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So, I took DarkStarSabre's advice and took the little one out fishing last night. I caught a nice walleye just shy of 20" which made a couple of beautiful fillets. Unfortunately the munchkin didn't catch anything so he was very sad. He was still sad this morning, but perhaps over the upcoming holiday weekend I can get him into some fish.

However... the tournament on Saturday is still looming so I did sit down last last night and get some painting in which I finished up early this morning. Missile launchers are now "dead black". Keep in mind that I'm trying to paint them to disguise badly pitted and deformed models that were damaged by an acetone bath. So I figured the less "dynamic" they're painted, the less likely the damage is to show. So first they get a black paint job, but even black has a semi-gloss when dry and dull coat isn't really DULL... it's just less glossy than most. So I followed up the black paint with weathering powder mixed with acrylic medium, which makes a kind of paint. However... when the paint dries, you get a more weathering powder kind of look to the final form, so light reflection is less than normal. I will be doing some very careful edge highlighting and may put some decorations (stripes, purity seals, etc) on them to give them some interest, but the idea is to de-emphasize the body of the missile launchers so the pitting and warping damage is less noticeable.

Wherever I am after tonight's painting session, I'll post a pic.

Gits

Hrrmm. It's saying you posted but all I see is me? Confusion!

Edit: Confusion solved. Forum's being wierd

Glad you caught something though. Always good to let real life take over a bit, especially when the painting seems to get at you.

Looking forward to seeing how you progress. My plans for tonight involve washing Dark Elves (figured I'd do a unit at a time rather than trying to do the whole lot in one go.)

Page roll-over. After 30 posts the page flips, but often the first one or two posts are invisible until you hit critical mass to "flip" the page.

Can't wait to see the launcher's progress, I fully understand the feeling of chemicals hurting the miniatures.

I have several grey hunter models that took a nap in some simple green, and the cheapo spray paint I used melted sections of the model, and stained other parts... and I did use actual spray paint, not your fancy primer stuff (I was a noob and have since learned my mistakes, though my rhino and my drop pod still have that base of Krylon black spray paint )

DarkStarSabre wrote:
Besides, we all have other things besides painting minis in life.

Heresy!

Re the RT MLs, I'm going to go out on a limb. Embrace the damage, the warping, the blobbiness - emphasise it. Highlight it. Embrace it! It's older tech and they've been a-crusading - relics of the chapter, but they speak of its ignominy. Our weapons bear the scars of our disgrace, and all that. Chip em, cut em, weather heck out of them. If you hide it, it'll always be noticeable, and it'll always bug you; if you exploit it, and adds to the feel of your force.

Just my tuppence worth mind

I actually considered that graven... but the damage looks wrong for that type of "sell". They just look kind of misshapen and blobby. Give me a chance to play out this theory... if they look terrible... after the tournament Saturday I can always take them apart, clean them up and take another shot at it.

thats a great idea graven! (even fits with the fluff )
but totally understand your position Gits, maybe 'overlaying' the existing damage with your own weathering or something. See how it goes with what you are doing at the moment though, no point fixing something that isnt broken (hmm thats the second time ive said that in two days lol).

Gitsplitta wrote:Keep in mind that I'm trying to paint them to disguise badly pitted and deformed models that were damaged by an acetone bath

Did you do that? I would recommend Super Clean (the purple stuff) for cleaning models. A day's soak and it removes the paint off of minis with some work with a tooth brush. It can also remove super glue and green stuff. Won't harm plastic, resin, or metal -- even if left in the solution for...months .

wyomingfox wrote:even if left in the solution for...months .

Sounds like some past experience there.

I'll keep an eye out for that over here - if I find some I'll be so happy (then I can strip another 2 armies worth of stuff! YES I AM MAD.)

Re: Battle damage - I think we should wait and see. If it's niggling at you already though Gits....that's not a good sign. Sometimes if it's that bad it may be better to scrap and restart. That way you won't have it gnawing at the back of your mind!

Actually I was being exceedingly stupid. I had them in a simple green bath and had just scrubbed of nearly all of the paint, but those tight grooves still had lines of paint in them that would not come out. Now I *knew* that acetone would ruin the plastic, but I thought if I tossed them in for just 10 minutes it might loosen up the paint in the grooves so I could get it out. Unfortunately I then FORGOT that I put them in the acetone and 40 minutes later I gingerly removed several partially melted missile launchers from the bath. In spite of rinsing them off immediately (after forcibly separating the melted together parts), they stayed soft for several more days. It was tragic!

However, those are so hard to find I am determined to save them, so the painting continues.

@DarkStar: you might be right, but I have a tournament on Saturday so I think these will stay with this color scheme until then, after that things can be re-done if necessary.

