Category: Social Media

LED Miniature Makers of Social Media 2022

On By Chris B.In LEDs, Social Media2 Comments

About a year ago I published an article looking at other LED miniature makers in the online community. I thought it was about time to do the same thing again and celebrate other members of the Instagram and Twitter LED miniature community. Embedded below are some of my favourites, presented in no particular order. Why not take a few minutes to check out their work, and if you like what you see then give them a follow!

doc.brown_miniatures

Let’s start with Doc Brown, whose LED and motor work is absolutely incredible! Check out the Chaos Mauler Fiend below with moving tentacles! Doc Brown also does a good line in LED and motorised Necrons and Kharadron.

technicalrunnerd

A true follower of Chaos, Paul is always coming up with new and inventive ways to use LEDs in his Emperor’s Children and Nurgle Daemon armies.

grimdark_illuminations

Alex is a LED-miniature-making-machine, seemingly pumping out endless LED armies. Check out his Instagram for Necron, Chaos and Space Marine models. He takes commissions too, so why not drop him a DM if you’re in the market for some custom LED work?

torch_ov_heraclites

Jesse has made some beautifully grimdark Necrons, Chaos, Space Marines and Undead with LEDs.

stephaneimbert

Stephane has many amazing display boards on their Instagram, including some with LEDs. Well worth a look and a follow!

Bobo’s Hobbies

Bobo continues to astound with their amazing LED Space Hulk project, including a digital command console! Breathtaking work!

warhammer_40K_bahrain

Ben has lots of interesting LED projects and is currently doing cool things with with fibre optics.

Ian “Wargame Trader” Wood

Ian has some very cool LED projects with Necrons. Why not give him a follow on Twitter?

That’s just a small sample of the great work that you can find out there. Many apologies if I follow your LED work on Instagram or Twitter and I’ve missed you out, it wasn’t intentional! If you have any suggestions for other great LED miniature artists that I’ve not mentioned above, please let me know in the comments. If this has inspired you and you’d like to have a go at making some LED miniatures yourself then you can find my tutorials here and supplies here. That’s all for today, see you again soon!

Ultramarines Primaris Lieutenant

On By Chris B.In LEDs, Social Media, Space Marines, Technical, Ultramarines, Warhammer 40,0001 Comment

What if…the Ultramarine from the ‘Epic Space Marine’ box art had survived to cross the Rubicon Primaris? That’s the question that I asked myself for this year’s #MarchForMacragge side-project!

If you’re on the ‘hobby’ parts of social media then you may have seen the #MarchForMacragge hashtag being used a lot in the last few weeks. The premise is simple – paint something Ultramarine-related at some point during March and then share the results. Last year I painted an Ultramarine Veteran, and this year I tasked myself with recreating and updating the Ultramarine shown in the central image above. My goal was to bring the character up-to-date with Primaris proportions and Mk X armour, while retaining as many of the characterful details of the artwork as possible.

Building & Painting

For those not familiar with the artwork I’m referencing, here is the cover art for the ‘Space Marine’ box. This version of ‘Space Marine’ was the second edition of the 6mm ‘Epic’ game system, a successor to the original ‘Adeptus Titanicus’ game, and a precursor to today’s game of the same name. This art is one of the iconic pieces from GW in the early 90s, in my opinion, and we saw it reproduced and reused on book covers and promotional materials throughout the decade.

The Lieutenant is mostly based on the limited edition ‘Lieutenant Amulius’ model, only with the head replaced with a Blood Angels head and that arms from an ‘Easy to Build’ Primaris Intercessor to more closely match the pose in the artwork. The laurel wreaths on his head and chest were sculpted from modelling putty. This is what my gaming group jokingly refer to as a “wallet bleed” class conversion, i.e. something that requires the cutting-up and repurposing of rare or difficult to obtain miniatures.

The LED bionic eye was mostly achieved using the basic techniques described in my LED eye lens tutorial, with one key exception; instead of recasting the head in resin I used one of the GW plastic heads. I drilled a 1mm hole into the bionic eye of the plastic head, and then a larger hole up through the neck to meet the eye hole in the middle of the head. I then fed the wires of my 3V red ultra nano SMD chip LED in through the eye hole and out of the neck, then gently pulled the LED into the hole. I then ran the wires through the torso and legs – again, as described in my LED eye lens tutorial – to connect to the battery in the base. Then I applied a small blob of Water Splash Effect Gel, available from Green Stuff World, to fill in the hole of the bionic eye.

