To create the setting for the 'Weathering and Battle damage' video, I had to carefully prepare another Secret Weapon APV so that I could show several aspects of that technique on one mini. Many thanks to the good folks at Secret Weapon once again for allowing me to use such a great product!
I wanted to show how to do some of the physical effects, not just the painting. So, I designed some plasticard armor skirts that would not only give more surfaces to paint, but much more to chop up with an exacto knife!
After doing some damage effects on those plasticard pieces, I did do a few little bits of chipping and cutting on the main resin vehicle.
Everything was set up pretty nicely, so then I had to paint the vehicle itself, so that I could spend as much time as possible on the effects.
These subsequent images will show the 'shaded basecoat' process. Yes, I do that, even on vehicles :-)
That means, of course, working lighter than normal, with the plan of adding more darks via glazing.
This was just about the end of that phase. It sure looked a lot different from the white and grey object I had seen for so long!
I added some more very bright highlights, and then started to plan out where the freehand would go. That was an important thing I wanted to show with the weathering. Having some weathering on top of freehand work makes both things look even more realistic.
The other idea was to do the weathering using a different set of materials on either side of the vehicle. In other words, one side done with only paint, the other side with weathering powders!
Stay tuned for the next set of images that I shot of the freehand and the glazing process. There were so many images from each part of this individual project, I had to break it up into several posts.
I approve this!
ReplyDeleteMany thanks for checking out the blog!!
DeleteI really feel that the skirting adds a lot to this vehicle. This tank is not really good looking(the actual product design, not your painting)--it is not compelling or cool or powerful looking, IMO. I don't mean that to be mean or insulting at all, just my personal impressions. It is a toy, it has to have charisma or "pizzaz." There are lots of real life military vehicles that are really neat or powerful looking.
ReplyDeleteI also mean to say that the tank looks a lot cooler looking with your side skirting on it.
My point is that with all your terrain building and add-ons to figures you have created, isn't it time you talked to all the people you know in the industry and create some minis or add-on pieces for commercial sale, or something like that.
You stuff on this blog is as good or better than a lot of commercially produced products already out there.
I mean this all as a sincere compliment.
Thanks for checking out the blog! I appreciate the time, as it does mean a lot!
DeleteIf you check out some of the other posts on this Secret Weapon miniatures vehicle, you can get a little better view of how ingenious this is. It is the same size/scale as a Chimera, with every weapon loadout possible (they are all interchangeable on the turret) and the hull mounted weapons.
It is also a pretty nice resin casting, and it fits together far better than the Forgeworld tanks I have had to suffer through :-)
I have another post coming up that shows the freehand on the armor skirts, which I think you will enjoy. They were very fun to paint!
James,
ReplyDeletePlease pardon my directness from my last post. I do remember you saying that the casting is really well done and the weapons choices are deep. I guess I just don't like the look of the turret. It reminds me of some of those old British armored cars. I do like your freehand work on this in your new post.
I also spoke to someone who was on hand at the Cool Mini or Not booth at Gencon representing his company. I was wondering if he had brought his resin tanks(the one you are working on now). I asked him about resin casting quality and he explained what it took to make a good product. He said his bases are fairly easy to do. He complemented the other producers at the booth and said it was very hard to get resin right.
Contrast that with what I witnessed at the Forgeworld booth. A customer brought back an armored vehicle that was warped. One employee had gotten another vehicle out and said it was warped as well. The other employee was telling the customer that "the caster took it out of the mold while it was still warm and squeezed it with his fingers and warped it." What this employee said was the complete opposite of how the guy at the Cool Mini booth said it was supposed to be done.
Forgeworld is much more difficult to work with. Even more minor elements, such as how hard it is to wash off the mould release.
DeleteI have had far better luck with other companies when it comes to massively warped parts, kits with missing parts, air bubbles, wrong pieces, and just plain bad casts.