Work Continues on the ion age adder. I'm struggling to try and match it thematically to the khurasan siler also pictured here (not painted by me). The initial airbrushing seemed to match reasonably well, but I appeared to make the mistake of inking with black all over....too dark. Now that I brought it back up with the base colour....and then even more with a brighter green, I'm sorta stuck on what to do. 
Obviously I should break up the expanse of green a bit more. The ion age 'stock' paint job here, shows a good use of bands of colour to differentiate the styles of adder (largely turret/armament changes). I don't think I want it as bold as this. I did think some weathering (mud on the skirts, big dust smears by the air vents) and chipping (silver/black, possibly some rust) would help.....but I think it needs something more.Viewer suggestions would be very much appreciated.
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So please feel free to chime in with some direction here. You can see in the foreground of this pic what I have right now. The middle guy is the test fig. This gives an idea of what I've tried, and what I have to move from.
As background, I purchased a painted set of figures from Richard Chief Lackey (who made the starport slum buildings I think). He appears to recently be no longer active on tmp, which is a shame b/c that's how I caught his frequent auctions on ebay. He has some quite varied and nice stuff up almost continuously as mingjerkyking.
The figs were the khurasan siler tanks (which I love and largely the reason I bought the lot) and a bunch of NAC figs (seen in my gruntz AAR HERE). I have more NAC I bought myself from GZG (ground zero games) which I need to finish, no doubt I'll colour match here. I like the idea of the adders as some fast moving battlefield taxis with support weapons.
Crap man, I'm rubbish at painting vehicles, so I think what you've got already looks fantastic. Sorry I'm not more help!
ReplyDeleteTry brown washes to soften the green some?
ReplyDeleteI'd try this too, along with a splash of some color, a running light, or a painted hatch or something.
DeleteYes, this is the trick. I'm not sure what to colorize....or what colour to add. I definitely think this is the right tack though.
DeleteBrown washes to muddy it/weather? Or just to bring the tone down?
DeleteHow about "dazzle' camouflage? This is dramatic geometric coloration meant to, well, dazzle the eye and throw off aim and direction of movement. In this case, you might use a dark and light green. With your weathering - good job on that - it might give it the 'pop' you want.
ReplyDeleteHowever I like the simple use of the red on the lights (?) of the vehicle. A couple of those types of colour dots on the vehicle will give it more life than a straight tone of green. Could even have edges worn of their paint exposing the metal underneath perhaps.
my 5cents worth (being that Canada no longer has pennies....)
DougH
I didn't want to make it much different from the big 'siler' tank. So starting a new camo might not be the right tack. It does sound quite interesting and fun though.
DeleteI've read you want to create the illusion of camo without making camo on your figs, otherwise they become hard to see.
I agree with some weathering it would be good to see undermetal d/t paint chipping/wearing.
If I'm reading this right, you're trying to match the colour of the middle tank in your last photo to the foreground tank? A lightly-applied brown filter or series of them would probably do the trick, though you would need to mask off any areas that you don't want to be dulled.
ReplyDeleteFrom the internets: "Simply defined, a Filter is a thin layer of heavily diluted oil paint, brushed over the entire surface of something to slightly change the hue and saturation of the background color. Not unlike putting on a pair of colored sunglasses, or a tinted camera lens, hence the name."
Note that it doesn't have to be oil paints, and an airbrush is better for doing this than a regular brush.
The background tank in your photos looks like it may have had some dirt/weathering pigments applied as well.
If you want to go nuts with the dust, like I did on my LAV-III here: http://cameronstinylittlemen.blogspot.ca/2013/12/lav-iii-update.html
I can recommend some materials and techniques!
I'd like to match the hovercraft to the large treaded tank. Largely.
DeleteI'm afraid it's a bit too bold green at this point. And the foremost green hovercraft in the last picture (with no turret) is too flat. I need to come up with a clever way to go from the too flat, to something close to the big tank in the background. I'm not sure that my current test bed (the middle vehicle) is correct.
I definitely need to talk to you regarding weathering.
I think a very thin filter of tan or light brown would even things out and consolidate the colours. You have an airbrush, yeah?
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