Tau Hammerhead Step by Step part 5

So, lots has been done for this posting, mainly because I got ill this last weekend and couldn't manage anything more than gently painting!

So, finally the oil washes were dry, so I moved on to doing the black lining - each recess line was fine lined using black oil paint. I find that acrylics are terrible for lining; They dry far too quickly and it means that if you make a mistake, you either have to over paint it, or you are stuck with it. With oil paints this isn't a problem, as the working time is so long. My normal working procedure is to very roughly put the black on the lines - being neat, but not worrying if i slip in the odd place. Then using a cotton bud and some clean turpentine i then run along the lines. If you are careful and have only a small amount of turpentine on the the cotton bud, you can generally get the line perfectly crisp - See the photo to the right for an example.

The main problem with Oil paints (and I urge everyone to go out and get some oil paints and have a play, they are truly wonderful materials to work with) is the drying time. Oils need to be left to dry for 48 hours once painted on (unless you use a drying accelerator, although i can't recommend this method, having never tried it).

So, returning to the hammerhead a day and a bit later (yeah okay, I'm impatient!) the next stage was the application of ink washes to the metallic parts. I use Dr. Ph. Martins Inks - I believe they are meant for calligraphy, but i find they work really nicely on models, especially for the effect i was trying to achieve, as they "crack" slightly giving metal a nicely worn appearance, see photo to the left for an example - here the aim was to make the metal look old, worn and pitted - almost as if the top layer of the metal was wearing away. Generally I mix these inks with Kleer to give a very high reflection finish. Sometimes I find i need to add a very small drop of washing up liquid to get a smoother finish.

Another short amount of time for the model to dry again and it was out with the pigments. As people probably know by now, I'm a big fan of Mig pigments, and they were used liberally for this project. First i dusted all the metal areas with a dark rust, and once that was blended in, I then hit them again with a lighter rust colour.

All the metal areas then had a graphite pencil (2B) rubbed along any prominent surfaces to give the impression of the metals wearing through the rust. Finally I gave them a gentle rub with my finger to bring it all together

The underside was treated with four or five shades our earth pigments, to give a dusty feel - this was carried over the edge and slightly up the sides, as well as the tops of the door hatches (because they fold down and would end up in the mud!). I made sure that the "mud" was firmly embedded inside any seams or hatch edges - these exposed openings just live to collect dirt! The flight feet were included in the mud application and then again had graphite added to them.

Lastly for this stage I painted in the rear lights and the front view port. Again this was done using P3 heart fire. They were painted the same way that i paint gems, shading on the bottom right and lit from the top left

So, at this stage I'm gonna put the hammerhead aside and start to work on the scenic base, which is gonna involve me learning how to create a mold and cast it in plaster! But that's a story for another day!