A note from the Editor: It is with great pleasure that I present to you a labor of love and wonderful tutorial from two-time guest host, Andy! This complete tutorial features his fantastically painted Blood Angel’s Stormraven which he slaved over in the beginning of 2011. The original tutorial, which can be found on Andy’s blog, was delivered over nine parts. Andy has been gracious enough to recreate that tutorial here, slightly condensed, for you, the Turn 8 audience (also, it gives some better exposure to his work … win/win!). Please enjoy and feel free to leave our man a comment or two.

In the next part of Build a Stormraven, after priming everything Dragon Red and magnetizing the wings, I started to paint the details on the ship.   First I put a base coat of black on all areas that I wanted to be black or Boltgun Metal.  The black areas are meant to create a sort of visual rhythm (a series of light-dark-light areas), too often people will paint a model all one color and call it a day.

The first parts that I actually wanted to do finished detail work was the cockpit, top turret and top intake vent so I could glue the canopy on the cockpit and glue together the top turret.  I used Blood Red as the pilots highlight color and a 1:1 mix of Codex Grey and Black to highlight the black areas.   For the buttons and control panels, I use a variety of colors (blue, green, red) and just highlighted them with a quick dab of white.

Generally the Boltgun Metal areas were utilitarian in nature, ie. turbines, parts of landing gear and turrets.   Stuff that moves around a lot or may be fixed or replaced a lot by servitors. Read the rest of this entry »

A note from the Editor: It is with great pleasure that I present to you a labor of love and wonderful tutorial from two-time guest host, Andy! This complete tutorial features his fantastically painted Blood Angel’s Stormraven which he slaved over in the beginning of 2011. The original tutorial, which can be found on Andy’s blog, was delivered over nine parts. Andy has been gracious enough to recreate that tutorial here, slightly condensed, for you, the Turn 8 audience (also, it gives some better exposure to his work … win/win!). Please enjoy and feel free to leave our man a comment or two.

Primed!

For part two of how to build a Stormraven, I have my Stormraven primed with Army Painter Dragon Red spray paint.   For those used to GW’s primers this spray paint is a rather different animal.   Its a thicker paint out of the can and a bit more touchy than GW’s.   Make sure the humidity is not above 50-60% when you are painting and also make sure its not too hot or cold out, I’d say no hotter than 85 degrees and no colder than 50 degrees.   Also you will have to spray a bit closer than GW cans, which are generally best at about 6-8 inches from nozzle to model.   Make sure the Army Painter nozzle is about 4-5 inches away from your model.   If you get further you run the risk of the paint drying before hitting the model and this creates a sandpaper like texture.   If you paint on a hot humid day (or on a rainy day), you’ll also get this same sandpaper texture.

Even with all these high maintenance instructions, I HIGHLY recommend priming with Army Painter sprays. Their selection of color is fantastic and for the most part, color matches GW’s line of paints. I also used the Skeleton Bone Spray paint (matches GW’s Bleached Bone) to prime all my Tau army.

With that being said, Dragon Red is a darker shade than GW’s Blood Red. The closest GW paint is the Foundation Paint: Mechrite Red. But unfortunately this isn’t an exact match. So I had to find something else… Read the rest of this entry »

A note from the Editor: It is with great pleasure that I present to you a labor of love and wonderful tutorial from two-time guest host, Andy!  This complete tutorial features his fantastically painted Blood Angel’s Stormraven which he slaved over in the beginning of 2011.  The original tutorial, which can be found on Andy’s blog, was delivered over nine parts.  Andy has been gracious enough to recreate that tutorial here, slightly condensed, for you, the Turn 8 audience (also, it gives some better exposure to his work … win/win!).  Please enjoy and feel free to leave our man a comment or two.

The Interior:

Ok, so I’m FINALLY posting my walk through of the building and painting of my Blood Angels Stormraven.   So,  obviously I unsprued things and filed down all the mold lines etc.   I decided to actually paint the inside of this thing (for some reason).   First I black primered the interior (not the outside).   Then I used Boltgun Metal to pretty much coat the entire interior (Space Marines aren’t into interior design so much).   I used the Black Ink (not Badab black, I have an old bottle of the stuff and its MUCH stronger than Badab Black)  with a half water half ink mix and washed the hole interior.   If you have Badab Black, just use that straight up with no dilution.  Then i did a dry brush of Boltgun Metal again to get rid of the “watermarks”.  For the walkway ramps, I also did a wash of Devlan Mud to show where the Marines would trudge dirt and grime everywhere when they embark and disembark.

Next step, I used Scorched Brown on the leather seats and highlighted with Bestial Brown.   Gold parts were based with Shining Gold, highlighted with Burnished Gold and then a little bit of Mithril Silver on the corners and points. Read the rest of this entry »