Diesel DM

Progress continues on the colossal.  It feels like the end is within sight, just gotta keep working away at it.

Silver metals and blues complete

The highlighting of the blues on the top of the Stormwall have been remarkably challenging. The initial shading up through Cygnar Blue Highlight looked great, then came Frostbite.  Frostbite is a very light blue that the FoW:Cygnar book recommends as the final highlight mixed with CBH.  The problem with Frostbite is that 2-brush-blending it always comes out chalky for me.  I’ve tried flow improver and the like with no improvements.  It was really bad this time around.  So much so that I painted over it with Cygnar Blue Base and started again.  For whatever reason the areas I had highlighted were no longer smooth, they had a bit of texture, almost as if the chalkiness had transcended into physical texture.  I happened to hear on Guts-n-Gears podcasts that mixing CBH and Menoth White Highlight also makes a good highlight color, so I tried that.  It seemed much less chalky, but with the new underlying texture I somehow created it’s still tough to get a good blend.  So I’ve left it as is and decided to move on.  I was aiming for table-top quality, which I think I’ve met with this blend, but it still bothers me.

Beyond the blues, I finished up the silver metals and have started on the lighting coils and storm chambers.  I should have left the storm chambers off, for the record.  Wow, what a pain to get to.  The six coils on the top aren’t bad to get to while attached though.

Next target is to finish up the golds.  I’ve got the base coats down, need to shade and highlight with my standard theme.  Then it’s on to the whites.  And I have those pieces I haven’t attached (feet plates and hip plates).  Then some basing and done.

After a couple days without making any progress, I found time tonight to get initial base coats of Cygnar Blue Base and ‘Jack Bone/Menoth White Highlight mix on the Stormwall.  Both need another coat, especially the white areas, as is expected over black primer.

Stormwall is starting to shape up

These sections went surprisingly quick, though I did break out my new Raphael 8404 #2.  I typically use a #1 or #0 for regular models, but the #2 has been a life saver for covering these large areas.  If you regularly use a smaller brush, do yourself a favor and pickup a larger one before starting in on one of these.  Of course and air brush would help for on color base coat as well, but I haven’t made that leap yet.

Once these base coats are done I’ll hit the only remaining bare primer area: the lightning coils and storm chambers.  From there I’ll probably go back to the metals, touching up any slopped paint and working inside out to complete them.

Not sure about his face mask…Thinking it should be gold rather than white….

Not a lot of progress last night.  Got the Glorious Gold base coat down over the Brassy Brass and that was it.  There will be a lot of touching up to do on the Pig Iron sections I started with.  Something about the size and complexity of this model is causing more errant brush strokes that normal.  I read another blog that mentioned a similar occurrence, so at least it’s not just me.  Because of this phenomenon I’ve decided to base coat everything first, rather than finishing inner sections completely and working my way out.  Once all the bases are done I’ll go back and fix all the messy sections then dive into highlighting and shading.

Glorious Gold basecoat

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Painting has begun on the Stormwall.  Wow, there is a lot of model to cover, even laying down the initial metal base coats is taking a while.  I am a slow painter to begin with, so increasing the surface area this drastically has really taken it’s toll.  Below are a couple shots showing the base coats of Pig Iron and Brassy Brass.  For the guns, cannons and some of the accents I mixed Thamar Black with the Pig Iron to give them a darker base.  The Brassy Brass will be covered with Glorious Gold as I do for all my models.  The Brassy Brass gives excellent coverage and provides a great undercoat for the Glorious Gold.

Pig Iron and Brassy Brass base coats

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