ZeroWolf's Painting Trials

[ZeroWolf]

The Sternguard now have their armour relayered, but in the process, some of the helmets got blue on them  good thing I'm cleaning up the white next.

 

[Firedrake Cordova]

Doh! Hopefully the clean-up isn't too annoying!  

[ZeroWolf]

Got a little bit more done while kids were distracted with Tablets

 

 

relayered the white on these three before I ran out of time. Ended up making a few annoying mistakes when trying to do the shoulder pads and one of the bolters

[Brother Carpenter]

Nice Marines,

 

One point of remark: Drill them barrels!

 

Other than that, nice work.

[ZeroWolf]

2 hours ago, Brother Carpenter said:

Nice Marines,

 

One point of remark: Drill them barrels!

 

Other than that, nice work.

Funnily enough I have just come into possession of a little drill. Willing up the courage to use it in fear of breaking the models is a different matter though 

[Grotsmasha]

17 minutes ago, ZeroWolf said:

Funnily enough I have just come into possession of a little drill. Willing up the courage to use it in fear of breaking the models is a different matter though 

Use a smaller drill bit then needed, like 0.5mm or so. This makes centering the bit easier, and less likely to blow out one of the sides, then do a second pass with the correct sized bit. Do the main barrel hole first and any side venting second, the side vents give the bit an easy out.

[Firedrake Cordova]

As @Grotsmasha says, pilot holes are your friend - drill a small guide hole and then drill a wider hole through it, etc until you get to the desired size. You can make a "dent" in the barrel to guide the guide hole by either pushing the tip of a fine drill bit into the plastic in the middle of the intended hole, or use a pin - this should give a small depression that the tip of the drill bit will sit in, to make centring it a little easier. Also, go slowly for more control.

[ZeroWolf]

Update on the Sternguard:

 

 

managed to get the white done on everyone now but...well as you can see I made more mistakes! White on shoulder pads, white on holsters, white on tabards! Unfortunately my hands did not want to co-operate with my brain last night.

 

Better look at the Sergeant:

 

spent a bit more time on him, getting his helmet nice and red (need to do that little skull on it now) and relayered the tabard. Honestly the cloth was the most fun I've had on these models so far 

 

Haven't drilled barrels yet, investigating whether or not the bits I have are the right size or if I need to see my father again.

[Firedrake Cordova]

Hope the corrections aren't too annoying  

[Pearson73]

They're looking solid. Good advice above re. drilling the barrels.

[ZeroWolf]

All the Sternguard are now relayered to where they need to be!

 

 

the Sargent is sat at the back cheering his boys on. This means I've just got the long step of highlighting everything...joy.

 

It was a productive session though as not only did I poke around my airbrush trying to figure out why it wasn't working (prognosis: still have no idea as most things were actually paint free, from the looks of it). Will have to try it again and still no luck, soak it all the best I can.

 

On the drilling barrels front, checked the bits i had, and before I thought they might have been too small, turns out it was the opposite 

 

 

whoops.

 

would definitely leave no room for error with that size.

[Firedrake Cordova]

It's been a while since I drilled a bolter barrel, but I think about 0.5mm is the right size drill bit?

1 hour ago, ZeroWolf said:

I poke around my airbrush trying to figure out why it wasn't working (prognosis: still have no idea as most things were actually paint free, from the looks of it). Will have to try it again and still no luck, soak it all the best I can.

What model is it, and what are the symptoms?

 

[ZeroWolf]

46 minutes ago, Firedrake Cordova said:

It's been a while since I drilled a bolter barrel, but I think about 0.5mm is the right size drill bit?

What model is it, and what are the symptoms?

 

That's part of the issue I suspect, it's a budget model my wife bought me for Christmas (we had a very limited budget and I figured it'd do for base coating and zenithals where needed) everything was going okay with it till it stopped spraying paint. Air is still getting to it but paint? Nothing.

[Firedrake Cordova]

Does the needle move freely when you draw the trigger back? Have you tried loading it with water? Does it still fail to spray?

 

Do you know if it's a clone of an existing airbrush, e.g. an Iwata?

[ZeroWolf]

1 hour ago, Firedrake Cordova said:

Does the needle move freely when you draw the trigger back? Have you tried loading it with water? Does it still fail to spray?

 

Do you know if it's a clone of an existing airbrush, e.g. an Iwata?

