Knight Titan 11 - Just about done.

So this bad boy is just about in the books. I hit it with a satin varnish from Vallejo and its drying as we speak. The last Real Water Poor is in and curing as we speak. I'll probably hit it with some Iron Oxide powder from Secret Weapons Miniatures to dirty it up some so its dirty and rusty and we should be done.

The other last thing to do is going to be adding pins to the feet and to the base. The interesting thing is that the feet are hollow so I will have to put a ball of Green Stuff in there and add the rods to it. Then drill into the cork of the base and BLAM....Science.

Also I am having some real professional type pictures taken of this guy on Sunday so expect a picture heavy update Sunday night / Monday day.

Knight Titan Base 2.0 - the pouring of the water.

Well I had some free time this morning so I was able to get the base looking like rock. I used the airbrush to hit it with Vallejo Model Color Black Grey. Then proceed to add a bit of Vallejo Model Color Stone Grey in ever increasing amounts and dry brushed it on to give the rock some "depth". Once that was done it was time to start pouring the "water". I used Secret Weapons Miniatures Realistic Water (because I had a few bottles on hand). It will take several applications because you can only pour about 1/8" at a time.

So this will take a few days to build up all the way and spill over a bit.

But for now have some shiny new pictures.

Here is what it looked like after the dry brushing.

Here is the first pour.

Making sure it looks good on the base.

From the back. 

Looking down. 

And the wide shot for funnzies. 

Knight Titan Base 1.0

Well kids I have recovered from the PBR and it was time get the base ready.
I went back and forth and then around again figuring out just how to make what I wanted it to look like in my head actually appear in reality. I had started with the idea of making a silicone mold of a chaos star and pouring the Realistic Water into it, then attaching it to the base and using spackle around it to make it look like a chaos like mud hole. This would have been expensive and I'm still not sure it would have looked all that great. I went to the internetz for help and got a reply on My Dakka Help Thread. I owe an apology to a user Queen_Annes_Revenge for suggesting cork. I dismissed it out of hand and wound up using it. So Bravo Good Sir, Bravo.

So how did I do it you ask?

Well I started with a round of cork. I placed the Titan on it and with a sharpie I marked where the feet would wind up. Then I drew out the 8 sided star between the feet.

Then it was on to the messy part of cutting out the star without breaking the cork. I used a very sharp X-Acto knife and a bit of luck. 

As you can see I glued a few pieces of broken off cork here and there to make some rocks 

After that it was time to prime. I took the plastic base that I had already primed yesterday and put down a circle of dark red in the middle to go under the Chaos Star. It will help with the coloring of the water down the road. 

Here you can see the "finished product". Now it needs a while to dry and for the glue underneath to set. After that its onto pouring the Realistic Water. This will be a several day project as you can only pour about 1/8" at a time, and the cork is about a half inch thick. I am using the stuff from Secret Weapons Miniatures as thats what I have on hand and I got it cheap online.

P.S Sorry about the first two pics. I can't get them to rotate even though they are showing the right facing on my computer. If anyone knows how to fix this please let me know.

Knight Titan 10.0

It's getting so close to being done. I can feel the excitement in the air. The last few touches and Blam something new and exciting has been finished. Ok, enough poetic waxing. I had planned to work on this last night but I was way to tired to even walk down to the basement let alone mess with a model. So today I was bright eyed and had enough beer on hand to give it a go.

I started by cracking open a 24oz PBR, then it was time to put the beast together.

It was at this point that I realized I had never actually finished the shoulders..... So off to the painting desk I went

30 minutes later....

What is not shown is the powders added to the whites of the shoulders as for some reason they would not chip.... Not cool shoulders but powders made it look better and another shot of oil wash will bring them in line with the rest of the model. 

I was also able to the the base primed so thats a thing. 

Knight Titan 9.0  - Oil, oil everywhere....

Well I got home after what was supposed to be a 24 hour shift that turned into 36 hours between both jobs (gotta keep them kids fed). I'm tired but really wanted to get some work done on the Titan.

I hit the parts with Testers Gloss Coat. It's the best thing out there when it comes to gloss coats and you want something very strong and durable when you are about to make an oil based wash so as not to eat the paint underneath.

