Airbrushing Eldar, Iyanden Wraithknight Showcase

Here is the Wraithknight from my Iyanden collection, painted using the exact same scheme as the rest of the army. I did deviate slightly with the addition of green gems on the shield arm. Im not sure if I like that or not but I felt they would pop against the black and complement the purple on the shield more than red gems would have. All the blue areas of the model were painted separatly and you can see a w.i.p picture of that in the title picture of this blog. Whilst the blues and the extreme highlights I gave them are not very realistic I really liked the effect. This model was completed last year. I do plan on adding a second to my army in the near future and I am planning on doing a progress log on here.

I know many of you players will notice I have given the Knight 2 of the Scatter Lasers. Any player will tell you that a Monstrous Creature such as this can actually only fire 2 weapons per turn, so with the addition of the sun cannon it does make 1 of the Scatter Lasers a waste of points. I don't actually use 2 on this guy but for the sake of symmetry and maybe a little OCD I felt the model looked better with 2.

If anyone has yet to buy one of these, I can tell you it was a lot of fun to build and paint, but please even if you plan to paint by hand don't completely build it before painting. I can imagine for many painters it could be a real nightmare of a job to paint fully assembled.

Group shot of all the Eldar boys so far, You will notice that despite saying in my earlier posts about sticking to a paint "recipe" I did deviate with my Jetbikes. These were painted in Saim Hann scheme as I felt that reds suited the models better. Plus it gives me an excuse to start that craft world too.

Next up it will be my Wraithguard

Airbrushing Eldar, Iyanden Wave Serpent Showcase.

Heres another few pictures from my airbrushed Iyanden project, this time 3 Serpents. They were painted in exactly the same way as my Crimson hunter but I have yet to do the Canopy frames. These were really a joy to build and paint. Whilst we can all agree Games Workshops newer kits are really great and well put together theres something to be said for the simplistic nature of these older Eldar skimmers. I bought all 3 at the same time and "batch painted" them together in sub assemblies.

Again as with the Crimson Hunter these guys were mostly exclusively painted using my airbrush.

The paints I've used for this project are all from the Minitaire range by Badger. I really like these paints and they have some really vivid colours in their range that are just right for war gamers. The main colour used for my Iyanden is a colour called Craven. Its a lovely yellow and I think it gives the Iyanden colour scheme a more real appearance than the very vivid and bright yellow Games Workshop used in their army.

Heres some work in progress shots to show how I painted the yellow.


1. The Wave Serpents were primed in grey Vallejo airbrush primer, they were then pre shaded using  Minitaire "Red Clay"

2. The higher areas of the Wave Serpents were airbrushed with a white colour from the same range called "Snow White"

3. Finally they were painted with light, thin coats of "Craven". You can see where the "Red Clay" pre-shade and "Snow White" pre highlights are still visible and blended though the yellow.

4. After using lots of masking tape, airbrush templates and blu-tac to mask off other areas to paint the blues weapons and gems here is a pic of my 3 Serpents in their display cabinet. All in all I think these guys took about 4 hours from starting to build to ending up here. I think for a table top standard paint job they look great.

Next post I will feature my Wraith Knight.

Airbrushing Eldar, Iyanden Crimson Hunter Show Case.

I thought it would be nice to show some of my painting projects, some current and some from the past here on Painting Plastic Crack. Ive even managed to get my hands on a better camera, so going forward my pictures should be improved over what I have been currently uploading.

Here is my Crimson Hunter from my Iyanden Eldar. Now I know its not quite as fluffy as the the Hemlock for this style of army but whilst I am not a competitive player,  I just preferred what the Crimson Hunter had to offer gameplay wise. However I wanted it to fit into the rest of my army and it had to be yellow.

