some time ago I decided to light up a railhead
spent time laying out the circuit buying parts but then finances being what they are was unwilling to go on the board fab.
So, A year later after running out of models to assemble I decided it was time to finish that hammerhead.

First a bit of history. I took a railhead, set various parts in a vice and milled out many slots for lights.
I then found whatever plastic I could to cover these ports and then went shopping for SMIC's to do the job.
I finally decided on some UV(405nm) diodes for their tendancy to play well with flourescent materials(Higher photon energy, go figure) and then was unwilling to drop the 50, now probably 40 to get a board fabbed after having layed out the SM schematic so tightly.

Finaly I got around to deadbuggint he electronicsc rather than populating a board and voila!



Unfortunately I assembled the hull before taking a picture of the parts. It was a wirey mess.



The railgun is set to fire a sequential set of 8 lights down the barrel. Deadbugging can be messy. This made me really wish I had that board fabbed except on second thought a flex cable would have been better, though likely more expensive.



The nacells had foil glued in place to decrease light absorption since the UV LED's arent very powerful Cylindrical lens arrays were assembled using small acrylic rod cut and bonded together. There is also a wire mesh behind the intake grill as said grill was milled out. The exhaust ports/thrust ports were also cut open and additional lens arrays were glued in place.

sound cool, hope it works out ok

Sounds awesome, i really hope it works out great
(just 1uped you Death Gear)

Really interesting. I think the nacelles are going to look the coolest. Have you given any thought to how you're going to paint it?

I just fired up the railgun circuit last night and it worked first time out of the gate! Well two lights had broken leads but that was easy to fix.

Ive given a lot of thought as to how I will paint it. And as yet have been unable to decide on a scheme that is worthy of the effort that has gone into the model.

Suggestions are very welcome.
If I did lightning I would have to do something different and new to make it stand out from the rest of my army.
If I did fire I was thinking going more violet flames or perhaps inverting the flame color so black is hottest.
I have another idea but it is so complicated I dont know If my airbrush skills are up to par, though that makes it the most enticing as it would be a severe challenge.

Im looking for sleep, some flashy, and stunning. Something that makes you think "Im #@%ed" when facing it.

I will also have to adjust highlighting to compliment the light sources. The railgun is ~405nm(deep purple/blue) the railgun power supply is ~470nm(blue) The nacelle front and side are ~405 while the exhaust is ~470. The drone lights are ~630nm(red) the target array on the nose is ~530nm(green) and I realized after closing it up the headlights are blue 470 and white(I meant to do blue and blue) so I will use some blue plastic to filter the white likely forcing an attenuation of the current driving the other blue light. And anywhere there is 405nm and possibly 470 I can use fluorescent paints to good effect. The fun part will be masking all of these lights when painting.

Suggestions on paint schemes anyone?

Any chance of a photo with its lights on so we can see what it looks like as it may make it easier for folks to offer suggestions..

Ok, Ive been lazzy and havent kept up with this.
Too buisy painting and modeling.

first off, the hammerhead.
I painted it about 2 weeks after the last post but had to stop because I was missing something I need to pull off an effect I wanted, and then I just kept changing my mind about what to do. so while I keep flipping on how to finish it Ill post a progress picture.



And im working on a Necron destroyer(I believe) to go with my monolith. Someone said in a painting competition the judges of the monolith were interested in what the rest of the army would look like. So Ill do a few necrons to figure that out for myself!


And ive finally "finished" scratching a fighter craft I designed and have slowly been working on for a few months.
This is a picture of it after I removed it from its mold and sanded it down. Eventually Ill buy some resin and make a few more.

And eventually Ill finish its larger brother. but Im looking forward to, and fearing screwing up, painting this lovely lady.

OMG! I am so jealos. The hammerhead reminds of something. These are great.

You sir are an exceptional artist. I like the mesh pattern on the hammerhead and how the model as a whole looks urban, techno, camo, awesome etc.

Don't be frightened. If it is a necron destroyer thing, then you should go all-out on it. Also, are there any pics of the monolith?

woooooah....

Thats wicked!
Do you use an airbrush?

And i need to ask.... HOW did you do the mesh!? It looks amazing!

Amazing work, love the fighter design.

thats some trippy painting

The necron destroyer is supposed to go with this monolith


better image here
http://www.dakkadakka.com/gallery/46501-Awesome%20Paintjob%2C%20Freehand%2C%20Great%20Paintjob%2C%20Monolith%2C%20Necrons.html

The Hammerhead is not done as I want to add some detail to it but im still not sure what would complete the floating silver armor panels.
after that I have to add a base level of fine detail to the lights, gems, etc etc.

The necron destroyer is probably going to be called nearly done right now though i may go back and add some fine details to it. Ill post a picture of its current state soon.

And I have to wait till I can afford new paints for the fighter as I dont have the colors I need to finish it.

Ive also been adding a bit of finishing touches to the barracuda and tigershark. Still not sure how to paint the bottom of the tigershark.

For references as to what im talking about just check out my image gallery
http://www.dakkadakka.com/core/gallery-search.jsp?dq=atropos907&paintjoblow=0&paintjobhigh=10&coolnesslow=0&coolnesshigh=10&auction=0&skip=30&ll=3&s=tb&sort1=5&sort2=0&=Search

-----------------------
Im also considering opening up for commissions but I will only paint to roughly the standards you see here and only vehicles or monstrous creatures. It will be a spare time thing so I want low volume and I want to put a real effort into what I paint and it will be fairly expensive. Thoughts? What do you think the monolith's or tigershark's paint job would go for. If you would PM me with suggestions so we dont clutter this blog up.

I finally got a necron destroyer nearly done. Had him for a while before finally getting down to finishing his paint job.
Next I believe I will work on finishing the manta.

Click on the image for a larger view

And Ive just opened a website offering limited Commissions. I wont do army painting and for now no troops. The idea is to provide paint jobs comparable to what you've seen here for tanks and titans.
http://sites.google.com/site/thirdfatecreations/

If you are going ot do that with the whole army then I say yes, do it! that is the most amazing lighting affects that I have ever seen! You should put in a model or two, maybe the monolith, to Golden Daemon!

Thanks Brotheralexos but I don't believe I will ever try to enter into a GD unless I end up living near one of the locations.
Id rather spend the money for travel and hotel on hobby and painting supplies.
Though im running out of room at home hence opening up to a small number of commissions.

Truly amazing work, destroyer's looking ace.

Finally finished it!
here are two picture sets of it i not sure which is better
they are pretty big so click on them for a higher detailed view.
Comments and suggestions always appreciated.
And now... To finish the manta... we shall see


edit: as there seems to be confusion. the model below is a tigershark(scratch built) I also have a scratch built manta and barracuda and the manta is in need of finishing. But because the manta is so bloody big I keep putting it off even though it only needs fine details.

Amazing stuff. It's like you're the RUSH album designer come to life!

i don't know if it is possible to offer any suggestions... it would be like trying to tell Van Gogh or Picasso how to paint! haha, well on a more serious note that manta is outstanding. i would love to know how you did that! oh, and the set with the black background is better in my opinion, the white distracts from the paint job. i can wait to what you do next!

wait, i see a link to an airbrushing guide... sweet!

ha!

I like your models very much.

I will look forward to finding how you painted them.

they are very original and I can see this becoming big!

I look forwrd to more....

DC

WOW!! I take it that's space camo on the manta, 'cos if it isn't, it sure looks like it! Outstanding airbrushing.

Vitruvian XVII wrote:WOW!! I take it that's space camo on the manta, 'cos if it isn't, it sure looks like it! Outstanding airbrushing.

Its not a Manta its a Barracuda note the twin railguns under the nose structure just thought id correct you on that.

ummmmm WOW is right.

Woops! WOW still stands though!!

Alright thats pretty freaking cool. 10/10

BOSS_PIMPALOTZ wrote:

Vitruvian XVII wrote:WOW!! I take it that's space camo on the manta, 'cos if it isn't, it sure looks like it! Outstanding airbrushing.

Its not a Manta its a Barracuda note the twin railguns under the nose structure just thought id correct you on that.

Actually it is a tiger shark, the AX-1-0 version with the heavy railguns.

Ok, I believe I will consider the top of the manta finished



Ive been making a few tutorials. eventually I will put them up.
Im not sure If Ill finish the bottom since its a scratch build and the bottom is a bit structurally ugly.
Now...what to work on next...

atropos907 wrote:Ok, I believe I will consider the top of the manta finished

Really? I mean... Really?

Done much work in digital sir?

maluendix wrote:

atropos907 wrote:Ok, I believe I will consider the top of the manta finished

Really? I mean... Really?

I do recognize sarcasm and yet looking at the manta I can see so much I could do to the top. But since it sees the light of day but once a year, there is little point. If I spent more on it (more than 30 or so) or if there were better painted things on the table I might be motivated to make the manta more compete. The freehand is close enough to my minds eye, within my ability to paint, but is a lot of detail work for the armor plates, weaponry, and other detail on the hull that could use more attention.

Qualude wrote:Done much work in digital sir?

Nope, But I like scenes to captivate my eye and digital space scenes do that quite often. Hence I use CG and Hubble images for inspiration.

The Tau Ships are amazing.. Ive always wanted to do something like that.. Impressive sir.

HOW?

That must have taken a weeks solid work.

That looks awesome btw!

*O*

DC

That's some very impressive work, atropos - for once I must agree with dc, and ask how you painted such effects.

Bravo, sir, bravo.

deadly chicken wrote:HOW?

Dysartes wrote: I must agree with dc, and ask how you painted such effects.

Useless answer: Lots of time patience and planning.

Long answer
Check out my website
http://sites.google.com/site/thirdfatecreations/gallery
At the bottom I show design vs results comparison for the baracuda Manta and tigershark(before the tigershark was 100% complete)
I either keep the plan in my head if its simple(rare) sketch up the idea on paper and for big projects I care about, a lot or have a hard time with composition, I use GIMP and create the images shown in the bottom of that gallery as a guide. The top of the tigershark was well planned out and kept looking at a reference printout(BW) while painting. For the bottom of the tigershark I used a simple picture and then kept an idea of how I wanted it to look in my head while painting it.

But I still do a lot of freehand and deviate from the picture where deviation is prudent or seems appropriate.

