Starting out Part VIII b

  And we are back. I apologize for the delay, however I did experience some technical difficulties. I needed to take apart my computer and clean all manner of dirt including several dust bunnies.

Last post I ended rather abruptly as I really needed to get some sleep and was expecting a big rainstorm for the evening. I am one of maybe three people in the world that loses internet connectivity when it rains. Any way, if you have read last post you will have seen this:

Paint like you have the above.

I posted this picture in the hopes of inspiring you not to be too timid in painting and gaming. And hopefully in other aspects of your life. Incidentally I suspect that the staff at PP would not mind it one bit if some of you are inspired to get a pair in order to paint. hehehe. Ok I am terrible with verbal humor. Moving on.

So now you are looking at a fully assembled Destroyer and Juggernaut all base coated and waiting for a touch of metal. Lets do that. just a heads up, the pictures here were taken during the painting party that I hosted.
Some times it's better to paint with other people around.

I suppose I ought to show you the table.

The ceramic cups actually contain coffee. One of those useless bits of information at no extra charge.
I had brought back a bound of Paupa New Guinea and I was asked to prepare a pot for my friends. It's
always important to have some thing to eat and drink at a painting party or during a painting session.

Fried Potato product is always popular.

  Now that we have established the whereabouts of food and coffee lets move on to some painting. It would be easy for me to move on to the application of metallic paint, however there is a little prep work that I need to do first. Seems like that is most of what I do. The whole painting takes a few hours for all three models in real time without taking pictures and writing about it. Ces't la vie. My French needs an little work. Moving on.

Here I clean up one of the leg pistons with Coal Black. I am also hoping to get a Cola black too.( though that color does not exist.)

Most of the areas that I need to touch up are the metal parts like the pistons, some joints and screws.

I tend to turn the model over and over to get a good look as to what parts need to be . I also add an initial shadow coat of thinned down Coal black, about three parts water to one part paint ratio. This creates the best visually appealing shadow effect even though it doesn't actually look like a real shadow. A result of an experiment I did three years ago when I first got a pot of Coal Black. Fret not, we will be playing with shadows much much later.

The first thing I did was to thin down some Pig Iron to a one to one ratio of water to paint. I wanted to get a good flow and coverage without the paint drying to soon. One of the oddest properties of metallic paints is that they dry a little faster than regular paints.
Next I picked up the Juggernaut and began to paint his axe.

I did the same for the Destroyer's axe.

Here is a better view of Pig Iron with a Coal Black undercoat.

Now that the axes are covered I move on to the hands.The first thing that I do is paint the muzzle of the Bombard arm on the Destroyer, since I already have it in my hand. Mind you at this point I thin down more Pig Iron at a one to one ratio.


I then move on to the hand.

I even took the time to paint the elbow cap as well. In the preceding pictures you can see that I had to turn the model over several times as I wanted to get the base metal coat All over the visible areas of the hand. I also painted the bombard's magazine as well as the front reinforcement band.

 

 Don't worry if you track some paint on the black areas. We can always paint over with black. Thamar Black.
Then I mix up some more Pig Iron and grab the Juggernaut..

Here is a brief pause and what the two look like:

Next, We add a little something to the rest of the axes, I paint the handles and the spikes opposite of the blades with Pig Iron. This is probably the Pig Iron entry, but there is a lot to do and I don't want to skip anything. Well not here.

 I am desperately fighting the urge to end this post and split off the rest in another post. I shall however persevere. How are those comments coming along? Any thoughts? Questions?

So now that the hands are done I decide to add paint to the rest of the axe. And what paint do i choose? Pig Iron. This is making want to eat pork....

And to finish off the Destroyer too.

While I am at it, I will paint the second band on the bombard too.

Ok. So by now I am a little bored of Pig Iron. I am sure you are too. so lets change things a little bit and open that pot of Brass Balls. This is a bright and shiny metallic paint which I use to highlight bronze at times, but on its own it does have a nice yellowish shine. With that in mind I open up the paint pot and shake it up..

