2
Home Edition Guidelines
Posted by
Stewar
,
in
Painting and such
02 November 2011
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Homemade warhammer tutorial
Hello everyone, welcome to this homemade warhammer tutorial.
I wouldn’t say there´s a lot to learn here since the base is real simple, but there are a couple of things that important to keep in mind.
Disclaimer:
I have to ad that its every person’s choice if they want to use this method as a way of testing the game before buying miniatures, or to use the instead of the actual miniatures. I don’t mean by any way to sabotage the miniature business, mainly because I like them a lot.
We can now proceed
Basics:
[1] Software
There’s a lot of measuring and geometry involved in this, so I use Macromedia director MX (yes, a damn old version) Because of its paint tool, which is square pixel based just like good ole windows paint but it allows more options. Of course you can do it in Photoshop or whatever program that you are accustomed to depending on the kind of drawing you are trying to achieve, as long as you don't have a lot of trouble measuring distances.
[2] Scale
This is a tricky matter unless you use a program that allows you to set the size of the canvas and such. What I recommend for an easy solution is to try some sizes and print them to see which one fits the warhammer miniatures’ scale (or any scale you wanna play in). In my case I made them so long ago that I was just sort of lucky and the scale turned out to be realy close to the reality, and all I had to fix was the size of the templates.
Keep in mind that the miniatures (or at least the rank n’ file) have to be inside of a square-ish frame unless you wanna be cutting them forever.
[3] Bases
Once you have set the scale, the wide of the square you’re using will be the length of each side of the base (as long as we’re talking about square bases and not cavalry and such)
Using this measure, make the square that will be the base size. Cut in halv horizontally, each half will be stuck to an end of the miniature’s flat print view, so it can be assembled in one piece with no further gluing.
After that just glue some cardboard to the bottom and you’re ready to go.
[4] Method
Finally, there’s two most important thing here: Be organized. I keep files as workshops where I store all the elements I use in case I need them again. And secondly, as a just implied, keep everything you draw, it might be useful later. You don’t want to be drawing more than you have to. Keep templates for body parts, horses, shields etc…
After that just glue some cardboard to the bottom and you’re ready to go.
Advanced concepts:
[1] Troops: Height and symmetry
For making infantry I recommend making the front side entirely and then make the back of a miniature so it’s basically an inverted duplicate with some changes that keeps the exact same position as the front view. Pay special attention to cavalry, since normally its better to draw the rider separately and you want to make sure that the legs of the rider are over the horse and the shield is over the riders and so on.
[2] Troops: Non-square frame rank & file
When you come around infantry creatures that are bigger than normal but still 20mm based, or you just want them to be in more interesting poses, you can make them stick out of the square frame drawing custom edges depending on the shape of the miniature. It’s good that you keep frame shapes simple and geometric unless you want to go to scissor hell. Just remember not to make them too extreme so its not a pain in the "I swear too much" to fit them into ranks.
[2] Monters: Flat or Funky
You will want to evaluate if you want to make a monster as a 3D construct or as a bigger flat miniature, mainly because some monsters just don’t require (or won’t look good) to be made as 3D models.
In my experience, human shaped big monsters are a pain in the "I swear too much" and don’t look good in 3D. Try and see the bright side of this, you can draw them with much more detail.
[3] Monters: Lookin' good
Whether you decide to make them 3D or flat, there’s a couple of thing that you can do to make them look nicer.
- Flat monsters don’t need to me 100% flat. If it’s a small dragon or griffon for example, you can make the limbs and wings stick out from the body (which is flat)
- When making 3D monsters (mainly dragons) it’ll always be a pain in the arse to estimate the length of the sides to make the 3rd side. This is normally accomplished by trial and error.
[4] Machines: How much 3D?
When making War machines, all of them will have a degree of 3D. Depending on their size, they allow different levels of complexity. You don’t want to go nuts folding tiny pieces of paper which later are going to break and bend like elven bones.
A high elf bolt thrower doesn’t really need more than a flat surface with some legs. A Dark elf one though may have more 3D elements to make the bolts box. (this is old editions reference but you get the idea)
More complex war machines can be 3D constructions made from flat parts, giving them size and presence but keeping them simple to assemble. I suggest gluing 2 sheets of paper when making them to add some toughness.
And of course the big machines can be full 3D, be careful though with the scale, they might end up being way too big, which is good, but not when compared to the other machines.
[5] Machines: Dealing with proportions
The most important thing when making war machines is pretty much the 1st thing I mentioned here about miniatures: Keeping proportions right. For example I like to make cannons the wide of 1 infantry model at least.
Now, apart from the general size of stuff, you want the pieces to fit together when you print your machines. That’s why you have to compare length all the time.
Here’s an example with my Grudge thrower
*Important: round parts like cannon barrels can be a hassle if you try to estimate their size as a flat surface. Remember that the perimeter of a circle is the diameter times Pi.
There are the only guidelines to making great machines, the rest is having imagination and create clever and economic ways to put into paper the details of warhammer miniatures.
Conclusions:
So this is all I can share that doesn’t involve drawing technique or creativity issues. There’s always many ways to solve problems and many of those look pretty good.
