Diorama - 7.5

We last left off at the over highlighting and it already was starting to look rich with a good depth of color.

I went to the Hobby Lobby yesterday and got some artists inks. I grabbed the FW stuff that is made for ink pens an airbrushing. It comes in a decent sized glass bottle with a glass dropper built into the cap. How cool and old timey is that?

When I pulled some out to put into the airbrush I noticed some stark differences right away to the P3 ink. This stuff is much thinner and more vibrant. I tested shooting it through the airbrush at 10psi and had to turn it down to about 5psi to get it to shoot without spidering.

I laid a very, very light coat down over the flesh tones and man it just looks amazing. The model is drying right now. I hope to get to at least varnish it again tonight so that I can finish this up on Friday and move on to the next model.

Take a look at how its turning out so far.

Diorama 6.0 - Behemoth!

I have watched Les over at Awesome Paint Job paint this model and I found his technique amazing. using inks to create a fantastic depth of color on the model. I decided that if I am going to do this thing I am going to do it right and use every trick I have learned to produce the absolute best models I can.

I started with Vallejo Grey Surface Primer and after curing I used Vallejo Model Color Dark Grey as my base color. I then used Vallejo Game Color Stone Grey for the highlights on the model.

Then it was time to play with the Ink. I only have P3 red ink at my disposal right now. I played with it through my Badger Krome given that it has a very small needle (0.2mm) and I can shoot it at a much lower psi. I found that 10psi was the "sweet spot". I used about a 1:1 mix of P3 Red Ink and Vallejo Airbrush Thinner. The depth of color after just one coat of red ink is already astounding. 

I've just coated it with a Tamiya Matte Varnish and once dry I will start the second layer of highlights using a soft skin tone. 

Stay tuned I have a feeling this will be the best model I have ever produced. 

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 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. 

Knight Titan 5.0

Just a quick update tonight. I was supposed to work a 24hr shift and it turned into working 36 plus hours instead.

I was able to tape off and get the Steel down on the torso and legs. I am currently using Vallejo Model Air Aluminium and it's by far my favorite of all the silvers that I own. It leaves an incredibly smooth finish and just looks like real metal. I also really like how the sliver and purple look together.

I have another 24 hour shift tomorrow so I should have a much bigger update with quite a bit of progress on Saturday. 

Up next I am going to tape off all the fiddly bits on the arms to finish up the silvers. Mask off the "face" and get a good glow coming out of the eyes. Then the mask (that covers most of the face) will get a really bright yellow or an off white (haven't decided yet). For the banner I am leaning towards yellow and black caution stripes. That should finish up the airbrushing side of this project then onto the regular brush. 

Knight Titan 4.0

Oh yea. I'm back from a 24 hour shift and I got to rock and role on the Knight Titan a bit.

The gloss varnish was dry and ready to go. I sprayed everything down with hair spray (Please let me say this again, you have to use cheap hair spray. The good stuff just doesn't work. Go down to the dollar store and get a huge can of Aqua Net, it will last you forever and does not smell half bad!). The hair spray needs time to dry, like a few hours time. It will dry a bit sticky and that is just fine.

As an aside I have seen tutorials where people spray the hairspray from the aerosol can into a medicine cup and then put it into the airbrush to aerosol it onto the model. I'm not sure why they do this as its kinda the same thing and looks like a few extra steps including breaking down your airbrush for a deep cleaning.

Ok let's get back on track. I taped off things that needed taping off with Tamiya painters tape. It's low tack and the best stuff for models around. I generally use the 0.25in but it comes in bigger sizes as well.

Then it was time to put the first coat down. I went with Lytch Purple from the old GW line. It's a really nice regal purple and its the only one I had on hand. One lesson learned is that purple is really bad at covering orange and needed a few more coats than I had anticipated.

 Group Shot

The Back

Carapace and Chain Sword

Shield

You might also note that I only sprayed half the leg guards with purple the other half will be another color but you will have to wait and see what that one will be.

Dem Leg Guards!

So what's next you ask? Well I am going to let this all dry over night and spend some time with the wife before my next 24 hour shift tomorrow. After that I will start working on blending in some dark red on the purples and see if we can get a good smooth blend/transition so that we get a good deep red on the higher pieces. From there I will get to the silvers. and the other colors.

Stay tuned. More to come this week.

Ret Cav 1.0

The Hyperion was dropped off tonight and the client was very happy. So happy in fact that I now have some more shiny models to paint up for him. I am going to be working on the Ret Cav unit and eViros (the Ret Cav Warcaster). Over the next several weeks. The paint scheme on these is going to be "black" armor and the swirl things will be a really rich red, with a touch of silver to round it out. Not sure what I am going to do with the bases yet but hey that's part of the adventure right?

So have a few shiny, bare metal pics.

Hyperion Finished.

Well its finally done. I think this one turned out pretty well. I would have preferred a different color scheme but its not my model so its all good. 

I learned a few things on this paint job. First and foremost if you are going to mix custom colors WRITE DOWN what you did. Its a pain in the rear to try to recreate a color from scratch. Second, ask for models not to be assembled prior to giving them to you. Lots of weird angles on this one to work around. 

So whats next? I am going to finish up my pAlexia and the risen than another Hyperion for the same guy. 

Here have some pics. 

Badger 2.0 (Krome)

I'm just about giddy right now. The owner of the FLGS that I go to was at Adepticon and happened to go by the Badger Airbrush booth. They were selling airbrushes and had the Krome for $80!!! Being the amazing guy he is my friend grabbed one for me.

So yea pretty much Christmas in April for this guy.

I'm excited to try this bad boy out and see just how fine I can get the detail through this airbrush. I'm just waiting on Amazon.com to deliver the hose adaptor and another quick release.


In the meantime enjoy some airbrush porn...

The Krome is at the top and the Patriot 105 is there because it rocks too.