Blue Table Painting Update



Blue Table Painting Update



Monday, November 13, 2006

Issue 96

Hey Shawn and the Crew at Blue Table-

I just wanted to drop you and everyone who worked on my two projects a giant Thank You!!!

The models look amazing and I absolutely love going to gaming stores knowing that I will get Ooooohs and Ahhhhhhs from my Tau army. You guys have done a job better than I could have ever hoped for and made it worth every penny I spent. The army is made to spec having everything that I asked for in my project request done and more. It isn't just the normal army that you have where people just glue the models down and slap some paint on them, you can tell that you guys put effort and thought into every model down to the smallest fire warrior!

I will definitely keep you guys as my exclusive group I go to when I need painting done and will toss your name to everyone I know that says they may be thinking about a commission.

--Chris Lubelski

New Face

There will be a new person answering emails. His name is Jay Hersey. Jay is a Floridian who moved to Utah to unite under Blue Table’s banner. He’s worked here for close to a year. Prior to that, he ran his own miniatures painting studio for five years.

Like me, Jay is in his mid-thirties and knows miniatures games inside and out. He’s congenial and even handed. I recommend him to you in both skill and good character.

I’ll still be around the studio full time. Until mid-December 2007, I’m still splitting administrative duties with Jay and monitoring/pitching in with emails. You can still reach me on the company phone. I’ll be devoting more time to mentoring Artists, refining the business, and promoting Blue Table the way it should be!

Bitz Policy

Blue Table usually keeps extra bitz after a project. This becomes a communal pot for our clients. We charge very little, if anything, for bitz used in conversions. As the bitz wall grows and grows it’s nothing but good for you!

40K Spreadsheets

A full complement of 40K spreadsheets are available. These will auto-calculate the cost of any project. Email to get any sheet you want. Play with them!

Principled Negotiation

I don’t like haggling. It makes no sense. However, I do like to get to what’s fair. I call it Principled Negotiation. Want a lower price? Well, what are you bringing to the table? Deal with the Devil has a bit of that—give me artistic license and get a concession in return.

Timing is a factor, too. The hefty studio power bill is due on the 14th. Want to help us out with that? Well, look over what we have for sale and make me a reasonable offer.

Easy or Hard

Any model can be done easy or hard. It’s possible to finish the same model in 20 minutes or 20 hours. So, basically, what I’m trying to say is that we can accommodate anything you want. If you’re worried about price, just say so and I’ll work it to be the best looking army for your money—let’s just get the models on the table painted!

Death to unpainted models!

Ooooor, if you’re a collector, our Artists are perfectly capable of doing high end work. You can do every trooper like a hero if you want.

We’ll cater to you no matter what your desires.

Free Shipping in November

During November we’re having free shipping on models from the website For Sale section. When you check out, you can give yourself a discount to counter-act the shipping charge. Just put $6.50 in the Discount field and voila! Free Shipping.

Slaanesh Army For Sale

A very competitive, highly converted 2500 point army with movement trays and display board. More pics and details:





Chaos That Time Forgot- Now For Sale

I don’t like selling my personal armies, but the rent is due!

My insanely converted Chaos Mortals army is done! I am completely pleased with how the army looks and plays. See here for a hundred pics:



 

Colonel Marbles

A clever weekly miniatures review.



L2 Beasties

A lot of people just want to get their army done to a decent tabletop standard. This is what level 2 is for. The cost for painting is half the normal price. Here are some Beastmen done to L2:



That’s $2.75 a model for basic infantry and $7.00 for cavalry.

This makes it very affordable to have an army done. You need to give some more lee way for artistic license, though this is generally a good thing. For those just joining us, Blue Table Painting scale comprises Levels 2-6. Regular troopers are usually 2-4, and heroes 5-6.

Dark Elves

We’ve got a Dark Elf army on the block. Scroll down.



Behind the Curtain…

We took a group picture of staff out on the front steps of the studio.



Dream Project

See waaaay below for an insanely detailed project pitch for the Skaven Weird science. We have all the materials on hand. It would be one of the most extensive projects we’ve ever undertaken.

Orcs of Skull River

In our eBay Store we have an entire Orc army for sale, strongly themed and converted. It’s based on the Orc army box with several expansions. This army features several freehand painted banners.



Pics--

Deals and Promos- Double Deal

First off, Blue Table now gives a standard 20% off on commonly available models that you would like to commission for assembly and painting. Some foreign companies are excepted (like Forge World, Dark Age and Infinity Games, etc.) since they only sell their stuff at full price and/or do not use US distributors.

Second off, Blue Table gives a standard 30% off on models for the men and women of the US armed forces. Applies to models available for distribution in the US, like above; for commissioned work. End product must be shipped to an APO/FPO.

Horror Story

So, our packer goes to the Post Office with another Blue Table Masterpiece army in a large box. Many thousands of dollars (twenty pounds) of pewter snugly cocooned inside. The postal worker drops the box on the ground from above waist high right in front of her. She’s aghast and asks if he’s notices the Fragile sticker on the package. His response? We throw those underhand instead of overhand.

Can you believe that?

What can we do? We pack things as well as we can, to a high standard, and we’re improving it all the time. We occasionally get complaints about breakage and I don’t like it one bit, but often I think that there is surprisingly little breakage considering the rough treatment the packages get during hundreds if not thousands of miles of travel.

We cocoon the models in bubble wrap, often mummifying larger pewter models in tissue. Then a firm buffer of peanuts—not too loose and not too hard all around. For especially delicate packages we started doing box-in-box which works really well. I think that the mass of metal figures tends to shift them in a bunch to one end of the box during a bumpy ride.