DarkStarSabre wrote:

wyomingfox wrote:even if left in the solution for...months .

Sounds like some past experience there.

I'll keep an eye out for that over here - if I find some I'll be so happy (then I can strip another 2 armies worth of stuff! YES I AM MAD.)

Re: Battle damage - I think we should wait and see. If it's niggling at you already though Gits....that's not a good sign. Sometimes if it's that bad it may be better to scrap and restart. That way you won't have it gnawing at the back of your mind!

FYI, there is a paint stripping tutorial around somewhere using Dettol that is apparently quite good. Give me a minute to find it.
Found it: http://www.dakkadakka.com/dakkaforum/posts/list/322635.page, not sure if that particular Dettol is still available, but of you can get your hands on some then it appears effective.

I now have an ammo can liberated from the USAF full of simple green for stripping. I was the only thing I could fit a baneblade in

Well, there's my wages gone on Dettol next week.

(Aaaaand there's a 5th edition Lizardman army and even more Chaos Space Marines rescued from their boxes of no return.)

It looks like Dettol is in essence... Simple Green with ETOH added. Simple green on it's own works pretty darn well but I think you need to let it soak longer. I could try adding a bit of my own ETOH and see if I can come up with something better.

For metal minis... nothing beats an acetone (nail polish remover) dip.

ETOH?

whalemusic360 wrote:ETOH?

Teletubbies. The Dakka Edition.

I'm suspecting it means something. Shame Simple Green is hard to come across on this side of the pond though.

Ethanol... ethyl alcohol. (wood alcohol... non-drinkable)

I'm going to get reallt picky and say technically its EtOH , sorry, im a Chemistry student as well as a geek
But yeah, they are pretty much the same, the ethanol will just help remove paint as a solvent. I just didnt know if Simple Green was available over here, whereas i know theres some Dettol at my parents so when i get home this summer, paint stripping here i come!

Gitsplitta wrote:but those tight grooves still had lines of paint in them that would not come out.

Yeah...If there is something glaringly thick, I will take a dentist tool (like the ones supplied with most sculpting sets) and chissle it out. Otherwise, I've just come to accept that as reality. On the other hand, once the model is reprimered, I've never been able to discern that there was paint left in the grooves to begin with.

However, those are so hard to find I am determined to save them, so the painting continues.

Should have just green stuffed over the worste of the surface flaws in a very thin layer and then sanded once cured. That is what I tend to do with bubbly resin flaws.

Actually I did that in a couple of cases...

Gitsplitta wrote:Actually I did that in a couple of cases...

Ouch. It was THAT bad?

Check out the back of the sticky-outy part of the ML below... that should be open showing the missiles inside. Yes, it was that bad.

I am weeping for you. Weeping.

Still. There is hope. Soldier on good sir! You've also learned a valuable lesson - patience. Never be tempted by the acetone devil for a quick job.

Actually nearly all the veins on the back end of the missile launchers are hand made out of plasticard as those were all melted off.

It was THAT bad...

How about cutting a cocktail stick down and have the pointy end in the ml barrel. bunch up some cotton wool and lightly spray grey then black and unfold.
Glue cotton wool to back end vains to hide the worst of the damage and a little around the barrel as escaping gasses/smoke.... voila you are firing a rocket (never call it a missile, it has the word miss in it). Maybe some flame OSL and you are set.

A bit like fitting a flame marker you showed earlier to your MW's.

That might be an option, but let's see how my first attempt works out first before we start exploring alternates.... Though a little bit of cinematics (a-la Armorcast) might be fun to try.

Gitsplitta wrote:That might be an option, but let's see how my first attempt works out first before we start exploring alternates.... Though a little bit of cinematics (a-la Armorcast) might be fun to try.

I happily look forward to it. Even with cinematics they would still mesh beautifully with the army as a whole - the older stuff just called out for that sort of thing, you know?

(P.S. Thanks for this thread again. Makes my work day less meh.)

No problem DSS... it's really a community effort. Which makes it easier for me as I don't have to provide all of the interesting content myself.

Unfortunately painting is something I have to do myself... so it's slow going.


OH... @dantay: Your GMS stuff (marine and gene stealer) are done and ready to send. Tomorrow if I can remember...

One other thing to confess.

I recently found a RT era SM Librarian. Seriously considering stripping him down, cleaning him up and seeing if you want him sent to you with the next free GMS stuff you decide to do?

Now I just have to find him again XD

I'm pretty far behind in my trades at the moment... got two done then discovered I'd forgotten two others so I'm back to scratch. Could be a few months (at the speed I go) before I finally get caught up.