Hobby Hacks

Hey guys. I have an article today from From the Warp (FTW) by Ron Saikowski. This is a great article on doing furs, and that really makes it easy than hand sculpting every line etc. Alternatively as Ron notes, Micro Art Studio does make fur pelt molds as well.Another thing you may want to try after […]

Recently I’ve been posting up Work in Progress stages of Grey Knights Purifiers I’m currently painting, on Facebook. It’s easy to post there cause I can just snap some pics with my phone and upload them while I work. (Wanna see more WIP GK’s? Maybe its a good time to make sure you “like” Spikey Bits’ Facebook? […]

Following up my  Lightning Effect tutorial, today I have quick how-to on Purity Seals that is also really easy to do.I did this tutorial using the same Grey Knight Purifiers that I’ve been painting up lately, as well.  So I definitely wanted something quick and easy that could be repeated like 200 times. After talking […]

Today I have a fast little tutorial on lightning effects on weapons, that is really easy to do. I’ve been painting up a bunch of Grey Knight Purifiers lately for lower point games of 40k, and really wanted the blades to stand out. So after a couple of tries I came up with this quick […]

Here’s a little tutorial on how to swap out backpacks, so you can switch up Marines between Jump and Regular infantry. Why would you ever even want to do a thing like that? Well there comes a time, especially now, with a new edition of the rules looming in the distance, that sometimes it’s better to […]

Today we have a guest post by Lil’waagh. This guy is a regular in my shop and kicks out some fantastic work,  not to mention the fact he’s a youngblood, still in High School! Recently he posted a small airbrush tutorial on chipped metal, on his blog and I though I would share with everyone since […]

That’s right, this little guy has paint on him now! Jkin appropriated my airbrush the other day to lay down the paint so to speak on his scout speeder! It turned out pretty good! Camouflage is one of the toughest things to paint in my opinion, and he pulled it off without a hitch. If you missed the […]

So I was surfing around the blog-o-sphere yesterday killing time, and I happened on a very well written article on Hero’s blog about making army lists. I really agree with most of his points, so I figured the post was so awesome I would share it here. From Hero’s Blog: What makes a good list? […]

Well I’m still out at The Feast of Blades Grand Tournament in Denver Colorado, but I wanted to post up this great how to on painting lightning effect by Dan the Deamon. Recently I posted up some of Dan’s amazing Night Lords on here and his lightning effects are top notch to say the least. […]

Around the shop, it always seem to come up about which primer I use, and why. So today I figured I’d talk about it a bit, and see what you all think. First off I just want to say never ever use that crap from Wal Mart.Krylon is okay sometimes but that is about it. […]

It’s the age old question- Magnets how do they work? Some say magic, but I am almost 100% sure Tom Cruise has something to do with it.  Regardless, they just work and its awesome! Today we have a Two-Fer for you, how to magnetize your Stormraven, and how to magnetize stuff in general. So back […]

I got a ton of response lately about the Looted Guard. Everyone seems to want to know how I did the chipped paint. Guess I’ve procrastinated long enough right? Time to get an article together on it. So without any further fuss, here’s your how to article on the Chipped Paint Effect! To start out I just painted […]

I remember the dark skies, the smell of brimstone and death hanging high almost as if to linger in the air.  The year was 2003, the Chaos Space Marines were on the warpath, and it was good to be bad. Nowadays while the skies have cooled with the times (and their abomination of a “5th […]

I have to admit, the one thing hobby related that I have always shied away from was doing snow on bases. No clue why…. I can pin, sculpt, build stuff from scratch etc, but I always run screaming when it comes to doing snow. Why? I have no clue. I suppose it has to do with messing up and ruining a […]

This is a quick and easy method I use for the white warpaint on my orky vehicles.  The base coat is a foundation color, which is great for going on over the blue paint of the hulls. Now you don’t have to get all fancy and neat and stuff, cause it’s the grots that are […]

We’ve all issues with primer- whether it was too much, too little, flakes, or fuzzy paint it’s one of the most frustrating parts of the hobby.  Mastering this basic technique is easy however- as the most common solution is to not prime your minis in high humidity. Also keep in mind the distance between the […]

Another question I get a lot is how do I take my pictures? Well it’s actually pretty easy. In the past I used a light box, but found that a lot of times the models I would need pictures of ended up being too big for the box itself.  So I ended up reversing the […]

Recently I had a few requests for some articles that focused more on some of the basic hobby techniques I use, and I thought this was a great idea. I would always get fired up myself when I was reading a painting magazine and they would just skim over a crucial step for something I […]