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Rule of the Incredibly Small:

I seem to be going to a lot of trouble with an interior that no one will be able to appreciate fully but there is a bit of fun in testing my limits besides which I wasn't even aware that FW included all this detail in their cockpit before I began researching it.

http://i.imgur.com/EeS6h17.jpg


This first image overexposed as it is tries to give a hint of the just finished center and side consoles.

This next image show the detail better; I tried to replicate the FW center control panel to varying degrees of success.....

http://i.imgur.com/vRpZBHi.jpg


This next shot is more like itshowing the computer monitors and control buttons....

http://i.imgur.com/ojwFLpQ.jpg


Over the shoulder view where I will be applying paper green cutouts for the cockpit displays.

http://i.imgur.com/1iZWvnQ.jpg


Finally, a front end shot showing the beautifully details pilot seats that no one gets to see after the crew is glued in.

http://i.imgur.com/3lde8zD.jpg


I may just magnetize their little bottoms

That interior is stupendous and the addition of the speeder seats and pilots is a massive improvement from the original mock up. Well worth the purchase and one I considered (and still am) for my T-hawk - must get back to the build on that soon(ish)

Thank you,

First Try:

Today was my first attempt to paint heads and faces so after reviewed 'Buy Painted's' tutorial:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=erDncOZiihc

and discovering it's gonna cost a lot of money to get all these one shot paint vials I decided to mix my own out of the paint I had on hand.

http://i.imgur.com/l3jGDyE.jpg


So I started with Vallejo Model Air 71.112 Sand for the flesh base.

and then applied a Violet wash made out of Game Color 'Royal Purple' 16 and 'Warlord Purple' 72014

The head in the cockpit is a practice head from my bitz box that is pretty beat up and had a coat of Testors Enamel.

http://i.imgur.com/Gu4hl5s.jpg


For ease of painting and to allow for the backrest detail to be seen I magnetized the upper torsos so the can be removed readily.

http://i.imgur.com/lzhOFiD.jpg


The heads when finished will be mounted on wire and plugged into the neck recess.

Well done, Black. I need to learn to paint eventually.

Quote MXWLLMSR:

 mxwllmdr wrote:
Good morning, DAKKADAKKA!!! Okay, so I have decided to move this project over to the twin reaver thread. Please tune in and speak up. It is, after all, the feedback I get that helps these projects get better and better......

and I need to practice my LED T'hawk lighting so I referred to your T'hawk lighting thread.........

Bupkis; what happened with this project?



Automatically Appended Next Post:
The Futurama Head Museum:

"A life of quiet dignity;"

These in the first image aren't completed but perhaps shows the intermediate stage of the paint process.

http://i.imgur.com/nNX5joc.jpg


These in the image below are a bit further along.....

http://i.imgur.com/bOWxSS2.jpg

Thumbtacks? Genius....


Automatically Appended Next Post:
Thumbtacks? Genius....

And I already told ya, don't use me as an example. I suck at this hobby.

That new Warlord of yours belies that statement it certainly has mine beat all hollow.


Front Row Redux:

Try as I might I cannot get decent images of the front row, this is the best I can do...........

http://i.imgur.com/7StnvaW.jpg


The head in the middle has part of the skull exposed and the head on the far right; has most of the skull damged and covered with a partial metal prosthesis.


http://i.imgur.com/cMZ9tR5.jpg

Derelict Marines:

Probably everyone has them and on a whim I decided to try to salvage these abused figures so gathering the worst of them I managed to cobble together fifteen and of these I painted five flat black.

http://i.imgur.com/JXlhjDn.jpg


I then gave them a light brushing of aluminum powder to see if it was worth pursuing the project further; it was.

These little guys have taken on a new lease on life and when I finish adding the arms and armament they will serve as the nucleus of my marine company.

http://i.imgur.com/KB3vOcI.jpg


These ten others below needed a lot more work missing bases and jetpacks, heads and torsos but these to will get TLC and a brand new paint job to boot.

http://i.imgur.com/xx04EmA.jpg


http://i.imgur.com/aumMbJA.jpg


I can then start on the other hundred or so that are not in such bad condition.

Lol. Aren't all marines derelict in some way or another?

I'm talkin' stuff yer kid brother bought when he was eight years old and screwed up badly and yer too dimn'd anal retentive to toss the bad job and try to recover the s--- and turn it into gold.