Once the gel was dry I applied three successive coats of Citadel ‘Technical’ Spiritstone Red to give the eye some colour when the LED is off and also to prevent the LED appearing too bright. Looking at the two pictures above, the LED is switched on in the left hand image and turned off in the right hand image.

When it came to the heraldry on his right shoulder pad, I thought I was going to have to make an educated guess as to what was on the rear half of the pad. That was until I realised that the full heraldry is repeated on the flag of the Land Raider! At first I assumed those were small stars in the top right blue square of the banner, but it was only when I noticed they weren’t on the Lieutenant’s shoulder pad that it occurred to me they were probably bullet holes in the banner.

The heraldry is painted on freehand, except for the Ultramarine symbol on the left, which is painted over a small transfer. One of the best tips I’ve ever received about freehand heraldry is from my good friend Apologist, and that was never to use pure black or pure white for heraldry and text in miniature painting. The reason for this is that the pure colours really stand out and draw the eye too much. Therefore the dark lines in the heraldry and 50:50 Abaddon Black / Mechanicus Standard Grey, and the white areas are Corax White.

Anyway, that’s all for today. I hope you’re enjoyed this little side project! Hopefully see you back here again soon. Don’t forget you can also follow my work on Twitter and Instagram.

LED Miniature Makers of Instagram

On By Chris B.In LEDs, Social Media1 Comment

I passed the 10,000 followers milestone on my hobby Instagram recently, which was a pleasant surprise. But it got me thinking about other LED miniature makers who deserve an equal amount of love! So I thought this would be a good opportunity to uplift and celebrate some other members of the Instagram LED miniature community. Embedded below are some of my favourites, presented in no particular order. Why not take a few minutes to check out their work, and if you like what you see then give them a follow!

light_em_up_minis

Warhammer 40K T’au Empire

doc.brown_miniatures

Warhammer 40K Necrons

leelilum

Gundam & Warhammer 40K

technicalrunnerd

Warhammer 40K Chaos

grimdark_illuminations

Warhammer 40K Necrons

warhammer_40K_bahrain

Warhammer 40K

mek_with_screwdriver

Warhammer 40K Orks

dako.studios

Star Wars Legion & Lord of the Rings

dak_rogan

Star Wars Legion

techmagos_binary

Warhammer 40K Imperium

boboshobby

Warhammer 40K Scenery

That’s just a small sample of the great work that you can find out there. Many apologies if I follow your LED work on Instagram and I’ve missed you out, it wasn’t intentional! If you have any suggestions for other great LED miniature artists that I’ve not mentioned above, please let me know in the comments. If this has inspired you and you’d like to have a go at making some LED miniatures yourself then you can find my tutorials here and supplies here. That’s all for today, see you again soon!

Instagram & Future Plans

On By Chris B.In LEDs, Social MediaLeave a comment

This week I passed nine thousand followers on my LED miniature Instagram, so in honour of this milestone I thought I’d make a fun diorama using some of my favourite miniatures. I hope to take both the ‘Church of Cosmic Wisdom’ Genestealer Cult and the ‘Task Force Grimstone’ Crimson Fists out on Crusade soon, just as soon as UK lockdown restrictions allow. In the meantime, who do you think would win in a battle of psychic might? The All Father of the church or Epistolary Gabriel? Let me know in the comments!

This also seems like a good time to talk about future plans. There’s still a lot to come for the Crimson Fists; I have a Repulsor, a Firestrike turret, Aggressors, Assault Intercessors and the parts to make a new version of Captain Grimstone languishing on the ‘Shelf of Shame’. There’s also my Lamenters kill team to finish and my Seraphon to properly start! Plus it’s not only miniatures I’m working on, I’m also developing three brand new tutorials demonstrating new LED effects, as well as an upcoming 2021 revamp of my classic LED Eye Lens tutorial. And as if that wasn’t enough, I’ve also started to draw-up plans for my #ArmiesOnParade2021 board. It’s going to be a busy year, and I hope you all stick around to see the results!

My Ultramarines Veteran on WarhammerTV

On By Chris B.In Social Media, Space Marines, Ultramarines, Warhammer 40,000, Warhammer TV4 Comments

Yesterday I was lucky enough to have one of my models make it onto Warhammer TV for the seventh time! My Ultramarines Veteran featured alongside the work of other hobbyists on this Thursday’s ‘Community Hobby Round-Up #MarchForMacragge Edition’ on Warhammer TV (Thursday 1st April episode, at the 46 minute mark, if anyone would like to see it).

I’m very honoured to once again have had my work exhibited in this way, and a big thank you to Ben, Nick and the rest of the Warhammer Community Team for their kind words and high praise!