Essentially, this is why my prices are fairly high. If I take a commission I will be putting a lot of effort into it. Even if a computer example isnt needed the planning, prep, and especially freehand take quite a while. I honestly didn't bother keeping track of time spent painting as that can sometimes be depressing. Its done when I think its done. And I typically set arbitrary deadlines for myself just to ensure I don't dawdle too much over composition.

it doesn't look done to me.

as in... *speechless*
simply outstanding

Amazing... speechless is and understatement

Ive started putting pdf tutorials up on my website.
http://sites.google.com/site/thirdfatecreations/tutorials-1

They are cleaned up versions of whats on this site. I will be adding more soon and then going back and improving them further.
Video versions to come soon, I'm just still trying to figure out what video software to use. So far I have uploaded the starter, and a basic troubleshooting tutorial.
Suggestions for what kinds of tutorials you would like to see would be useful. The site has a list of what I intend to do.

And Ive started a chaos pred. I hope it doesn't suck. I have fairly ambitious plans for it, we shall see if they hold.

Epic Manta

I just uploaded a GEMS tutorial featuring the gems on the manta.
http://sites.google.com/site/thirdfatecreations/tutorials-1

Now onto the next one when time permits.
Concerning the video tutorials, audio editing in videos can be... interesting.
Anyone know of descent music that can be freely or nearly freely liscenced for use in these videos.
If not you'll just have to deal with me talking, for which I would pity you.

Several tutorials have been uploaded to my site.

I believe I will be done with the hammerhead soon. So far I think its turning out well

In addition ive been working on some basic turrets and shield emplacements for an apoc game.
I think I will keep them a simple white with black trim lines.
Suggestions to add just a little more detail?

Looks great, really like the 3 guns in the front.

Ive been making a lot of progress on various projects but this one is finally close to complete.

Its a simple foam tau research station 1ft square.
I may add a bit more detail to the ground but otherwise I believe its on to get the turrets or landing pad to an acceptable level of completion for table top gaming.

Any suggestions to make it look a little more "tau"?

Damn that looks nice!

The question I have regarding the research station is should I add grass and rocks? or just add some road weathering and call it good?

Rocks maybe, but I'd leave the grass off. For some reason lush fields of green grass don't strike me as very T'au, but rocks seem to have a habit of being everywhere across the galaxy.

Agreed.

And recently I have been working on painting for bot a big apoc battle and random small entries into a painting competition. Today I decided I wanted to see how the army looked arrayed on the fortifications Id made. The purpose was to make some fortifications that can effectivly double the combat value of most of the army so that it has a better chance of holding off a larger opposing apoc force. Tomorrow I shall take some pictures of the hammerhead which I forgot to do today. If I had more time I'd put "tau styled" awnings over the walkways to give the troops cover from aircraft. But the walkways are supposed to support jump troops so an awning would make this more difficult.

This is mindblowing. What you need to do is make video tutorials (kinda like LBursley, his are great). Ridiculously cool stuff mate! Hats off!

atropos, Iam not going to ask you any questions...
I will simply say you are a genius....a GENIUS.

However I will ask one question,I know I said no questions but I am flawed,unlike you.
How do you manage to keep such high standards through-out all your work?
It's truly amazing.

Flachzange
I actually have a video tutorial for nearly every pdf tutorial I wrote on my website. But I keep forgetting to finish dubbing the tutorials. The hisss of the airbrush had to be cut out. It depends on my time and motivation. Frankly... I just got Mass effect 2 so.. motivation may hit the pooper for a while, even with genghis con coming up. Bioware, the only other major Life sink that has its claws in me.=)


Bash the Bosh
High standards..... umm easy the more you look at it the more you declare, "argh what a POS! I have to make it look better!"
Sometimes inspiration just hits.

Ive finally taken pictures of the High-tech Hammerhead. People keep saying my stuff doesn't look very tau. I agree, and mostly don't care. But I figured Why not make something look VERY HIGH TECH. here is my latest attempt at that. Its probably 95% done but we shall see if I ever add the bits of detail I feel are lacking.




and one more of the landing pad all by itself. I do so like the landing deck. It was going to be a lot uglier until I got smacked with inspiration just as I was about to paint it. And keep in mind this is big enough to barely hold a manta. And it weighs about 3 lbs.

Lookin' great.

Beautiful as usual.

Would it be possible to get a video of your hammerhead? I'd love to see the lights/effects on it.

Also, all of your work is amazing. How long have you been painting?

gritz2m wrote:Would it be possible to get a video of your hammerhead? I'd love to see the lights/effects on it.

Also, all of your work is amazing. How long have you been painting?

Its possible I may get a video, but unlikely due to hosting locations.

Ive been painting about 2 years now.


Also im curious for reviews on point values of the following data sheets.
Sorry for the quality. they print looking just fine but for some reason don't convert to JPG's very well.
Yes they are a little ridiculous but it was fun.

I have a funny feeling in my tummy.

All hail the conquering paint hero!

The paint jobs shown here are astounding. The Manta in particular made me want to cry.

Well done, sir.

For a change of pace here is a commissioned Iron wind mini

Slassan. The goal was to make it look sufficiently poisonous and creepy.
As usual its all airbrushed except a bit of drybrushed highlights on the base and on the teeth.

click on image to zoom

Wow, even the base is glowing, nice work!

I posted a new basic tutorial for using GIMP to aid in airbrushing decisions.
http://sites.google.com/site/thirdfatecreations/tutorials-1
Titled Photo Manipulation for Airbrushing

Its meant to be for those who have never touched GIMP or photoshop or other such programs before and want to use it to help made decisions on that big project they are planning.

masterful airbrush work sir...
i might have missed the answer if asked already, but how did you get the pattern on the hammerhead?

krusty wrote:... how did you get the pattern on the hammerhead?

Lots of careful masking with hexed nylon.

And for my latest. I have several projects nearing completion but I believe I will call this one completed.

Its a "strike star" from Iron wind metals made for tabletop space battles.
as usual, its over 95% airbrushed and my first attempt at making a "boring" spaceship armor paintjob. Most people do a high silver or silver white on such ships so I wanted to try a darker theme to the armor panels.

Tiger Class Strikestar

And Now I just finished a Shard Strider from Iron wind Minis.
They have some interesting stuff to paint so I will probably be doing a few more of IWM's miniatures in the near future as a break from GW.

As usual, its 100% airbrushed I was practicing a few different techniques I haven't tried before.

You do know I hate you right?!

Joke, Love your work, it brightens up my day!

Omg dude thats so cool. The first time i saw thew aracnid trhings i thought they were megatived of a picture =)

really sweet, U could paint some techno marines, they'd look pretty good with it, more so than tau probably...

It looks incredible, I'm amazed by the blue effect you achieve on the engines. incredible stuff!

Wow.

You have achieved a really unique style and technique, it's great to see something fresh!

I am not into the nebulae and other fluorescent models, not because I think they are bad in any way shape or form, just personal taste. What I absolutely love is the subtle grid/carbon fiber you achieved on the Tau Hammerhead... amazing, and adds so much to the feel of the model. Something totally unattainable with normal methods, kudos! The Battlestar also looks amazing...

Crazy awesome.

Another Iron wind miniature,
This time the Interstellar Radar array. It stands a about 3" tall with a dish diameter of 2.6".
The Dish is supposed to be made up of hexagonal reflectors on which I painted a Dusk SENMM reflection.
The back of the dish shows a similar landscape with some reflections of the base near the bottom.

The panels around the base are supposed to be square gratings through which you see the high energy components of the array underneath. The central tower is being lit up by flood lights which bleach out the colors to mainly the blue white of the flood lights. Most other "metalic" surfaces reflect the ambiet sky.

Not the best NMM but I like how it turned out. And the inside of the dish shows an upside down image because the view point is beyond the focal length (1/2 radius curvature) of the dish thus the image is inverted.

And of course, its 100% airbrushed because im crazzy.

The strikestar is amazing! Its basically a model of the battlestar galactica though isnt it? Absolutely love your models.

Oshunai wrote:The strikestar is amazing! Its basically a model of the battlestar galactica though isnt it

I believe so yes. It is one of several sold by Iron wind miniatures under their Sci-fi section. I believe it is designed by Wolf shipyards.


And for more practice at crystals, Ive painted another shard mini. this time going for a more "classic miniature painted" crystal look rather than the higher depth, angle dependent crystal technique I was playing with on the stalker.

I will probably be painting a few more BSG like models and a few more shards. They are good practice for techniques I need work on.

Dude what the hell that tiger class strike star is unreal.

You really need to tell me how you've done it ! Would really help me paint up mine to a similar standard.

Amazing work !

Wolf wrote:Dude what the hell that tiger class strike star is unreal.

You really need to tell me how you've done it ! Would really help me paint up mine to a similar standard.

Amazing work !

Im curious, what game are these pieces typically used for?

Anyway, to paint it...
Base silver
thin layers of grey.
thin layers of darker grey.
thick layer of red to make sure it is opaque.
wash black for the lining.
thin layer of grey with a touch of silver as the black just pushed everything darker.
then spray white for lighting, touch with color then touch center of light sources with white again.

I'm not sure but I use them for BFG count as I'm a BSG nutjob so I thoroughly enjoy using those ships. Oddly enough Galactica has come out practically unscathed every game.

Thanks for the tips atropos.

I do love how your models have a sort of translucent look, as if they aren't entirely solid or real. The black background contributes a bit to that I think.

Simply mind-blowing as always.

It's interesting to see you adapting your very detailed work down to BFG scale. Looking forward to more.

Savnock wrote:It's interesting to see you adapting your very detailed work down to BFG scale. Looking forward to more.

Its interesting doing it. Ive lined up a few projects for myself pushing my boundaries on several fronts. Going for a couple more BSG/BFG scale "realistic" armor plating. Going for some flesh and metal, and one nearly done going for super psychadelic eldar. The main purpose is to attract commissions on those models I don't want to buy or own, but would love to paint once and make it look killer.

I have an eldar wraithlord nearly finish that I think is about the best ive ever done. Hopefully others will agree. if not =P~ and on to paint more!

I was hoping it would quite raining so I could get a better picture.
But for now here is my wraithlord. Probably about 98% finished, but temporarily abandoned

Its so glossy its hard to photograph details unless I have sunlight. But the details look, I believe, awesome with the glossy so Im not matting it anytime soon.

These models are amasing, they remind me of the fish that live at the bottom of the see that have all the pretty colours.

Pretty psychedelic all right...I do feel the sword could use some more lightening up, but that's just nitpicking. Love your work!

