Vindicator #2 - Day 10

Aaaaand were back!  My Malifaux break took less time than expected (yay!) and now it's on to the last of the three amigos.

Come to think of it, that would have been a good place to mine some tank names.  Lucky Day, Dusty Bottoms and Ned Nederlander?  It could work.

So, day 10 on the last Vindi.  Not as much progress as I would like, but still a goodly amount.  I think I'm approaching a little tank burnout and the fact that I just could not stop watching Community all day was also a major, contributing factor.

Chipping completed - using my 50/50 (approx.) mix of Dark Flesh and Black.  I like it a little red for extra contrast

Vindicator Madness Supplemental - My Orange Lenses

Back on Day 13 of my latest tank, Alex wanted to know how I did my orange lenses.  So that's mostly what this post is about.  I tend to get questions like these and then swear up and down I'll answer them and then never get to it.  I owe Nikephoros a recipe for the gold I was using back on Tyberos.  One day, man.  One day.

EDIT:  It turns out that I answered that question as well.  I'm pretty awesome.

This post will also be the last painting post for a little bit.  I need to switch over to Special Lady Friend's Malifaux stuff for a bit, so I'll be taking about a week off from the daily WIPs to get that done and recharge my blogging batteries.

With that out of the way, here's an answer to Alex's question.

Required paints:
 - any black
 - any white
 - GW Blazing orange
 - GW Macharius Solar Orange
 - P3 Ember Orange
 - P3 heartfire

Vindicator #3 - Day 14 + FINAL!

Day 14 opens up with the dull coat being dry to a point where I could handle the parts without mussing things up.  So it was on to the finishing touches before final assembly.

Some final chipping with some silver paint a dab of gloss varnish on the orange lenses.

Which I then did.

Vindicator #3 - Day 13

I am on the very cusp of having this another finished Vindicator.  THE VERY CUSP!.

Day 13 was a bit slower paced, but productive never the less.  Most of my time being spent on the last of the details.  Day 13 was also a weekend day for me so the progress will be in the step by step form that I like, rather than the quick pics and done approach.

The treads have been washed with Devlen Mud and then some Balck Didi's magic Ink .
I find that for the tank treads, that the badab black just doesn't do the job.

Vindicator #3 - Day 12

My weekend is, typically, a Friday/Saturday kinda thing.  Which means that day 12 was much more dramatic than things had been.  I had time to get all kinds of stuff done and take more pictures.  So this post is a bit closer to a step by step.

Some boltgun metal was airbrushed to the lat remaining large area on the tank and the treads.  Technically, this means that I worked on two tanks today.  

Vindicator #3 - Day 11

Another slow day, I'm afraid.  So slow that I don't even have enough material for an intro.

I made some slow but solid progress on some details.

Vindicator #3 - Day 10

Oh ho!  What's this?  Only one Vindicator for day 10?  Yes, friends.  It's all true.

I just don't want to deal with the hassle and tedium of detailing two large models at the same time.  It's too many parts to dick around with and it's so much stuff to keep in mind that it's likely I forget things (or make rush-based mistakes).  Plus, I'm coming up on an overdue switch back to Special Lady Friend's Malifaux Model from day 3 - lots of schedule considerations with alla that.

So I sat down and chipped up tank number 3 and then moved on to the start of the details.  Progress was a little stunted on day 10 due to sleepyness from lack of sleep and then further sleepyness from the suger-high crash induced by these brownies.  Also minesweeper.

It was helpful to have tank #1 handy to use as a guide to keep the level of chipping consistent.

Vindicator #2 and #3 - Day 9

Not much happened on day 9, but here's the progress anyways.

I sprayed on some white 'circles' for added decal goodness

Vindicator #2 and #3 - Day 8

Right-o, progress is still the name of the game as we run headlong into the beginning of week 2 for the second and third Vindicators.  I got home from work with just enough time to complete the last of the paint layers for the base color.  

Vindicator #2 and #3 - Day 7

Sorry for the late post, but life has been throwing a lot of curve balls these days and between a dental filling, a major shake up at work and my HoP responsibilities, it's been all I can do to distract my self with my hobby - let alone blog about it.   So here's the progress report for day 7, a little late but not forgotten.

