There's nothing like my back telling me I can't paint to make me really want to paint. After years of back problems I finally herniated a disc a few weeks ago, so I've been watching several primed models taunt me for some time (plus a few future commissions I need to prepare for!). One of those has been my charity piece for Battle for Hope. And since a man can only take so much taunting before he's spurred to action, I grabbed a bottle of painkillers in one hand, my airbrush in the other, and went to work.
When I was trying to figure out a model to paint for the event I came across a video by Lester Bursley of AwesomePaintJob. He did a really neat technique on the Behemoth, pre-highlighting areas and then spraying the model with red ink instead of thinned paint. The effect was stunning, causing very dramatic changes from the lighter-to-darker areas. That video decided my charity piece for me.
I started with a black primer and then used Minitair's Concrete (light grey) to highlight several areas, adding to the rounded look on many of his armor pieces.
Then I put on a layer of red ink. I wasn't really sure how this stuff would handle. Being the consistency of water I knew I need to keep the brush away from the model so the ink wouldn't start pooling weirdly and start looking like it's crackled. My first run wasn't too pretty, leaving me some weird dots on the fringe of the highlighted areas.
I went back over the more extreme highlights with Fairy Flesh so that my 2nd pass would basically have 2 shades of highlight, but the extreme areas would still blend well enough. I dropped the PSI of my airbrush from 10 to 5 and started farther back. One or both of those was the ticket (perhaps coupled with it being a second coat), because the red went on smooth, picking up the highlights perfectly and still having some darker areas. I'm going to see if I can replicate this with some very thinned paints, because I'm really enjoying this technique for non-humanoids. I apologize for the picture quality - that ink is really glossy, but the final pics will have a matte varnish to help tone it down.
With the highlights I almost prefer the toned-down look. I'm leaving it black for now and will probably go over it with bronze just to see how I like it. The great thing about black is that it covers everything!
But of course I still get to use my metals! After applying the bronze and nearly finishing with my steel I found myself wishing I'd gone over everything with brush-on black primer. The ink made for a very slick surface that will need a few touch-up coats to make it look smooth. Things like the shoulder cannons went on well because there was less ink, while the arms and hands were streaking like mad.
I had to leave off with 1 1/2 legs and spikes/rivets left to paint because back pain was causing a lot of paint streaks, and with metallics it's much more difficult to clean up. I'm pretty happy with today's progress, and I'm hoping I'll be up for getting him finished up by Friday.
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| That shine really messes up my shadows! |
I want to do something nifty with his base, but I'm not quite sure what. I really hate his pose with the elevate leg - I realize it's supposed to look like he's firing off a cannon, but to me it looks like he's passing gas around a bunch of guys (where dramatic flatulence stances are encouraged). For my own Behemoth I stuck a rock under his foot, but this time I want to try something a bit more unique.
What I'm picturing is a stone block with something written on it. Battle for Hope is my go-to text since that's the charity event. HOPE in dramatic letters might be a bit less on the nose, but I rather like the idea of the model being able to draw attention to the event whenever it's on the table. What do you guys think?
See you tomorrow!
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