Step by step for the base of my second riptide xv104

I have always belived that the base is a real important part of the models we work with, however my budget hasnt allowed me the pleasure of resin bases like those you will find on the net, that hasnt stopped me from trying my best, this time is no expection and I did a  base for my second riptide, a simpler one than the previous but a base I like a lot.

First I began by colecting the materials:

• a small stone, 
• slate pieces, 
• piece of resin mold overcast (from my Forge World Crisis Suit - not necesary)
• piece of styrofoam
•  some small resin pieces on the 40k basing kit,
• fine sand

and tools:

• PVA glue
• Super glue
• Hobby knife

Instructions:
I shaped the styrofoam in a more or less round disc and trimmed the edges into a wedge
Then glued the styrofoam at the center with PVA Glue and then used the pva to glue the rock, the resin and slate pieces, once they where placed I grabbed a spry can of paint and pressed the trigger on a small circle that melted the stirofoam and let it dry for a while, for a more specific how to you can check the +Teri Litorco  video on Terrain Part 1

After that I covered the surface of the base with PVA glue, I made sure to cover the styrofoam that remained after the melting process was completed, it is critical as it will prevent more melting.

 Next the sand, I just srpinkled a lot of it on the glue, after a while I turned on its side and tapped a bit (strong) so it the one that wasnt glued just falled off.

 When I was happy wit the result I let it dry for 24hrs to be sure all the PVA was properly dry and then sprayed black, for terrain I like the muted tones it gives, way better than other colors.

Painting

the last stage was the painting: I started by drybrushing scorched earth but any dark brown will do, after that I drybrushed vomit brown

 then I drybrushed graveyard earth  and finally a bit of bleached bone

I left the center of the crater mostly black and then I started to drybrush a dark grey on the stones and th ceter of the crater only, and started to pick some details like the spent cartridges with some brass and the chaos helmet, on the tubes I used screaming bell and astronomican grey on the concrete slabs, when that dried I used a wash of ogryn flesh on the slabs  and somo stones followed by a bit of devlan mud. I also  glued some static grass and painted some green here and there.

 while it dried I painted the gem on the cross at the base 

 to finish my base I painted the astronomican grey on the rim and followed with skull white which is the color code for my tau. So here is the end result wich will have a pretty  Riptide in the short term feature.

           Hope you like this brief step by step, until next time.

Ramping up the power on the tabletop

OK last week I posted my cpu fan turned into part of a power plant for our games, and then I said that the cpu cooler was next, well it is here look at it:

this time I added some more bits to stile it into a Gothic 40k power station, I only need to do an altar for it to be properly done but I think it works now here are more pictures including the cursory wip ones.

what do you think of it?

Magnetizing my Predator Turret

 

I just started to build my predator and since I have magnetized most of my STC build's I'm posting here how I did it so others my benefit of my little tinkering.

I started by building the turret and cannons.

Next I added 2 medium magnets on the turret front holes as you can see in the next pictures.

 

Then I clipped the studs and glued some big magnets

 

After doing so I tested them and worked perfectly, at most I could dremel a better position for the big magnets witch I used because I wanted a really strong adherence in the canon but it is not a must, if you only have medium magnets you can use them, but you must remember that the magnets must be touching each other, so it might be drilling time.

Lastly I didn’t decided that I didn’t want to choose the rear part of the turret so I glued some magnets to the inner part of both choices

Lastly glued the tops and some magnets on the turret interior, here I must warn you that you must be careful with the placement of the magnets or they will snap to only to one side, it is not difficult only a precise operation where you drop some glue in the rear part of the turret interior and then put the already magnetized piece then drop a magnet on the turret interior then put a non magnet separator between the 2 points and drop the other one and voila It will work wonderfully and with out drilling.

One last word of advice: Check All magnets alignments so you have pieces that snap into place and not pieces that fall apart or resist being next to each other.

When you are limited to buy miniatures.

After  a long hiatus I'm getting back into posting, one of the things that get my eye was a post from a fellow citizen, he asked about getting into the hobby, unfortunately I couldn't answer on time but  the point got me thinking and remembering.

You see in my country getting into a hobby already deemed expensive is extra hard,  mostly because a person that earns $1k is a highly paid one, also  there are few, if any stores that sells the miniatures we all love.

This post is already sounding a bit a whining but it is not, so please bear with me, because there is hope for me and everyone else that live outside reach of a store too this point is mostly personal but has helped me get along during my drought periods.

What I have done is first planning my purchases a lot for example: getting mostly codices  and/or sadly focusing on a particular system for a given purchasing period. 

How to pay:
Then I get a good c.c. that  is important in this scenario since all web sites work with c c only and cash is not an option, also the interest rates and other cost  should be minimal since you need that money for your miniatures.

Where to go:
Next you need to find a reliable vendor, for me it is Neal from The WarStore, he is so good  to go the extra length and to get me Spanish books at great prices too.  but Ebay is another option too and a rather good one if you are careful,   before bidding review the seller stats  if it has a high number of positive reviews then you have a better chance. then and this is important never lost focus on what you want to do, it is not getting the miniatures only, the savings  are important.

Shipping and taxes
Be careful on the shipping rates because a good purchase could be ruined because of that. you need  to know your taxes on average I pay from 20 to 25 cents for every dollar including taxes, but my country has an exception that if you comply with the rules could let you get up to $500.00 tax free and that is a lot of money to save for future purchases. The next point is getting  a good  PO box that offers secure shipping because using the standar mail could be a bit unsecured in some countries, in mine you could use TransExpress among others, read your options to get the better one based on your shopping pattern.

Thanks for reading so far I hope that my  advice is useful for someone and  until next time and behold the effort from one year of planning and purchasing.