citadel Thousand Sons Blue. I used thinned paints to build up a smooth and solid colour.

    Next comes Citadel Rhinox Hide on a sponge (actually a torn out piece of a pick ‘n pluck-style miniature storage case) applied along any raised edges and across the center of any broad surfaces.

    After that, I heavily stippled Citadel Mournfang Brown in smaller areas than the Rhinox hide, generally staying within the Rhinox Hide-covered areas. After that, a lighter stippling of Citadel Evil Sunz Scarlet and Citadel Zandri Dust added in a couple more variations on the rusted look. I’m on the fence as to whether Evil Sunz is too bright or not – the next time I’m going to try something a touch darker to try and make the red pop less.

    A heavy wash of Citadel Agrax Earthshade really took the brightness out of the colours and made the Knight look like he’d been fighting for some time on an acid-rain world.

    For the chassis beneath, I used the same technique but did a heavy drybrush of Citadel Ironbreaker after the Agrax Earthshade wash to differentiate the frame from the carapace.

    After the drybrush I did a light drybrush of Citadel Ryza Rust on select areas such as below the eye lenses.

    More in progress shots next time!

  • Raven Guard Primaris Eliminator Paint Scheme

    Here’s how I paint the Raven Guard Primaris Eliminators.

    This is one of my early attempts at a Raven Guard paint scheme – I currently use a darker shade of grey but I like this one still.

    Undercoat: Vallejo Mecha Primer, Black 73.642

    Armour base coat: Vallejo Model Color Black Grey 70.862

    Recess shading: Citadel Black Templar Contrast

    Armor drybrushing and edge highlighting: Vallejo Model Color Basalt Grey 70.869

    Leather base: Citadel Rhinox Hide

    Leather highlight: Citadel Gorthor Brown

    Weapon base: Citadel Khorne Red and Citadel Leadbelcher

    Weapon wash: Citadel Carroburg Crimson and Citadel Black Templar Contrast

    Weapon drybrush: Citadel Leadbelcher

    Lenses: Citadel Khorne Red

    Camo Cloak Base: Vallejo Model Color Dark Grey 70.994

    Camo Cloak Splotches: Vallejo Model Color London Grey 70.836

    Camo Cloak Wash: Citadel Nuln Oil

    Base: Vallejo Earth Texture Dark Earth 26.218

    Base basecoat: Vallejo Model Color London Grey 70.836

    Base wash: Citadel Nuln Oil

    Metal part of base: Citadel Leadbelcher

    Base bullet casings: Citadel Runelord Brass, highlights of Citadel Canoptek Alloy

    Base bullet casings wash: Citadel Agrax Earthshade

    Skin layer: Citadel Rakarth Flesh

    Skin wash: Citadel Seraphim Sepia

    Purity Seal Base: Citadel Wraithbone

    Purity Seal Wash: Citadel Agrax Earthshade

    Purity Seal Text: Citadel Rhinox hide mixed to varying extents with Citadel Rakarth Flesh

  • Painting a Raven Guard Phobos Lieutenant

    Painting up a sneaky beaky! Trying to mix a road base with the ash-waste style bases of some of the other Phobos RG units I have.

    Marble base piece: Ushabti Bone/Pallid Wych Flesh/Agrax/Terminatus/Longbeard

    Base ash: London Grey/Longbeard Grey

    Armour: Black Grey, edge highlights London Grey, drybrush Dawnstone for the dust, Light Slate Grey pigment for recess dust

    Battle damage armour: Abaddon Black/Stormhost Silver

    Company Colour: 50/50 Naggaroth Night and Warlord Purple

    Eye lenses: Moot Green/Warpstone Green/White Scar

    Vox cable on chest: Black Red/Phalanx Yellow/Evil Sunz Scarlet

    Leather pouches: Doombull Brown/Agrax/Skrag Brown

    Writing on scrolls: Rhinox Hide

    Edge highlight on gun: Grey Knights Steel then smaller Stormhost

    Helmet: Khorne Red for stripe

  • Battle Report: Raven Guard vs. Space Wolves 2020-09-26

    Played a 500pt combat patrol game today with a Raven Guard successor force vs. some Space Wolves. Nobody had a fully painted force and some of the SW were borrowed RG units, so no 10pts for either team.

    The game was a Combat Patrol Incisive Attack and the RG’s secondaries were Cut Off The Head, Domination and Attrition. SW chose Attrition, Engage On All Fronts and Raise The Banners High.

    The RG’s Phobos Librarian warlord deployed in what looked like a vulnerable position, luring a couple of the SW units into deploying in what looked like an advantageous position. The Librarian’s Master of Ambush shenanigans proved to have fooled them, however, as he turned out to be deployed on one of the mid-board objective markers while a squad of Intercessors were placed on the other.

    This board control advantage proved hard for the SW to shake, and the game went to the RG who maxed their primaries along with Domination. The SW warlord was a very lucky Battle Leader who survived being targeted by a Predator two turns running, only being taken out in the very last round and providing the RG with a measly 1pt for Cut Off The Head.

    SW did well with Engage On All Fronts, almost maxxing it via use of Outriders to rapidly move up the board.

    Terrain takeaways – some buildings with higher levels to get up onto that are more complex than stacks of shipping containers would be nice.