Nemo part 2.

Just a quick update this time. I have started to work on the chipping. I'm pretty happy with the left shoulder but the right looks a bit too regular. Other than that it will soon be time to add a bit of oil wash to "run" down from the rust spots, and them on to working the face.

Nemo update 1.

Well this guy is coming along nicely. I decided that the end goal is going to look as though Nemo has seen some better days. With that in mind I started out with a rust under coat. I'll be using the hair spray technique on this one. I feel that it gives a real feel with depth to the rust and pitting in the armor.

Here you can see that I started with a base brown and worked up different spots to almost an orange. It's important to vary the colors of your browns as it is both visually stimulating and mimics what rust actually looks like.

Next up was a heavy layer of gloss varnish. This is important. It needs to be heavy to protect the rust layer for whats to come down the road.

After the varnish had time to cure (about 8 hours) It was time to coat the model in hair spray. As I've said time and again, you must use the cheap stuff. Aqua Net all the way. Don't go and steal your significant others (or even your own) fancy smells good stuff. We need the cheap stuff that almost instantly activates when wet.

I let the hairspray dry overnight. While it does not require anywhere near that long to dry I was tires and hit the sack.

Next up it was time to base coat. The standard paint job for this sculpt and pretty much all Cygnar is blue..... I am not going blue. It's just boring to me. I wanted an almost yellowish green look for this one and started with a nice base coat. One thing to keep in mind is that the hairspray will activate with water. So when working over it you must keep moving your airbrush and build up the layers slowly. This takes time but it is worth it. With the base coat laid down It was time to apply the highlights. I basically took my base coat and added white till I was happy that there would be enough contrast and even help bring out a bit of shadow.

And not it's time to let everything dry. Next up will be paint chipping and weathering around the rust. 

General Adept Sebastian Nemo!

I think it's time to bring out this bad boy. This was the Gen Con bust that Privateer Press released last year. He's been sitting on the shelf a while. I've never done a bust from PP before, but having worked with plenty of their regular models I was a bit nervous to crack the box open. PP likes to use resin and PVC plastic. Anyone who has had the displeasure of working with PVC knows just how frustrating and time consuming it is to get mold lines and imperfections out of the material. You can't really use a hobby knife as the stuff forms long strands and gets really weak and likes to peal like an apple. Using a metal file is a no go as the stuff likes to shred. I have found that the Tamia (sic?) file sticks work well on PVC but take a while to get it filed down right.

So after all of that I opened the box.

I was quite surprised at just how clean the model was right out of the gate. 

You can see that there is very little to clean up on the front side. Just a bit of flash right under the lower belly. 

On the back between the shoulders was a vent that needed to be cut off and sanded down. Other than that there was a very slight mold line on the top of the coil sticking out above his head. 

The shoulder things are another matter. These had really bad mold lines on the under side. I can forgive this as its going to sit flush against the model (and do not really need to be added in any case). 

All in all this looks like it is going to be a really fun project to work on over the next few weeks.

As a side note. I'll be testing out the new SOTAR 2020 on this one. So bonus right? 

The new Behemoth!

Well Privateer Press actually managed to really impress me with an updated version of a classic model. The old Behemoth was clunky and top heavy with tiny legs (think body builder who skips leg day). When the new model came out I was a bit skeptical of replacing my already bought and painted version, however fate intervened and my old model decided that even with pins it was time for the metal twigs it called legs to let go.

So here we are with the new and improved Big B. I love the way it protrudes bulk. They really nailed it on the head with the proportions and really looks menacing. When I think of a giant stompy robot in a steampunk setting this is most definitely what my mind goes to.

Without further ado I give you my version of the Behemoth (also scroll through the pics for a look at the old one).

And as mentioned above here is my old one. Please note this is before I had a light box or a real camera or really knew what I was doing when painting.

A wild post appears!

Let me start off with a BIG apology. It's been about 5 months since my last post, and for that I am truly sorry. I can give you all kinds of excuses but hey I'm back and I have all summer to post pictures and paint models. So let the shenanigans begin.

To start, here is the Khador Conquest. I did this in my normal Inks first style. It was a bit more of a challenge as the larger the model the more light has to "hit" it. It took a few tries to get the shading and highlights to where I was happy with them. Other than that a large model like this is pretty much the same. Make sure your paint is thin and work in coats.

Then for run I did up an older metal Khador Destroyer for fun. I did this one in about 2 hours. Nothing special just wanted a quick project to work on in a color other than red. 

Up next was the Khador Grolar. I tried something different and went with a high contrast between the Red and bright Green. I like it. If you look carefully at the shield on the right arm you will notice some purple and blue inks in an attempt to make the gold look a bit more tarnished. 

Some much needed Red.

Hey there folks. I got a bit of time tonight to work on the bust. I was able to start on the red metallic of the shoulder armor. I started by masking off the skin with Silly Putty. That might sound weird but it's a fantastic way to mask, it does not leave any residue and is really easy to get into cracks and crevasse. More importantly it is easy to remove with no issues.

I started with Vallejo Model Air - Steel which is a bit bright for what I normally use but for this I want it to stick out a bit more before bringing it down with glazes later. Once that was dry I used P3 - Red ink and did a nice fine layer leaving most of the metallic shine.

Then it was time for the gloss coat to seal in the freshness.

I had a bit more time so I spent the next 2 hours building this guy. It's the latest large model for Khador from Privateer Press and is also totally in hard plastic on sprue. Which was nice but a heck of a lot of pieces for one large model.

Busting out!

Ok silly title aside.... I got a bit of work done on the orc bust today.

The first thing to do was set up where I wanted the highlights to be, for a model this size I really just used where the light fell on the model, which made it rather easy. I used Vallejo Game Color - Pure White for this one. I figured with the greens and yellows that were to be applied I did not want to go with a rosy skin town for the highlights.

Once that was dry it was time for the first ink layer. For this I used FW Artists inks - Green. Using the airbrush set at a low psi (about 8) I started just moving it around till I got the saturation I was looking for. The hard part is to get coverage without going too dark and covering up the highlights while making sure you get full coverage on the model. 

This is what it looked like after the first green was applied. You can see that there is a bit of highlight and some dark but it's not terribly differentiated. Again I used the Pure white to touch up the highlights 

Then it was time to apply the second layer of green. I wanted something a bit lighter than just a standard green so I mixed FW- Yellow with the FW-Green and thinned it to just about a water consistency. Which leaves us here. 

After that it was time to put on the first coat of Gloss Varnish and let it cure over night. 

Oh and I did a bit of work on the hair. Which if we are honest kinda looks like a red worm right now......