Ok, for some reason it looks like the giant smurfs from avatar with all the light on him (hes just pinker than normal)

wow that wraithlord is incredibly impressive. You have some serious talent! whats next on the docket?

CommissarKhaine wrote:...I do feel the sword could use some more lightening up, but that's just nitpicking.

I agree it seems the sword could use lightning or lighting but I tried and all three attempts didnt mesh well with the rest, so I went with a simpler and I hoped more elegant look on the sword. However, the sword actually looks a lot cooler than came out in the photograph, (ok a lot of this thing does) but since Im using layered reflecting and refraction effects its flippin hard to get a decent picture of it with standard photographic techniques. I took some more under different lighting conditions and we shall see if the tradeoff of surface glare vs effect capture pays off. This thing had to be gloss coated too for the effects to work well. I initially dullcoated it but it wasnt nearly as nice.

Imperial Monkey wrote:Ok, for some reason it looks like the giant smurfs from avatar with all the light on him (hes just pinker than normal)

I made a smurf =) not sure what to think of that one. =P

DictatorGames wrote:whats next on the docket?

ugh.. depends on how I feel.
I have a SM drop pod primed but still havent decided exactly what Im doing with it.
I have a Chaos pred about 40-70% done depending...
I have a tinny dragon(cold drake) that Im starting to think was a mistake to try to airbrush, but we have to always challenge our limits. He is about 70% done/abandoned.
I have a Cinder large dragon that I think will airbrush much more nicely though he will still be pushing some of the airbrush scale limits with what I envision for him. He is primed.
Several 40k leaders are primed and waiting (shadowsun, vespid, as well as a nid guard and eldar avatar(I dont want to do the cliche fire avatar so am still thinking of composition)
An Infinity Lizard primed and half assembled.
Quite a few reaper mini's that Ive started playing with but 100% airbrushing a 28mm mini borders on stupidity/insanity
A few mechs and tanks (questionable regarding the scale limit again)

And I have an order coming in from IWM consisting of
a couple dropships, BSG models, and Shard models to experiment with

Ah and I have a wooden sword that is about 40% done, to be used as a 40k prop or larp weapon.

Though ultimately I dont know if any will compare to the wraithlord as he was very inspired(or so thinks I)
But inspiration hits rather randomly and then Im compelled to follow it.

Sorry you asked?



Ah yes, and there is also my scratch built fighter that is waiting for the right inspiration to hit and I have another scratch build I may finish building and then paint. But I dont think im good enough to paint these to do them justice so Im holding off while practicing some relevant techniques.

I have some pretty fair painting skills, and I have always wondered to my self why any one would pay hundreds of $s for a single model, but when I saw your wraith lord I felt like I might finally understand. I have to go now. I need to get a second job so that I can afford to commission some work from you.

Commissions are extremely rare but that's the way I like them... for a few reasons.

1. I typically spend 10-20 hrs on a model, but on things like the wraithlord, Tech-head, Tigershark, Monolith. I typically spend 20-40hrs painting carefully and possibly another 10-30 practicing to pull off whatever effect I want and simply planning it out. Thus time is money and one has to ask, If I don't get to keep what I just poured this much effort and soul into, what is the minimum I would charge to give it up.

2. I was "told" that If my prices were about 1/2 to 1/3 of what they are I would have more commissions than I knew what to do with. Well for that amount of planning and time, no way... Thus I priced myself somewhere between the average paint shop and those who have won GD's.

3. If I take a commission that Im not thrilled about but am interested in the money is a motivator to keep at it when I would normally put it on the shelf for a few weeks then get back to it.

4. Airbrush equipment and paints are expensive.

5. Not many do what I do

But ultimately it comes down to Im perfectly happy with 1-2 per year and I would rather wait for those who want something I/we feel is truely artful than just color modulation or a single layer of flames and a bit of detail. Plus I want to paint a couple titans and for the kind of planning and work I would put into it.... I would be happy if by some crazy miracle FW let me select a model I wanted to paint, and sent it to me free to paint where we both share rights to post the image for our own ends.. Stupid fantasy but Oh I would go crazy on the right model.

I realize only Eldar players are likely interested in my "style" which is why ive been practicing on the shards/ BSG's etc to start expanding my portfolio. I know there is a lot I can do yet have not demonstrated, but no one is going to fork over money unless they have seen you do something like it.

If anyone has any thoughts on any of this please share.

Ok, I decided to give up on the cold drake.
While ive painted models smaller than this, the detail of these scales do not lend themselves well to an airbrush when the body curves back on itself like this.

Oh well Here is a mini dragon to ridicule.

That dragon came out really well! The only critique would be the blue/reflective base. It melds a bit into the model and distorts his figure in a way that is distracting. other than that quality work.

I too know what it's like to be afflicted with having so many projects to complete! I feel your pain! Also I think your philosophy toward commissions is a smart one giver you distinct style and specialization. Well thought out.

~DG

Ok I finally took some better pictures of that wraithlord and had fun playing with a method of presentation.
critiques and suggestions welcome.

Click to zoom in on detail, its pretty big.

WOW, i love this painting! thats about all i can say

it is like you are made of pure awesomeness!
i can't wait to see your scratch builds, if your modeling ability is half as good as your painting skills then we are in for a real treat.

And now for something Completely (somewhat) different.

Ive seen people around using larp scale 40k weapons made of wood, or whatever, in games they are reffing. Why? I dont know. Because holding a big chain sword makes you feel like youve got a quad. Anyway I felt like doing a power sword so grabbed a wood dao/scimitar whatever ( it looks similar in design to a wraith lord sword minus protrusions) and I thought Id give a shot at my version of a hi-tec power sword. Now I too can pretend I have a quad in games. (sorry for the bad mass-effect references)

Beautiful. All cool-like.

That Wraithlord is absolutely stunning and the most uniqe version I've ever seen. the color pallette and designs remind me of early 1st edition 40K, yet the painting standard is MUCH higher.

As usual, very inspiring work with such imaginative effort.

I hate everything you've done so far , but thats just jealosy and envy of you and you'r painting skill

Nah , but seriusly , your minis are awesome , and I cant wait to see more from you

And now, for some battletech.
I was playing around with painting at this scale, considering applying to CSO. That looks like a no go so here are some btech related stuff Ive painted lately
all airbrushed as usual with only minior paintbrush touch up.

Granted while tey arent great, airbrushing a savanah master is HARD
My favorite is the mad dog.

Man, i am so jealous of that sword, you are doing an amazing job on your paintings.

Lookin' great, like the 3rd guy, looks like active camo.

Painting part of another batch from Iron wind minis, I finished a trio of shards
I like these little guys a lot. They are quite fun to paint and I love the crystalline/energy creature concept.
Perhaps enough of these could make a cool counts as Nid army, since so few seem to still play Vor.
And a fourth picture showing my family of shards walking the nanite swarm dog. Arent they a cute carbon hating family =)

Another batch done
This time two more IWM battletech mapscale dropships
The Broadsword painted in a star adder : rho provisional scheme
And The Union class dropship painted in an "art scheme" of the Summer's Storm (Or a SENMM, That being Space Earth Non Metal Metalic)

That giant ball thing is crazy!

You paint your things wayyyyy to bright for my taste.

Two more Iron wind metals (fox miniatures) battlestar galactica like ships.

The Pandora is a heracles class Novastar
The Cerberus is an Orion class Novastar

95% airbrushed. The colonial seal and ship names are transfers. I only managed to color match th e transfers to the paint job underneath on one side of each.
These are my first attempts at custom designing and using transfers. I cant wait to paint a few more of these and play a game with someone.

Painted a few more battlestar universe ships.
this time cylon ships made by fox miniatures

Finished another Battletech mapscale dropship.
This is an Overlord C painted roughly based on the Clan Hells horses Omega galaxy scheme (Grey with hellish accents)
So I went with Hellish landscape with dark grey accents.
The Hells horse emblem is a transfer and the rest is all airbrushed.

I wouldn't even think some of the stuff you paint is possible. Great job. I love the work.

Is this all airbrush work ?

Yes. Still cool though.

Everything here is just freaking amazing. I'm blown away. nice work man, really nice work

I just finished a cylon resurrection ship with a hubble background.

Airbrushed as usual. model made by fox miniatures.

Your work is fantastic. I didn't realise you could achieve that sort of effect with an airbrush on a small scale.

The Wraithlord is the pick of the bunch do far but it's close as all of them are fantastic. I can't wait to see what else you have coming up.

Simply outstanding I know you said you weren't thinking of entering golden demon but you should really give it a little thought painting of this standard deserves to be awarded. Keep up the awesome work.

First, let me say you have incredible technical skills. I KNOW I couldn't so the same...

Second, I think you have an issue with composition. As I said before you have incredible technical skills but you are using them in a way that can blind a viewer to the forest because of the trees.

Let me give you an example... A canvas is blank. You put paint on to fill it. But models are not blank canvasses. At this point your painting distracts from the model..and the model inhibits the painting. They oppose each other rather than complimenting one another.

An example of your work...the submarine looking vehicles are insanely good...why? Because the painting scheme compliments not only the model but the purpose of the model. Fantastic work!

Again, you have incredible skills. Please take this as a constructive criticism.

ender502

Everything looks amazing. I don't think the bright paint job takes anything away from these models, I mean who would paint an alien spacecraft in a drab grey/gunmetal scheme. The bright colors add to the model rather than take away from it.

Listrel wrote:... you weren't thinking of entering golden demon but you should really give it a little thought painting of this standard deserves to be awarded.

I do get rewarded. The work is its reward and compliments are reward. When im having a really messed up day going in and painting before going to bed is really Zen. Of course that requires ive already gone through the less zen part of planning out how to paint it.=)

ender502 wrote:...Second, I think you have an issue with composition. As I said before you have incredible technical skills but you are using them in a way that can blind a viewer to the forest because of the trees.
Let me give you an example... A canvas is blank. You put paint on to fill it. But models are not blank canvasses. At this point your painting distracts from the model..and the model inhibits the painting. They oppose each other rather than complimenting one another.
An example of your work...the submarine looking vehicles are insanely good...why? Because the painting scheme compliments not only the model but the purpose of the model. Fantastic work!

Again, you have incredible skills. Please take this as a constructive criticism.

