Thursday, July 18, 2013

Imperial Guard - Leviathan Command Carrier painting begins!

Summer is fully upon us and it's been pushing 100F day after day - which has made the hobby loft a thoroughly miserable place. However, we had a brief respite and I took advantage for a few hours over the weekend. I was getting a little tired of painting Eldar and thought I'd switch gears a little before jumping back in for the big push to finish off the pointy-eared gits. With Apocalypse being released recently, there was really on one thing I could paint... The Leviathan! My buddy Dave suggested that I give craft paints a go on the Leviathan as there was going to be so much paint needed to cover the beast, and he gave me several bottles to try. Time to break out the BIG brush!


Now obviously this is just the start of blocking in the colors and there are many, many more coats to go before it's anywhere near done - craft paints are way more translucent than I'm used to so what is usually three coats of paint is going to have to be six or more before it stops looking streaky. However, blocking in the main areas definitely helps the monster come into focus as a model. I'll admit that I'm not totally happy with the build - suffice it to say I learned a lot about what doesn't work, but that's mostly because I aimed well outside my current skill level. Can't get better if you don't push the envelope from time to time though! That said, it's not bad either - I won't feel embarrassed putting it on the table. The plan is to take it down to Feast of Blades to participate in the narrative Apocalypse event, along with a couple other suitably Apocalyptic units. Should be a (apocalyptic mega) blast!

9 comments:

  1. A solid start! Craft paint comes into its own when you thin it for washes. the browns and blacks and grey break down into their various pigments when drying and make for some cool powdery areas where they pool and dry. I used mainly Riohtec acrylic paints for my city fight terrain and they came out nice.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Looking pretty good!

    I actually love using craft paints, though I've never used anything else. But you might try Americana Acrylics-- they're decently high pigment and very cheap. I use them on all my minis, but they are certainly good enough for large vehicles or terrain projects. You can check them out here, if you would like some examples: mdarrow@blogspot.com

    ReplyDelete
  3. Also, it just occurred to me that you might be interested in this: http://www.toycutter.com/2008/01/wahammer-40k-complete-template-for.html

    Old school White Dwarf instructions on scratch building a BaneBlade. Have you seen it?

    ReplyDelete
  4. Wow. That's an impressive model. I've never used craft paints before so I'm interested to see how they turn out.

    ReplyDelete
  5. Incredible. Have to say you've done a great job on those spaces - that's where mine normally looks streaky, I usually only do about 3 for fear of obscuring detail. I'll try more next time.

    ReplyDelete
  6. @Zab: Interesting! I'll definitely have to give that a go - I'm definitely planning on doing some weathering and scorch marks on it, just to break up some of the huge open panels.

    @Mattias Darrow: I appreciate it! The paints Dave gave me are from the Americana Acylics line - I'm digging 'em so far, they're definitely going to be my go-to for terrain painting from here on out. I actually have the WD issue with the baneblade in it, great blast from the past!

    @17yearoldhobbyist: Thanks mate! They strike me as being a little more 'chalky' than the GW/Vallejo paints I commonly use, but for something on this scale it makes more sense to use cheaper paint! :)

    @Colonel Scipio: It's definitely coming together, though I have a feeling it's gonna be a long stretch of painting before it's done. I think I need to find an even bigger brush, too! Heh.

    Cheers, all!

    ReplyDelete
  7. Not your skill level???? Whatever man, you're easily at the level to make a project like this look badarse and so far, it's staying the course.

    ReplyDelete
  8. @Dai: Hah! Thanks man, we're always our own harshest critics. :)

    ReplyDelete
  9. Lol, I totally have to agree with Dai on this one!
    This project always brings a smile to my face. Well done Mr 7, it is really starting to come together.

    ReplyDelete