Wave Serpent progress

A lot of patience using blue tape, the hobby knife and tweezers was used to mask the other three serpents as well. I then pre-highlighted the edges with white primer and applied Vallejo Model Air blue. A night later, I peeled the blue tape, which left me with four top shells like the one on the right.

Next, I hit the previously grey-black primed weapons and lower hull with Vallejo Dip-shade black using my Airbrush with the big 0.4 nozzle. This makes them look less clean and boring!

Then I set my airbrush aside and picked up a brush. I painted the lines between the body pandels with German Grey rather than black. This was the first time I did any black-lining. Clearly, I could have benefitted from reading up on it or practicing it earlier. Breaking the surface tension of the paint with dishwashing detergent might have been helpful. Anyway, it looks better than the naked hull. I'll have to clean up some bits in the yellow.

The soulstones I painted with VMA tank brown, then with a tank brown sand mix, sand and black to create a diagonal gradient. This isn't as clean and nuanced as doing the same with airbrush, but fairly clean. After this was dry, I added Tamiya clear red diluted with a bit of alcohol.

The pilots got some details in blue, black and Tamiya clear blue. I let this turn to green on the instrument panel. After these steps and gluing in the turrent antenna, rear air-intake, sensor thingie and cockpit, the serpents look like this.

I measured the big flying base height using my calipers. It clocks in at 24mm. My plan is to use regular 60mm opaque plastic bases with an inverted 20mm high U stood on it. That U will be painted just like the lower hull and look like vertical fins thanks to the cut and colour. 6x2mm Magnets will connect the base to the lower hull. I'll glue 5x3mm magnets under the bases to make them stick to my sheetmetal in the carrying case. This solution will stop the wobble of the regular flight base, but still leaves me the option to use those regular bases.