Warhammer Forge Masterclass

- Above image is used without GW consent.

Hello once again, it's been a few weeks but I have tales to tell.

Once again real life has been getting in the way of my hobby time but the move draws ever closer and my new workspace looms on the horizon so it's a case of "good things come to those who wait!"

Enough of that and onto what I've been upto this past weekend.......

As the title suggests I attended the Warhammer Forge Masterclass this past Saturday hosted by Adam Snook and with Phil Stutcinskas and Mark Bedford as our teachers for the day.

I drove up the night before and stayed in the Park Plaza hotel in the city center mainly so I was rested and ready for a hard days painting, the day began with registration in Bugmans Bar at 9:30 we were led across to a conference room setup with a video camera and projection screen so we could watch up close.

Each painter had a workstation setup with brushes and paints and an Ogre Kingdoms Stonehorn/Thundertusk model built into subsections and basecoated appropriately, the schedule for the day and which areas we were going to cover along with what paints were used was laid out on a laminated sheet (which we got to keep along with the brushes and model!)

Phil and Mark had previously built and painted each of the variants in their own style for us to drool over, and the painting for the day was to cover their techniques for painting good looking armies very fast.

The actual day was great their methods are very easy to follow and whilst they may seem very strange they work amazingly well, I honestly believe that everyone in the room could produce a model as good as the two shown above with what we were shown on the day.

Adam Snook was photographing us and uploading them to the GW facebook page throughout the day so if you want to see more check out their facebook page .

I will be returning to the model in a series of articles very soon to divulge what I learnt and to finish it, it is an awesome plastic kit packed with detail so will be a joy to paint.

See you soon

Painting Recipes : Gold

Hi Munky fans, this post is a little something I've been working on over Xmas.
I was thoroughly impressed with Ron's post on Black got me thinking about Gold, now me and Gold don't get on! We can never agree with each other on what looks best, so I got to googling and found 5 recipes I thought I'd test, along with my own method.

Each of the following Gold recipes has to follow some rules, it must be simple and quick to apply, this is intended for tabletop quality models or where speed is required to get a good result.

So sit back grab some cold Turkey and enjoy the ride, but be sure to comment which one you like the best at the bottom along with your own recipes too!

GOLD A
Basecoat - Tin Bitz
Drybrush - Brazen Brass
Drybrush - Shining Gold
Drybrush - Burnished Gold
Wash - Gryphonne Sepia
Drybrush - Burnished Gold

Speed - 5/5
Notes - This gold is very Brassy in colour and I found the dark base colour overpowers the gold.
It is fantastically easy to apply at every stage, and I will certainly use this on Brass pipes etc.

GOLD B
Basecoat - Mithril Silver
Wash - Gryphonne Sepia
Wash - Gryphonne Sepia
Wash - Gryphonne Sepia

Speed - 2/5
Notes - This recipe may only use two paints but it takes ages to do, the combination of the Silver basecoat which I had to do two coats of along with the 3 washes, meant that the overall time on this was way too long.
Interestingly though my wife and her friends liked this colour due to its brightness!

GOLD C
Basecoat - Brazen Brass
Wash - 50/50 Devlan Mud / Bhadab Black
Drybrush - Shining Gold
Drybrush - Burnished Gold
Wash - Chesnut Ink with Magic Wash
Drybrush - Burnished Gold

Speed - 1/5
Notes - Aside from the time needed to mix up the wash and wait for it to dry, the range of colours on this piece are really nice.
The ink really does add a nice Red/Brown, but over all the colour is still too dark for Gold.

GOLD D
Basecoat - Calthan Brown / Shining Gold
Wash - Devlan Mud
Drybrush - Shining Gold
Drybrush - Burnished Gold
Wash - Gryphonne Sepia
Drybrush - Burnished Gold

Speed - 3/5
Notes - This recipe is once again too dark for me, though it is getting closer to the right colour and is very quick to do.

GOLD E
Basecoat - Snakebite Leather
Drybrush - Shining Gold
Drybrush - Burnished Gold
Wash - Gryphonne Sepia
Wash - Ogryn Flesh (in the recesses only)
Drybrush - Burnished Gold

Speed - 4/5
Notes - This is an interesting one, it uses a yellowish base to start with and this means the gold is very bright, and the linited use of washes works well too.
Only snag is the Snakebite Leather took two coats to go on smooth.

GOLD F
Basecoat - Tau Sept Ochre
Drybrush - Glorious Gold
Drybrush - Polished Gold
Wash - Gryphonne Sepia
Wash - Ogryn Flesh (in the recesses only)
Drybrush - Polished Gold

Speed - 5/5
Notes - On this one I used Tau Sept Ochre to eliminate the need for two basecoats, and I thought I'd try the Vallejo range of Golds.
The Vallejo paints are almost exactly the same colour as the Games Workshop ones, though I felt they went on better (possibly because they are new paints, I've had my Golds for years) and the colour is still bright and easy to apply.

As always the pictures may look different on your monitor and through your eyes, and heck you may like dark Gold! good for you.
If you can learn something from this post that's great, and if you can teach me something new that's even better!

I personally like the last 2 Gold recipes E and F and my wife and her friends liked Gold B, an interesting result due to ladies being quite used to looking at the shiney stuff in the shops!

A lot of these recipes followed the theme of paint one or two colours apply a wash or two and then drybrush to finish, whilst drybrushing is sometimes regarded as a beginners technique I feel it has a place here in that it give texture to the piece and speed of finish.

I would love to hear your feelings on this and your own recipes for fast Gold so please feel free to add comments.