I couldn’t resist showing you these conversions. They ‘re converted from the new Bolt Action WWII German plastic set, with added Imperial Guard weapons and equipment.

I think that the guy with the flamer looks great! These are the first of what will be an Imperial Guard squad and they are going to look superb on the war gaming table. If I wasn’t so focused on my Napoleonic army & Necrons I’d have a go myself. Her’s a few more pics!

I’m already thinking that a Tiger tank in this scale would look pretty good as well. Why not a whole Imperial Guard army made from WWII Troops. Now there’s food for thought!

I was very excited to receive a new consignment of stock last week. It wasn’t that the delivery had lots of shiny new releases but that, at last, I could offer a reasonable range of glues to my customers. The funny thing was that I was the only one that was excited, the other guys at the unit seemed to think that glue is just glue and one glue  is the same as another. I suppose that it’s because I grew up making models before the invention of super glue and I’ve also been influenced by my dear Dad who was a superb model maker and always had the right tool for the job in hand. I’ve had experience of  ’improper use of glue’ ( I don’t think that this is actually an offence yet, but only because the Govt doesn’t appear to believe in making things, so they wouldn’t know…..) when I recently bought some second hand stuff from ebay. It was quite obvious that the plastic model that I had bought, had been glued with super glue and far from being the best glue for the job, it was a disaster. Fortunately, this meant that I could strip it down and re build it, but that’s another story.

So here’s a list of my four favourite glues and when best to use them!

If you are making a Plastic kit, then the glue to use is Polystyrene Glue. I recomend the Revell Contacta glue shown below. It comes with a fine needle applicator so the glue goes where you want it to. In the rare event that the Needle becomes clogged (usually because the top has been left off for a while ) simply pull the needle applicator out, reverse it, give the whole thing a good shake and it will clear. If all else fails, leave the bottle hanging, needle down for an evening ( with the top on) and the glue applicator will clear. So why use Polystyrene glue on plastic? Well, the glue works by melting the plastic that it comes into contact with, so you get a really strong joint. This also means that there is a degree of filling that happens, so even if the joints aren’t perfect, as long as the two pieces to be glued are held firmly together they will ‘weld ‘ together. This does require a bit of patience, particularly for large joins but your patience will be well rewarded by a strong joint that can be carefully sanded to become invisible. I like the Revell glue because of the consistency ( it’s like water) and combined with the fine applicator, it will go exactly where you want it too without the danger of spilling or running over fine detail.

Finally, as far as Polystyrene glue goes, there are other brands and you can buy it in tubes or with a brush. The tube of glue is great for big joins but has a tendency to be thicker and you generally end up with more glue on your model than you wanted. The Glue with a brush applicator is good but it doesn’t beat the needle applicator for accuracy in getting the glue where you want it!

Next up is Epoxy resin. This is a glue that has fallen from grace ever since the arrival of super glue but it still has it’s uses and I wouldn’t be without it. My favourite brand is Devcon, although I will happily use Araldite Rapid ( but dont carry it in stock). Why Devcon? Well, most importantly it dries to a really clear finish, so much so, that you can use it to make the lenses for model headlights, glass effects and even water.  It also has great filling qualities and dries quickly to a hard finish. True, it is a nuisance to mix, and you don’t get the fast grab of super glue but the finished joint is far stronger. I use epoxy to fix my metal models to their bases and for gluing the larger metal components, particularly when I am pinning them.  Epoxy beats super glue for strength, particularly when it comes to shearing strength which is why when you drop super glued figures they have a tendency to break at the joints. If you use epoxy, you will find that your models are far more resilient on the gaming table. As epoxy will glue most materials, it is also useful for fixing small rocks & scenery pieces to your models as well.

Talking of basing your models, I couldn’t do without white PVA glue. It was designed to glue wood & paper products and it also dries to a clear finish. Even better, it can be thinned with water so it is ideal for fixing sand, scatter, static grass and other small scenic products to the bases of your figures. I usually water it down to make it go further. It’s very easy to use and gives a good bond and if you do get some on your model, simply wash it off with a damp brush before the glue dries.  I sell the White PVA Speed bond which is good quality and dries quickly but any white PVA glue will do the job!

