Tag: Maelstrom's Edge

Terrain Spotlight: Tissue Box Building

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The big joy of the Maelstrom's Edge terrain sprue, for me, is that wandering around the house turns up an endless wealth of items just waiting to be turned into wargaming scenery by slapping some bits on it and painting it up. This week, I turned my attention to the recycling bin, where a humble tissue box was just calling out to be saved from the weekly rubbish collection. With a little cutting and gluing, and a lick of paint, I had Atmospheric Modification Plant #14 ready for the table!

Full walkthrough here: http://www.thecommguild.com/roller/thecommguild/entry/terrain-spotlight-tissue-box-building

Painting Spotlight: Colorshift Shadow Walker

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A few articles back, I painted up a Mature Angel using Colorshift paints, as a bit of an experiment. That was actually the second model I attempted with these paints, but I hadn't been entirely happy with the first one. This week, I had a little inspiration though, and so I dug him out and, with a final tweak to his face, wound up with a shiny green/blue Shadow Walker!

Full walkthrough here: http://www.thecommguild.com/roller/thecommguild/entry/painting-spotlight-colorshift-shadow-walker

Modeling Spotlight: Rodent Ball Spaceship!

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The Kaiser Industries OR-8 'Gaterunner' was originally designed as a small freighter. Sales were initially poor due to its limited cargo space compared to other ships in its class, combined with a lack of artificial gravity and other 'non-essential' crew-comfort systems in the interests of keeping the ship's mass as low as possible. Despite its ungainly appearance, the OR-8's speed and manoeuverability were excellent, however, resulting in the ship becoming popular with short-ranged couriers who used them primarily for 1- or 2-gate hops between systems. With the coming of the Maelstrom, many of these couriers were pressed into service as evacuation craft, with their non-pressurised cargo holds retrofitted to accomodate sleeper capsules.

This was a project spawned by a rodent ball habitat dome idea shared by Patrick Keith a while back on the COUNTERBLAST Facebook group. I had originally intended to do something similar, but when I received my ball it turned out to be a little smaller than I had pictured. While I was figuring out whether or not I needed another small hab dome alongside my salad bowl domes, I decided that the markings on the ball made for nice detailing for a cool ship design. And so the OR-8 was born!

Check out the walkthrough here: http://www.thecommguild.com/roller/thecommguild/entry/modeling-spotlight-rodent-ball-spaceship

Painting Spotlight: Escape Pod Diorama

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There are a lot of examples out there in internet land of huge, sprawling, super-detailed dioramas that you can pore over for hours and dream of one day having the time (or the storage space!) to make something like that yourself... This is not one of those. Dioramas can also be just a quick, simple exercise in putting together something different to whatever else you're currently working on. I love putting together armies, but sometimes I just want to do something unrelated, or I'll have a little flash of inspiration for a mini scene, and letting that out and building whatever it leads to is a great way of flexing those creative 'muscles'.

That's sort of what happened here. When I put together my kitbashed escape pod a couple of weeks ago, I had the idea to throw together part of a launching bay for it, just to give it something to hang from for the photos. I hadn't originally even intended to paint this, but looking at it sitting on the table afterwards, I decided that it would make for a cute little mini-diorama. So, I broke out a few extra parts, slapped on some paint, and this was the end result:

Full article here: http://www.thecommguild.com/roller/thecommguild/entry/painting-spotlight-escape-pod-diorama

Quick and Easy Painting with Washes, redux!

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This week's article is another update to one of our first painting tutorials, dusting it off a little and adding some new pics that don't look like they were taken with a potato.

Not everyone has the time to spend paintstakingly blending, shading and detailing their models. Sometimes, you just want to get them on the table quickly, so I thought it might be useful to explore some options for fast and painless army painting.

My guinea pigs for this article are some Epirian Suppression Team models, painted exclusively with washes! This is a really easy technique to get to grips with, and while it won't get you an award-winning work of art, it does give you perfectly serviceable-looking models that look great on the table.

Find the full article here: http://www.thecommguild.com/roller/thecommguild/entry/quick-and-easy-painting-with1

Terrain Sprue Kitbash: Escape Pod

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It probably won't surprise anyone who has been following my articles for any length of time that I spend a lot of time looking at sprues and figuring out different ways to fit parts together in new and interesting ways. This week, the power generators on Terrain Sprue #2 caught my eye, and I decided it was time to get away from it all, with a compact escape pod!

Full walkthrough here: http://www.thecommguild.com/roller/thecommguild/entry/terrain-sprue-kitbash-escape-pod

Painting Spotlight: Colorshift Angel

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For this week's article, I decided to have a go at a project that I've had percolating in the back of my brain for a while now. I bought some Colorshift paints from Green Stuff World some time ago, because they looked to pretty to not try them out on something, and I thought that they would be just perfect for conveying the otherworldly nature of the Karist Angel. So, I dug out an Angel that I had built way back when the Battle for Zycanthus box was first released and got some paint on it, with this result.

Full walkthrough with more pics and a 360 degree spin-around video here: http://www.thecommguild.com/roller/thecommguild/entry/painting-spotlight-colorshift-angel

Modeling Spotlight: Epirian Aurochs Automated Transport Kitbash!

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Time to build something!

This week, I had a tinker with the Mule, from Mantic Games' Warpath game. I love the styling of this vehicle, and thought it would fit nicely into an Epirian force for Maelstrom's Edge with just a few minor tweaks. This was the end result:

Find the full article here: http://www.thecommguild.com/roller/thecommguild/entry/modeling-spotlight-epirian-aurochs-automated

Painting Tutorial: Lenses, redux!

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To the new painter, eye lenses, targeting sensors and other shiny 'glass' details on models can seem a little daunting, but it's actually really easy to paint them up to provide a nice focal point on your models. In this week's article, I run through five different techniques for painting lenses!

Find the full article here: http://www.thecommguild.com/roller/thecommguild/entry/painting-tutorial-lenses-redux