DZC [001g]

Tonight I was able to prime the UCM vehicles.  Same process as before.  I think I might have left my paint in the hot garage for a little too long or the airbrush was not quite clean because I had a bit of a slow start with the primer not smoothly coming out of the brush.  I added a few drops of Vallejo airbrush thinner (which is not ideal for primer I've heard), shook up the paint pot, and things went much smoother after that. I brought my paint back inside following tonight's episode. 

Here are the final three coat primed UCM vehicles. 

These Bear APCs above were coated with citadel chaos black primer the other day and I can definitely tell the difference in thickness of the base costs.  Here not too much of a problem but I'm glad I did the scourge with the airbrush as they are a bit more detailed than the UCM.

Lastly I sealed my infantry model bases.  I use Krylon Crystal Clear for the first coat. If you like things glossy you can stop there but most of us don't so I then hit it with Testors dull coat.  

I also used sticky tack to secure these to a piece of cardboard so they would not fly off of the table and get anything else stuck to them in the process.  Best decision of the night. 

Clear coated

Dull coated. 

Lastly I checked out some of the Scourge models and found one that chunked off some base coat on the bottom.  Just a gentle reminder to myself to wait the extra three seconds before putting these down for them to dry...does not take long with airbrush coats to dry but you can still get the wet paint stick effect so watch out. 

Now off to bed :)

DZC [001f]

Tonight I tried out the Vallejo surface primer.  It had been a while since I last used the airbrush in general but everything seemed to go fine. I just had to remember not to rotate my hand to hit the side of a model as this defeats the purpose of the gravity feed pot. I of course did this about ten times before I corrected and would spin the model and keep the airbrush upright instead. Much better and smoother operation after that...

For the primer I found that I needed to have the paint pot like 2/3 full or it wouldn't come out in high enough volume and I'd keep having to flick the lever to get the paint to come out.  Overall I think this stuff is great for getting the small and highly detailed models, that these Scourge vehicles really are, primed well.  The vehicle models are like the opposite of the infantry. Super detailed. Very cool stuff. I hadn't really looked at these models in a while and was pleased to see them in more detail which is part of what got me hooked on this game in the first place. 

I use q-tips every ten minutes or so, with a dab of the airbrush cleaner on the end, to clean out the tip of the airbrush and that seems to be fine for prolonged periods of one color. 

In about 45 minutes I had hit all of the vehicles with a longer first coat and then two more quick costs of the primer on top. Hopefully this will be enough to not have them scratch too easily and have the paint chip. I'll of course be sealing all of these later but I want them to be ok for initial painting. 

I thought it was funny as I was hitting them the second and third time that they were skimming around my paint station accidently from the high psi coming out of the air compressor.  These are small models and I was careful to hold them in place for the later quick coats. For the initial ones latex gloves were utilized and I just held them up while air brushing. I didn't really think about this before as I've never airbrushed anything this small and my other pieces never flew around the paint station before.  I noticed this the other day when using the normal citadel black spray paint can base coat. The UCM Bear APCs shot all over the place. Even with the can like 18" above the models.  Latex gloves and holding the models while airbrushing is a must for these guys. 

Not sure if I'll prime the UCM next or start some details on the Scourge.  Stay tuned  to find out :)

I'm adding an additional section to this post to reply to a question about airbrush cleaning.  I usually hit one color hard for the night, in this case primer, then I usually disassemble the airbrush and soak the parts that get paint on them in a 25% airbrush cleaner solution (currently using Vallejo air brush cleaner) with water over night. Then in the morning I rinse them all down again and let them air dry all day while I'm at work. They are then ready to go again that night when I usually paint. 

For cleaning during the airbrushing I just dip a q-tip in cleaner and swipe inside the tip shield cover every ten minutes or so, like I said above, so I don't get excess paint splatter. I have not really painted to switch colors a bunch during one session as I usually do large amounts of one color at a time.  When I have been painting for more than an hour you can rinse the paint pot with water, then 100% cleaner shake it up and dump out separately. Then spray the airbrush with the cleaner in the paint pot to clear out the needle passageway until only air comes out. Then you are ready for another color. Again I don't do this too much because I find it a pain with my gravity fed paint pot. For the other bottom feed pots this is a little easier if you want to switch colors a bunch I think.  If anyone has a good system for switching colors with the gravity fed pot it would be much appreciated for this upcoming project. 