And then proceed to mix it 2 parts water to 1 part paint. Then I apply it to the par to f the axe that has the holes in it. On both sides mind you.

And since the paint is not dry yet I paint the spikes on the arms and the face plate.

While I set this down for Cat to take pictures. I take the Destroyer and begin to put brass on the trim of his axe.

 And while I am at it. I will brass up the boiler. In ages past, before the invention low cost steel, brass was used for all manner of steam technology. Brass doesn't rust as rapidly when exposed to water and is stronger. So in honor of the Steampunk genre the boiler is made of brass as are some of the pipe fittings ( to be painted later). I also decided that the smoke stacks will need to be made of brass as well. this helps break up the color pattern and looks nice and shiny. I like shiny, not too much, but I like it. And while I am at it I paint up the shoulder spikes in brass as well. This ties it in with the spikes on the Juggernaut.

 If this looks a bit too dark. it is because I had mixed one part Brass Balls (sounds naughty) with two parts water. Once again I did this because metallic paint dries a little faster than regular paint. I am not sure why though. Then again that is my experience.

Here is another shot of the Juggernaut.

Well that is it for this post. I will take a short break and compose the next section. We took a lot of pictures that still need editing. Though not as many as we would have liked. I think that we need a dedicated photographer. And those require bribes and stuff, like loot and exp and the like. Well I hope that I have provided some insight into painting today or night. I will continue with the metal paints in the next post and if it doesn't take too long I will get to the highlights and some light shading.
In the meantime..

Here is one more picture from the painting party. Enjoy.

Starting out. Part VIII

Well it's time for part eight. This is going to be a long one. Lots of pictures, assembling and painting. In addition most of the content for this post was done as part of a painting party that I hosted for members of the Slow Burn League. We are social creatures after all, and what better way to spend a Saturday than with friends and paint. Tips and opinions were shared by all. And pictures were taken. We can't forget the pictures.

I would like to take the time to mention on very important thing.
Read the warning labels on the materials that you are about to use. I do try to post warnings in a semi entertaining manner, but its always worth reading the warning label in case I missed something.

Now then where were we?
In part seven we finished up the base coat. Anything that will be red is red. Coal black for most of the metal parts and black for the remainder. At this point I am reminded of a question that i was asked last Wednesday. And is was this: How many coats of paint did you apply?
The number of coats in an average number are as follows.
KRB: 5
CB: 2
TBk: 1
You will notice that these are average numbers. However I also thin down my paint for ease of flow. Sometimes I add too much water. I hope that I managed to give the question a satisfactory answer. If you have any questions please ask in the comment section.
 So Are we ready to begin? Well you have been for over two weeks. Let's go.

While we were discussing this latest entry and warnings about glues and primer. The head of the Juggernaut snapped off. Thankfully I had some superglue on hand. And the following warning shot became possible.

It is a nice visual reminder of what Superglue was formulated to do.
So its time that we see the tools we will be using for the gluing of the models. I hope that it is not too redundant.

Glue is very useful when assembling a model. In this case i opted for super glue as I already have it on hand and it set withing 30 seconds.
Bear in mind, however, that cyanoacrilide based glues like ZAP-A-GAP will readily bond skin. As the previous image shows. If you end up with superglue on your fingers, just dip them in water for about ten seconds.






The other tool that I will use is a pair of tweezers.  They aren't necessary, but as they are made of stainless steel they can get a grip where your fingers can't. They are very useful for those stubborn pieces of masking tape.

I would also mention the hobby knife. However we already scored the parts before everything got sprayed with primer. And there wasn't any cleaning to get done. This is one of the very few projects where something like that happens. Now that I have introduced you to the tools for this part of the post I will move to reattaching the head of the Juggernaut. I probably should have pinned it to the body, but I am saving that for a later entry.
 So the first thing to do when trying to apply glue to a small area is to attach the pipette/ funnel cap that comes with some brands of glue. In my case it is ZAP-A-GAP and it is attached to the bottle by a plastic ring.

