Biel Tan

Getting back into the hobby.  My local comic bookstore Victory Comics (http://www.victorycomics.com/) is doing an escalation league.  I thought this was a perfect way to get  back into the hobby, get some games in, meet other hobby enthusiasts and stay motivated to paint.  I decided to start a new Eldar army.  My first Eldar was Ulthwe  and lets just say the painting was pretty sloppy mixed in with some decent models but hey! you got to start somewhere.  Anyways, I decided this time to go with a Biel-Tan theme.   I'm still in the works of assembling and painting my first 500 points.  So far I have 3 jet bikes and 1 war walker painted up.  I'm about half way through another squad of jet bikes.  Then I have 5 warp spiders, 6 swooping hawks and 1 Autarch to go...

I'm pretty happy with the way my War walker and jet bikes turned out.  My war walker won the painting competition for tier 1 of the escalation league.  Every tier we are aloud to submit one model to be judged to earn extra points :).  So no bad for not really painting anything for 2 years!  I have a midterm tomorrow night for one of my grad classes so hopefully I'll be able to get back to those jet bikes and have some updates by Wednesday.  Until then happy painting!

Salamanders Test Mini

I'm finally finding time to paint once again.  I haven't painted in about a year :(  Finally got a chance to test out my new Infinity airbrush.  I must say I love it!  It is really smooth and I love that fact that you can change out the needles.  I did find however that the 1.5mm doesn't work that well with Vallejo paints.  I am currently using the 6mm and the paint is coming out just right.  

I tired a new approach to airbushing than I have done in the past.  This time I focused on using the airbrush to control the intensity of the paint.    Before I would have tackled this with multiple layers of different paints mixed together (e.g., the Blood Angels Tac Squad that I posted a little over a year ago)  This time I used three different greens to get the effect.   I picked up a lot good control tips from www.airbrushtutor.com .  I highly recommend checking out the site if you have a dual action airbrush.

Recipe/Steps:

1. Primed Model Black - I used Vallejo's Acrylic-polyurethane primer (this is airbrush ready primer)

2. Based coated model with a Mid Green - Vallejo Sick Green

3. Shaded the model with a Dark Green - Vallejo Dark Green

4. Highlighted the model with a Bright Green - Vallejo Escorpena Green 

5. Go back over shaded areas with Dark Green - Vallejo Dark Green

6. Apply Dark Green wash to armor - Vallejo Verde Wash

7. Edge Highlight Highlighted areas - Vallejo Escorpena Green

Steps 1-5 were done with an airbrush.  Base-coating with a mid tone was what allowed the rich green color to appear (or at least I think that's how it works I'm not an artist).  After shading was complete I picked out areas that I wanted to stand out and highlighted them slowly building up the intensity.  After this was done I went back over the shaded regions to reduce any overspray or mistakes that I made while highlighting the model.  After this I applied a green wash with a glaze medium (vallejo verde wash, i also thin down my washes even more with water e.g., 1 part wash to 2 parts water) all over the armor plates to smooth out the transitions.  Allowing it to dry before I applied any more (I think i did 3 light coats).  To help the highlighted areas stand out I lightly edged highlighted the raised areas.  

There is still more work to be done.  I'm going to try an Oil Paint wash on this guy as well.  It will be interesting to see how that turns out.  Hopefully I can finish this guy up tomorrow and get started on his 9 other friends this weekend.  Happy Painting :)

Paladins Part 3

I was in the process of painting the bases when I had to rush to the hospital for the delivery of my baby girl.   A little over a week we are finally starting to get settled in.  While mom and daughter were napping on the couch I figured I sneak over and finish the bases.  I still have a little more work to do.  I need to seal them and then apply a blue wash to the armor.  Then I need to apply a rust/earth pigment to the base.  I'm really happy with the way they turned out.  I'm tempted to paint 15 more and Draigo so I can have a Draigo wing army!   I hopefully be able to finish these guys up my the end of next week! 

Grey Knight Paladins Part 2

I was able to make some progress on my Paladins.  I really like how the Gold is turning out.  I need to do a wash to the red and I learned a neat way of painting the power cables.  I added some glaze medium to the paint (1:1:1 scarlett red: Blood red: glaze medium, 1:1 Black:Glaze Medium)  it gives a little bit of a rubbery look. Overall They are coming along nicely.  I need to do some touch up to the armor, then wash it and give it a blue tint.  I have their power weapons all taped up for the airbrush :)  More to come.

Grey Knights part1 with Vallejo Air metallics

The air metallics are a little tricky to work with.  I might just not have the right air pressure set on my compressor.  The Vallejo Air Metalic Silver was the only air metallic that I did not have a problem with.  I am pretty happy with how they are turning out sofar.  I have all the other bits primed and ready to be air brushed. 

Blood Angels Tactical Squad

I finally put the finishing touches on these guys.  I decided not to do the 3D chipped paint effect that I tried on one of the models. I'm pretty happy overall with the results.  Next up is Grey Knight Terminators with Vallejo Air metallics.

Finshed Blood Angels Test Mini

I'm pretty happy with the way he turned out in the end.  All in all not bad for not using an airbrush in a long time.  The pigments were easy to use and I like the effect that they added.