DSM Goes Live!

As per my last post I am going to be out of work come Thursday as my Department is being shut down.

Not going to sit on my laurels however!

To remedy my need for money I am going to go Live Full Time with my Miniatures Company as of next week. I will be available 9am-5pm weekdays for consultation as per the Commissions statement (also in my last post) via Email, or even Phone if you are a Brisbane local.

As I have not yet got my web-store completely sorted out I will be taking initial orders via email requests and selling castings in white metal on Ebay.

I am starting with a small number of generic, yet quite quirky minis, one of which had some work done tonight that you can check out here.

I may get bogged down as I have been approached by a fledgeling Board Games Company to potentially sculpt a number of figures for them to get drop poured as gaming pieces. Additionally I am also offering local companies CAD outsourcing support under hourly rates, so some days I will get to do something a little different. But don't worry I have a trained servitor on hand to do castings and bag up orders. So do not fear, I will get you your goods if you order some.

So remember: no matter how bad things can seem, something good is bound to happen if you give to others.

On that note don't forget to Donate to the Storm Wardens Project as every dollar helps!

You Crack Me Up!

I was surfing the FTW links and saw this post by Drathmere.

I have experienced this a few times and while I commented on it over there I thought I would throw them up here for anyone else having similar troubles. So one with the show!

Contraction cracking, another bane that must be dealt with by painters.

Traditionally there are a list of issues that paints can suffer from, some which are inter-related, and these are below:

At the top of the traditional list are; Exposure, Elasticity Loss, Elastic Failure, Paint Adhesion Loss, Paint Blooming and Paint Blistering.

Paint Blistering is an easy one. It can be caused by a couple of things, most notably dirty or no properly prepared surfaces and moisture. Most of us are familiar with the two things we need to do before painting. First wash the Mould Release agent off, and then let the mini dry. These two steps will allow you to avoid paint bubbling 95% of the time. With resins it is also important to use a good primer. Also Using painting stands rather than holding the minis yourself will stop any oils from your fingers causing finishes and layers bubbling. All familiar things so one to the next topic.

Now we are all familiar with the Dreaded "Frosties!" and according to the painting dictionary this is called Paint Blooming.

"Paint Blooming - (blushing) - this is moisture getting into varnish, shellac, lacquer. This coating failure leaves a milky opaque (usually-white) cloud on (or actually within) the coated surface. Paint bloom may not wipe off with a fingertip as does most effloresence - so paint blooming is not the same visual effect as surface effloresence, many paint failure analysts use "bloom" for both cases and the cause might be the same - moisture."

Paint Effloresence is frosting on the surface that you can simply wipe off btw.

In some cases the Paint Frosting can be caused by Chemical incompatibility with the surface, this is very rare in miniatures as the traditionally used Matt Finishes we use are formulated for the job.

This is the topic of many many discussions and we all are familiar with it so I will move right along.

Exposure and Elasticity Loss don't generally effect us in Miniatures so I can probably skip these.

Elastic Failure is the point at which paint can no longer stretch and will crack. This can be cause by alot of things including paint too thick, many layers of paint and low elasticity of the paint. This last is important as generally we will use acrylics with do not have polymerisation compounds that allow them to stretch that little bit as they dry. This can lead to cracking very easily. Adding things like Paint Extender and Drying inhibitors can also change the elasticity of a paint, sometimes for the better (I notice that adding a little Retarder Medium to Reaper paints helps prevent them cracking when used over semi-gloss/gloss undercoats). This can also be related to Adhesion Loss.

Adhesion Loss is a big one and is when the top layers of paint loss their grip on the under-laying coats. There are a few causes of this. A big one is improperly prepared surfaces, this is caused by the same factors as Paint Blistering. Another primary cause is using incompatible paints such as Oils for automotive use under or over acrylics (in which case the solvents in the Oils will do nasty things all around). Using material specific paints like the PS line from Tamiya will also cause issues as they are formulated to peel of perspex. The last and most common reason paint will crack is using acrylics over a semi-gloss/gloss spray-packed undercoat. The top layers of paint will often have difficulty sticking to the smooth gloss finish underneath and will have a definite tendency to pulling away and cracking as the Matt Finish on top contracts while drying.

So what tips can I offer on possible fixes specifically for Paint Cracking:

First and foremost use a good primer; I use a light spray of Tamiya Light Grey "Fine" Surface Primer for Metal and Plastic before undercoating. It will even work on Resin. Be absolutely certain you get the "Fine" version and be very light handed with it as it will pool in detail really easily.

Also if you use a semi-gloss or gloss undercoat spray (like Tamiya Racing White or their Blue that is the same colour as Necron Abyss) you can try using a matt sealant after undercoating to stop the thin overcoats moving and chipping.

If you are using a semi-gloss, buy a slightly lighter tone than you want and once it dries wash the whole things with a pigment based wash with a little bit of dish-washing liquid in it, it helps and will play a dual role of adding down-tones to your base coat with very little work. I am going to guess that the Dish-washing liquid breaks up any volatiles left on the surface of the spray-pack but don't quote me on this.
A neat thing I found out was that you can use the Tamiya Perspex paints (the PS range), that will normally peel off (designed for painting inside the clear racing shells for remote control Racers). All you have to do it spray it on, let it dry and then spray some purity seal over it. There are some really different colours in the range that you don't normally see but are Great for really odd colour schemes.

