Wednesday, May 14, 2014

Dystopian Gun Ships step by step

A comment here awhile back expressed an interest in seeing a step by step look at how I paint my Dystopian Wars stuff so here it is. Good timing as well with Version 2 on the horizon.
So here is a break down of how I painted these Blazing Sun Gun Ships.



0. I have a quick clean of the model to begin with which is usually just filling or cutting away any extra resin at the water line area. These products are typically very good so it's a very minimal clean up.
Next is a good black spray primer. Once dry I paint on a base colour of Luftwaffe Uniform Vallejo paints.
1. Luftwaffe Uniform base colour.

2. London Grey semi dry brush all over

3. Wood, Brass and white windows.
3. For the wood its Khaki ( a colour I use a lot). I am not terribly careful with painting around the small hatches and other detail within the planked deck areas. The khaki spills over them but they will be fixed later. My paints are not really thinned a lot so its a one hit coat.
The same goes for the white colour in the windows. I actually didn't use pure white. Close to white colours actually cover better than pure white acrylic paint...pale grey something.
The use of Brass materials really is a Dystopian visual key to it's alternative history weirdness. So anything that looks like a pipe or other areas are picked out in brass.
4. Army Painter Strong Tone quick shade, and Blue window ink wash.


4. The detail becomes more apparent at this stage.
The depth and tone change comes with applying some runny washes over the Brass and wood planks. Once again any minor spill over is OK. The hatches and other detail on the planked areas get wash in them as I use a larger brush that holds more fluid usually.
The windows are washed with this ancient GW wash I have. The original container was so old the lid perished so I salvaged the fluid by transferring it into a new container. It could be some sort of Blue Glaze turquoise looking ink.
The washes do not behave like paint. It's basically coloured water. If you are new to it then be patient. As your brush skills improve you will come to terms with controlling it better. With a small brush I just dab it in the windows and wait for it to run off the brush (it's quick though). At first it looks like a puddle but after it drys it looks fine. So I don't try and drain it out by dabbing my brush back into it once a puddle is there.
Unlike regular paints that dry enough for you to continue painting at this point it's break time.....time to walk the dog, take out the garbage, talk to people, make a sandwich. The bottom line is I don't touch them again until the washes are totally dry.

5. I paint the top part of the funnel and the Rocket tubes with German Grey. They will both get a black wash eventually.

6. To connect my Navy to it's Air Force friends I add a little green feature. Luftwaffe Camo Green to the pointy nose feature and the ridge that extends below it. This is highlighted by mixing Yellow with the green and applying that a few times.

7. Finally it's a touch to all the spill over areas with London Grey. This is possibly the stage that I take the most care with. All those little detail bits on the planking that are not wood get a wipe with London Grey.
The good raised areas around the windows get a wipe of London Grey and it covers any remaining white or wash spill over. Basically any place that spill over has occurred from Khaki, Brass, White and/or the Washes. The only thing that remains is any protective clear coating.


You could even consider a mix of Gloss and Matt varnishing.

Cheers from Brendon

2 comments:

  1. Lovely work. They look superb.

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  2. Thank you so much for that, love the way you bring them to life - great job.

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