Nice work, everything looks suitibley chunky and durable for 40k

Panorama:

I'm not lyin' to ya I hate painting, anything I can do to expedite the procedure I'll go for so when I arrived at this Technique if you can call it that I went for it and I share it with you take it or leave it.

http://i.imgur.com/OxiwARk.jpg


Basically it's spray paint every thing with 'El cheapo 0.99 ¢ a can Walmart flat black enamel and dry brush aluminum powder on it.

http://i.imgur.com/ISyIRmg.jpg


In all it averages out to about five minutes effort per figure no lie; so the results aren't Pro painter quality but I could devote an hours labor per piece and not come upwith anything half as good.

http://i.imgur.com/D4i5j02.jpg


These figures are/were literally GARBAGE and anyone in their right mind would have tossed them so I had nothing to lose for the attempt.

http://i.imgur.com/aYy4PAe.jpg


Naturally I plan to augment the basic work with a bit of colour here and there; purity seals glowing eyes etc and of course paint the bases....

http://i.imgur.com/jTCmX83.jpg


but where else are you gonna get such an acceptable return for such a bit little effort; just FYI........take it or leave it.

I'll take it. Better than anything I could do.

Thanks for the replies,

The beauty of this technique doesn't readily come through in these photos as the camera indicated there wasn't enough light; hence the camera over compensated and everything is almost a homogeneous silver. There are in fact very deep shadows and shaded areas that augment the the colour gradation from pure black to mirror-like silver. The digital camera blends this into an almost featureless silver. My next batch I'll apply less aluminum so the difference can be more readily perceived.

Exercise in Green and Graphite:

I wanted my marines to be more in keeping with what I perceive to be a viable colour scheme for combat troops but still giving a nod to the garish propensities of the 40K genera; therefore I coloured my troops with OD green and graphite literally powdered graphite.

http://i.imgur.com/3KeQcNf.jpg


After spray painting flat black 0.99 cent a can black flat primer I brushed in graphite pigment and achieved in my estimation a realistic military patine on both the armour and the weapons.

http://i.imgur.com/vjqe8IM.jpg


Painting the shoulders and the gauntlets were the most time consuming part of this project so far but I still have the accent colours to add.

http://i.imgur.com/vxlBVHS.jpg

Errand of Mercy:

In my practicing to paint the Thunderhawk I experimented with the colours I've chosen on some derelict Dread's; two plastic and one metal which were sorely abused in their time. I found these in my son's junk box (their from his friends, he paints much better than these were plus someone converted the metal one to a Chaos...)

Anyhow after repairing and stripping the coarse paint-jobs I rebuilt the Dread's and painted the weapons and greaves OD green over flat black and then drybrushed on some graphite powder....

http://i.imgur.com/IFIMqpQ.jpg


I then highlighted the bas relief insignia with Vallejo gold.

Now here's the beauty of using dry graphite highlighting; whilst painting on the gold there were occasions when I smudged some gold on areas I didn't want picked out in that colour; I simply pencil eradicated the indiscretion with a sharpened 2 HB pencil.

Plus the dry graphite highlights the detail wonderfully with an incredibly minimum of effort.

That's a nice scheme you got going, colours work well and looks like a quick way of getting the models table/display ready. Will look stunning on the Thunderhawk no doubt

Looking great, but I'm not a fan of the green and metal combo. Individually I like them.

As someone who is kitbashing a Thawk Transporter, I love this thread.

Ruglud wrote:That's a nice scheme you got going, colours work well and looks like a quick way of getting the models table/display ready. Will look stunning on the Thunderhawk no doubt

Thanks, I don't have much patience with detailed painting.

jabbakahut wrote:Looking great, but I'm not a fan of the green and metal combo. Individually I like them.

So you don't like the colour or you do??? anyway I'm glad you're back from wherever you've been????

Briancj wrote:As someone who is kitbashing a Thawk Transporter, I love this thread.

Gimme a link and I'll take a look.....thanks for the accolade.

.........................................

Cockpit Detailed:

Seems the depth of field is too fine for my camera; I can't seem to get a good image of the crew in the cockpit......

http://i.imgur.com/j1kxER2.jpg


No excuse for this next one, just a poor photographer....

The guy in the foreground is too ugly, anyway I like the guy with the broken nose in the right seat; puts me in mind of my old drill Sargent

http://i.imgur.com/kxXXCVO.jpg


This image is a bit better it shows the steering yoke mechanism which is unlike any AC I ever worked on but I guess the genetically enhanced SM don't need fly by wire or hydraulic assist to steer a T'hawk

http://i.imgur.com/chPhDqB.jpg


Much better image but the pudgy faced guy in the Capt'n seat seems a bit out of focus.

http://i.imgur.com/Nm32iex.jpg


Cockpit seat is a bit tilted in this side view before I install mounting magnets...

http://i.imgur.com/2c9ZO9H.jpg


And finally the cockpit flight panel before I install the video flight displays (EICAS) engine-indicating and crew-alerting system (EICAS) is an integrated system used in modern aircraft to provide aircraft crew with aircraft engines and other systems instrumentation and crew annunciations.

http://i.imgur.com/t1tBZ4C.jpg


Seems to be a distinct minimum of instrumentation

for a re-entry vehicle but I guess those plugs in the backs of their heads provide data directly to the brain synapses.

