Puck's LPC thread

[puck]

So better late than never I've signed up to help out the DA's by painting just one terminator model. However I was recently given an airbrush and will be painting the model using it so it'll be something of a learning process. I would have jumped in earlier but I ordered airbrush paints on January 6th and they only just showed up on my door step today thus the small size of my vow as it takes me spectacular lengths of time to paint anything (two months for a terminator is about par for the course, being a grown-up is hard). I'm hoping the airbrush will help with that.

 

Regardless of whether I complete my vow or not I am planning to do an airbrush tutorial from the perspective of "by a beginner for beginners". As there doesn't seem to be much literature on the B&C about it.

[Buyback]

Hi,

 

I'm also painting my army using a newly bought airbrush. I;m doing 10x tactical squad. BuyPainted's tutorial helped me a lot. It might help you also:

 

http://www.youtube.com/user/Buypainted?feature=watch

 

Great to have you on the Vow :woot:

 

Good luck with paining Deathwing. My suggestion, try using Valejo paint range and always use a thinner for paints ! :)

[Brother Kovash]

We will take all the help we can get, thanks for joining us with your vow. Best of luck to you Brother puck!

[Pbenner]

There is nothing wrong with a one model vow, as long as you complete it.

 

Paul

[Captain Semper]

There is nothing wrong with a one model vow, as long as you complete it.

 

Paul

 

This man knows what he's talking about!^^^

 

Congrats for joining the effort Puck! Look forward to that tutorial. I haven't used an airbrush for ages (like 20 years) so it'll be good motivation to recover some of the skill lost to me in the depths of time!

 

The eye lenses would require a hell of an aim! - Just joking of course! :)

 

Good luck with your vow- I know you can finish it on time!

[JaM_TW]

Hi,

 

any progress?

[puck]

PROGRESS AT LAST!!!

I've assembled my vow model, but in the course of doing a practice airbrush model I've discovered the regulator for my compressor is missing (must have not gotten it out of my father-in law's garage). I've been to hobby stores and hardware stores looking for a replacement part. Do any of you know where I might acquire a regulator and adapter for my compressor? I'll continue the search tomorrow. For now here's some WIP pics

So there he is. As I am only doing one model, I'd like to put a little conversion effort into him. To that end: Cape or No Cape? I'm going to try to make the barrels of his assault cannon appear to be smoking and anything else that comes to mind. C&C welcome especially if you have any ideas of conversions you'd like to see on him. Capt'n put me down as 25% complete.

I will finish this model, it just might be right under the wire. I'm a physics Phd student and I've recently come across some hella awesome (and time consuming) research topics. Interested parties google search "ultra dense deuterium". Its some awesome stuff.

EDIT: Thanks Flint&Steel for the subtle kick in the rear to get me going.

[CAM77]

Well, I gotta say, if you are gonna do just one terminator model, this is an awesome one to pick :D Looks really good! I always loved the guys with assault cannons, its a shame our cyclones are so cheap or I would take more of them!

[Captain Semper]

I agree with CAM77 here! Termies with assault cannons? Always a pleasure to look at! :D My opinion: No cape. I don't think DW & capes go together. If it was Belial that'll be different but the "rank'n file" termie? :no: Again this is personal taste, and if you feel good about it go for it! I've updated you to 25% and please stop talking about deuterium because you make me feel ultra dense! :(

[puck]

Second WIP:

Base coat VMA light cam brown

First layer VMA light brown. I attempted to do a zenithal type highlight with this layer and subsequent layers but alas it was not to be. I will be paying penance by base coating large portions of my unpainted army to get a better feel for the airbrush before trying something fancy again.

Final layer plus an oil wash of dark brown (put a gloss coat down first or you'll be sorry). This is the step I'm most happy with. The gloss coat/ oil wash combination works better for me than acrylic washes I've tried and its literally impossible to mess up since if you don't like how it looks you can just wash the whole thing off with some more mineral spirits. After I let the wash dry upside down on the figure, I pilfered an eye shadow brush from my wife and with some mineral spirits on it cleaned up the wash so its only where I wanted it. Careful if you try this, its real easy to pull the whole wash off the model but then you can just wash the thing again. Like I said real forgiving.

Overall very happy with how its turned out so far. This method produces significantly better results for exponentially less time than when I've used a brush. Consider me an airbrush convert I'll finish the details (by hand can't airbrush those unfortunately) before Saturday for another completed vow for the Dark Angels.

[Captain Semper]

I think, I'll have to dig out my air brush and give it a go! You make it seem so straight forward, I got to try it out - then Angels of Absolution, here I come!

 

Bravo Puck for keeping up with your project despite your heavy schedule. Look fwd to see it finished!

 

EDIT: would you say, 50% there? or better? Your call!

[Brother Kovash]

Very nice Puck, your airbrush work has created a very clean looking model. The wash fills in all the gaps and lines nicely. Keep up the good work, we need your help!

[JaM_TW]

Come on, Puck! Keep on paiting! ;)

It's coming along nicely it seems...!

[puck]

Vow Complete:

I left the wings on the chest painted to look like they're actually carved out of the chest plate as my "art department" (wife) said it looked too good to cover up and I agree.

Notice the heat damage to the barrels. Tutorial by Ron

Pretty happy with how the back of the legs turned out, they look really natural but not as clean as I normally paint. Overall, I think the armor has a "walking skeleton" feel.

