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Hey all, in August we created Mid-West Monster Lab to act as a resource for hobby how-to and as a creative think tank. So far, the Lab has covered topics from green stuffing conversions to creating wet palettes, and working plasticard to play ready painting techniques. Our goal is to not only provide step-by-step resources, but to discuss the "philosophy" of hobbying for the tabletop. What we want is to help get the creative hobby juices flowing!

I'll be updating this thread with pics from the blog and excerpts as new articles are published. The blog can be found at http://midwestmonsterlab.blogspot.com/2011/09/blog-post.html and is published weekly. Visit us there for complete tutorials and galleries. Feel free to comment , follow and make requests on the blogger site or on this thread!




The wet palette and pink horror at the start of the 10-step painting process, still a bit of work to do!




He's done and the palette is filled with lots of paint shades!






With the model painted it's time to work on the basing, check the blog next week to see his "warp rift" base take shape!




A whole squad of nasties. The squad has Pink Horrors in many different life stages: light pink as elder horrors, blue as younglings, and purple/dark pink as a mid-life stage. The life cycle follows a gradation of light blue > dark blue > dark purple > light purple > magenta > pink.

Here's a pic from this week's post... We look at how three custom Dark Eldar Grotesque "greenies," hand sculpted by Matthew Ochs, became a diorama for the 2011 Chicago Golden Demon competition. Check out the full length article at http://midwestmonsterlab.blogspot.com/2011/09/lost-in-warp-found-pictures.html!

Love the wet pallet idea. Gonna have to build one and give it a shot. Awesome sculpts btw. The diorama was awesome as well.

Amazing diorama! I myself have just switched to a wet pallet and I will never go back to using a ceramic tile ever again. Best method for keeping your paints nice and smooth.

I have never even heard of using a wet pallet. Thanks! It's a really great idea.

Schank23 & Tona7, I'm glad the wet-palette info helped! Once you go wet you really don't go back. ha ha

Mr. Malevolent, I couldn't agree more, though I did grow attached to my piece of plastic that I used for 9 years! You could cut into the layers of accumulated paint and see the different schemes I've painted like striations in a rock.

Thanks all for the great kudos!

New blog post out this weekend about hosting a campaign, rules for system wide domination (see Facebook page link in post), and a gallery of Matthew Och's private table. See the full post at http://midwestmonsterlab.blogspot.com/2011/10/sartoris-campaign.html!

A look at one of the gallery pics featuring the territory tile on the moon Reach. The table features an Imperial outpost, flowing river, and collection of ancient reliquaries.

This week the monster lab jumps on the Armies on Parade bandwagon and looks at how to start your very own army display board! In the first portion of this three part blog post we'll take a look at making the foundation of the board. Take a look at http://midwestmonsterlab.blogspot.com/2011/10/building-display-board-part-1.html. Here's a few pics from the post.

This week over at the Monster Lab, we continue construction of our display board by adding terrain and beginning construction on a warp gate, check it out at http://midwestmonsterlab.blogspot.com/2011/10/building-display-board-part-2-scenery.html!

Here's a few pics of the work in progress..

Construction continues on the demon display board over at the Monster Lab. Check out the progress and get tips on how to build your very own display board at http://midwestmonsterlab.blogspot.com/2011/11/building-display-board-part-3-rubble.html!

Here's a few shots from the post..

What did you use to realize the street floor!?

Beautiful painting and the board looks amazing. Thanks for the tutorial on making wet palettes; it's extremely helpful.

It looks amazing, you may want to add some giant spawning machine in the center :p .. or possibly some water effects.. they work quite good

FantasyBob, I used Plastruct's cobblestone styrene sheet, it's catalog code is: PS-74. Their site is http://www.plastruct.com/Home.html, it's a pretty antiquated site.. For a complete run down of how-to's, visit my blog @ http://midwestmonsterlab.blogspot.com.

Farty Wiffmas, glad you enjoyed the wet palette tutorial! Once you start painting with one it's hard to go back. Best of luck using yours!

Dreadnought96, I plan on having a warp gate in the corner where all the demons will be spilling out. I started construction in Part 2 of the 3 part series and will finish it in Part 4, coming out next week.

Construction wraps up on the demon display board this week with the completion of the warp gate, inset bases, and demonic details. Check out the full tutorial at http://midwestmonsterlab.blogspot.com!

Love the warp gate! That is exactly the kind of unique focal point that you need to have a memorable display. Great job!

Hey everyone, my hobby blog Mid-West Monster Lab is celebrating the addition of its 100th follower this month. Some of you may have seen a few of the posts I've made here at Cool Mini or Not, I usually post a snippet from my latest blog post up here for discussion.

I'd like to invite the Dakka Dakka community to visit my hobby blog @ http://midwestmonsterlab.blogspot.com and join in on the celebrations! The 100th person to follow the Lab will receive a special secret prize, so follow to win!

Here's a few pics of past projects featured on the blog: