Kua’s Crowing Conversions – 1st and Reserve Companies forces

[Race Bannon]

I saw this and was blown away :yes:

 

Then I thought, "Haha, suckahs, have a grenade or two!"

[Kua]

I saw this and was blown away

 

Then I thought, "Haha, suckahs, have a grenade or two!"

 

 

Just dropped a vow for this model in the other thread. [Edit: Out of misunderstanding the goal, and revoked it.]

I’m hoping to get it finished this weekend, because the event from the other forum ends with this month anyway, but if not, I’ll still be able to find some comfort here. ^^

(Lest the captain joins all the other unfinished models for eternity.)

[longjohnsilver]

The shoulder pad and storm shield sculpting is just unreal ..

[Kua]

The Captain from last page.

After he was not entirely finished by the start of April, I did it later but was in no hurry with the photos.

Anyway, here they are:

 

 

Speaking of finished models, I could try the varnish I have here standing around. No used to having models actually finished. ^^

 

Nut sure what will be next.

[Bjorn Firewalker]

Impressive work. Love the jumping pose and the base.

[Dracos]

That Termie is a gangsta my man!

[Kua]

Next in line would be either scout bikes or, because in the other forum the people with the champion challenge want to do it next, some sort of a command squad*.

But if you continue like this, I’ll have to paint the remaining terminators first. ^^

 

*) Maybe somewhat decorated Dark Vengeance DA bikes with a standard on one of them, but no idea.

[Kua]

Seems like the Scout Bikes won. And they wouldn’t even wait for ETL, that’s how fast they are.

 

I needed something ready for painting yesterday (was meeting in a GW with someone), while parts of what I am about to try this time is quite experimental, so I didn’t want to use my Terminators for it.

 

First, the barely basecoated bikes, this time with finished scouts on them (the three metal ones I had; the other bikes will get kit-bashed punk scouts, sort of):

 

 

The first new thing is the use an airbrush. Not yet an experiment, I just need more practice and more ideas where to integrate it into the process, so here it is at a very early stage of a preparation for a pre-shading:

 

 

(The lighting is directed; the right sides of the bikes are mostly in shadow.)

 

Now, after spending an entire Saturday on the pre-shading part, I tried something on the Marine you see on the photos. Not sure if I like it and how exactly I could improve it; I’ll show and ask again tomorrow when I can make some photos by daylight.

[Kua]

Here the pre-shaded state (for the bikes):

 

 

And the marine has its black shaded, but is now very glossy. The problem will resolve after a layer of matt varnish, but I’m trying to show the model now:

 

 

As far as you can tell despite the gloss, what would you imagine to improve on the black?

[longjohnsilver]

If it's green armour I would have gone for Athonian Camoshade wash and maybe a very thin recess wash of black for a darker tone. But I've been having problems with Nuln Oil wash frosting lately so I've had to look around for the older Badab Black wash to use instead. Personally now I'd do black armour without bothering with the wash and green armour with a few coats of Athonian.

 

The scout bikers look really good; that conversion with the shotgun in the other hand is great!

[Kua]

Oh, this is really bad news if the armour is mistaken for green. ^^"

It’s supposed to be black, but black is never black, so it has shades of yellow and blue in it, and a greenish light grey (similar to GW’s Rotting Flesh) for the outer highlights.

 

The black wash is thinned down black wood glaze, as the original Army Painter dips were/are. It is plain black and, comparing to GW’s Badab Black or AP’s Quickshade, not brown at all.

I have a non-brown Vallejo black ink here which was bought recently as an alternative. (The wood glaze is a reactivated experiment from when AP came up with their dips and GW didn’t even have washes at all.) But maybe, if the Marine looks too greenish, a little brown in the wash wouldn’t be bad.

 

What was your problem with Nuln Oil and what improvement do you expect from Badab Black?

I’m asking for a lack of experience with the former, before I buy any.

 

Oh, and about the “conversion” with the shotgun: There is none. It’s an original piece from the metal scout bikers, it only had to be brought in position with steel wire and GS, but it‘s from the same set. The grenade and the rope are more of a conversion, and also most of the accessoires (planes, bags,…) are stamp-copied with Oyumaru. I’ll take photos of the other bikes before basecoating next time, when their pilots are finished. I only had the three metal ones, s.t. they were the easier ones, but there are 3 bikes more waiting.

[longjohnsilver]

That's an interesting way of painting black with all the washes.

 

Personally I prefer drybrushing so if I tried black armour again it would be with a grey drybrush over black paint with minimal washes. The edge highlighting with Thunderhawk blue was a bit too intense.

The Nuln Oil issue was mostly just the wash frosting over and becoming opaque/ greyish but it was probably too heavy and I wasn't using the Lahmian medium to thin it. Badab black was better. Regardless both the washes I used are now corrupted with metallic paint so I had to find another old pot of Badab.

 

Wow! I can't remember the metal scout bikers; classic piece.

[Kua]

Corrupted with metallic?

You know this stuff? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cz5MJycVwvk

(First google result, no idea if the vid is good.)

 

Concerning drybrushing, it looks too… raw, I guess. You can almost replace it with airbrushing for better and faster results, unless you need layering anyway.

 

I have some new photos. There are some pre-shaded models lying around here, but I don’t dare yet using the glaze on all of them. First after applying they look kind of dirty.

Here is a bike after and before shading each, and the marine from above. Photos taken in the shadow as appropriate for the Raven Guard for avoiding the gloss from the glaze, that’s why the low quality:

 

 

I guess I have to actually finish a model with details, base and everything s.t. I can finally use some matt varnish and judge if all of this is a good idea…