Tuesday, August 23, 2011

A Brief Detour

Hello everyone! Been a while since I posted on Pit, and thought I would throw some pics of Malifaux up. Still have yet to actually play though.....

First up is a Punk Zombie and a Rotten Belle. The zombie was really just messing around with some paint triads from Reaper Master series. I got to say, finally stepping away from the GW brand was a pleasant surprise. The Belle was an experiment in washes other than Devlan Mud. I was trying to go for a bruised look...not sure if it came out right, but oh well. Looks good enough for me.

The next pic is two more Punk Zombies. Again, messing around with the Reaper paints, trying different ways of doing the swords.

The next mini is Sebastian, Dr. McMorning's faithful assistant. I'm actually proud of this little oddball. I got everything the way I wanted it to look, especially the blood splats.


Next up is the good Dr. McMorning himself. I really wanted to got overboard on the blood for this guy. The one thing I really like about the mini is the shoes. Steel plates scream curb stomp, so I made sure to give a bit of bloody attention on the right foot.

And lastly, my favorite model of the line. The Dark Pimp! The Mad Hatter! Seamus! Some of you may remember I painted another Seamus up a while ago, using earthy tones, and some stripes. This time, I just wanted to try red. Yeah, I'm liking the Reaper red triad to say the least!


That's all I got right now. Still working on the Death Guard. Picked up some FW pieces that I will hopefully paint up soon. Maybe some Oblits on the way.

Hope you enjoyed the minis! Comments/questions welcome as always!

Grendel

Tuesday, August 9, 2011

Down The Airbrushing Rabbit Hole

Last night was my first true leap into the airbrushing rabbit hole as I sprayed an actual model. ‘Oni, in your last post you said you made progress airbrushing terrain, what gives?’ Well, that’s terrain and in my book it doesn’t count because you can fudge it up and it’ll still look nice. Write that down in your notebooks faithful blog readers… Always practice on terrain first. Anyway, here is my Ultramarines Vindicator in a stylish Mordian Blue motif.

Vindicator Basecoat (1)

Not only is this infinitely better than using a standard bristle brush, I found that using the airbrush made it incredibly easy to create natural shadows by simply angling the airbrush and spraying across the model at about a 45 degree angle instead of directly onto it. After just this one use it became apparent why so many love and can’t live without their airbrush.

Vindicator Basecoat (2)

Vindicator Basecoat (3)

Let me start this last segment covering the topic of thinning the paints in an airbrush. Citadel paints absolutely have to be thinned as the paint needs to pass through a fluid nozzle with an orifice literally the size of a pin head. Water alone will not work. Why? Because the paint should dry within micro seconds of hitting the surface. If the paint mixture is watery it will pool up and run. Some people will tell you to use Windex (Yes, the blue stuff used to clean windows.) as it has a quick dry agent in with the overall chemical mix. I tried this and they’re right, it does work. The problem however is that Windex contains ammonium hydroxide. This can cause premature wear on the elastomer seals inside the airbrush. So I do not recommend using Windex. In fact the instruction manual strictly forbids  the use of any ammonia containing products in the airbrush. Here’s your solution for thinning the paint…

Liquitex Airbrush Medium

Liquitex Airbrush Medium. This stuff works like magic. It’s worth noting that much more is needed when using the Citadel Foundation paints… A lot more. The foundation paints are thick and will clog up the airbrushes fluid nozzle quickly if not properly thinned. As to how much the paint should be thinned; I’m still learning that to be honest.

That’s all for now, I’m off to spray another tank. I’m thinking the Predator is next. Thanks for dropping by. Cheers!

 

Monday, August 8, 2011

Airbrushing–The New Hotness II

OK, I’ve had plenty of time to test out my new airbrush setup, hell it’s been three weeks since my last post, I should be an expert by now right? No, far from it. The learning curve on this thing is pretty steep. Anyway… My initial thoughts. The airbrush is really nice. The trigger has a nice smooth feel to it, the needle adjustment at the rear works like clockwork and it sprays pretty well; granted I don’t have anything to compare it to. The teardown and reassembly is much like every other airbrush. So what does the Grex Genesis XG have to offer over others? Hell if I know, but the color sure is cool. Seriously though, the price is decent and the quality is apparent, two things that make the purchase worth while for me.

IMG_2958 (640x480)

So what about the compressor? Well, all started out just fine and I was excitedly learning to use my new airbrush when after about 30 minutes… It died. I thought it had overheated as it was very hot to the touch. So I let it set for a day and came back, but the issue still persisted. Thankfully BLICK (where I bought it) has some superbly awesome customer service. After explaining my issue they had a new one sent out the following day and I didn’t have to pay shipping to return the defunct one. Once I got the new compressor I was back in action. At this point I’m not convinced that spending the extra money on a tank is warranted. I’m able to spray just fine with static pressure without issue. It’s not until I go wide open throttle with the trigger that I notice the pulsation piston style compressors are prone to, but if I’m spraying that much paint does it matter?

IMG_2954

After spraying away and making huge strides completing some terrain pieces. I decided I should give it a good clean. Wouldn’t you know it, bad luck strikes again. During reassembly I broke the damn fluid nozzle. Now I distinctly recall someone somewhere on the intarwebz telling me I should buy a spare because I will brake it. How silly of me to think that I wouldn’t fall into that percentage of newbies. Yet another order to BLICK… and damn is that little thing expensive.

XGFluidNozzle

Overall I’m pleased with this setup and I plan on purchasing the Grex Genesis XA for those bigger projects that don’t require any precision.

Well I’m going to get to spraying some tanks. Thanks for stopping. Cheers!

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