Product Review: Ironheart Artisans Paint Brush Rack

As some of you know I have friends all over the country, and recently one of my friends from MD, Dameon, asked if I wanted a Brush rack that he had one of his friends (Alex from Ironheart Artisans) to make. After looking how sad my Coffee Mug full of brushes looked I gladly said yes.

Not knowing exactly what to expect I soon got a package in the mail....That package that had 5 MDF laser cut parts in it that was SO WONDERFUL smelling It took me back in time to when I could smell wood burning stoves and fireplaces. Being in South East Alabama now I dont get the opportunity to smell those anymore. Anyway I quickly assembled the brush rack (5 mins tops) and started putting it to use. When I had finished and saw how awesome this thing was I asked myself... "this thing is ONLY $10??". Its an amazing deal.

The Following pictures were taken from Ironheart Artisans WEBSITE and are used without their knowledge or permission:

My rack was a "MK1" test model so mine looked a bit different:

SO I needed to make mine a little more..... "Munkey". So I started up and set out to make it Hot rod!!! I got busy with the Airbrush and made some cool effects and then went to my Vinyl Plotter and whipped up some custom Flaming dice Stencils and airbrushed them to a piece of black poster board that I then  glued to the supports. Here is what it looked like when I was done:

Yea... Something I was happy to put my brushes on!!! Anyway Back to the review, Here is the cut and dry of it...

Pros:

1. Price- At $10 you almost cant go wrong. Its a great deal.
2. Design- its made to be easily loaded and unloaded and there is room on the "hooks" for multiple brushes OR for bigger brushes like terrain brushes or the like.
3. Assembly- Its 5 parts and almost go together by themselves.... Easy to put together!!
4. Sturdiness- Its Laser cut MDF and its built to last a while. I did put 6 drops of superglue on mine to lock the joins but they may not be needed.
5. Smell- Laser cut MDF smells GREAT to me as I like the smell of a campfire and the great outdoors. This pleased me almost more than anything else...

Cons:

Long term storage- Someone mentioned that storing brushes horizontal for extended periods of time will cause the bristles to "bend"... While I don't know about this I will list it as a "con" because it was something someone on the internet wasn't happy with... and I needed ONE THING in the con section. ;) if you put your sheaths back on your brushes and actually use brush soap with them and take care of your brushes it should not be a problem

Overall I Love this holder and plan to purchase 2-3 more for other brushes I have I need to put up. Its a home run in my opinion and I am happy I got one. Its a great product and its easy on the wallet to boot.

Till next time 

Munkey!!

PS here are 2 more reviews from some of my buddies who recieved this product. check them out too if your not sold on what Im saying!!

My buddy Dameon who sent me mine- Khepri's Eternal Legion Blog

And my buddy Larry who had a good idea for an Alt use!! Djinn24 Youtube

Dark Hunters Razorback....Errr Predator.

Well I got the tracks DONE!!!

these were pieced together from the old tracks and surprisingly I was able to do alot of cheating and reused most of the broken links. Im not terribly worried about the detailed lok as much as I am about "Table Top" look. I used "Framers Matting" as my stock to fill in the missing parts and only cut a rectangle. you can detail it if you wish with cutouts on the sides for the indv links and use a ballpoint pen to make a divot to look like links but I dont care enough with this tank to do that.

Next will be spraypaint and then to the paintbooth!! Im painting it with Navy (Dark Blue) Krylon American classics because thats what I have here and can find close to the color I was painting them before. from there I will Airbrush highlights and such on it then details, and final step will be weathering!!! Huzzah for the long weekend!!

WIP Dark hunters Razorback

OK Well an UPDATE to the WIP Dark Hunters Razorback. After a Super Clean soak (tut here) of about 6 hours (I let it soak while I slept) I woke up and took a toothbrush to the parts. they came mostly apart and some of the superglue had released and broken apart. Here is a quick pic of what it looked like after the strip:

Now as you can see it did really well in the strip bath. I then strained out the liquid and tossed in the red rhino pictured in the group shot in the last post. It seems to still be working fine and the red rhino was crazy with thick paint so it wont hurt to leave it in for a while!!! Anyway I went to town breaking apart the model so I can ensure good joints and proper placement. I used my tool kit and made pretty quick work of the joins.  Trouble areas on this model were the tracks (plastic glued in place) and the floor (also plastic glued). the tracks will have to be spliced together and such to look good but its not too bad. The floor was a pain in the neck... I had to cut out some of the floor to get it to set correct (It was plastic glued in wrong and I had to break and hack it to fit somewhat correct!!) and did some gluing with plastic glue to get a strong bond on some not so stable body parts. Its pretty strong now but it was a bear to fit it correct!! Anyway I got it glued back together and am working on the tracks now... here are pics of how it looks now

Turret and sponson weapons glued

the body sub assembled. I had to do this to ensure correct placement as a unit, so top was glued into one side and bottom was to the other. when that was dry I then fitted them together to make it a whole body.

together and banded to hold

Well this is coming together nicely and I hope it looks nice when we are done!! Till next time Serve the Emperor well!!!

