I paint, therefore I am: 2013

Sunday 29 December 2013

2013 Review, 2014 Preview

So, the Earth's plodded around the Sun for another year (doesn't it ever get bored) and it's time to look back at what I've done this year and to take a sneak peek at next year's plans.

Finished Zombicide Fatties

I painted up the fatties and abomination from the first Zombicide game recently. Pictures below...

I bought Zombicide earlier this year, and really liked the idea of zombies appearing out of manhole/drain/sewer covers. This post describes how I built some sewer covers and associated zombies for use in other games.

HUMVEEs and MDF Scenery

Bit of a mixed bag this week. Some more airbrushing adventures and my first dabble with MDF scenery.

Finished Zombies and Hellhounds

Some more finished figures: a few additions to the zombie horde and some Heresy Hellhounds.

Adventures in Airbrushing II

Following on from my previous airbrushing post, more airbrush fun and frustration, this time with a helicopter.

I picked up the crashed Blackhawk helicopter from Britannia Miniatures at Claymore 2012. I'm planning to use it for post apocalypse games, so I wanted to make it look like it had been in the ground for a while, rather than just freshly crashed. Having (hopefully) learned a few lessons from the Ainsty Crawlers and Sherman Tanks, and having just finished watching the Miniature Mentor weathering video, my plan was:

- prime with black (spray can)

- put on a basecoat of dark red/orange (airbrush)

- seal the basecoat with Humbrol gloss varnish (airbrush)

- apply AK Productions Heavy Chipping solution (airbrush)

- put on the main colour for the helicopter (airbrush)

- use an old and stiff brush soaked in water to activate the chipping solution, lifting chunks of the main colour away, revealing the read/orange basecoat

- weather

- highlight

The first few parts of this went off without any great problems. I left the model overnight after applying the varnish, and the chipping solution worked very well to give me a faded look I was happy with. Given that the helicopter body isn't metal (I assume it's aluminium), heavy rusting wouldn't have been appropriate, but it looks nicely worn.

The walls and ground were airbrushed, shaded and highlighted without incident, although I'm not crazy about the colour of the wall.

The weathering of the helicopter went fairly well. I used AK Productions Brown Wash for Green Vehicles for shading, and while it was very subtle, it did make a difference.

I decided to make the windows look dusty, rather than reflective, so I washed thinned down Testor's Dust over them using a flat brush. One layer looked a bit too thin, so I applied a second wash. Sadly, this went on far too thick, and the windows looked white, rather than streaky. I tried a wash of Badab Black to tone it down, but that had no effect. Glazing it with black paint, however, knocked it back enough to satisfy me.

The real problems started when I decided to apply a final filter (check me out, using vehicle modelling words like I know what they mean :-)) over the top surfaces, to lighten them up a bit.

I had brought some of my old enamel paints down from my loft. Up until a few years ago I painted primarily with enamels, so they are still reasonably fresh. I made a wash with a green and some Humbrol Enamel Thinners. It went on without a problem, but when it dried the surface was covered with light green splotches. I'm not sure what happened; my best guess is that bits of pigment solidified out when the thinner evaporated. (I should have taken some pictures at this point, but my first thought was not "let's get the camera" - it was rather ruder than that.)

I decided to try and knock the spots back by applying Vallejo Green Wash. However, when this dried there were a lot more green spots. Again, no idea why, possibly matt medium issues again(*) (I did shake the wash, but possibly not long enough)

At this point the surface looked dreadful, so I decided to brush paint over the affected areas with the original Tamiya J.A Green, lightened very slightly with Tamiya light blue. When it dried, however, the areas I'd painted were very obvious - although at least the spots had gone.

I remembered that the chipping solution still seemed to be active (it had caused problems when I was doing the streaks on the windows), so I dampened the light areas and attacked them with the stippling brush. This did the trick, and the light areas finally blended in. There was one small area that was a bit shiny, but I applied the brown enamel wash and that fixed it.

It didn't seem wise to try and do any more, so I decided to call it quits. The end result is shown below with a Hasslefree and some other figure whose manufacturer I don't remember.

I'm currently working on a couple of HUMVEEs, which are progressing without too much incident. I'm trying to muddy them up, but no matter how much brown wash and burnt umber oil paint I apply, they just don't seem to be taking the hint...

* I had similar problems with Nuln Oil and Hasslefree's hazmat figures. I have used Nuln Oil once since then, and despite shaking it for more than a minute, it still left white marks in creases. I'm going to ditch the bottle and try a new one.

Sunday 13 October 2013

Adventures in Airbrushing I

I have converted a van for my Scooby Gang, but decided I needed some practise before attempting to paint it.

Read on for loads of advice on what NOT to do when painting vehicles...

Finished Starport Figures

I recently finished some starport workers and some astronauts. Pictures below...

Orcs used to be brown

So, much like the Klingons between the original series and the Next Generation, Citadel Orcs suffered some genetic mutation that turned their skin from brown to green. This post will allow the brown Orcs to reclaim their rightful place in Orc history.

Repainting Bin Weevils

I stumbled across some figures a few months ago in my local supermarket, which I think will make reasonable SF robots (as long as you squint and don't ask too many questions).

Finished Post Apoc Scooby Gang

Finally finished my Hasslefree post apocalypse not-Scooby gang, so thought I'd post up some pictures.

Claymore 2013

I attended Claymore 2013 yesterday, so these are just my thoughts, impressions and a list of the items that have been added to the lead mountain, resin foothills and plastic lake.

More Starport Officials

Just some starport officials that I finished a couple of years ago, but which fit in with my current Science Fiction posts theme.

Finished Hasslefree Hazmat Figures

Continuing my current theme of finished Hasslefree figures, this time it's the turn of their Hazmat models.

Finished Hasslefree SF Figures

Just a few pictures of some recently finished Hasslefree SF figures.

Wappinshaw 2013

My brother-in-law and I attended Wappinshaw yesterday, so I thought I'd post some of my thoughts on the event, along with the (shorter than) usual list of stuff that I bought.