Thank you Ender, I do appreciate the criticism and agree mostly.
I believe there is a spectrum. On one end you are doing "miniature painting" you paint solely to bring out the detail the sculpter put into the mini. In this end of the spectrum you only do appropriate colors, shading, composition to make it look as real as possible. shifting away from this extreme you get a bit of freehand to low detail areas and you push contrast to make the mini stand out. I believe most mini painters exist in this near end of the spectrum. I believe my battlestar minis are nearer this end with the armor painted a little more fantastical than necessary. But I find it pleasing to the eye and as a fleet I think they look great.

On the other end you have painting miniatures(not to be confused with miniature painting) In this extreme you flat ignore every aspect of the model and paint what you like on it An example of this would be(and I want to see a skilled artist do this) take a general smooth person shaped mini and paint it to look like a mini. Other than having blobs for head arms etc it has no detail whatsoever carved into it.

While I think my painting spans this spectrum I will be the first to admit that my average is roughly centered in the spectrum. I like to do some freehand or more fantastic accenting of the details present, but I nearly always paint based on the details present, or to compliment(I feel) the art of the sculpt in a way that is not "miniature painting"

An example outside of miniatures. A porsche 911 is a beautiful design. It needs no awesome paint job. jet black is beautiful. However pushing away from "realism" you might add a bit of highlights to accent the way the sun falls on it. Or you might paint some awesome flames/tribal/whatever art onto it. The art has to be chosen carefully for the combined composition to be pleasing. A strong juxtaposition of hello kitty on a Porsche, no matter how well done is wrong and almost no one would like it. While flames border on tacky for something so expensive, done subtly flames or tribal could really make the car a sight to behold. This is the aim of most of my painting and I realize very few will agree with my choices on composition. For instance, I personally believe my two best works are the Wraithlord and the Tigershark. many will have their own favorites, but on these two I believe my choices were the best compliment to the feeling of the model, or rather to my perceived feeling of the model.

But to reiterate, I agree with you almost 100% and I thank you for the criticism. keep them coming. they only make me better. I take what I will from them and hopefully improve in some manner as a result.

jbob5590 wrote:... I don't think the bright paint job takes anything away from these models, I mean who would paint an alien spacecraft in a drab grey/gunmetal scheme. The bright colors add to the model rather than take away from it.

Thank you, As above I think this depends entirely on what you want and what most people have preconcieved about the message the model sends. And sometimes (monolith) I believe that a different interpretation can really add to it especially for alien spacecraft, as you said.

And to build further on what you said I think the monolith is another example. The commonly accepted theme of the necrons is an ancient, robotic husk of a race with barely any personality bent on efficient destruction of the living for their god. However, knowing that the monolith is a kind of living metal, questionably semi sentient, and that a very small handful of necrons retain their original personalities with minimal degradation I think its fair to assume that in the eons those might wish to muralize their role in the universe as an inexorable force of death with their gods behind them. So I felt it reasonable, and interesting, to have the Necron lord have instructed his monolith to change its surface to express this to all before their inevitable extermination.


Thanks for the critiques everyone =)

I got a whole boatload of fighters painted. They are fleetscale BSG sold by Fox miniatures. Yea airbrushing something that small.... painful.
And in the que is a ravenstar studios galactica with other ships

The idea of the drop pods reflecting the landscape is very original indeed! It is jusk like combining miniature painting with painting scenery on canvas!

Your paint work, freehand, blending, etc, on your ships looks simply stunning.

What fleet would be complete without the galactica.
This model is a Ravenstar studios model (resin) I painted a lot of armor panels on it to blend in with the rest of my fleet.
all airbrushed except the crest and the name galactica.

Absolutely perfect work! The engines are breathtaking and I think the base is so colourful. How long did it take from start to finish?

The average battlestars took between 8 and 12 hrs, the cylon capital ships took between 8 and 15 hours.

A quick construction mech to try for something moderately different.
The background is some airbrush touched up cardboard printout buildings.

And now for my b5 fighter ships

I love these little guys, only an inch in size but so cool!
Minis made by this guy www.bwhiii.com who actually sculpted nearly all of the ships in my collection on commission for others.

Paint jobs are inspired by but not meant to be canon. Edited: to say canon and not cannon =)

Great job.

I think you meant "canon", not "cannon", am I correct?

And now for some small display mats for my many ships as practice for large gaming mats

Yeay Just finished a challenging but altogether fun commission for dashofpepper (hope I got the name right)

I tittle this one. "Dis es hough wii ROHLLL!" excuse my poor understanding of orkish.

Or perhaps, "you know the War Boss that rides around in that thing aint afraid of Nothing!"

It took approximately 24 hrs to complete. 100% airbrushed
Edit: this is an attachment, so click on the image to open in a new window and click again to zoom in for detail. this image is 2000 px wide(scaled down from a 3000 px raw image)

Wewt!

You would be very good at painting slaanesh.

I have a world eaters pred Ive never finished painting. maybe one day Ill get the motivation to tackle that complicated beast.
Its kinda sad because its about 70% done.

Have you entered any of your stuff into the golden daemon?

Tremendous, tremendous work here atropos.

Incredible.

-Lasfire

Finch Claw wrote:Have you entered any of your stuff into the golden daemon?

Nope and probably never will =) Im cheap and dislike flying anyway.

atropos907 wrote:

Finch Claw wrote:Have you entered any of your stuff into the golden daemon?

Nope and probably never will =) Im cheap and dislike flying anyway.

Thats the spirit!

Just painted a batch of aerotech battleships as I seem to be on a star ship kick =)
and Ive started painting space terrain, ie that moon in the background.

ships by iron wind metals.
click on images to zoom in.

I love that you do the basing to match the space-scapes. A small thing, maybe, but fantastic touch.

Those ships look pretty sweet.

I like the bases more than the ships. They're incredible. I've always has a weakness for starscapes.

(That isn't an insult at your painting of the ships, it's just that the base shape of them isn't very appealing to me.)

What are the moons made out of?

The orks are just fantastic and the wraithlord took my breath away. This whole thread is massively massively inspiring and I thank you for posting all of these so we could drool over them!

Finch Claw wrote:What are the moons made out of?

Cheap styrofoam

And for the next, a Kraken with snake skin camo.

Have you ever tried painting other things? The Transformers community has a rather large "custom" niche that you would do great in!

I love the camouflage, nice job with the scenery too.

I just finished the work on 3 IWM battlestars

First the Invincible Gunstar

next the Hades Missilestar

And finally the Zeus Warstar.
I like how these worked with the busy background. When I first painted those backgrounds I didn't think Id be able to use them because they were so busy compared to my fighters, but they seem to work well with these battlestars. I didnt do as nice of a job on some of the transfers. oh well.

astropos, you are - without doubt - one of the best miniature painters on Dakka. You work is joy to the eyes. The colours are vibrant and the effects are just breathtaking. One word: stunning. I hope that you continue to learn and progress with the art of the airbrush well into the future.

Cheers!

Cosmic.

Cosmic wrote: I hope that you continue to learn and progress with the art of the airbrush well into the future.

Cosmic.

Thank you Cosmic, Much appreciated! I hope we all make prettier and prettier minis. in a manly way of course=)

Now for another set
The previous set was iron wind minis, this set is from fox miniatures.
The Harrier, Heavy Missilestar, and the Ministar I like how the lighting on the ministar turned out.

And now for the Cylon Basestars in attack and defense configurations.
These are also Fox miniatures
click on image to enlarge, they are big.

Very nice, amazing detail with an airbrush. I'd love to see what you would do with some of the marine chapters. Some hombrew chapter with starscapes on em would be awsome!

Ive considered some marine chapters but dont feel like buying them since I dont paint marines. But there are a couple chapters whose paint scheme are perfect, particularly a couple chaos marines.

And for the battlestar ships I painted a big 6x8' space mat with hex grid.
I hope this thing looks good on the table top!

atropos907 wrote:Yeay Just finished a challenging but altogether fun commission for dashofpepper (hope I got the name right)

I tittle this one. "Dis es hough wii ROHLLL!" excuse my poor understanding of orkish.

Or perhaps, "you know the War Boss that rides around in that thing aint afraid of Nothing!"

It took approximately 24 hrs to complete. 100% airbrushed
Edit: this is an attachment, so click on the image to open in a new window and click again to zoom in for detail. this image is 2000 px wide(scaled down from a 3000 px raw image)

I want this so badly

I'll provide some marines if you wanna try em. Send a few of em back my way and I'd be happy!

And that mat would be the best map for space games.....uhhh......ever!!!

Your flames are win Atropos. But you know this

A batch of paintjobs done.
First a pair of battlestars on comission. I added more lighting to this set and went with a compromise on the bases between pretty but hopefully not too overpowering.

Next three shards. I love these little guys.

*Gobsmacked* Your colours are just so amazing, not sure what else I can say without sounding silly, excellant stuff.

Shards? From Vor the Malestrum? Great job whatever they may be.

Kid_Kyoto wrote:Shards? From Vor the Malestrum? Great job whatever they may be.

Indeed shards from Vor.
Or if your asking what the heck game is that.
Its a fairly forgotten game that was trying to compete with GW about a decade ago that had some very cool minis.
Sold by iron wind metals if your interested. The vor manuals have to be found online.
I like the rule set as it is a skirmish game with better initiatives and tactical rules (IMO) but not as suited for huge battles as 40k

The spacecraft against that background don't look like sculptures but like the entire image was painted digitally. It's incredible.

And for another
A Diorama made by Iron wind metals Graveyard dragon and other components.

... I ... Atropos I love you... Your wraithlord in the gallery blew my mind....

Atropos, I know this has been asked before, but do you have plans for doing any type of video tutorial. Your
work is brilliant and I'm still trying to understand how you
can do such fine detailing with an airbrush. I use an
airbrush and cannot even come close to your techniques.
I'm ressurecting this thread in hopes that you have some new work or tutorials to share with everyone. Thanks

dad1946 wrote:Atropos, I know this has been asked before, but do you have plans for doing any type of video tutorial.

