So the Raider is finally done. A little behind schedule but done nonetheless. Its an awesome model and pretty rewarding to paint so even if you're not play DE, it might be worth it for you as a hobbist to pick a model or two up just to slap some paint on it. So, with that said, enjoy the pics! Any questions and comments are welcome!
Such a cool kit, and nice work on the paintjob. Gah, i wish the new Dark Eldar weren't so darn cool looking, the more i see of them the harder it is to resist starting yet another army.
ReplyDeleteNice sir.
ReplyDeleteWow, that one looks great. Airbrushing DE vehicles really helps getting a nice look.
ReplyDeleteSince you asked for questions:
1. Being an complete airbrush-newbie I ask myself how many colors/colorsteps did you use to get that soft transition effect on the hull?
2. You talked about using washes/inks with the AB. Did you thin those washes even further down or did you use them right out of the bottle? How and where on the model did you use them?
3. After reading your WIP posting and seeing all those to do steps on the GW page, I assume that it would be clever to airbrush and paint everything first (or at least in small groups), instead of gluing the whole model together and then put a paint-job on.
4. Are there any parts you would leave either unglued or magnetized (crew, guns, sail for example)?
Cheers Karnstein
Great work Cvinton, hopefully, the FLGS actually gets a sidplay case so that model can be placed where it was meant to be rather than in some employee's apartment.
ReplyDeleteKarnstein-
ReplyDelete1. Being an complete airbrush-newbie I ask myself how many colors/colorsteps did you use to get that soft transition effect on the hull?
- I used just one color, hawk turquoise. The technique to hand painting and getting a fade like that involves many thing coats that are layered over and over and over. I've spent a fair amount of time talking with reaper painters and thats the technique they use, using up to 30 layers of the same color very very thinly applied to get that soft fade.
The beautiful part of the airbrush is that you can do that exact same thing with just a few passes. In this case I just used a very thin paint, some masking tape and a few passes.
2. You talked about using washes/inks with the AB. Did you thin those washes even further down or did you use them right out of the bottle? How and where on the model did you use them?
part 1- I use the wash recipe that Les Bursley from APJ uses. flow aid water, matte medium and FW ink. This tends to leave a glossier finish than the gw ones that tend to leave a very matte finish. However, if you already have the medium and flow aid (which you should) for the cost of a 6$ bottle of ink I'll pretty much never have to buy GW ink again and I can control how dark/light my ink is and play with the colors to make my own personalized color washes.
The recipe is on his website, but its basically .45 oz flow aid water, .45 oz matte medium (though I use about 1/3 matte medium and 2/3 flow aid water) and 10-20 drops of ink depending on the color/opacity.
Part 2- I sprayed the whole model. I did the hull first as was seen in the first WIP post and just sprayed it down with 2 or 3 layers of wash to get it to the right darkness and then hit it with a glaze from the airbrush and the haul was done.
3. After reading your WIP posting and seeing all those to do steps on the GW page, I assume that it would be clever to airbrush and paint everything first (or at least in small groups), instead of gluing the whole model together and then put a paint-job on.
- You are correct sir! And like I said, just for better transport its smart to not have the whole thing together just begging to have its thin little bits broken off.
4. Are there any parts you would leave either unglued or magnetized (crew, guns, sail for example)?
-I'm a huge fan of magnetizing and interchanging guns ect. There was no need for this. This model is brilliant in it's engineering. Any place that you would classically put a magnet has a peg/hole to fasten it in place. Other than that, the crew hangs nicely on the hull without needing to be glued or magnetized. Also, even if you wanted to, the bits and pieces are so incredibly thin and frail that it's almost impossible to do it. With that and the brilliance of its design, the effort it'd take to magnetize is just not worth it.
Thanks a lot...let me recap it:
ReplyDeleteYou started with a black priming and only used one single color with the AB to get that gradient/layer-effect done. No combo of starting with pure hawk turquoise and then going over it again with a turquise+white/grey highlight.
Sounds easy, only raises the question if trying out a 2 color gradient effect is worth the effort. I just need to find the time and practice a bit more with my own AB gun. So far I only spent some time spraying dots/lines on paper and trying a gradient effect twice on a old 1:35 tank kit.
I at least own the flow aid, matte medium from liquitex would only require a quick stroll into the local DIY store. But I own a bunch of GW and vallejo washes, so I maybe start first with trying to thin them with the medium+flow-aid combo and hope that those last for the whole army.
So you basically just applied the self-made (black?) wash with the AB like normal paint and used it to smooth down the transition between the different colors after spraying on that gradient effect, right? And what do you mean by hitting it with a glaze? I'm not going to copy your color scheme, but having a rough work step list (like 1. priming black 2. applying gradient effect with AB...) would really help me a lot.
Did you finish the model with some highlighting or are those bright lines on the final pictures only the result of the flash/light source?
Knowing now that DE raiders are "paint first, assemble later" vehicles really saves me a lot of hassle. I glued all my serpents and falcons together, to break them up again some weeks ago after finally getting a decent airbrush set.
What is your final edict on the new flying-base by the way? Good enough to keep it, would you glue the raider together if your army case/box would allow carrying a raider sitting on a base?
