In the home stretch...

I was able to spend a few hours working on the Rhino and other GW tank last night. Basically I finished up the weathering and then sealed it with a matte varnish (to keep the pigments in place).

The weathering beyond the chipping is pretty easy to do. First thing is to gloss coat after the chipping stage is done. This basically puts a barrier between anything and the hairspray that is still under the paint. Once the gloss coat cured it was time to add the wash. For this model I went with Red Ochre oil paints mixed into a wash by adding mineral spirits. The oil needed over night to dry. Then I used Secret Weapons Miniatures - Rust Red weathering powder to give it a good rusted, dirty look. Then sealed it with matte varnish. The thing to remember about pigments is that they will always darken a bit after being varnished.

So here are the tanks. Now to just finish up the turrets and weapons and this one will be done.

Batch Painting - a few thoughts.


I was waiting for the next gloss coat to dry on the GW tanks yesterday but wanted to get some painting done. I had a few models laying around (who doesn't really?) that were primed and and patiently waiting their turn in line on the shelf. I decided to get them at least base coated. I knew that all of them were going to have strong reds and figured "why waste the paint?"

Batch painting, especially with an airbrush is pretty easy and can save a you a bunch of time. Make sure all of your models are prepped and ready to go. Keep them off to the side so that they are not picking up any over spray, and have at it. Simple really but what a time and effort saver. From base coat to under ehighlights to inks all four models took less than an hour.

So here are some pics....

GW Rhino 3.0

Wow, I can't believe it's been over a week since I have been able to post any work updates. Darn life has been getting in the way of painting time.....

Thank goodness I was able to get a few hours in tonight! In picking up where I left off. I finished up the slivers on the tank treads and all the fiddly bits, and tried a new technique on the smoke stacks. I was looking at pictures of exhaust pipes and thought about how they typically go from silver to gold to blue I wanted to give it shot on the model. I already had the base gold laid down, so I took a new paint in my collection P3 - Blighted Gold and used it as a transition to the top of the stacks. Then I mixed a blue and black acrylic was together for the uppermost part and I really like how it turned out. Then it was time to add a bit more weathering to the model. The first step is the oil wash. I used W&N Red Ocher and applied it liberally to the model. Once this is dry it will be time to go with a good rust colored weathering powder and this one will be in the books.

So here is a bad picture of the progress so far.