And so at last to Super glue, or as it’s sometimes known, cyanoacrylate. There’s no doubt that this is a great innovation in the world of adhesives and it seems to stick practically anything, including your skin, so be careful. As if super glue wasn’t good enough, it’s even better now that you can get superglue accelerators or activators. The activator ensures an instant bond once it is sprayed onto the super glue and has the added bonus of providing some ‘fill’ element to the join. So If you are glueing small metal components, using a thicker version of super glue and an activator gives great results. I’ve seen the guys at Ibis studios put together a set of metal figures in less time than it takes me to open the packet…..OK, I exagerate slightly but this stuff is fast! For really small components, there is a brush on activator but I tend to use the pump action stuff. I know that once I press spray, the component will stay where exactly I put it. Since I’ve been using this I have had not one case of glueing the model to my finger…….

I tend to use the thicker version of super glue as it has a slightly slower drying time which lets me adjust the bits to the position that I want until I am ready to zap them with the accelerator. The thinner super glue is more suited to invisible repairs, particularly where the joint is a clean break. So I have a bottle of the thin stuff ready for any repairs needed after a battle!

So there it is,

Use Polystyrene Glue for plastics,

Use Epoxy for big metal joints & fixing your figures to bases

Use PVA for scenery & basing products

Use Super glue & accelerator for whatever else you like……Shimples!

I have been looking for a simple and safe way of getting paint off of second hand plastic models for some time now. Metal models are usually quite straight forward to strip down. Just put them in with some harsh solvent and you know that the paint will be removed and the metal model will be pretty safe. The only problem was that the solvent was usually quite harsh ( I know some guys that use brake fluid..not recommended!) and if you weren’t dressed in a full body chem suit there was a danger that you would disolve yourself. OK, I’m exagerating slightly but you get the point. Of course, you couldn’t possibly put plastic figures in these solvents as you would disolve your model as well.

So it was with some surprise that I found the answer in the wife’s Kitchen cupboard. Well actually, I found the answer when I caught Andy from Ibis Miniatures with his hands in the canteen sink apparently doing some washing up. This was a very strange event, as the boys from Ibis only tend to wash their dishes up once a month or so, and it was only the middle of the month. ‘What’s going on?’ I asked. ‘I’m just getting some paint off of these figures’ Andy replied. ‘What, with just water……’ At that point Andy gave me one of his whithering looks he normally reserves for opponents on the wargaming table. ‘No, Ive sprayed them with Fairy Power Spray first and I’m just washing the paint off.’ Sure enough, that was what he was doing and it works beautifully.

It really is as simple as this to use. Place your plastic models in a plastic bowl or container. Give the models a good spray with the Fairy Power Spray, making sure that you cover each model thoroughly. Leave for 20 minutes or so. Wash off in warm water and use an old tooth brush or similar to remove the paint from the model. Let models dry. Your models will now be ready to undercoat and repaint. The Power spray is quite safe to use so long as you follow normal sensible precautions and dont do anything silly like drink it or squirt it in your eyes. Pink Marigolds are optional. It costs just £3.47 at Sainsbury’s …I would think that other supermarkets stock it. So there you are, how to strip paint from plastic models safely…..simple!

Some time ago I started to describe my Necron Army and started with a description of my Necron troops. Well, here’s the next installment featuring my Necron Lords or HQ choices. I started my HQ with the Necron lord that was issued at the time of the GW Apocalypse launch. The Apocalypse supplement allowed you to field huge armies and was the first real expansion pack for 40K for some time. Necrons were not given a great deal of coverage in Apocalypse and I feel that they are somewhat underrepresented but the new Lord was a nice figure and had a ressurection orb so he was chosen to be the leader of my growing army.

I painted him in the colour scheme that I had developed for my army with the standard terracotta basing scheme and as well as the crystals supplied with the model, I added a few of my own ‘emeralds‘ to the base.

The next Lord was the Classic Lord, first issued when the original Necron Raiders supplement was published for the 3rd edition rules.

Once again, I continued with the red, gold, silver, green,  terracotta pallette so that he fits in nicely with the classic edition troops. For the sake of completeness, I then painted the original Necron Lord on foot, issued with the first full Necron Codex about 5 years ago. Yes, that’s the one that’s still in use now and well past needing an update…..rumour has it that it’s next year….we patiently wait, as all good necrons would!