Just be organized and thorough like when painting actual miniatures and everything will go well.
I wouldn’t say there´s a lot to learn here since the base is real simple, but there are a couple of things that important to keep in mind.
Disclaimer:
I have to ad that its every person’s choice if they want to use this method as a way of testing the game before buying miniatures, or to use the instead of the actual miniatures. I don’t mean by any way to sabotage the miniature business, mainly because I like them a lot.
We can now proceed
Basics:
[1] Software
There’s a lot of measuring and geometry involved in this, so I use Macromedia director MX (yes, a damn old version) Because of its paint tool, which is square pixel based just like good ole windows paint but it allows more options. Of course you can do it in Photoshop or whatever program that you are accustomed to depending on the kind of drawing you are trying to achieve, as long as you don't have a lot of trouble measuring distances.
[2] Scale
This is a tricky matter unless you use a program that allows you to set the size of the canvas and such. What I recommend for an easy solution is to try some sizes and print them to see which one fits the warhammer miniatures’ scale (or any scale you wanna play in). In my case I made them so long ago that I was just sort of lucky and the scale turned out to be realy close to the reality, and all I had to fix was the size of the templates.
Keep in mind that the miniatures (or at least the rank n’ file) have to be inside of a square-ish frame unless you wanna be cutting them forever.
[3] Bases
Once you have set the scale, the wide of the square you’re using will be the length of each side of the base (as long as we’re talking about square bases and not cavalry and such)
Using this measure, make the square that will be the base size. Cut in halv horizontally, each half will be stuck to an end of the miniature’s flat print view, so it can be assembled in one piece with no further gluing.
After that just glue some cardboard to the bottom and you’re ready to go.
[4] Method
Finally, there’s two most important thing here: Be organized. I keep files as workshops where I store all the elements I use in case I need them again. And secondly, as a just implied, keep everything you draw, it might be useful later. You don’t want to be drawing more than you have to. Keep templates for body parts, horses, shields etc…
After that just glue some cardboard to the bottom and you’re ready to go.
Advanced concepts:
[1] Troops: Height and symmetry
For making infantry I recommend making the front side entirely and then make the back of a miniature so it’s basically an inverted duplicate with some changes that keeps the exact same position as the front view. Pay special attention to cavalry, since normally its better to draw the rider separately and you want to make sure that the legs of the rider are over the horse and the shield is over the riders and so on.
[2] Troops: Non-square frame rank & file
When you come around infantry creatures that are bigger than normal but still 20mm based, or you just want them to be in more interesting poses, you can make them stick out of the square frame drawing custom edges depending on the shape of the miniature. It’s good that you keep frame shapes simple and geometric unless you want to go to scissor hell. Just remember not to make them too extreme so its not a pain in the "I swear too much" to fit them into ranks.
[2] Monters: Flat or Funky
You will want to evaluate if you want to make a monster as a 3D construct or as a bigger flat miniature, mainly because some monsters just don’t require (or won’t look good) to be made as 3D models.
In my experience, human shaped big monsters are a pain in the "I swear too much" and don’t look good in 3D. Try and see the bright side of this, you can draw them with much more detail.
[3] Monters: Lookin' good
Whether you decide to make them 3D or flat, there’s a couple of thing that you can do to make them look nicer.
- Flat monsters don’t need to me 100% flat. If it’s a small dragon or griffon for example, you can make the limbs and wings stick out from the body (which is flat)
- When making 3D monsters (mainly dragons) it’ll always be a pain in the arse to estimate the length of the sides to make the 3rd side. This is normally accomplished by trial and error.
[4] Machines: How much 3D?
When making War machines, all of them will have a degree of 3D. Depending on their size, they allow different levels of complexity. You don’t want to go nuts folding tiny pieces of paper which later are going to break and bend like elven bones.
A high elf bolt thrower doesn’t really need more than a flat surface with some legs. A Dark elf one though may have more 3D elements to make the bolts box. (this is old editions reference but you get the idea)
More complex war machines can be 3D constructions made from flat parts, giving them size and presence but keeping them simple to assemble. I suggest gluing 2 sheets of paper when making them to add some toughness.
And of course the big machines can be full 3D, be careful though with the scale, they might end up being way too big, which is good, but not when compared to the other machines.
[5] Machines: Dealing with proportions
The most important thing when making war machines is pretty much the 1st thing I mentioned here about miniatures: Keeping proportions right. For example I like to make cannons the wide of 1 infantry model at least.
Now, apart from the general size of stuff, you want the pieces to fit together when you print your machines. That’s why you have to compare length all the time.
Here’s an example with my Grudge thrower
*Important: round parts like cannon barrels can be a hassle if you try to estimate their size as a flat surface. Remember that the perimeter of a circle is the diameter times Pi.
There are the only guidelines to making great machines, the rest is having imagination and create clever and economic ways to put into paper the details of warhammer miniatures.
Conclusions:
So this is all I can share that doesn’t involve drawing technique or creativity issues. There’s always many ways to solve problems and many of those look pretty good.
Just be organized and thorough like when painting actual miniatures and everything will go well.
