Forum adverts like this one are shown to any user who is not logged in. Join us by filling out a tiny 3 field form and you will get your own, free, dakka user account which gives a good range of benefits to you: No adverts like this in the forums anymore. Times and dates in your local timezone. Full tracking of what you have read so you can skip to your first unread post, easily see what has changed since you last logged in, and easily see what is new at a glance. Email notifications for threads you want to watch closely. Being a part of the oldest wargaming community on the net. If you are already a member then feel free to login now.

I'm gonna keep this thread bookmarked, I'm painting my own BA and so much of this is so exemplary I can't help but watch and learn the epic and perhaps apply it to my army

Bedankt DijnsK!
Well, I paid around 140, shipping included. That's Euro's, in Yankee Dinars it would be around 175 with the current rates.
^_^
I'm especially hyped about that nozzle... just two little prongs, no 'cone' so most likely this will not clog up fast. Probably needs more attention when cleaning though...

Cheers Titan Atlas! Welcome to the thread, kick yer feet up and grab a beer.

I'm still slowly chugging away on the Land Speeders. But sheer shock and disbelief with the silly new Stomtalon made me cough up this...

In the mean time, some progress on the Land Speeders. The end is in sight. these pictures are right after the decals and some weathering done with a little sponge. I applied some dark grey, some tin, some boltgun metal, and some light brown.
The decals might shine a bit too much in these pics as they all have a little coat of gloss varnish on them to seal them.
At the moment the models are coated in satin varnish and I'm ready for the oil paints. I decided to go with satin instead of gloss as I don't want the surfaces to be tóo slippery for the wash with oil paints.

Coming along quite nicely there Meph.

Indeed you're doing a great job

very nice .. you managed to get the yello on the helmets very clean and smooth.

SL

Cheers fellas! I would have taken some pics today post-oil work but it's pouring outside and a dark as hell. Looks as if somebody accidentally poked Mordor with a stick.

Yep same over here too Meph, Speaking of "poked with a stick" great and rapid progress mate.

Sweet. What kit are those knight's helmets from?

Honestly, I can't remember... :( I ordered quite a bit of exotic bits from here and there. It's not from the Coolminornot shop I think, but if I remember correctly, it's from a little Polish company that makes WH40K bits.
I'll see if I can dig it up, as they had other nice stuff as well.

Oh ok so its from a 3rd party vendor? I though it was some GW Fantasy bit.

The heavy bolter guy looks badass.

Yeah, if you look around on site like coolminiornot and ebay, you'll find a lot of cool non-GW, clearly 40K stuff. I think there's even a thread here on dakkadakka somewhere that has a list of 3rd party companies.

So, here they are after the oil wash (mostly black, with a little bit of dark brown)and dried out. I did some small corrections using pointy cotton sticks damp with turpentine. I cleaned up some plates, the shoulder pads, gave the yellow helmets a light 'polish', etc. This really helped to brighten up some areas, and using the flat bits of the ear swabs I lightened some too-darkened areas while leaving the wash neatly in the recesses.
Now I need to seal it with a coat of of satin varnish and then I can go to work with thinned inks to add some heat distortion to engine- & weapon nozzles, and pipes. Seal it again and then some more oil paints for grease stains, seal that layer with varnish and then add some weathering powders.
Oh and I just saw i need to give the two silver areas of the crests on speeders 2 & 3 with an oil paint wash using purely black, to keep the tint of the light blue/purple wash intact.

Enjoy! C&c welcome as always.

Excellent work Meph. Love the photo montage... really shows off the figure and the quality of your work nicely.

Cheers mate!


Automatically Appended Next Post:

reps0l wrote:Oh ok so its from a 3rd party vendor? I though it was some GW Fantasy bit.

The heavy bolter guy looks badass.

Found 'm!!!

http://sciborminiatures.com/



.

Man your weathering is ace! Notably on the metals. the weapons and engine parts. Also very uniformed and consistant.. the bumper /skirting on the speeded for example.

