Round Four Report from Garness-at-Home - Part 2

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Dread Pirate Garness continues:

Now to get the blending in really well, I used 2 colors - Prussian Blue and White, both from Liquitex. I use these paints almost exclusively on my large models, but for what I was doing here (on such a large area), they were perfect. I squeeze a little bit out of the tubes, and it comes out like toothpaste. What makes these ideal is they don't dry very fast, and the transition of color is very easy to do.

What I did was paint one side blue and the other white, and then worked toward the middle, blending them right on the model. Depending on which way I was pulling the color, I could control the blending process very easily. If it is too bright, I pull more blue into the middle to deepen the color, and work my way back to the dark side. The easiest way to explain it is that there is no main base color, just the shade and the highlight, and everything in-between is a blend of the two.

I then painted all the gun barrels, tubing, piping, lights, and the round portion of the hovercraft using Americana Black. I painted the entire underside black as well, and highlighted by using Americana Victorian Blue mixed into the black.

I highlighted the skirt, which I assumed to be black rubber or its sci-fi equivalent, by adding Victorian Blue to it, and gradually adding more to the mix till it was a dirty blue-grey color. The gun barrel was painted over with Vallejo Blue Steel finish, and then washed several times with black ink to eliminate the shine. I painted the seat black, and highlighted with Americana Slate Grey.

I then painted a thick strip on the seat with Slate Grey as well. This is meant to represent a strip of duct tape to keep the foam inside the cushion - after all, where would the military be without duct tape? I thought this would help with the overall feel of the figure, as seats are never a high priority in the repair roster.

I then painted a few buttons on the two stick consoles, nothng more than a few blue-and-red squares, with a little light-blue and orange to make it look like the buttons are lit up. Same thing was done with the front panel, but I painted a small targeting screen on there using Americana Plantation Pine, and did the crosshairs using GW Scorpion Green.