Dances with Airbrushes...

I went to GW last night to meet up with some of the lads. We talked we went and ate we talked some more, and did some hobby (did a little work on my 13th Company). I got home about 11pm local and as I walked in my converted Shadowsword caught my eye in all its half finished glory so with all the attention span of a lobotomised gadfly I decided to snap some WIP shots before going and CAD-ing up the turbine mounts for steam punk jet packs. Here they are in all their less then perfectly focussed glory (yeah note to self don't take photos late at night without tripod):

The Doors on the engine bay are hinged so you can open them and look inside. When I can track it down in my backups I will post the CAD layout I did to work out how to build the Cannon and modified hull assembly. This was one of the plastic Baneblade kits and I built this conversion before the plastic Shadowsword kits came out. Details were added using bits of Forgeworld DKK Super Heavy Tank upgrade packs, plasticard, bits of the baneblade kit, and many many rivets made from dress makers pins and little tiny ceramic 1mm diameter balls I baught from Riot Art and Craft (which they don't stock anymore because the manufacturer went belly up).

So far I have done the first stage of oil washes, gotta do some free hand stuff and then all the weathering to finish her off. The model was sprayed first with Tamiya German Grey (TS4), then taped and lightly sprayed with Tamiya Haze Grey (TS32), then the edges of the cammo strips were teased with the Airbrush with a bit of Mechrite Red (yeah not my good fine detail airbrush but the all Stainless Auto-detailing one picked up cheap at an auction). When this all dried I removed the masking and airbrushed an all over oil wash of Burnt Sienna darkened with a pinch of Humbrol Black Matt 33. Why no Burnt Umber, there was none in stock when I went to the shop so I got the more rusty coloured Burnt Sienna. Be super careful using Turps as a thinner if you try to put too much wash on at one parts of the underlying paint will start to lift away, but if you do it right it add some really neat weathering effects by making realistic patches of cracking aged paint. Acrylics will be affected most easily by this.

It is looking Ok so far but it may not see any more work for a couple of weeks, I really need to do the freehand stuff before the rest of the weathering so maybe it will be a while.

As a tip, if you do an all over oil wash and want to quickly highlight it you can wait till the next day and get a soft rag, wet it with Turps and gently rub it along the edges to remove the darker wash. Shazam! Instant single stage highlighting.

Lastly I have tacked on a screencap of the centres of my steam punk jet packs. I have not added the turbines on either end yet, I decided to call it a night and havn't got back to finish them today.

Cheers

Subby