A Galaxy In Flames Tutorial: Creating Zone Mortalis Themed Bases

G'day, Macca here and today I want to show you how to create bases to match your Zone Mortalis or any kind of ship decking. To start with you will need:

-suitable bases
-some low grit sand paper (P800 should be good)
-some plasticard
-assorted hobby tools, including a stanley knife or box cutter and scalpel;
-a pin drill

First thing you have to do is sand down the top of the base. This is because the base is textured and will require you to cover the whole thing in plasticard if you don't want texture.

Once you can see all the little dimples in the surface are removed, you're ready for the next step.

Cut a piece of plasticard, it doesn't have to be precise, just get it a bit bigger than half the base.

Then, cut some kind of interesting pattern into one side. It could be triangles, squares, any sort of geometric shape. Whatever shape you pick, try and make it central so it covers the injection mold hole in the centre of the base.

Flip the base over and quickly mark out the rough dimensions of the base, then, cut the plasticard roughly to size.

Next, glue the base to the plasticard, try to use a thin cement, as you don't want globs of plastic glue to seep out from under the plasticard and ruin the smooth surface.

Next, once the glue has dried, go back and smooth out the edges using a hobby knife or clippers. I chose a knife, followed by a light sand.

From here, cut a small piece of plasticard. This will add some more texture to the base.

Drill several holes, equally spaced along the strip, then, glue it to the base, and trim to size.

There you go, that's one base right there.

So repeat those steps in any way you like until you get the sort of bases that suit your zone style. You can make them more complicated with overlapping layers of plasticard, but I like the simple approach.

I will also go into how to crate your own decking vent. Cut yourself a piece of plasticard, and slightly round off the corners.

Roughly mark out the vents, then, proceed to drill them several times. about 5 holes along works well in this case.

Now, take your scalpel and slice along the edge of each slot, until the holes are all 'joined together' into a rough slot.

From here, simply repeat the process for however many slots you have, and then once you're done, clean them with a file or scalpel until nice and smooth.

So there you have it, some easy DIY Zone Mortalis Bases. As I said, these can represent any kind of decking or metal clad surface. They are simple, and they are cheap, and better yet, they can be any size you like.

I hope you enjoyed this tutorial,

~Macca

32mm Objective Markers From A Galaxy In Flames

G'day guys, Macca here with something new: Objective Markers! I sculpted up a pair of 32mm bases today, with plinths on them for placing your objective dice.

But guess what? I decided that we can have a bit of fun here, so I cast them up. Yes, these will be made available at AGIF tournaments and giveaways, and even for purchase directly from us in future.

What do you think of that hobbyists? If you like them or hate them, let me know!

~Macca

A New Video & A New Logo!

G'day folks, Macca here with some announcements! First up, we have a new logo! I think it's pretty sweet, but I had a hand in designing it, so of course I'd think that. Not only this, but we have a new video format, which is similar but different to our old one, with the new intro showing the galaxy dissolving into chaos and flames. Perfect!

Here is the video for today, in case you were wondering ;)

Also, for Australian and New Zealand (New Zillund Bro), don't forget that we are organising a hobby Masterclass in Sydney featuring ex-Forge World painter Matthew Kane, the details are on Facebook, and can be found on this event page here.

So that about wraps up today, I hope you all enjoy the changes and all the exciting things going on in 30k in Australia right now. Lastly, a quick shout out to our mates over at the Eye of Horus podcast, I will definitely be your Mac at Inferno III!

~Macca

Iron Warriors and Terrible Decals

I know what you're thinking, "What kind of a title is that? Are his decals crappy and yet he's showing off his squad?" The answer is kinda yes.

Hi guys, Macca here, and today I am going to show you my new tac squad, aka what a month of procrastination looks like. However, I am quickly going to change topics and go into talking about Games Workshop decals about halfway through.

I decided to change to black rims on the bases this week, I really like the brown, however I felt I just wasn't getting the contrast, they honestly looked like a 70's apocalypse movie, just brown on brown. Too boring.

The paint job is nothing too interesting, I know, but these are currently only tabletop quality. Down the track I will add some scratch marks to go with the armour chipping, I will also do more highlights on the flesh on the bare head. As it is, I'm wanting to get this army to playable in the quickest fashion, rather than going straight at a Golden Daemon.

