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I'd go for the fame. Fleeting as it is. It's a good way to get your stuff seen by a wider audience and you can always change it up afterwords.. you definitely have the talent.

Yup, make it standard, then after pics, improve it. Easy enough to do. Your work is stunning bud.

My compass keeps swinging around on this one. my current status is to do the vanilla now, as I feel more like painting than spending a few weeks making a nose cone, and doing something about that mohawk/useless tail in the process. I'm thinking more of a V tail, like the PAK/FA or J-20

Meanwhile, 'the bullet has passed through the church', as a good Flemish expression goes. I decided to keep the Xiphon vanilla for now. Mainly because I didn't want to be delayed several weeks with laborious plasticard-fu.
Still I spent +-3 hours masking those wings. But it's done. I present to you; Red Two.
Apparently there's a whole mathematic to that red squadron wing graphic. It's six red lines wide, with a line's width in between them, and the big red part is as wide as the edge of the third line to the edge of the 6th line.

Luckily 3mm masking tape offered a nice spread on the wing, almost lining up with the wing plating.

Then there's a shot of my work desk. Paint and tools creeping up like a North Sea tide.

And finally mr. Lt. is having his base done.

I almost forgot to do the cockpit before moving on to the exterior. As with the Stormraven, I opted for a soviet-esque turquoise. A quick drybrush, some colour spots for lighst and buttons, and all it needs now is a black oil paint wash and it'll be good to go. In any case, most of the detail will be lost in the gloom anyways. I tinted the canopy but it's not 100% slick & smooth. I think I'll need to give that a gloss coat for clear it it up.
And the pilot needs a quick paint job as well.

And clumsy me slightly bent a needle of one of my airbrushes :( That, with slightly thickish paint resulted in some splatter. But luckily it is inconsequential for the current stuff.

Great start.. You make it look so easy..

Looking good so far Meph! Liking the interior

Solar_lion wrote:Great start.. You make it look so easy..

That's because it is! The key ingredient is patience. Filling up the gaps with greenstuff and smoothing them out took some time, even if all the pieces were already straight.
And masking is a good zen exercise as well.

Elnibbus wrote:Looking good so far Meph! Liking the interior

Cheers! We can thank the Russians for that funky anti-rust paint colour.

I just stumbled across this. the Su-35's demo on Maks 2017. Just 5 minutes, and it does one maneuver after the other that makes your jaw drop. That thing is blatantly using thrust over aerodynamics, just like a marine would. If it was Japanese, the maneuvers would have names such as 'Angry Brick From A balcony', 'Fallen leaf in a Thunderstorm', or 'Imbalanced origami thrown by a child'



I've seen the Thunderbirds perform live on a Belgian airshow a few years back, and man that was the tightest gak I've ever seen. They were more accurate than the Swiss. But man, I'd love to see an Su-35 perform live. Those things are just doing freestyle parcours in the sky.



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Progress! The cockpit's almost ready for assembly. The pilot just needs his oil paint wash and he's good to go.
That cockpit was a nightmare to paint though. That plastic is just so slippery, and those edges so tiny, it was very hard to keep a straight line.
And I was a bit disappointed about that break line pattern. I assumed it was a small indentation in the cockpit so it could easily take a runny line and stay perfectly straight. But nooooo, they had to make that an infinitesimal little ridge on the inside of the cockpit. I tried to keep a stable hand with non-runny paint, but that's the best I could do...

Anyway, got some airbrush Vallejo Premium Satin and Matte varnish and it seems that that is the way to go for my minis. I airbrushed him matte and then gave the metallic bits a satin coat by brush. And I'm liking the effect, it doesn't flatten the colours as much as spray can varnish. I'm thinking I'll experiment with a 1:2 mix of satin:matte. That should give a good coat that's not 100% flat.





Oh, and the cockpit's just a bit dusty, that stippling is not in the tint coat.

Very impressive.

Wowza Meph- gorgeous, gorgeous work...
I really like the Russian blue for the interior. It jsut really works for the marine minis.

