Yesterday, I did the final touches for the Kasrkin. At this point they are complete.

On Monday it was all about getting the basing done. I focused primarily on getting all the materials on the miniature’s bases. I started off with some small size rocks for the bases. I attached them with white glue and let them sit overnight. When they had dried the next morning, I then applied the sand to the base of each of the miniatures. Applying the sand, I used white glue mixed with some Brown paint. After I had shaken off the excess sand, I put a couple drops of my black-brown ink mixture onto the sand in allowed to capillary action to coat the sand and mix with the glue underneath to lock into place.

We were having some really good weather last week. So, I put them outside to dry in the sun. When they were dry, I applied a coat of gloss sealer to them. Let them dry again and apply the secondary coat of it.


Now it was time to apply the Decals.  For the decals I used Microscale products to set the decals properly and get them to settle down correctly onto the curved surfaces of the shoulder pads. I used the Micro Sol product for this (which I have been using for probably 30 years). No used to change from tried-and-true products and this is still one of those.  Micro scale makes 2 products that I use when applying decals:  Microset is a setting solution that is great for using to lock decals in place on simple surfaces such as things like aircraft wings.  Microsol does the same thing but in addition to that it has a solvent in it that will soften decals so they can fit onto complex shapes and snuggle down on them.  

Unfortunately, I did not have enough of the Cadian Gate symbols to put on each guy. So, I ended up having to freehand it on a bunch of them. I think they came out pretty well. Also, I needed to put squad markings on everybody. That meant that I had to make some decisions as to who was going to be which squad.


I allowed the details to dry and set overnight. When it got warm enough outside the next day to apply another coat of gloss coat to seal the decals.

Going to take a time out here to talk about applying water slide decals. When applying them you need to make sure that you have a smooth, glossy surface to apply them to. It is kind of like when you are putting a sticker on something; when you put a sticker onto a smooth surface like glass it tends to stay on longer. If you apply it on a rough surface like sandpaper it will stay on for a little bit but there is less surface area between the sticker and the sandpaper to keep it there. Additionally, when applying decals to a rough surface it allows small pockets of air to get caught underneath the decal this will cause and effect called “silvering” where decal looks like it oxidizes, you get a cloudy whitish / silverish effect underneath the clear decal film on the model where it was applied. When you apply a decal to glossy surface you are applying to a smooth surface and avoiding this problem. When you are finished applying decals and they are fully dried, you need to apply another coat of gloss sealer to the model to even out the finish about the entire thing.

Once the gloss coat was sealed and dried fully, I brought them in and started to dry brush the basing. On the basing I started with a dark brown to make sure that everything on the base was consistent color wise as a starting point. I worked my way through all the figures with that. I circled back to the beginning of the line and started to try to brush with an ochre color. Made my way through the entire set of figures with that. Then went to a lighter ochre color and then too an exceptionally light drybrush of off white to pick out some of the last details.  

I let this dry completely. Then it was time to put the static grass onto the miniatures.  For this I used white glue and green static grass. Put a few drops of glue on each miniature base. Dunked it into the static grass, blew the static grass to get it to stand up, and then taped it to get the excess off.

With the basing done, I painted the edges of the bases black. When dried, I took them outside and gave them multiple coats of flat sealer.

There are a few other things that I probably would like to do with them in the future. I have some more figures coming in that I will paint in the same scheme and when I get to the point where I think I have them all done to this level, I think then I will start to begin to be thinking about doing such as weathering. Looking at the squad and the Army markings on all the guys they do seem a little bit bright to me. Applying a dust wash on all this probably would tend to dull it down a little bit and make things a little bit more consistent and not out stand out as much.

But sitting here looking out right now I am just a headquarters unit away from having a small but playable force for Warhammer 40K that is completely painted and ready to go.

Next up the first Commissar.