If you have broken figures, Blue Table will repair, touchup, and return ship them. Even if you accidentally drop them on the floor! That’s our repair policy. You get them back to us and we’ll do the work at no charge.

Contact Info

Shawn = Client Relations

• Yahoo Messenger ID is jazzmouth

• AIM ID is BTP Shawn@

• Phone 801 372 8545 see if I don’t pick up!

Heather L. = Office Manager

• Yahoo Messenger ID is middlepillarpath

All the best,

Shawn Gately

Skaven Weird Science

Skaven Clan Skryre army- Assembly Instructions

Army List

Warlord 150

Warlock Engineers x3 250

Clanrats x110 (four units) 700

Clanrat Slaves x48 (four units) 100

Globadiers x12 120

Ratling Guns x2 120

Warpfire Throwers x2 150

Jezzails x12 240

Warp-Lightning Cannons x2 200

= about 2000 (14 deployables)

Vision and Rules

I imagine a Rat-folk version of the adeptus mechanicus. Very ritual, cult-like imagery, where machines are venerated like demi-gods with censers, incense, candles, and oils. Machines are built and maintained in an orderly way (not the ramshackle half-wood devices normally associated with Skaven).

▪ Machines are powered by steam and coal.

▪ Warp energy is generated like electricity.

▪ There is minimal use of wood. If possible everything will be riveted metal.

▪ Because of the ritualistic and organized nature of this warp-machine cult the plates, lines and wires are organized, though the overall effect can be one of a mad scientist.

▪ There can be buttons, knobs and dials. These will be painted like dark metals.

▪ Warpstone should feature prevalently. I will purchase some faceted plastic green gems that will be put in after the models are primed. These will have a coat of blackscale on them to give a dull appearance. It may be that only the warp-lightning cannons will have this feature.

▪ Rat-cult icons should feature prevalently (like Imperial icons and imagery feature on 40K imperial models) and they should be in uniform, even fashion. Picking a few symbols for general use might be best.

▪ Wheels, if used, should be of the iron-rimmed variety.

▪ Cloth and chains should be used on every large piece. These will be rallying banners (in the case of the Rat Golems in the four clanrat units) or identifying pieces on other types. Cloth wraps, like mummy bandages are excellent—oiled and enruned sheathes for well-maintained equipment. Nailed on strips of leather are another embellishing feature (there are a ton of these in the Plague Monk kits).

Clanrats

For the Clanrats we will be using the robed plague monk models (and NO plastic clanrats). I will purchase three boxes, providing sixty models (fifty for the units, though I would like to mix in the odd giant rat)

▪ Their weaponry should consists of bladed weapons and if possible round or square metal shields. These will be painted dark bronze and painted with a unit-rune.

▪ Their plague staves should be shortened into glaive-like weapons using the spear-heads of regular clanrats.

▪ Lots of small banners, icons, censers and totemic devices are appropriate, to give the impression of a chanting horde, herding along their murderous contraptions.

▪ Limb and eye replacements are appropriate as well.

▪ Look at page 24-25 of the skaven book for some other inspiration.

Centerpieces

Clanrat War Machines

Four 60mm square (Rat Golems) each takes up nine slots =36 slots

Six 40mm square each takes up four slots =24 slots

Fifty on 20mm square each takes up one slot =50 slots

TOTAL =110 slots

60mm Clanrat Centerpieces

These four will be the Rat Golems made from the Cygnar War Machine models. A 60mm square is very big for these models, so there will need to be some additional features.

▪ Their hands should be replaced with hand weapons—skaven like killing contraptions, the more bizarre the better (mancatcher, bladed roller)

▪ They should have a banner of some kind. This does represent a command unit after all.

▪ It needs to have enough GW parts to make it tourney legal.

Possible ideas:

▪ A clanrat leading, controlling, or fueling the Golem.

▪ A brain in brine that controls the machine.

40mm Clanrat Centerpieces

I bought two Rat Ogres for these. They should be borg rats with weird science weapons.

The rest can be whatever fits in the theme.

▪ A creature or vehicle hauling batteries or other odd devices

▪ A machine that induces frenzy and toughness (indicating that it’s a unit of Plague Monks)

▪ A power generator

▪ A mobile shrine

Jezzails

Two 50mm square

Eight cavalry bases

This is for two units of Jezzails. The 50mm bases are huge, multi-barreled warp-lightning machines. The other cavalry bases are just decorative—various skaven and equipment in a supporting role. However, at least one of these should be a skaven with some device that could be conceived as a lone Jezzail.

Warp Lightning Cannons

Two chariot bases, or maybe slightly larger. These are carte blanche (within the general theme of course). However, I would like to include the following elements:

Energy coils

The barrels using the Imperial City smoke stacks!

Green jewels for warpstone.

Skaven Slave Mind Control Centers

Four 60mm square centerpieces for the skaven slaves. This should feature a robed Skaven somehow controlling the others, with perhaps a remote control or control panel.

Now, the skavenslaves could use the regular clanrat models, the less armored ones.

1) what if they had grafted helmets with antennae?

2) what if they had their craniums sawed off and their brains exposed (green stuff) and antennae implanted in their grey matter?

Warpfire Thrower and Ratling Guns

The regular models for these fall outside the vision for this army. There need to be two of each kind. They might feature at least one robed Skaven (maybe just one to control a machine). As long as they are on cavalry bases, go to town.

Globadiers

I like the existing models and plan on including ten of them with little modification. Perhaps an odd banner or hand replacement to liven things up.

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