Air Support

Back to my Dark Angels. I always paint in squads or pairs. This way I always complete an entire unit at a time, or, if one is good, two are better, philosophy. Besides, I would prefer similar vehicles or units to appear uniform. Painting two vehicles at a time gets them out quicker. I paint them at the same time, get a similar effect on both, and usually can complete them faster than working on them one at a time. 

This time I added one of each flyer for the Ravenwing. I painted them similar to the box version with the wing patterns, but the tail section got the changes. 

The cockpit and pilot were painted first, black with a grey dry brushing, as I was feeling lazy. That, and it's very difficult to see inside clearly. Although, all the panels were painted as well. Looking carefully, you can see the panels have some action on them..

As for the aircraft, to start, I just sprayed the aircraft a light grey, Celestra Grey for the Dark Talon and Ulthuan Grey for the Nephilim. For the bomber, I then added a light outline of where I wanted the Lightning effect to be. That was then added with short streaks of white, that's all. The fighter, after the grey was laid down, I then used a very thin spray of fenris grey to get the blue. Afterwards on both, I then masked off the 'feathers' and the painted tail, and covered them in black. One thing I did do more of, was to use the glazes more. The blue on the stasis chamber was a couple layers of the blue glaze. It tended to pool in the crevices and left the center not as dark. The emulations of the box pictures extended to the bomb. Definitely not the same, but you can see the similarities. I will work on this more. 

                                     

The bases required extra effort. To ensure a good bond, I glued the clear stand to the base first. The clear plastic was then covered with tamiya tape and the base was loaded up with debris and sand to my regular standards. With the stands complete covered, the bases were primed black and painted using my regular steps. The stands were still taped up when I hit them with the gloss/matt sprays, then it was removed. The bases still need some static grass of sorts to give it more layers. 

With them complete, I still haven't used them. I'm getting more into the mode of a happy painter than avid gamer. Though when I do play, I know my armies look good!

Leman Russ Punishers

In order to create space in my backlogged inventory, I have been working on the many kits that I have accumulated over the years. I am now working on some Russ kits I got back when Apocalypse came out. GW had a great deal on a three Russ squadron for $100 or so. Sucker me, I picked it up even though I didn't have an Imperia... Astra Militarum army. Anyway, these kits are for other variants that I will post in the near future. What I have finished recently are a pair of Punishers.

Everybody was in to the Executioner with its plasma cannons. I thought the Punisher was getting neglected. Besides what help the Militarum more than multiple shots, besides twin-linked? These have been sitting on my shelves for a couple of years before I grabbed them and put them together.

I went for a bit of Urban camo for these guys. They were primed black as usual, then Mechanicus Standard Grey. I added a touch of a lighter grey and hit the larger plates and sprayed vertical lines down the side for some pre-weathering. I then added some irregular shapes cut out from my Tamiya tape. Administratum Grey was then used. A touch of Pallid flesh (now Wyche Flesh) was added and again hit large open areas and added vertical stripes again, but trying to hit the same stripes I used for the darker grey to enhance the effect. It's difficult to see the result as it's quite subtle. Then decals, base colors, a coat of gloss spray, then the weathering. 

Just as for the Macharius, I followed many of the tips from the Forge World book.

Red-Tailed Mustang

A good friend of mine, who is also a World War Two buff, really likes the North American P-51 Mustang.

 For his birthday, I decided to put one together for him. I gave myself a week to complete it. I haven't done an historic model for some time, so this was a challenge of sorts. I grabbed a Tamiya kit. I always remembered Tamiya to be of high quality way back when. 

First off, it came out pretty good, not knowing. All the yellow and red was airbrushed, along with the green. The kit came with decals for the yellow stripes and red nose, sans propeller. I decided it was best to paint most everything, as trying to match a decal color will most likely not work. The yellow was eyeballed. The red nose, I just cut out the decal and made a stencil with some Tamiya tape.  The tail was taped off also. All the interior work was done by hand, cockpit, wheel wells, etc. I also didn't have a basic Olive drab for the nose. Probably came out too light to be accurate. I probably should have used a brighter/lighter silver, but I'm pleased with the overall result. 

