My Forgeworld boards are a-peeling!

It was all going so well...

Then the peeling began, slowly at first and then it took hold across all my forgeworld bits.

I had already washed all the pieces with hot water and washing up liquid but it obviously hadn't done the trick.

Here's a close up of the peel. The paint was coming loose from the board below. Shrinking a back it was cracking and peeling away in pieces. I had put varnish on this board and not the others so at first thought that might be the problem but perhaps it only accelerated it.

After a good scrub the board looked like this. This was a bit odd frankly as in all the difficult to reach areas the paint stuck to but came off on the flatter areas. This is the opposite to what I would have expected from release agent where my washing should have removed the open areas easily but not the difficult bits. I tried scrubbing back the paint and washing the board section again and repainted. But it peeled again! In the end I had to paint the whole board in thinned down PVA glue. This seems to give the paint some purchase and so far its held.

Here you can see the board section pre its second peel. and sadly the two other sections below waiting to go!

And one on its own for good luck post PVA. Fingers crossed this has done the trick once and for all!

Has anyone else had a similar problem and how did you deal with it?

Coming soon:

Painting buildings for the red planet boards.

Promethium pipelines. This kit looks fantastic and perfect for my red planet board. A great bit of cover for infantry that can block vehicle movement without blocking line of sight.

More praetorian guard. Getting more troops painted up and ready for duty Sah!

Esher Gang, some Necromundan's to be our campaign unit hive scum.

Forgeworld Imperial Emplacement Area Terrain piece for Red Planet Board Finished

I've had some MAJOR peeling problems on my planet board (posts to come) and it's taken a bit of a dent out of my productivity for awhile. Anyway trying to get back into the zone as our group wants to start its much planned for campaign within the month. I'll be setting up a dedicated blog for it shortly.

Here is the forgeworld area terrain post having some of the paint scrubbed off, repainted and brushwork. The main thing for the brushwork was filling in gaps of peel with brown and building bac up to bone for the sandbags. Metals on pipes and boxes. Drybrushes of bone and terminatus stone for the earth areas and the sand bags to give them depth and make the spray paint look more finished.

Coming soon:

My boards are a-peeling! Problems presumably with release agent!

More area terrain: Here's the grey plastic that is the first of the two buildings I'm going to do. I want to do a red and grey colour scheme to tie into the forgeworld tiles. (If I can ever get the paint to hold!) I thought I might connect them by pipes but on reflection would probably leave them having to be placed very close together which wouldn't make for great game balance.

I tried to make it look like it could actually have been a building once. The wonkiness has been corrected!

Forgeworld Imperial Emplacement Area Terrain piece for Red Planet Board WIP

My red planet board will consist of three forgeworld realm of battle tiles (Manufactorum, Generatorum and the Imperial Strongpoint) and three tiles from the realm of battle board. You can use the labels at the bottom of the post to go and have a peek at these if you haven't seen them before, use 'board project' for just this project. This means there will be two tiles almost completely filled by tall line of sight blocking terrain and one that has walls prebuilt into the centre of the tile, to contrast there are then the three realm of battle tiles (two flat and one with a hill) that are almost completely empty. Some area terrain and perhaps one or two line of sight blocking pieces that can break up this area and allow interaction space for infantry and vehicles would really help the board make a good gaming surface. Enter the Imperial emplacement piece from Forgeworld:

This piece visually ties in with one of the forgeworld board tiles with the sandbags and the metal grate pieces for infantry/ vehicles to stand on. It's got walls around three sides of the piece to allow cover for infantry or a tanks hull. It is not high enough to block line of sight which seems important as so much of the board tile terrain will. Here its sprayed to fit in with the board, I need to do some brushwork to add definition and shades to the sand bags as well as the crate details and metal plates.



Next I would like one more piece of area terrain, perhaps a GW Manufactorum building kit. I'm undecided if I should  make this a ruin or a complete building. I'd also like some taller pieces with a small footprint purely to block line of sight, these could be rocky outcrops or simply ruined wall sections from the building kits. However we have another urban board to be a ruined cityscape, It would be nice to have terrain that looks very different so I'm currently in favour of the idea of the rocky outcrops however may have to go for wall sections for purposes of ease. Some sort of industrial slagheaps or crates could also work for this, I'll have to work out which direction to go.

Red planet board 3 Forgeworld Imperial Strongpoint

As its tile number three and I'm doing exactly the same thing as last time I didn't bother (/remember) to do the WIP shots of the red oxide pre shading, the grey walling, red crating and then red oxide basing. Here I'd done all that and just added the leather brown spots on rubbled areas. For a full step by step follow the labels at the bottom (board project) to have a look at the other board tiles I've done so far.

Here's the tile after some bone spray has been added to sandbags, large ground areas and rubble, I went a bit heavy with the bone so went back in with the oxide, also a bit heavy sadly.

heres the three boards so far, sorry the light died outside and I was left with my woefully inadequate room lights. You can see I added a bit more orange to the Manufactorum base to tie in a bit better, although this one still looks a bit lighter. The strongpoint seems to fit in quite well, I might just tone down a couple of the oxide red patches by the sand bags and in the bottom right.

