Warjacks and Badger Ghost Tint fail

     I thought I'd try some new techniques and processes today; namely, blocking off areas with silly putty (as Les, from Awesomepaintjob swears by) and using the newly-arrive Badger Ghost Tints.  

    Below are the 'Jacks, with the areas taped/SP'd off, and ready to go. I did the initial highlights using German Grey, and then P3 Coal Black, and then highlighted using white added to the mix. Next time, I'll go for a more desaturated, mottled look and use a light khaki or RMS White Leather to highlight instead of straight white.

     Below are the final highlights.  The Ghost Tinted one infuriated me so much I almost gently placed the 'Jack in the garbage so I'd never have to look at it again. I know it's going to be glossy and take some time to dry, but there were dense pigments shotgunned all over it, and it looks like a Christmas Candied Apple.  I'll go at it again and tint more tomorrow to darken things a little bit.  

     My first instinct was to blame the product, but let's be honest: I've done this a total of about 40 hours at this point, and just need to try any and all manner of techniques, so I should expect to fail and produce some miserable looking models, but in the meantime, maybe I can do something nice, too.

     Below is the finished 'Jack that I am pleased with.

Yuck.

     I did some red on a Chaos Terminator Lord in between work, just because this poorly-primed model has no future but to end up as a paint test.

     Below is the nice-looking 'Jack, with the black base applied to the parts that will end up as metallic. Still a little more work to do, but overall, looking good.

Vallejo Sticky Texture Paste (Experiment and Sample)

A while back, I got some of the Vallejo Sticky Textures, and while there are quite a few different selections, I purchased the ones with the greatest contrast:

These are like a wet paste, very granular in nature, that are extremely adhesive.  I was not feeling like doing the usual basing procedure for a dwarf that I am painting for my friend's Mordheim band (Hi, Mat!), so I thought I'd put some of this on.  I'd generally never take a mini this close up (it's an unrealistic size), but I wanted everyone to get the idea of the texture, which, conversely, is hard-to-gauge if you're not close-up on it.

One of the best uses for these are weathering; you can add pigments to them, add paint to them, etc., so that if you wanted to put some dried, stuck-on mud on a vehicle, this would be an easy go-to, and you could augment the color and consistency by adding different pigments, maybe a brownish red paint, matte medium, etc., to the mix.

The Black Lava one is a lot like a airplane tarmac or black-top; it reminds me of an outdoor blacktop basketball court.  These are perfect for sci-fi city-scapes, and I plan on using these a lot with my newly-arrived Sedition Wars minis.

Hope this is something you might find interesting and check out.

Blood Angels Land Raider WIP

Some of the work that I did today. I'm not sure if I want to smooth this out or leave it as-is; I suppose that's the big dilemma right now . . . whether or not to weather.

Updates: Predator and Khador (Airbrush Experiment)

Here are some of the updates for the recent projects I have been working on. I added ultra-highlights, as seen here:

And here, with shadows added; the grey-green I used was a little too mottled, but I think it'll work out, especially if I add a thin glaze of green afterwards.

And here are some of the Khador I have been working on. I am still using an ultra-thinned RMS White, but it simply will not go out smoothly; I will just wait for my Vallejo white to get here.  It is either thinned to the point of not working, or just shotguns large white dots all over the place. At any rate, the 'Jack on the right has the white highlights (which will be smoothed down with a red glaze) and the one on the left does not.

Predator and Beastmen Hounds — Airbrush Experiment

    Being that I got an airbrush for Christmas, I thought I'd try it out on some older, cheaply-acquired models. All-in-all, very happy for my first run.

The primed model. I used Vallejo Black Polyurethane Primer.

The color gradients.  I will probably add a final edge highlight, but I am not sure yet.

I went over these with some P3 Turquoise Ink, thinned about 8:1.  I really like the effect (whites and greys are hard to get done right with an airbrush, though).