Thunderhawk Gunship - Part IV

 

To the skies.

The Thunderhawk has seen some work done on it recently, and is now not all that far from being completed. A little more weathering, some metallic highlights, a few weapon details, and that's about it.

Since the last update on this model, the canopy has been given some extra attention, a first pass of metallics applied, decals applied, gloss varnish and oil wash followed by a matt varnish,  and a little weathering.

To start with, the engines are nothing spectacular yet. Balthasar Gold for the golden areas, which will probably end up as more of a bronze later, and Iron Warriors for the silver. I tried not to go overboard with the gold details, instead using it to add some diversity and rely on the red and black markings to do most of the heavy lifting. This is slightly abused with the golden symbol on the nose of the ship, which is slightly brighter than I would like but also don't know what to do about now. There needed to be something there, and a gold decal was all I could think of. Brighter engine cowlings will hopefully offset this later.

Oil wash over a gloss varnish worked as expected, however I don't think I'll continue using that approach in future. It's simply too smelly for my liking when the oil is thinned out with white spirits. I also had to use some Nuln Oil (Gloss) where the oils weren't dark enough, and actually that worked almost as well. In future I may simply stick to the gloss varnish, and then use normal washes over the top.

This brings me to what I like best about the gloss varnish, but what also makes it perhaps difficult longer term. The acrylic paints don't adhere quite so well until dry, so there's a bit of time to correct mistakes. This really helps guide washes into the right place, without some of the troublesome staining normally associated with that. I have a bunch of helmets read to go and will see how a non-gloss varnish goes with that.

After everything was outlined and looking like it has some more depth to it, a little bit of Abaddon Black drybrushed along various edges and streaked along panels was done for weathering. This is quite subtle, barely noticeable with this scale, but just enough to give an impression of the ship having actually been used. In good tradition of being concerned about messing it up if I add more, I'll leave that aspect of weathering alone for now. I might drybrush a light brown or off-white around the underside in places later, given that it's a VTOL capable craft that would kick up a good amount of dust, earth, etc, when landing or taking off.

After the matt varnish step there is one decal that has obviously not quite fit flush with the surface. This is annoying. I'll have to use some Mephiston Red soon and tone that problem down as much as I can. I'm otherwise quite pleased with how the model is coming along. On the subject of decals, I was originally intending to add some kind of golden filigree with decals, but after seeing how the symbol on the nose turned out I decided against it: the golden decals would simply stand out too much, and it's the red that should dominate more than any other colour.

I guess it's a race now to see which I'm motivated to complete first: this, or the pending twenty marines.

-- silly painter.