Everyone knows the moment when you go for a walk and suddenly find a box with the inscription “free to take” by the roadside. In the case of MeinMMO author Nico, there was children’s toys inside that immediately reminded him of Warhammer 40,000 and Tabletop.
Although such boxes often contain worthless and unimportant things – at least for me – my eye was immediately drawn to a blue toy. It was a church that would look perfect with my Death Guard army from Warhammer 40,000 on the table.
Playing a round of Warhammer is most fun when you build a proper battlefield. While there is terrain available from Games Workshop and other providers, it quickly costs a lot of money, which I would rather invest in new units or paints and brushes.
So, as a passionate mini painter, I sat down for 3 hours and created a stylish terrain from the church for Warhammer 40,000. Although the Emperor probably won’t forgive me for painting a church of the old gods – but what can he do, when he is stuck on his golden throne.
The best technique for terrain and rough work is really simple
Especially with terrain and areas that have many protruding details like chainmail, dry brushing is probably the best painting technique. A dry flat brush is loaded with paint and wiped off on a kitchen towel, so only very little paint remains on the brush.
After the first painting of the base, the dry brush is only brushed over the raised areas of the building to quickly and effectively add highlights. This way, the color from the dry brushing only stays on these spots, while the lower areas are skipped with this technique.
After some highlights with dry brushing, it already looks like a decent building and didn’t take much time. Especially with terrain that should look dirty and rundown, there’s not much need to focus on neatness.
Small effects like moss-covered stones at the bottom of the church or dirty spots can quickly and easily improve the look. This is often called weathering, where effects are painted to add weathered details. Here I worked with heavily diluted Contrast Paints in green and brown from Citadel.
I learned a trick for the final details from YouTube
While I was experimenting with dry brushing and weathering, I was already thinking about how I could give the church a little eye-catcher – especially a color contrast is something I wanted to have. Since churches often have colorful stained glass, and I didn’t want to spend too much time on small details, I used a little trick to achieve a similar effect.
During some YouTube short sessions, I came across a painting technique where yellow paint was layered over a base of pink and a yellow contrast paint. This is especially useful if you have a darker base coat – or even black – and want to achieve an opaque yellow afterwards. I did the same for the round blue window, but with blue contrast paint.
Anyone who has painted a miniature knows that yellow paint on a dark base coat requires many layers to achieve a rich color. So, I painted the windows using the YouTube trick and now have nice colorful windows for my church – which ultimately turned out to be more of an orange.
Finally, small white lines for scratches were added, and a torn piece of sponge with brown paint creates excellent dirt spots. In the end, a small bush – as seen in the title image – gives the church the final touch and is now ready for its first use on the table.
If you find such items and have some paints and brushes, take them with you. With little time, you can really save a lot of money and avoid the official terrain.
MeinMMO editor Caro recently weakened and had to buy her first miniature from Warhammer 40,000. It is the Swarm Tyrant of the Tyranids, which she also raves about in the editorial office: I only wanted to buy flowers, now I own a Tyranid and he couldn’t be cuter
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