Hope you like the progress! Thoughts and comments welcome!

Red planet board 2 Forgeworld Manufactorum Sector tile

Here you can see board tile number two in its 'ready for brushwork' state. Oh and my foot... whoops. 

You can use the labels at the bottom of the post to find earlier and future posts in this series and similar posts, the 'board project' label will give you all of these. Again for those who are interested here's the step by step:

I'd learnt a few lessons from board one so I began by spraying the oxide red colour into all the cracks and areas that dust might collect as a sort of pre shade/ pre weathering. I did this on all the areas I would paint grey and red.

Here I went in with the grey, light short bursts were used to leave the oxide red looking like collected dust in the shade areas. you can see this best in the building and fans.

Lesson number three: Wait for your layers of paint to dry properly! here you can see the still wet oxide red bleeding through the drying grey. Luckily this wasn't an area I wanted to leave grey but it was another lesson for me to learn when excited by speeding into the project. It was corrected just by spraying over when dry but I was lucky that the pools didn't show through!

Here I went in with mephiston red spray to get that mechanicum feel and to break up the otherwise all grey buildings.

I got a bit keen and skipped a step here! Oops! Lesson four: WIP pics are tough to remember to take, if in doubt take more rather than less! I've based the tile in the Oxide red here, then once dry gone in with leather brown on highlighted areas and on patches of rubble and occasionally just where I felt the oxide red needed breaking up.

Here is the shot from above again. here I'd gone in with the skeleton bone spray in the same way as with the leather brown. I also tidied up the red and grey areas a little more.

Here are the two boards so far, I think I need to add a little more oxide red to my second board to make them a bit more uniform, I got a little keen with the bone due in part to the fact the second board has alot more rubble. I still need to get some brushwork detailing done to these and to go in with the varnish to stop chipping so there will be plenty more posts to come as and when I get around to them!

Thoughts, tips and advice very welcome as always! Hope you like the progress so far!

Red planet board 1 Forgeworld Genatorum Nexus tile.

I'm quite proud of myself today, not long ago I did a post saying I was going to do more posts when I'd painted something and I've actually done so within a year! Go me! Actually within a few weeks. Note to self: do really exciting projects so that I actually can't wait to do them.

I started with the current end picture because I think it looks cool. Its been sprayed with a variety of sprays straight out of the can for those like me without an air brush. It still needs several coats of varnish to give it some durability and then some details, washes, highlights and weathering to be done by brush to finish it off. For those who are interested here comes the step by step so far:

These are the paints I've used for this tile, the one on the far right is a car spray paint and is called Red Oxide Primer. I totally stole it from someone but I'm afraid can't find the link. If someone knows the board I'm talking about please do add a link in the comments.

First I gave the board a good covering with the red oxide using shorter bursts and keeping the spray in motion at all times to avoid drips and splatters. I then use mephiston red on the generator bits. on Reflection I'd probably spray some Oxide red into the shaded areas where dust might collect first to save going back in with the red later. So a lesson for tile two!

I use army painter dragon red to lighten my generator bits and used army painter leather brown in short bursts to add another ground colour, focusing around where highlights should be, such as on raised areas and on piles of rubble. This was a lighter layer designed to leave shades of the oxide and to be patchy so as to break up the board from being too monotone.

I added army painter standard grey to pipes and the fans and other mechanical parts. This should have been the first step really but there we are, lesson for tile 2 number 2!

I also began to go in with army painter skeleton bone on rubble and highlights to add another earth tone and focus details.

 I went back in with the oxide red paint to add a bit more orange to areas I felt had become too bone and brown and to fix areas I had spilt onto with the grey.

The final tile again. Here I used the leather brown to tone down the orange patches and used the dragon red to tidy up grey overspill. I did some additional brown and bone over spraying to lighten the board tile to finish up. Its more brown than red but I like the overall effect.

I'm really happy with how this is going so far but I'm a bit concerned the simonz oxide red primer can peel a bit. I did of course wash all the tiles well before I'd begun, being forgeworld getting rid of that mould release is a must. So I will be using three layers of varnish, with plenty of drying time to avoid frosting and report back. I may add a spot of oxide red into the fans and red spray the grey gently over to look like collected dust too.

I hope you like it so far. Let me know your thoughts, tips and advice as this is the first project on this scale and my first board that wasn't a piece of wood painted one tone of green I've ever attempted and any extra information would be much appreciated! Hope to see you next time for the Manufactorum tile!

Praetorian Commissar with Powerfist

I present one usually painted commissar! I tried to use the colours that are standard across my Praetorians such as yellow trim and cuffs, dark blue trousers with a red stripe, and plenty of red all round to try and make him fit with the army but still have enough black to look like his rank.

Here's one of his back so you can see a bit more powerfist and sword detail.

I chose the model as I love the pose and the details and weapons are a nice nod to the old praetorian commissar model I have knocking around somewhere. Also I dislike the new plastic model as he looks like a pirate... and he has a chain from his weapon to his lapel. HIS LAPEL!

Sorry for the slightly blurry images. My camera just won't behave!