Airbrushing Space Marines

[winterdyne]

I\'m thinking about using airbrush techniques to paint up a number Blood Raven (Red major / Tan minor) marines, using preshading and numerous filter coats. A heavily worn, realistic Maschinen Krieger style look is what I\'m aiming for.

Has anyone done / seen this done before? I\'ve done a quick search (here and google) but nothing\'s really come up.

I\'m trying to get a handle on what to look out for or pay particular attention to - ie is a postshade technique or highlight filter coats likely to look better than the usual preshade dark-edges-drybrushed (or \'dusted\')?

Links to liked examples (ideally in the 28mm / 1/48 / 1/72) range of the techniques you\'d recommend would be nice. Chances are I\'ll have seen them anyway, but it\'s always nice to get other opinions...

 

[Shawn R. L.]

While it COULD be done, I think that using an airbrush on a mini would be more hassle than it\'s worth, other than for simply putting on broad base coats.

 

[winterdyne]

I\'m thinking more that I want to match weathering patterns and styles with the drop pods and thunderhawk I want to get. Which will be heavily preshaded and streaked by airbrush.

This...
http://www.helldorado.fr/figurines/helle-moller-step-by-step-painting-guide-by-thomas.php
... seems like a pretty good way of having to do minimal masking work...

 

[Matt Cexwish]

Why is it \"not worth\" using an Airbrush on Gaming Miniatures...?... That´s not true, it works out great and looks fantastic if done right...

I cannot give you any good advice, just read some tutorials, then give it a try...

I hope you have good equipment or you won´t be very happy......

 

[alextheartist]

The light sourcing on both of these is airbrushed:

http://www.coolminiornot.com/102978
http://www.coolminiornot.com/144027

Alex

 

[winterdyne]

Thanks for the replies. I think I know what I\'m going to do with it now.

The only issue I can see now is with the shoulder pads - they\'ll need a different preshade tone to the bulk of the armour - fine on the models where the pads are separate, but on the 2 part AoBR marines I think I\'ll do the pads first, and then mask \'em off. For the chest eagles, I\'ll probably use maskol or some other kind of latex mask to protect the armour while I airbrush the eagles. A couple of spot washes after everthings done (during the weathering steps) should neaten everything enough.

 

[alextheartist]

You could paint the shoulder pads and eagles after the other stuff has been airbrushed

 

[winterdyne]

Could, but that would be more masking work (having to mask off the rest of the model, rather than just the pads).

Chest eagles may end up being easier to do by hand, or do first... Will have to try both ways on a couple of test minis.

 

[alextheartist]

I would just paint them all the main colour, then do the pads and eagles by hand.

Alex

 

[freakinacage]

Originally posted by alextheartist
I would just paint them all the main colour, then do the pads and eagles by hand.

Alex

yeah. you have to paint them at some point, why not just paint them last?

 

[airhead]

Originally posted by winterdyne
I\'m thinking more that I want to match weathering patterns and styles with the drop pods and thunderhawk I want to get. Which will be heavily preshaded and streaked by airbrush.

This...
http://www.helldorado.fr/figurines/helle-moller-step-by-step-painting-guide-by-thomas.php
... seems like a pretty good way of having to do minimal masking work...

That step-by-step only uses the airbrush for underpainting/base coating. I see that all the details are still painted.

Quick step to save you the cost of an airbrush:
Prime black.
Now, pick up a can of white primer and spray from above from the halo lighting or source lighing direction.

You accomplish the same thing he did without the expense of an airbrush and compressor.

If you have an airbrush and air source, it is sometimes worthwhile to break it out for that underpainting instead of the dual primers. Personally, I hate to clean my guns for just that bit.

Now for a larger model (tank, drop ship, etc.) it could be very fun to prime, base coat, weather and wear with airbrush.

Your milage may vary.

 

[winterdyne]

I have an airbrush (nice Badger dual action) and compressor. And I know how to use them. I\'m planning fairly large batches so it\'s worthwhile time wise I think, it\'s the masking that\'s the issue.

 

[QuietiManes]

The masking will take almost as long as painting by hand. Even if you tape it instead of using the liquid mask, you might not save much, if any time. I mean, you\'ll still end up needing to do highlight and shading by hand. Unless you have a superb fine line airbrush, which I don\'t know that Badger has many of those, I have a 155 myself. It\'d do vehicle camo, possibly even figure armour type camo, but things like chest eagles and edges on shoulder pads, might as well use spray paint for all the overspray.

As others have said, time wise, I\'d think your best bet is to use the airbrush for priming, basecoating and the first layer or two of \"zenital\" highlighting from above, then switching to the regular old school brush.

You can obviously do it any old way that floats your boat, do a few test pieces and see how the time works out. You never know until you try, really. Also, it\'s been a couple years since I\'ve bought/used masking tape, liquid or the regular kind, but the liquid used to be a real pain to remove from 3D surfaces, pulling up alot more paint. You can get the regular thin (1/16\" - 1/4\") masking tape just about anywhere with a home or auto paint section, art and hobby and specialty shops typically sell it for alot more, around here anyway.

 

[ScottRadom]

Y\'know what this thread needs.... A side by side comparison of the time, and results each of these methods requires.

I think it\'d be fantastic to actually see a time analysis (wow did that sound nerdy) for each of these techniques along with the finished results.

 

[Legacy Account]

LMAO at the thought of cutting masks for fine details on 28mm figs. lol

Good luck!

 

[winterdyne]

Yeah the masking is why it\'d be easiest to do the shoulder pads first.

I\'m not on about airbrushing *all* the details (that\'s just mental) but certainly some could potentially benefit from it.

For example white on the missile bays on this 1/48 mech...

http://www.winterdyne.co.uk/maz/images/washed_5.jpg

... were painted first (and masked with maskol for the egde and tamiya tape for the main part). The oil wash was applied after together with some minor touch up by hand after the green was done.

The time isn\'t so much the concern (although I\'m doing a lot) it\'s that I\'m planning on using some very airbrush-heavy techniques on the vehicles like I said, and I\'d like the power armour to match the style.

Incidentally to remove the liquid more easily a very thin coat of future / klear to seal the paint works well. If you\'re getting too much pull-up it\'s often because your paint was too dry when it hit the surface. The future helps to hold it down and provides a low-key (smooth) surface for the fluid to not adhere to.

 

[Avelorn]

For pre-shading airbrush works beautifully. Spray-primer takes much more time. I have tried and the splatter effect means a lot of work and the need to do more or less solid colours. The idea with pre-shading otherwise is that you only have to use glazes of colours directly on the primer and it speeds up things significantly. Cyril amongst others pre-shades his space marines.

Try and see what you can do and then post pictures