So, you know how if you're running Space Wolves, and everyone says to you "Hey, why are you even painting them, they're grey! Just leave the original plastic, stick a wash on it and you're done!"? Well, guess what? I found myself in the same situation here. Painting aluminium a nice even silver colour! I did wonder at myself as I did it, but then I was also covering up all the filler, the black of the barrel and whatnot... Plus I knew I was going to weather it pretty heavily, so it would come good in the end. "Good job it's Chaos" as they say...
The outer casing I wanted to do with the classic yellow on black hazard stripes, a nod to the Iron Warriors or Alpha Legion (who are one of my fave chapters). So here is the base-coated model before weathering.
Before painting I gave the whole model a coat of "special metals" primer. Aluminium is a funny old beast, and I didn't want any paint flaking off afterwards. The yellow paint took a couple of coats to get even, but the black stripes went on with just one coat - something that would prove to be a bit of a gift during the weathering process...
So - I've painted a fair few miniatures, but never anything this size. I have to say I was a bit daunted about the whole process. Usually the way I'd go about it is whacking a wash over the whole thing, then adding some weathering powders in pertinent nooks and crannies etc. Problem is there's loooooots of big flat surfaces here so it could get a bit tricky.
Anyway I did a bit of reading up in the old Forge World Model Masterclass book, and decided to bite the bullet. I found some old coffee-coloured gloss paint at the back of the workshop cupboard (I dunno where that came from! Who paints something gloss brown?!) and darkened it up a bit by spraying some black paint into it. Then I chucked in a load of white spirit until it was a nice wash consistency. Then I got an old paintbrush and slapped it on, hoping for the best.
The first thing that happened was that it was a bit thin, and a lot of it ran off before it could dry - being used to acrylic drying times through me a bit of a curve ball there. So I thickened it up a bit and splodged it on again in a few areas. The second thing that happened was that the white spirit thinned down the black stripes so much that they started to come away - they'd only had the one coat after all. Fortunately the yellow stayed true as it had had a few coats. Now you might think that it might be a bit upsetting, but it gives such an awesome aged effect on the stripes that I was well pleased! Bit lucky, but I'll definitely remember that for next time... (Yes, already thinking 3 projects in the future - isn't everyone?)
So next, a bit of rusting. I dug out my Burnt Umber oil paint and rust-coloured weathering powders. Plus added in a bit of Yellow Ocre for good measure. I made up a suitably rusty coloured mix - I can't give you the exact recipe because I fiddled with it until it looked right, plus everyone has their own idea of what a good rust pattern is, don't they? If you're going to try this, just keep fiddling until it feels right. There's an actress and bishop joke in there somewhere... ; )
When I was happy with the mix, I got the trusty old toothbrush out, got a brushful and flicked it onto the model with a bit of aluminium off-cut. This gave me a nice random pattern that I could adjust as I went along, building it up in layers. Finally I thinned the mix down with white spirit and added it here and there in places that looked like they needed dirtying up a bit.
Here's the final effect.
The only problem is that all that white spirit has made the Plasti-dip a bit sticky. I'm hoping it's going to dry again in a few hours, or that it will take a coat of varnish and harden up a bit. At this point I'm not that fussed if it's rubbery in texture, just as long as it doesn't give me sticky fingers!
The red-dot sight was a cheap plastic gem I picked up in Hobbycraft for a couple of quid. It does a pretty good job of catching the light considering it cost next-to-nothing. The white line of glue around it is still drying - it dries clear.
So there ya go - it's all over bar the varnishing. When it's applied and dried I'll try to get a vid sorted of it shooting at stuff and upload it here.
Hope you guys like it - feel free to post comments, ask away with any questions - always happy to chat about hobby!
Cheers
A$H
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