This was 95% painted with an airbrush, including the gems and base. In fact the only parts painted by hand were the white dots on those gems and the shading around them. Oh and the red tinted canopy was also hand painted. Some have asked me just how I managed this effect without having any streaks. The paint I used is called "clear red" and its made by humbrol. They also make a blue and a yellow but I have yet to find any other colours. Im not sure if you can use these 3 primaries to mix the other colours as red was what I was looking for at the time. I painted it quite thickly on the inside of the canopy and straight out of the tin. I allowed it to dry completely before picking it up.  half an hour later, job done. The great thing with doing it like this is you still get to see the pilot, but theres no use going to town on painting him or her as the red tints all the variation of colour out anyway. I prefer this than seeing completely painted canopies.  Of course some keep it clear and I have seen some brilliant painting of cockpits etc. This is my way though. One word of warning, don't go using any of your best brushes to do this. Its quite gloopie and it will knacker anything of quality. No kolinsky sable here please.

The hexagon patterns you see on the wings were made using an airbrush stencil I picked off of eBay. Very easy to do and just required a steady hand. I did the same underneath the Hunter, but in reverse. I think its a nice touch.

Obviously I can't paint as straight as some of the crisper panels suggest I have on the model. This is where low tac masking tape comes in, Tamiya is the brand I use and it comes in various widths. As long as you don't lay it down on fresh paint it won't peel anything off. I used it to mask off the surrounding areas of the gems so I could airbrush those, I used it over the canopy glass so I could airbrush the pale blue canopy struts, I used it over the from of the front of the Hunter so I could paint the and black blue panels too. I think as a playing piece it looks ok. The engine glow was achieved using blues and whites and allowing the overspray from the airbrush to create the OSL effect.

I used the airbrush to paint the base too. I hope you like it. All my Iyanden models have a snow base to match my Realm of Battle board. I plan on doing a tutorial on how I made these very soon. So if you like them keep an eye out for them.

Cheers

Joey

Painting Pre Heresy Blood Angels. Part 1

Forgeworld Blood Angels Part 1

I will be honest there isn't much difference if any in how I would paint 40k Blood Angels or 30k Blood Angels. But as I am going to be mainly buying Forge World pre-heresy kits I am going to call it a pre-heresy project.

So first off I built the armour and stuck them to the bases, minus the heads which I have already painted and are in a previous post, the packs I will do separately afterwards. As you can see I also used some cork for the bases. I have a big roll of scenic cork I bought from my local model shop. Its cheap and I've had it now for about two years and still have loads left. I tore off bits of cork to partially cover the 25mm bases, basically enough to fit the marines onto, and stuck the cork to the bases using super glue. There will be more to come on these as I progress but for now thats it as far as the bases are concerned.

For the primer I used coloured primer called "Dragon Red" by The Army Painter. As you can see in the pictures I have mounted each model on a cork bung using blu-tac. It helps both with priming and painting as it gives something to hold onto rather than the base whilst doing both. I know many of you guys will already do something similar but it took me a good few years painting before I picked this up. It makes life so much easier.

After the primer had dried I painted a coat of "Khorne Red" all over the models, this was thinned using water at about a 50/50 ratio. The models were then painted all over with this making sure to get into the hard to reach areas that you see some painters forget.

I let that dry completely and then painted all the areas of the armour with Druchii Violet Shade. I know some use the black washes, and I had on my trial model myself but a year ago I painted some Khador Warjacks and I used this wash then to shade the red armour and I liked the results. The shade seemed more natural with the dark purple.

Once this too was fully dry I then used some paint called "German Grey" by Vallejo thinned 50:50 with water again. This is from the model colour range. I used this to paint all the areas I want to be black or metallic. This included the weapons, armour joints and any badges that will be painted later. I really love this colour and much prefer to use it than a pure black. I find that when you apply a black wash to it afterwards your able to achieve an effect that looks like black but still has some depth from the shade.

Thats it for today, more very soon. I guess some of you are thinking "what the hell ?" "the armour looks a mess". Sure it does now but the next stage will erase cure that and I promise eventually I will have a nice bright vibrant Blood Angels colour scheme that will look great as a table top playing piece and will really pop.

Below is a recap of the paints and brushes I have used so far.

The Army Painter
Dragon Red Primer

Games Workshop
Khorne Red Base
Druchii Violet Shade

Vallejo Game Colour
German Grey

Brushes
Series 7 by Winsor & Newton. Sizes 2, 00 and 000. Fantastic brushes and well worth the extra cost. I've had mine now for 2 years and they are still in tip top shape.

