shows how his higher-level Synths turned out.
Nose Art:
Once the basic colors and scheme are done with the mini, work can begin on the "Nose Art." Without any "nose" on the mini, I decide to paint the images on the panels on the left and right torso areas.
You'll notice - in this series of pictures - that the mini is on a small mount of blister foam. I found that it was much easier to paint these small details when I took an empty mini transport tray, and flipped it over so that I could rest my hands and wrist on. The blister foam was good to keep the mini stable while painting. It's a good technique for painting if you have any hand-shaking (too much caffeine and not enough sleep in my case!), to stabilize your hands and brush.
For the artwork, I broke up the work into sections to make the painting go quicker, and also to help in covering up and correcting any mistakes. Trying to tackle work like this all at one time will definitely lead to more mistakes and a very difficult time trying to fix things.
"Harmony Art":
I started with the rising sun, since it will be coming up behind the mountain. I made a ¾ circle with GW Scab Red, followed with progressive layers of GW Red Gore, GW Blood Red, and finally, GW Blazing Orange. Then I used a 70/30 mix of yellow and red ink to tie in the colors.
The mountain was done with GW Scorched Brown, GW Bestial Brown, GW Snakebite Leather, and GW Graveyard Earth. I "capped" the mountain with GW Codex Grey, GW Fortress Grey, and Reaper White Leather.
The final pieces of this art were the clouds. They were done using Reaper Armor Grey, Reaper Ash Grey, GW Codex Grey, and GW Fortress Grey.
Revenge Art:
For this part, I wanted to symbolize the planet Turtle Bay and the city of Edo, so I created a ½ sphere to represent Turtle Bay - with lots of blue water, and a major land mass. I painted the ½ sphere with GW Regal Blue, and highlighted areas with GW Enchanted and Ice Blues. The land mass was done up with the same colors as the mountain portion of the "Harmony Art."
For the warship strike, I took some liberty - and instead of making a picture of a ship firing a planetary strike, I went with a nuclear mushroom cloud, which is probably a stronger symbolic message of massive destruction. Also, with the Japanese-theme of the Combine and the Naginata mini, I felt it was an appropriate symbol of past historical events.
The mushroom cloud was done up with the same colors as the clouds in "Harmony Art," with a few streaks of GW Red Gore and GW Blood Red mixed in.
Reusing similar colors in techniques (mountains/land mass, clouds/mushroom cloud) also allowed me to further strengthen the tie to the symbolism in both pieces of artwork and the overall theme of the mini.
Final Detail Work:
I completed the mini with some red highlights, cockpit details, and metallic work on the missile ports and PPC. I also added some metallic chips and worn areas, to emphasize the "on the battlefield" aspect of the scheme.
Tip: Using complementary colors (green/red) is a very good technique to make a paint scheme pop, but unfortunately, using green and red in combination sometimes leads to the "Christmas scheme" syndrome - where one's mini looks more like an ornament than a gaming piece!
The red that I used for the highlights are different than the brighter GW reds for the artwork pieces and cockpit. Instead, I used the following VMC paints - which are much darker in color, and allow one to use red with green minis without having the Christmas look:
Hope you enjoyed the article and the finished mini! It was a challenging theme for me to work on due to my lack of experience with freehand work, but I definitely learned some new applications and techniques that I will be able to use on future projects.