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.

Legions Imperialis - Sicaran Battle Tanks (Part IV)

 

Hold up, how do my pauldrons fit through the hatch?

These models are taking an insanely long time to get finished. This is partially a lack of motivation because they're taking so long (circular reasoning), but also because I just have so little spare time right now. So I've cut a few corners and forced myself to get the Sicaran tanks nearly done - just the other set of turrets to go. I've also not added any decals - I figured paint scheme shows easily enough which army they're part of, and also there's really only one panel to put a decal on. That would require a white transfer, which would stick out like a sore thumb. The alternative is to paint symbols on by hand, which I just frankly can't be bothered with.

I painted the viewports and lenses with a simple mix of Mephiston Red covered in Troll Slayer Orange. Nothing special, no fancy effects, just dots of colour to break up the turquoise. The orange tint is a nod to the Eye of Horus.

Cabling is generically Khorne Red with some Mephiston Red highlighting. This is purely again to break up the monotony and add some visual interest.

Silver metals are Iron Warriors, Nuln Oil, Iron Hands highlights. All of this done before the varnish step. The brass is Balthasar Gold, Seraphim Sepia, Sycorax Bronze highlights. Absolutely nothing special, all of it very simple - just on a small scale and requiring a fine tipped brush that is just now starting to give. It's been an exceptional synthetic brush which I've leaned on heavily recently - I hope future purchases of the same are just as good. Da Vinci size 0, Nova Synthetics range.

Black areas are Corvus Black, Dawnstone (mixed on the palette), and Abaddon Black mixed with water to essentially shade back some areas.

That's pretty much all. The most time taken was in deciding what colours should go where, but once that was sorted then the next steps proceeded smoothly enough. The details make the painting a little slower than I'd like as well, but also because they're so small there is no sense is perfectly smooth blending - you really do want some contrast to pick out edges more than anything else.

And now it's on to the other turrets before I can classify these models as done. Next post however is likely to be about a change in painting approach that I'll be forced to make given the current circumstances - or else I simply won't get anything done all year.

-- silly painter.

Legions Imperialis - Sicaran Battle Tanks (Part III)

 

brrrmm brrrmm

I can't seem to find time to get these tanks finished, but there has been some progress.

I'm also incredibly tired right now, so this will almost certainly be brief and to the point.

The metal is mostly Iron Warriors, then Iron Hands over that on the tracks. The tracks had Ratling Grime over the top for a bit of weathering, which is just enough to make the tracks look used without making them look caked in mud while the rest looks suspiciously clean. The weapons are just a base coat right now and need a shade and probably Iron Hands later as well.

Balthasar Gold rounds out the rest of the metallics so far - again, needs a shade and then a highlight with something else. The Omega Destroyer (or whatever it's called) variant has Balthasar Gold on the firing ports, and then Iron Warriors sort of glazed over the top. I intended to go back over that with a thinned black for scorching later on.

Lenses, viewports, and power cables are all base coated with Khorne Red. I'll differentiate viewports from cables with some other colour later on, but the small dots of red accents nicely against the turquoise which otherwise dominates the models.

I was also stalled for quite some time not knowing what colours to use on various components. In the end I'm "cheating" by using the reference photos / box art from GW on the larger version to inform the colours on the smaller scale. Except for the plasma glow - that's purely so the variant is instantly recognisable on the tabletop.

Still a lot of detail left to go, and now that I'm on a roll with them I have to push the pause button and go away for a couple of weeks. Not that I'll have much time when I'm back, but at least the main colours are blocked in - just detailing it (including edge highlights on black areas) and they'll be good enough to call done.

-- silly painter

Legions Imperialis - Sicaran Battle Tanks (Part II)

 

An edgy, colourful variety of tank.

There hasn't been a whole lot of progress on the Sicaran tanks recently, but I did manage to finally get the bulk of the armour finished and an impression of how well the (hopefully) more refined approach would turn out.

Last time it was simply building up Typhon Ash, later mixed with White Scar, to ensure the vibrancy showed through. I think that worked well enough that I'll simply continue with that approach in future. Terradon Turquoise was applied in a couple of coats but managed to maintain some of the shading and highlighting. I could have mixed in slightly more White Scar, but on the other hand the edge highlights here help give the appearance of brighter colours.

