Blog Excuses for failure!

Just seen that the first half of that post (I had to split it into two as I had more than 10 images) is waiting for mod approval, sorry

 

First half is visible, so now the second half might make a little more sense!

And thanks for the suggestion zeb - not sure why I didn't think to check eBay, but I'll do some searching

 

Excuse #... no excuses today?!

This update is actually from last night's work. That's right, updates two days in a row! No excuses! Madness!

Last night's hobby hour got interrupted early, but I still managed to get a little more done.
Here is our tank before I started working on it - the texture is nice, but there's a few areas that I apparently didn't stipple properly. These will get fixed later.



From here I threw a load more putty round and tried to cover everything I hadn't already. When I was done we had this:



First step done!

Now onto the second step. Before I started this project I asked in the TRFT Patreon Discord server for suggestions, and Stephan (no social links - you'll have to join if you want to see his work!) kindly threw loads of useful stuff at me. One of these was to use Mr Surfacer, which I've kind of done with the putty. Another was to use watered down texture pastes, which I'm about to kind of do. Keep in mind that if any of this goes wrong it's all Stephan's fault ;]

Now the only texture paste I have is an old pot of Vallejo Black Lava. It's starting to dry out but there's plenty of usable paste still.



Logic (and Stephan) would suggest to thin it a little. I didn't do that. Instead I took another cheap brush (two have already been thoroughly destroyed in this project) and got to work. I had planned to be careful and focus on corners and recesses, but what I actually did was stab like a madman until I started to run out of places to actually hold the tank. Once it's dry I'll be able to go back and check for spots that still look too smooth, but until then we're left with some rather fetching cow camo =D



Once I'm done with the physical texturing I'll be able to move into priming. I had been planning to use a rattlecan for ease, and so that if the finish wasn't great (gotta love British weather and a heavy trigger-finger!) it would add to the rough surface, but now I'm concerned that I might actually end up smoothing out the finer textures. I'll more than likely end up getting the airbrush out, but thoughts are welcome!

No more hobby time this week, so hopefully another update early next week =]

 

Very, very interesting thing your trying here @pawl. Safe to say many wouldn't be so bold, so thank you for going through the process and showing us how it turns out. I appreciate anyone who goes through the pain of experimenting, good or bad so others can be spared from a potential bad outcome

 

In all honesty it started with the image I linked before of the tank being pulled from the water, and then a video depicting the creation of a downed fighter plane diorama involving a rather deep resin pour. I suddenly decided I had a 'brilliant' idea for a diorama (something I've never done before) involving lots of rust (something else I've never done before), and then it all ended up spiralling out of control! =D

I'm fully expecting things to start falling apart fairly soon, if I'm honest. I would imagine that any proper scale modeller would already be shaking their head at what I've done so far, but next up is priming (fairly simple), followed by lots of layers of rust colours, interspersed with lots of chipping fluid. I've never really painted rust before, and I've never used chipping fluid either. What could possibly go wrong?! After that will be oils or enamels (something I have a tiny amount of experience using), pigments (as oils), and then building a simple base for it to sit on (can't be that hard, right?). After that, resin. I am terrified of this part, and so I'm simply not thinking about it! =D

I think that the word 'bold' should probably be replaced with 'stupid', but I appreciate your kind words =]

 

Excuse #8 - I used the wrong primer!

...well, I don't know that yet, but I have concerns!

So let's start by taking a look at where we left off last time. The cow tank!



We're now about to start making this thing look rusty, instead of just feeling it!
For my next few sessions I expect to only be taking the following out of the tool box:



AMMO Heavy Chipping and Scratches fluids. Most, if not all of the heavy lifting will be done by the chipping fluid, I think.
Airbrush thinner.
The AMMO Rust Effects set of acrylics.
Molotow One4All Signal Black
AK Ultra Matte Varnish

To apply them we will be using a Badger Patriot 105 that desperately needs a clean, with a 0.5mm needle.



Compressor is set to approximately 28psi (working pressure) - most recommend ~22, but for some reason this never works for me. I'm very much an airbrushing novice though!

Oh, and a cup of tea, because obviously!



Now I spent a little bit of time considering my primer options. I like the Molotow paints because they seem to airbrush nicely - a really important factor for me because I'm not very good with the airbrush! They aren't dedicated primers however, and because I'm planning to rough the tank up a little I'm worried about pulling up the primer. I do have a bottle of AK black primer, however previous attempts to use it were frustrating to say the least. It would probably bond better and give a stronger finish, but I'm hoping that varnish will help even things out here. In the end ease-of-use won, and I'm sticking with the Molotow!

While spraying the tank (and everything around it, apparently!) I discovered that it was difficult in places to see where I had covered, as I was working black-on-black. Still, I think everything got two (slightly heavy) coats, and I'm ready to move on!



Our first actual colour is A.MIG-044 Chipping. It's the first time I've used the AMMO paints but I'm rather impressed. They come with a stainless steel agitator already inside the bottle, and while it needed a little more thinning than I expected (again, not good with the airbrush!) it went on beautifully. The colour when wet wasn't unlike melted chocolate, though as expected it dries a little darker (I absolutely failed to capture this in the photo!)



