Okay now really looking forward to painting mine ..........................................

Stunning work. My favourite Armada repaints so far.

The Gorgon is absolutely beautiful Vykes. I had it in mind to paint my Rebels in a similar tone to K2-S0, like Gorgon but with a fine yellow trim rather than red. I've finally got off my backside to do it now, and it's your fault

If you're willing to share your secret... Did you a dark grey as your main colour with a slight metallic highlight or scratch/weathering effect or is she mainly a gunmetal-ish colour base?

Thanks mates! Do appreciate it, helps when I'm working on some of these older Imperial ships too

Aye, welcome Onine! K2-S0 is a pretty great idea for that, with yellow I think it would work exceptionally well! -laughs- always be happy to take responsibility for getting people to paint of course. Sure, always willing to help. The Gorgon's base is just a medium grey with an airbrushed highlight of light grey (almost white). Then it was reduced with a watered down PS3 armourwash. Then the lower points along the edge were wet-blended with citadel nuln oil to get the shading darker and more metallic with a smooth transition. That was followed up with 2 highlights on the upper edge of each plate (one in 'base grey' which has a faint blue tinge, further helping the metallic look and a stark light grey that I used for the initial airbrushed highlight). Then some sponged on water-oils were added and a wet brush dragged over them to give it the weathering. So it's all a form of non metallic metal painting. Hope it helps, mate, and always willing to answer anything I can, eh?

Vykes, you're having the opposite affect on me. I like my work, I look at yours, I cry a little, and i want to retire my brush. You really need to stop posting your works, lol.

Just kidding bro, awesome work, I love it. Keep it up.

Thank you Vykes, I didn't expect you to reveal the secret recipe, eleven herbs and spices and all! Wet transitioning with the two washes is a clever idea, I tip my hat to you, those panels have lovely shading. It makes the Pelta look like a much larger model than it is, it really pops.

That should be pretty good to see, mate. It depends on the contrast and tone of course. -nods- Ooo, a campaign fleet, can't wait to see what that'd be too... VT's, they is good.

As for me, thanks to a seeeeeriously awesome mate, I got my grubby claws on a Pelta! The lights aren't done yet, but the rest looks right good. Still thinking of a good name . 'Tis the Gorgon !

That is seriously awesome work. There is no such thing as a pristine warship...........the only way is if you walk into the Ship Store, and buy a brand new hot off the lot ship still in shrink wrap and with that awesome new ship smell

I'm always glad to do what I can! Leeets see, from the shipyards orbiting Jump Point Prime, we do have a few new ships and such.

Nothing too fancy, I still need to glue on an antenna and maybe do some mods, but it's still a fun little piece that was more a speedpaint than anything else.

Got my ILC squadron done and I do love its looks. If they were all mels I might be happier, but oh man, I do love the light cruiser look. gonna have a whole lot more to show soon enough: some fighters, some ships, all in the next few days. I just gotta get one other absolutely awesome painting project done.

Hey Vykes - love your stuff. Particularly like the off white you've used on your rebel ships (e.g. Phoenix A-Wings). I don't suppose you'd share the secret of which paints you've used for that?

12 hours ago, Vykes said:

I'm always glad to do what I can! Leeets see, from the shipyards orbiting Jump Point Prime, we do have a few new ships and such.

Nothing too fancy, I still need to glue on an antenna and maybe do some mods, but it's still a fun little piece that was more a speedpaint than anything else.

Vykesy! I know I asked this before re: your H6 paint jobs, but are you doing this one's OSL windows via brush? It's so subtle... so hypnotizing... looks almost like a photoshop job done in post!

Glad to year you lik the off white, Ele, sure I can tell ya! It's actually a number of greys from minitaire done in sequence: Badger fur (awesome name for a slight blue hued grey), base grey, then stone grey. If I need an extreme highlight, I go to reaper's ghost white (Like Citadel's beauuutiful Ulthuan grey, but a little stronger in pigment). Then it's matted down as minitiare has a satin finish. hope it helps!

Aye DUr, mate! Those are hand brushed, but the secret is that I went in before with an airbrush to layer down a faint bit of turquoise-ish blue (Spellslinger blue, I think is the name) then hand dotted on some vallejo sky blue, and went over it when dry with a minitaire plasma blue tint, watered accordingly and mixed with a tough of old out of production Citadel blue ink. It gives it that rich look Glad you like it, it's becoming my go to.... and I have an ISD coming up so maybe I should put up some sort of tutorial thing.

On 1/15/2017 at 7:07 PM, outerrimrebel said:

The bottom one was the traditional Dreadnought, the top one is Fractalsponge's take on the Dreadnought.

The Fractalsponge version is on my list to pick up, just to paint up as the Imperial Refit. Kind of a more healthy armed and armored modernized Dreadnaught, the opposite direction as the Rebel Assult Frigate's stripped down and reconfigured design.

17 hours ago, cynanbloodbane said:

The Fractalsponge version is on my list to pick up, just to paint up as the Imperial Refit. Kind of a more healthy armed and armored modernized Dreadnaught, the opposite direction as the Rebel Assult Frigate's stripped down and reconfigured design.