After the usual coat of gloss varnish, and before edge highlights, I once again went with Black Legion (Contrast) mixed with acrylic flow improver. I wasn't exactly super careful with it, but neither was I being too messy. I did on occasion (particularly on the top areas of the body near the turret) heaving wash nearly all of it, and then quickly wipe away excess with a cleaned brush. This is much quicker than carefully panel lining, and keeps any staining to a minimum. I wouldn't do this on larger scales, but it worked excellently here.

The main armour highlight colours are Gauss Blaster Green and Sons of Horus Green. Gauss Blaster applied to brighter (normally upward facing) edges, Sons of Horus on others but also layered over Gauss Blaster to pull back some of the brightness and help tie everything together. I also mixed the two colours together basically as I felt like it, wanting edges visible but not trying to cosplay as a Tron character. I think so far it worked, even though I'm aware the matt varnish later will tone it back.

Black Legion (Contrast) was used to cover the tracks and black armour panels because of its good coverage and ability to be applied over gloss varnish. The armour panels still had Eshin Grey and Abaddon Black blended together over them - and none of this has been done on the turrets yet. The tracks I was unsure about. I wanted them darker, metallic, but also dirty and distinct from the armour panels. I also didn't want to spend weeks on them. Ultimately it was as simple as Iron Warriors in a couple of layers (this does not have to be completely smooth, just a couple of rough coats) and then Ratling Grime (Contrast) over the top. The Ratling Grime I researched and bought specifically to try this out with - and I'm intending to use it elsewhere for oil stains, or general...grime.

That brings the tanks to their current state. The weapons need blacking and metallics applied, and the housing on the turrets for the weapons will probably be black as well, which is why I didn't bother to highlight those yet. There are a few viewports that need picking out, lenses, other small details - all over which is going to take time. I'm definitely spending more of that on these particular models compared to the Rhinos, but these are also centrepieces. Also I couldn't decide on the turrets, so I'm painting them all - meaning four tanks, but eight turrets in total.

-- silly painter.

Legions Imperialis - Sicaran Battle Tanks (Part I)

 

Tanks a lot.

Delayed post because of being laid low, but back to things now. I have a few things with slight progress, but these little tanks have been sitting assembled and primed for a long while now and I wanted to start them. I'm hoping to use the airbrush very regularly over the next couple of weeks just because I have an window to do that before certain distractions are restored.

Part of the reason in delaying starting these next models has been in wanting to try and get a better handle on using the airbrush. I've been getting used to thinning paints more, using multiple passes to reduce some of the speckle, and even swapping between airbrushes to see how the higher quality ones compare with my skill level. Hint: thinning paints makes cleaning out an airbrush much, much easier! I've been skipping full tear down and clean outs because it's simply not required, and there's been virtually no nozzle clogging. There is a downside that the with the amount of thinner and flow improver I use, the paint definitely does not adhere as well. It takes quite some time to cure and stick to the model, several hours or even a full day will give better results in this regard.

The multiple coats, multiple sessions airbrushing approach I'm developing works for me because I don't have all day to sit and paint - generally an hour session each day works best right now, so I can line up multiple models and batch as appropriate. The tanks here will have another couple of sessions before the paintbrush comes out: the Contrast paint filter stage, and then later gloss varnish to secure everything.

The initial stage on these tanks was Typhon Ash, roughly one part of that with one part thinner and one part flow improver. I probably need to adjust that mixture in future, make two parts paint to one part each of the thinner and flow improver. I did need to hold back the airbrush further initially, and the first coat was far too watery, but later it mixed better and more to my liking. I used about four passes in the end, rotating through the parts to give each time to dry before the next layer, to build up to full opacity and given even coverage. A little patience is needed, but I think it worked well.

Previous models always suffer from the problem that I don't go bright enough with the initial Zenithal highlights, so this time I then mixed in White Scar to the cup and did another pass. I'm hopeful this is now bright enough that the later Contrast filter won't be too dark. I still have trouble with this: I almost always need to go lighter and brighter than I might think, forgetting that mixing paint decreases both. I'll see how I fare this time.

-- silly painter.