More Super Dungeon Explore w/ an Airbrush Warning

The above picture shows one of each villain from Super Dungeon Explore: Von Drakk Manor.  There are actually many more skeletons like the ones seen on the left.  Total model count for this expansion is 43.  To save time, I relied on my trusty airbrush.  Unfortunately, the airbrush did not provide the instantly amazing results that I have come to love (and rave about on previous posts).  With the vehicles, buildings, and [sparsely detailed] space marines that I've airbrushed in the past, the minis could be considered 60+% complete after the airbrushing was done.  That is not the case with smaller and/or more detailed models.  Despite the fact that I've upgraded my airbrush to the much more precise Hi-Line Iwata ($200), small details are hard to paint and splatter is much more noticeable.  The skeleton on the far left, the green-glowy bases on the witch and flying skull and the smokey "feet" on the grim-reaper mini are examples of the bad aspects of the airbrush.  I was hoping to get a smooth fade, but the results came out less snappy than I like.  For contrast sake, the three characters in the middle were painted without any airbrush and they have the snap I like.  Unfortunately, these models also took the longest to paint.  Long story short: I've found that airbrushes should only be used to  base coat smaller minis to provide the foundation and guide for your hand-painted shadows and highlights.  For example, the giant bat in the back row was based with the airbrush, to include shadowing and zenithal highlights, but significant brush work went over almost ever inch again to clean up edges and add more contrast.  Despite the fact that I'm still brush-painting every inch, the pre-blended base coat provided by the airbrush saves a lot of the normal brush-blending-effort and is quicker over-all.  The model below is a similar case of where I based with the airbrush to get a difficult [to brush paint] purple and brown fade, but I still went over that coat with brush work using thinned downed paints to smooth the splatter.

           

Dedicated to Airbrush 5: Buildings

Ken gave me the Fortress of Redemption five years ago as a Christmas present and it has sat in the box until two weeks ago.  Without the airbrush, painting a model of this size was just too daunting.  I could have just spray painted it with a green, washed it, and then finished with a copious amount of drybrushing; but that is no longer my style.  BTW: this still consumed a full can of Chaos Black primer. 
Like many of the large models seen in my previous posts, I painted this model in parts.  The floor was painted with Vallejo's air metallic rust color and the lascannon was painted with air metallic boltgun.  The green parts of the model were painting using the zenithal highlight technique and then the edges were hardlined.  The steel wings of the dark angle on the tower were the first parts airbrushed with air metallic steel while using a paint on [latex] mask.  After painting the main tower portion green, I applied the liquid latex around the edges of the wings and then taped off the larger sections.  Results were not as clean I had hoped but I think that is due to lack of practice.  Some of the latex peeled of nicely, but some of it did not and efforts to remove it just smeared the steel paint that was on its surface onto parts I did not want steel.  In the end, I had to do much more touch up work than I had expected.   
On a non-airbrush-related-note, I have found and come to appreciate alcohol-based metallic (brush on) paint; specifically Vallejo's liquid metal gold.  See this YouTube video for a great demo.  I have found that both GW's and Vallejo's arcylic gold require several (4+) coats while these liquid gold paints are very opaque in 2.  The fortress model had lots of areas that I wanted to be gold and using GW's gold would have driven me nuts.

 

Dedicated to Airbrush 4: Space Marines

Space marine vehicles benefit from the same easy fades as the Eldar ones mentioned below, but the simple shapes of their infantry models makes zenithal highlighting almost automatic.  This means that you can created well shaded/highlighted Space Marines in very little time.  There are a plethora of articles out there on zenithal highlighting, so I won't go into details.  In essence, you spray lighter shades of the base color onto the model from increasingly overhead angles to simulate the glare from an overhead light sources.  After that you paint the details (like guns, etc) you apply the decals and you're done.  I still like to outline the details with black hardlines as well as hit the edges with bright hardlines.  The below picture shows a tactical squad and to the right, an honor guard squad.  The honor guard squad was painted in parts so I could separate the robe portions that needed to be painted tan from the arms and backpacks that would be green.  Additional shade and highlights were added with a brush.

