Fishy BONES

Welcome to Davey Jone's Locker, and another Reaper BONES mini.

He was originally made for a few different classes at Reapercon 2 years ago, showing some basing techniques and how to work with the Reaper clear paints.

Most of this was done with several series of glazes, which are perfect for those Reaper clear paints.  They have a lot of pigment in them, but when thinned with water, they make a fantastic glaze... like inks in intensity, but no water marks, and no shiny stuff either!

When mixed with lighter colors, they are now a wonderful bright middle tone, which is perfect for getting interesting colors in that "between light and dark" zone.

The base has an experiment, and that is chopping up some aquarium plants and sticking them into the cork, etc., and painting them.  It's the first time I have tried to slice up the plastic aquarium plants into something so tiny.  It was an experiment for other current projects!

He's also here:

http://www.ebay.com/itm/222386348920?ssPageName=STRK:MESELX:IT&_trksid=p3984.m1558.l2649

Panzer Zug

Picking up where we left off in the previous episode, it's time to add in the final part of the camo pattern.  This will be done will the yellow primer and a touch of deeper yellow airbrush paint (all fro Badger).

Just like the applications of the greenish colors, this will be lighter than the final result.  That leaves enough space to allow for subsequent glazes and weathering.

It makes an immediate difference.  Also, I try to have this lightest part of the camo strategically placed in areas where I wanted to have more chipping and rust effects.

By reducing the pressure in the compressor (sometimes down to 10-15 PSI) and using the Badger Extreme Patriot brush, it is possible to get some nice tight runs of the airbrush into the spots I wanted.

This picture focuses on the Hungarian vehicles.  The specific kits, such as the Nimrod, Toldi, Turan and Zryinyi kits are from Mad Bob's Miniatures, while the PZ 3 in the back is from Rubicon.

Let's reverse the process, putting the green part of the camo pattern on the Warlord Games Tiger and Stug.  Similar to the yellow, I will mix in a few deeper, darker greens with the green primer to do this color.

The primer not only adds extra stability to the paint as the vehicle is handled over and over again, but helps to thin the color down and allow it to flow more freely.

A comparison shot of the Stug, with green applied and the waiting Tiger.

While I could have approached all the tanks in the same way, I wanted to give the German vehicles that extra touch of yellow.  This is why I stuck with using a yellow base for the Tiger and Stug.

The Hungarian tanks needed to be more greenish, even though most of the camo was of a similar color set to the German versions.

So, I started with a green base to push the entire camo set in that direction.

Experimentation time!  I wanted to see what a very light application of the Badger Ghost tints might do to the lighter colors, specifically the yellows.

While various Mig AMMO filters will be applied in stage 3, I was very curious to see if the Ghost Tints could darken and intensify the yellow part of the camo pattern.

It only took a few shots of the Tints through the brush to know this was a good idea.  While having a marginal effect on the brown and green sections, the yellow parts really came to life!

I did this to all of the tanks, and called that particular experiment a great success.

In Part Three, I will get into the initial application of the oil based products, such as the filters.  Darker washes and glazes will be used to establish the shading in full.

Part Four will feature the decals, weathering and other special effects, so stay tuned!

Tank Wars

You have seen me post a few articles before about the use of Badger airbrush products over the last 10 months, mostly in the form of trial and error to see what might be possible.

In the intervening months, I have been testing, prodding, testing again, various materials and methods to see how I might be use this new set of tools.  I have also been changing the physical setup of the work area over and over again to see what works best, to figure out how to deal with the spray dust, and all the things that go along with airbrush use.

At this point, I have determined that the Airbush is ideal for mass application of Shaded Basecoat on figures and vehicles alike.  There is almost no difference in how I would do the Shaded Basecoat with a 'regular' brush, except that I can now work on 100 figures at a time instead of 20!

In fact, I work on so many simultaneous objects at once, that more time is spent figuring out ways to stage it all around the actual work area!!

In this post series, there will be a number of different vehicles and manufacturers.  There are Warlord Games tanks, Rubicon and Mad Bob's included.  There's even a Konflict '47 mech in there!

Starting with the black/orange primer blends, I did my darks and "pre weathering" as I normally do.  Since Badger makes so many different colors of primer, the vast majority of my painting is done with these primers.  You can check out those other articles in the airbrush section.

Over those darker tones (you can see those in the image above), I spray the green primer mixed with a slightly darker olive green paint.

Those initial layers of dark brown colors instantly create a perfect shadow color for tracks, treads and drive wheels.

The light yellow primer color is mixed in with the green to begin establishing some lighter colored areas.  The inset shows a Stug and Tiger which got the yellow treatment.  This is another reason why I need such a large staging area, because I am trying to maximize the use of every color.

