Mini airbrush

Hello folks!

Since airbrush started to be popular a few years ago I always wanted to get one but limitations in terms of space, noise and other factors were an impediment that I could not overcome. Luckily for people like me, there are a few mini airbrushes out there in the market that are super easy to pack, cheap and not too loud that on the paper seem like a perfect fit. So the other day I finally decided to pull the trigger and buy one.

1. This model for 60€
2. Cleaning pot very similar to this one from my local hobby shop for about 18€
3. Vallejo Thinner for 7.5€
4. Vallejo Cleaner for 7.5€

For a total of less than 100€ I now had an airbrush that I could safely store and use and I could experiment with, that's great!

I am super noob in terms of airbrush, having used it only once before when a member of the ITGC Berlin  was kind enough to let me use his to basecoat a few tanks. Still, he did all the hard work (preparation, cleaning and mixing) and I just pressed the button!

Last weekend I finally found the time to pop it open and test it. I decided to basecoat a Leviathan Dreadnought and try out a bit of shading on a base. After all, how bad could I possibly screw that one up? You can be the judge.

My key learnings from the session where: super fast to set up and pack and not very loud to use. In less than 15 minutes I had my dread basecoated including one highlight! 

There are still lots of things to improve though. I  do not know how to control the flow properly, I need to figure out where to mix paint and thinner so that when I pour it into the cup it does not go all over the airbrush and lastly learn what is the process to change colour "fast". I used 4 colours and it was a bit messy the process to clean and change - any tips or hints are really appreciated!

But overall, I am super hyped with it as it fits exactly my requirements in terms of size and setup. I am now really looking forward to experiment a bit more and not only do basecoat.

After I was done I carefully disassembled it and put it back again, so that I learn better how to handle it. I am now really looking forward to my next painting session!

Armies on parade: Zombie hordes of Brácula

In the image you can see the cover of the the army book to play Undead for Warhammer Fantasy Battles published in 1994. From the moment I saw it for the first time, it really captured my imagination and since then I wanted to collect and play and undead horde!

I really did not have the energy for a 28mm scale undead army, but I knew I could tackle a 10mm project!

List building

If you check the army list you will see that undead have plenty of choices, but I decided to restrict mine to what I felt would be closer to the "classic" fantasy Vampires. That meant ghosts, zombies, skeletons, bats and wolves. After a few attempts using proxies I finally settled for the list that you see below, it is based around the idea of a giant horde of zombies resurrected by a Necromancer while a Vampire in a shiny armour leds the assault on top of some monster (could be a Dragon or a Black Pegasus).

The name of the General is "Brácula" which comes from a famous comedy movie from Spain (does not make any sense, I just find it funny).

My plan when painting this army was to get it quickly ready for battle. Due to the scale and how packed are the figures one next to each other, it is almost impossible to see them, aside from the first and last rank, therefore I decided not to dedicate much effort to them.

All units were painted using the same technique: base colours + agrax and a few highlights to make some stuff pop like blood in the zombies or skin in the bigger monsters. The colour palette was limited on purpose to get a cohesive feel but hopefully diverse enough to make it not look too boring.

Bases were a bit painful to make as first I needed to paint the ranks separately, then glue them onto the base, add texture to cover the tiny base included with the rank and finally paint it including in between ranks, with already fully painted ranks.

All miniatures are from Forest Dragon except for the Goreblights that are from Teremki Studio and the Zombie Trolls from Omnioji. The Vampire on Undead Pegasus was converted from one of my Bretonnian Army using head and sword from a vampire on foot.

From my original wishlist I am only missing the Wights because I have not yet found miniatures for them.

2 Regiments of Soul Reavers

2 Regiments of Deathpack

2 Regiments / 1 Horde of Zombies

2 Regiments / 1 Horde of Zombies

2 Regiments of Zombie Trolls

2 Regiments of Zombie Trolls

2 Regiments of Deathpack

Vampire Lord on Undead Pegasus

Vampire Lord on Undead Dragon

2 Goreblights

Vampire heroes

Vampire heroes

Necromancers

Army pic