The Swords of Vaul

[Son of Russ]

That is epic Mate. Might just have to steal that idea!

I'd personally do the gems on the jump jets.

[Fable]

Wow, the CCW looks even better painted than I expected it to. Can't wait to see it all done.

[Hendarion]

Ive just managed to finish all the jem stones (that took a while!) though I cant decide if I should do the ones on the top of the jet pack. Any opinions?

Yes, do them.

[koran]

For now I have left the top of the jetpacks without jem stones as it is always something I can put on later.

With that and the base I think Ive got the titan finished. Ive been debating on if I need more freehand but I think Im happy with how it is now and much more would be too OTT (but opinions on this are always welcome).

Theres quite a few photos so this might take a few posts

[koran]

[koran]

[Fable]

Wow. Talk about making other modelers feel humbled. Truly awesome.

[Hendarion]

Yea, pretty cool. But if I may, let me try to give some criticism as well. Not to tell you what's bad, that's an item you clearly be proud of. But to give some hints you could use to make it even better (next time).
The gloss varnish. It surely enhances some gems and I'm never sure if I should go for it or not, gives me deep thoughts. But you made some minor mistakes you eventually still can fix. For example the black line around the eyes seems glossy. Drop in some black wash maybe or matt varnish to fix it, it will look more real. Also at 1 gem you painted not only the gem, but a bit of the armour aswell. Easy to fix I think.
The base... is great and makes me really jealous. But I think it is too small. Not only for the titan, but also for stability I'd be concerned. Don't be afraid to use a larger one, this is a display-piece, so you may treat it as one. Your bases are so lovely made, no need to be shy here.
The scratches: Similar to the glossy gems, I'm always feared a bit if I should go that way or not, but it fits your model clearly. They are well done, but am I right that you used black and white to make them? Maybe it's just the pics, but I think some other colours (just a deeper blue or a grey for the "undercoat") and a lighter blue (nearly white, but not white yet) to make the highlights at the edges could have enhanced the look of them I think.
The rockets: Give them a tiny shade. Either a reflective white dot to make them appear glossy or real shade. I know, these are painful, but imo if you can, do it.

I hope I didn't come over too badass as I intend to make your models just better. I'll clearly keep a look at this topic if I may (means if you don't come up with torches and pitchforks to get me out of it )

[koran]

Lols, thanks for the comments Hendarion but I have to say I hate your face now! Joking of course, its really appreciated.

Good call on the line around the eyes. I will do that now.

I had not seen the gloss had gone over on a gem, I will hunt that down and fix it (it had on one other which I have fixed).

The battle damage actually is a dark blue with a light green highlight. It just hasnt come out on the photos.

The rockets do have a highlight. Maybe this could be more obvious, so I'll go over and fix this as well.

As for the base being bigger I have to dissagree on this. I hope to play games with this so a larger base often gets in the way. I was worried about stability as well but the model is actually really stable because I have put weights in the bottom. On a search for lead (which I knew my parents had some roofing lead so went to ninja some) I was told about something called curtain weights.

As you can see these are round lead weights (so pretty heavy) and they turned out to be the perfect width to fit in GW bases. I can now have the model on any GW hill and it not fall over, which makes me a happy bunny I have to admit to being a bit of a show off so I like to have a model that people look at and thing "How the hell is that standing without falling over!"

You can see a bit of an example of this with a dark eldar I painted for a competition (though it was at a bit of a rush):






Thanks again for the criticism Hendarion, if anyone wasnt willing to accept such constructive comments as your own then they wouldnt be worth the great help you're offering. Cheers.

[Hendarion]

Great idea about the base, I thought to fill my flyer-bases in a similar way, curtain-weights will be something I'll try to have a look for.

[cynic]

Fantastic work

[alamo]

First of all - congratulations. This is really stunning work. I actually saw your Lynx in the flesh (plastic?) the other day in the Kingston store and was blown away.

I recently invested in an airbrush from RDG tools to help me paint my new Dark Eldar army, and I'm loving the results so far. But it was the weathering on your Lynx that really caught my eye. I have no experience of using weathering powders but would like to give them a go after seeing your work. Could you please briefly describe what powders you use and how you applied them to your Lynx?

Many thanks

[koran]

Hi there Alamo. I use Mig powders but in reality most powders are the same so the forge world ones are fine (I actually like these a lot and its one of the GW products I rate as highly as anyone elses if not better).

I use a GW dry brush to apply and then can only describe what I do as a splodge then brush (in the direction of movement) approach.

Do you go to GW Kingston a lot? If you do Id be happy to give you a demo/hand if you have a model you want to weather and some pigment (though they would probably insist on it being FW pigments in the shop).

Give me a PM if you're interested.

If not I had someone ask me about doing a tutorial for my freehand runes and someone else on another forum has mentioned one for the airbrush stages so I was thinking my next tank (a second warp hunter) will be done stage by stage for people to see.