SL

Cheers mate! Well, i must say that the key to weathering, especially with a sponge is dryness. Even more critical than with a drybrush. Even when dabbing a little sponge that appears almost 'dry' and ready, applying some more pressure can suddenly bring forth unwanted wetness, so it's a matter of balance. For edges you'll need a slightly wetter sponge so paint comes off a little easier on the edge you're working on, and when when attacking flat surfaces you'll want a very, very dry sponge so you can stab it like a madman without smearing paint everywhere, but rather building up the paint gradually, even with mad-attack-sponging.

Yay! The decals got printed!
Crap! I already managed to frak up two of them! Maybe because it's Chinese waterslide paper, possible because of the reasons outlined below.
As you can see it's rather dark and cracked although in real life it does appear more crisp than on these photos. The dark probably comes from the fact that the white waterslides are ever so slightly transparent, probably warranting a white undercoat. And as you can see it's also cracked. But that probably comes from the fact that to try out, I just gave the decals one coat of satin varnish from a can because that was easy and fast. Also, considering the size of it, it also has to soak for quite a bit until it comes loose from the paper. Yesterday, I coated them with a second and third satin varnish and just now with a coat of gloss. This will probably seal in the ink strongly enough. I'm going to leave this to dry overnight and then put on a new decal. luckily I added those side panels 7 times per sheet I printed, so I have 5 left and can always print some more.

That's pretty amazing, Meph! I just went back and looked at your original idea, and even though this one isn't quite as sharp, I think it still has a pretty cool quality to it. I've heard that printing complicated designs on decal paper can be difficult, so it may not be the specific paper you're using. I wonder if there's another way you could do it. Since it will be solid and square, does it actually need to be on decal paper? Could you just print on a heavier stock paper, glue it, and seal it? You might be able to get a crisper image that way. And I kind of like the cracking; it adds an interesting effect to it, making it a little worn and weathered. Are you going to leave the sharp corners on or trim it to fit the raised piece?

I am a bit jealous of the skill here. I am a big fan of red and this was/is being done very well. It'll look awesome when the whole army is together.

Are you using the new GW paint sets or the old ones?

Cheers guys!

Yellowbeard wrote:...Could you just print on a heavier stock paper, glue it, and seal it? You might be able to get a crisper image that way. And I kind of like the cracking; it adds an interesting effect to it, making it a little worn and weathered. Are you going to leave the sharp corners on or trim it to fit the raised piece?

Curse you and your logic! lololol Since it's a solid print on a raised and defined surface, that's actually a great idea, dammit!!! I'll print some tomorrow and see how it goes. The prints themselves are actually nice & bright, as well very crisp. They're printed at 600dpi And even on the smaller decals with text everything is still readable while it's the tiniest of fonts. I'm actually pretty sure now that it's a combination of the single coat of varnish in combo with the Micro Sol used to 'seal' the decal that both softened the lines and darkened the colours a bit. I think I'm stretching the capabilities of the paper a bit with the fine detail and subtle colours. Printed with a colour laser printed on nice & slick paper it might work better.

The crackling effect in itself looks nice indeed and since I'll have a few extra prints to spare I think I'll experiment with the crackling medium I also used on the large FW marine. If the medium is painted on very thinly it will crackle in very fine cracks. Even if applied to a varnish coat, which will be needed to protect the decal in any case, it might not actually tear the underlying print apart but it will provide some fine texture that might hold a thin oil paint wash. And who knows, it might still perform exactly as it should and crack the underlying ink in a satisfying manner. Another thing worth trying out.

And indeed the decal/print will indeed be cut down to the panel shape and the edges neatly worked away by some gentle cutting, sanding, and painting. I do not want anyone to clearly see that that thing has been stuck on there. No sirree

paulguise wrote:I am a bit jealous of the skill here. I am a big fan of red and this was/is being done very well. It'll look awesome when the whole army is together.
Are you using the new GW paint sets or the old ones?

