Bot War Painting Challenge 2020

I have left the bases until the very end as I wanted to try out some new ideas, and if they didn’t work out as planned I would still have the original bases the models were attached to as a fallback option. In hindsight I should have built the bases up from the start when assembling the models so I could have gotten a better adhesion of Bot to base, and more realistic imprinting of the feet in the texture (they wouldn’t realistically be lightweight), but like I said I wanted to experiment.

Materials

• AK-Interactive Rough Terrain
• Dried Coffee Grounds
• Small volcanic rocks
• Sand
• Kromlech resin slate basing kit

To start with I took the bases (4x40mm, 1x50mm, 1x 25mm, 1x 100mm elliptical) and superglued on some of the resin slate pieces, one or two per base. These were mostly scatter randomly, however the team leader (Dumptruck) has his right leg lifted in the air, this is a good pose, but not very stable, so i used one of the largest skate pieces on his 50mm base to provide a support and as with any significant leader, he would then have his foot on a rock.

Next, I gave all bases a nice thick coat of AK Interactive Rough Terrain. Working up to and blending the edge of the slate pieces so that they would look like a natural formation poking through. Whilst this was wet I then dotted some small pieces of natural volcanic rock (for variety) on a couple of bases.  Its key not to overdo this or they become too cluttered and not look natural, it could also cause issue when actually mounting the bots. With the Rough Terrain still in a wet state I then sprinkled over some dried coffee grounds for added texture, and scattered a light amount of sand for further texture.  This was then left overnight to fully dry out and set.

With the bases textured and dry I gave them a quick spray of army painter matte varnish to fully seal any loose pieces of sand or coffee grounds, and to also give a standard surface for all pieces on the base for the primer to adhere to in the next step. This was then left for a few hours (in a well ventilated area) to again dry.

WEAR A MASK WHEN SPRAYING VARNISH!

With the varnished bases now ready for priming, these were given a good coat with citadel black rattle-can.

With a back primer base coat to work up from, I made an airbrushable mix of Citadel XV88 and Scale75 Gobi Brown, and sprayed this over all bases (keep some spare for rimming later).

Next, I overbrushed (drybrushing with a bit more paint on the brush) Citadel Baneblade brown across the main floor and on the edges of the rock formations. It helps to have a slightly damp bit of kitchen roll nearby to help keep the brush slightly moist as I find this provides an smoother coat and less of the dry rush texturing you get from a dry paint.

The final pass of paint was with Citadel Longbeard, and this was dry brushed lightly over the very edges of the rocks and in random patches of the floor.

Where there were shadows or naturally formed indents I used a small amount of thinned Army Painter Strong Tone to create patches of damp/wet/darkened floor, this was only in a couple of spots and added to the randomness of nature.

Finally, a few tufts of gamers grass were dotted to add interest, using the Strong Tone to help blend in the tufts to the base.

And that’s the bases done, all that was then needed was to re-rim the edge of the bases with the XV88 and Gobi Brown mix, this works best as 2-3 thinned coats to create a smooth opaque finish

After 31 consecutive days of painting, my challenge is over and I have 7 bots finished.

I certainly spent more than 31 minutes on some days (I’m glad for that bank holiday weekend!) and I didn’t use my one free pass day either (I wouldn’t have had time).

In this current situation we all have all found ourselves in, I was kind of glad to have structure in my day being provided by my hobby.  I would finish work (I have been working from home since mid-March) move my laptop to the side and turn my office desk back into my hobby desk in a matter of seconds. Pop a film or some YouTube video on, and unwind for a bit by painting, before fully downing tools and spending time with my family. It helped me get through tough working days at times, knowing I had my models just to my side and I would get to work on them later that day.  This is definitely something I will do again.

Anyway, below you will find a number of photos of the final results, these have been taken with a Canon 100mm f2.8L on an EOS 6D body, with 4 lamps in a photo booth. All images are out of camera (aside for some cropping) so you can see them as they really are.

Enjoy