On the painting table ... Imperial Armor
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Warhammer 40,000 – This week I've been working on tanks and defense lines. These are more elements for the Tyrant's Legion commission I've been grinding through. Even with a simple three color scheme it does take a while to paint up these tanks and I was surprised at how quickly I went through a pot of black wash.
As with all the models in this force my client requested a simple three color scheme with some custom decals. The models were supplied "ready to prime" and he doesn't seem concerned with the amount of mold lines and flash that he left on the models ... sigh. (Note to self: avoid your obsessive need to fix everything and stay on budget)
To start I primed everything with a dark gray duplicolor primer, followed with a basecoat of dark gray paint. To add some interest to these tanks I came up with a simple design that matched the shoulder pads of the troopers in the army. To paint this I used some masking tape to mark off the area to be painted and applied the red stripe. Once that dried I reapplied the tape and painted the white line with a light gray foundation paint. After painting the metallic bits I went in and applied a black wash to everything. This weather the paint and filled in all the hatch lines and made the rivets stand out.
The next step on the tanks is to go back in an pick out any details like the skulls, scrollwork and laurels. At that time I'll also further weather the gun barrels with a bronze to show where the muzzle burns and carbon build up happens.
Also in the que this week is a defense line. This fortification seems to be a staple in most armies to help deal with flyers and provide your static units with a reliable source of a cover save. Painting on these follows the same steps as the tanks detailed above. On the rear of these walls are some strange panels that I'm guessing are some type of light or tactical display. Based on this assumption I painted them to match the other monitor screens in the force.
Finally we have some mobile gun encampments. These are not a GW piece and as such my client uses them for a variety of things from thud guns to thunderfire cannons the simple nature of the piece fits with the look of his army and serves multiple purposes. Painting followed suit with the above. I'm probably going to apply a decal to the front of each of these to add some more interest to the relatively plain front of the carriage.
Using a fairly basic set of techniques I was able to get these models table ready in just one session of painting which helps to keep the project on budget and on time. Next up for this one is a mass of 60+ infantry troopers and special characters.