In happier news, it turns out that the little base coat experiment from day 6 ended up with a solid result as the process of spraying the actual green base by airbrush was a lot faster.  I'll need another try with the method for science's sake, however, before I'm ready to commit to it. 

full base coat in blur-o-vision

Vindicator #2 and #3 - Day 6

I just realized that I missed a golden ( or is that verdant?) to do a tie in with America's most recent excuse to get black out drunk - St. Patrick's day!  Green tanks and everything.  Oh well, the moment is over and I've got progress to share.

Well... not a lot of progress, but still.

Tank #2 is ready is at a stopping point

Vindicator #2 and #3 - Day 5

Things are still rockin'!  Special shout out to Kartitas for noticing that my pre-shading was a waste of time and then for telling me in a nice way.  The advice was a huge time saver.  I still did a bit. bit not nearly as much and mostly on the parts of the model that would get less paint overall.

Pre-shading the insidey parts around the tracks and the gun barrels.

Vindicator #2 and #3 - Day 4

Nothing ground breaking today.  Though I guess being able to recreate the dozer blade from vindicator #1 a couple more times is pretty neat.

Since I had all this black paint I had thinned down for the hazard stripes, I used the opportunity to take care of one of the little details.  So one less thing to forget about later on when I'm up to my ass in the detailing.

Vindicator #2 and #3 - Day 3

I am OFFICIALLY ahead of schedule on these Vindicators.  As it stands now, by doing Vindies 2 and 3 at the same time, I have saved 5! days over the one at a time method of Vindi 1.  

Waaaaah!!!!!?

You'll have to pardon the excitement on my end - I'm almost never doing this well on time management.  

Day 3 went exactly as planned and I'm now ready for a weekend airbrush marathon.

Doing two of anything at once keeps the progress above the 'incremental' threshold 

Vindicator #2 and #3 - Day 2

Mo' progress!  I didn't quite reach my progress goal for yesterday, but I cam damn close. Damn close.

Anywho, the rest of the pre-assembly and most of the priming is good to go.

group shot of all the little components

Vindicator #2 and #3 - Day 1

I was slated to do one of Special Lady Friend's Malifaux models, but the resin bases she ordered are a ways off from actually being in hand.  I've still got the fire in my belly for Space Marine tanks so I've decided to press on with that while I wait and while I have the motivation.

The first Vindicator was very much a proof of concept and prototyping things, so it was done solo.  With an appropriate amount of dawdling and what would be considered wasted time under normal circumstances as a part of that.  I've got two more Vindicators to go and a nice comfort level with the paint scheme so it's time to speed things up and do the next two tanks at the same time whenever possible.

Day one was nice and productive.  The plan is holding together so far.

A little test fitting to see if I can side step some of the issues I had at the very end of Vindi 1.  Turns out I can't.  Looks like a combination of a slightly off kit design and my slightly off original assembly four years back.

Vindicator #1 - Day 13 and FINAL!

All right everyone - the moment we've all been waiting for is just about here.  Just a few lines of text farther down the page...

Once I got back into town from my trip and got some rest, it was back to the action.

Day 13 is actually more like two days worth of time, but most of it was spent waiting around for my final flat coats to dry.  I also had some problems getting the exact finish I wanted.  I'm always jealous of people who say they've used a dullcoat for years and never had any problem because I have nothing BUT problems.  I almost feel like they must be lying...

I'd been recently using some flat spray from the fine people of Model Master by way of Testors.  It was pretty much perfect until I hit the end of this project.  Then, all of a sudden, I couldn't get it to do anything besides various levels if satin.  I tried other models and still no improvement.  This, literally, happens to me all the time and as much as I'd like to blame fickle humidity, my experience overall doesn't bear this out.

I got it worked out in the end, so no worries there.  And I also go an opportunity to do some testing of a new (to me) product as a part of this whole side track.  It didn't go well.  All I can say is stay the hell away from the Model Master Acryl Clear flat.  Unless you like ruining your paint job.  Thankfully, I always test new top coats on scraps.

Once all that was over with it was on to the final weathering.  I finished all the silver chipping (again, after the flat seal) and then gave the smoke stacks a touch more soot.

Vindicator #1 - Day 12

I was able to shoehorn some more work in on the Vindicator before I had to be at the airport.  All the weathering is done and a after a quick blast of dull coat I was off to Chicago.  Well, that and I wrote and scheduled this post.

A mix of Tamiya Red Brown and Flat black was airbrushed on to give my exhaust areas some soot.  But not on the actual stacks - didn't want to over do it.

Vindicator #1 - Day 11

Awwright!  Got all kinds of awesome stuff taken care today.  One more day of painting and another day for a final sealant to dry and this thing will be ready to roll!