I went and picked up the four pack when Mel released them. They're currently sitting in my painting queue just waiting for inspiration to strike. They do look so much more lethal than the original Dreadnought, just like the AF MKI series looks so much more intimidating than the original Dreadnought.

Hi Vykes

If you want to go to Kuat Drive Yards, look under Alliance VCX-100DS Drop Ship, and give it a whirl. I am going to paint up the 5 VCX I have as spares , and a Quasar Carrier plus escorts in your drop ship paint scheme.

One more QQ: how do you get such a nice effect on your squadron windows (e.g. your Firesprays)?! Do you use a bit of blue-grey, or is it just grey into white? Mine never seem to look quite so deliberate and shiny.

16 hours ago, Ele said:

One more QQ: how do you get such a nice effect on your squadron windows (e.g. your Firesprays)?! Do you use a bit of blue-grey, or is it just grey into white? Mine never seem to look quite so deliberate and shiny.

Have you tried Ardcoat technical paint from Citadel? Gives a very nice, glossy shine. I use it on some of my rebel works.

No Ardcoat for me (it feels too artificial, but a lot of people seem to like it), it's all artificially done. Basically the firespray is like the Z95 and A wing with a 'bubble'. The canopy is divided into two sections at the middle, or slightly off centre. This creates two zones, one 'light' and one 'dark'. You can sharpen the divide by painting a black or dark coloured mark next to the lightest colour you add.

The colours can be done in two ways: starting with one prominent colour (like my Black Sun Z95's green canopy) or starting with black and adding progressive shades of grey, finished with a filtered wash overtop to create a hued sheen. Both have their benefits.

So it's kinda like this (where red is the current step, adding more light grey and yellow is the previous... probably inverted but meh. the lightest line of grey is more an off white. Though, in the case of red or green you may end up transitioning to yellow as it looks better than white). You can add a white dot to the top left hand corner (or the top 'dark' section of the canopy in the case of A wings and Z95's)

In other news, I've been toying with cloaking effects on Phantoms.

And the standard for cloak effects has been set higher...

It suits Vyke's asthetic, for sure.... The Purple/Blue blend/fade out is undenyably him. And it is technically executed to his normal, ie, excellent standards

So of course, as always, fantastic work from him...

I just personally prefer the white lightning effect to be a little sharper in comparison. But that's purely a personal preference note, as Vyksey knows I basically worship him as a painter.

Drassy's the one that does all the neat experimentation, I'm usually late on those things as I figure out how the frig to make the effect work. And thanks to this, I learned a few important things (and one is exactly what Drassy said, the sharpness, but in this case, between the blue and pitch black with the white/blue bolts being second).

Lessons learned: add a scarlet or green canopy to the phantoms so the transition is easier to recognize, sharp black line on the blue (but I like and am keeping the blue haze fade), and bolts are something I just need to practice. Guess I'll have to do a batch of Night Lord Marines

3 minutes ago, Vykes said:

Guess I'll have to do a batch of Night Lord Marines

::twitch::

Well, I guess I can put up a few other things I was working on lately.

What, didn't think that was the only phantom I was working on, eh? Actually I still got some of mine to do, guess I'm just all that enamored with them as a fighter.

Alright, what can I say, Glaive squadron looks pretty awesome. I'll have to eventually do some more Defenders up in white, but red is pretty great right now.

Some proper blue squadron E-wings, though there's a red ace around too for Horn, well, and Blount.

All fun stuff, glad I got the opportunity to work on more. Z95's in particular are fun

22 hours ago, Vykes said:

Well, I guess I can put up a few other things I was working on lately.

What, didn't think that was the only phantom I was working on, eh? Actually I still got some of mine to do, guess I'm just all that enamored with them as a fighter.

Alright, what can I say, Glaive squadron looks pretty awesome. I'll have to eventually do some more Defenders up in white, but red is pretty great right now.

Some proper blue squadron E-wings, though there's a red ace around too for Horn, well, and Blount.

All fun stuff, glad I got the opportunity to work on more. Z95's in particular are fun

Blasted Vykes, now I'm going to have to spray all my squadron bases... worst of all though... sharpie at the edges of all the cards ;-)

Bloody 'ell Vykes! Those squadrons are stunningly beautiful. Your Armada ships and squadrons are works of art!

On 14/02/2017 at 9:07 PM, MajSharpe said:

Blasted Vykes, now I'm going to have to spray all my squadron bases... worst of all though... sharpie at the edges of all the cards ;-)

Try a 'whiteboard' marker for the cardboard edges. You can be as rough and clumsy as you like as the ink will rub off of the printed sides and only stay on the bare card. I've been using them for ages, much quicker than trying to be all neat and tidy with a pen or a brush.

4 minutes ago, HoundsTooth said:

Try a 'whiteboard' marker for the cardboard edges. You can be as rough and clumsy as you like as the ink will rub off of the printed sides and only stay on the bare card. I've been using them for ages, much quicker than trying to be all neat and tidy with a pen or a brush.

Brilliant! That's a GREAT tip, HoundsTooth!

Is sharpie okay for cardboard edges? I marked my special squadrons with Red Rings to differentiate them but I used sharpie, was that a mistake?

Vyke's as always, your skill with the brush is undeniable. Those Defenders look so neat and with the triple wing that must have been tricky.