I'm ressurecting this thread in hopes that you have some new work or tutorials to share with everyone. Thanks

Dad1946, Im still painting, madly some weeks. Ive shifted to painting starships as I find them an interesting challenge.
I had started doing video tutorials but they ate so much time, and my day job and family also eat so much time I put tutorials on indefinite hold in favor of painting in what little time I had for hobby.
One of the cons asked if I was interested in teaching an airbrush class and frankly I am very intersted, but that too would take a lot of time to iron out what I would teach. (and Id rather paint over teach =)

Im sorry I neglected Dakka since Ive still been painting wargame minis(starsihp wargames) I had thought I was posting here as well as elsewhere.
Well here is a set of back posts. mainly a lot of fighter scale and fleet scale ships from wing commander

And a batch of human ships, (and a straggler kitty ship)
My favorites in this batch are the midway, and vampire

Thank you for your response, and for the new work.
I don't speak for everyone, but any video no matter
how incomplete or non professionally done would be
of a great help. Just showing one or two techniiques
would help. You wouldn't have to necessarily do a
whole mini. Thanks for sharing your work.

While I have a bunch more wing commander ships, I have yet to take and process images ofthem
However, here are some battletech tanks and a mech.
as well as a few scenics for fantasy wargames
And finally a cyclopse dragon with two different backgrounds

All models airbrushed 99%+ and all by iron wind metals.

Happy Blowing stuff up!

A Banshee, and Avenger from WC 4
Then a Winter Camo Uziel, and a Metalic forest camo Madcat 2
And finally a Studio bergstrom Tie Interceptor (My favorite of the Tie line) and a Tie Defender
All airbrushed as usual.

Two things:

1. You are undoubtedly a wizard.

2. I never thought I would see ricer 40k models.

A couple more finished
First a Darkage Storm Elemental

And second a 40k Chaos Predator
This guy has been sitting 70% done for over a year and I finally got around to finishing him.

And another set of wing commander ships

I just read the entire thread, and my head just exploded.

Time for a bit of modeling
I made a couple zeppelins by kitbashing with some custom parts
http://www.shapeways.com/model/244507/jet_prop_nacelles_zep.html?gid=sg42343
http://www.shapeways.com/model/248748/teslastandoffs.html?gid=sg42343
The first is a destroyer class zeppelin
The second is aTesla zeppelin

The unpainted plane is one of my own design
http://www.shapeways.com/model/244508/skylance_fighter_plane.html?gid=sg42343
and the second painted plane is a crimson skies aircraft for scale purposes.

Very looking forward to what you might do with those zeppelins! With all of that blank canvas space to work on, I expect it will be nothing less than fantastic. It sometimes occurrs to me just how small these models really are! Awesome stuff. Honestly, have fun with these

Those airships are amazing, can't wait to see them done.

VOR the Maelstrom: Shard army finished!

Ive slowly been working on this set and finished the second half of it in one very slow ponderous batch by batch step. as always all airbrushed, these models are from IronWind metals.

I wanted each to be unique but similar enough to believe they are in the same shard collective force, the remnants of a bunch of shard armies.

Ill eventually take good pictures of each, but right now I'm trying to get some painting done before my second little one comes crying into this world.

Have fun!
I really like the shard models. Too bad Vor didn't survive. If anyone ever models one of the more evolved shard let me know, I would love a crack at painting one of those.

Click on the image for a larger view.

Dude, you're a god...

They look absolutely amazing, I can imagine these beings existing somewhere in the universe exactly like that

Your use of color and airbrushing techniques are simply
amazing. You are by far and away the best artist with an
airbrush I've come across. Awesome work, more please.

I just finished a comis for a 3 bsg ships

I decided to branch out of my typical bsg ship color scheme slightly with one. I like the orange paneling.

And because I forgot to show it a few months ago, a cylon titain basestar from studio bergstrom.

And I was looking at my monolith sitting lonely on the shelf... and was rather disgusted.
I can see so many things I can make a lot better now... but didnt feel like investing another 20-40 hrs to do so. But the one glaringly obvious flaw was the power crystal.

With all the VOR: Maelstrom Shard Ive been painting to far greater detail on things 1/10th of this size and smaller, there was no excuse for such an ugly crystal to be in my house....

So I at least repainted the crystal. Maybe Ill get around to briing the rest of this, now lacking thing, up to spec. Its amusing how you progress and look back and say... I was proud of that!

That is still the best Necron Monolith I have ever seen. I
look foward to you updating it.

Ok, Finally got around to getting and processing good photographs of this wing commander Steltek carrier.

Click for a larger view

Hey, just wanted to chime in. I saw a thumbnail on the main page of one of the images from this thread and thought "that looks familiar!". I've seen some of your stuff around the net before. It' nice to see you're here. I really love your style of brushwork, it really reminds me of a lot of the whimsical Sci-fi aesthetic I remember from a very long time ago. It's been lost with the skew of perspective everything seems to have made to gritty realism. It's quite unique to see you modernize it and fit it to the things you have.

Great stuff!

This is inspirational. I want to do a similar thing with painting and electronics- keep doing what you're doing dude

This is very clever painting. The net pattern across the ship's bodywork is very slick.

Here is one of two warjacks I finished recently.
Played with both osl and rusted paint chips on this one.

The color pallet is not to my personal taste, but I very much respect the skill that went into it, great work!

A set from a zep ive been kitbashing
its 30" or so long, made for a crimson skies/ pulp air combat game

Also notice the xp55 ascender I had 3d printed at 200 scale on the landing decks.
To be painted eventually....

And a couple bombers, the b17 is a 1/200 scale but the b29 is unfortunately a whopping 140 scale or so, But it was fun to play with a new winter camo.

I also got tired of US, brittish, German markings so I decided Im going to put fun markings from around the world on these. Behold the Canadian b29! Strikes fear into your hearts doesnt it!

go canadian b29! but that flamed out engine on the b17, thats just made of pure awesome!

Been a while,
Here is that bomber in a diorama airbrushed to look like an escort over flak infested german skies.
click for larger.

Another warjack. This one was actually painted in parallel to the previous, but havent gotten around to pictures till now

CLICK TO ENLARGE

A white speaker I finished a couple weeks ago.
Played with a bit of OSL on this tinny figure. One should avoid painting a mini whose legs are not much thicker than my airbrush needle. Any more detail on this would have been a royal headache as this mini already consumed about 4 hours.

click to enlarge

And now a couple WIP/'s that have been keeping me busy.
Ive been workgin on an X-com inspired game though these pictures are a little low quality. But they are WIP's

The UFO is a pegasus hobbies area 51 UFO
The Dropship is a kitbash of a runabout.
many of the HWP's or heavy weapon platforms are tron toys or FOW tanks modified with high tech turrets.
The grays are so cute from zombiesmith.
the snake men are reaper cronoscape
The floaty headsuckers are studio bergstrom
The human generic troops are Tau with weapons from EM4 minis
The brownish power armor are EM4 as are several of the other high tech suits

Ive got a lot more work to do on this XCOM game to get it done by the next con. ...

UFO is painted to look "high tech" and a bit organic
Valkrie Dropship is painted based on some pictures of f14's on carriers, mixed with the original xcom ufo defense cover ship art (black stripe and gray) mixed with some "futuristic" digital hex camo. Its supposed to be muted like an f14 but still interesting. Hope it works otherwise its a big target!

And a couple Arachnid warror bug WIP's

If anyone knows where I can get a Starship Troopers Mantis please PM me.

And a FOW tank quickly cranked out with simple masking and wiping.
One of my favorites, a panzer IV.
Note the side armor is a screen rather than solid plate.
The camo is more or less made up as I hadnt found any pictures of panzers with such a scheme in my minimal effort searches.
click to enlarge

Everything is absolutely STUNNING. Your painted miniatures are like an explosion of colour and imagination. The Warjack is really nice, and the bomber diorama is so incredibly well done. It really is a joy to see them, and very inspiring. Thank you for this update.

So much win! My eyes are bleeding...in a good way!

You owe me a pair of boxer shorts!!!

Sorry its been so long cosmic, Kids, family and all that....

Moltar wrote:So much win! My eyes are bleeding...in a good way!

If you want I can paint you a new eyeball, I can make it look nice and creepy too like on the predator!!

Deathshead420 wrote:You owe me a pair of boxer shorts!!!

Go commando?


And another mini- One of the "snakemen" terror units , its a reaper mini Bathalian Primarch. I like this line of cronoscope minis, they are pretty creepy.

atropos907 wrote:Sorry its been so long cosmic, Kids, family and all that....

Hey, it's okay. I understand. I think that there's always time, but motivation is another thing.

Another cool mini, too!

Nah, in this case it really is time and not motivation. Well unles Im willing to give up more sleep but 6hrs a night is my minimum.
Usually anytime I can squeeze an hour in im all over it. Now that my daughter is over 7 months old im finding I can more frequently squeeze in an hour or two every other night since she lets me sleep for at least 4 hours straight! Ah finally!

In the past few days ive made more progress on a galactica, Pegasus and Valkyrie than ive made on anything in the past few weeks.

Total respect mate, that's 24hr dedication right there. When I've not had any commitments the next day, I've recently done a few all-nighters, painting away into the early hours. It's fun, although a little stop-start, if I'm honest.

Thanks for your reply. It'll be great to see what awesome mini(s) you paint up next! Take care atropos.

Some comissioned bases for some battlestars.
I wanted the composite of bases to represent one of the nuked colonies.

Beautiful work as usual. Glad to see you posting again.

Those bases turned out beautiful! I'm quite envious of your airbrush skills.

Nice!

Ok here is the commissioned battlestars on 3 of the bases.

The galactica, Pegasus, and Valkyrie.
Note the galactica and valkyrie have extra armor panels painted on since these are actually fairly sparse on armor lines.

Incredible work again, atropos!

Took my first airbrush class, hoping to learn something new. As a former MA master said, you can learn something from everyone if you are actually trying to learn. So I took an intro airbrush class as its the first time one has been offered near me that Im aware of. A local painting group the cominipainters.com brought in aaron lovejoy. It was a decent class geared for first timers and in a little chat I learned a trick or two Im going to play with next time I work on a tank I want to look weathered. Otherwise it seems most conclusions I came to a long time ago were as universal as i thought. . I wish I took this class about 5 years ago, it would have made the beginning a lot easier.

So after 5 hours roughly I got a dragon from black primer to the state in these pictures and then got sick of working on one thing for that long in a single sitting.
Then I pulled out a bunch of other minis and started or continued work on them. The incectoid-floral fighter shown on the first page of my blog FINALLY got some paint put on it. Designed as the initial layers for something I want to mimic some of the features and colors of a potato vine leaf in my wife's garden. Still has a bunch of layers to go down. Its purpose is to be a hybrid ship made for the Vespid. Even the enormous 34" zeppelin a few pages back got a bit more basing done. That thing is monsterous and going to take a while to finish.

