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<?xml:namespace prefix = o /> Step 1

 

Well, I?m just started to build/paint the Hammerhead and as I promised you I?m going to do the tutorial.

 

First of all, English is not my natural language, my apologizes for any mispelling an grammar error in the text ?including this paragraph ;-)-

 

Let?s start:

I have a problem with this tank: the Hammerhead is more like a plane/helicopter than a tank, and this tutorial can convert to something like ?How to paint airplanes?. This fait almost make me to decide to paint the lower side of the tank with a different colour: light grey, white, light blue, like some airplanes. Chromatically is very loud and interesting, but I don?t want to make a F-16, I?m going to paint a Hammerhead, and IMHO they are more ?airplanes? the Eldar Falcons and Serpents than the Tau Vehicles.

 

I imagine the Hammerheads like the Star Wars drone tanks: skimmers and not so faster vehicles. Besides, with the new multisensors, the Tau tanks can sliding at <?xml:namespace prefix = st1 ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-comffice:smarttags" /><st1:metricconverter w:st="on" ProductID="200?">200?</st1:metricconverter> near the ground, being liable of suffer the same as a tank with tracks or wheels, so: ¡hello dust and dirtiness! ¡hello chipping and rust!

 

After building and sanding the tank ?although after painting you discover that you hadn?t sanded all- we must take out the not essential pieces of the tank to paint it separately.

 

 

Normally we can shade the base colour with brown+black and after that we paint over this colour with several layers of the tank?s base colour. This time I?ll don?t make it so, I?ll starting to paint with the base colour directly.

 

I?m using Citadel paints. The problem is that this kind of paint is very dense to airbrush painting and we must to dilute it. We apply the firs layer of base colour with an airbrush, in this case I?ve used alcohol and bleached bone in a 7:3 proportion ?thanks for the alcohol?s tip, Mikel- if we paint with a brush, take care to painting with a water down paint.

 

 

Now we are going to shade over he bleached bone directly. I mixed alcohol+black+bestial brown 4:1:1 and I painted over the zones that will be shaded, joint between panels, base of the details, etc. I?ve noticed that it should be better to paint the lines a little more thick, so when you shade in this way, you should make the lines 2mm. wider.

 

 

The next step is to cover the central area between shaded areas. You must make short coats in the ?shade free? areas, entering a little the shaded areas but taking care of not to cover too much. If you paint away of the model and open the stroke ?angle- you will light the tone of the model in general.

 

 

Well, until here this part of the tutorial. In the next step we will apply a thin coat of slightly light bleached bone. After that the fun will start: Filters, washes, chipping, rust ?yes, a little ;-) ? etc.

 

Regards

Javi

Cool!
Thanks in advance, this will be most useful.

Thanks for the effort you're making in educating the rest of us. It is appreciated.

Bless your soul, Javi.

Great ! I was just looking for something like this ! It's going to be really useful ! Thanks !

If you don?t have an airbrush, don?t care, you can do it with a brush although it varies the technique a little:

 
PAINTING UNTIL THIS POINT WITHOUT AN AIRBRUSH:

 
Paint the tank with the base colour, then dark it slightly the colour, dilute it and shade.

 
When it dries, apply a dry brush very soft over the shaded areas, attempting to fade the clear areas over the dark ones, the results must be like the photo.

 
The result of this would make that for example, panel would be clearer in the central area than in the borders. Something like that as the dread of my avatar (that was painted with a brush).

I'm now working on the Step 2

STEP 2:

Once finished the general painting of the tank (plain color without painting details like lamps and sights) we?ll put the decals.

The tank now is ready for the filters sessions that it will be the following step.

This is the currently look:

I?ll paint missile-pods at the end (or when I get bored).

I?ll posting images of the tank after each filter layer, by this way we will be able to see how it goes to alter the tone (and I will also see it, I have curiosity).

Regards

Javi

Step 3

We are entering in the phase of treating the colour of the tank. We are going to begin to apply filters.

 
The idea of a filter is to alter the tone of the tank besides to unify and to eliminate contrast. Another effect that gets the application of the filters is to give a special shine to the colored surface. The painting doesn't shows the same texture if we apply it on a metallic surface or on plastic (that it is the case that occupies us). Successive filters make that the surface has a similar shine to the painting applied on metal.

