Ok, after a long break from 28mm scale figures I have gotten the bug to paint again at this scale.
And what better to start with than these bad boys -



So as some of you may know I have left the 40K fold and I'm not sure whether I intend to return but suffice to say I do enjoy painting at this scale and I have been itching to paint Elysians for many a moon. So I have taken the plunge and ordered a squad and a weapons pack which will hopefully arrive next week.
In the meantime I have purchased a plastic sentinel which I have tweaked to make it more in line with the Elysian one. The roll cage has been cut lower and the exhausts have been shortened and drilled out. I have also fitted the various weapons and mounting point with rare earth magnets to allow them to change.

It is my intention to give the army a modern US forces feel to it so camo schemes and colour pallette will be based on US tans and desert yellows etc.

So after quite a few hours of prepping I under coated the various parts in Tamiya's primer.



Now, now I know what your saying... Tamiya primer - what the hell?! But listen guys, the stuff is ballistic and is one of the best undercoats you can get. The Beauty of it is that being grey you can spot defects you might have missed with black or white and then correct them before painting.

So after primer I give the various parts a coat of Vallejo Black, thinned with Blue Windex and applied using a gravity feed dual action airbrush. This is to give a dark base to the veichle to create depth and shadow.



I have not undercoated the pilot since he will be predominately lighter colours a white undercoat will be preferable.

After the Black I then apply a highlight of Vallejo US Tan Earth again with the airbrush. I Spray predominately from a 3/4 height and delibrately spray a heavier layer on large flat surfaces.



Finally I repeat the process above with Vallejo Green Ochre.



That's all for now folks. Next stage is perhaps some filters and then final highlighting.

Cheers

Jas

Ok. Since these steps are quite subtle I have taken one photo for the three. First I gave portions of the hull some touches of a Devlan Mud/Badab Black mix. This is applied again with the airbrush. This adds a little more depth and some minor colour modulation.
I have then done two light successive drybrushes with first Kommando Khaki and then Bleached Bone. The key here is that the drybrushing is very very light as the technique should not be used to "paint" the model but to had very fine highlights.





Next up is detailing.

Cheers

Jas

I really like the Elysian's. I'm looking forward to seeing how these guys turn out. Keep up the work!

I'm watching with interest.

Nice work so far I'll be looking forward to seeing some pics of the troops.

Looking Good Jas!

Still playing Flames of War?

Which Rules where you looking to use these figures for?

Happy Gaming,

Allan

Hi Guys and thanks for the comments. I hope I can do something a little different with the Elysians and yes, I can't wait for the troops to turn up!

@ Allan - Yeah mate still a Flames man but the historical painting is doing my head in so this is a holiday of sorts. I expect that I will design the Elysians around regular IG rules but at this stage I am just painting whatever tickles my fancy.

Ok, with a belly full of rum I hardly fely like sleeping last night and decided to get stuck into the sentinel. It is now complete up to the point of adding pigments etc. I will complete the pilot first. I also intend to add aerials and maybe some more detail depnding on how it looks once the roll cage and pilot are fitted.









For those that are interested I did the detailing as follows -

1. All areas that are a different colour were basecoated vallejo Black. This helps make the detailing pop.
2. Hydraulics on the sentinels legs were basecoated Mithril Silver and washed with a Devlan Mud/Badab Black mix.
3. All weapons were basecoated vallejo gunmetal and then washed with the devlan/badab mix.
4. Autocannon shells were basecoated vallejo brass and washed with the devlan/badab mix.
5. Chipping is a 3 part process applied using a small amount of blister pack sponge taped to the end of an old paint brush. I start with Bleached Bone. Then with Vallejo Calvary Brown. And then finally with Boltgun Metal. The idea here is the Bleached bone represents minor chips. The calvary red is chips down to the "primer". And the boltgun Metal is chips down to the metal.
6. I also apply random scratches with vallejo Flat brown.
6. Exhausts are basecoated vallejo Flat Brown. Highlighted with Flat Brown/Light Brown. Then Light Brown and Boltgun metal chipping with the sponge method.
7. I paint dials and buttons with reds and greens.
8. And then apply rust stains with the old GW Flesh Wash and oil stains with Vallejo Black Shade.

Next up the pilot.

Cheers Jas

Righto, the pilot is now finished and ready to fit to the sentinel.

Basic colour scheme is Vallejo Green Ochre with highlights of Kommando Khaki and Bleached Bone. Camo is Vallejo green grey and Russian Uniform.