DZC [001e]

Tonight I just had enough time to clean up a bit and set up for airbrushing and I thought it might be a good post topic to just show you guys what I plan on using. 

First is my Hacked up card board box I've kept folded up and away behind my tool drawers for all my projects. I just refold it and use packing tape to hold it together every time. Then remove the packing tape when I'm done and fold it up and put it away. 

I like the fact that this came from a big box so I have lots of area to paint and then put some stuff off to the side to dry. I do most of my painting in my garage so I do have to open a window and get a box fan running usually but it works fine. I also have to use a respirator and safety glasses but again part of the job in these tight conditions. 

For the actual airbrush I have a Master Airbrush G22. Here are the specs for reference:

Dual action, internal mix

0.3mm needle/nozzle, 1/3 oz gravity fed cup

Pattern is hairline to 1.5" wide

I looked up the needle size in relation to the airbrush primer use and they say it is fine. I haven't done this before so I wanted to make sure.  We'll see how it goes. 

I also have a quiet oil-less piston type air compressor.  Mini air compressor TC 20. I really like this. It does vibrate a bit so keep it on the floor or in a stable condition so it doesn't walk off your table. It heats up quite a bit but has only overheated on me and auto shut off once after about an hour of continual use when painting the Phantom Titan parts.  Still that is a nice feature in my opinion. 

I have a simple screw on hose but would probably like to upgrade that soon with a longer, more durable one, and one that uses the snap attach feature.

That's all for now, hope to start painting soon. 

DZC [001d]

Finished up the Scourge Warriors tonight.  Red Gore base coat twice over the black for their cloaks. Then highlighted with blood red for all the edges. Brown and leather highlights for boots and pants. Black with Dawnstone highlights for guns and backpacks. Then Brown and Bleached Bone and White highlights for helmets.  Then two colors for green eye visor things. Then finally red dots with white centers for squad markings on backpacks. 

Tough to get the lighting right tonight...

I also added an additional yellow shoulder pad to the UCM Legionnaires for their squad markings which I forgot about the other night.  Fun stuff. On the way now!  Now time to start the vehicles with the air brush. Hope to hit this some more this weekend!  Work hard play hard :)

DZC [001c]

No painting tonight but did get in all of the airbrush paint I ordered. Everything checked off and was shipped. Shew!

Also got in some cool matte card protectors for the command cards. Big difference on my table with the overhead lighting in place.  

Now add in a generic mtg deck box and we're good to go :)

That's it for now. Stupid work from home night really hinders the painting itch...

DZC [001b]

So after looking at the book images of these guys and then looking at the actual models of the infantry there must have been some random production changes as the models I have are not as detailed as the ones in the book... Good and bad. Less 10mm scale model painting details but more opportunities for dry brushing!   So yea, UCM Legionnaires first up to the painting plate. God these things are small.  Yet I find myself highlighting leather shaded belt pouches... 12:30am, why not?!  Just in the groove.  Base coat black. Dry brush shadow grey over everything. Dry brush bleached bone over everything for armor camo color I'll be using for my UCM.  Then repaint guns black. Highlight with dawnstone/codex gray. Then paint faces dwarf flesh. Then paint belt pouches and gun holster brown and highlight with snakebite leather. Then dab of red on all left shoulder pads. Times 30 little freaking dudes.  Finally dry brush dawnstone and rust on bases over the ballast and good enough for me. I mean you really have to hold these about 2" away from your face to see them anyway. Maybe scourge warriors tomorrow...we'll see how my eyes hold up in the morning :)

Feel free to try to zoom in on these pictures...iPhone does not quite cut it for these dudes

DZC [001a]

First steps for action are getting the smallest ballast possible and basing the infantry. 

I used fine cinders as I knew I would be baseing these guys black so if I missed any base coated areas they would still be black.  

Then I used super glue and a really old brush (which is sacrificed during this process of course due to the super glue) to spread around a coating area then dip and shake and bake (put your ballast in a separate double zip freezer zip lock type bag so you don't dump ballast elsewhere later). to get the final product.  

UCM

The Scourge

Then repeat a bunch of times and these were ready for base coating pretty much immediately. 

I used the citadel chaos black primer (which I use for about 95% of everything I paint) remaining from my last set of projects and went to town. Also had just enough to coat the 3 UCM Bear APC's.  The rest I'll be base coating with airbrush primer so we'll see how that goes later.   All for that night.