The reason for that question is: I have my eyes on a special army case, which uses a modular set of plastic boxes with metal foil glued to the bottom.
http://www.planet-fantasy.net/images/bild_inhalt_armybox.jpg
Depending on the quality of the new base and the overall height of a raider+base, I could imagine storing them in the case w/o taking the bases of. Gluing those on would help prevent the connection to wear itself out over the time.
Thanks a again lot for answering all the question..now I only need to wait for my DE orders to arrive. I will post WIP pictures on my blog too, but I can't guarantee for good quality. Right now our household doesn't own a single decent digital camera. Need to change that!
Cheers Karnstein
"So you basically just applied the self-made (black?) wash with the AB like normal paint and used it to smooth down the transition between the different colors after spraying on that gradient effect, right? And what do you mean by hitting it with a glaze? I'm not going to copy your color scheme, but having a rough work step list (like 1. priming black 2. applying gradient effect with AB...) would really help me a lot."
ReplyDeleteThe wash was a black wash, that was done to darken the model up and take the turquoise down a peg of two.
The glaze is a medium like matte medium that works kind of opposite a wash. So where a was settles in cracks and crevasses, the glaze settles evenly. The glaze was I think...4:1 black/turquoise and then that color was mixed 1:3 with the Glaze medium (from liquitex also). then it was thinned down enough with the windex to spray.
The glaze covers evenly so it really darkened that turquoise to almost a blue and by the way I applied it only showed the turquoise mostly on the edges and gave it a look like the turquoise fell under the black and made it really subtle and gave it really nice depth.
Finally, the glaze is a nice protective layer too, imo.
So for steps 1. Prime, 2. Masking tape, 3. feather, 4. wash, 5. wash, 6. Glaze.
"Did you finish the model with some highlighting or are those bright lines on the final pictures only the result of the flash/light source?"
Thats the flash. the glaze is a relatively matte finish, but it still is reflective to a degree.
"What is your final edict on the new flying-base by the way? Good enough to keep it, would you glue the raider together if your army case/box would allow carrying a raider sitting on a base?"
The new flying bases are awesome. No more tiny little peg that'll just break off or (to a lesser extent) cheaty bastard who would just drill out the hole in the model to have it sit really low on the flying base.
The base is a ball joint which allows for it to be tilted in dynamic ways, which is pretty badass.
As far as gluing the whole thing together if my case would allow it; sure. It's easier than pulling my raider spam (if that's the list you'd go with) out and have to put like 4 things on it each for each one.
With that case, do you magnetize your mini's to keep them upright in transit? Is that what the foil is for? I don't really get it otherwise, it kind of looks like a padded box that you stand your army in the bottom of and hope it doesn't shuffle too much. I'll explore that later when I'm not neck deep in Heart Failure and PVD/CAD text.
Also, these raiders are tall. You'll really be wasting a lot of space which is going to translate into spending more on cases for your army if you want to leave them completely assembled.
As far as gluing it on you really can't and still have that awesomeness of the shifting ball joint. I guess you could position it and then glue it. But we all know how much we love movable parts. :)
Also, tell me about your airbrush set up. What airbrush did you get and have you been over to the painting corps to see their how-to on getting started using an airbrush and Les Bursley at AwesomePaintjob.com ?
Wow, that cleared up a lot...any reason why you skipped the highlights? Don't they work on such a airbrushed model, or just not worth the extra-worth for a TT model in your opinion?
ReplyDeleteRegarding the case: yes you magnetize your models either by putting small magnets into the base and fill it with putty, or use magnetic foil. Friend of mine has that system for his BA army and it works like a charm. It is a 2 box system with a metal sheet on top of the upper box, so you could use that as a movement tray.
http://www.planet-fantasy.biz/pf_shop_3.0.4/images/product_images/popup_images/14505_2.jpg
I like it. You may beat the price with a DIY solution, but you won't beat it with the stuff GW sells.
My airbrush set up right now is made up by:
- a Harder&Steenbeck Evolution Silverline 2:1, bought a quick-fix end piece with memory function and a quick-coupling with a innbuild air valve.
- cheap single piston 1/8 HP compressor from ebay, which upgraded with a 3L pressure tank last week. I may change that one for a sparmax double piston compressor, depending on how the ebay stuff behaves in the future. But I hope it will last a will, allowing me to buy a digital camera first. ^^
- bunch of Vallejo colors from the Model Air, Game Color and Model Colorrange, all three colors of the new vallejo airbrush-primer and some liquitex stuff like the airbrush-medium, flow aid and some distilled water. So except for stuff like the glaze and matte medium I should have build up a good stock so far.
I took a look at both the painting corps airbrush articles and the les bursley videos. Watching the new Blood Raven tutorial right now. But how does the phrase goes? There is no harm in asking.
The only thing I really need to get is a DIY spray booth (without a fan), allowing me to airbrush on my work-desk w/o risking to dusting the paint on my TFT screen. Slowing turning into winter here in Europe, so I need to brush indoors and we don't own a garage or enough free space in the cellar to set up a work area there.
So I'm going to buy some thin wood at the local DIY store today, trying to build a foldable U-shaped wooden screen (like those storyteller screens from P&P RPG games)that I can set up on the work-desk and store somewhere in my room if not needed.