MK 1 Land Raider Conversion/Restoration

[Psychosplodge]

That looks amazing, especially considering its bodged together from scraps.

[sukigod]

Very nicely done for a rescue from the bottom of a junk bitz box! True enough to form, most non-old schoolers wouldn't know the difference

The nice paint job helps a long way as well, great job.

[energongoodie]

HERO!
That really looks brilliant!

Any chance of a bit of tutorial list type thing on how you painted that bad boy. That blue looks lovely. The rust is especially excellent.

[Rickfactor]

Its going to sound complicated but it's not too bad. If you don't want to read it all, there is a vid at the end that I followed.....hope I am not breaking any rules by leaving a link to it.

- prime in black or grey
- paint, spray, or sponge some brown, brownish-red, orange etc in patches where you want rust and let it dry
- paint or spray on some hair-spray over the brown patches or use a product like AK Interactive Chipping fluid if you painted over a black primer
- while the hair-spray is still wet, sprinkle on some salt. Rock salt or kosher salt is larger and works well
- let everything dry over night
- spray on your base coat (Enchanted blue from GW in this case)
- spray a light coat of black over the base where you want shadow
-spray from further away to get more of a color filter over the base than covering it
- spray a light coat of white over the base where you want highlights
-spray from further away to get more of a filter than coverage
- go lighter and in just a bit outside of where you want the highlight to reach and look
- spray a deeper blue in between the black/blue base to get a nice fade/gradient. Old GW color Mordian blue was used here.
- go back to your base coat and touch up any gradients between the white highlight and the blue base

At this stage you have: black---->dark blue---->blue base---->white. If you look at some of the award winning stuff, a cool trick is to take a flat area and do a gradient/blend and then where it meets up with another panel and changes angles, start the gradient over with the new panel dark area meeting the light of the one beside it. Its not always realistic to how real light would hit it but it looks great and make stuff really stand out.

- Now take some hot water and a stiff brush and scrub at the areas where you painted over the salt/hairspray patches to reveal the brown rust spots underneath. Use more water than you think you need and you may need to go back after the model has dried to brush over any crystalized salt that may remain.

- spray on some gloss varnish, not matte or satin. It protects the base coat and sets a good base for decals.

-apply your decals

- sponge on bit more black, brown, silver etc in very small spots in areas where you want a bit more chipping that may has not yet started to rust. Paint a very thin white line or dot with thin paint just below some of your chips. The gloss varnish will help it go on easy and if you are a bit heavy-handed, the varnish will also allow you to just wipe it off with your finger.

- mix up some very very thin rust colored wash paint and brush it on in a downward stroke from the rust spots. Its going to look like overkill and it's too much but don't worry. GW washes like Nuln oil, Agraz earthshade are fine.

- use an oil wash (mineral spirits mixed with oil paint paste) not an acrylic wash over everything. The black wash will flow into all of the little panel lines and create a nice black and grimy color filter over your base coat and make a nicer blend and transition between the colors. The mineral spirit will also fade those GW wash streaks from the previous step and make them look more natural. It will also scale back on your white highlight. I found if you don't go far enough with the highlight, it kind of disappears with washes and weathering.

- take a q-tip with just some mineral spirit and swab over any blotchy areas and where you really want the highlight to stand out.

- let everything dry well

- paint the rest of the model details like lenses, scopes, etc.

- when you are happy, spray on some matte or satin varnish to seal the deal. I think satin looks good on vehicles and matte on individual figures.


Here is a vid that I followed along with if you are more visual. [url]http://youtu.be/tfWPX-CwSBo[/url]

[Dave Fothergill]

[QUOTE=Rickfactor;372207]Primed and rust spot undercoat with some hair-spray and salt before the base coat.

Hair spray and salt that's a new one to me how does it work ?

[Rickfactor]

[QUOTE=Dave Fothergill;372863]

Primed and rust spot undercoat with some hair-spray and salt before the base coat.

Hair spray and salt that's a new one to me how does it work ?

Prime in black or grey with brown rust spots. Put some hairspray on the rust spots and sprinkle salt on the wet hairspray so it sticks. You then apply your base coat over the salt. When you scrub off the salt, it takes the base coat with it revealing the brown rust underneath or black primer. You are essentially creating a chipped paint look by actually chipping off a layer of paint. Their are lots of videos on youtube including a really good one by Massive Voodoo (in German) and Girlpainting like this one [url]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=04RMOchGAS8[/url]

[energongoodie]

Thanks Rickfactor

The blue you've got is really, really nice.

I've done the salt thing, only once and not very succesfully, but your land raider makes me want to try it again.

[Dave Fothergill]

[QUOTE=Rickfactor;372866]

Prime in black or grey with brown rust spots. Put some hairspray on the rust spots and sprinkle salt on the wet hairspray so it sticks. You then apply your base coat over the salt. When you scrub off the salt, it takes the base coat with it revealing the brown rust underneath or black primer. You are essentially creating a chipped paint look by actually chipping off a layer of paint. Their are lots of videos on youtube including a really good one by Massive Voodoo (in German) and Girlpainting like this one [url]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=04RMOchGAS8[/url]

That's great thanks I'll have to give that a try.