Blood Angels Army Project (pic carpet bombing)

[Blackadder]

You've probably posted it somewhere in these forty six pages but what brand paint do you use and proportion of thinning and what type of applicator?

Anything else Blackadder?????

:blush:

Well yes, outstanding painted details on such tiny figures.

[Meph]

hehe, cheers, mate!

46 pages?! Yaiks! I'd suggest to go into your profile options and max out the number of posts per page, then it's an easy 12 pages. ^^

I use both GW and Vallejo paints. My reds are GW only as I feel that Vallejo's are more transparent. To thin them I use roughly 1:1 Klear and demineralized water (the cheap unscented kind used for ironing). I think I'm roughly somewhere between 50/50 or 40/60 paint/thinner. Depends a bit from paint to paint. Some are a bit thicker than others, but they need to be runny enough to pass through the airbrush without clogging or drying out too fast.

Basecoats, washes, and glazes are done by airbrush, the rest is mostly drybrushing in between, and some near-heart-attack blending on the lenzes & gems.

[Blackadder]

Twelve pages or forty six it still comes down to 462 posts (now 463) but thanks for the info I guess lack of technique and not the quality of paint is my principle nemesis.

[Meph]

Well, I think the main component to technique comes down to layering. Due to the thinned paints, I need to put 3-4 base coats on to get a good red coverage, but the thin-ness and evenness of airbrushed layers already give a clean & neat look.
Frankly I don't want to invest the time to patiently build up my high-lights in dozens and dozens of layers, so I layered up with very, very dry drybrush highlights. Usually 4-5 consecutively lighter highlights, then a dark red wash to add depth, a red glaze to bring out some brightness again, then another dryburshed highlight with just the lightest colour. I apply another glaze to blend in the contrast, and then finally a very light drybrush accent on some edges to emphasize the depth again.

Then a layer of sponged on weathering, seal with varnish, and oil wash, seal again, paint in the lenzes.

[Meph]

So I decided to dig up the cardboard box that was holding this metal bawx. I felt the need for some frantic drybrushing, but almost got a heart attack after masking so many tiny bits of masking tape. The 'X' is not perfectly 100% but I stuck to a nice middle ground between zen-style-, tongue-sticking-out-, belly-breathing practice of patience and -control, and throwing that thing out of the window and watching fly over the horizon with a renewed sense of peace and justice.

The Metal Bawx is magnetized so it can be run as a Rhino, Razorback, or Baal Predator.

Whaddayathink?

[Brakkart]

Okay when I suggested the idea to do that design on the Baal I had no idea it would look quite that good. That is fricking brilliant!

[Meph]

Yeah, your idea stuck immediately, but I assure you, I was getting a headache when first contemplating how to apply the masking tape.
But then it clicked and it was pretty smooth after that. First I found the center of the top section by crossing from the corners. Then I applied some masking tape as a positive 'X' and used that as a guide to apply the more accurate negative cross. I was pleasantly surprised that using just the standard width of the masking tape on the 'positive' gave such nice lines to mask out the negative. Besides some very fiddly bits here and there, I could work with pretty long strips of tape for the most part.

[Brakkart]

I have to almost pity a horde army facing off against your lot when this is done, as 4 heavy bolter armed Dev's and a full dakka Baal pred can lay down a serious wall of flak! Perfect considering the Nids are en route to Baal in this big latest campaign series.

[Darren Richardson]

Great work on that Tank Meph, so it's harder then it looks getting an X on a tank, remind me never to try that myself when I finally get round to doing my Marine army, whenever that is LOL

[Meph]

I have to almost pity a horde army facing off against your lot when this is done, as 4 heavy bolter armed Dev's and a full dakka Baal pred can lay down a serious wall of flak! Perfect considering the Nids are en route to Baal in this big latest campaign series.

Hehe, yeah, that did turn out quite nicely. When I first read about the possibility of a box of Nids + BA, I knew I'd be probably suckered into buying and painting some opposition. And so far, the army does have a somewhat defensive edge to it.

Great work on that Tank Meph, so it's harder then it looks getting an X on a tank, remind me never to try that myself when I finally get round to doing my Marine army, whenever that is LOL

Well, you can shave off a lot of time by just applying a positive masking after the undercoat. The predator had been basecoated a looong time ago so I was forced to make the effort of a negative mask. And you can be sure I'll be whispering chevrons and X's in your ear.