Tools of the Trade: Hobby Glues

Before paint even touches your miniature, chances are good that you’ll need to do some assembly first, even if that just means attaching a single-part model to its base. Assembly can be a bit of an overlooked step, but it’s the foundation for everything you’ll do afterwards and it’s important to make sure you have the right tools for the job at hand. This is certainly true for the glue that will hold your models together – each type works in particular ways and using the wrong glue for the material you’re working with is a recipe for problems. Here, we’re going to go over the different glues that we sell here at Sentry Box for building your miniatures and models, to help you select the right one for your project. While there are many available, they fit into a couple broad categories. Let’s dive in!

Great Paints You Might Not Have Tried: Citadel Edition

A little while back, we took a look at some of the paint ranges we carry here in the store and highlighted some great colors from other manufacturers you might want to try if you’re used to only using Games Workshop’s Citadel range. It was especially relevant at the time since we had been unable to restock our Citadel racks due to the shutdown – but since that particular problem has been gone for a bit, we thought you might also like to hear our resident paint expert Chris’s thoughts on our Citadel paints in the same way we’ve already seen for other brands we have.

Great Paints You Might Not Have Tried

With the number of calls, emails & Facebook messages we have been dealing with recently, we thought it could be a good time to share some thoughts on some of the different paint ranges that we have on offer in the store and share some of Chris’s favorites.

OLD ENOUGH TO FEEL NOSTALGIA …OLD ENOUGH TO DIE IN A FUTURISTIC HELL WORLD OF YOUR OWN MAKING…

At about 12 years old I developed a life long gaming addiction, beginning with Dungeons and Dragons and eventually increasing to encompass the fantastical imaginary worlds of so many other role-playing games…

Let’s review the new Judge Dredd Miniatures Game with Uncle Mike

I love Judge Dredd. There, I’ve said it.

I fell in love when I was a young punk kid in the ’80s, and though my tastes have changed over the years I have never lost my love of Dredd. The characters, the world, and the writing are at once charming, hard-boiled, ridiculous, violent, prescient and loaded with black humour. Imagine my excitement when I learned of a new Judge Dredd Miniatures Game coming from Warlord Games, the folks who recently provided the world with the amazing Strontium Dog Miniatures Game (read my series of reviews here…LINKY). My hopes are high as I dig into the Judge Dredd: I Am the Law, Starter Set.

Why You Should Be Playing Kill Team

 

My name is Chris, and I think you should play Kill Team.

Well, ok. Let’s back up a little. What am I talking about?

Reviewing Strontium Dog – Part 2 The Mood and the Models

Uncle Mike is back again with the second part of his Strontium Dog Review, so let us holster our blasters and get right into it!

Reviewing Strontium Dog – Part 1 The Setting

Imagine my delight in finding that a reputable company had made a game about a beloved, if a bit obscure, comic character of my youth, and further, that it was written by a couple of heroes from my childhood.
Sound too good to be true?
Come have a closer look at Strontium Dog The Miniatures Game and see if it can live up to the nostalgia of a youth misspent…

Painting Test of Honour: Ninjas!

Today, Chris has a guide for his technique for painting ninjas for Warlord Game’s Test of Honour. You can check out his finished miniatures here in the store, where you can also find a wide assortment of products for Test of Honour. Perhaps you’ll discover the beginning of your own ninja enclave or samurai clan…

Taking a look at Test of Honour, I knew I wanted to do something a little different than the usual samurai. Something… stealthy. Sneaky. Unexpected.

Oh hey, a box of ninjas.

The metal sculpts here are quite nice – lots of evocative detail, plenty of different weapons and well-cast with little flash. Assembly for each figure typically requires attaching one of the arms and goes together smoothly, with well-fitting parts.

My first thought was to go with classic black all over, but I concluded that it wouldn’t be that interesting to paint or to look at on the tabletop. I quite liked the dark blue tone used on the box art so I decided to emulate that style. First off, each figure was primed with Citadel Chaos Black spray.

The large areas of cloth received a basecoat of P3 Coal Black to form my main color. Areas like the socks, wrist guards and sandals were based with Vallejo German Grey. This is a favorite trick of mine – German Grey is almost-but-not-quite black and, once shaded with a black wash, will look black while still showing some depth and lighter tones on the raised areas.

I chose Vallejo Burnt Red for the weapon grips to contrast with the Coal Black. Metallic areas of the weapons were painted with Vallejo Gun Metal (there are a lot of little shuriken poking out of belts and folds to look out for). The final base color was the cords holding the saya (sword scabbard), which were picked out with Vallejo Medium Grey. It’s easier to not bother being especially neat when painting the thin cord, compared to simply tidying up the Coal Black underneath afterward.

The next step was to give the figures an overall wash of Army Painter Dark Tone, thinned 2:1 with water.

I chose Citadel Ungor Flesh for the areas of skin. There’s not too much to paint since you can only see the hands and the areas around the eyes on these figures. I first put down a layer of Citadel Bugman’s Glow so that the Ungor Flesh would cover more easily over the dark blue base.

After a coat (or two where needed) of Ungor Flesh I shaded the skin with Citadel Reikland Fleshshade. This added some warmth to the yellow tone of the Ungor Flesh. More Ungor Flesh was used to highlight the skin, paying closest attention to areas like the nose ridge and fingers.

The edges of the weapons received a thin line of Citadel Stormhost Silver to suggest the sharpness of the blades.

Lastly, highlighting the clothing. This was done in two steps: first, a broad highlight using Coal Black mixed 2:1 with Vallejo Field Blue. To bring out the folds and texture of the cloth, I added another finer highlight by mixing in another measure of Field Blue to the previous highlight color.

The bases (and accompanying unit trays) were textured with Citadel Stirland Mud. A couple coats left the bases nicely textured and served to hide the metal base linking the legs of each figure. The bases got a wash of Dark Tone just as the figures had. The final touch (after a protective layer of Testors Dullcote) was patches of Army Painter Steppe Static Grass, and a few Mountain Tufts. Done!

My opponents will never know what hit them…

Sayonara!

Beyond the Gates of Antares demo

The Sentry Box will be hosting a Beyond the Gates of Antares demo on Saturday November 21st at 12:00 noon. Miniatures and terrain will be provided so come down and check out this new sci-fi miniature game.

Please note that the date for this event has changed.

The store already has stock of the game so you can check out some of the other miniatures, the rules as well as the starter set before coming to the demo.

Beyond the Gates of Antares is the new science-fiction skirmish wargame written by Rick Priestley (the creator of Warhammer 40,000) that pitches technologically advanced human civilizations into a conflict that no one can afford to lose.

Beyond the Gates of Antares game play makes use of the successful and exciting dice activation system first pioneered in Warlord’s popular Bolt Action WW2 wargame – ensuring that both sides remain active and engaged throughout every game. Resolution is by ten-sided dice offering considerable expansion and great range of detail compared to traditional six-sided dice.