Happy New Year.

Well 2013 is nearly over, but what a year it's been for us hobby fans. Games Workshop and Forge World have both really ramped up the release schedule this year and I think there has been some great new models in 2013. 2014 looks like it's off to a big monstrous start with the Tyranids getting an early January release. For myself I started my Iyanden Ghost army back in June and although it's been very slow going I'm pleased with what I have so far. The army as it stands needs more troops but with my house move and Christmas soon after I'm struggling to set up my airbrushing area and finding somewhere suitable for it. Once the decorations are down I'm sure I will be able to fit it in somewhere in our new home. But for now I've been struck with the Forge World pre heresy bug. I'm embarking on a Blood Angels army and as mentioned in previous posts I'm going back to using paint brushes for this project. You can follow its progress both here and on the BoLs forums hobby section. I will post some pictures there and  more in depth posts here.

So my plans for 2014 will be more Iyanden and Blood Angels, but if neither of those armies paint schemes don't interest you don't worry. I plan to do one off models for other 40k armies and may even have a stab at some fantasy models too. I'm definitely open to requests so if you have any please feel free to suggest them. Paint schemes and technique requests would be great, but don't forget to mention if it's with my airbrush or paint brush you want the scheme painted in.

I would lastly like to say Happy New Year to you all, I've had some great support from many of the guys and gals in our online community. But I would especially like to thank Big Red over on BoLs for his support of my writing and it's his influence that got me blogging. Thanks Big Red.

Blood Angels 2014, 1st set of heads.

So I managed to clean my 1st Forgeworld resin kit today, if you have never painted forgeworld models before I can't recommend this enough. Forgeworld use a release agent to stop the casts from sticking to the mould. However it can also stop paint and primer from sticking to your models too. If that happens it can make a real mess and make painting impossible. GW do the same with their plastics and others recommend washing these too but I've never had any trouble with GW plastics and paint not sticking. Forgeworld though, its pretty common. I get a tupperware container, add a little washing up liquid to some warm water and give the sprues a good soak, I gave mine an hour.  If your careful with a toothbrush its a good idea to give the parts a gentle scrub too. Afterwards I get some kitchen towel and let the parts air dry on it. Its what works for me.

Anyway back to the heads, I couldn't resist giving the sarge a bare head, I've wanted to play about with skin tones and stubble before and decided this was as good a time as any.

The other 4 helmets were given a light dusting of Army Painters yellow primer and then a wash of Reikland Fleshshade to add shadow to the helmet. On my trial I used soft body black by Secret Weapon but I felt this wash was a bit more natural for a yellow paint job. I also dabbled a bit with some battle damage on the helms. Nothing too fancy or over the top, just the suggestion really that these guys aren't factory fresh.

The yellows used are exactly the same as in my previous post.

Thats it for now, but I plan on making a start on the red armour in the next day or 2.

Cheers

Joe

1st Trial Blood Angel

So I made a start, this guys just a prototype and really just a paint test to get my "recipe" down. I have gone back to using some GW paints for this guy and so far I really like him

For the reds I used

Khorne Red
Evil Sunz Scarlet
Wild Rider Red

For the yellow helmet I used

Averland Sunset
Yriel Yellow
Flash Gitz Yellow


The wash I used is called "soft body black" and its by secret weapon. I used this to shade the armour and applied it after the base of Khorne red. Once it was dry I then went back in with the Khorne red to clean up the model but leaving the wash in the recesses. After that it was thin coats of evil sunz to highlight the base red and this was followed by a further highlight using wild rider. I thin my paints with water and I use a 2:1 ratio of water to paint. It makes it quite thin but I get a nice smooth transition though the shades.

I used a very similar way of painting a couple years ago with my Salamanders but obviously using green instead of red. I really liked the way they looked and despite being quite time consuming I enjoyed the results. Obviously trying to have a pure FW model army isn't going to be cheap either so I don't mind spending the extra time.

Now I just have to put some new models together and I will be back with a progress post in the next day or two. Hopefully with some pictures too.