[Hendarion]

Don't forget the base!

[Dark Apostle]

I had someone ask me about doing a tutorial for my freehand runes and someone else on another forum has mentioned one for the airbrush stages so I was thinking my next tank (a second warp hunter) will be done stage by stage for people to see.

++++ this! I just bought myself an airbrush and want to use it to paint my eldar, so a tutorial would be most welcome!

[Darnok]

I took the freedom to change the thread title. Considering your ideas about an army theme I found "Guardians of Vaul" fitting. If you want it changed to something else, please let me know.

As for the painting: awesome! Just one minor point of criticism about the "Wraithguardian": why does he fight with a toothpick?

[Rogerio]

Ummmm wow! what a stunning titan that is, i love it!

[koran]

Well here goes with the new warp hunter....

First I should apologise, I was planning on doing a video for the airbrushing as its impossible to do a good guide with just pictures and text. Annoyingly I cant find my tripod so that was a no go.

Here's the basics:
I use a double action, gravity fed airbrush as I feel they give me the most control over what I am doing. Some feel just as happy with the suction fed airbrushed (which have the bonus of usually storing more paint without having to reload - but I dont think this is an issue until you're getting to the titan painting levels).

I also work in the garage as it offers good ventilation and I can make a mess when cleaning the airbrush (which is pretty common). I still wear a dust mask (a total necessity after a horrible incident where I didnt painting the titan and was coughing up blue/turquoise phlegm for days and felt generally horrible).

More detail will have to wait for a video I guess (sorry again)

Something that makes everything a lot easier is dividing the model into more manageable pieces (generally divided along colour lines where possible).

So I have three bits, the gun, lower wraithbone coloured portion and the top half. (The canopy as well but I leave that till right to the end)


The lower half is painted first as there are bits on here that have to be painted the blue after.
First coat is model air dark earth

Followed by model air sand yellow

Followed by model air sand


With this done the model was coated in a matt varnish. Now there are a number of these on the market but I recommend Testors Dull Coat. It's perfectly matt and I have NEVER had it go cloudy on me. But for those of you in the UK, like me, this stuff is a real challenge to get hold of! All I can recommend is looking around and if you ever find somewhere selling it buy as much as you can afford before they stop getting them in. That's what I do but Im now on my last can of the 10 I bought so if anyone knows of a reliable source that keeps the stuff in constantly I would be very appreciative of a heads up

I varnish at this stage as I needed to mask the lower half so can move on to the blue. Im pretty trusting of the masking tape I use (Tamiya of various sizes) but there is nothing wrong with being extra safe.



As you can see, I have not done any line highlighting at this stage. I prefer to do that at the end anyway but it is just another level of caution as if some of the paint is pulled off with the masking tape it can be a little frustrating if you've spent ages line highlighting
I will move onto the blue stages next....

[koran]

I will throw this in now (probably should have earlier). When airbrushing for major coats (like base coats of colour) its important to spray a light "dusting" of colour over the model and then leave it for a min or two. The dusting will half dry in this time and provide something "tacky" for the main coat to adhere to.

The first coat is a nice simple base of model french blue(The bone areas where resprayed black before this so that all sections will be the same shade)


Next is a mix of model air french blue and model colour emerald mixed with Tamiya X-20A Thinner. With most highlighting it is easy to get a good effect with just changing the angle you spray (I will explain this in a proper tutorial when I have my tripod) but with the eldar grav tanks this isn't really possible as they dont have the harsh angles of imperial tanks. Because of this you need to select where to spray and vary how much paint you are allowing through the air brush (you can do this with a double action but its much less effective with a single action airbrush).



(Sorry about the pics being overexposed. I didnt notice until I put them on my computer and then it was too late).

Just with most highlighting I then just make the lines of highlighting thinner or only on the higher areas.

The next colour is model colour emerald mixed with the thinners and a tiny bit of the air colour french blue. I dont know why (it might even just be in my head) but I find adding that little bit of air colour paint to the thinned model colour helps to keep a good consistence and a smoother spray.



Finally comes the same with some model colour green sky added in. This only goes on only the highest areas.




The photos dont show much of a difference between the stages due to the over exposure, so sorry about that. But it is there, honest.

[koran]

Last thing to do is to take off the masking tape (with a quick prayer to Vaul before hand )




As you can see the blue contrasts well with the bone.

A quick dry fit of the lower and upper sections:


I will keep them apart until the line shading and highlighting is complete.

Next will be the white stripes (just need to see if I can blag a little white off a friend as I have just realised mine has run out and paying postage for one paint is a little annoying) then the runes, then line highlighting, then the details like runes and finally battle damage/weathering.

I know this is quite off from what I promised on the tutorial front but hopefully the stages will help until I can do a proper tutorial. Not sure when I can move onto the next section with work but hopefully quite soon.