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.

The Airbrush - Hive Guard Skin Tutorial

Back in April I completed a Trygon using an experimental (for me, anyways) airbrush technique. In the cryptically titled post, I had only alluded to the fact that I had used an airbrush for the skin. Dethtron (having an airbrush) and Hoagy (being an artist at heart) wanted to know more.

Unfortunately, they had no hope at any expediency on me fulfilling that request - It was to be a month before I got more Tyranids and almost another month before I would paint them.

However, their long period of suffering is over.

ITS WIP/TUTORIAL TIME!!!!1!1!!!!

Throughout this little tutorial, I've used the Iwata HP-BH as my weapon of choice. Ever since I got this in February it has totally replaced my use of my old Badger. It's got a much finer needle, it has better control, it wastes less paint and it's much, much easier to clean. To an extent, you will need an airbrush with the capability to do a pretty narrow spray width to do what I'm doing.

Lets get into it. Since this was the 2nd time I've used this technique, my methods have improved over what I used on the Trygon and I'll mention improvements as necessary. Comments for each step are underneath the picture. Going to forgo the Picassa web albums as they don't lend themselves to very much detail in the comments. I'm also gonna take a second to whinge a bit about my lack of skill with lighting in my macro photography.

As always, click on the photos for the bigger, more detailed versions.

This is actually a combination of steps one, two and three. Step one being prime the model white (Duplicolor white in this case). Step 2 is to hit the skin with the base coat via airbrush and, step 3, preshade the nooks and crannies with the shadow color.

A couple of quick notes -

I wasn't very fastidious/careful with the shading. I was basically just roughly lining all the spots I wanted to be in shadow. Since I'm preshading, the next step will hide most of my 'mistakes' anyway.

My base color is a mixture of P3 Frost Bite, Exile Blue and Khador Red Base. Its mostly Frostbite. The shade is the same 3 colors but a lot heavier on the dark blue and red. This gets me back to my post about pre-mixing custom colors. I made a batch of the base and the shade color before I got started. One thing I learned from the Trygon is that matching a custom color across two parts of a model worked on at different times is very hard and time consuming. Adding an airbrush to that challenge makes it damn near impossible.

As you can see, I have now oversprayed all of the skin with white. In this case I used the Tamiya Flat White (XF-2). Previously I had used the Vallejo Model Air white but found it to be too thick and tending to clog the airbrush unless you thinned it with water. Unfortunately, the Model Air paints won't thin nearly as far as the Tamiya. So Tamiya wins two points - one for ease of use and another for availability.

I was aiming for very thin coats of the white to build up gradients with multiple coats focusing the whitest ares to the raised portions of the exoskeleton. You can't really tell at this point, but much of the purple-gray shading is still slightly visible and the whole model still has a slightly blue hue from the base coat peeking out from underneath the very thin white layers.

I've now gone back over the preshading in many areas (but not all) with the same purple-gray shading color. I did this for two reasons - to punch up the divisions between the shell and the skin as well as deepen the shadows in areas that I hit with too much white paint. At this point I am much more careful with the purple and I'm actually starting to do some blending. However, I still didn't have to be prefect since there was still another stage with another chance to fix mistakes.

Hopefully this is apparent in the photo... A this point the skin is pretty much done. I've broken out some white paint, thinned it down and then layered it on by brush on the raised areas and muscle ridges in order to provide highlights and correct the rest of my shading messes. As the Tamiya white was sprayed on in such a way to provide gradients, this step finishes off that process. I chose to do the final highlights in this way for better control as I'm no where near an expert with the airbrush. I also like the effect a bit more.

As with many things in painting, the key to this step is multiple thin coats that have plenty of time to dry between applications. Keep a hairdryer handy.

Now we start adding in the heebie-jeebies. I've mixed up a wash of VMc Old Rose, P3 Khador Red and Sanguine Base (I think) and then blended it around the areas that I think would be best served be being a pit pink. I'll mix more red into the mix and re-apply for deeper recesses (like the vents on the limbs). Nothing to special here, though a bit of blending can be involved.

Here, I paint the ribs in the arm vents (Frostbite mixed with white) and then tighten up the white with some more brush painting to fix boarders and details. At this point the skin is now done and then its on to the shell and claws- which I wont get into since they are in no way fancy.

It may look like a lot of steps, but its a pretty painless and quick way to get some interesting effects on harder to paint (well) organic shapes of the Tyranids.

I've actually got this guard finished and once I figure out when I'm gonna paint this guys bro, I may post some finished shots.

Reader Questions

I got a few questions on some of my latest posts. I'm going to take this oppurtunity to answer them. First up:

Revuk Writes:

Is there a particular manufacturer for the airbrush that folks would recommend?


