I paint, therefore I am: Adventures in Airbrushing V

The results of more airbrush practise this week. A couple of converted Jedi Starfighters and some Ainsty containers.

Jedi Starfighters

Revell do a series of models from the Star Wars movies. There are a couple of scales, but the "pocket" version of Obi Wan's Jedi Starfighter claims to be 1:56. In actual fact the pilot figure is closer to 1:72, but the vehicle is still a usable size for 28mm games. The Works has a whole bunch of these going fairly cheap, so I picked up three.

The plan is to use them as fast pilotless/remotely piloted ground attack craft for some of the more advanced races in my SF setting. The first thing I had to do was retire the R2-D2 figure and fill in the gap where he had been. There were some panel lines to extend, but as the whole thing was going to be covered in camouflage, it wasn't too difficult.

I realised that the wing tips are meant to fold down into the wings (presumably for atmospheric flight), so I decided to make one of the models in a closed configuration. This required some rather careful cutting with a razor saw and a couple of scraps of plasticard to make the hinge look more practical, but it didn't take too long.

The models are snap fit, i.e. no glue required. However, I wanted to lessen the visibility of joins so I glued everything together. I also filled some of the bigger gaps, although with mixed success.

The colour scheme I selected was a plain blue-grey underside, but a geometric pattern on top. I primed the model, painted the underneath and painted the first light grey colour on top. I made the pattern pieces from Tamiya masking tape that I cut the ends from. Wrapping the models took the best part of an hour. The second colour was a medium grey, followed by more cutting and wrapping, with a final pass of dark grey.

First layer of camo tape on top of the basecoat

Mid grey spray paint

Second layer of tape

Dark gray spray paint (I think, although it doesn't look very dark)

I had masked off the underside of the model while spraying all the camouflage colours. However, I hadn't masked enough of the underside and managed to get overspray on it.

Once I'd finished the camouflage I masked off the entire top surface and resprayed the underside. Bit annoying, but it had to be done.

It was finally time to remove the masking tape. What I had failed to realise is that the bottom-most colour will be preserved by the first layer of masking tape, appearing above everything else when the tape is removed, with the result that the light grey is quite dominant on the model. I don't actually mind the effect, but I think I had planned for either the mid or dark grey to be the dominant colour. Still, it's a big universe, so I'm sure there's some planet out there where this is the perfect camouflage.

Picking off the tape took longer than I expected, mainly because I had to be careful not to scrape the underlying paint. I also kept on finding bits that I had missed, but did (eventually) get all the pieces removed.

There are a number of panel lines on the models, so I decided to try to darken them a bit. Long story short - I failed. I used a dark grey oil paint wash, but it didn't flow very well and ended up a lot lighter than I expected (from what I've read, there shouldn't be a colour shift when oil paints dry, but there definitely was with these. Whether it's the make of paint or something with my wash I don't know). I decided that any further work on the lines would be more likely to damage them, so accepted defeat.

The guns and engines were painted black and shaded and highlighted. There were a few roundels that I painted red and blue, but other than that there was nothing else to do with the vehicles.

The finished vehicle with wings in the closed position

The finished vehicle with wings in the open position

A couple of shots showing model size against a Studio McVey figure

As usual, it didn't turn out as well as it had in my mind, but the vehicles will be usable on the tabletop and make a change from the usual fare that's out there. The third one is still in the loft. At some point I plan to paint it up as a crashed vehicle, to be used as an objective in a game.

Ainsty Containers

I picked up a couple of sets of Ainsty containers during their 2013 Christmas sale. As well as scenery pieces, these were an opportunity to practise weathering. They were the first time I used the AK Solutions chipping solution with Vallejo paints, my previous attempts having been with Tamiya paints.

Some in progress shots

There's very little to say about them - they're box shaped and paint up well enough. The chipping solution seemed much more sensitive with the Vallejo paints, although whether that was because it was the heavy chipping solution or something in the Vallejo paint mix is something I'll need to test. However, a light touch was definitely required to avoid removing the base colour completely.

I applied some enamel mud washes and also blended some burnt umber oil paint onto the sides to make things seem grimy.