Cheers mate. Well, the paint effect is actually not thàt hard to achieve. You can basically boil it down to a few simple workflows in terms of material use. The actual accuracy or layering/blending is not that complex here as it involves mainly washed and drybrushing. To break it down to its simplest form:
-Inks: thin them, heavily. I also find that using demineralized water works better than regular water. Just the cheap unscented kind used for ironing clothes and found dead-cheap in any supermarket. I would recommend easily a 60/40 mix of ink/water, or even up to 40/60 depending on the desired effect and the general 'darkness' of the ink. Obviously more ink if you want to for a heavy wash, way more water if you want to use it as a glaze and just change the tone or depth/warmth of the colour.
And apply it in two to three layers at least., making sure the previous layer is at least touch-dry, preferably completely dry before putting on the next layer. play with the mix untill you get a feel for it and what you want to achieve with it.

-Drybrushing: Simple rules, but you have to stick by them.
-Only start drybrushing when there's almost nothing coming off by testing it on some newspaper or the meat of your hand. If you see any clear streaks, rub off your brush some more on a (dry) piece of cloth. Start with a very gently touch on the model and see how it goes. The goal is to really dust on the paint on the edges. The dryness is good, you can really have at it pretty wildly. Not only will you highlight the edges, as they will catch the most paint, but you also add some very subtle texturing on the flat area's. This is why your brush needs to be very dry with almost nothing coming off. Any streaks will just smudge up the flat area's and pool on the edges.

-Always, always use a 100 completely dry brush. Even the slightest dampness of the hairs will make your life more difficult. Use mutliple brushes, if you can, so you can clean one colour and let it dry while you continue with another. Also, because of the necessity of a dry brush, when highlighting, don't bother cleaning your brush when you add some lighter colour to the paint for the next highlight. I usually go for three highlights, with perhaps a very light last one to pick out some edges. it sounds a lot but as it's drybrushing it goes pretty fast.

-Layering: I usually built up the red like so (after the undercoat):
-base coat
-dark wash
-drybrushed highlights
-thin glaze to blend in the highlights
-if needed, a touch-up on the highlights here and there.

Of course, protect/seal your paint with spray varnish before every wash or glaze. And the thinned oil paint wash I mostly do also give a nice subtle extra shade to the colour.

Oh, and I mostly use the previous GW paints, just because I bought a bunch of reds in one go. But I also used a lovely red acrylic from Humbrol, and reds from Vallejo. The base coat is roughly a 50/50 mix of mechandendrite red and blood red, thinned with vallejo's thinner and demin. water.

cool stuff Meph well done mate not sure about the "we brake for kittens" try latin lol "nos fregit enim feles"

Wow that human-sun helmet looks creepy awesome

nos fregit enim feles lol Good one! In any case that decal is coming just under the tail, right above the aft ramp and obscured by the dreadnought clamp.

Cheers 2Spartan!


Automatically Appended Next Post:
So apparently the few coats of gloss were the key. ^^

Ta-daaa!



So obviously they still need some work in terms of a few coats of Micro Sol, and the pilot's name needs some trimming. The pilot's name is a tribute to the generous Texan who sold me his pre-order extension kit for the errrr Thunder Raven!...?
There's also a request for another Texan coming onto the missile pods.

Funny how all these Texans ended up involved in a Belgian build... Must be the beer.

Decals complete! I just need to do some light touch-ups here and there. The home-printed decals are a tougher breed than their regular cousins. Days of furious stabbing and applying Micro Sol and rubbing, stabbing, rubbing, coating... still left me with the off air bubble here and there that won't go away. I already camouflaged most with some paint but the close up pics revealed some more.
But basically, this birdy is ready for weathering!

I absolutely love the "Welcome to Texas" decal.


Beautiful work all round Meph. Really nice. You should be proud of that.

Cheers, mate! Yeah, I'm getting eager to get on with the weathering as I really, really want to peel the masking tape off of the cockpit. ^^

Actually looks like it could go to space and back. Sleek and fast. Love the decals. Oh so much more goodness to come..

SL

Looks great, Meph! I love the decals.

Thanks guys! Yeah, I'm really happy with the way the design is turning out. For something i had absolutely no plans of, or even sketches, it's not too shabby. Even-if-I-do-say-so-myself.

If you guys are interested, I'd be happy to share the sheets I used for the home made decals.

I'll take some pictures later on today or tomorrow of the Stormraven, that's received it's first weathering, but first:
Here's some progress. The speeders are 99% finished. They just need some light weathering powder and then they're done. Enjoy!