I personally use a a Badger Anthem 155. I choose this one because it was rated as easy to use and easy to clean. So far I've been extremely happy with it.

My buddy Colin picked up a Paasche VL series. He just got it so he has no experience to report yet. Though he did say it had good reviews on wherever he was looking.

Now, on to some brushes some authors have used in books I've read. First up, in Imperial Armor Masterclass, the authors use a Harder and Steenbeck/Hansa airbrush. From what I've been able to tell, its of German manufacture and hard to get in the states.

On the other hand, Brett Green (an Aussie), who writes for Osprey (and is prolific), uses a Testors Aztek. Incendentally, he edits an online magazine called Hyperscale and has created a ton of youtube videos on the subject of scale models as well. All useful stuff. You really get to see the airbrush in action. The azteks are a bit pricey, but seem worth it.

I've also heard a lot of good things about Iwata Airbrushes as well.

Ultimately, I can't give you too much advice for a first purchase. I'm still pretty new at this myself. In any case, an informed consumer is a good consumer. I'd also recommend hitting the wide open internet and seeing what kind of reviews you can dig up.

Lastly, I leave you with this Brushthralls article. It helped me out a lot when I was looking at an airbrush. Heed the advice within.


next up...
Brent Writes:

Great work. I also love the servitor-skin shade. Care to share? :)

Take care - Brent

Sure thing Brent. Sharing is caring. So is swearing.

The servitor skin tone is my favorite recipe for gross zombie flesh. It's a more realistic dead flesh color (much better than green) and when pulled off well, is really gross looking.

I got the recipe from No Quarter #14. If you want picture examples, you'll have to track down your own copy, but I'll provide some text based instructions.

All colors are from the Privateer Press P3 line.

1. base flesh color: trollblood highlight+cryx bane highlight+rynn flesh. You're aiming for a sickly gray color.
2. Initial bruising: thin down some Sanguine highlight and blend it around wherever flesh meets metal.
3. Shading: mix a touch of Rynn Flesh into Thornwood green. Apply this in natural shadow areas and block out the muscles.
   
4. Bruise shading: mix sanguine base with exile blue. Shade the bruises
5. Deep shading: mix Umbral Umber and Coal black (actually a blue) and apply it sparingly to the undersides of the muscles. Note: For all of the shading steps, I find it extremely useful to thin the mixes for blending and layering purposes. It helps cut down on the tendency of the shading to take over if you can apply in thin layers.
6. Highlighting: Mix thrall flesh with trollblood highlight. then add Menoth white highlight and rynn flesh to lighten. Keep adding more of the Menoth white and rynn flesh for subsequent highlughts. Agian, thinning helps with layers and blending.
7. Lastly, create a glaze of Skorne red and exile blue. Aplly it to the bruises until you like the way it looks.

Anyway, I use this all the time despite the fact that it's a little involved.

That's all for reader comments for today. Thanks to Revuka nd Brent for thier questions.

Painting Tanks Follow Up

Hoagy Writes:

"Nice blog entry there sir. How would this apply to something like my Immolator? It was already stuck together (as you know) and will have the colors of my order on them. Should I really be masking off all the different parts and spraying them their respective colors? I don't have an irbrush right now and there aren't any colors spray-paint wise that are close to my orders colors, so I had to go the hard, hand paint route... any pointers would be appreciated! (and any for my Exorcist too lol!) cheers old bean!"

Glad to see you over here, bud!

First off, I'd say live and learn on the assembly. I like to leave the turrets and side doors off of any Rhino based vehicle as well as the tracks (don't paint them on sprue, however). Gives you more places to grab the model with minimal risk to the paint and allows you to get at a bunch of areas much more easily. It's also super handy for you because of all the Sisters of Battle Iconography that becomes much easier to paint once you don't have to manipulate the whole tank. If you haven't assembled the Exorcist, then give these things a shot. Could be useful.

Now I know that the colors you've chosen are purple and cream, so that does kinda hurt your options on the spray.

I have three suggestions:

• Add black as a color on the tanks - maybe use purple and cream as accent colors. Could be cool. This would give you the added bonus of getting to use some black spray paint, the citadel primer is okay, but a good Tamiya or Model Master flat black would be good too. If you go this route, I wouldn't advise drybrushing as a means of highlighting on black. Plus, the highlights on your dreadnought were pretty awesome. I'd just replicate those.
  


• Try and get as close as possible with a spray paint as you can. Even if you use the exact same color on your tank as your foot-troops, there will be a color difference. It's on of the fun properties of color that the larger the area the color is on, the lighter the color will appear. This particular property of color is why military modelers worry about 'scale color' and will often add white to their colors to make them match the real thing more.
  