I'll fit him up now and start adding some pigments to dirty up the sentinel.

Cheers

Jas

I did a double take when I saw this post... Jas doing some 40K minis.... and I was not mistaken.

Excellent work as always. Love the camo on the pilot!!!

Will be watching with interest as I have the IG bug also.. and your doing FW Elysians, nice one mate! Best get my finger out on mine and looking forward to picking your brains for weathering at this scale

Off to have a beer now as Im in shock... woot!

Thanks mate.
Yes, I'm not surprised you did a double take!
It is nice to be doing this scale again and Elysiums seemed the logical choice to suit my style.
Weathering has been fun! It is soooo much easier than at 15mm!!!!
The camo scheme will be the Uniform throughout the army.
Hope you like it....

Nice painting especially with a belly full of rum! lol

haha, yeah I don't make a habit of drinking and painting but for some reason I was in the mood last night!

Ok, the sentinel is complete! Yay!!

I have taken photos of it with the various weapons options. C & C welcome.













So next up will be of course the elysians when they turn up and I will also do a valkyrie. If I am still enjoying it all after that, I'll add to them from there!

Cheers

Jas

He needs a cigar...

Other than that, tre nice!

That is one fine looking sentinal. Excellent work.

Very nice work indeed.

Like the whip ariels, what did you use?

Did you use pigments on the feet?

Looking forward to the next installment.

Nice work on the Silfor Tufts.

What is the darker foliage you used towards the rear of the base?

Cheers,

Allan

Thanks gus for the comments!

@ Stu - Yep, Mig Light European Dust on the feet. I haven't fixed it yet. And the whip ariels are from guitar wire I had laying around. I was going to use some light tackle line that I used on my FOW stuff but I couldn't find it!

@ Allan - That is also a silflor/mininatur product. They do a line of scale foilage. That one is Lombardy Poplar (can't remember the season, summer maybe) 1:160 scale but it works well as weeds at this scale. It is scale leaves stuck to rubberized horse hair. You just trim off what you need and glue it in place - easy!!

Cheers

Jas

As always Jas excellent. If I had to be extremely picky though Id say the metal on the guns and the shock absorber metal bits on the legs looks a bit unfinished by your standards.

Mate it is still above and beyond ANYTHING seen here.

VERY NICE!

Fair comments.

I am happy with the metal on the weapons but I was thinking I might go back and redo the metal on the hydraulics as they lost their shine when washed and varnished.

No need to redo the metal bits they look good as they are, like they are all weathered and used. Like the rest of the machine

+1

That sentinel is absolutely awesome! Great work!

Cheers guys for the comments. I'm hoping the Elysians should be here in the next day or two and I have some pearler ideas for the bases for my next 2 sentinels so should be some more action in the next couple of days.

Hey just curious what you will use to set the piments. Looks brilliant by the way.

I have the mig fixer. This is the recommended method of fixing but from past experiment I know it doesn't take kindly to Tamiya's Flat Clear Lacquer. There is a reaction that normally leaves the area slightly tacky and sometimes shiny. I recently was reading the mig forum and a poster recommended using the fixer sprayed through an airbrush INSTEAD of using a matt varnish. I am yet to give this a go but could be the most viable solution.

After the tips you gave me in another topic jas, I've started using pigments. I spray models with my Flat Clear and after that, brush some pigment on using brush-on matte varnish as the liquid. This dries fine, and makes the pigment stick really well to the model (I've had a go at it with a toothbrush and it still doesn't come off).

What brand brush-on matte varnish are you using? I've had poor results with brush-on varnishes so if you have found a good one I'd love to know which one!
Biggest thing is they often claim they are matt but more like satin.

the photos look great, jas. keep us informed about the next items that are going in the army.
i might just rock on up to your door to look in person.

Thanks mate, you know you're always welcome.

Ok, still waiting on the drop troops so I bought another sentinel yesterday and have started the construction process. I have 2 ideas for bases that I want to try. The second idea I will keep to myself until I construct my 3rd sentinel. The first idea is to mould up a couple of "concrete" construction barriers. The sentinel will have knocked one over and started walking across with his leading foot braced on the tipped over barrier and cracked it where it is applying pressure. It will be interesting to see how close i get to my original idea.
This excites me as it will add weight to the figure and will also be a nice texture to paint. There will be metal bracings visible also so it's an opportunity to try out some rust pigments and washes I have from Mig.

So here is a photo of the moulds I have made up.



Yeah not very exciting yet but I'll get some plaster of paris today and then we'll see...

