Thursday, April 5, 2012

Grey Knights Progress: Interceptors and Rhino Complete

The closer Adepticon gets, the closer the Grey Knights move towards completion! This time around, the Interceptors and the singular tank in the army is complete.

If a Rhino can really be called a 'tank'. A mobile pillbox, maybe?

Wait, no, that's a Chimera.

Ah well, on to the update!

Now, if you're thinking to yourself, "Interceptors are just another Strike Squad, with funny-looking backpacks", then you'd be correct!

In all seriousness though, there really was no change in painting methods between this squad and the Strike Squad. When basing, however, I did attempt to go heavier on the weathering powders on the lower parts of the greaves and feet in order to retain more of the effect after sealing it with Dull Cote. While more successful this time around, they are still losing a decent amount of it. This continued to perplex me as when I used weathering powders on my Centurions, much more of the pigment stuck around than when I use it on the Grey knights.

When finishing my Rhino, however, I may have figured out a little piece of this puzzle. More on that, later.

The Rhino, having been based with the Tamiya Light Gunmetal Spray, was essentially ready for detail work as soon as it dried. Once I was done with blocking in the basic colors, I went back and washed them, added some limited highlights, and was ready for the weathering powders! I dug out my Soot, Weathered Mud and Dark Rust colors and put powder to vehicle.

My enthusiasm was quickly dashed, however, as the powders barely stuck. And I do mean barely. I had to use quite a bit more friction to get them to have any true noticeable effect that I normally am used to. Unfortunately in that process of frustration for me, I went overboard and over-pigmented my tank. When I was finished, the overall appearance was way too dark and dulled. Including the detail work I put into the tank.

Refusing to just say "Good Enough" and give up, I applied Dull Cote to the Rhino, let it dry, and set about fixing it. I did three successive layers of drybrush, Boltgun then Chainmail then Mithril, very VERY carefully and lightly, on the top 2/3rds of the vehicle, working my way up. Boltgun being used the most and Mithril being used the least. Then I went in and blended the reds back to some brighter notes. Overall the effect worked great and the Rhino is much brighter and goes with the army better than before I fixed it.

While I don't have pictures of the Rhino before I fixed it to share, I can share my piece of the puzzle I believe I figured out from before. My theory is that the weathering powders have trouble affixing themselves to metallic paints. It's the most simple reason I can think of to why they worked wonderfully on my Centurions and are a pain on the Grey Knights. I might do some experiments in the future to test this on other metallic paints, but it is food for thought.

3 weeks until Adepticon! Anyone going feeling the pressure yet?

- Tim

 

15 comments:

  1. Hey Tim,

    First up, that all looks brilliant, great work man!!

    A tip I have for you is to apply the base coat of tamiya cans, then dull coat it before ou do anything else. For some reason TS and PS paints are very hard to add paint directly on, washes gather weirdly and pigments don't have much effect but if ou out a layer of the dull coat down first, everything seems to work really well on top of it.

    See how it goes on the next me maybe.

    Keep up the great work!

    Redscorps

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    1. Hmm... the paint went on without too much of a hitch. but note I did say "not too much", so there was a little. I can see where a thin layer of Dull Cote would have helped out immensely. Solid tip there, Red, thank you :)

      And no worries abotu the iPad auto corrects... I type every post on my iPad, so I completely understand!

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  2. You and one were meant to be in there... Friggin iPad...

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  3. They look great Tim! It seems like it's really easy for weathering powders to be blown off or completely muted by the application of sealant. Nevertheless, the end result does really look fantastic. Keep up the great work!

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    1. Powders are definitely prone to blowing off due to propellant sealant of any form, agreed. However it was just that much more so on the Grey Knights in general, both marines and Rhino, than it as on my other army. I wish they would just magically stick and never come off, but then again, having the option to blow off excess is nice ;) Catch 22 that is.

      Glad you're liking them!!

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  4. Stupid question, but how close to the model are you spraying the dullcote in an effort to keep the powders stuck? I used to have a similar problem with mine blowing away, but then I experimented with keeping the can maybe 2 foot away and a little above the model, so that the dullcote "mist" almost landed on the model rather than be directly applied. This acts as an initial sealant, and then after that had dried I would go back with a second coat to make sure it was properly stuck.

    Looking good though man, keep it up!

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    1. Not a stupid question :) I'm keeping it about 12-16 inches away, sprayed in a sweeping fashion like I prime models where I start and stop off the model.

      I'm a little wary of spraying so far away for fear of frosting the figures. Of course, I've never had Testors frost a model before either, so I may just have to try that trick. I really appreciate the advice on that!

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    2. Just remember and keep it light and you shouldnt frost it. Good luck!

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  5. I can say I am feeling the pressure for sure. I had to drop out of the fantasy event just to make sure I could my Dark Angels the way I wanted them for the 1500pt event and the narrative event.

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    1. Aw crap, Josh, really? That stinks, man :( How are the DA's coming along then?

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    2. They are about ready, just finishing up the details on the Dark Angel bling, and planing out the display board. The main problem is that I finally got the army list I would need for the narrative event on Sunday that I am playing it. It required me to paint models I did not have already, such as assault marines and devastators.

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    3. Wait, what? The Narrative event not only dictates to you the list you will bring to it, but it doesn't provide it to you until a week before the event??

      Am I misinterpreting that, or is it really that inane?

      Good to hear the rest of your DA are in the finishing touches stage :)

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    4. They suggest a list to you based on what character you are using, you do not have to follow it. But you get special things the closer you follow the list. The lists were only posted on the person's blog who is running it from what I can tell. I found out about the lists on March 9th. Good thing I was following that blog also.:)

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  6. The rhino looks MUCH better in those photos then when we played last week.

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    1. Glad you liked the new result!! I'm much happier with it now myself.

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