The hot glue adds some nice mass to the model, but it's hard to detail since it doesn't hold any shape. Normally I would just do that and call it good, but it wouldn't make for good reading.

Digging around my electrical tools I had an idea... The soldering Iron! If you haven't used one before they are quite simply a low voltage tool to melt soft metals to create a bonding material for electrical components. For us real men, they are great for burning shit too!

With that said if you decide to use a soldering iron be very careful not to burn yourself. They get extremely hot and can burn you severely. I strongly suggest only plugging it in when you will use it then immediately unplug it when you are done. Speaking from experience I've burned enough things (like carpets) I wish I hadn't haha.

I apologize for the bad pun...

The two prong pitch fork and the torch to the right of it are the same bit. Initially I wasn't trying to make a torch, but these things just happen sometimes, lol.

The box was a little short on swords so I had to improvise a little. The ones above were mostly "bones" from the kit.

After heating up the soldering iron I melted the models carefully. I applied the iron much like a paint brush.

This model has a little work done to the eyes and torso. I decided to, if possible, keep the jaw details and just carve the eye into a cyclops.

Here I was experimenting with adding bullet holes and "battle damage" to the model. The other ones I have claw marks and spilling guts.

Another Plague Bearer.

This sword was a Gene Stealer claw. I wish I had more of these as they were fun to detail.

Nurgle Standard Bearer. I'll probably add something to the standard to make it look more convincing.

Both models here have the same weapon, though the one on the right has had the iron put to it.

They're starting to look a little more Nurglish. The next step will be the hot glue gun to the horns to bulk them out a bit. I'm still debating on if the bodies should get hot glue since it doesn't mold very easily and doesn't hold detailed shapes.

Looking over my army I realized I am lacking in troop choices. I have plenty of Blood Letters (thanks to them being plastic now) but I only had 5 of the other types. At the price of $25-30 for 5 models (ouch) and the fact that you need to field lots and lots to be effective I decided to find a cheaper alternative (not to mention an excuse to tear something apart WOOT).

After digging through various catalogs I came to find the Vampire Count's Zombie Horde set; 20 models for $30. Best of all, they're all plastic! I went to my local game store and to my surprise they had one box left (though I'm sure he's lying as usual but meh...the tangled webs we weave). Anyway, I got to work right away with the new vigor of having something to kit bash! Plastic for the Plastic God!

Plague Bearers need to have two things

• Cyclops - they all (usually) have just one eye @__x
  
• headgear - No I'm not talking about the wrestling kind...more of a slimy horn sticking out of their heads.
  

With that in mind I got to work...

One thing I needed was more swords. I took the three scythes that came in the box and removed the blades. The left hands had a good hilt on the instrument hands, so I cut and pinned them in place.

So far so good. They have other weapons available like bones clubs, but I wanted to keep it WYSIWYG. The guy on the left has both a Plague sword and instrument of chaos now (notice the foot he's holding haha).

Next I drilled a small pilot hole in each of their mugs...

...and gave them a brass rod lobotomy. I was tempted to keep it this length, but it might make fielding a hassle.

Next step I wanted to try some cheap texturing. Sure, you can Green Stuff, but I wanted something faster and easier than that. It would defeat the purpose of making a cheap model if you have to invest more expensive materials.

I broke out the hot glue gun and gave the test model a glue bath.

It turned out pretty neat so far. The only question is if I'll be able to add detail to the glue areas or not.

The green models are the original Pewter models. Five of those are the same price as twenty of the ones I made. Not a bad deal!

I like 'em so far. I'll have more pics up pretty soon.

Added some Blood red and a little red ink to the open sores and eyes. It really adds a nice disgusting contrast to the model haha.

I went over the sores again with Titilating Pink. The skin I started to highlight with a 2:1 mix of Kommando Khaki and Desert Yellow. The horns and nails I used the same mix then coated with Devlin Mud.

Once the highlights are done I'm going to dry brush the model again and then start on some glazes.

A quick update to the Great Unclean One. He's been fun to paint so far and I look forward to detailing this big disgusting guy. For the most part I know how I want to paint the body, but I'm still debating on how to do his sword and chains. I want them to look rusted yet contrast against the GUO's skin tone.

I gave the green areas a wash and painted the teeth with Kommando Khaki

Next a dry brush graveyard earth. If you're not familiar with dry brushing, it's a technique that involves lightly "dusting" the model with a little bit of paint (about 10% of what you normally use). This helps add some artificial highlighting not to mention a pretty cool effect.

The only drawback to this technique is it can leave your surface "fuzzy" and can be more prominent the lighter the pigment color. An alternative to dry brushing is wet blending, which is more advanced but yields better results.

Finally I went over the model again with another wash, this time Devlin Mud. As any mini painter can tell you washes are great. They really bring out the contrast in a model. Comparing this to the previous picture you can see how the contrast has changed. Washes also help transition colors together more smoothly.

These are some fairly basic yet effective tools in bringing out a model's details. From my personal experience, learning how to apply just these two techniques has helped me tremendously. It has helped train my eyes to recognize some subtle details that I used to over look.

EDIT: Oh yeah. Please vote on the poll to the right! Pick one (or as many) that you agree with. I want to know what kind of tutorials you like to read the most for hobbying.

Me personally, I like it when somebody makes a home made model out of the most unlikely of things, so I vote model customization.

Thanks for your input
_____________________


Hey my fellow bitheads! Been busy working on my army for the up-n-coming Campaign.

I figured it's a good time to get as much done as possible (at least basecoated). For me the most difficult part of modeling is getting it to the basing coat. I like to have seams clean and bases based. From then on I think it's easier since they can be table top quickly and detailed atat your own leisure.

With that said have a look at my latest wip: Great Unclean One

One problem I ran into on this guy is his chain (dragging on the ground) didn't pin right. It sits below the model. I didn't want to have to re pin and all that so I decided to raise him up a little. I put Green Stuff on the gaps of the chain to cover where the model doesn't join properly.

Step II: Base coat

I was debating on the base coat. Originally I was going to do white and work up, but I felt it was unnecessary. I decided to go with gray and I think it turned out pretty good. Notice the little dead Space Marine O___O

Step III: Adding in some Green

The first coat is Goblin Green. I'm hitting all the GS areas while trying to avoid the recesses on the body. Once that is finished I'll use a green wash and then onto the next color.

More pics coming soon