Chipped Armour Practise - AK interactive - No Airbrush

Hey ya,

So! With the release of Fogebane I have 2 boxes opened in my flat with the mechanicus taking their place on my ever swelling to-do pile! I am keen to have this army look quite beaten up and spend a lot of time (too much time one might say) on their bases for a really characterful army. 

I'm not a huge fan of the painted on chipping damage myself, I will be making use of it for the Sons of Wrath (when I can be arsed) but I wanted to have a go with the old chipping methods that are described on the interwebs. 

The main problem with this is that they require and airbrush according to every damn tutorial I have watched, which is many. I'm not a big fan of airbrushes, I find that they homogenise the painting style of people that use them and have quite a samey quality. That said if I had the spare money and space to use one for the very few things like this then I would get one. As it is, I cannot justify the cost nor do I have a safe space to use one.

With that in mind I wanted to try using AK interactive Heavy Chipping Fluid by painting the fluid on AND crucially, painting the layer of paint over the top of it. As you can see at the top I have a couple of example that I did on some spare bits lying around. 

Test 1

This door was sprayed leadbecher and washed with nuln oil before I sprayed it with matt varnish. After the varnish I applied the AK interactive. Then I painted one side khorne red and the other side thousand sons blue. After that dried I applied water over the top of the paint then waited for it to work its way through. 

Then... I attacked! With a tootpick... I didn't have a spare toothbrush to hand as it was. After I had sated my paint rage I lacquered the door in dullcote, let it dry, and then painted all the additional layers and highlights on top. 

Thoughts

You can paint on top of the AK interactive, but you have to have almost zero paint on the brush, otherwise it starts too remove the chipping fluid immediately. Patience is key and a virtue in this regard. 

The chipping fluid itself tends to pool together, something about its viscosity and the varnish prevents it from being painted on in a seamless layer, so multiple applications were required. I think this issue would be absent when applying thinly from an airbush (le sigh). 

Test 2

With the shield, I wanted to have a look at a rustier type of chipping/weathering. I primed the shield black and then painted browns and oranges on the shield, too conservatively I think as it was. I could have gone for brighter tones which would have saved additional work later on. 

I also decided to see how it would work if I painted all the paint on apart from the final highlights before I started the chipping. So, after the varnish I applied the chipping fluid, let it dry, and then painted all of the purple and cream paints on top (with the same caveat of patience and little water). 

I then chipped away after some water with a toothpick and sealed it with lacquer. After sealing I highlighted the chips and added traditional rust effect. 

Thoughts

I'm happier with how the shield turned out to be honest, though I don't know if that's a factor of the colours or the rusted nature of it. 

I think a certain amount of the effect is just ensuring you get the chips in the right places, which I don't think I did with the door. The shield has less of a problem with this as it looks like it would take a battering from all angles. 

Overall

I'm happy that I can achieve this effect without an airbrush. BUT I am keen to try out hair spray instead of the AK interactive chipping fluid. I think this will give me a more consistent later over the under paint before I apply my top layers. 

Honestly, the biggest issue I had was actually applying the chipping fluid. Whilst painting over it required patience and thought, it wasn't all that difficult in the end, just don't use water and apply very slowly and in thin coats. Patience!

Any thoughts would be greatly appreciated to distract me from my thesis and despair....

Peace out,

Rob

Inceptor Primaris - On the Painting Block

Hey all,

So I'm off to Chicago for a week from tomorrow so its going to be another quiet old month from me on the blog. Sadly not for holiday but to attend a work conference, and as Serena is unwell I'd really rather not be going, but this is a fairly important conference and I'm presenting some exciting new stuff so ho-hum. 

Previously I've shown you the predominantly red/orange (reranged?) Primaris paint scheme, this is actually just the scheme for the sergeant ranks and above, the rank and file will have the inverse scheme of being primarily a dark dull grey with the reranged applying to the point plates. 