Then a starfury, thunderbolt, and Colonial viper mk2 got their flames colored, among about 8 other minis who got at least one layer of paint put down. Then my illness I had been fighting the entire weekend won and I went home on the second day and slept.

It was nice to finally be around people embracing the use of an airbrush for minis rather than saying its cheating or using snide snarky comments I can just barely hear rom across the room. Would have been great 5 years ago but better than never!

As usual everything is 100% airbrushed

Thanks for the update, atropos, the dragon - and everything else, but especially the dragon - is stunning.

Beautiful use of color. Love the way the dragon turned out.
You should be teaching the class.

dad1946 wrote:Beautiful use of color. Love the way the dragon turned out.
You should be teaching the class.

Thanks. Ive wanted to teach classes for a couple years. Taught one almost a year ago at tacticon I taught a short 2 hr intro to airbrushing. this most recent Genghis I did an airbrush demo for about 6 hours. That was a lot of fun. Id like to teach more classes but there are only really 2 relevant cons in Denver I'm aware of if they want/will let me teach. Maybe one day Ill be well enough known to teach at other cons.

Id like to teach an interned-advanced course but likely need to teach a bunch of intro's first. or win a few GD's which isn't going to happen.

That's a class I'd take at adepticon for sure. I agree you'd have a head time at gd level, mostly due to the current trends they are looking for being completely different from your style. I don't think your work isnt good enough to be noticed though, you'd turn some heads!

Ok here is another set,
A few months back I posted images of some zeppelins to be used in a pulp / crimson skies styled fighter game.

Finally finished painting and taking pictures of them

The ZEUS:
First we have a Tesla Zeppelin, based on a toy from the golden compass movie, probably the only good thing to come out of that movie. I 3d printed some coils, wound some others and modified the toy before repainting. The fluff will be the armor plating on the front are a ceramic Polarized plating that allows for an extreme charge to be built up, while doubling as Polarized armor to greatly improve the punishment this thing can take in battle. Unless its opponents are filled with hydrogen it does little damage to them, but instead it acts more as a primitve ECM disrupting all electrical systems including fuel injection systems and turret motors. With its high speed it cruses in close and effectively disables enemy aircraft or zeppelins allowing its own to pummel the enemy from afar. Its direct weaponry include a handful of anti-fighter/ missile turrets and a directional tesla cannon capable of firing up to 1km. Well short of standard cannons, thus this zep usually relies on cloud or mountain cover to get close.

The ICARUS:
And next we have a kit bashed 700th scale graf zeppelin bashed with parts of a USS Missouri and some other random stuff. The nacelles are 3d printed.
all painted solely with an airbrush as usual. One of the first militarized zeppelins made by the soviets, this ship shows its age with numerous refits and replaced panels. It is effective because it is small, simple, and easy to repair. These zeps are often the first to fall, but also the first to be repaired and sent back into action. It boasts several light and medium anti aircraft turrets and a single trio cannon for anti-zeppelin combat. Range 3km.

Click to enlarge

This is all so awe inspiring . Thank you for sharing .

And next, a closeup of the two XCOM ships shown earlier.

First the Pegasus Hobbies AREA 51 UFO. Obviously a ship to be used by the Greys
Though the most common incursion craft used, these are not to be taken lightly. They can drop rapidly from orbit and land within a matter of minutes. Top speed is unknown due to apparent jamming technologies disabling our long range radar though estimates put it at over mach 4. The come in several variants, though are indistinguishable unless observed up close.
The Harvester variant uses a Ventral tractor beam to scoop victims out of off of city streets during low fly-overs. This version is susceptible to cannon and small arms fire, but the tractor is effective at deflecting missiles.
The Recon-in-Fource variant mounts one of various under slung fully gimbald direct fire weapons (typically some sort of rail gun or plasma cannon) with a range and fire power comparable to a mid-sized naval vessel's cannons. These are vulnerable to long range missiles, but are otherwise too maneuverable for long range projectile weaponry, and nothing survives getting close if it is spotted. Interceptors are advised to fire long range missiles at the first opportunity and retreat. If the missiles never make it to target assume its a harvester and close range.



Second My kitbashed USS runabout modified to be a Valkyrie class drop ship. This ship is designed using captured Terror saucer antigrav modules. Though designed to lift small loads, the pair act more as JATO packs (would that be AGATO boosters? =) These allow the Valkyrie to quickly lift loads off of the ground it otherwise does not have the vertical thrust to lift, buying it time to shift into standard flight mode using the airfoil and forward thrusters to carry the load. The antigrav also enables this ship to be more evasive despite its otherwise sluggish nature. With the repulsive features of these pods the Valkyrie can fly a mere 50 feet off of the ground at high speeds over flat terrain without fear of ground effects and winds making it eat dirt. This has been the only feature until recently that have allowed X-com to approach landed enemy craft without being taken out by their weaponry. Though outdated by almost a decade in this never ending war, its rugged and versatile nature have kept these as one of the workhorses of all but the most advanced X-COM Incursion response forces. The latest version boasts improved antigrav efficiency enabling 1.2 metric tons of cargo to be lifted without weaponry, or a full IRF force cargo module, and two heavy craft weaponry.

This one mounts a Human version Plasma Cannon and an upgraded Gau-12, because nothing stands up well to 6,300 rounds-per-minute of 30mm Depleted Uranium slugs. It was an act of desperation when the first Gau-8 mounted on a valkyrie was used when the landed UFO took off appearing out of nowhere from behind a building a mere 300 meters from the approaching Valkyrie. The crew was stunned as the cannon tore the spinning alien craft in half in under a second. The primary for the weaponry, however, is to disable landed UFO's, and provide close in air support since no other quick response craft could do so in the early years of the war. Modern fighters and assault craft will now typically accompany Valkyries and augment their support role.

OUTSTANDING paintjobs, atropos, words cannot express. Very, very well done!

Totally agree with Cosmic!! These are nasty-awesome!

And now for a fighter I modeled about 2 years ago. That funny black plant ship at the beginning of this blog.
Im not sure on name, Suggestions
Nightblade
NightScythe
RazorLeaf--- sounds a little too pokemon
Viper

Its an old design I found in a notebook a while ago, And I realized it looked like it could be vespid since its partially insectoid/beetle.
This is primarily an air superiority figther with short duration low orbit capabilities. Not meant for deep space. The design is highly manuverable and adaptable to atmosphere giving it an edge over aerospace fighters
The primary weapon is an enormous neutron focusing crystal, similar to whats used in the vespid rifles. Capable of bypassing armor and damaging sensitive organic and electronic equipment inside enemy fighters. Thicker armor protects against its damage but cannot stop it. However this weapon, while instantaneous and therefore does not suffer Leading its target, is fairly short range (24inch) due to the difficulty of focusing a large flux of neutrons.

The ship boasts expendable weaponry including symbiotic rocket pods range 36 inches and two squid class organic missiles.

The vespid pilot interfaces directly with the ship using a specialized version of the "communication headsets" given to vespid commanders. This allows the multifaceted and multispectral sensor dome integrated onto the canopy, similar to insect eyes, to feed directly into the visual processing center of the pilot. While extremely fast and maneuverable, and capable of regeneration, the armor is no better than that of a barracuda. However top speeds are on par with the fastest enemy fighter, without sacrificing superior atmospheric maneuverability.

This ship was genetically engineered using dna from the vespid queens, plants that symbiotically link to vespid nests, and it is suspected, a bit of tyranid. The only pieces of technology implemented are the neutron cannon, its power supply, and the neural interface.

The core of the ship boasts an irridescent shell similar to that of the vespid while the outer wings express more plant like features. Since there is little metal in this its radar signiture is remarkably low.

And I believe I will call these starship troopers Arachnids done for now.
I painted them more to be terror units for the XCOM game.
Shame on me, while the models are 100% airbrushed the bases are only about 90% since I got sick of stipling with an airbrush, and grabbed a sponge to do the highlights in green and white.

Click to Enlarge

Mind boggling as usual. What size are they?

Vitruvian XVII wrote:Mind boggling as usual. What size are they?

Thanks,
The base is about 13cm diam, the model 6cm tall. I want to say they are old mongoose, but I got them used off of ebay and "refurbished" 1 and a half of them. Whatever that guy used for glue was darned near bullet proof making it hard to disassemble to make flash removal easier.

Love these bugs. Brilliant use of color.

Shame on you indeed. How dare your 90% be so much better than the rest of our 100%? Tsk. Staggering work all round.

Well since my work got one of these cisco / polycom conference phones I had to turn one into a UFO.

Fluff for this one.
X-COM Dreadnaught Class Gate ship.
This UFO seems to be the pinnacle of the alien craft technology and force projection. Simple in concept, but beyond our greatest minds to understand how it works. This ship appears to serve a single function, to project a stable wormhole to a region of interest, though practically it was classified as 3 separate ships due to its apparent role in the battlefield.

Click to enlarge to see circuit patterns. Also note The sides are orangeish from the bottom but blue-turquoise from the side. This model actually uses iridescent paint (which is bloody expensive) The gate is in the bottom middle, ideal for low fly-overs to drop a batallion of troops in minutes. The top boasts a low power high CPM defense turret, good for only keeping fighters at bay and directly attacking weak ground targets. This ship relies almost entirely on its 3 ventral tractor beams and the wormhole for its defensive and offensive weaponry.



1. The first misclassification was Heavy transport. never viewed up close except by a handful of survivors among the rubble, Reports indicated this ship flew at high speed meters off of the ground dropping troops and terror units. Despite the high speed flyovers, the troops landed safely due to an array of 3 tractor beams that would safely lower and decelerate the troops to the ground. It was later determined that these troops did not come from inside the ship, but rather were dropped straight from the gate, caught by the tractor, and lowered to the ground. In this manner 3 cities in the early war were overrun in a matter of an hour as an estimated 2-300 shock and terror troops were deployed.

2. The second misclassification was of Dreadnaught. Again, never seen but from a distance and at high speed, this craft seemed to deflect any missiles sent to intercept (which we now attribute to its three tractor beams capturing and deflecting the missiles). It also appeared to launch its own guided munitions, though we realize now those too were fired through the gate and acquired their targets after entry into our airspace, likly redirected by the craft's sensors. These missiles prevented early interceptors from getting anywhere near the ship.

