Castor&Pollux finished

So this is it... I finally found some time to weather the twins. 

First I applied some chipping - not too much, and then I contimued with weathering powders. I hope I got the exhaust pipes right. 

I'm pretty satisfied with the result and I hope that someone will be interested in purchasing them. Some people contacted me already so I think that I will wait a few days before I put the models on eBay.

This was a fun project, I learned a lot from it. Of course there are plenty of things I'd do differently but overall I'm happy with the way it came out. 

Please comment if you have something to share, feedback is always welcome.

And now the pictures:

Previously on this project:

Castor & Pollux update

Castor and Pollux basecoated (sort of)

Diaskuri update II.

Castor&Pollux after painting before weathering

Castor&Pollux after painting, before weathering

I finished painting the details of the predators just an hour ago. I quite like them. I tried some new techniques during painting, enough material for a few quick tutorials. Unfortunately I couldn't use a lightbox for these pictures, which is a shame, for there are some subtle highlights that can not really be seen due to the hard light.
Now the final stage commences, weathering.
I plan to use relatively few scratches and battering on the machines, and no heavy weathering. I preserve these for IG vehicles, marines for me are much better maintained, and their equipment is much closer to parade ground look. It is only a matter of preference.
Don't forget that these models will be for sale once they are finished. If you are interested, stay tuned, and if you have a buddy who is into classic models, spead the word!

Previously on this project:

Castor & Pollux update

Castor and Pollux basecoated (sort of)

Diaskuri update II.

Diaskuri update II.

Just a quckie; I made a few photos before I airbrushed the twins (Diascuri as they are called in Mythology) with gloss varnish and used various washes on them. They look much better now, but as usual, documentation is a few steps behind the actual work.

Previously on this project:

Castor & Pollux update

Castor and Pollux basecoated (sort of)

Castor and Pollux - basecoated (sort of)

I had some time for the twins lately. I basecoated them dark gray as I usually do and basecoated them with VMC Ultramarine blue. Much to my surprise it turned to be really ultramarine whereas VGC and Citadel ultramarine is not...
Anyway, I continued with adding some shade and zenithal highlight with my airbrush. After this I drybrushed the predators with a mixture of VGC Ghost gray and VMC ultramarine blue.
Unfortunately the pictures with the early stages fell to the warp, but here what they looked like then:

As you see they looked OK, but there was much chalkiness in the details, especially on the metal parts:

I was kind of expecting this and decide to give it a glaze at this point I heavily diluted VMC transparent blue (vallejo's transparent range is excellent, I can only recommend them, they are like heavy glazes) with liquitex airbrush medium and Vallejo's airbrush cleaner (which I use to dilute acrylics with great success) and gave the tanks two thin coats. Here's how they look like:

As you see the chalkiness is practically gone, and most of the highlights are still there. The new colour is much better suited for the mainstream Ultramarines, and since this is a commercial project, I tend to favour the mainstream... :-)

I think, after retouching the most extreme highlights, the predators will be ready for the painting of the details. I can't wait!

Previously on this project:

Castor & Pollux update

Yorias Redux

I just finished him painting. I took a bit different path in painting him compared to the rest of the army, I think the characters will resemble him, while the troops will follow a bit more simple. So here you go, as always commets are welcome.

Land Speeder Redux

Some old time followers might remember one of my first posts back from January; it was about a Land Speeder, full of details that later turned out to be unnecessary. The paint scheme changed too, and as I became involved With my Land Raider Mk1 the work on this little one has stalled. Until last week, when I finished it :-)
Actually it is not finished, as the magnetized parts may get some transfers and freehand, and still need to be weathered.
The model is fully magnetized, all the doors/accessories/weapons can be removed. I'm a big fan of magnetization, both for versatility and portability.
The base is made of a standard AOBR base and a piece of carbon fibre rod, as I dislike GW flying bases.
The junk on the ground are made of plasticard (heated up and bent over fire) pieces of tin sheet and resin parts.
The scratches on the bumper and the hull are the weakest part of the paintjob, hell, next time they will turn pout better. The speeder was given a little coat of dust pigment (dust, dusty green and sand) as I felt that as a flying machine stronger weathering would be out of place.
As always, feedback is welcome.

