Rhino Transport WIP#1

Paint first, assemble later.

It's time for a tank.
The Rhino troop transport offers an excellent vehicle for more airbrush practice, and to see how quickly it can be painted up. It's also not as complex as other models, and can be cut from the sprue quickly and easily enough.

The first step is to paint the inside compartment. The added bonus is that if things go a bit wrong, it really won't be seen that much, so I can afford a bit of experimentation to see what works, and what doesn't.

First step, as always, is a primer base spray. After thinking on the matter a good deal, I used black. This was with the trusty spray can, and provides a good surface for paint to stick to afterwards. Black, because I didn't want it to end up brighter than the troops it's meant to transport.

Getting out the airbrush next, a coat of Zandri Dust (air), evenly applied. Dryad Bark (air) in the corners and around objects next, followed by some Terminatus Stone (air) in an attempt to highlight a few areas. That last step turned out to be too bright, so back to Zandri Dust (air) to cover it all, and blend back over the Dryad Bark a little bit.
The results are quite acceptable, and very quick to do. Takes longer to tear down and clean the airbrush than to actually use it! Anyway, using an airbrush for initial base, shade, and highlights looks more feasible every time I try.

A few points of note:

• The airbrush blending is effective, but trying to replicate it with the normal paints is very, very difficult. So trying to correct mistakes is going to be very difficult - experience will help with that, but don't even plan on going back over large areas. Leave fix ups to smaller sections.
• The paint applies differently, blends differently, so painting over the top of it does look a little bit different. It's something to keep in mind. Not shown, but I did try the usual blend approach over the "boxes" (darker brown) in the compartment. It wasn't quite the same, took a few goes to get things right.
• Karak Stone provides a good edge highlight. Only on the very edges, but definitely helps give definition over everything.
• Decals of the Legion number, in honour of the Primarch.

On a final note, again not shown in the photo, the "boxes" ended up with:

• Dryad Bark (base)
• Gorthor Brown (layer) (bottom 2/3 of the boxes)
• Baneblade Brown (layer) (bottom 1/3 of the boxes)
• Agrax Earthshade (wash) (draw from bottom to top, let it dry so the wash settles in the same direction)

Still a good deal to go for the inside, but it's a start.

-- silly painter