Guawol's WIP Log

[Guawol]

I just got an air brush and case of vallejo game air paints for Christmas which has drawn me back into painting again after a long break. I will be posting picture of projects I am working on, I am kind of jumping around doing multiple models at a time so the updates will be kind of random, depending on what I decided to work on. I have never used an air brush before so its definitely a new experience and any suggestions are always welcome, as well as any tips for photos and painting techniques.

[Guawol]

Hopefully the pic gets bigger, I'm new to this thread so it will take sometime to learn the ins and outs. This crashed ship terrain is what I decided to use to test the air brush and begin learning the skills required to handle it. I use the air brush for the blue, silver, and gold parts of the model and did some minor brush work here and there on some of the smaller details. I have recently started dry brushing the ground around the ship and will post a photo of that later this evening.

[Guawol]

This was a model I started a long time ago, but then got burnt out from painting and never finished it. Recently I did the last few touch ups and highlights to finish it. This was all done by brush no air brush work, especially as I am still trying to figure out the best way to use the air brush on models other than terrain and vehicles.

[Foxtail]

Hi Guawol. Your painting looks great so far.

With the airbrush, don't be tempted to use it too much on small models. I tend to use mine for priming and the main base coat, occasionally for a highlight on round surfaces like space marine shoulder pads. The Vallejo Air series is great but keep in mind you'll probably want to thin them down a little further.

And beware of the orange, it is an evil paint that will ruin your life.

[Guawol]

Thanks for the advice. I did have to use the thinner for the metallic paints especially the gold, it kept clogging the airbrush, but at least it gave me practice for dealing with a clog. Are you speaking of the "Hot Orange" color? I havent used it yet, I have seen it used in tutorial videos but primarily when it was mixed with browns and other earth tones for hightlights when painting rocks and dirt. I know orange can be an issue especially when trying to shade reds, which I will have a lot coming up soon. One of the projects I will be starting soon is some Khandor models from Warmachine.

[Foxtail]

The orange is very very thin, and does not cover well at all. At least in my experience, it's the only game air colour that doesn't seem very good. User error maybe.

If you feel like spending a little, the Vallejo metal colour range are some absolutely astounding metallics. Don't need thinning at all through an airbrush.

[KruleBear]

Welcome to the forum. Your work looks pretty nice so far.

[Guawol]

Started working on the dirt and stones tonight. For the dirt areas I dry brushed a mixture of Vallejo Hot orange and Dark fleshtone, followed by a layer of Hot Orange and Bestial Brown, and topped it off with a wash of citdal Agrax Earthshade.

[Guawol]

I also started the Deathwing squad leader from the Dark Vengeance starter set. I did a base coat of citadel Zandri Dust, followed by a wash of Seraphim Sepia, then Ushabti Bone, topped off with another wash of Seraphim.

[Guawol]

Got a one of each elemental myrmidon in the mail today!

And speaking of which I have decided I want to try and paint the air elemental to look like a partly cloudy sunset instead of the usual gray tones, not exactly sure how I'm going to do it yet so ideas are always welcome.

[Guawol]

This is a Warjack I finished up last week. The more I look at it the more I feel I need to go back and work on the highlighting, especially in the legs. I was also trying to go for a frosted look on the left fist, exhaust pipes, and more or less all the steel looking parts. I wanted it to look like its internal energy came from the cold rather then steam or combustion. I'll have to practice more to try and get a better result. Same with the axe as I was trying for an ice blade. I also want to look into snow or ice basing.

[Sicks]

Snow basing I can help with, I used a mixture of liquitex super thick gloss gel, water, bicarbonate soda and a drop of white paint (I hear this helps stop it yellowing and that seems to have worked for me) I don't have exact ratios but the water is there to thin the gloss gel, you can add more water to make it more runny so you can pour it or less so you can use a tool to spread it (I used one of those wooden coffee stirrers) while it's drying you can use something to indent footprints and things (I used the handle of a paint brush) in my gallery you can see the results on a space wolf mini, it can be a messy method but it gives a nice effect I think.

[Guawol]

Snow basing I can help with, I used a mixture of liquitex super thick gloss gel, water, bicarbonate soda and a drop of white paint (I hear this helps stop it yellowing and that seems to have worked for me) I don't have exact ratios but the water is there to thin the gloss gel, you can add more water to make it more runny so you can pour it or less so you can use a tool to spread it (I used one of those wooden coffee stirrers) while it's drying you can use something to indent footprints and things (I used the handle of a paint brush) in my gallery you can see the results on a space wolf mini, it can be a messy method but it gives a nice effect I think.

Thank you for the information. I saw the work you did with the snow basing on your thread. I thought it was very well done, I especially liked the trail of blood going across it. I'll have to look for the super thick gloss gel at my local craft and hobby shop. Basing is one aspect of miniatures I havent really devoted a lot of time to learning, but its getting to the point where I think I need to if I want my miniatures to become even better.

[Sicks]

Basing can add another level to a mini, for me it became more important when I decided I didn't want to play any games so that only left trying o push towards display level . With the snow I have seen some people use PVA glue instead of the liquitex but when I tried it, it didn't work out for me, could be the kind of glue I have or maybe not diluted enough. There's also this link http://www.wargamingtradecraft.com/2...d-ice.html?m=1 which goes into some other techniques for snow and ice

[Guawol]

Been a busy weekend so didnt get to do much painting. I did another coat and wash on the Deathwing terminator building up the bone armor color, but didnt post a pic cause the transition in color didnt really change to much. I did try out making nurgle slime on some scrap pieces, with pva glue and super glue,for a future project. Also stopped by Joann's and picked up some terrain supplies for some future experimenting.

[Sicks]

I think that looks good, once painted it will look suitably okay and gross

[Guawol]

I'm gonna primer those pieces tonight so I can do some color testing before I move on to the actual model I want to nurglize, as well as get some more work on on the Deathwing and ship. Trying to make Monday be my painting night so life doesnt interrupt me from it all week.

[Guawol]

So didnt get nearly as much painting as I wanted to done last night, darn friends trying to get me to play Civ VI or The Division with them :P. I started using a weathered steel technique that BAM showed me yesterday on the crashed ship, but didnt get through the whole process. I'll post pics once I do.
Above are the nurgle slime test pieces primed with my airbrush, helps show the slime textures a bit better. So with these pieces I'm painting most of the none slime areas following BAM's advice for weathered steel so I can get more practice at it and then going to paint the slime to color test for an up coming modified Nurgle Hellbrute.

[KruleBear]

Nice Nurglification!

Fyi a few references on snow i have found handy:

Shakes, a few articles i referenced for snow on bases. I never saw anything regarding snow on the clothing. I would think using your reference minis and the different snow effects from these artiles you should be able to get it.

http://fromthewarp.blogspot.com/2010...with-snow.html

http://www.fanaticus.org/DBA/guides/modellingsnow.html

http://www.secretweaponminiatures.co...page=page&id=6

http://www.dakkadakka.com/dakkaforum...st/266770.page

[Guawol]

Thanks. I'll look through them while at work, like I usually do ;P