I changed the arm on this figure as I thought that having the outstretched arm palm down made him look a bit like a magician sprinkling magic dust. The new pose makes him look a bit more sinister and he looks as though he is goading his opponent to come and get some! I also made the metal ants on the base. They were supposed to be a representation of the mini or micro creatures that are mentioned in the phylactery war gear rule in the Necron codex. I had intended to start including these on the bases of other Necrons but they are very fiddley to make. They are made from a metal bead, fuse wire and the tail is a small piece of guitar string. I lost count how many times I stuck the pieces to my fingers with super glue and the whole model nearly found a new home at the bottom of the garden at one point, so I have postponed any mass modelling of the metal ants for the time being!

I had to have one of the limited edition Lords that were issued with the army deals. I managed to get one as part of a job lot of bits on ebay for a very good price. I decided to change the colour scheme slightly. This was for two reasons. Firstly, I had just finished painting the Night Bringer and I wanted a Lord that looked as though he was one of his gang, so to speak. The second reason is that in the Apocalypse Supplement there is a very good article about the Necrons that seems to hint at a Hierarchical order within the Necron hordes. I thought that a Colour change could be used to signfy his seniority.

Having built all the lords on foot that are available it was time to build a lord with a destroyer body. However, I just couldn’t build the standard version, I had to have the one with Tomb Spyders legs. This is quite a common conversion and very straight forward to build. It really is as simple as cutting the Tomb spyders legs and superglueing them into the destroyer body. I also extended the warscythe by combining both types of staff supplied with the kit. A bit of a tricky operation but the result is a more imposing weapon, always a good thing ……

The other modification was to add the scarab swam on to the base. The swarm is based on the swarm that is supplied with the Night Bringer model and I was lucky enough to have a spare piece (again, all bought on ebay as part of the same job lot that included the limited ed. lord). To make the swarm even more impressive I added some extra scarabs and topped the swarm off with a scarab with his claws outstretched. I also used a very simple moulding technique to produce lots of extra Scarabs to add to the base itself. I’ll cover how you can make these two simple projects in a future article.

My final Necron Lord (so far….there will be more!) is a complete conversion based on a model that I had seen on a forum. It’s a necron wraith Lord that uses the parts left over from the Destroyer Lord Kit. I used Sculpy to make the body and added a few extras from my bits box and hey presto, a new Lord!

So that’s the HQ covered. In part three I’ll have a look at the elites that are in my collection, although I might just jump to Heavy support and show you how you can still use the Tomb Spyder body left over from the Lord conversion. I would n’t want you to think that I had just discarded it into the bits box!

If you didn’t get to see James Mays’ Toy Stories last Tuesday then please go immediately to the BBC iPlayer site and watch it NOW!

I’m not sure how long the link will last, so in case you don’t get a chance to catch this programme, in this episdode, James May ( of Top Gear fame) explored the wonderful world of Airfix kits. He tried to convert a group of young kids to the hobby and actually did a very good job. The grand finale was putting together a life sized model of a spitfire and showing it off to Veterans from the Second World War. It was my favourite TV show of the week and not just because James did a superb job of advertising Spitfire kits!

The show was a lovley blend of humour, nostalgia and interaction between the generation that grew up building Airfix and the Generation that spends most of their time on their mobiles & nintendos! All delivered with James May’s laid back, knowledgeable charm. James explained exactly why building Airfix kits was so pleasurable to my generation; from the way that you learnt to patiently build a model and over come the challenge that each kit presented to how we used to blow them up with bangers or shoot them to bits with air rifles when we were ready to cull our collection! Oh! and you also learnt all about history along the way, as each kit came with it’s own set of written instructions and facts about what you were building. I think that I have mentioned before, the instructions in every kit started with the words ‘locate and cement…..’

So if you fancy a bit of nostalgia yourself, I have Spitfire kits  in stock now.

 The starter set is a great introduction to scale modelling as the set includes the glue, Paints and a brush. The glue comes with a precision applicator to help ensure the glue goes on the kit, not on you and the paints are acrylic and they are water based, so you can wash your brush out in water. A great present for the newcomer or those returning to the hobby, suitable for age 8 upwards.

If that isn’t enough nostalgia for you, try the ‘Boys Book of Airfix’, subtitled ‘Who says you have to grow up’. I’ve reviewed this item before in a previous blog entry, you can read it here. It will make an ideal Christmas present for any fan of Airfix.

