XV-9 Group

[paulson games]

I bought my airbrush almost 8 months ago and hadn't used it finally decided to unbury it and give it a test drive. Went with a 50% mix of tau sept ochre foundation paint and water, once I got used to how the air flow worked it started giving a nice smooth coat.

These look a bit more orange in the pic but that's due to the lighting. In reality they are a straight out of the pot ochre color.



The suits are pinned to the base but not glued so I'll pop them loose and hit the underside once the inital layer has completely set.

Once everything is done I'll start laying down a lighter tan color.

[mangozac]

I find it amusing that you used these as your airbrushing test models. For my first airbrush testing I used one of my hideous miscasts

Looking nice so far.

[paulson games]

lol, I did test on some of the cardboard that I use for my spray box but I was also somewhat confident that if teh paint went on too thick it'll come off with a good soak. Had it been non-water bases I would have been a lot more cautious.

On the first couple passes it was a bit on the thick side so I stopped the paint flow and used airblasts to push the paint off the model. I gotta say 10 times better than spray painting.

Anyone have tips for how to do any shading or steps for follow up layers? I figure I'll be hand painting and washing in colors other than the tan areas. The airbrush is a pretty cheap testors "all in one mini kit" so it's not a super precise brush for good detail, but seems to be great so far for priming.

[Warhound]

If I were you, (giving that you are going for the PS type colour that you posted) would take the following steps:

Wash with devlan mud and gryphone sepia into all the panel lines (no water needed)
Re-spray with a slightly lighter version of the base coat
Panel line edge with more bleached bone into the base mix
Final edges/ points with a bit of white in the mix

If you can also- try and spray from above, down, this will give it a slightly 'zenithal' highlight;-)

Now hurray up and send me my suits!

cheers
WARHOUND

[paulson games]

Do you airbrush on your washes? Or do it by hand? And how thick do I want to take it with the airbrush?

My concern with airbrushing on the layer after the wash is that it'll obscure all the panel lines, when painting by hand I just stay out of the recesses to keep the washed lines intact but won't they get filled in if I airbush over those areas again?

[Warhound]

Morning!

You will be surprised at how easy the spray can avoid the recesses

I would hand apply the washes my self, but to be fair, given a little control, I have seen the airgun apply washes in a very nice manner!

OR

Apply your highlight coats all over from this point, then hand apply the wash carefully avoiding the edges. Then when completely dry, then you can hand apply the edge highlights.

This (very simplifed) is what I did with my GD suit

cheers
WARHOUND

[paulson games]

Also do you use a differant paint to water ratio when using the standard paints vs the foundation paints?

The other issue I've noticed is that when using foundation paints instead of a regular spray primer the paint chips much easier, which suggests I may need to use sealers after the final layer, do you seal your minis and what do you use for it?

[Warhound]

Oh, I have not noticed that before with the chipping?

You can actually spray matt varnish in between coats if you so wish to protect the model, but carefully!

I use GW matt varnish spray- as it always gives me a matt finish, but if you want can be applied heavier to get a satin or even gloss finish?

Water to paint ratio: always a tricky one as the foundations are obviously heavier pigment- but the rule of thumb is, the paint must the consistency of milk- you cant go wrong!

cheers
WARHOUND

[paulson games]

Did 2 layers of tau ochre and vomit brown first layer was about a 50-50 mix second layer was about a 25-75 mix giving it a bit more of the red tone. Planning on doing another 2 layer spray tomorrow moving into the kommando khaki tones.

[Warhound]

Thats better!

The first shot was nice, but it was kinda like looking at a pack of butter;-)

You seem to have a very good 'basic' airgun there! 'Consistency of milk' is helping you out there?

At what stage are you going to add the washes into the recesses? I am interested in your choice of kommando Khaki mixed with the ochre.. I seem to remember playing with these colours when I did my ATT Firewarrior winner- for some reason I recall them not working well together.

ah... now it comes back to me.. the Ochre is a weird blend of Yellow, grey and brown pigments. When it came to highlighting, the khaki totally washed the ochre (yellow) element out and deadened the effect. I then decided to try bleached bone, and this (just!) kept the ochre feel to the tone, as it has the warmer elements in it.

Once happy with the level of highlight, I actually then also added another glaze of the gryphonne sepia to warm it all back up.

This of course is all null an void, as you may want the more grey/ dead type desert feel?

Anyway, thought I would give you the heads up....

cheers
WARHOUND

[paulson games]

Can't sleep, stressing out about school, repair work on my house and thanksgiving related BS. Decided to give the suits another round as I'm awake anyway.

Wanted to keep the warmer tones and the khaki is definately a bit more in the grey tones so I did a pair of layers using a mix of golden yellow and bleached bone. First pass gave it a kind of light tan color and the second was a very fine misting that almost looks like drybrushing. Hard to see all the subtile shading in the pics and my photo lights are kinda harsh but it looks pretty sweet in person.


Next step will be the wash and if needed another highlight pass if the wash darkens things up too much.

The airbrush I'm using is the "mighty mini" from testors which sells for about $80 and includes an aircompressor. Wasn't sure how well it'd work but I'm definately liking it so far and starting to get more comfortable with using it.

[Warhound]

Looking nicer with each pass!

Are you going to spray wash or hand line?

I would recommend the Khaki with original base mix for the bases (after a similar wash) as this will make the bases real and set the suits apart even more than just the textures.

cheers
WARHOUND

[paulson games]

Hand painted devlin mud wash into the recesses, loks a bit light not sure if I also need to do do a wash of black.

Started blocking out the dark colored areas with charadon granite. Wish I had left the model unassembled for the details as it's very difficult to get into some of the areas around the feet and shoudler pads. Next time around I will probably paint the suit before assembling. A couple of little areas have brush mistakes and bits where granite ended up on the tan areas, these will need corretcion by hand hopefully it won't clash too much with the sprayed pattern.

[mangozac]

Now I don't feel so ashamed about the dinky little cheapo single action airbrush I use. It just goes to show how for basic painting you don't need to spend a lot of money

With the second colour it's looking great and I would go for a black wash in the panel lines. I'm not a fan of the Chardon Granite colour - it's reminding me of "Mission Brown" (a hideous colour that was all the rage for houses in the 70's here in Australia)

[Wolfs16]

Paulson, these look great! The air brushing looks great and the added color really brings them to life. Just make sure to add some glow and lens effects to those bad boys and you'll be in business.