I got some Vallejo stuff. You're right in that it is more of a satin finish if you just apply it to a model (much to my dismay) but there is no shine whatsoever when I use it with the pigments. Maybe they break up the surface enough to remove it?

If you click the link to my blog (in my sig) you can see the results.

Love the sentinel Jas, what pattern of cam is that? it looks like the US Army multicam?

Thanks mate. I have some at home and will try a test out with it to see what I think.

@ Sutters - I based the camo pattern on the US digital ACU but obviously digital at this scale is nigh on impossible to do. Multicam has those blackish streaks in it plus more colour variation wheres the digital ACU has three primary colours. I didn't want an exact replica (that's the reason I'm giving FOW a break at the moment as it's doing my head in!) but more indicative of modern US forces in a relaxing way.

Ok, so the moulds worked reasonably well. I have tweaked the "concrete blocks" slightly to make them look a little more realistic and am now ready to start placing them on the base. Once my base is fully dry I'll work out exactly where to pin and place the sentinel. Let me know what you guys think?

Cheers

Jas

I think one or two pockmarks from bullet holes or shell splinters will do the trick.

Otherwise it looks great.

Looking the goods mate. Looking forward to this.

I agree with Fluffy05, some damage on the front perhaps but you may have this planned already.

Bingo guys!
Once I have the placement right and I have fixed the "blocks" in place I was going to add a cluster of shell holes to the upright block.
Thanks for the comments!

Cheers

Jas

Looks good - I'm keeping an eye on this!

Nice job on the first one - looking forwards to the next installment.

You're painting these guys exactly as I would -IF- I had the skill to do so (which I don't). Perfect choice of colours and nice drab finishes on them. Very clean work.

Also if you add some basing sand you can pick at the surface of the cement to get the spawling effects.

http://public.fotki.com/chuckdoan/model_pr...led-half-inch-/
This link has some good shots of concrete that i like.

Good work on the sentinals so far.

Thanks guys.

@ Voyager - Thanks for the compliment mate - you do some sweet stuff so coming from yourself that's a huge compliment. Cheers

@ Agent Venom - I hadn't used plaster of paris since I was a kid so I thought I'd get a handle of it first before tackling mixing sand. I'd seen the technique used before but was not sure how it would go so i am saving it for a later project. Thanks for the link - that's some sweet modelling.

Ok, I am happy with the base postioning and have modelled the sentinel into a position I am happy with. have tweaked its toes to show a bit more movement. What do you think?





I just have to clean up the weapons and fit magnets and then I can begin painting.

Cheers

Jas

I like the pose and positioning of the sentinal. Are you going to crack and chip away some material around the bullet holes? I think that would give it an extra level of awesome, specially when its all painted.

Cant wait to see them together, they're looking the goods.

Yeah, I agree. When I finished taking the photos I thought - "bullet holes are too neat" - so I had planned to go back and flake off around the edges of the holes and make them more irregular in shape.
Thanks for the feedback.

Great work with the posing of the Sentinels feet. I think I may give something similar a ga

Thanks!

I would recommend extending the rear leg a little more and tilting the cabin slightly. Sentinels are chicken-walkers (term for movement with a reversed knee joint) - they're going to lurch, and stepping over a relatively high obstacle like that - the cabin is too calm and level for that. Loses some of the dynamism (is that a word?).

The bullet holes don't make any visual sense to me. Either fill the two left-most ones to make it like a static burst, or maybe turn the three most central ones into a single larger cratering hit. Also need to dirty up the edges of them a little - they've hit sloping concrete, they're going to ricochet slightly.

Most of this is nitpicking though. I like the concept very much.

I think I will definately fill in the bullet holes as you suggested and as mentioned before, dirty up the impacts.
As for the stance, I was torn between the pose you suggested, imply more movement and dynamicism and going for the more static surveying pose I opted for. I have chosen this pose for a reason, which I will keep to myself as a surprise for the moment (just in case I botch it up).

SURPRISE!!





Well you get the idea!

I still have some filling and neatening up of the sentinel commander but you can now see why the pose is more static - it's a bit hard to look through binoculars and drive!!

I have also filled the 2 bullet holes that Voyager suggested and dirtied up the remainder as we all agreed.

Don't know whether I'll get much more done this weekend as it looks like it'll be chockers.

Cheers

Jas

That looks very cool. I love the idea!

one word - WOW!!!

subscribing

Awesome, awesome, awesome. I haven't painted in over a year, but I think you've just inspired me to start again...