Once the smaller nozzle is attached to the bottle you can apply glue to a smaller surface with out the fear of spilling excess glue. The red arrows are kindly pointing out the nozzle and the area where glue is being applied. After that we attach the head. I also have the opportunity to change the direction that the head is facing, but I opt to keep it in the original position that I had chosen for it.

Now that the head is glued on we can move on to the Destroyer.

The Destroyer is, well, in pieces and taped up. And this is where the tweezers come in. As I have mentioned before, tweezers make it easier to grab the tape and remove it.
So to start things off I reach for the shoulder. I could have reached for any part but I grabbed the shoulder.

I tried to remove the tape with my fingers, but failing to get a grip on it. I grabbed my tweezers and use them to peel off the tape.

It takes some getting used to, but after a little while it becomes easy.

Sometimes you will need more than just the tweezers. Sometimes, the tape is stuck flush with the part. It is then that a hobby knife can come in useful. Should I post the warnings about sharp knives?

WARNING!!: Hobby knives are sharp and will cut you at the first opportunity presented to them. Use caution and have an Adult help you.

In the picture to the right you will notice that I am pushing the blade very carefully under the tape. this allows me to lift up the tape enough to be able to grab it with my tweezers and remove it.

And here are some more shots. As you will notice the tape has kept both the primer and paint off of the areas that we will use to bond to the arms.

And above is the torso. We will be using the same technique to remove the tape from all of the parts. Taking care to examine all of the pieces so as to remove all of the tape before we glue them together. Super glue can glue almost anything, especially skin. It also forms a strong bond albeit a bit brittle at times. I use that to my advantage and so should you. Now tape on the other hand, masking tape in fact, doesn't have the same hold. which is why we want to remove it before we put together the Destroyer.

One more Juggernaut?

This brings up an interesting question. What do you do with the tape? Well I save it for later, as I have more projects that are coming up and this blog will use them.
Now that all of the tape has been removed from the Destroyer we are ready to put it together.

Take the time to play around with various poses and pick the one that you like.
I am going to glue the legs to the waist. To do that I will add a dab of glue to the hips first.

And then I add the legs. Once done it should look a little like this.

It can even stand. If you pose it correctly the model will be balanced well enough to stand on its own without a base, but that is more an after thought than anything. That said I am going to attach the legs to the torso itself. But first I should glue on the head. It fell on the floor one too many times and its easier to attach it now than to have to maneuver it around limbs. The same procedure is used as reattaching the Juggernaut's head.

Take care to add just enough glue to the body. Too much and you will glue your fingers together.




It helps to listen to some music while doing this.

Now a little glue to the waist and we can glue it to the torso.

So now that the torso, waist, legs and head are a glued together I will glue the Axe hand to the arm.

This leads me to bounce back to the main body, as its time to attach the shoulders and eventually the arms. I already have a pose in mind for this model. One which is rather suitable to what it does in the game.

Now that the shoulders are in place I will add the arms and we will be ready to add the metal paint.

And now it is ready. Ready for action. Ready for more paint.

So now that both models are fully assembled it is time to get the paint. The Destroyer will need some touch ups with CB and TBk where the masked off areas are visible and after that we can just move on with getting the metallic paint on.

Sometimes you will need to touch up the paint.

 And now to introduce the next set of paints. Pig Iron, Cold Steel and Brass Balls. PI, CS (not to be confused with Adobe product line with the same initials) and BB respectively. I should have chosen to use a lighter metal than Cold Steel but that realization just hit me. (I actually used the Pig Iron and Brass Balls). This is also when I got to test out the Citadel detail brush that I mentioned earlier and to add to the complexity and fun at the same time. This next bit was done during a painting party. I think that I also mentioned that too. So I also get to write/ type about how fun it is to have friends over to paint with, share tips and share ideas.
And Since these are Warmachine Figs I wanted to add this:

Paint like you have a pair.

Look up page5.
Well that's it for now. I need to get some sleep and I am tired with arguing with my modem. Next post I will actually cover the metallic paints in depth and the Paint party.