Sildani's Yme-Loc Craftworld thread

[Sildani]

I've come to a realization: there's no way I can paint the Scorpion neatly and evenly without an airbrush. Tests using thinned Foundation Astronomican Grey and a Tank Brush revealed not brush strokes, but tiny bubbles everywhere. For the even larger surfaces, this would mean disaster. I could try even thinner consistency, but the bubbles would remain and I'd need about seven or eight coats for good results - and that's just in Foundation paint, not mentioning the actual basecoat color I want. So I feel that work on the Scorpion must halt until I can secure an airbrush.

I took self-biased's advice and added a smaller, lighter highlight to the Night Spinner. Is this better?

I just got a new job with a hefty pay increase, so a new airbrush and compressor aren't too far off. What I'm going to concentrate on next is basing, starting with a War Walker. Wraithbone floor, with patches of snow. Wish me luck!

[Fable]

The highlights look great on the Night Spinner. I must admit, it's refreshing to see one of the less promoted craftworlds picking up some momentum. Especially in light of the volume of Ulthwe lists (including my own) in the painting forum.

[Radium]

The spinner looks good Sildani, but I think you can improve it even further by highlighting every single black ridge with a very dark grey. That way you have a bit more detail on all that flat black.

Especially in light of the volume of Ulthwe lists (including my own) in the painting forum.

But Ulthwé just looks great .

[self biased]

looks better. I would take radium's advice as well. black is such a difficult color to do well on such large surfaces.

[Sildani]

Life is odd sometimes. I had put the Scorpion aside to work on on other things because of the lack of an airbrush. I mentioned this to my local hobby shop owner, and he offered me the use of his Badger 350 airbrush and compressor! So the Scorpion's back on the active roster, and I have just spent time filling the huge top-hull and lower-hull gap in the rear. I did this by laying a bead of putty along the lower hull's back, then glued the two halves together. Compression forced out the putty, making it ooze out of the seam and filling the gap as it did so. Then I took an old X-acto blade and used the back to scrape away the excess. Not perfect, but decent, as you can see by the pic. Next I have to sand/file away the excess and reprime the rear.

Tomorrow I'll be airbrushing the beast. Black undersides and hull edges, with light grey basecoat and darker grey mottling. I hope to use the airbrush for the stippled/mottled effect rather than the stippling brush. I think I'll paint the nine smaller air intakes and large bulges on the hull and turret an overall dark grey, same as the mottling spots. Black guns as well. Very little orange will be used... look at the pic of the painted Scorpion, please. The small vanes on the sides of the turret's rear will be orange... perhaps the canopy framing too? There will also be a couple large Yme-Loc decals in orange, so all that should be enough. I also intend to steal Agis' bone-colored stripe idea, just behind the front pair of secondary intakes, but paint it orange.

What does everybody think?

[Sildani]

Hello all,

Well, the airbrushing's done and the grey basecoat is down! I'm pleased with how it looks thus far, hopefully you who are reading this is too! I cut Fortress Grey not quite 50/50 with 50% isopropyl alcohol and it came out of the Badger 350 nicely. The black trim along the leading edges was covered with Scotch tape cut to fit and carefully burnished along its edges. It peeled away with no damage to the black primer coat after all the grey was dry - I was chuffed to see that an idea I had (using Scotch tape) actually worked!

I'm at a bit of a crossroads here and would appreciate input. It was my intention to paint the air intakes and large bulges Codex Grey, and stipple the hull with that grey as well, like my War Walkers and Wave Serpents. My difficulty is, though the technique I used looked decent on the Walkers, on this huge tank with its vast surface area it might look, well, amateurish and nasty. Any techniques any of you would be willing to share? I was considering smallish groups of dots placed over the hull and turret, with space between the groups, with a thin line of Codex grey running through each group.

Also, would the stippling and solid Codex grey bulges detract from the Fortress undercoat? Should I just paint the stippling or the intakes/blisters, and not do both? Help, please! Help me to not screw this up!

[Sildani]

Thanks to the existence of the Wraithseer I'm going to grab one and a squad of Wraithguard. This requires a re-think of my army, with one exception:

The Storm Guardians need a ride, and I'm pleased to say I finally finished it! I had a Falcon hull laying around, so I ordered some spare parts and grabbed a Forge World shuriken cannon turret from eBay, and some months later, here's the result!

The "field projectors" are the standard Serpent crystal targeting matrix bits. I ordered six, removed the fin on the back and sanded down the post molded to its bottom. Looks fairly nifty, if I do say so!

As always, C&C welcome!

[spekkiebig]

How's the Scorpion looking?

[Radium]

Looking very nice! I've always preferred the FW turrets over the standard ones, and you've only further confirmed that view.

[Sildani]

Here's a WIP of the newest project: Wave Serpent #2.

My second attempt at freehand, it's not finished - needs more coats of orange and general sharpening of edges. The turret will be magnetized.

Questions to the viewing public: do you think the other air intake needs a design as well, or is the asymmetry pleasing?

Does the outline of the design need to have its edges lined in black (I hope not..!)

Comments appreciated, as always!

Oh, as fot the Scorpion, well, I had it on my "to do" shelf. None of my cats had ever expressed interest in lying there before, not in two years. Until about six months ago, when there was a cat on that shelf, and a tank-shaped pile of shattered resin on the floor beneath her.

The cat is now named "Slaanesh".

[Son of Russ]

I love how vibrant your blue and especially the orange is. Can't wait to see Serpent 2 turns out.

I shall mourn the loss of the Cobra. That would have looked sweet in your colours.

[self biased]

i dig it. i have really good luck with getting a nice orange using solar macharius orange as my base and then putting blazing orange over it. It's a little annoying that fiery orange was discontinued, because it was a nice step between blazing and golden yellow. it's a good thing i thought ahead and bought 3 pots of fiery orange when i started my army so many years ago.

[Sildani]

Thanks for the encouragement! I have a pot of Macharius Orange, I'll try it next time.

So... does the other intake need its own design? Or black outlining?

[self biased]

I would put some Orange on the other side of the tank, but not necessarily another craftworld rune. Personally, I would just purr a moderately thick line on the port side along the edge, but that is more my camo scheme than yours.

[Sildani]

Quick update on the Serpent. What do you all think?

[Hendarion]

I am actually more interested to see the drawing below the serpent. Is that a jacket or some bag or something?

[Son of Russ]

The blue and orange are fantastically vibrant with the cool, pale grey. Top notch!

[Sildani]

Hi all, I decaled the Serpent yesterday, magnetized the barbette, and touched up some mistakes. Not too much yet to do: apply a couple more coats of matte varnish, install the cockpit and rear air intake, and then cement the top hull to the bottom hull. Do one last session of blacklining, one more inspection for mistakes, install guns and the job's a good 'un.

Enjoy the pic, when it's all done there will be more.

[Sildani]

Finshed the Serpent. Oh, and a special pic for Hendarion... enjoy all!

[Hendarion]

Wow, that's nice. I like how you used the runes to form words. Funny stuff