3. The final misclassification was that of PlanetBuster. Though an exaggeration of the ships capabilities, this name was given as a single ship dropped over NORAD and in a few minutes melted its way into the underground bunker with a high-output energy weapon, again later realized to have been delivered through the gate. The energy output of this weapon is greater than that of half the power plants on earth. This weapon was also turned in a slightly defocused manner to act as air defense. When several of our most advanced squadrons were sent to assist the attack on NORAD this ship was responsible for destroying 3/4 of the incoming fighters in a series of sweeping arcs.


The majority of the ships systems seem to be designed to sustain one end of a linked wormhole back to an unknown location. After the nature of this craft was determined 6 months of planning and waiting resulted in one daring ambush set by xcom. This mission sent over 60 micro UAV's at this craft during a terror drop mission, from pre-concealed locations. Only 3 made it through and those were destroyed a few milliseconds later by defenses on the other side. From this raid we now know the following.
There is an array of at least 50 automated turrets on the other end that open fire immediately.
There appears to be a shield in place encasing the gate and 100 meters around it, now referred to as the staging area.
Outside said field is yet another array of hundreds of turrets defending an entire city.
A single large structure is aligned straight with the gate with nothing obstructing the line of sight, it is believe this is the high output energy weapon observed.

It is believe that only one gate ship is operational at any one time and it links directly to this staging area due to the resources required to replicate this warmachine and its support city. This is reinforced by the fact that upon every successful destruction of a gate ship, of which there have only been 4 in the last decade, it is at least another year before its class is encountered.

The most successful methods for its elimination have been overwhelming force from half a dozen of our most advanced squadrons.
Or Daring attacks close in by ground forces with heavy weaponry. The latter is in fact how 3 of the 4 were eliminated as a couple enhanced hand-portable anti-ship weapons at point blank have a much higher probability of scoring a hit before defense systems can be brought to bear.

It took almost a year for X-Com to determine that they had misclassified 3 enemy ships from this one. The classifications

Very clever atropos. I've sat through many a meeting around one of those things... I'll never look at them the same way again.

When your bored imagine it hovering a few inches off of the table and dropping scores of little green men.

Or better, turning and firing a powerful energy weapon at whomever is making the meeting last forever!

sigh. =)

*chuckle*

Ok Work let up enough for me to crank through these over the past 2 weeks. A contest on starship combat news was a good excuse to get off my rear and actually paint these, since they have been sitting with a coat of primer for over a year begging me to actually start painting them. Finally putting paint on them was nice. we shall see if I have enough time to crank through a few more.

First the Singon cruisers from studio bergstrom. I played with color schemes from the standard olive to add a bit more contrast and color modulation.


Next, we have Imperial star destroyers from studio bergstrom. Again playing with deviating from the boring norm while trying to add more visual interest. and those windows... ugh Im rather tired of windows at the moments.


Finally, my favorite the battlestar Kraken running the gauntlet of a sword and octo? basestar. Ive done so many battlestars, even pushing the color depth I needed something more so I didn't brain myself doing more armor panels. I decided to have an ace cruiser, the Kracken Novastar. With enough guns it has no fear running this pathetic gauntlet of a sword and octo charging in between to give both a full broadside. Those flames were tough, but the starfury, thunderbolt, and viper from Behrle I painted a month back were great practice for small flames. I really liked how they turned out on this battlestar. I also toned down the colors on the armor panels so they werent fighting the flames for attention. The base stars also have simple lighting on the inside so they dont pull much attention from the outer hull. I wanted the octo to look even more high-tech so I painted "circuit" patterns which are fun to look at. Novastar from Iron wind metals/Fox miniatures, while base stars are from studio bergstrom.

Star Destroyers = EPIC. Incredible as always, Atropos - thanks for sharing!

Those are simply unbelievable Atropos. Am I right in thinking that those are pretty small models? The space ship models I've seen have only been a few inches long, if that.

While the battlestar is truly amazing, I think my personal favorite are the Signon cruisers. How you did the glowing vents is beyond me.

You are the master of spaceships without a doubt.

Fantatic attitude to details .Bravo
Colors are so stylish/bright

The ships are all about 3 inches long. +- an inch.

These are some of my less vibrant ships. IE the singong cruisers are rather drab other than the lighted bits. those star destroyers aren't nearly as vibrant as my battlestars, but that was on purpose so the hundreds of "windows" really showed up against the dark subtle base.

The key to the lighting is
1. Lighting- I paint by and take pictures with "reveal" bulbs or their compliment. they have enough blue light that paints, especially flourescent paints, show up a bit brighter. Under normal low level room lights my models look less vibrant. When I paint I have a strong reveal bulb right over my shoulder so I have a good idea of how the camera will see the model. Then when I take the picture I usually have the camera far away so that the flash can make the bright points Pop just a bit without saturating the model. I also have very strong reveal bulbs to either side of the model to allow indirect "light sources" to still glow nicely. Some of my pictures are taken without a flash since the more subtle armor panels often wash out with a flash like on the star destroyers. Half of those pictures did not have a flash.

2. Paint: I typically use translucent and fluorescent paints for lighting. they just look nicer. I think using standard GW or such paints for lighting effects just looks boring and drab. use the standard model paints for the base, but always use transparent/translucent/flourescent paints for lights.

3. airbrushing: the alternate layers is usually white- then paint to color the edges, then go back and touchup the white so they look as bright as possible.

4. Gray/black/white cards. Lately Ive taken to using a small trio of references in the corner of the frame that use a gray card, white paper, and black felt. Then I use these to color match and light balance, and then crop them out of frame. The auto match functions in GIMP are wonderful.

And as you've guessed, Yes I do so love my starships and tech based miniatures.

Thanks guys.

Thank you so much for the tips. You set the bar so high... it's nice to gain the benefit of your experience and technique. Can you suggest a brand for the translucent/fluorescent paints? I've never looked for such things before so I'm not even sure where to start.

Great stuff as always, what is that second Imperial Star Destroyer though? It looks scaled up.

Gitsplitta wrote: Can you suggest a brand for the translucent/fluorescent paints? I've never looked for such things before so I'm not even sure where to start

Createx works well enough but its not very tough. There are others but thats the easiest to find without special ordering.

Kid_Kyoto wrote:Great stuff as always, what is that second Imperial Star Destroyer though? It looks scaled up.

The smaller is, im fairly sure, an imperial star destroyer.
I tried to determine what the larger one is but there are so many "official" and unofficiaal classes its hard to tell with a quick web search.
While the particular class is hard for me to nail down but I think its an intimidator class SD
see the below link
http://templarsoftwilight.wikia.com/wiki/Intimidator-class_Star_Destroyer

I paint models, I dont often make sure I know what particular class they are.

And if you know any one that has particular interesting ships let me know with a PM!

Thanks, cool looking model.

Have you looked at repainting the new Heroclix Star Trek or the older Japanese Furuta Star Trek ships?

I picked up a bunch on my list trip to Japan, they're hard plastic and fairly detailed.

Haven't gotten the Hero Clix yet.

Hi Kid Ive looked at the heroclix but havent acquired any yet.

And for some closeups of the shards I painted last year. Getting pictures of these shinny models is tough.
These are a bunch of shards including advents, primes, jaggeds, concussors etc.

edit: im having problems wiht one of the images and cant get it to show properly. Sorry.

And my two favorites
The Shard Amp Suit (concussor variant)
And the Shard Eradicator. I love this wicked looking thing.

The shard are sold by iron wind metals

click to enlarge.

Amazing work as always atropos. No idea how you do that, but I do enjoy the results.

Ok Ive got most of the pieces prepped for the UFO Incursion Response Force game (read X-com) game. Now I need to just streamline the rules with a few more play throughes.

The terrain is mostly tommygun, though some was heavily modified to be more useable. The drop pods on the helipad are my own design to match those on the valkyrie dropship (runnabout conversion).

The ground is centered around a tileable dock file from .. Ive tried to find the file, if anyone recognizes it please just post a link to the artist of the cargo areal. I then used satellite images to mesh the helipad grass and other parts in, then used some tileable images for water, and grass to finish the map. I have a second map of a runway and residential section made entirely from tiles and satellite images. But I havent finished the terrain for this map.

Anyway then I also made some more custom papercraft such as exploding barrels from halflife,
Vehicles are O-scale. Barricades are more custom papercraft I made along with
The bright squares are solar panels I made that look quite cool even in low light.
The transparent blue and purple fencing is part of a set of "laser fences" ive been airbrushing.
Finally the Purple HK from the terminator was repurposed to be a human attack craft with hybrid technology.

Now for some more playthroughs. guard your mind or they will control you!

I hope I get this polished enough for the con.

As always, click to enlarge. Map is 4' x 8'

more on the vehicles of xcom

one assault craft (terminator HK)
two antigrave Heavy weapon platforms (gau-8's on Tron chassis)
Two plasma tracked HWP's flanking a carbon fiber and dark city camo Anetocis workshop warthog.
One Hummer in city camo led by 3 medium drones (one pulse rifle, one advanced sensor, and one Psi Jammer/Network)
And a laser cannon HWP in the front.

Ill likley only use a handfull of these in the game.
I also need to take much closer pictures of the HK and warthog and tron vehicles since their paintjobs are very hard to see at just one angle.
I really like the carbon fiber effect on the warthog but its probably going to be as hard to photograph as the wraithlord.




and

Stunningly brilliant work, atropos! Against the background, these vehicles look like you travelled into the future and took a picture (they have a very realistic appearance). Thanks for sharing!

Thats.... pretty amazing.

Wow. How on earth did you do the digital camo? Ive been racking my brains for ages trying to think of a convenient way to mask for that.

These last few pics really just look amazing, they don't look like miniatures at all, or they look like there is some Photoshoppery at work. Very impressive. I am not so keen on paper scenery but I can't deny it looks good here.

Bruticus wrote:These last few pics really just look amazing, they don't look like miniatures at all, or they look like there is some Photoshoppery at work. Very impressive. I am not so keen on paper scenery but I can't deny it looks good here.

I used to agree about papercraft terrain but I realized I didnt like them due to style or flimsiness. What I did with these is reinforce them with multiple layers, or use them as wallpaper to glue to foamboard so they are more robust. With some I just took raw images and made the images tileable like with the oil containers, then just wrapped cardboard babyformula tins. Those are robust and great to throw ever decreasing sized hollow terrain into. Papercraft tiled terrain packs so nicely and weighs nothing. But, some pieces just have to be 3d models hand painted to get the right effect. I just prefer to spend my time painting minis rather than terrain. (read: kids are time sinks=)

Vitruvian XVII wrote:Wow. How on earth did you do the digital camo? Ive been racking my brains for ages trying to think of a convenient way to mask for that.