And that -35... mmmm.... I loves me some good aerobatics. Sukhois are some of my favorite fighters, too! Really amazing what modern fighters can do.

the Vindi looks great . Especially The grey armor plates. Very realistic.

Thanks, guys! I'm glad you're liking it.

In the mean time, progress of the past few days. The Lady In red is slowly getting dressed, and the Deimoses are getting their decals on. For the large sides on the Vindicator, I'll wait until I have the FW new BA decal sheet. That has some cool stuff on it.




High-res in their galleries:
http://imgur.com/a/RwlwZ
http://imgur.com/a/L0ACo

Beautiful work on the Deimoseseses. Love the non traditional line breaks you have in your paint scheme.

Yeah, the line breaks are a very nice touch. I might have to draw inspiration from those for one of my armies' armour.

Really great work Meph. The Xiphon is coming together nicely (and makes me want one, ya git!). I like the way you've used black to break up the large amounts of red on the vehicles and is something I will be emulating (shamelessly pinching) for my own.

Theophony wrote:Beautiful work on the Deimoseseses. Love the non traditional line breaks you have in your paint scheme.

Azazelx wrote:Yeah, the line breaks are a very nice touch. I might have to draw inspiration from those for one of my armies' armour.

Elnibbus wrote:Really great work Meph. The Xiphon is coming together nicely (and makes me want one, ya git!). I like the way you've used black to break up the large amounts of red on the vehicles and is something I will be emulating (shamelessly pinching) for my own.

Pinch right away, guys! For the Rhinos, well, since they're already red, the only way to make 'm go faster was racing stripes, no? For the Vindicator I wanted to do something with the Devastator chevron. First I wanted to do just a pinstripe over the hull, but then, on a whim, I masked the whole section aft of the chevron pinstripe. Came out better than expected actually.
And the Xiphon's been a fun model to assemble and paint so far. No new pictures yet, as I've just been furiously drybrushing the Xiphon, with some washes and glazes sprinkled in between highlights. And the decals on the Deimoseseses got their umpteenth Micro Sol coat and they're blending in nicely. I'm hoping to receive my forgeworld order tomorrow, so I can apply the decals to the Vindi's sides and move on with the models.

With a bit of luck, I can finish the Xiphon red highlights today so I can remove the masking tape. I'm very eager to see how the masking pattern help up.

Aaaand I just found out I fethed up a little bit, thanks to haste. I didn't dry-fit the lascannons with the wings attached, and it seems I can't slide in the guns. The base of the lascannons is just a bit bigger than the side indentations where the barrels are, and the side opening for the guns is blocked by the wings in place. obviously a neat design to firmly hold 'm in place. So I'm forced to trim the gun base as much as is needed to allow for them being slid in from the front, and this will leave slight gaps above and below the gun base space.
That means I'll have to do some greenstuff work after the lascannons are finished and put into place, and blend in the greenstuffed gaps with the red paint job...



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The time has come. He received 6 consecutively lighter highlights, with two dark washes and two light glazes along the way.



And then; Mask off






The glass of the cockpit needs a new masking. But just the glass, not the frame included, and then it's time for decals!

Dear Lord I love the way that turned out... Just a textbook example of what can be done.

That's bloody lovely...

Very nice. The striping is very x wing. Awesome.

Thanks guys! It's slow progress, but progress for sure.

Still fighting with the decals. Most of them are blending in nicely, other needs some more poking-with-a-needle. And one or two have shifted position, which is less fun...




The Deimosesess decals are also receiving their Micro Sol coats, but they're almost ready to go.



And then I've started applying glazes to the engine nozzles, using a vector thrusting nozzle of an Su-35 as a reference. While drying it seemed I was almost there. Now that the glazes are dry, it's clear that I have a long way to go...

A few days on and the weathering is at 60% I'd say For the Deimoses at least.
The Xiphon has had its engines given some heat discolouration, and then I glued its rocket engine into place. I based myself off off that Su-35 reference photo but I didn't want to push the colours thàt hard either. What do you guys think?
I'm also doubting a bit whether I should give do the hull streaking/weathering with acrylics or oil paints, but I'm leaning towards oil paints as they can be adjusted and corrected easier. but it is a lot messier and time-consuming.




