Sanctum Imperialis Kit

The GW 40k building kits have for a long time, here at least, been seen to be of questionable value. Basically it seemed that there wasn't enough kit provided to justify the price. But having stated that finally 2 have been bought. Firstly Ruins of Osgiliath - which was bought provide material for stonework ruins basing for the Seraphim squad, also Saint Celestine, and a bit of scenery - and it has been at the end of the day value for money. So subsequently and very recently with the aim of creating an Ecclesiarchy Immolator to transport the Ecclesiarchy Battle Conclave the Sanctum Imperialis kit has been acquired. It was a choice between this and the Shrine of Aquila. Without giving away anything about the plans for the Ecclesiarchy Immolator here is what you get in this kit.

 Opening the box

 Everything laid out

  One of the 2 identical wall sprues

Basing Evolution

Originally the finishing of bases for 40k minis was simple. Glue some sand on and paint green. The purpose of adding sand and painting was primarily to hide the connection between the mini and it's base, particularly for the metal models. Check out old White Dwarfs and see that some sand with goblin green and a yellow dry brush over was the standard way of finishing off the base, and allowing it to blend into the typically green playing surface. With the introduction of plastic minis things changed. The location of the mini on the base could change, no need for metal pins to fix the heavier model in place. It became easier to add bits to the base and glue the models feet on them to create greater dynamism of the models, fluff and game headology. Still many well painted minis out there don't even have that finish to their base. A bit of paint perhaps or not even painted at all. For simple basing now that 40k has gone all dark and gloomy browns or greys are commonly used. Really little change from before.


For fluff this lascannon steel legion team are squatting in the mud in the ash wastes of Armageddon. The charge pack is perched above the mud on a stone. The mud effect is made by painting liquid green stuff in a patch in the centre of the coarse sanded base

More intricate basing could be used to link models who are part of a team and add some dynamism to the base. Here the drug stim crazed missile launcher team are in the process of reloading the launcher while nearby a lasrifle has been embedded in the grass by its bayonet and a spare missile is stuck nose down into the ground. They seem to know what they are up to so perhaps the dice gods will give them a better than 50:50 chance of hitting their target.

Here another missile team squats behind some battle field wreckage. While cover for cover saves cannot be incorporated on a base perhaps the suggestion of a cover hugging squad might increase the chance of favourable save rolls? Or persuade an opponent to try for another target, forgetting that cover cannot be incorporated on to bases. For another bit of headology adding height to a minis base to make it appear more imposing or threatening might just draw fire or attention or otherwise disrupt an opponents thought processes to their disadvantage. Obviously think about how the verticaly enhanced character is to be deployed or all that attention might take them out the game early. Does basing influence players? It probably does subliminally. Is this another aspect of the metagame or is it a legal way of getting a slight advantage?

Photgraphing models

A post is not a post without a picture of some sort. Many 40k blogs post pictures of models finished or in stages to completion. Many blogs show extremely high quality images of the subject models of the blog. What do you need to make great photographs of models? In this blog Artificer's Workshop makes no claim to be an expert photographer although the images shown on this blog have, in the humble opinion of this blogger, improved since its early days. Partly this has been a better camera.  The original camera was a 1 megapixel Olympus, this has evolved through a 3 megapixel Fuji finepix to a 14.1 megapixel Canon IXUS which is the current camera. The canon makes sharp close up images easy to create.

The camera is obviously only one element in the creation of an image. Light boxes and dedicated lighting to eliminate shadows and give clarity to the model clearly have been used in some highly professional images published elsewhere. Here in the workshop we are amateurs. There is no room to store dedicated lighting or a light box here, so. Daylight is preferred and ideally diffuse sunlight has been found to be best. If diffuse day light is not possible then diffuse artificial lighting works sort of, the more lights ordinary lamps available the better.

Next there is the background for the image. A plain uniform neutral backdrop will direct focus to the mini. A more complex backdrop could enhance the model or perhaps tell a story. Perhaps the difference between a portrait image and photographic art for the model.

Here at the workshop both have been used, with no especial rhyme or reason previously. In the absence of a light box 2 pieces of art shop thick white card 3 foot by 2 foot have been used to give plain backdrops for "portraiture" while bits of scenery and lately some scifi scenery images have been used to try to create a bigger picture. The sentinel was photographed as shown with sunlight coming from the right across the model. In the composition of the photograph the natural light is incorrect for the light sources seen in the backdrop image. A quick transposition of the left and right in the image or the end of the desk that the model is resting on would sort that. The window and the sun are obviously immovable.

The floor that the mini is standing on is also important. Here there are only 4. The first is the neutral card base. The second is the road seen in the above picture and there is also the paved floor seen below from the warhammer movement tray set. Finally there is the incorporation of the mini into a bespoke bit of scenery. Some investment in scenery and bases will clearly improve the quality of the "art" type photographs bearing in mind that the lighting in reality and apparent in the backdrop needs also to be aligned for true versimilitude.

 

Simple Scenery

A lot of time and effort can go into making scenery. Battles can be fought with pleasure with minimal scenery.
If part of the pageant of enjoyment is viewing the minis that have been laboured over in a suitable setting then some scenery is needed. And it usually needs to be made quickly and easily from common materials. Here is some. Materials used were newspaper, kitchen roll paper, wall paper paste, aquarium plants, polyfilla (which in the UK is a fast setting easily available DIY shop wall and plasterwork crack filler), and some hardboard from discarded cheap picture and photograph frame backing. Here is what the results look like.

These bits are about 10 years old. OK, the tower of black rocks is newspaper torn up, mixed with wallpaper paste and squeezed in to the shapes seen. Shapes may vary. Then left to dry. Glued into a tower, or any other agglomeration of pieces. Once the glue is set sprayed black with citadel black spray and when dry, dry brushed up with codex grey. The bases are all the other bases is a bit of hard board cut with a large pair of strong scissors in to an irregular shape, sand glued on with PVA glue and pointed with goblin green and dry brushed yellow.

The bushes are aquarium plants fixed into mounds of polyfilla, then sanded and painted as above. Finally the trees. The trunks are kitchen roll sheets soaked in wallpaper glue and twisted in to a ribbed pipe. Once dry the trunks were set in to a mound of polyfilla with root like trails leading away from the trunks. The bases were sanded and painted as before. Small bits of aquarium plant were glued to the tops of the trunks. The trunks were painted red and washed with brown ink to produce alien type colouration.

Skill required to produce these bits was virtually zero. Hope you consider they are effective as I do.