Monday, August 16, 2010

Battle Fleet Gothic painting update

The fleet is nearly finished! Drybrushing is done, and the bases have been re painted. All of the engines and turrents still need attention, and the Imperial Fist symbol needs to painted onto each ship.

I'm mostly happy with how the models turned out. Sometime down the road I may repaint them. If I do, I'll bring the colour of the hull and highlight closer together.

The photos below were taken after I finished drybrushing, but before I repainted the bases. The base colour is Iyanden Darksun. This is followed by a wash of Ogryn flesh, which is followed by a dry brush of Iyanden/Bleach Bone mix, and then followed by a dry brush of Sunburst Yellow.







Sunday, August 15, 2010

Battle Fleet Gothic, first model nearly finished

This first ship was a bit of a test model. It didn't turn out quite how I wanted. Too much of Ogryn flesh wash darkened the model more than I wanted, and dry brushing could only lighten the edges, due to how many of them and how close together they are.


The phote makes the model appear a bit lighter than it actually is. After a basecoat and wash, the model was dry brushed with an Iyanden mix, followed by a dry brush of Sunburst yellow. I will probably dry brush the model again with more Sunburst. The picture below is closer to the actual colour of the model.



The photo below is for anyone who was unsure of the scale between BFG and 40k.


The rest of fleet is basecoated and drying. I started to do the basecoat using an airbrush, but the spray was having trouble getting into all the recesses and I switched to a regular brush.

My plan was to finish the fleet by tonight. I'll now be going to my girlfriend's parents' place for dinner, so the dry brushing might have to wait for tomorrow. It's always nice to see them though, and they're making lamb! Easy to put the painting on hold for that (especially considering how awesome her mom can cook). Mmm lamb.

Friday, August 13, 2010

Some work in progress photos

Well, it's about darn time that I put up some pictures of models that actually have paint on them.

Around 1850 points of Imperial Fists are painted to a table top standard (3 colour minimum and based). The standard I'm aiming for is a little higher than this. The Razorback bellow is about 80% done.

This was my practice tank sized model. I applied the same scheme that I planned to use on my infantry models. At the suggestion of a friend, a highlight of sunburst yellow was added. As soon as I saw the look it gave, I knew everything would be getting that highlight. The hull is finished, with a basecoat, wash, and repaint that is slightly different from the basecoat. The highlighting is also finished, while everything else still has a little ways to go.




You might notice that the paint appears somewhat bumpy. This is due to the primer, which went on like that. I'm not sure what happened, but it only happened to this tank.


I don't have any pictures of fully painted marines, but here is one with the basecoat and wash layers finished.



And...BattleFleet Gothic! I plan on finishing the whole fleet by the end of tomorrow. One battle barge, three strike cruisers, and nine frigates. Actually, that's a lie. My Grey Knights strike cruiser will have to wait. I would like to paint it in a Non-metallic metal silver. NMM is something I have never attempted, so that will require a lot of practice.

Thursday, August 12, 2010

Having issues with GW foundation paints and my airbrush. Also, what colour should a Grey Knights Strike Cruiser be?

I have been using an airbrush to basecoat the tanks for my Imperial Fists. The foundation paint I'm using is Iyanden Darksun. After around 15-30 minutes of use, the flow of paint starts to lessen, and will eventually stop. To fix this, I have to run a paint thinner and water through the airbrush, before going back to my paint mixture.

I am adding enough water to the paint. As a test, I upped the ratio of water so much that the paint was running off test surfaces. The airbrush still ended up having trouble though. The helpful, knowledgeable, and friendly hobby guru at the hobby store suspects the foundation paint is the problem, as it likely isn't designed to flow through an airbrush.  He is familiar with GW paints, but hasn't tried the foundation paints with an airbrush yet. As a potential solution to the problem, he suggested trying a non foundation paint that was close in colour to Iyanden Darksun. Luckily, GW does make a regular paint that is close in colour: Vomit Brown. I plan on trying it on a test model to see if it will result in a finished model that matches the ones I've already done.

The Painting Corps blog had an airbrushing week just a little while ago. I plan on checking out their series of articles to see if they have anything to say on the matter. Has anyone else encountered similar issues?


Also, my BattleFleet Gothic ships are in the process of being basecoated! The Battle Barge and  two Strike Cruisers have been done so far. I'm not sure what to do with my third Strike Cruiser, since it's the Forge World Grey Knights cruiser. Obviously, it shouldn't be the same colour as the Imperial Fists' ships! Forge World has their model painted grey, like the Grey Knights armour and Thunderhawk. As chamber militant to an ordo of the Inquisition, however, it would also make sense to paint their ship black. I don't know of any background which states how the Grey Knights' ships are painted. Anyone know?