Typhoon variant with multi melta (some sooth will be applied)

Tornado variant with heavy bolter

Engine glow

My Celestine

This is my version of the Living Saint. She serves no purpose in my would-be army, I just happened to come into the possession of the model and painted her just for fun. I won't keep her though, but I'll give her to my wife as present. I hope she'll like her.

Painting - First go on the Sentinels

Tonight I managed to finish my first test paint of the Sentinels. It is a five marine combat squad and a lone assault marine. They are still wearing the original paint scheme, I'm still not decided weather to go for the darker scheme or stick to this one. I fear that this is a bit ultramarie-ish, but apart from that I'm pretty satisfied. The guys are purists, no extra purity seals, tabards, squad numbers, the regular ones will have all of this, but modestly.
Instead the new converted backpacks they are wearing old style ones, because I'm running low on backpacks and I'm going to give these first ones to friends anyway.
For the bases I had some arid, rocky steppe in mind.
So here you go:

Earlier:
Painting - Quest for the perfect highlights

Painting - Quest for the perfect highlights

Finding the perfect colours for the Sentinels proved rather difficult. Since there is an army to be painted I had a few principles in mind before I started to select:

1. A shade a base colour, a highlight and an extreme colour must do, there will be no more levels
2. No drybrush on the armour - on smooth surfaces I never seem to get it right...
3. Layering is preferable - Because that's the way I like it
4. No full-body washes

I had dark blue in mind, and since I'm a great fan of Regal Blue, originally chose the following colours on my trial marines:

0th variant - Original
Shade - VMC Dark Prussian Blue
Base - Regal Blue
Highlight - Enchanted Blue
Extreme highlight - 50% Regal Blue- 50% Ice Blue
I thought that it was going to be fine, but it turned out rather lame. The highlights were too crude, and I didn't like the result at all. So I went to the bits box for my leftover metal torsoes and I knew I have some serious testing to do.
Please note that I did not aim even at TTQ on the samples below, only wanted to find the most suitable colours using minimum time and effort. Here are the results

1st variant
Shade - VMC Dark Prussian Blue
Base - 50% VMC Dark Prussian Blue - 50% Regal Blue
Highlight - Regal Blue
Extreme highlight - Enchanted Blue

Actually I liked this variant, it had contrast without too extreme highlights

2nd variant
Shade - VMC Dark Prussian Blue
Base - Regal Blue
Highlight - 50% Regal Blue - 50% Enchanted Blue
Extreme highlight - Enchanted Blue

A little disappointment. While I like regal blue, this combination was a bit too low contrast.

3rd variant
Shade - VMC Dark Prussian Blue
Base - Regal Blue
Highlight - Enchanted Blue
Extreme highlight - VMC Pastel Blue

.... as this one is too much. Pastel Blue is a tad darker that the Regal Blue -Ice Blue combo I used earlier, but still too light.. At this point my wife being the one person jury chose the first variant for further improvement.

4th variant
Shade - none
Base - VMC Dark Prussian Blue
Highlight - 66% Regal Blue 33% Enchanted Blue
Extreme highlight - Enchanted Blue

5th variant
Shade - none
Base - VMC Dark Prussian Blue
Highlight - 50% Regal Blue 50% Enchanted Blue
Extreme highlight - Enchanted Blue

Since the base colour is very dark as it is, I dropped shades, and used only the highlights, which is good since it will speed up painting a bit. Perhaps I will use black liner or Badab Black ink, we shall see.
To cut a long story short Patricia and I agreed that the 4th variant looked best. Not too harsh highlights but exciting. a bit crimson fist-like look. Or Dark Angels in blue.

Do you have any tips on how could I further improve this scheme before I start painting my first tactical squad?