I chose to go with a really orange oil wash on this one to highlight the rust. I want a brighter rust to contrast the purple and stand out. It also sets a good tone for the next step in the process....... Powders.

So I used this stuff.

I got it from Hobby Lobby with the 40% off coupon for something like $5. This is probably more than I and 10 friends could ever hope to use, but oils never dry out so its all good. 

I grabbed about a 2mm round balls worth of the stuff out and mixed it with Odorless Mineral Spirits to make the wash. I wish I could give you a ratio but I can't. How I do it is I mix it nice and thin to the point of some translucence, then blot it on a paper towel. If it spreads out in a nice spider pattern I know its good to go. 

I started applying the oil wash on the turtle top thing and let capillary action bring it down into all of the nooks and crannies (another bonus to gloss coat). 

You can see how the orange of the wash really brings out the browns of the rust already. 

Then it was onto the leg guards. Now with whites you have to be really careful as you cant just smear it all over and hope for the best. I applied it mostly around the edges and it will set up the powders better on these. 

Same thing with the white on the mask, but I did go with a heavier wash on the silver hear. 

Here is a shot of the legs and torso for good measure too. 

And now its time to wait for the oils to dry at least over night. Oils take a very long time to dry (oil paintings on canvas take YEARS to cure). So a day is nothing in comparison. 

Sunday will be a day of assembling the whole thing, then adding powders and sealing it all up. 

Then onto the base.....

Knight Titan 8.0

It was time to ruin a perfectly good paint job. Let's get to chipping. The tools of choice for chipping are a used stiff bristle tooth brush, a coffee stir stick cut at an angle, fresh water, and few paper towels.

I start with the toothbrush, getting it mildly wet and rubbing it over the piece. This well get the paint wet and let the hairspray we used earlier in the build dissolve making it easier to to remove the paint. Then I use the stir stick to chip up little pieces and cut scores into the paint where the hair spray has not quite gotten the message. Then another run with the toothbrush and its time to dry the piece off with the paper towel.

Now it is time to let these fully dry and then I will hit them with two coats of testers gloss coat. Normally when I gloss coat I use Vallejo Gloss Coat through the airbrush but we are going to be putting a few oils down and when you need it tough there is nothing better than Testers (seriously its like shellac for models).

I'll be using a burnt sienna oil for the wash as it will compliment the orange/red I used for the rust colors underneath, and should look pretty darn amazing streaked down the white bits. I am also planning to use some red rust powders and a few other things to make this look really rusty and dirty.

I'll be back around Friday with new update. Till then y'all.

Knight Titan 7.0

I gots the gold fever baby! Ok not really. I just wanted to work on the golds tonight. I was able to get the Leg Guards, Shin Guards, Knee Guards (this thing has a ton of guards apparently) and the Chain Sword golds done. I gotta say the purple and white really go well with the gold.

I also cleaned up the purples on the rest of the model and the silvers where they bled over. My back started hurting so I stopped for the night (Ain't getting old great?).

I really love how this picture turned out. You can really see how amazing the Vallejo Red Gold is. 

Group shot, pay no attention to the top left corner. 

It's just about time to start chipping away at the paint job to bring the rust out. I think that will be the next installment.

See ya tomorrow. Same bat time, same bat channel.....

Knight Titan 6.0

I didn't get much sleep in the last 48 hours but I wanted to get some painting done.

I started by getting some yellow down on the banner. I used P3 Cygnus Yellow. It was the brightest that I have I a want the banner to really pop against the black when its done.

Then it was time to play with some gold! I love Vallejo Red Gold. It's from the Vallejo alcohol based Liquid Gold line and its just fantastic. I really like how you can see the reflections of the colors around it in the gold (well in person you can). Also note that it is an alcohol based paint so you thin it with 90% isopropyl and use a synthetic brush as the alcohol is no bueno for sable hair. 

As you can see I was pretty tired and I let a bit of the gold and some of the silver bleed over, but that will be fixed easily tomorrow when I get back to work on this bad boy. 

The last thing I did tonight was get the whites down on the Leg Guards. I used P3 Menoth White Base and I really like the look with the purple. 

Well, that's all for now folks, see ya tomorrow.