Tabletop Thursday: Battlewagon Part 3 Paints and Weathering

Over the past few weeks, we have been seeing releases for the Kustom Boosta Blasta, Shokkjump Dragsta and lastly the Snazzwagon, so all Ork Mekheads (myself included) are champing at the bit for more Speed Freaks stuff.

Also: They just released more Ork previews!!! WAAAAAAAAAGH! (But more on that later)

*Ahem.*

So, in continuing with the rolling death machines, I continued (and nearly finished up) the converted Munitorum-Morkanaut Battlewagon. (Breacher Battlewagon?)

Details

Part 1 was my conversions, and last week I finished up the base colours of the battlewagon via the airbrush, so most of the session this week would mainly be the spot colours, followed by the detailing. I also decided I would take the time to try out new methods on the model.

One of the new methods I tried on this model was the use of Oil Washes. Now, I’ve done oil washes before, but the this time I decided to try with the water soluble oil washes, which reduced the need for thinners.

This is a close up of some of the shading from the oil, which really does give a very rich colour. While they worked just as well as normal oil washes, the fact that water dissolves the pigment meant that I was not able to paint on the model after applying the wash, even using acrylics (since there’s water in that too).

I think it’s a new technique that bears some thinking about, but it requires a bit more preparation and forethought. I can’t just go in and paint what feels correct (like acrylics), so it’s probably mainly for the more important centrepieces.

The second thing I tried was the custom vinyl stencils. While I already did use them on this model (see the hazard stripes in Part 2), this time was with more detailed custom stencils, like the Ork Skull and the Snake Bite logo. Because they were supposed to be spraypainted on after, I couldn’t do it at the same time as the hazard stripes.

As you can see, they went on very nicely indeed. I need the stencils to be rather large as the vinyl is pretty fragile (see how the ork eye is connected there) so I think the custom stencils only useful for large models like trukks and up. Simple stencils should work on smaller models though.

Weathering and Chipping

The last thing I decided to try would be different methods of weathering. I did two rust streak methods; first the Warhammer method of using acrylics, followed by a spray of matte varnish and weathering using the normal thinner based oil washes.

 First I would need to get the chips in. I used the sponge method in places around the battlewagon to get it nice and random, and highlighted up the chips with blue and white (or yellow and white as the case may be). I then managed to get my streaks in.

The warhammer method was the one Chris referred to on warhammer TV when painting the promethium refinery. It was using a base of wet medium followed by a few dabs of appropriately coloured paint, and using a large flat brush to pull the paints down into streaks. The only difference was that instead of Lahmian medium, I just used generic medium (which works just as well).

Next up: Varnish!

I think I made a mistake on the varnish. I probably should have used satin or gloss instead. While the matte varnish was nice and… well… matte, that means that the oil washes and oil streaks I applied didn’t flow into the cracks as much as I wanted it to.

As you can see in the before and after shots, while the Oil Wash did help to shade down the metals, I think it stained it a lot more than I would have liked. Currently, I think I prefer the acrylic streaking method. I’m more comfortable with acrylic paints, and I have a much larger range of colours to use, as opposed to oils where I have to build up a range again. That being said, it might just be because I’m still not very good with Oil washes, so I’m willing to give it another shot. Maybe it’ll be better with a gloss/satin varnish.

Next week, I should finish the Ork vehicle commander, and get some nice shots up. Stay tuned!