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Hello all, my name is Suks.

I have been playing 40k on and off since High School (3rd edition) and continuously since the end of fifth edition. I have always struggled to make meaningful hobby progress, so I am hoping that creating this blog thread will help keep me motivated to make consistent progress. I still consider myself to be relatively new to painting, so hopefully this thread will also document my progress.

This week I have been working on 3 devilfish. The first one was already 1/2 painted, the other 2 needed assembly to be completed, primed, and base coated. I don't have any pics, but I experimented with liquid greenstuff on the tops of the devilfish (the seems on the engine things are terrible, I really wish they'd update the mold). I was not particularly happy with the liquid greenstuff, and now as I write this, I wish I would have taken the time to go back, sand, and use regular greenstuff. Frankly, I don't want to spend the time required to rewind the process, so I'm just going to keep that in mind for moving forward. After they got the dark grey base coat, I built up some yellow/orange (on a light grey base) to get ready for the hex grid stencil that you can see on the 1/2 painted one in the first picture.

Goal for tomorrow is to get the hex grid down and experiment with some lighter airbrush highlights on the vehicles. Even though I'm not fully decided that I want to go with airbrush highlights for the vehicles moving forward, I still feel like it is prudent for me to at least get some practice with highlighting or freehanding patterns with the airbrush. We'll see what I wind up deciding.

These look great! How did you go about the hex grid?

Vel'cona wrote:
These look great! How did you go about the hex grid?

Thank you very much! I have a silhouette cameo that I use to cut out the hex grid stencils. The first devilfish was done using one cut with regular stencil plastic. For the next two fishes, I have adhesive backed stencil paper that I am going to use with the hopes that it adheres to the curves more and gives a cleaner result.

Tonight was not a great night for the Tau. I wanted to experiment with some different airbrushing effects and stencil applications. I have deemed these experiments a failure. I think my initial method of just holding the stencil by hand was easier and more effective. My goal with the adhesive backed stencils was to get better detail in the curves, but that seemed to fail anyway. The adhesive was also a little too tacky and chipped some of the paint as it pulled up. I would have to either varnish the model before applying the stencil, or make the back less tacky (put it on my clothes and peel it off a few times to remove a bit of stickiness.

All things considered, it is just going to be easier to keep doing it the same way that I have been doing it. I will revisit the adhesive stencils when I move on to my next project (broadside) since I think it will be more necessary for battlesuits.

Also my airbrush had some bubbling, so I will have to figure out whats causing that. I cleaned it really well, but it was still doing it slightly even at the end.

I will respray them grey and start over this weekend.

Such a great idea with the hex grid, I just know these will look awesome.

Hopefully you'll nail the process with the stencil and find a methods that works for you and then you'll be smashing these out in no time!

EDC

After taking several weeks off from hobby progress (partly due to frustration, but mainly because a lot of my time had been going to help my parents pack and move), I made some slight progress last night. I was able to sand away the previous botched hex attempts and get it prepped for stencil again. I sprayed dark grey, followed by light grey, followed by white, followed by yellow, followed by orange. Tonight I will spray the dark grey again with the stencil held in place (manually).

One benefit is that I did get the orange and yellows a fair bit brighter this time. I had skipped the white stage last time, and didn't like the results. More to come tomorrow.

Pretty satisfied with the results. They will look a heck of a lot better once I get some more color blocked in. Time to put away the airbrush and get to work with good old fashioned bristles. Hopefully more to come tomorrow night.

Soon damn cool.

EDC

 evildrcheese wrote:
Soon damn cool.

EDC

Thanks for the comment! It really helps with the motivation. I think these are going to look great with all of the color blocked in.

Wow

i love how these look. You've inspired me to try something similar on my fledgling Tau force

 Paull wrote:
Wow

i love how these look. You've inspired me to try something similar on my fledgling Tau force

High praise! Doubly so considering how much I love your eldar!

Thank you so much for your kind comment!