Starting and stopping again while working on just one or two tanks at a time would not be a very good use of such a powerful system!

As more yellow is added to the mix, the lights keep getting brighter.  Keep in mind that you have to make the colors lighter than you want them to be in the end, just like the regular Shaded Basecoat!  You will be adding darker glazes and washes, plus weathering.  This means you need as light of a base as possible.

I even managed to sneak a French truck into the mass of vehicles!  You can really see the brighter yellow at this point.  Since I am not washing out the cup between layers, it maintains a grayish appearance.

You are not limited to working lighter only!  If needed, you can go back in with darker tones if you need to reestablish a shaded area, or tint something a bit.

I think this shows up most on the aft deck of the Tiger, where I wanted to see what kind of exhaust soot I could create by lightly spraying black over that zone.

To create the camo pattern, I started with the brown, and that's a mix of the orange and black primers (from Badger).  Like I mentioned in the beginning, I want as many layers to be primer as possible, since there is no base to grab onto these vehicles!  It will make the paint much sturdier in the process.

The mixed paint is placed in the cup, and I start spraying that part of the camo as needed.  If I want a sharp edge, I could apply some blue tac or other masking agent.

Quite a difference already!  I have carefully set up all the other vehicles in this set to be ready for painting this stage.  The Stug is ready for it's camo...

I tried to leave zones for the green part of the pattern.  Also, I was trying to leave the "leading edges", or other parts that would get chipped, scraped, etc., with the lighter parts of the pattern.  It's a lot easier to have your chipping and rust show up on the lighter colors, so isolating those zones lets you get a lot of chipping bang for very few bucks :-)

And now for the green vehicles.  By the way these are for my Hungarian army.  Most of them are from Mad Bob's Miniatures, but the PZ III is from Rubicon.

This view starts to give you a sense of how many things are finding their way in front of the nozzle!  Not only is this very efficient at getting a lot of things done rapidly, there will be a lot more consistency across the entire army.

At this stage, all of the vehicles and the extra armor have the brown part of the camo applied.

I will close out this first article with a peek at the next stage.  I will add the yellow bits of the pattern to all the Hungarian vehicles, so stay tuned!!

The Prowler

I enjoyed utilizing my typical green/purple mixes on this guy, for almost every surface.  Those two colors found their way into skin, metal and cloth colors.

These are more muted greens and purples, of course.  Some are warmer of cooler, but balancing them next to each other is always a fun challenge. 

You can see these transitions quite easily on the skin, as some areas are almost purple... and others sections punctuated by greenish grays.  Those two colors are very complimentary to each other.  When you mix them to make a gray, you get a gray that will be tinted one way of the other, depending on how much of each color is mixed in.

He's also here:

http://www.ebay.com/itm/322380106898?ssPageName=STRK:MESELX:IT&_trksid=p3984.m1558.l2649

Skink of a Different Color

This little guy is another blast from the past, part of the massive Skink contingent from my original Lizardman army years ago.  It was the search for a way to get all of them painted which led me to the Shaded Basecoat.

You can see more of the turquoise versions here!

http://wappellious.blogspot.com/2013/09/we-little-skinks.html

Gorgon of the North

Next up from Gorgon Studios is the Norwegian army.  Just like all the early war forces in their selections, there is a full compliment of officers, gear, etc.

These figures are sculpted by the same artist who does the Artizan Designs sculpts, so you will see a lot of similarities in the style. They are easy to clean, and there is plenty of nice detail on each figure.

I found some rather humorous reference sources in a Google Search...

But here's a live source!  I will have to balance the two sources...

As I usually do, I will vary the colors on each figure, with some greens being darker or warmer, giving them the appearance of more or less worn uniforms.

Figuring out where to place the red stripes was interesting, but that is a wonderful contrast to all the green, and it makes them distinct from other armies that I am currently working on.

As for the bases, the snow will be less heavy on these forces. In fact, I want it to seem partially melted, which is possible to do with the crushed glass method.  I didn't want this to be the dead of Arctic winter, but more like the alpine snow which is still around even when the temps are well above freezing.

This is just the first of the defenders of Norway, so stay tuned for much more!!!

Druid's BONES

I always have fun working on the BONES minis, since they can be chopped up if need be, or balanced on all kinds of interesting bases.  They don't weigh much at all, so balancing them is never an issue!  Plus, you could not break them with a hammer :-)

This druid figure is perfect for any kind of RPG adventures!

I had a lot of fun doing some color variations on the robes, attempting to work in as many browns and tans into the green as possible.  This was meant to have him blend in somewhat with the base.

The base has some fall foliage, which was simulated with mica flakes.  That is a very handy way to make rapid fire ground cover that can be painted up to seem like individual leaves.

He joins the rest of the BONES collection, which continues to grow!