Better view of the barrels. Painted the arm guard of the gun DA green for a little more continuity with the rest of the force. Got this piece from the upgrade sprue and I liked it more and more as I picked out the details.

Compare to a terminator I did recently

Notice the comparatively wide dark lines and overall "chalky" appearance. While I have improved some, I haven't improved that much since these guys. I can't say this enough: Oil washes, use 'em love 'em.

Final "sexy pose"

Things I learned:

Oil wash is king, I'll never go back to acrylics except for tiny spot washes. Its literally screwup proof and gives cleaner more natural results.

If you can ever swing it, get an airbrush. I got lucky and had a father-in-law who had one for his finishing shop that he swore never to use again and I persuaded him to part with. If you paint like me it will save you hours of painting per project and also no matter how thin you make your paints, airbrush coats will always be at least as smooth if not more so. That said, there's no substitute for brush work. I thought I'd be able to use the brush for a lot more of this project than I actually did.

I'll never be a commission painter, as I absolutely can not paint on a deadline of any kind.

And finally, this project really helped me ease up on straight lines while painting and take a more organic approach. This project really got me thinking about blending colors better and noticing how lower layers of paint shine through the upper layers which overall I think will make me a better more subtle painter.

Things I'm going to try in the future:

Battle damage with a lead pencil as shown by Ron

Green glowing eyes as shown by our own B&C

Smoking barrels using pillow stuffing

Subtler transitions in shadow and light ala FTW.com and awesomepaintjob.com

For curious parties, I followed tutorials

and

I'd like to thank everyone for the encouragement but most especially my wife. She's a great help when it comes to color choices and never once complains about this hobby or my part in it. Thank you all.

[Grotsmasha]

That is one smexxy Terminator you have there Puck, and congratulations on making it in by the hair on your chin-y, chin, chin.

Another Vow Complete for the Lion and the first !!! Huzzah !!!

 

Cheers,

Jono

[Brother Kovash]

Puck your terminator looks awesome! And you even drilled the barrel holes too, something I am afraid of doing personally. Your painting skills will only get better over time, so now you have to finish the rest of the squad.

[Captain Semper]

Hey Puck, this is an awesome piece of work mate!

 

The termie looks amazing and the closing remarks very interesting. I'm really tempted now, snce I got my airbrush just standing there for some time (years?). Also thanks for the links, many (me included) will find them useful!

 

Congratulations on completing your vow!

 

 

I'll never be a commission painter, as I absolutely can not paint on a deadline of any kind.

 

Intersting... hmmm

[Bryan Blaire]

Puck, your painted Terminator looks great! I really like the results people are getting with an air brush, very smooth and the blends appear to be awesome. Why do you like oil washes so much though, how do they work and why do you think they are an improvement? Are they somehow easier to control? I'm actually dreading the change to the new washes from the Citadel paints because I've finally figured out how to control the washes now...

 

Glad you have support from your wife! I know mine helps me out quite a bit in that area.

 

Anyway, congrats on getting your vow complete and I hope to see some more from you!

[puck]

Puck, your painted Terminator looks great! I really like the results people are getting with an air brush, very smooth and the blends appear to be awesome. Why do you like oil washes so much though, how do they work and why do you think they are an improvement? Are they somehow easier to control? I'm actually dreading the change to the new washes from the Citadel paints because I've finally figured out how to control the washes now...

 

Glad you have support from your wife! I know mine helps me out quite a bit in that area.

 

Anyway, congrats on getting your vow complete and I hope to see some more from you!

 

Thank you for the complement. The blends aren't near as smooth as I'd like and I almost gave up on the model after my final highlight layer suddenly sputtered out of the airbrush and pretty much ruined the transitions. I would have completely stripped this model and started over where it not for how well the wash turned out.

 

Oil washing is a three step process:

 

First and probably most important, is you must put a varnish layer down between your painted layers and the wash. Oil washes are oil paint thinned with mineral spirits, and the mineral spirits will eat through acrylic paint real bad. I haven't had much experience myself, but it appears everyone uses a gloss varnish as is dries with more of a smooth glassy texture which makes the actual wash easier.

 

Second, mix the paint and spirits together until you get something that looks a lot like coffee. Periodically go back and stir it up too because it will fall out of suspension kinda quick I noticed. Then slap the wash on the model. I noticed when doing this that the glassy surface combined with the oil based medium sort of force the wash to either seek out crevasses, or cling near surface textures. The overall effect of this is that the wash goes on almost with a mind of its own clinging to textures while avoiding large flat spots. I always dry my models upside down too as it seems to give me better results but that may just be personal preference.

 

Finally, here's where oil washes really shine in my opinion. Once the wash is dry use an eyeshadow brush or some kind of relatively stiff sponge, soak it with pure mineral spirits, and wring it out. Use the sponge to essentially dry brush the model clean of any stray wash that may have shown up. This really helped bring out the contrast that's so much a part of Deathwing paint schemes. Also at this point if you don't like how the wash turned out in an area you can simply wipe it away and start fresh. This makes it essentially a risk-free technique as it can't damage the work you've already done, which helps someone like me be more willing to try out something new and take a little more organic approach to painting. The wash you see on the terminator above is actually the third attempt after I played around with different consistencies of wash and different applications. This is really what sold me on oils: high contrast natural results with a goof-proof application method. If you look in one of the youtube video links I posted, you can actually watch the guy apply the washes. It might be a little more explanatory than my ramblings.