Munkey

WIP Dark hunters Razorback!!

I started out to do the WGC painting challenge and pledged to paint a rhino.... BUT.....
Change of PLAN!!! it is not a Rhino Its a Razorback!!! Here is why.... I laid out my Rhinos for this project and I chose from the ones that needed some work

I found this wreck of a rhino chassis that I got from Ebay some time ago.... so I thought it was time to make some magic on it and breath some life into it!! Here is a pic overall...

and some detail shots

As you can see this is a wreck..... Its a mix of superglue, plastic glue and hot glue, and there was an attempt to magnetize parts SO I might properly attach some magnets for the sponsons. the tracks need to be redone, as well as alot of glue work.... But first it goes to the Purple Pond for a soak to clean up some paint!!!

Quick notes: Im not dead!!!

Just a quick post to say im not dead and I am on track.... Heres a video or two I made telling you all about whats going on and what is coming up!!

I dont know why Blogger is not locating my youtube uploads BUT Here we go anyway...

Catching up: what I have been doing!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yBCxOb885ts

Quick vid on Measuring Volumes for mold making:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MlzrtN07vaM

And Tomm morn we should have our One part mold video complete!!

Anyway Thanks again for stopping in and Serve the Emperor well!!!
Munkey!!

HOW TO: Sandbag terrain

Hi Everyone!! Just a quick "TUT" of sorts for all of you aspiring guardsmen out there. I had to build up a piece of terrain for my local club and I decided to put a sandbag emplacement on it as the Original had a small crappy one on it. Anyway here is how I did it.

First off I got my base and planned directly on it. I got a piece of scrap plywood I had and put Foamcore on it with a hot glue gun. The foamcore is so I can actually hollow out an area for the emplacement. After that I drew out the area for the actual building to set so I can place it back later after I build up some areas. I then cut out the emplacement area and used filler to smooth out the edges.

After then I made a pattern of the hole I cut out to have a place to build up my sandbags. I do this as not to smash the foamcore while trying to texture and build the wall. Also the filler was still wet and it gave me a dry area to build on.

From there I decided to make a "jig" so my bags are all around the same size. I just cut a square out of cardboard about the size of a dime. 

From there I just roll out sculpy and make a snake. I cut off enough to be manageable and go to town.

From there I roll it out some more and then flatten it out to form a flat snake.

Then I lay my jig on the Snake and cut out the bags.....

I then take these squares and use my fingers to round them out some to soften the corners and make them more "bag-like".

After I round out a bunch of them and have a good supply I then start to build my wall. I build in a "true" fashion and interlock the bags. this adds stability to the bags wall and realism.  If your needing help with this Google Sanbag bunkers and the like and you should get some good pictures. Anyway interlocking them makes them look real and remember they are NOT PERFECT so dont be afraid to misalign them a tad bit. SOME people texture them either by pressing cloth into them OR putting cloth band aides on their fingers and pressing their fingers into them. Also a good idea is to take a sculpting blade or knife edge and score a "seam" into the edge of the bags. I did not do this in these because I was in a rush and forgot. Oh well its only a club peice and when I repair it I will do it next time!!! LOL

Here is the bunker wall I made and then baked to make it hard. I then glued it to the base and painted it. I will show pics of that in the next day or so.

And Thats it!! Thats how I built the sand bag wall!!

Dark Hunters Army: update and Project log

Hello!!!

OK well first off Its the Day after the Storm, As some of you know Im on the East coast (Washington DC area) and we are dealing with Hurricane Sandy. Last night was the landfall and downgrade to Tropical Storm but We are all OK here and I personally had no flooding nor damage as far as I can tell. Here are some pics from a buddy and coworker of Mine Pete Giove-FourWinds who lives about a mile from me and is a professional part time Photographer. The link contains his portfolio which also contains Galleries that contain nudity. BE WARNED if you are sensitive.

Again we are fine and alls Well....

NOW on to the MEAT!!! Dark Hunter Marines!!!
I have finished stripping the Marines and have been busy repairing some of them I broke and those who are not what I want. I have not been to storage for more bitz but Im able to get most of what Im wanting, and will build more when I go to storage for the proper bitz. There is about 100 power armored marines, 30 Termies, 10 assault marines, 25 Bikes and 6 speeders. I have not started with the rhinos yet, but Im going to put up to 6 rhinos in the army. Here is some pics:

Today these will get placed on Painting sticks (toothpicks in the feet)  and HOPEFULLY basecoated/primered. I am using American Accents Midnight Blue as my base color/primer.

