Primary Colours

This weekend I decided to start small with the second attempt at painting Necrons, this time using the same palette of glazes on a Necron Warrior. Once again I started with a yellow glaze to set down the shaded areas, before moving on to orange, red and brown. I aimed to include more mid-tones instead of using the base coat colour to do the heavy lifting. I also went for a deeper blue by using a darker base coat.

Once again I got a little carried away, and ended up with a more 'orange' Necron Warrior than planned, more fake tan than sun bleached metal! Combined with the bold use of primary colours (switching out the green for a warmer red) it ended up looking almost cartoon like, though once a few more are complete and the bases painted perhaps it will be more striking on the tabletop than the usual silver/gray Necron armies? 

What are your thoughts?

Weathering: Knowing when to stop!

As with any new project the temptation to go wild with paint schemes can sometimes get the better of you, and as those who are following along will know, I have started a new Necron project with the aim of trying out some new glazes. So far the results have been promising, with smoother shading transitions, great edge highlighting opportunities and as easy to replicate colour variations, all with the promise of speedier results as my skills improve. It was all looking 'peachy' as some Canadians say...

Unfortunately, with only the tail and some fine tuning of my glowing green areas remaining, I decided to experiment with some weathering. A little scratch and dent, I told myself, nothing too dramatic:

Well I don't know about you but I feel like I wrecked all my hard work. It all looks a little painted on, and despite using the same techniques as my Leman Russ Exterminator, sans a little pigment shading, it doesn't quite work as well on an alien robot as compared to a dusty/rusty battle tank. Perhaps this is a lesson learned, just because you learn a new technique doesn't mean it will work on all models. For now it's back to the blue paints and glazes in an attempt to hide the battle damage, maybe even start fresh with a second attempt at a 'deeper' royal blue that is in my head? Stay tuned for some more 'crons.

Glazed and Confused

After discovering a new model shop at the end of a long walk with some friends, I raided their Vallejo Paints section for a selection of glazes to try out the "shaded basecoat" technique as used by James Wappel of Kickstarter's "Painting Pyramid" fame. Having a great deal less than James' 12 years of full time model painting experience (and his prior work as a 2D artist), I wasn't too hopeful of anything amazing on my first few models, but it was certainly a different style to the usual 'highlighting up' from a darker colour.

 The first thing I found interesting was the differing textures across the Vallejo range of 'transparent' glazes, as compared with the Citadel paints. Depending upon the colour, the pigment was either quite translucent, or actually very grainy similar to a pigment powder solution you might mix yourself. A lot of online reviews pointed to the 'smoke' colour as being especially grainy but I found the transparent reds and oranges to be the same. This led to some interesting methods of 'pushing' the pigment around within the wet area you apply it to.

 This is after about an hour of trying out the reds, yellows and browns at different watered down ratios, and with a little edge highlighting to 'block' out the colours and touch up where I wanted the original colour to show through. I had undercoated once more with "British Armour (Desert)" and I am using GW "Screaming Skull" with white highlights along the edges.

You can see a little more of the stages involved above. I used a yellow/mustard blend to lay down some shaded areas, then mixed in the browns and reds as the dried. One thing I was really impressed by is the amount of time you have to work with glazes, both on the model in defining exactly where you want the pigment to dry, and on the palette. It was quite refreshing to paint for over an hour without having to add a retarding medium or thin down a new batch of paint!

This guy is a Necron Canoptek Wraith, and the first of many Necrons to come. I had dabbled in some glazing of models for existing armies I had already started painting, and the results were so different  to the previous models I decided to start something new for this experiment. I'm sure they will end up looking quite different after a few months of glazing, but perhaps the real test will be in speed and consistency, both of which are a problem at the moment! Looking forward to a few extra tips once the "Painting Pyramid" videos arrive. Keep it up James!

"It looks like a car park"

Not exactly the look I was going for, more the stripes at the edge of a runway. Despite this, I am quite happy with how the full green stuff bitumen (with painted cracks), plasticard piping, pigment weathering and masking-fluid peeled stripes came together to finish my flying stand to match the other rubble bases.

Now it's time to put the paints away and get back to the sprues and glues for a few weeks...

WIP: Flying Stand 'Urban Rubble' Base

It's been a little dry on the hobby front recently, at least in terms of interesting content. I've been starting on a couple of larger projects that I would prefer to get "off the ground" before sharing with you all, rather than little updates as I make progress. One of these involves a flying stand, and in keeping with the them I  expanded on my "urban rubble" basing project to include a much larger 'scene' to play with.

One of my future goals is to learn how to glue clear plastic without it ghosting! For this particular stand however, I am experimenting with masking my error using some static grass 'clumps', which can be placed without glue for a trial and then fixed permanently at a later date. I am yet to detail the rest of the base, but will be trying for a few cracks in the bitumen, and maybe even a painted line or two?