Angry Macca and Shitty Decals:

So, at this point, let's swap topics. I used a mix of decals on these models. I used Forge World ones on the knee (for the squad number) and the right shoulder (for unit type). Then I decided, in a truly stupid clusterfuck moment, worthy of derision, that I would use the 40k Iron Warrior emblems on the shoulders, rather than embossed pads. Rookie, so very, very rookie.

This is one of the better decals, yet you can clearly see the edges of the decal in this image, about a quarter of a millimeter from the silver, however, that's an optical illusion, more on that later.

On the squad Sergeant, you can also see some crinkles on the cranium of the skull. This is despite a ton of decal thinner and a lot of time spent working on each decal (4-5 times as long as any other decals).

By contrast, this Forge World decal is almost flawless.

The Problem:

Take a look at these decals. The decal areas are far larger than the item printed onto them, this means you will need to trim. Not just that, the decals are very thick, making them incredibly hard to apply smoothly.

Further to that, have a look up close. See anything odd? That's right, that's the silver skull and the black features not lining up. This is something I didn't notice until I applied them to the miniature, as the silver blends into the pale background of the decal sheet. This then led me to 'paint' over any overhanging silver, leading to the optical illusion that the emblem is nowhere near the edge of the decal, despite my trimming.

These Black Legion emblems are perfect examples of shit printed decals.

What is this? Seriously? That's a vehicle decal, that gap is almost a millimeter!

This set of Ultramarine symbols are almost not even printed onto the decal area!

I thought at first I just had a bad batch. Then I decided to go through my decal collection (It's a big one) and I realised that every chaos decal sheet, collected from 2003-2014 (when I gave up on 40k) are all this bad. This is not isolated at all, these are very poor quality decals.

The Actual Point?

Now, I know, I whinged and moaned all the way down this page. But in the end, my point is this:

Don't use Games Workshop infantry decals. They are shit, they will potentially ruin your expensive models.

You see, I am providing context here, it's no good me just saying "these suck", it's important for me to actually show why. This is 'bitching with a purpose'.

Anyway, all this aside, I am pretty happy with the squad, the second tac squad is in a similar state, so I have no choice but to continue on and do the best I can with them. I'd like to know how other people have dealt with this problem. Has it ever come up? Have you tried your best, followed the tutorials and yet the decals don't work? Please let me know, I' love to hear your stories.

~Macca

A Galaxy In Flames Video: Marble Basing Tutorial

Wow, so some big news today, with Keepy looking at getting some very talented painters, one of whom has painted for Forge World, down here to Australia just to run some painting tutorials! Very exciting stuff! (If you do want to know more about that, please look on our Facebook page or on Australian 30K Heresy Community).

Well, enough of that, and onto today's blog update: a new video tutorial!

Yes, I took the time today to make a beginners guide to creating marble effects on a miniature's base, similar to the effects on Horus and Guilliman's bases.

If you like the video, let us know either here or on YouTube. Thanks for popping in,

~Macca

Narik Dreygur, Praevian Consul of the Iron Warriors: Part 2

Wow, hasn't a lot happened already this weekend? (That's of course for our overseas bloggers, for those of us here in Australia, it's actually closer to Monday than Friday now). Anyway, enough of that, here's what you came here to see: Narik Dreygur!

This miniature is incredibly detailed. Something approaching the actual Character Series, in my humble opinion! Check out the grim specter of death emblazoned onto his tabbard.

I also elected to paint some knee hazards, something I don't often do. After painting it and comparing it to the Forge World model, I noticed that's exactly how they did it too!

There are also 3 distinct gouges I have painted onto his power fist. I'm gonna call these the Wolverine marks.

This lens on his pistol is absolutely tiny. It was a bitch to paint, but in the end, I got there.

A Praevian Consul in all his glory.

Check out his banner....

What do you think? If you want to know how I did any particular, please feel free to let me know. Also feel free to leave feedback in general. Also, a shout out to Eadwine for supplying me with this miniature. Without him, I couldn't have got it without paying some price gouging fuck my first born baby, so cheers for that mate!

~Macca