Superheavies Complete

I have finally completed the three Superheavies for the Bolter and Chainsword ETL IV. This should be a big lift for the Astra Militarum subgroup. These three were over 1500pts in total.

Much like working on twenty guys at a time, working on three vehicles of this size at the same time was getting to be more of a chore; quite unlike the usually joy of finishing a single squad. As each step of the process was increased three-fold for every vehicle. Doing the oil wash meant having there was no down time between application and blending. It was almost too much to keep track of. I did have to go back and get some spots that I missed along the way, like the purity seals on the rear of the tanks. Beyond that, it all went fairly well.

                               

 

The Stormblade pattern superheavy carries the Plasma Blastgun. As this was the lighter in color of the three, the weathering really showed up very well. Except for the fitting of the gun, there were zero problems. I used a long brass pin to help keep the gun in place. Even still it didn't sit flat enough. It's not something that would be noticed during gaming.

                                

 


The Shadowswords came out nice too. Contrary to the above photos, they are the same colors. I'm still learning the camera.

                                 

 


I had to paint part of a 'three' onto the side to avoid it getting lost by the ladder. It was something I realized after I did the other side first. I just thought the numbers looked better near the back of the tank.

The weathering for all three was pretty much the same as the Macharius, Punishers, and the Sentinels. I did use the Van Dyke Brown oil paint for the pin washes. One thing I did that worked really well was, I pre-highlighted all the raised parts with a lighter color. All the rivets were painted a lighter grey. All the raised parts got some level of a highlight across all of the tanks. This really helped those parts stand out and help with the depth of the paints.

Only one thing gave me an issue. I tried to use the Mig Productions Rain Streaking effects. It comes in a bottle just like the Rust Streaking and Grime Streaking effects. It even has the same directions. I planned to use it as a way to fade the upper layers. The process is normally to put down a spot, wait a little while, then blend it with a brush and thinner to spread it around. Simple and very effective. Well, the Rain Streaks may have too much pigment in it. Placing a dot on many of the panels across the top of the tank 31, I then proceeded to blend it around with a damp brush. Problem was, it was leaving a ring where the dot was placed. It was drying too quick and making it look like a cheetah! I had to soak a Q-tip in thinner and practically scrub the Rain Effects off. The stains are still there, but when another layer was added and blended, they began to disappear.

To get it to work, I used two brushes together, one with thinner, one with the Rain effects. I placed a spot of thinner down, then the Rain Effects on top of that. I then blended it in immediately. This worked to make the paint look faded as a light translucent layer of a white was laid on top.

Fuel Leak

Battle Damage

After completing the painting, they all got a coat of Gloss spray and then Dull coat from Testors. I used graphite for metal marks on the rust and tracks. The following sprays caused them to disappear. I just went back over them with Leadbelcher.  So don't use graphite if you are going to seal your tank.