Talking of Christmas, why not do a James May yourself? How about buying an Airfix kit for one of your younger relatives and even better, sit with them on Christmas afternoon or Boxing Day and put the kit together. Make sure that you dont hog the glue and dont get too picky if theres a few badly aligned pieces! I guarantee that you both will have more fun than the usual Christmas routine of TV & snoozing on the sofa!

Yes,  the Mantic ‘Kings of War’ Elves range has now been launched and I’m delighted to say that Arcane Scenery is an official stockist and we will carry the full range both in our ebay shop and our webstore all despatched post free to UK addresses.

Just before I give full details of the sets that are available I thought that I would show you the Spearmen set that I started in a previous Blog entry. The last time I showed you a photo, the figures were assembled and waiting to be painted. Well, they’re now finished and waiting for reinforcements!

I’m really pleased with the final result.  This is my first Fantasy unit that I’ve done in recent times. I went for a fairly straight forward colour scheme. The figures were first undercoated in black, then dry brushed with gun metal, then a second dry brush of Silver to highlight the armour and I picked out some of the detail in gold to  finish off. I then painted the the faces with Flesh, the boots with graveyard brown, the hair with desert yellow and the spears with gold. All of these colours were given a quick highlight in either a lighter tone or with a dash of white added to the original colour and that was the painting done. Oh, the shields were simply painted matt white and I ‘cheated’ and used the stickers supplied with the figures. I think that they look pretty good although you could paint your own design onto the shields if you prefer.

The bases were finished in Bestial Brown, coated with Forest Brown Scatter and then detailed with spring colour static grass.

So I have my first unit of Elven Spearmen ready to take to the battlefield. A unit like this will cost just £7.50 from my webstore, that’s unpainted of course. Mind you, if you want us to paint them for you we can do that, just drop me an email at www.horzawood@hotmail.com for prices. 

At the moment there are 8 different sets available from Mantic, from a small set of 10 Spearmen through to the Warhost which consists of over 50 models for just £28.00. You really can build a huge army for a very reasonable price. Dont think for one moment that this is all that will be available. There are 5 more sets in the pipeline from Mantic and they will be in stock for the end of this month. These sets will focus on Elven bowmen and include a Seaguard regiment. And there’s more! I have seen the first of the metal Character figures that will be released. This will let you add some Heroes into your army.

Finally, I thought you would like to see another set of painted figures. These have been painted by Joe Sturge of Ibis Miniatures. Joe is a superb painter with some of his work previously featuring in White Dwarf. As you can see, Joe has chosen a completely diferent colour and basing scheme, and clever fellow that he is, he’s painted on his own shield design.

So Mantic Miniatures are now available to purchase and as you can see they build into super miniatures and for a very reasonable cost you can build a massive army. So I’m off to get myself a Command group for my next project! I’ll show you the results soon!

They say that bad luck comes in threes and I suppose that it is one of those truths that I would prefer not to keep proving but this week it happened again. This time the culprit was spray paints. Myself and two customers had bad experiences with spray paints this week. I should have known better but despite all my experience, I still managed to ‘forget’ the basic lessons of using aerosol spray paints.  I felt bad for my customers to. One in particular, who had a coat of varnish go bad on his model, had my sympathy. I knew exactly how he felt, he had spent 20 hours painting his model only to find that the final coat of varnish had ‘bloomed’ spoiling the shading on his masterpiece. Fortunately, you can usually cure the problem but it involves more work and of course it would be much better if it didn’t happen in the first place.

My problem occurred with the final spray coat on my new forge world Necron Pylon. Now just to be clear here, the model costs £80 to start with and as it is a resin model, there was a lot of work that was done before I even went near it with a paint can. I had invested a lot of time and money in this kit. I had even washed every part down with soap and water to get rid of the release agent before I had started making the kit, so for once I had followed the instructions properly.

I sprayed the undercoat reasonably successfully and touched up the bits the spray had not coated. The base of the pylon was done in a terracotta colour with a succession of dry brush finishes so that it matched my monolith. So Far so good. The weapon Arc was to be finished in a gold. First of all I sprayed it with a deep copper. It looked great but I wanted some highlights so I gave it a light spray of pure gold……Why didn’t I leave it in copper? The gold spray just didn’t take properly nor did it dry, even after 24 hours, so the model felt sticky & every time I touched it the gold was rubbing off…Oh Bugger!

