Legion Scimitar Jetbikes - Part IV (Showcase)

 

Not the most subtle of attack bikes.

After some considerable time spent in the background, the scimitar jetbikes are finally finished. While I'm overall happy with the end result, there are a few things I might change in future relating to the colour scheme - but even so, getting these painted up allowed me to learn a lot.

There is no weathering on these models. In all honesty, yes it would look very nice, but adding scratches, chips, etc, is just going to take far too much effort at this point. In miniatures I find that weathering is not so much about realism, but instead helps to break up large and otherwise boring surfaces - and I tried instead to use colour gradients and some interesting decals for that purpose. If I did want to add anything it would be some chips and scratches along the front and leading edges to show them powering through debris, smoke, and the odd bit of enemy fire.

All the main weapons are magnetised. I couldn't decide which one would look better at the start and so just painted all of the options. The plasma gun is a little different though, because that extra glow from the charging coils just didn't seem to fit and so I painted them copper instead. I figure it would heat up from whatever material it is and that's where the glow comes from - obviously there's better cooling on a jetbike whizzing through the air so it would need to be a really powerful shot before those coils start glowing. As for which weapon I prefer, I it would be either the volkite or the heavy bolter.

As a small aside, when painting the weapons I did all twelve (the meltaguns are not shown here) at once, and it's here that a wet palette really helped. I could just set out the paints and then switch between them as I went without having to stop and change paints out. The black areas I actually did in semi-reverse: edge highlights, then glazed/blended volume highlights, blended in that with the dark grey that is Corvus Black, and then shaded in and outlined with a deeper black. It turned out well enough, even if I was attempting to rush by that point - I just wanted the models finished!

The decals are great. They really add some character to the bikes. I think I'll be trying to use more of those with vehicles in the future, and they do give an excellent foundation to work from for freehand. Just another tool in the box, as the saying goes.

Random notes:

• Dorn Yellow, then Blood Angels Red gives a very simple and effective glow.
• Baharroth Blue, then Asurmen Blue, works wonders for blue lighting. White Scar can be used for extra brightness in the middle.
• Glazing metalllic colours is extremely underrated. Using any of the metallics over a basic silver gives excellent results, and was used on the engine cover here.
• Edge highlights after the final varnish step really helps outline pieces and make the red seem more vibrant.

Final note on these models relates to their storage. I'm not yet sure how it will go, but a solution to not wanting to drill magnet holes into clear bases is to create a sort of magnetic clamp to hold them down. I've done this by using green-stuff and superglue to attach magnets to popsticks - the height should be just enough to hold the bases down and stop the models sliding around. Two of these "clamps" per model (one each side of the stand). If it works well enough then I might use that as standard for anything with a flying base.

-- silly painter.