Miniature Monday 12/12/16

I took a bit of a break from painting models.  Well, maybe not as big of a break as I'd thought, but there was a good week where I didn't do much of anything.  Mostly because my cat has decided he wants to help by sticking his nose near the models when I'm trying to paint.

First of all, I did get some models done about two weeks ago.  I polished off the remaining Tempestus Scions I'd been working on.  The time-consuming part was making sure all the things that required a black wash were painted before the black wash was applied.  You don't want to apply black wash afterwards because then some elements end up darker than others and there can be some nasty overlapping dried wash problems.  The gold and lense elements were painted after the wash was applied.  Really, the colors pop out because the overall palette is very drab.  This is 'quick and dirty' as far as my work goes.  I plan to call them the 2nd Luna Rangers.  See you after the pictures.

 

I decided to work on my modest Harlequin collection, spending a considerable amount of time contemplating what colors to use.  In the end I decided to use interference colors, pale greens, and deep blues in concert with more neutral colors.  This is a radical departure from the colors I used on the Harlequin Solitaire last year, as far as using a different interference paint and overall color scheme than purples and greens.   

 I tried to capture the interference effect in the photo to the left, but it is very difficult to do on such a small model.  Eventually I plan to obtain another Solitaire and paint it in a very different and more complex scheme that fits with the planned Harlequin paint schemes.  But it should definitely be far more noticeable on the Harlequin Skyweavers, Starweavers, and Voidweavers.  Those are far larger with big curved surfaces.  All three of these models are an interesting challenge, as they incorporate infantry as well.  The Skyweavers have a pilot and a rider, while the Starweavers/Voidweavers have a pilot, gunner, and rider.  So not only will they have the colors unique to the vehicles, they will also incorporate the infantry scheme as well.

Golden makes the interference paints I'm using and if you're interested in using them yourself, I have some tips for using them.  The first is that you want to paint in one direction, since this stuff shows a tendency to streak like crazy.  Along that same train of thought, use your brush to smooth out any areas where it gets too streaky or thick, so you end up with an even coat across the surface.  Once you have this even coat, let it dry completely.  Then you tell if you need another layer or not.  The more layers you put on, the more noticeable the interference paint's colors will be; three layers is what I ended up using on the Starweaver and the Skyweavers.  These colors work best over dark colors, preferably black.  Lighter colors make the effect more subtle, likely because they reflect back a greater amount of light through the transparent medium the interference pigments are suspended in.