You can see it tooling around my cityfight table, here. It is about 80% done, but I'm replacing the vehicle lift arms.

http://www.dakkadakka.com/dakkaforum/posts/list/2550/310187.page#6428213

 The_Blackadder wrote:
So you don't like the colour or you do??? anyway I'm glad you're back from wherever you've been????

I'm interested to see the finished paint on thawk, the color combo has potential.

I try to lurk every couple months whether I comment or not, finishing my senior year of engineering school. I want to build a fully interactive digital version of 40K where all the pieces are encoded and tracked, but I will probably settle with putting LEDs in my models.

 jabbakahut wrote:
Looking great, but I'm not a fan of the green and metal combo. Individually I like them.

Aha! now I understand; you like the metal and you like the green but not combined. It took me a while to sort this out. My Thunderhawk will carry both these coverings plus the red forward hatch highlighting plus whatever silver bits I can deem apropos.

I'm assuming the graphite doesn't rub off when handled or are you sealing it? Anyway, I really like the look of it on your pilots. The grey-beige of the interior really makes their armor stand out even better.

WOW.
I can honestly not think of a better word.

This is an amazing plog. I'll be watching!

Thanks for all the replies

 Warboss_Waaazag wrote:
I'm assuming the graphite doesn't rub off when handled or are you sealing it? Anyway, I really like the look of it on your pilots. The grey-beige of the interior really makes their armor stand out even better.

The graphite embeds itself into the matte paint and handling only increases its shininess; it doesn't perceptibly come off on your hands. The natural skin oils serve to increase the sheen and make for an effect difficult to achieve with washes, oils, and inks. I find the necessity of beige seat cushions seeing as the occupahnts are wearing armour but what the hey. Some modern aircraft have switched to grey and beige for cockpit appointments

E.I.C.A.S. Instrumentation:

As mentioned above computer monitor instrumentation was 'state of the art' when I left the aircraft field replacing the 'mechanical ribbon' instrument found in older aircraft such as the Lockheed L1011 (Gad, what a POS!)

Anyway the FAA said that the monitor displays could be used as the primary instrumentation so long as there were a discrete component instrument as a secondary back up.

http://i.imgur.com/t1tBZ4C.jpg


In the far flung future that craven conditional; isn't, er wasn't, er won't, er will not have been necessary.

Seen below I attempted to duplicate the EICAS displays with images I downloaded from google,

https://www.google.com/search?q=eicas+instrumentation&espv=2&biw=1536&bih=764&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwjfj5PRyuPKAhWKOz4KHcajBLkQ_AUIBigB

printing them at greatly reduced sizes and cutting them out and pasting the instruments on the four blank displays.....

http://i.imgur.com/f2UWD6S.jpg


A simple yet effective way to duplicate vehicle gauge and annunciator panels.

Like the development of the cockpit and controls. Looks really good. Hadn't thought of using land speeder parts in this fashion. I will have to think outside the box a bit more I think. Love your project. Great work

FW has a penchant for re-using bitz that work for various applications I was recommended these by a denizen of other threads I post on and it seems it was right on.

Umpity Ump Cadians:

I've taken on the task to get all my ground troops up and operational meaning break them down hopefully at the glue seams (not always successfully I might add) scrap and clean off the glue seam residue and whatever paint can be removed I have come up with about fifty Space Marines and about eighty Cadians plus an untold number of Chaos Marines and assorted denizens. anyway the Marines are pretty much done and two days ago I started on the Cadians.

I practiced on some metal Cadians from the year one and needless to say the work was tedious but I managed to get them to come out halfway decent but I suck at picture taking so the images didn't come out too good;

http://i.imgur.com/l9XRRKt.jpg


this being the best of a bad lot:

http://i.imgur.com/9hS0wU1.jpg


So graduating to the plastic Cadian assault squad I came across this interesting discovery......

http://i.imgur.com/712KZVv.jpg


I'm always on the lookout for anything to break the tedium of repetition and this I think will come in handy; note the brush on the center of the last image; you wouldn't think such a huge flat tipped brush would serve for fin detailed work but this is what I discovered mainly by accident. I got called away and this flat tipped brush hardened with Agrax Earthshade wash, Rather than soak the brush to soften it I figured that applying paint with the stiff brush would gradually soften until the hairs were flexible again. Imagine my surprise that the stiff edge was ideal for applying paint to seams where say the 'pants meet the boot top' or the 'sleeve meets the gun barrel.' When the tip of the brush softens that you cannot get a fine demarcated line just squeeze the excess paint off the brush between your fingers and let the paint dry to harden the bristles.

Has anyone ever heard of this trick before?