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Just finished my Predator.
Gotta say, I like the outcome.. I think it's the best model I did so far. Only minor problems/fuckups. If I compare this to my first Rhino I did a year ago.. Jeezus Christ. The progress!

I feel I've got a good grasp on the basic techniques now, so next steps for me are to start filling the gaps (why the feth did I not do this before?) and look into weathering techniques. Oh and lenses. Lenses give me one hard time.

C&C welcome, especially the critique part... One only improves by seeing the mistakes!

Oh btw anyone know how I can put spoilers around attachements for reading pleasure?

Looks great! I still keep the first mini's I painted as a constant reminder of how far I've come, it's a great motivational tool! So much of oainting is just putting the time in to figure it out... Glad you stuck with it!

(Although I would have put the search light on the turret! The tank already had headlights, and generally would want to illuminate whatever the main gun is targeting!)

Nice airbrush modulation. Subtle but still make the green parts look a lot more interesting than just a flat coat of dark green.

Good point... Wish I'd have thought of that. But at least I can claim the searchlight is linked to the turret movement (and in the night therefore misleads the enemy targeting!)

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Thank you 2 guys for the compliments on the highlights
I did it once on my dread (also in this forum) with pure Moot Green, but it was just too bright, so I tried a mix of 50:50 and it worked great as you noticed

I don't have a lightbox or anything the like, I just use my old S2 and my working lamp to illuminate the model... but I'll try and fiddle around with it some more for my next models.

My... turret plate is backwards? Oh now I see what you mean... The thing in the front. Well, now that you mention it... I always figured thats the way up, since that way I can fit a stormbolter on it should I ever decide to. What, on second thought, doesn't make any sense since the SB goes on a different platform Luckily I didn't glue it in place for that very reason, so I can switch it around if I want. Though that side ain't painted of course... Once I do another green model I'll be sure to rectify that, mixing up colours for that small a piece would be a waste.

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Now I get it. Yes, that was intentional... kinda. I usually do this when I build my vehicles - long ranged weapons to the back, short ranged weapons mounted to the front.
Gives it some more flair and remembers me of some old WW2 tanks with rear mounted turrets plus its additional distinction between the different loadouts.

Oh and for gaks and giggles (and comparison) my first rhino.

I like the airbrushing, gives a nice vibe to the green surface. The only thing I'd change is probably go all-green on the weaponry ( partially red now. ) When I painted my Dark Angels Predator I also first tried red, but it reminded me of lipstick with Lascannons. Works fine on other guns though.

But, just a matter of taste. That's a fine Predator.

True, I was about to comment about the green on your pred because I thought it should be red
I just like to stick with the "official" colourtheme and suddenly going green would be jarring with all the other weapons. Like you said, a matter of taste

Well, I dunno about official though. Red does apply to the marines weaponry but in the Codex ( pages 39, 75 and 89 for example ) vehicle weaponry of the Dark Angels is infact green, same as in this wikia illustration:

http://warhammer40k.wikia.com/wiki/Fileark_Angels_Predator.jpg

Also the majority of "Dark Angels Predator" -google search results have green weaponry, and this also applies to the DA vehicles painted by GW's studio team. This leads me to believe the official theme is indeed green+black weaponry on vehicles, red on infantry. The only exception seems to be the Deathwing Landraider Crusader, which has red hurricane bolters. Just felt like mentioning this incase it's important for you to have the official colour scheme for your army. In any case keep up the good work.

Edit: Can't fix the emoticon out of the link. Ah well.

I stand corrected
While I think green/green looks a bit boring, green/black might be pretty kinky. I'll stick with red Stormbolters though.
Redoing the red to black should be a matter of minutes once I get round to it tomorrow.
Just a TL HB and 2 TL LCs currently. Thanks for poking my nose in that ^^

I went ahead and repainted all weapons on all vehicles.
Most unfun painting ever. Seriously.
Anyway, this is how he looks now.. decided to add some more decals and did a quick airbrushing highligh with Eshin Grey on the bigger black parts.
I honestly like the black way better than the red.

From Zero to Hero in one transition - the black makes all the difference IMHO. I often find people make DA too flat when it comes to highlighting it, but your airbrushing hits it perfectly - an admirable effort, well done!

I like the model, great work! I like the red view port glass too, reminds me that the crew may have red lighting inside.
folk say the turret is on backwards but I think it's how you like your model to look. I think it looks great!

I just finished building 5 Razorbacks, primered them, and now I get to paint them. I'm going to layer the reds up using a brush. SO that will take some time!

Again, nice work! I would like to see more of your models posted!

 Thairne wrote:

I honestly like the black way better than the red.

This way it looks more "serious" and better in my opionion aswell. Now the viewers attention is also more easily drawn towards other parts of the model, as the red doesn't stand out.

Thank you again for the flattering comments.
They are so much more honest then the "looks good" you get if you post something and people don't wanna post something bad
I hope I can repeat the level of quality... My next projects are Belial and a Techmarine, followed by a DW LR.
If I can get em up to this standard (but I suck at non-airbrush-highlighting...), expect them to be shown here too

Just make sure your paint is thinned down and run it across a paper tissue before you put it against your model.

Use the side of the brush. They paint should flow from inside of your brush to the edges. So don't put such a large blob on your brush... Guess what, that'll make it look "blobby"

Make sure that you don't overload your brush as well for the longevity of it. Paint in the metal bit means bad brush in no time.

You may need a few passes with thinned down paint, but that's waaaay better than having one thick, irregular paintline anyway.

 Thairne wrote:
I went ahead and repainted all weapons on all vehicles.
Most unfun painting ever. Seriously.
Anyway, this is how he looks now.. decided to add some more decals and did a quick airbrushing highligh with Eshin Grey on the bigger black parts.
I honestly like the black way better than the red.

Exact same color I use on my weapons Dark reaper or thunderhawk blue correct? I did that with my DA pred.

So i need to ask, What air brush colors and from where? You base and highlight color if you don't mine. I am doing a crusader soon and I like you pallet.