After an eternity of super glued fingers, and fingerprints on the model, the Cerberus has tracks. I now understand the community's complaint about spartan tracks. They just fit terribly. That said, I am really excited to start paint chipping, decals, oil streaking, and powders. However after seeing these photos close up, I've noticed quite a few areas that I have to go back and clean up pin wash from first.
Color modulation has become a goto technique of mine for a while now. Thanks go out to the military modeling community for enlightening me. In some ways I've down this for years, but I started out as many do with soft blends. It is the hard lines that make color modulation really pop. There are three colors at play here, jungle green, highlands moss, and pale lichen in that order from darkest to lightest. The gun shield on the photo above shows the technique in full. All four sections of the shield have alternating gradients. It looks a little garish now, but once the hard edges are interrupted with paint chipping, and the large gradients have dirt streaks, it will come together.
I have been thinking about adding a draped red/orange banner with the Eye of Horus and legion honors across the front of the gun in homage to a beautiful EC Cerberus painted by Chris Bowers (you can see photos of his amazing painting here). Alternately, I was thinking about using the black Sons of Horus eye transfers and paint the whites with a gradient of red to orange. I'll have to wait for another sheet to arrive from forgeworld, but I think that could add a lot of interest to the doors on the vehicle.
Colour modulation on the top and front look great on this. On the sides though it looks like you've deviated a little from the method and outlined everything with the highlight colour instead? Can't help but think that continuing the "top to bottom" light to dark approach you've used on th front would be better on the sides too, giving a more consistent look.
ReplyDeleteReally looking forward to the finished piece though! Keep up the great work.
Cheers,
CMDante
The sides are essentially panel shading. Chipping, streaking, and an airbrush of dust up through the doors will even out the sides quite a bit. Ultimately the duet will cover up the pin wash as well. I find the sides of this style tank difficult to deal with due to how weirdly they are constructed.
DeleteAre you The CMDante? If so, then I love the rogue trader model you painted. That is something to aspire to!
DeleteI'd kill for a step-by-step to accomplish this technique. Either by you, or a link to the resources you used to learn this.
ReplyDeleteI currently use 2 tone over a median base airbrushing, but without all these hard edges. I'm wondering if you are using either a lot of masking tape, or just temporary cards against the edges, or if this is accomplished with brush and glazes.
Looking forward to seeing this weathered.
Keep on doin' what you're doin'.
I use tamiya painters tape when it is needed, but cut up business cards when tape is unnecessary. I'll do a step by step eventually. I taught the method to a painter last week and the rhino she produced was stunning. Basically a full version of the space wolf test piece I painted. This might be one of those things which is easier to see in person than capture in photos.
DeleteI read an older post you did on an Ultramarine's rhino. I see the concept with the alternating gradient directions. The other main difference is just colour choice/theory. I'm gonna give it a whirl.
DeleteBeautiful stuff as usual John!
ReplyDeleteThanks marc. Seeing how you apply pigments was an eye opener for me You'll see a lot more dirt on these tanks going forward.
DeleteIncredibly beautiful. Could you share the colour references you use to do the base color for this sons of horus army? I tried looking in the Vallejo/citadel/... charts for those colours you mentioned in the post, but I am not able to find them.
ReplyDeleteThanks man
Isma
I use Reaper Master Series paints for my Sons of Horus. You won't find them at a GW, but you can find them pretty easily on Amazon. Happy painting!
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