Think of a filter as when we put a filter in the objective of a photographic camera. We sometimes put filters that make that the warm tones are enhanced in the pictures, other filters "cool down" the colour. Therefore, a filter should be a mixture very very water down. In my case first mix water and medium in a proportion of 8:2 and then I add to that mixture 5% of painting. 95% "dilutes", 5% painting. If we surpass 5% we will leave of being applying a filter to make "washes." The washes ones, of those that will speak later on, reflects the dust and dirty swept down by the water on a vehicle.

Depending on the surface we should apply more or less number of filters. On a dull surface, the effect will be noticed a lot, so 2 or 3 filters would be the correct one. On a glossy surface we will apply the triple more or less than the matt one. The brilliant surfaces are more difficult and I advise you that you use more medium because it will be difficult to cover the surface correctly.

We should apply using a soft paintbrush nº3 or bigger and of rounded tip. With the paintbrush wet in the mixture, we discharge it lightly on a kitchen paper and we apply quickly on the tank, trying to not to go twice by the same place. We must allow to dry it well and we proceed with the following one.

We can make filters with the colours that you want, you only have to have clear that tone wants for your tank. In the case of my Hammer, I have begun with a filter with bronzed flesh (my "Skylight") filter.

As you can see in the following pictures, the effect hardly appreciates. It is necessary to keep in mind that this it is the first layer, and besides changes the texture, difficult thing to appreciate in the pictures.

Before:

After:

Now I'm going to rest, more tomorrow.

Best regards

Javi

Incredible.

Thank you for going through all this effort - documenting, translating, and sharing - your work. I truly believe it will help me become a better painter.

You know what might be worth doing?

I am sure that someone out there is a college student or employee at a larger university. What if Javi were to write this entirely in his native language and then e-mail it to someone here who could then see about having a grad student in the language in question translate it? I know it sounds like a lot of work, but I think it would allow Javi to be much more elaborate in his explanations and not feel constrained by his command of English?

I'm guessing from the name that Javi is Scandanavian, am I right? Anyone out there think that would be worth the hassle? I kind of think it would be worth it just because of how impressed I am with the painting job. Truely artistic.

Sal.

Javi is usually short for Javier - not a Scandanavian name, and all the boxes in the background are in Spanish. I suppose he could be Scandanavian.... but it's not freakin' likely.

Hahaha!!

I bow before your superior powers of perception.

Hi all,

Yes, I'm Spanish ;-)

I'm still working to improve my English

The tutorial is now in stand-by because my wife and I just finished another project:




We made a new Bloodclaw, look the first pic howling ;-)

Regards
Javi

Omg he looks fearsome :S  ! Congratulations !

Congratulations to both to you and to your partner in the latest project!!
Now enjoy and forget the tutorial for a while.

Congratulations! I wouldn't say that you have finished a project - I'd say you have just started! I hope you and your family will enjoy good health and happiness.

The Hammerhead looks great, but I think the latest project is coming along even better.

Congratulations, you are a very lucky man.

-Hans

Awwwwwwwwww.


Boy or girl?




Oh, and if you can get a tutorial for your newest project (not the assembly process, just how to ensure they come out alright), I think you could make a LOT of money

I think we can wait on more of the tutorial, all things considered.

Congratulations!

Congratulations!!

Congratulations.

After my father responsibilities, the tutorial must go on.<?

 

Well, I?ve done the filters and with them the step 3

 

I?ve applied another bronzed flesh filter, other with green, and the last filter with space wolves grey.

 

 

In the Step 4 I?ll begin with isolated washes.

In the 5^th, chipping, water down, more chipping, rust, etc. -the fun techniques -

 

Regards

Javi

Step 4:

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In this step we are going to apply weathering effects. These techniques will show the sign of the inclemency of the weather that the tank suffers day by day.

 

We must to imagine a ?movie? with your tank as main figure, in this ?movie? the most important thing is the timeline, in this timeline it happens actions like hits, scrapping, chipping, rain, cleaning, maintenance, battles, dust, more raining, more hits...

 

First of all, we begin with some old chippings (maybe 2 weeks old or more). With a dark colour we can make the tone mixing scorched brown and black. Ever with irregular marks and with little dots around the big ones.