Dedicated to Airbrush 3: Imperial Knight

Large models used to take a long time to paint, especially if you were using a color that didn't coat in one go.  Not with the airbrush.  I painted the Imperial Knight (seen below) in 5 days.  This model was also painted in parts.  The main infrastructure piece (stuff painted raw metal) was assembled but the individual armor panels were separate and unattached.  I learned a couple of lessons on this project.  First; the metallic air brush paints from Vallejo are magic and coat extremely well.  The boltgun coated the frame in two easy coats and took less than 10 minutes to complete.  Second, I learned how to paint checkerboards with tape masking (as opposed to a template).  Its actually a two part process where you have to lay a grid that paints every other box.  Unfortunately I didn't take any work-in-process photos.  See if you can figure out why it can't be done in one go :-)
In case you were wondering; the banner between his legs is actually a decal.  

   

Dedicated to Airbrush 2: Eldar

Not Airbrushed

Large Eldar models seem the perfect candidates for concentrated airbrush attention.  I love to use high contrast fades and creating these with a brush is hard to do evenly and without stroke marks on the large surfaces.  I wish I had the airbrush while I was working on my Dark Eldar, because I tried to do a smooth brush fade with less than optimal results.  See the pic of the panels on my Razorwing's wing (to right).  Not only are the transitions rough, but this took a lot of time.  The below images of my Eldar were painted with the airbrush and show much more satisfying results.

My only regret is that I didn't put enough contrast in the fades (ie. they are dark blue to light blue rather than midnight blue up to sky blue) especially on the Crimson Hunter (below).  After the first few projects, I began to notice that the intensity of the color, straight out of the airbrush and still mostly wet, is more opaque than when it drys.  Therefore, the high contrast I thought I had painted became much more subtle upon drying.

Airbrushing more than one of the colors on a model is an art in itself.  The simplest method is to paint the individual pieces before assembling it and the more creative method involves masking.  Masking can be done with templates, tape, or paint-on latex.  I did some simple tape masking on the crimson hunter and painted the Wraithlord and Wraithknight in parts. 

Dedicated to the Airbrush 1

Despite my gap in posts, there has been quite a bit of painting going on.  Kenneth finally pressured me into setting up a photo station and snapping some pics.  The next series of posts will go into the details but the theme running through nearly all my recent projects is a love for the airbrush.  I first mentioned my fascination two years ago when I used the airbrush to base and shade the druid/bear model in the Super Dungeon Explore.  I now use it to apply the base coat to nearly all of the models and perform the majority of the shading and highlights for the larger ones. It is much faster and leaves no brush strokes.  Here is a picture of me in my "setup".  I've basically positioned myself next to my kitchen sink so I can easily rinse parts.  I use a 3-part science fair display board to block overspray (the airbrush hose penetrates the board to reach the compressor behind) and I line the counter with newspaper.  I wear a nitrol glove on my left hand and a respirator.  Despite the fact that I'm primarily using acrylic paints, there are some nasty chemicals in the spray that you don't want to inhale.  Even though you won't smell them, you will inhale them (as evidenced by the Dark Angel Green snot I had the day I realized I needed the respirator).

Super Dungeon Explore: Part 3

The above pic is the finished Druid and his alternate bear form.  This is probably my favorite character; due purely to the look and theme.  The most significant characteristic of the bear model is how it was painted, since this is the first model that I've used an airbrush on.  I borrowed Kenndog's new airbrush last week and did a little experimentation.  I decided to start conservatively and only used it for the base coat and the early stages of blending.  Results are in the picture below. Significant refinements to the blending had to be made with a brush and extra highlights and shadows were added.  Nevertheless, it provided an extremely smooth coat and a good indicator of shadow location.  Details were completed with a brush, as normal.  The Druid was only hand painted.