I haven't tested it by brush other than unloading after mixing in the airbrush cup, but it seems to give pretty good coverage - I imagine that these would be a pleasure to paint with using a regular brush.

After spraying two layers (with much more control this time - I almost felt like I knew what I was doing!) and employing a hairdryer I'm almost done for the night. My last step will be varnishing.

Something of a common theme - I've never airbrushed a varnish before! I'm using the AK Ultra Matte straight from the bottle. It looks rather like soya milk in the cup, but we'll give it a go anyway! (the photo makes it appear rather white, but it has the same yellow tint that soya milk does!)



Two passes (with only one area getting too much spray by mistake, no issue though!) and we have gone from a cow tank to a very matte chocolate tank!



Before applying the varnish however I noticed this:



You'll be able to see that there's a couple of little white spots. This is where I've been handling the tank and managed to remove both the brown and black layers - what you can see is the putty I was stippling in the last two posts! It would appear that my primer concerns may have been warranted!

To help prevent this from becoming an issue I will start my next painting session by sticking the Chimera to a painting handle. I should have done this from the start really, as it will make spraying the whole tank at once much easier, and also reduce the amount that I have to physically touch it. I will also probably begin by adding another layer of varnish, because it probably can't hurt!

So that's where I'm leaving off for tonight! Thoughts and suggestions welcome as always. =]

 

Excuse #9 - how many times can I get away with "this is my first time" as a potential excuse?

Tonight I have my first real opportunity for problems! Fortunately on this project if something goes wrong it's easily fixable, as things like 'neatness' aren't really a concern. I've also come to realise that having a hairdryer (or heat gun, if you're fancy) at the painting table is really, really useful! Cutting a twenty minute drying time down to just a couple of minutes really helps stop you from losing momentum.

Chipping fluid isn't something that I've ever used before - it's my first time. It's quite thick, and seemed a little reluctant to come out of the airbrush - I didn't increase my psi at all, but I did have to open the trigger up a little more than usual to get any real flow. I'm also coming to realise that my painting light simply isn't up to the task, as I can't see anywhere near clearly enough. Another thing to add to the to-buy list!

Anyway - I varnished again first just in case, and then threw some Heavy Chipping Fluid down. Two coats with a blow dry in between. A.MIG-043 Shadow Rust is the next colour in our set - it's not that much lighter than the previous Chipping coat, so if it all goes wrong it doesn't actually matter too much. I can go back and forth between these colours anyway, so all will be fine. Two quick passes with the Shadow Rust and I armed myself with a size 8 AMMO saw brush - for no other reason that it was to hand, and it had an interesting shape. In hindsight it probably wasn't the best choice, but it's what I went with.



I did briefly break out an old toothbrush, but that was quickly sidelined as I was scared of being too rough. I started out brushing water on to the tank before getting impatient and simply spraying it on with the airbrush.

While working I actually found it quite difficult to see what I was doing. The water was bubbling up almost like soap, which obscured my view somewhat. In the end though I managed to get it to work - it almost felt like the best results came when the surface started to dry out a little and go 'tacky'. I don't know if this is how it's supposed to work, but I'm sure a little practise will help here!
Another thing that made the process a little more difficult was the fact that I was working with two colours that were very similar - on a wet surface it wasn't particularly easy to distinguish between them, and on a few occasions I stopped brushing through fear that I had taken too much off, only to discover that nothing had chipped at all! In future I think I might try taking larger jumps in my colour choices, and I'll definitely be doing some YouTube research before my next attempt.

In the end though the results weren't actually all that bad, and I'm perfectly happy for a first go. Apologies for the poor contrast in the pictures - I'm simply taking them quickly with my phone, and under a bright light it can be difficult to see in person!



The tank is now back in storage curing, but next time it comes out I'm thinking varnish, chipping fluid, and then maybe something like a bright orange, maybe even a couple of different colours thrown together in one layer? Suggestions on a postcard...

 

So it's been a little while, apologies for abandoning you! It wasn't intentional, I promise, I have in fact been busy!

Since seeing you all last, a few things have happened:
I've moved house. This didn't actually take that long, but it did mean that I had to spend a while getting all of my stuff arranged again.

I built another website! This one has all of the things I've written on it, including all the entries for this blog. This means that instead of having to try and write each post multiple times (for here, The Warp Storm, Bolter and Chainsword, the Duncan Rhodes Paint Academy forums...) for message board systems that all have different requirements, uploading all the images each time etc, I can just have it all in one place. Simple!
Typically I'm in the process of reuploading almost all of the images after tinkering with the layout of the file system, so a lot of them aren't working, but hour by hour I'm fixing that.

After the house move I had space for a small hobby desk again (yay!), so I spent some time sorting that out.

And then I 'finished' the Chimera. @Vedras might be a little disappointed with the route I took to get there, but in all honesty it was annoying me. I'll make good on my promise though! =]

I do have another post planned that properly looks at what I did to the Chimera, so if you're interested then keep an eye out!

All the best =]

edit; Oh! Entry number 10 is in there too, but I didn't think it was worth linking. You can find it easily enough if you want to.

 

I feel you

 

As soon as I started working with it, I realised it was the only way!