The needle moves when I draw the trigger back as that was one of the things I tested yesterday. Haven't checked with water since I put it back together. If I remember correctly last time it came out in spurts.

 

Unsure about the clone aspect. I suspect it is but I'll have to dig through images to see which company they were aping

[Firedrake Cordova]

If it sprays water fine, then it's likely that the paint hasn't been thinned enough.

 

If it doesn't spray water (including "it does but in a weird pattern"), then there's likely some dried paint somewhere that's restricting flow (probably in the nozzle). Sometimes you can get away with soaking it in airbrush cleaner for a short time and then spraying through it (possibly with higher pressure), and repeating.

 

If it's a clone of an Iwata brush, it likely has a very small nozzle tip that unscrews and is rather easy to damage (why I was asking, as well as getting a mental picture)..

Edited January 27 by Firedrake Cordova

[ZeroWolf]

Actually there is a small nozzle cap that I couldn't get off till I dug out the spanner the other day. When I took it off, I did notice dried paint on parts of the needle (which i proceeded to stab myself with several times by accident trying to get a better look, talk about blood for the blood God!).

[Firedrake Cordova]

Hopefully the paint on the needle should just wipe off if you remove the needle and gently wipe it with a tissue dipped in airbrush cleaner.  (if you wipe from the blunt end to the pointy end, it's less likely you'll bend the tip of the needle, or stab yourself )

 

It's probably worth soaking the end of the nozzle in some airbrush cleaner if you've got a small pot you can put it in (if you have an ultrasonic cleaner, that'd be great). The general advice is not to stick anything into the nozzle (like a reamer) because they tend to be quite delicate and can easily be "flaired".

[ZeroWolf]

What's the best way to take the needle out? It was the only bit I couldn't take out. I simply couldn't get a grip on it. I've got a few pots lying around so I'll give the nozzle a good soak.

 

Thanks for the help 

[Firedrake Cordova]

It's normally a case of unscrew the rear of the airbrush, and there's nut holding it in place - unscrew that and remove it from the rear.

[ZeroWolf]

Thanks, I'll give that a go and get everything as clean as possible.

 

Got some more painting done, and even though I only had half an hour, brought these three a couple of steps closer to being done. Also filled in some of the details I missed, namely the little skull on the Sargents helmet and the scroll on his leg. Also cleaned up the white where I could. I have the silver highlights to do on the other two guys then it's a load of little things before I finish with the Blue highlights.

 

I really need to paint faster 

 

[Firedrake Cordova]

2 hours ago, ZeroWolf said:

Thanks, I'll give that a go and get everything as clean as possible.

General rules of airbrush troubleshooting: it's probably not clean enough, and the paint probably isn't thin enough.

[Deus_Ex_Machina]

On 1/11/2025 at 7:39 PM, ZeroWolf said:

Got a little bit more done while kids were distracted with Tablets

 

 

relayered the white on these three before I ran out of time. Ended up making a few annoying mistakes when trying to do the shoulder pads and one of the bolters

Teach them to build terrain while you are busy with painting. Those gremlins must be good for something. 

[ZeroWolf]

Well, I had some time today, so I took the plunge...

 

 

...and for the most part I don't think I did that badly, for a complete first timer that is as my marks were most definitely not always centre on.. 

 

 

This guy got the worst of it sadly.

 

 

Still, all in all, I think it went well. Next time though, I'm doing it before any paint hits the model. Will have to decide if I'm going to go back over every single over model I've done or not. Be a case of wait and see there.

 

After all that though, I got the paints out and brought them all to a couple of steps off completion.

 

 

Now its just armour, robes (purity seals) and the Sargents helmet and then done.

 

Well, they get put into the pile awaiting transfers but you know what I mean.

 

While I had the silver paint out, I did the bit I missed on the Primaris Lieutenant with combi-weapon (come on GW, just make him an option of the phobos Lieutenant!).

 

 

onwards and upwards! Hopefully one more session and I'll get the Sternguard done. Will I play with them? Now that's the question.

[Brother Christopher]

Most of them seem fine, with the exception of that one unfortunate guy (but it's nothing a little green stuff won't fix). Drilling barrels is surprisingly tricky. What I found to be a game-changer in this regards is something that now appears quite obvious. Next time, try using a hobby knife to make a small cut/hole in the middle of the muzzle. The mark made with a knife should help you with guiding the tip of the drill and ensuring that the hole is in the centre, where it should be.

Edited January 30 by Brother Christopher