  Finding a color of spray paint that's close to your particular purple is pretty easy with this little tool: Color Martch 1.0. You can often use this to get pretty close to whatever it is that you're looking for.


• Lastly, Colin has an airbrush. And he might be getting a double action one soon. I'm sure you could work something our with him. Be careful when masking on top of any paint that's been applied by airbrush, its really thin and prone to pealing. And remember, use multiple coats to get a solid base.
  

Any, I hope something in alla this is helpful.

The Other Side of the House - Project Thunderbolt

I've been working on a my thunderbolt since I got back from vacation - so, about 3ish weeks. It's been slow going due to my schedule. You see, I can't use my air-compressor after 10pm due to some noise rules for my apartment complex. I get home at 7:30pm, I then have to eat dinner. Add to that the fact that i like to give any paint i lay down with the airbrush about 2 hours to dry, I get 1, maybe 2 sessions a night with the airbrush until the weekends.


Unfortunately, most of my painting during the week has been touch ups,second coats and general mistake corrections. I've made progress, but it doesn't feel like much. At this point, I've got the base colors laid down and everything's blocked out. But, I'm coming up on needing to pull the trigger on markings (decals, custom stencils or both?)and basic weathering (time consuming do to oil paints). I just don't want to work on this right now. I don't think I could handle having to retouch the camouflage one more time right now. Plus, my Space Marines are pretty far behind right now. So, I sealed the plane, cleaned off my cutting mat and shelved the Thunderbolt for a rainy day.


Despite all this grumpiness, there is a lot of good that came out of all this" practice and experience.

So, without further wiener-angst, here are some more things I've learned about my airbrush.

1) Spray a little paint on something you don't care about BEFORE you start on the model. This way, there will be less chance for splatter when the paint suddenly starts flowing through the tip. I ended up having to some touch up work when I forgot this.

2) Familiarize yourself with the instruction manual that came with your airbrush. I had to strip mine down and give the needle a good cleaning due to some white paint. The instructions were super handy when the trigger fell out and I wasn't sure how to put it back together. Always good to know how your tool works.

3) Keep a brush and some water handy to quickly smooth out overspray. In a few sessions, the tip of the airbrush would collect dried paint and restrict the airflow. Sometimes, when it cleared itself, I'd get a patch of overly thick paint. If you let this dry, then congratulations - you've just added texture to your model. If you have the brush handy, you can smooth it out really quickly and respray over it to hide any streaking.

4) Seal your work. When you get to a point where you need to mask over a surface, it can often be useful to seal the paint before hand. Especially if it's going to be masked for a while. I ran into a couple spots where the masking tape pealed off the paint. BOOOOO. But, the one thing I did seal, never pealed. Sealing the paint will also help prevent handling damaging the paint as well. remember, the airbrush puts very thin layers of paint - it's much more prone to damage.

5) Yellow is an asshole to airbrush. Always paint it over white. Even if this means re-priming part of the model.

6) When working on the model, make sure the work area is fairly clean. I had to touch up the blue areas more than once because it got dirt on it. I ended up cleaning my work mat.

7) Pipettes are a totally boss. This makes mixing colors in the airbrush pot mega easy. It also allows you to make rudimentary measurements for recipes. I can't tell you how much trouble this saved me on mixing a very particular shade of yellow.

8) A thin and straight piece of paper held against a line or some such an be an amazing tool for touching up camo without having to re-mask.

Other than these things, I was playing a bit with color modulation (I think), pre-shading and/or scale color. You can kinda see the results in the pics above. Most clearly on the green bands of camo.

So, the whole process of airbrushing has been a frustrating learning process, but very rewarding. I'll share more when I figure it out.

The Other Side of the House – the Airbrush

Now, if you recall, military modelers are extremely concerned with historical accuracy and realism. The dedicated modelers will spend a large chunk of their time doing research – pouring over pictures (both black & white and color), visiting museums and reading. They spend time comparing the kit they have with all their accumulated info and then make changes as necessary. Again, the aim is realism. They can’t afford to have large brushstrokes or thick, detail-hiding paint fucking up the illusion.

To that end, they make heavy use of airbrushes. For today’s discussion I will be focusing on the very basics and some things I’ve picked up along the way. There are a lot of complicated things you can do with an airbrush that I will talk about at a later date.

Airbrush Basics
While this relevant article on Brushthralls is a good base to start with and focuses on wargaming applications, it isn’t particularly detailed. For the purposes of this article, I will assume you have read it. There are other articles out there as well, and a ton of advice to be had on military modeling forums. Also keep in mind that airbrushes are used for all kinds of applications, so be mindful of this if you hit the web looking for more info.

