Legions Imperialis - Sicaran Battle Tanks (Part V - Showcase)

 

Glow-guns

For whatever reason it was an absolute slog to get these four tanks finished. Not much time to paint coupled with indecision over colours and a continual questioning of just how much detail I should go into really took its toll here. In some regards it might have been easier to paint a full sized version (that's for another day - I have a couple of the resin kits from a few years ago). What let me finish them in the end was a change of mindset to just simplify the colours: make the bulk of the weapon covers black and just use edge highlighting to pick out lines. Limit the palette and focus on overall appearance instead of getting lost in the close-up.

The colours work well enough, though I'm not entirely happy with the barrels of the plasma weapons. I'm still not really a fan of blue glowing plasma coils, but that's obviously luminosity from whatever hardened material is used to house all that energy, and it makes it immediately apparent on a tabletop what the weapon is for gameplay purposes. Think I do prefer the look of the other turrets though.

Now that the varnish is dry and the models are done, what would I do if I painted more? The base coats worked well. The main airbrush steps did their job, but I'm still getting used to Contrast paints through an airbrush. I might prefer a standard acrylic paint and multiple passes which will keep the end colour more consistent across each model rather than trying to ensure that last Contrast pass matches for them all. The shading is subtle enough by works, and using Black Legion (Contrast) mixed with flow improver and applied over a gloss varnish continues to provide an excellent way to panel line everything. Selected edge highlights accentuate the armour plates more and the end results is a very readable small scale tank. I also really like how the tracks turned out. Ratling Grime added just the right shading to give the look I was after.

I could do some weathering, battle damage, muzzle burn, etc, but these aren't intended as display pieces (although it's not like I've ever actually played a game with them). The viewports and sensor lenses are far too bright here, I probably could have darkened them with a shade, but again effort and it does give them a sinister look - psychological warfare that this horrifying tank is watching you.

Now I can put these away and see what's next on the list. Probably a dreadnought and devastators.

-- silly painter.