The rust streaks added and ready for sealing

Vindicator #1 - Day 10

Nothing groundbreaking for today I'm afraid.

All I managed was to get the first round of oil washes on and then wait for it to dry.

On the plus side, the wash really helped define the edges of the model a little more.

It also turns out that I don't need to do rust splattes.  The sponge chipping in combination with the oil washes and then the rust streaks (which I played with a bit) is pretty much the exact amount of weathering I need.

Which is nice since not having to do the rust specks saves me a day.

Wewt.

Day 11 will see the last of the oil paint effects go on and who knows what else owing to a last minutre day off work to get some much needed trip preparation taken care of.  And painting I guess.

Vindicator #1 - Day 9 + Supplemental #2

Nothing new and spectacular to report again, I'm afraid.  I'm close to done with this tank, but it's all tiny little steps that either involve oil paint or an airbrush - or both.  So long drying times and a limit on running the compressor (quiet time, boooo) abound.

Day 9 carried on the trend nicely.

The metal bits have been washed and are ready for sealing.  This pic is also the closest yet in terms of color accuracy.

Vindicator #1 - Day 8

I'm past the biggest, most time consuming parts of the process at this point.  Everything else is just details.  So progress will still be steady, but less dramatic.

Day 8 saw a near completion of nearly all the remaining details.  Lame but true.

The color is a little washed out, but all the metallic bits are base coated and waiting for a couple of washes - Devlan Mud and then Badab Black.  This will create a nice weathered metal effect and solve the problem of dull coat over metallic paint.

Vindicator #1 - Day 7

Well, my predictions from day 6 turned out to be a bit ambitious.  Didn't get the shading washes started, didn't do the rust streaking and I certainly didn't finish the metal parts.  A bit part of it all was the fact that I may have been pushing myself to hard to make up for lost time earlier in the week.  So I slowed things down a bit and took some time to re-asses my process.

On the plus side, Karitas left me some food for thought in the comments.  The part about my pre-shading being largely unnecessary will save a lot of time and frustration in the future.

Moving on- I may not have met my wild-ass projections, but I got a ton of work done.

First up for the day were the decals. It's important to get them on before the weathering takes place so that they'll get worked into the overall effect.

Masking with some frisket and tape.

Vindicator #1 - Day 6

I hope you all enjoyed old stuff day.  I know I did.  Special thanks to Thor for checking in on me and a double special thanks to Thor for keeping the idea alive.

While I had the day off from creating new content, I got a crazy amount of work done on the Vindicator.  Crazy I tell you!

Sorry in advance for the picture quality - I was in a bit of a hurry and I didn't stop to double check my photos or break out the light box.  Kind of kicking myself since the pics I do have make it hard to appreciate the progress and overall affect.  Enough whining!  Onward!!

Pre-shading with Tamiya JN Green.  Probably the most tedious step.

Old Stuff Day: The Word Bearers Are Pretty Bad Ass

In lieu of making any progress on my Vindicator for a Day 6 post, I'd thought I'd use the space provided by serendipity to participate in Old Stuff Day.  A little over a year ago today, one of my most read posts popped out into the world and I think it holds up quite nicely.

So my intro to what was supposed to be this post got a little out of hand.   Now its time to go exploring.  I'm coming down from a sugar high, so here's to hoping this makes sense.

As part of GW's plan to expand the defining moment in the time line of the 40K universe's pretend history, Black Library has been publishing the shit out of novels about the Horus Heresy*.  For the most part, its been pretty good.  They've gotten some pretty good sci-fi authors working on it and Prospero Burns is actually in the New York Times Literary Review.  Crazy.

Vindicator #1 - Day 5 + Supplemental 1

So far my progress has been pretty good, not as fast as I'd like.  Slow but steady.

Unfortunately, things are starting to grind to a halt that wont let up until Friday when I can, finally, get some big chunks of airbrush time.

Day 5's progress can be summed up as 'incremental'.  And something I could have easily done yesterday.  But I saved it so I'd have something to talk about for today.  Again, I'm stymied until Friday.

Just priming the treads.  Nothing to special.  Though I am running a little experiment by leaving them on the sprue.  I always paint the treads separately for ease of painting.  Usually I stick pins in the back so I can manipulate things and then go from there.  14 pins is a lot and I always end up drilling all the way through at least one section so I thought I'd try something new.

Not primed