Round Four Report from Rob Jedi - Part 5

Rob Jedi continues:

Now the stuff that gives the vehicle character: markings. I started with some Golden Yellow lines across the arm rests and around the tail boom. This was then highlighted the edges with white ink (I was looking at TB2 for reference here).

I figured the panel in front of the console (on the back of the gun) could look good in hazard markings. I have seen white-and-red hazard stripes used with green before - it contrasts much better than yellow-and-black. I first painted the edge of the panel black, then painted the panel white, then gave it a wash of Ash Grey. I then painted the red stripes on carefully with Humbrol Flat Scarlet using my 5/0 liner brush, and then filled the stripes with a thinned coat. I then mixed in a little Art Spectrum white ink and highlighted the stripes.

I figured the hazard stripes could look good on the engines around the seat, too. So I painted the ring Ash Grey, then highlighted it with white. I could afford to be real messy here, since I hadn't painted the engines yet - I knew I would over-paint the edges with black first. So I painted in the red stripes same as the last ones, and then painted the engines.

I figured I may as well get all the metallic areas out of the way at this point, so painted the console, the controller panels, the pedals, the thrusters, and the gun barrel black. I then used FolkArt Gunmetal on the gun barrel, then highlighted it with GW Boltgun Metal. I then painted all the other panels and parts with straight Boltgun Metal - it gives a real nice steel look, not too shiny, not too dark.

Back to markings. I figured some checkers could look cool too, so I got the Golden Yellow out again...and I might as well describe how to do this properly. I thinned down the paint to a milky consistency and - using my 5/0 - I painted a hair-thin line around the muzzle of the main gun (that being the common line of the two rows). I then painted the cross lines at even intervals around the circumference of the muzzle.

After that, I closed off every second box. Then I filled the boxes. These were then highlighted with white ink.

After doing one section with checkers, I figured I might as well do some more...so I painted them in the same fashion on the ends of the top wing.