 

Next, the Watermarks

 

Imagine a tank with dust over it, then it rains, and the water draws down the dust and the dirtiness, grease, etc. then more dust over the tank, it rains again, etc. A very good example of this is my car ;-P

 

To achieve this, we must use the same mix as the filters but this time with a 10% of paint. You can use sand, brown and grey colours. Apply it with a soft brush making circles on plain zones and from up to down on the vertical ones. It must look like dribbles. If the mix accumulates in some gaps, maybe it isn?t wrong because the dirtiness usually fall in these gaps, between armour plates for instance. If you don?t want it, you can dry the brush and pick up the mix from the gaps with it. Two or three layers of these watermarks can be enough. Notice that you must apply the mix with your brush following the logical path of the water flooding over the vehicle.

 

After that (and when the watermarks are dry) we are going to do paint chip that has scrapped the previous layer of paint under the current one, the primer layer or bare metal. I?ve used a mix of stone grey and black and a little of scorched brown. Applied like the previous chipping step.

 

Sometimes, when the vehicle suffers small chipping and scrapping it is repainted, if the vehicle suffers more scrapping in this area, you?ll see the previous layer. You can represent this by painting chips with a lighter shade of the base colour. You can paint this effect in areas of contact with the crew, edges, etc.

 

You have to see the tank thoroughly before the chipping painting. Looking areas liable to suffer damage and the ones who can?t (hidden areas away of hits, use or friction).

 

Notice that the chipping must be done in a logical way, is a good idea to watch real trucks, diggers, etc. they are a great stream of inspiration. If you have a digital camera, take photos, so you?ll have a very good reference when you take the brushes.

 

 

Look at the Tau symbol, these stains should be the results of making a filter with too much paint in the mix. ?in this case they appears because the surface of the decal is too bright, more than the tank?s paint and the previous mix is not valid for this area- I?ve left it here to show you. After this, I?ll clean it with a cotton bud with a little of alcohol.

 

 

Now I?m going to paint the recent rust, the details, Step 5 and dirtiness Step 6

 

Regards

Javi

Congratulations, Javi. I hope your child is healthy. Amazing how you can take time out of a busy day to continue this project. Enjoy it while you can, those first few days are alot quieter than what you will experience for the next eighteen years.

Very informative update. I will not only try this waterwarking on my dreadnoughts, but I think this would be good on my terminators as well.

 

When you write of this: "we begin with some old chippings (maybe 2 weeks old or more)." I assume you mean chippings from either the paint pot or the pallette?

<?xml:namespace EN-GB[ mso-ansi-language: face="Arial" img]Step 5<?xml:namespace prefix = o />  

Well, here you have the punctual recent and superficial rust dribbles (a little) very localized and I?ve gone for the details: lamps, missiles, etc.

<o:p 0pt[ 0cm MARGIN:> 

After that, I?ve cleaned big drops, and dusting. To make the dust effect you could use, sanded pastel crayons or better pigments.<?xml:namespace prefix = o />

Choose the proper colour: Sand, brown, black, etc. put a little over the part of the tank that you wish to dusting and rub it using a very soft brush. Currently I?m using a makeup brush to dust my models.

In this tank, you can?t see very much the effects of the dusting because the tone of the tank an the sand colour are very similar, but on the darker zones the effect is more obvious.

I?ve done some smoke effects on the cannon and engines using black smoke pigment.

For the base, an old Rhino door, sand, stones and cable. The Imperial Fists junk, is painted using some of the techniques of this tutorial, and painted in less of 10 minutes!!!

 

Some pictures of the finished tank in CMoN:

http://www.coolminiornot.com/120818

http://www.coolminiornot.com/120781

 

This is the end of this tutorial, if you have some questions about it, I?m reading you

Javi

WOW. Thats beautiful. Amazing work. Ill use this tutorial when painting my baslisk.

Javi, thanks for taking the time to put up the pictures and the tutorial (your English is much better than my Spanish). I've noticed your techniques are similar to those used by finescale modelers in the Unites States. Most painters here don't use the dusting methods or some of the other techniques you mentioned. Are these techniques commonly used by the players/painters in your area?

Also, how are you painting your troops?

Very nice work. Unless you are very good its not worth trying to paint a weathered vehicle. If you don't get it just right it only looks like sloppy painting, not weathered paint.

Congratulations on your new born.

Am I the only one to imagine your baby shaking the Hammerhead like a rattle and happily trying to nibble a corner afterwards.

Posted By Orlanth on 06/03/2006 7:28 AM
Congratulations on your new born. Am I the only one to imagine your baby shaking the Hammerhead like a rattle and happily trying to nibble a corner afterwards.

AAAAARRRGHHH!!!!

My worst nightmare :S