Its currently 40 degrees F and Rain so we will see about priming today. I might do it in the foyer to avoid the rain but its still cold... And once its primed I will start painting with the Airbrush and I cant do that outside without freezing, so Im needing a indoor spray booth. I'll look into that but it might just be a table by a window and a fan blowing out....LOL

As far as Pads Im getting some masters made from a buddy Ben AKA Fleafa and will cast them myself for this project. Im planning on putting the chapter badge on BOTH shoulders with a white shield for the chapter icon and colored shields on the other shoulder for squad markings. Also I plan to do the rims maybe a different color on the squad pads... foe easy ident on the table. Im not sure yet. Now I have YET to pay Ben for them so.... They will be later......

AS for Bases Im going to use Dragonforge "Parched Earth" Set in a Blue-Grey ash waste theme to tie in to the blues of the Armor but be much lighter in color. Maybe paint in the sand brown like the pics but give a blue glaze when done to shade and tie in....Anyway Here are the bases:

This should be about all I got going on for the Marines. If you got any questions or comments Feel free to hit me up!!

Until next time Serve the Emperor well!!!
Munkey!!

Munkeys New marine army

OK Well some of you know Im making and working on a couple of armies. I have my beloved Red Scorpions That are ALL FORGEWORLD MK4 armors that I'm building up as well as painting and rebasing my Catachans. The Red Scorpions are of course going to take some time as Im wanting to paint them well and make them look good as its $40 for 5 marines.... So I want my moneys worth and will take some time to do. As for the Catachans Im doing swamp base themes for the entire force of about 400 models. Im using the Secret Weapon Blasted Wetland bases so Im using water effects and taking some time to do. NOW BOTH of these armies are playable showcase armies (not only a TT standard but a little better) and I also am wanting to paint more models with my Airbrush so I dont want to mess them up. Ok well here is a recap of the Red Scorpions and Catachans. and why its going to take a while...

Red Scorpions:
Im doing the Angstrom Incident Camo Scheme and using Dragon Forge Designs "Urban Rubble" bases.

Im using the Forge World MK4 armors and will be painted to a pretty good standard. I would say its what I would paint as a company Champion level, Not a centerpiece but better than a high tabletop. This is an Infantry heavy army with very few vehicles.

Catachans
The Catachans are all on Wetland bases from Secret Weapon and are painted in the Standard "GW" Green with Red bandanas.

Im using Standard GW Catachan IG plastics I put together and Sprayed them OD camo Green. These will be primarily painted with an airbrush and detailed with a brush. they will receive an "oil color wash" for their main shading and to add a :grimy" and "dirty" vibe. The big deal with them is the sheer number and the Water bases.

Now this brings me to where I am using Airbrushes for my minis.... How am I going to get practice and not mess up  my good minis?? How do I solve this dilemma??? I paint the Space marine army I have in my closet!!! LMAO!! Yep I have an Old "Garbage Army" of marines that are just a collection of several different colors and builds that I have picked up on Ebay and such from time to time. there are "White Scars" painted like Garbage, "Black Templars" that have been painted pretty craptastic, a smattering of test colors and a handful of Just plain plastic.. These will get a dark blue spraypaint job and will be done mostly with an airbrush. Im choosing the "Dark Hunters" Chapter as the scheme because its Easy to paint, and its Dark and will easily cover any colors not removed in the Stripping. I am looking to a buddy to do some custom Shoulderpads for me and I will cast them up to make the paint go faster (its raised details and will not be freehand!!) Here is what they will look like:

Im thinking I will use Either the "Desecrated Lands" range from Dragonforge that are sculpted by the talented Mathieu Fontaine OR the "Lost Empires" range also from Dragonforge. Im leaning toward the "Desecrated Lands" though....;) Im using the following List of Models to make an actual list.

6 Speeders
20 Bikes
4 attack bikes
1 Chaplain on bike
10 assault marines
20 terminators
95 power armored marines
6 rhino
Again they need some stripping and such that I will start on tomm but tis is what Im going to be working on so I can play some games this edition....LOL

And as for my projects I have been working on I have been doing some progress. Im working on the bases that I have been doing and making more masters also. I hope to get another bottle of Silicone sometime soon so I can make more molds for bases and hope to have these as a viable product sometime soon. I also got my Truescale Terminator models from Three Stage Studios. It took some time to get but Talking with the guy I think him and I can possibly come together in the future and make some magic. He seems to be a pretty good guy all in all. Also on the Commissar bust..... UGH.....I almost dont wanna talk about it so I will just do a photo dump and ask for your prayers..... LMAO!!

OH yea... I almost forgot!! I also found some Tau in my Storage.... Maybe these will get some paint sometime or maybe they will hit Ebay... Dunno yet.

Well that about wraps up this weeks projects and fun SO till next time Serve the Emperor Well!!!
Munkey!!