War in the Middle-East

Over the last years I have been commissioned to paint plenty of miniatures featuring the Middle-East conflicts we have sadly seen in the TV lately. I am the first one who consider that there might be something wrong with this… when these conflicts are very close in time and space. But let be honest. As wargamers we do not require much motivation to start collecting and painting tiny miniatures. Just a book, a movie…or the BBC channel. We like to simulate any conflict and play one of our “chess games”. And this has nothing to do either with the war…

Genestealer Cult, Warhammer 40.0000

During the short –but amazing- visit of the ModelBrush.com team to Finland, we found a Shadow War: Armageddon box in the local shop. This was a grateful surprise as we thought it was absolutely sold out everywhere. After splitting it among the four of us, I was the lucky guy who obtained the rule book. Since I read the first news about this game I wanted to check it out. And now I had the perfect opportunity. But I needed a warband! At this point I remember that I had plenty of Cultists miniatures at home from the Overkill box,…

Trench and mud

I had the great opportunity to prepare a diorama for the cover of Wargames Soldiers and Strategy #90, where I have represented one of the probably most charismatic scenes of the last century wars, a trench raiding. More specifically, a German counter attack to take a trench section back. I wanted to share with you some details addressing the preparation of this diorama, although you will actually find more information inside the magazine. Additionally, in this very same WSS issue I have published a complete step-by-step painting guide of the Spanish 1898 colonial army, using the new miniatures from 1898…

How to paint the 1980 Spanish army

Today, I have another painting guide to share with you. If last time we saw how to paint Spanish Tercios, this time we move a bit forward until 1980. I have ad-hoc prepared a painting guide for the new Totentanz Miniatures Kickstarter campaign which covers the 1980 Spanish army in 15mm (perfect to play Team Yankee!). In this guide I show how to paint Spanish infantry in a detailed step-by-step guide, besides a couple of color sheets; one of them dedicated to the AMX-30E tank. This time the painting guide has been prepared in collaboration with Modelbrush. Note that the…

How to paint 28mm Spanish Tercios

Today, I wanted to share with you a painting guide I prepared ad-hoc for the Kraken Released’s guys, who recently founded a Kickstarter campaign to produce an entire new range of 28mm Spanish Tercios miniatures (17th century). The painting guide, prepared in collaboration with the PaintingWar magazine’s crew, is divided in two sections. The former contains a step-by-step painting guide showing how to paint a pikeman (how to paint clothes, metal parts, skin, etc); while three sheets or color carts form the latter, covering the colors needed to paint the miniature beside some historical data and painting tips (for instance,…

Painting 15mm tanks: E25 tank hunter

I painted this German tank –one of my favorites WWII tanks, although it was a prototype– two years ago. It is a E-25 tank, produced in 15mm by Khurasan Miniatures. Although I have already published similar painting guides in my blog, I think that there is always something new to learn. The main topic of this article is the combination of the hairspray technique (or chipping effect fluid) with masks to create worn tritonal camouflage. Step 1 – Preparation We remove all imperfections from the model with a modelling knife and files. Then, glue some parts such as hatches, but…

Extreme weathering in 15mm: Mark IV

Almost two years ago I received a number of lovely 15mm WWI tanks from Battlefront Miniatures, and I started immediately working on a video-tutorial to explain how to paint a British Mark IV tank. I completed the first part of the tutorial regarding how to paint the base color and published the video (see below). Nevertheless, the poor quality of the video discouraged me from recording a second part. Instead, I put the tank into a box with the idea of buying a new video camera in the future. Unfortunately, I haven’t had the chance (nor the money) to buy…

Painting mounted units

I hate painting horses. It is a fact. It is repetitive and monotonous. And I have never found it fun. However, here I am; I continue painting horses (at least another almost forty for my Thirty Years War army…). And I am not going to stop because although I hate painting horses, mounted units are very impressive, aren´t they? Somehow, I would like to share with you some tips I have learnt after painting several mounted units, although I have to concede that some of them are personal opinions. But you will agree with me that is not the same…

Painting Warhammer 30.000 Space Marines

My brother wanted me to prepare an easy painting guide to quickly paint his new Warhammer 40K force, the Space Marines (SM) from the chapter World Eaters. My brother specifically wants to use the airbrush to save time, but banned me from doing color modulation because he considers this technique as very complicated and time demanding. Thus, you will find here a simple painting guide for SM.  When I paint one of my Ultramarine warriors, I will prepare another more advance painting guide using color modulation and other techniques learnt from painting vehicles.      After removing the flashes with…

Working with the terrain II

I was so fortunate when people from Wargames: Soldiers & Strategy asked me for preparing a cover for the special Salute issue. They wanted me to prepare a vignette or small scene with some 28mm Italo-Norman knights from Conquest Games; and I decided to build a diorama where a number of knights are crossing a meadow. I would like to share with you some hints about how I built it, although you will find more information in the WS&S 84 issue.  Prior taking the putty and knife, I took a piece of paper and a ruler in order to design…