My First Valkyrie

[CreganTur]

In between all my other projects I decided I really wanted to paint a Valkyrie. I have never painted a 40k vehicle before and I was inspired after watching CMON's 7 Day Army Painter dvd- which was great, btw.

The bird was fully assembled last night and the primer is currently drying, so I'll start my airbrushing later today. I did go out and buy a new airbrush with some birthday money and a wonderful 50% off coupon for my local Michael's. I originally was going to save up for an airbrush that's mentioned in the DVD, but with that coupon, and after looking at what they have available and checking reviews online, I decided to buy local. I got a Badger 175 airbrush- it's a bottom fed unit that comes with 3 different nozzles with matching needles, which means I can switch out and go from pencil-fine lines to wide spray for basecoating, which is really nice.

After getting used to the airbrush I decided to do a test card using the color scheme I want for this Valkyrie. I decided I really liked the rust from the video, so I created that as an under layer, masked it off with liquid latex, and then sprayed on my main paint colors. I decided to use Catachan Green, then a 1:1 mix with Camo Green, and a final highlight of pure Camo to create the paint color. Once that dried I came over it with an oil based wash, using both black and brown oil paints ot create weathering streaks. I also tested a white stripe that I'll probably paint on the wings. I'm very pleased with the results and can't wait to paint this bird!

[GunjiNoKanrei]

This looks great indeed. Looking forward to the Valkyrie!

If you are doing a white stripe like this I suggest adding more wear and tear - mostly smaller marks clustered around the bigger chips showing green paint underneath suggesting the stripe has been painted over the green paint. I would also fray the sides a little more.

Which colors did you use for the rust? Looks very convincing.

I really should start saving for an airbrush ... *dreams*

[Maru]

effect is quite nice but rust act a litle bit more randem end adicionaly when it starts it act in quite organized patterns
in eny case check masiv e Voodo page - they got nice vid tutorial about Air brush end rust effect
end BTW check Cyril Abati' s way of painting rust

[Nameless]

looking great so far! I'd make white more dirty, it's too clean considering all the weathering there.

[CreganTur]

The first major step in the painting process has been completed. I finished all of the rust, did all of the masking, painted all of the armor color and highlight, weathering, and did the white stripes. Alll in all it took about 4 - 6 hours, including drying time, to do all of this which is pretty darn good.

It's not done yet, but you can get a good sense for how the finished piece is going to look once I clean everything up. I do think I masked it a bit early after varnishing the rust because some of the rust turned white and chalky. I can clean that up during the next steps, but it's something to keep in mind for next time.



Later tonight I'm going to paint all of the metallics that aren't going to be rusted and give them a heavy wash to help weather them. Along with that I'll also be cleaning up a few areas of the armor color, but the biggest thing will be finishing the weathering. I'll be adding more pronounced rust stains in certain areas, blackening from weapons file and engine wash, and applying a gem like effect on the cockpit glass to make it look good. It's going to be challenging because I'll be switching to my airbrush's fine nozzle, which means I'll need a lot more precision and control.

[Maru]

PIGMENTS now is time

[sea.man]

what about the windows?

[Maru]

Microstift produce the Windows 8 but as we c in thous pictures thats beta version end is quite rusty end blind ..

[GunjiNoKanrei]

Wow, you sure paint fast. The green looks good so far. Right now with everything being rusty it is a bit difficult to judge, but after you have cleaned up the metallics I think it will be more obvious where you are going.

Overall I'd like to echo what has been said about the white stripe on your test card by me and others. The white looks too clean compared to the other parts. Also I would have made the white more fuzzy at the borders.
But probably you have planned to dirty up the white? A few washes and of course

PIGMENTS now is time

are the perfect weapon of choice of here.

[CreganTur]

She's all done!

CMON Voting Link

She's also up for sale on ebay