Oil shade

I have been reluctant to add shade to the bright yellow space elf models. Mostly that is inexpereince and not trusting myself with a brush to make smoth shades with that harsh a contrast.

To get a handle on this I bought some oil paints: black, umber and red for starters and some turpentine-replacement. The good thing about those is that when applied on clear varnish, they can be pushed around for a really long time compared to acrylic paints and shade. It also flows really nicely along ridges and into recesses.

The guadians I was working on got hit with clear varnish (actually Emsal Voll Glanz, a Johnson's Klear equivalent floor varnish). 24 hours later I got the oil paint mixed up, loaded up a brush I marked for use with oil paint and got going.

The picture below shoes how nicely the oil shade runs into the recesses outlining the guardian's sixpack.

A few days later I varnished the wraithguards and applied oil paint to them as well. For the picture below I grouped them all up and left one model from each group without the shade. These are marked with an X. The fact that they blend in quite well implies that the shade isn't a big addition, but when looking at the model up close, the shade really makes it look much more substantial.

I now varnished a wraith loard some war walkers and a bunch of rangers and will go for them next. Then I need to determine what I will finish this process with. Another coat of varnish, possibly matt or satin most likely.

Guardian brushwork

In the last two days I've painted some red details on the guardians calves, upper arms and some sashes. Today I spent time with edge-highlights on the guns and shoulders. I've not ever really done that yet, so I'm still enjoying loads of opportunities for improvement. ;-]

I painted some pendants in bronze, the soulstones in tank brown with a sand highlight and glued the heads back on. It took a bit longer to do this than it takes to sum it up.

 

I realize that there are some mold lines and rough spots left, but for a bunch of old models that I recycled it's not bad really. 
 

 Finally, I put on a clear coat of varnish in preparation for applying some oil shade. The varnish is drying now, strategically while I have to sleep and then work anyway. Maybe I should call that in preparation for experimenting for the first time with oil based shade, but hey. We'll see soon enough how it goes.

Guardians dusted off

Recently I had a moment to demold the guardians that accrued with various lots of secondhand Eldar. A moment lasting about five hours, but at least I hot most of the lines and assembly issues sorted out.

I hit the models with white primer, brown from below and then primary yellow from above. All Vallejo Airbrush.

The heads I broke off and stuck on paperclips. They also got white primer, followed by yellow for the face, covered up with liquid mask when dry. Then I hit the heads with white primer again. Blue all over, followed be blue with black on the lower rear and a burst of blue with white on the top. Then I removed the mask and colored the red eye lenses in with a pen.

  Yesterday I painted the shuriken catapults german grey. That is where these models are now.

I'm looking at going for a varnish coat and oil wash to pick out the details on the bodies, but have to visit my local art store for supplies first. :)

Spartan Progess

I've been making tracks. I cut 2mm thick plasticard to 1" wide strips, then separated them into segments, cut into the edges and then bumped out the bit inbetween using a chisel and a gentle tap with a hammer. Cleaning up with a knife afterwards. I clipped 4mm thick ABS rod into lengths to fit inbetween the segments and sliced thin plastic rod for the rivets. I glued the segments and the rod bits on thin stripes of plasticard for stability.

The tracks I made were one section long enough for the straight bits on the top and bottom of each track, a section of four segments for the next longer part of the track as well as a bunch of two segments and single segments.

Then put down sticky tape, put the track on them and a wall out of Lego bricks around them and poured mixed up silicone on the whole mess. This created a mold for the track sections. I don't have any pour-able resin at hand, only 2 component putty. The stuff I have left there is much more supple than green stuff or Milliput, but nowhere near as suitable for a pouring mold as a thin liquid would be. Ah well. =]

Straight away I wasted a fist-ful of the stuff since I underestimated the binding time. It gets spry really fast, say within 3-4 minutes of mixing the components. Not having any other use for the stuff, I cracked on anyway and filled th mold a couple of times. I should have more than enough track now, enough to pick and chose the less awful results. ;-]

I put two long, two four segment and two two segment bits on the model for the picture above. While the individual bits don't look too hot, the overall look is very close to what I wanted to achive. Not too shabby for a first try.

For the armament, I will use eight lascannon bits of which I have four so far. The spartan has a ridgelike shield ahead of the weapon mount. I'm thinking the rear part of the original track cover sliced in half might do nicely when extended with a bit of plasticard.