Tabletop Miniature Terrain and Accessories
This weekend I set out to get some painting done on my new Seraphon Lizardmen army.
I started the army a few weeks ago and started by painting some Skinks and this weekend I painted some Seraphon Saurus Knights.
Here are some pictures of my completed knights:
How do you like my Saurus Knights?
Do you have a Lizardmen army?
Or what army do you play in Warhammer Fantasy / AoS or 40K?
You may have noticed that I’ve been a bit quiet here at TabletopGamer.com.
The reason for this is because I’ve been in my the bat-cave working on a new plan to launch a line of tabletop gaming terrain and accessory products!
It’s been a while now since I’ve had this idea and it has taken me a bit more time that I excepted to do all the necessary research and preparations, and to setup my new workshop and purchase the equipment I need to produce the products I want to produce.
Now that all of that is done though, I’m really excited to start creating some amazing terrain and accessories for your tabletop gaming addictions.
I’ve started this journey by working on my first prototype piece which is a simple 28mm scale, medieval / fantasy house model.
Here are some pictures of the prototype:
It’s been a dream of mine to get into designing products in the tabletop gaming industry for quite some time, so I’m really excited that it’s finally coming into fruition.
I know there are a few other companies in the marketplace doing amazing things with laser cut, 3D printed or resin pieces but many of these companies are overseas, in places like Europe or Australia, which makes it a lot more expensive for people in the North American market to get access to the products at reasonable prices.
Because I’m based out of Canada, I plan on predominantly serving the North American market and offer a more local alternative for people in Canada and the United States.
Eventually I plan on designing a line of both medieval / fantasy terrain pieces set in the past for games like Warhammer Fantasy / Age of Sigmar, as well as more futuristic terrain for games like 40k and Infinity etc., as well as a line of accessories for the different time periods as well.
If you have any suggestions for any type of wargaming terrain pieces you’d like to see produced, I welcome your suggestions in the comments below.
Thanks!
I recently bought the Badger Patriot 105 as my first airbrush for learning how to paint tabletop minis using an airbrush.
I’ve also been buying a few other accessories for my airbrush setup, as well as some airbrush paints from Minitaire.
One of the accessories I purchased recently is the Iwata Medea Airbrush Cleaning Station.
I ended up getting this cleaning station from Amazon, as they had the best pricing on it.
I’ve never used one of these before, but a lot of people recommend getting one so I did.
Apparently these stations make it easy to clean your airbrush without overspray or making a mess on your desk.
The station also comes in with a built-in filter as well.
The other benefit of it is that you can use it as an airbrush holder as well since it’s heavy enough to stay on the table with the airbrush in it, as shown in this pic.
My first impression of this cleaning station is that it’s made well, with high quality materials.
Once I’ve had a chance to use it and test it out for a while I’ll do a follow-up post reviewing it in more detail.
Do you use a cleaning station for your airbrush?
If so, which one? And how do you like it?
Today I decided to look for a paint rack for my Minitaire Airbrush Paints as well as the Citadel and P3 paints that I have.
After doing some extensive research, I decided to compile a guide of the various options available on the market right now.
One of the first acrylic paint storage racks I came across was from a company called Back2Base-IX.com.
Back2Base-Ix carries a selection of different types of paint storage rack solutions made from either Coloured Acrylic or Medium Density Fibre Board.
Here’s an example of one of their Coloured Acrylic racks:
And here’s another one of their racks made from the Medium Density Fibre Board.
The Back2Base-IX paint racks range in price from around $35 for a single rack to around $200 for a full rack system.
For a full listing of the various paint racks available from Back2Base-Ix, check out their website by clicking here.
The next paint rack solution I took a look at was from a company called Ironheart Artisans.
Here’s a picture of the solution they offer:
This paint rack holds 72 dropper bottles, facing dowards, and costs about $30.
To learn more about this product, check out the Ironheart Artisans website by clicking here.
The next pain rack solution I found was from a company called Hobby Tools Australia.
Here’s a picture of their Workstation Combo solution:
This product sells for about $100, and you can find it by clicking here.
They also have another one called the Master Workstation Combo which you can see here:
This one sells for about $220 and you can find it by clicking here.
The next paint rack solution I took a look at is from TGJ Hobbies who carries a range of customizable high-end paint racks.
Here’s one of their products, called the Mini Monty:
This paint rack cost about $125 and you can learn more about it by clicking here.
Here’s another one of their solutions, called the Full Monty:
The Full Monty sells for around $175, and you can learn more about it by clicking here.
Finally, the last modular paint rack system I found was from a company called HobbyZone.pl based out of Poland.
This is a picture example of their modular system assembled in various different ways.
These sets cost anywhere between $25 – $75, depending on what combination of racks you want to purchase.
The only challenge I found with ordering from HobbyZone.pl is that shipping to Canada / US is about $50, which is too bad because outside of that their product pricing is really good.
To learn more about their products, click here.
After doing my research I still haven’t decided which paint storage rack solution is going to be the best for me.
I definitely want to get something to organize my paints, but I’m not 100% sure yet if I want a system that holds a lot of paints on my painting table or if I want to purchase or build a wall-mounted paint rack system instead.
There are some pretty simple wall-mounted system designs that I think I could build myself for relatively cheap, but that would mean that I would have to get up out of my seat and walk over to the wall to pick the paints that I will be painting with before or during each painting session.
This may not be a big deal since I will most likely only be painting with a select set of paints at any given time, but I still have to think about it some more to figure out the best solution for my hobby room.
I do like the convenience of having the paints on a paint rack sitting on my painting table, but then that would also mean that it is taking up space on my table.
Ultimately I may need to combine the two types of systems, building a wall-mounted rack to store the majority of my paints, and then just take the 5 or 10 or 15 paints that I will be using during a session down to the table and keep those organized in some sort of desk paint rack organizer.
What do you think is the best way to keep your paints organized?
What sort of system are you using?
A few weeks ago I picked up my first airbrush set and a compressor for painting tabletop miniatures.
I’ve never used an airbrush before but have really wanted to get into it for painting my miniatures.
Once I got my basic airbrush setup I started doing some research for what types of paints are best to use for airbrushing miniatures.
I basically found out there are a few different paths a person can take.
The first way to start using your airbrush is to simply use whatever paints you already have (Citadel, P3 etc.) and just figure out how to thin them out properly for optimal use with the airbrush.
Although this seemed like the fastest path for me since I already have a whole range of Citadel paints, I didn’t really like the idea of constantly messing around with thinning paints.
Secondly, the other reason why I didn’t like this idea is because Citadel and P3 paints are pretty expensive for the amount that you get, and since I got my air brush so that I can start painting some of my larger models like vehicles, titans etc., I wanted to see if there was a more economical path I could take.
After a bit of research I found the second option – getting paints specifically designed for air brushing.
The two brands of paint that I found for airbrushing miniatures are Vallejo and Minitaire from Badger.
I heard good things about both lines of paint, but ultimately I ended up going with the full range 84 pack of paint from Minitaire.
Here’s what the entire pack looks like:
As you can see, the range is quite extensive.
There’s a whole array of yellows, orange/reds, some purple and pinks, fleshtones, blues, greens, earth tones, whites, shades of grey to black, metalic silvers and golds, as well as a range of “ghost tints” as well.
So far I’ve only had time to unbox the set, and to organize them by paint number/color as shown in the picture above so that I could see all the different colors.
I’m super excited to actually start using these colors and learning how to airbrush with them.
Here’s a chart from Miniatire showing all the colors in the range:
Have you used this line of paints with your airbrushing?
If so, what has your experience with them been?
If not, what paints do you use?