After researching some photos online, I must say the model has some flaws. The kit is more of a beginner package with basic colors listed for the cockpit interior    2-1 yellow-green for example. The landing light inside the wheel well seems quite large too. The landing gear also seemed more fragile than most. 

Decal-wise, the wing insignia had to go over an airspeed indicator on the bottom and a raised slot on the top. I can't say I succeeded with the top, the most visible. I wasn't thinking ahead, didn't realize, and tried to muscle it on there, failed. Fortunately, GW Midnight Blue appears to be a great match for the USAAF insignia blue! The bottom, I knew about and slit the round part about a 1/4" and slid that around the indicator before pressing out the bubbles. I was disappointed it didn't come with kill markings though. 

What I did like was the pre-cut masks for the canopy that was included, bonus! Prevents unnecessary cuts onto the clear plastic. The instructions gave nice diagrams for parts placement and pre-construction painting. It was a nice easy model to assemble. I would rate it 7 out of 10 with 5-6 being average. 

Ravenwing Stencil

I was painting up some Ravenwing speeders and wanted to do something extra for the flying base. I could add some texture or sand to the base, but Sammael's speeder should have a bit more. So I added the ravenwing symbol to the base.

I found a simple Ravenwing symbol online and added several of them to a word doc and printed out a page. I tested it out by taping it to a plastic top and cut out the shape with a sharp exacto knife. An example can be seen below.

It came out a bit fuzzy as the paint was able to get under the paper. So I then laid down a couple strips of 18mm Tamiya tape onto a ceramic tile and cut the symbol out onto that. I then transferred it to the bottom of the clear base. I could have just as easy used a cutting board instead of the tile. Here you can see what was cut out and tape that was used. 

Spraying the base white first puts the symbol onto the base. As you want to see the symbol coming up through the base, you must do this first. It's opposite of what is normally done, ie. spraying a design into a finished product. The top of the base was masked off and then black was sprayed onto the rest of the base. Give the finished bottom of the base a coat or two of gloss coat to protect it from the scraping it'll receive as it's moved across the tabletop. 

You could do the same for others too such as Battle Fleet Gothic, assault troops, Tau Drones, or anything else using a flying stand. 

Side Tracked

I got a bit off hobby last week. I had a track day planned for Roebling Road in Savannah, GA and wanted to paint up my helmet. I'm tired of the basic black, white, or silver. So, I attempted to paint mine up similar to my car color.

If you ever plan to do this to a helmet, YOU MUST mask everywhere the spray may get to the liner. Else, the spray will eat away the styrofoam liner rendering the helmet useless. 

Starting with my silver Stilo Rally Helmet, I sanded it down, masked off the rubber trim and padding, and primed it white. Letting it sit overnight I then used Tamiya 3/4" masking tape. I lined up three rows and marked it every 3/4" with a vertical line. I very carefully laid each one down onto the helmet, beginning with the middle piece as shown. The Tamiya tape is the savior here. It is just tacky enough to stick, but not too much where it will peel the paint off.

Using a flexible metal ruler, I carefully cut the tape along the vertical lines I made and removed every other piece. After that step, I sprayed it black, added an extra 1/2" piece of tape to the sides and masked it all. 

That is when I proceeded to paint the helmet the main color. Using Tamiyas Racing Blue spray cans, I went through 3 of them to get a thorough coat. 

I let that sit untouched for an hour before removing the centerline of tape that you can see at the top of the helmet above. 

To protect the helmet, I gave it acouple coats of Testors Gloss and then several more coats of Krylon Polyurethane to protect it. Word of caution with the Krylon spray: you must be careful to not let it build up, it must be thin even layers. Otherwise, the colors underneath will yellow. Nice if you want something to look antique, not if you want a sharp white. 

The final outcome. Once I precut the masking tape away from the helmet, there was still some spots where you can see the white primer. This can be fixed with a slight black edging to blend it with the rubber border. I should have done this a month ago, not three days prior. It came out nice and many thought I used a sticker for the checkerboard.

Oh yeah, here's my ride!