Use thin coats and let them dry completely for at least a full day before Matt Finishing them. If you have trouble with a specific brand of paints try switching to another brand, there are a lot of companies making good paint, so experiment.

Finally sometimes you can get around the issue by using a Gloss Clear Finish first and when it dries a Matt Finish over the top. Alot of Gloss finished don't contract as much when drying. I recommend testing it out first.

Best of luck with your painting endeavours

Subby

Hazzah! Email back online.

Well from my last post you all would know that my email account got hacked. Well Microsoft managed to pry it open like an Ork with a power-claw peels open a tank. So it is all fixed again, however for those who want to commission work from me be aware that I am not taking commissions until after I do three things.

1) Update Sub's Underground. It has been far too long and I have to add the links to the shop which is being built.

2) Organise the Shop. I.e. finish the first run of products and do some casting. Plus finish registering and building the secure shop.

3) Organise another secure email account For commissions. I will still take single miniature commissions when I get the shop up and running, but it will not be a constant thing.

I realise that most of those reading this will think, commissions, wtf?

Brisbane locals who I have done work for will already know the low-down.

You may wonder to yourself, "what will this store sell?" Well not resin bases. Firstly there are too many people out there who are both members of FTW and better base designers than me making resin bases. If you are looking for good bases I can recommend you check out the List of stores on FTW. My personal picks of the bunch (in no particular order), are Dragon Forge, Secret Weapon Miniatures and for Aussies who want to pay a little less shipping, Back2Bas-ix.

As to what I will have, mostly 28mm scale generic conversion stuff. Things that enable you, the

modeller, to build cooler conversions by giving you a wider range of bits.

I will also do limited runs of 28mm scale miniatures in resin, yeah I know you are thinking "how limited?"

If they sell well enough I will likely do white metal versions with slight changes to the sculpts/more options on the sprue. Some of these miniatures may come with resin bases, as needs suit, but generally they will come with generic plastic bases (if I can find a good source of plastics).

So basically that is all the news. without further ado I give you two pics of some minis I did a while ago (found these while cleaning my hard-drive to determine if it was a virus or trojan that lead to

email fail)

A Kroot/Chaos Hound Conversion (can you pick the reference?)

And the Masque of Slaanesh I painted for the Chaos Daemons Dex Launch Painting Comp

although for some reason the masque pic is resized by the blogger software sigh!

Cheers

Subby

The Supply Chain Consists of...

People...

What's point am I getting at? (*gasp* someone making a point!)

Ok so I commented a while back on FTW that we do Group Forgeworld Orders fairly regularly. Very cool and whatnot, and we have a group of guys getting cool figures to play with locally and spread the fun around.

Anyhow Last week we did an order and we got enough to get free express shipping, I shopped on Thursday 15th around 7pm Local time (Brisbane), which means they actually got the Order at FW Thursday AM UK time. I figured the usual couple of week wait would be in order so you can imagine my surprise and joy of getting home Tuesday arvo from the Day Job and had a nice big box waiting for me. I unpacked it and checked off that each kit was there, they were except for my Weathering Powder set (which I threw in to try), which was on back order. It wasn't until the next night when one of the guys came over to pick up his stuff that we decided to go through and check each kit to see if all the parts were there.

Stonecrusher Carnifex Complete Kit - check

Stone Crusher Upgrade pack - check

DKK Leman Russ Alpha Complete Kit - check

2x MkIV Red Scorps V-Dreads, with 2x MkIV Assault Drills + Multi-meltas - check

GK Tank Commander and Redeemer Upgrade pack - check

Valkyrie Transfers - check

IA Books - check

IA masterclass - check

Khorne Daemon Prince and Herald - ch........

Wait a minute where the zog are the Herald's arms and head?

SAD PANDA!

Indeed they were missing!

So I sent of a couple of emails to customer service, nicely worded and with a copy of the order attached with a clear description of what exactly was missing and a note that it could easily be added to my Powders when they shipped to save them a little bit of dosh.

What do you notice here?

1) I did not get aggravated/irate or belligerent.

2) I stated clearly and concisely what was missing and provided as much information as I could.

3) I thanked them for their time and congratulated them on their great service (which is true)

Within 24 hours I got a response from them saying that they have sorted everything out and the parts will be winging my way very soon.

What we often forget as customers is that we can determine how we are treated based on how we treat those on the other side of the increasingly virtual counter. We can wail and gnash our teeth as much as we like, but in the end if we treat people well it automatically brings the disposition of those we are dealing with onto our side of the fence.

At the end of the day we are all human beings and we can make mistakes.

However; for those staff whose shop I am in and they are too busy on the phone to their best friends' cousins' friend (or whoever) to serve customers I have a clear message. I will take my money somewhere else. For people who would rather let their childish ego's get in the way of doing their job right and cost the company time/money; Shame on You! Grow the hell up!

(both based on true events)

So hoist a glass to the lad's at Forgeworld customer service and think of "Armless" Andy the Herald of Sleepy Hollow (geddit?), who is getting shiny new body parts.

In other Miniature related news, I got a sneak peak at the QLD entries for the OZ Golden Daemons tonight. I think the lads may have a tough time tomorrow picking the top three in some of the categories to go off to the finals.

until next time

Cheers

Subby