The Vindicator is the furthest along.
Model was coated with a 5:1 mix of sating:matte Vallejo airbrush varnish.
-I gave the barrel some colour glazing with acrylics but that needs some work still.
-The hull was sponge-stippled with a mix of boltgun metal and dark grey, another layer of dark grey, a light layer of tin bitz, and some silver
-The hull damage was also highlighted using some metallics.
-Most edges and rivets were given a wash of thinned black & brown oil paint, feathered a bit when almost dry.
-Some other edges and rivets (mostly on the black part) were given a careful wash of thinned Burnt Umber oil paint with some rust-coloured weathering powders and also feathered/streaked when almost dry.




The Rhino/Razorback was given the same treatment.




The tracks need work, also the exhaust pipes and Vindi barrel. After that the lenzes need to be painted in, and it's on to soot and dirt.

Feedback, comments, questions, all are welcome!

Super job. Vindi is amazing. Thanks for the step by step instructions. It's always good to see how the Masters do it.

Awesome stuff Meph! It has given me much inspiration for my own vehicles

Amazing work! Such a vibrant but grim scheme!

Great work Meph...I'm really liking the way the new BA transfers came out! Good to see your work has stayed consistent all this time. How big is your army now?

Man that Vindicator looks just amazing!

Solar_lion wrote:Super job. Vindi is amazing. Thanks for the step by step instructions. It's always good to see how the Masters do it.

Cheers! last few models I maybe have written less on exactly how and what I did, but they're still the same techniques described in detail in the wee beginnings of this rather long thread.
But in case anyone wants to know some specifics of what I did, don't hesitate to ask. I'd be happy to elaborate.

Elnibbus wrote:Awesome stuff Meph! It has given me much inspiration for my own vehicles

San76 wrote:Amazing work! Such a vibrant but grim scheme!

Moltar wrote:Man that Vindicator looks just amazing!

Thanks guys! Your cheers mean and motivate a lot!.

Eggroll wrote:Great work Meph...I'm really liking the way the new BA transfers came out! Good to see your work has stayed consistent all this time. How big is your army now?

I'm especially amazed on how good those new FW decals are. Of any decals I ever handled they are just the best to work with. They soak loose really quickly and the film is almost invisible from the get-go. Older decals really need quite a few coats of Micro Sol to blend in well, but those FW ones nearly blended in completely all by themselves.

Hmmm what have I got painted at 100% so far...?

-HQ units
-Two Tac Squads
-Two Dev Squads
-One Assault squad
-Death company (hmm I assume they would still be part of their original company?)
-Some dreads and vehicles (Counting just the 'new' stuff I bought and painted specifically for this army: Contemptor, Spartan, Baal Predator, Razorback, Storm Raven)

Oh, that's half a company I just realized.

And then from other companies:
-Scout Squad
-Vanguard Squad
-Termy Squad
-Sanguinary Guard

So with all those primariseseses painted up I could get to a full company probably.


These photos were taken an hour or two ago and since then the Deimoses have received a second layer of dirt, and the top of the Xiphon has been outlined and streaked with oil paints.

That means that the Deimoses are actually very close to the finish line. Once the weathering powder fixer is dry, I'll have to rub some metallic edges with a soft pencil or some scratched-off graphite, give them a good coat of varnish to completely seal in the powders to the models can handle being handled for gaming. And maybe I'll need to do some light touch-ups, as varnish tends to darken the weathering powders quite a bit.

Oh, and lenzes... They'll need their lenzes painted in.




Once the Xiphon's oil paints are dry and to satisfaction, all it needs is some black weathering powder here and there, and then it's also almost done.




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Here are some high-res galleries of the WIPs so far.
http://imgur.com/a/L0ACo
http://imgur.com/a/RwlwZ

Beautiful, beautiful work.

Cheers, mate!

I love the sign on the back of the rhino

The Xiphon is also looking ace.

You do such nice work with blending in the transfers and decals.