So I carefully rubbed the whole thing down with paper towels and then used a Varnish dip to try to stabilise things. Well the good news was that the model dried out and the stickyness disapeared but there were a number of runs were I had been too heavy handed with the dip. So I covered these with a careful dry brush of gold and things aren’t looking too bad.

 So here’s my list of rules for spraying. I hope that you find them useful.

1. Always shake the can well. That means a good 5 minutes when you first start and give it a good shake in between coats or if you’re spraying a big area. I have never had a problem with over shaking a can of spray…..
2. NEVER start spraying with the nozzle pointing at the model. Spray off the model first to clear any stuff in the tube first and to ensure that if the spray can spits, it doesn’t do it over your model! In fact, start each pass of the spray can off the model and move across it finishing off the model.
3. Spray from at least 12 inches away from the model and spray in light coats. Don’t do what I do every now and then and get up close to blast the spray into those awkward creases! Be patient, alter the angle of spray and try again.
4. It might seem quicker to drench the model in a nice thick coat of paint but it’s much better to apply a light coat, wait for 15 minutes or so and then apply another light coat and another if necessary.
5. If in doubt or even when not, try the spray on a piece of paper first or a piece of paper sprayed with undercoat to see how different sprays work together.
6. Varnish can be particularly difficult. Always spray light coats. Gloss varnish will seal and protect your model. Matt varnish tends just to be a matting agent and doesn’t give the same protection. It is normal to first spray gloss varnish and then when completely dry ( 24 hours at least) give your model a light dusting with the Matt varnish. AND I do mean a LIGHT dusting! If you can see the matt varnish as you spray it you are probably using too much ! You can always give another light coat but beware to many spray coats.
7. Sprays can be temperamental in changing temperatures. If you are like me and have to step outside the back door to spray your model, be careful if there is a big temperature difference as this will cause ‘blooming’ in Varnish. The best solution is to wait until the wife goes out and then spray indoors…..deny all knowledge when she comes in and explain that it’s just the model drying……
8. When you’ve finished spraying, turn the can upside down and spray the last of the paint out until just propellant is coming out to ensure the nozzle doesn’t clog.

So that’s about it, I’m sure that ther are other hints & tips but these are the main lessons that I have learnt and if you follow them you wont go too far wrong.

If the worst does happen, things can usually be sorted with a light glaze of ink or a careful recoat. The important thing to remember is not too panic or lose your temper, take a deep breath a think how you can rescue your masterpiece and try any solution on a small part of your model before re painting the whole thing.

This hasn’t been a great week for me, modelling or blogging. Sometimes I feel as though I have achieved very little other than to run to stand still. However, that said, it is often times like this that you learn the most. The main cause of my frustration, apart from turbolister, has been a leaky toilet cistern, which has not only meant that the toilet was put out of action but the water leaking from it has found it’s way through to the lounge ceiling. The problem with these minor domestic maintenance problems is that I find it difficult to sit and paint or make my models when clearly, there are other priorities.  Well, the other priorities are actually only clear because my dear Wife likes to make them so….  

Apart from the obvious inconvenience of having a leaky convenience, the damp spot in the lounge could have turned into a major redecoration project and that would be a disaster when I have so many models to make, so the plumbing had to be done. The upside  of this was a trip to B&Q to get the bits and of course a chance to have a nosy around the aisles, pretending to look for plumbing bits whilst investigating parts for my next scenery project. In fact, hardware stores are a brilliant place for stocking up the bits box and I’ll revisit this theme in future blog articles.

There was another reason for my trip. I had heard that B&Q have a clever paint matching machine. You just supply them with a sample colour and they will produce a fairly good match. Now, I am working on a piece of Scenery for my necron war gaming board and I wanted the base to be the same colour as my Necron bases, that is Foundry Terra cotta brown. If you use Foundry or Games Workshop paints over a large area, it will cost a fortune, but those nice people at B&Q have mixed me up a sample pot of 250mls of Terracotta( thats about ten times bigger than a Games workshop paint pot) for just £2.08! Now, I wouldn’t use this paint on a model ( mind you, I might try it on my figure bases) but for scenery, it’s ideal. So there you are, big pots of  paint for your scenery or dioramas that will match your Games workshop or Foundry paints at a fraction of the cost.

Oh! and the good news is that the leaky toilet is fixed as well, so this week I hope to get back to the modelling board with a clear concience, Hurrah!