A Cautionary Tale
ArkenTyre mentions getting the best airbrush you can afford. LISTEN TO HIM ON THIS ONE. I didn’t. I went out and got a cheap, single-action airbrush and some canned air. I now have two airbrushes. The one I bought first trying to save a few bucks, and the good one I bought once I realized that the single-action brush was shitty.

The reason I ended up with a second airbrush? Imperial armor Model Masterclass Volume I. I got this for Christmas and then realized that my cheap-o airbrush wasn’t really capable of doing nearly all of the techniques detailed in that book.

Mission: Save money
Status: failed

One good airbursh is cheaper than a good one + a bad one (that you never use)

Some Notes On Your Air Supply
I understand that $120 bucks is a lot of money to spend on something. Try the air if you like (maybe as a low cost test), but if you get serious about your airbrush, get the compressor.

Anywho, canned air will cost you more in the long run at $12 a can. A compressor will also give you a much more constant pressure. Ever had a can of spray primer that’s close to the end of its life? It sprays unpredictably and erratically, doesn’t it? Now imagine that, only while you’re trying to do something detail oriented or trying to lay down a base coat. It happens and it’s super crap-tastic. Better yet, get a compressor with a pressure regulator. With it, you gain even more control over the paint.

Paint Thickness And Surface Preparation
When you use an airbursh (correctly) to lay down a coat of paint, it will be very thin - measured in microns thin. Imperfections on the surface you are painting will be extremely visible. Scratches, glue blobs, hair – everything will show up. Your primer coat and model construction become very important because of this. This is one of the downsides of an airbrush – it’s very unforgiving this way.

In military modeling circles, seems and other imperfections are ruthlessly eliminated from the surface of the model. As much care is spent building the model as is spent painting it. Nothing ruins the illusion of realism quite like visible mold lines and seems. In wargaming land, thankfully, it’s not nearly so cardinal a sin, but still, be mindful.

A Breath Mask May Be Necessary
With regular old spray-paint, you can spray whatever, very quickly and then leave to avoid the fumes. An airbrush will often require you to pay much more attention to what you’re doing. As a result, you’ll be up close and personal with what you’re working on. Inhaling paint is bad, so is inhaling your thinner. Be careful

Thinners
I admit, getting your paint thinned for an airbrush can be tricky. It’s also completely necessary. At some point, you will decide that there is only one blue for your Ultramarines and it probably won’t come in an airbrush ready form.

There are many liquids you can use as thinner for airbrush applications. The old hats might tell you to use isopropyl alcohol. For some paints you can use regular old water. I haven’t had good luck with straight alcohol. I found it made things a bit grainy. This is partly due to the fact that some of the paint was drying before it hit the surface. I’ve now switched over to Tamiya’s house brand thinner. It’s basically isopropyl alcohol with a drying retarder added. I’ve had great results with it, with only one real downside:

Do not thin Vallejo paints with Tamiya thinner.

The drying retarder reacts chemically with the paint and ruins it. Not dangerous, but not usable either. I’m told that Vallejo paints will thin just fine with water.


Mixing Paint
As far as how thin to go, the old pros will tell you to thin the paint until it’s about the same thickness consistency of 2% milk. This is not as helpful as you might think. I don’t know about you, but I don’t often paint much with milk or pay that close enough attention to it in the first place.

What I found useful was to get some of the aforementioned Vallejo Air paints and then compare their consistency with what I was mixing. I grabbed a toothpick, dipped it into the paint and then wiped it on a piece of paper. As I was mixing my own paint, I would periodically so the same until I was at the right spot. You can also do small test sprays to see if the paint is behaving correctly. It shouldn’t run, but it also shouldn’t have globs in it.

Lastly, when mixing your paint, put the thinner in the container first and then add the paint. This will help avoid getting a lot of sediment at the bottom of your container. This is especially important if you mix directly in the paint cup like I do as the paint feed starts at the bottom of the cup.

I’m Still New At This Myself And Yet It’s Still Totally Worth It
Using an airbrush is tricky business. There tend to be a lot of variable and it tends to be a skill most of us still don’t have practice with. I have some info to share, but I’m still pretty much an airbrush noob. My base coats have the odd imperfection – overspray, the odd paint glob and cat hairs are just a few of the things I still contend with. Not too good with the whole precision use of the tool either. But damnnit, it beats painting tanks by hand.

Just last week I got two Rhino hulls painted in under 30 minutes – including clean up paint mixing. Even with my noob mistakes, the base coat looks better than if I had spent a few hours doing it by hand. After that, the other things I can do with the tool are just a bonus for me.

Well, that’s about it. Bottom line: airbrushes are mega-sweet but there’s a learning curve and some expense.