Digital camo is very easy. Take a sheet of paper, cut a square out of one edge, cut a bunch of smaller squares randomly out of that, cut one or two more smaller squares out of that, Go to the next edge, repeat. repeat for all 4 edges of a sheet of paper. After an hour you have one of the most useful and awesome digital camo stencils, you just have to remember never to spray all the way up to the outer perimeter of the paper so you can still tile your patterns by enclosing areas.

Then in the middle of the sheet of paper cut out a few random square cets for the accents or fine detail squares. See , its quite easy and just takes a tinny bit of skill with an airbrush.

Wow that sounds easy! Im having trouble visualising it, and how you would go about using it though, any chance you could take a pic of the stencil?

Here are some nicer shots of some of those models.
The carbon fiber warthog , as usual, is very hard to get good pictures of, so that will be later.

a paramilitary or reservist hummer in city digicamo, and 3 scout drones (scout, shotgun/pulse rifle, and Psi-jammer)



Then some heavy weapon platforms of various tech levels


Amd the HK modifed to be an assault craft for Xcom but using alien hull fragments grafted to the armor.



And finally the gray army with two of their HWP terror saucers, one enormous Psi amp, or shield generator, one cyborg stealth suit (left) and two gray's in power armor (right)

The grays are from zombiesmith. probably the BEST grays with attitude ive seen in a long time. I love these guys.

Ok, now for two of my favorites.

I just finished painting one of antenociti warthogs as an advanced assault vehicle for Xcom troops. One of the workhorses of the minutemen response teams, this boasts an alien organic fibrous armor interleaved with a carbon fiber support for superior plasma dissipation and EM absorption. The top panels are a cheaper metal painted with a basic camo to blend in to streats a little better for overhead observers. This vehicle boasts little in firepower, mainly a single pulse chamber, as its main purpose is to deliver a response tactial team as fast as humanly possible. For the paint job I went with a carbon fiber technique ive been playing with that uses about 5 layers to try to get a more irridescent and refractory effect. As always, whenver I try these glossy outcomes that are angle dependent, pictures are a royal pain. but I think these two sets came out nicely. airbrushed.

it was painting this guy that made me decide I needed to model and make my own additional civilian and paramilitary vehicles







Automatically Appended Next Post:
and FINALLY, after over a year of not knowing quite how to paint him, I decided to include him in with the last vehicle for carbon fiber armor.
This XV9 commander R'Alai was painted with CF since its supposed to be the most advanced stealth suit the tau have. I was going to paint a stealth field transition on him but my wife wisely told me to stop because he was so busy already.
You may have noticed in some of the x-com warmat pictures that there were laser fences, or forcefield fences. These were practice to get the forcefield effect just right for this model. I dont know how much time I soaked into this guy. We shall see how much I eventually put into his friends. Model is 100% airbrushed as are shields, a bit of drybrushing to finish the base.. sorry.

And, once again getting a good picture of a shiny refractory carbon fiber effect is rough, add to that lights in recesses that have to be directly illuminated, without creating horrid reflections..... and now add to that shields that prefer to be lightly foreground lit and heavyily background lit.... well lets just say I had a lot of lights on this sucker to even get these pictures which are still a little washed out from the reflections. But I think this is about as good as a single light scheme can get for pictures of this model.

I wanted this model to give you a feeling that this guy can take a shrug off some pretty harsh punnishment with the two obligatory shield drones, and the integral shield.

Cant equate into words how awesome that suit is. RIDICULOUS!

I am so stealing the force field idea for some of my AdMech stuff, would work great to represent void shields on titans and stuff.

Are the drones removable?

That's just... I tend to lurk here because I find it hard to do anything other than gush (whereas I prefer to comment constructively!) but... yeah. That's the canine's cojones. The hexagon effect is perfection itself.

As ive had a several pm's on the topic...

1. the masking of the hexagons was done with some commercial masks, and with two hand cut masks. Print out hexagons and cut with a knife.
2. the shields are done using transparent plastic, some already in spherical form cut then painted very carefully and gently in just the right order. Order of operations for paints is very important for the lighting to really make the shield pop. You can deform plastic using a hot ari gun
3 Im willing to paint these on comission, cost is 10-12usd for the first one (2"-6" diameter) then 8-10 for each additional. I also do rectangular shields such as what I used for the laser fence in the xom game for the same cost for a 3-4" by 8-11" rectangle. They may have more area but are a little easier to paint than the spherical shields.

Pm me if interested or go make your own and post pictures!

Bloody brilliant paint work and the X-com project is phenominal!

Been a while
Ive been working on sci-fi vehicles potentially for a kickstarter but pushed this commission through =)

Trazyne the infinite


DoomScythe


NightScythe

Lovely, just lovely. Very odd positioning of the big gun on the Doom Scythe though.

Amazing airbrushing! Really looks great on the scythe.

I miss you works. It's a pleasure to see you back on Dakka.

 MeatShield wrote:
I miss you works. It's a pleasure to see you back on Dakka.

=) Thanks. I dont go anywhere, I just lurk until I have a new pretty to show. Right now a lot of my time is going into my line of sci-fi vehicles. Eventually Ill have pictures of them all up in this blog.

And for those following my (may one day be a kickstarter and is now just an expensive casting hobby) I have a train on order =) Thanks to Mr Cross for the Doomscythe commission as that paid for the train prototype!

Ok Finally got around to painting some farscape models.
The moya is from someone off of ebay. Its not the greatest of models since he put some strange string over the model rather than actualy model detail into it. However, I found a way to work with the funny string. And I wanted a Talyn to go with it so I modeled something that looks a bit like talyn.

I also painted the base, I hope, to look like a starburst in progress from the rear. The base for talyn was painted to look like one of the most common pictures found of talyn on the net.

It is, as with all of your work, stunning. My only criticism might be that the background is so busy that it serves to distract from your paintjob.

I finally found where I got these tiles that I used on the following map
http://www.dakkadakka.com/dakkaforum/posts/downloadAttach/121122.page
You can find his tiles at this location.
http://toposolitario.es/workshop/tableros.html
Credit where credit is due, Awesome tiles!

Among other things ive been working on, I threw this in to get it done by Christmas.
It is my interpretation of Harry Dresden's Post war Cadillac Hearse, his "company car" as the Winter Knight.

Merry Christmas!

It was a Hotwheels '59 cadillac dragster. I believe. 3.5" long.

Merry Christmas Atropos! Nice work on that car.

Wow. Queen Mab would be proud!

I finally got a hold of Toposolitario and got his permission to post this for free.
Its an 80MB map half with his work, the tileable map, and part is mine with the helicopter dock and the grass field.
http://www.mediafire.com/view/?5lzj9q56qwtpq97

I recommend printing it on a vinyl banner, Matte finish. 4' by 8'

That's awesome, Atropos. You two have both done a fantastic job. Thanks for sharing that and thanks to Toposolitario!

Pls Master make a flame tutorial i wold sell my soul to learn how to paint flames properly

 lupo1982 wrote:
Pls Master make a flame tutorial i wold sell my soul to learn how to paint flames properly

Dont do that, flames are easy... mind numbingly so. I was getting a little nauseated doing these flames since Ive "flamed out" hehe. Go to youtube, or airbrush tricks and search for real fire or realistic flames and airbrush. Follow what they do, only smaller! If you want to see tinny flames look at my thunderbolt or star fury. Its barely an inch wide and has better flames than this one.

1 Paint base color
2 Paint white streaks
3 Flesh out the streaks with stencils
4 Color gradients into the streaks
repeat 3 and 4 as necessary to add sufficient depth while shifting your color about the color wheel, as your desired flames dictate. Dont go more than 1/4 around the wheel except for the faintist touch at the extreme ends.

5 Take pictures and share your results!

Ok
Just got some nice ME ships from studio bergstrom and this is the first ive finished. I painted the base to look like the system the omega relay sends you to at the galactic core. This model is about 5" long.

Exquisite. I especially like the subtle shading/pattern on the hull.

Months of work, generating my view of a future city for my UFO invasion game.
Its mostly done enough for this upcoming genghis con.

My goal was to make a not too distant future in which grav cars, shields and teleporters are as real as the alien invasion.

Here are a few pictures of my little corner of the future.

Wow! That board is intense! Awesome work. I love the little hover cars.

Loving the look of all the civilian vehicles, any chance of some close ups?

For those who may be interested in reading the battle report of my UFO: incursion response force game


https://skydrive.live.com/redir?resid=291163720D753127!176
its a 12meg pdf.
The game was a blast and the players were ruthless on the poor civilians. It was awesome. I dont think I could have asked for a couple of better groups.

That's really amazing work. Wow. The rest of the sci-fi gaming world is jealous!

Since this vehicle is a scotia grendel and not one of my designs, Ill post it here
a bunch of other painted vehicles can be found here on dakkahttp://www.dakkadakka.com/dakkaforum/posts/list/120/465606.page.

That tau, do want.
This sh*t you make, it is the sh*ts

That's just nuts atropos....

Though the few of you following this blog likely care.....
Kickstarter imminent!

By the first of april 1st (no joke) I plan to have this thing started, FINALLY!

I recently recieved a set of master proofs, and approval from KS to launch. I spent the past few days filming the video showcase and dotting the "I"s and crossing the "T"s
My last tasks I have scheduled before launch are to do a final check on shipping costs, or default to flatrate shipping for anything questionable. If by some miracle it makes it to the stretch goal phase I have several lined up with a few vehicles that have been partially mastered with some minor problems that are easy fixes, or a couple models that have not been mastered yet but i am comfortable with their projected costs now that Ive gone through a couple Small rounds of proofs with the casting houses.

Looking around I will advertise with Dakka since this community has shown the most support, and I assume there are more lurking or who aren't aware yet. And ask all of you to get the word out.

And if this fails, well at least I have an awesome array of "terrain" for my games!

Did it make it up today?


Automatically Appended Next Post:
Did it make it up today?

It did indeed!

http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1628235004/sci-fi-traffic-hazards-28mm-vehicles-for-the-futur

=)

Guess who's painting me a switchblade? You are. Deal with it.

If I want some models to paint no where near the same level, can I just add to my pledge?