This inceptor also shows off where I am going with the bases, I am particularly pleased with the stone painting. I still need to add some varied foliage to the base for contrast, but its nearly there. I have discovered with this scheme that I am pretty much going to be painting them one at a time, as the style and colours are really tricky for me to grasp, so its going to be a slow burn army. Hopefully that should be offset by the Wraith Army coming that has a luxuriously simple scheme!! 

I'm very pleased with this chap overall so far, just need to crack on with the jump pack and head and then I think I might enter him into the monthly painting competition that GW hold on facebook. This months category is models from Dark Imperium and I'd like to show him off a little :)

Peace out,

Rob

Painting Primaris Marines - Mark II Paint Scheme

Hey'all,

Thanks to everyone who gave feedback yesterday on the orange and blue Primaris paint scheme. I am very appreciative of the help to improve my schemes (bit evil sounding there) and techniques :) With that in mind I present to you Mark II of the paint scheme! I am still lacking marking for squad, rank and chapter as well as battle damage but that will all come soon enough!

Damn the cat hair that wheedled its way into the last few pictures! Our cat has thick hair and is shedding currently, the cute furry little bugger!

Peace out,

Rob

Horus Heresy - Alpha Legion Sergeant - Version 1

Hey Hey,

More work on the Alpha Legion, still trying to get the damage and rust down.

Peace out,

Rob

Alpha legion test scheme - rusty

Hi everybody,

Just a quick update on my Alpha legion test scheme today. I decided that the damage looked to light and based on all your feedback I needed to tone back the green. I think I may have gone too far the other way but I quite want to bash these guys up but I don't know how it looks to a less scathing set of eyes as I invariably hate things I have painted!

So thoughts please :)

I'm planning on taking the scalpel damage further on the other miniatures so hopefully I can produce a better damage look with them with less need for the mad skills of the painting..

Anyway, comments as always appreciated :)

Peace out,

Rob

Alpha Legion - Test Scheme 1

Hi Readers,

I said in my post about the Alpha legion that I wouldn't have anything ready till after christmas... well I lied! I couldn't help having a play. I originally wanted to make the model look like Imperial Fists that the paint had come off revealing they were actually Alpha Legionaries in disguise.

Unfortunately I just can't get that to look right. It either looked too messy or just like an odd form of camouflage. I think its a really cool idea that someone more skilled than myself could pull off or perhaps I could once I develop my skills but alas not for now!

Anyway here's my first attempt at an Alpha legion scheme with a little bit of converting on top. I'm actually very happy with how it looks but a bit of feedback never hurt!

Do let me know what you think :)

I apologise for the poor quality photo's but one of my lamps died sadly :( I shall have to invest in a new one soon. 

Peace out,

Rob

Heresy Dark Angel Terminators - 3 Finished

Hey gang,

After some suggestions on google+ I decided to add some more specific Dark Angel patterns on my Terminators so I decided to add the red and yellow check pattern from their pre-heresy scheme as shown in the picture above. I decided on the right pauldron would be best and set to work.

I found this incredibly difficult and as such am damn pleased with my results!

Thoughts?

Peace out,

Rob

30k Dark Angels - Zenithal undercoat attempt 1

Hi Readers,

So I am going to be painting my 30k Dark Angels Black with silver armour trim and red/bronze worn on fancy details such as the lion pauldrons. I am happy with how my Death Company are painted but its very much a stylised black as opposed to a true style black. To this end I did a lot of reading and chatting with various Deities (Henry South being the major Deity of this worship) and have decided to try and use zenithal undercoating followed by layered washes to achieve the softer more natural black that I am after. 

I have decided to just run cloaks on my sergeants, so barring any massive change advice from you fine fellows as a community I think this guy is done! I want to get this force looking tip top, so the most anal comments on how he is painted are more than welcome as long as they are constructive :)

I took pictures at most stages of this process so if there is interest I may post that up as a guide to how I got this guy looking like he does. Just let me know!

Peace out

Rob