There might not be flamed buuuut I might go with a glyph and those little triangle dags.

Well Salty, I use a few different ones: Reaper for some of the lighter colours, Citadel for a lot of washes, P3 Armour wash when I can get it (thinned it makes a great ink), and Minitaire for most of my greys with Vallejo for brighter more vibrant colours. Minitaire is a great, cheap, but effective paint, but it needs a top coat or it's got a weird satin finish.

Hey Vykes

Could you give me a rough indication of how you do the ISD and VSD window lighting.

Do you just start off with a dark blue and highlight up, finishing with white at the end?

Yep, that's essentially how I do it smurgwedge. I start with a darker (well, medium) blue, then I add very bright vallejo layer fr the window itself. Then I wash it with a blue, and pick out most of the blue again. If the window is large enough (small hangars, very large windows, bridge) I add some near-white.

I'll see if I can get a picture sometime later this week.

As for my passive stuff, IA well, Alliance Strike Team is done.

Thanks Vykes

Yep, that's essentially how I do it smurgwedge. I start with a darker (well, medium) blue, then I add very bright vallejo layer fr the window itself. Then I wash it with a blue, and pick out most of the blue again. If the window is large enough (small hangars, very large windows, bridge) I add some near-white.

I'll see if I can get a picture sometime later this week.

As for my passive stuff, IA well, Alliance Strike Team is done.

I love your window work Vykes. Can you describe each step in a little more detail? I'm doing (quick) window work now on my Empire ships and would love to hear your detailed steps. Which are dry-brushed? Washed? It's hard to tell from the description above. You mention "very bright vallejo layer"; what color? Washed? Dry-brushed? Stroked?

Man, yours look so much better than mine, lol.

Engine wise all I can say is 'airbrush is king'. It can be done by blending, but airbrushes take so little time and get such good results that I've essentially given up even trying to do anything else. As for lights, those are a bit more measured, but I still like using an airbrush to start off.

I use a medium coloured blue, closer to a turquoise as it just has a nice little hue that I like. I use an airbrush over every space that will be getting lights. A good progressive (say 2 application) drybrush will get a similar effect but it just takes longer. Next I use a vallejo blue, sky blue to be exact. It has a super bright pigmentation. Anyway, I just brush on those dots by hand, picking them out one by one in quick vertical strokes if it's on gables, or the smallest little dabs if it's an open surface. Typically I just try to brace my wrist and 'walk' the dots down or across if I can. Anyway, after that comes a thinned wash over all the blue areas which gets into the crevices and provides a bit of depth and blending between the turquoise-esque blue and the bright sky blue. I've been using a mix of water, and minitaire ghost tint 'plasma' aqua mixed with the old citadel blue ink that went out of production quite some time ago (Ink, not wash, it's in the bolter shell pots and given its French origin, is likely Cote D'Arm stock). Then I rehighlight the blue just like before, trying to get in the center with simply smaller and more controlled dots/slashes. If it's big, really big, then I add a single touch of white or ghost grey paint when the vallejo is drying and it tends to mix nicely to create an even brighter source.

That's really about the best way I can put it for blue. My process for yellow lights is different but all it does is sub in red for the initial drybrush, then add a darker mustard yellow after that before leveling to bright bright yellow.

I'll see if I can get a picture of it some time this week.

Vykes did something, yez! He performed the ancient rituals to create and form a chosen vassel's offerings into the paraphernalia of glory for the great tournament of the World! In doing so, fourteen objects of power* were created over the past five days!

*Power can be great, small, or non existent in the small ones case.

Vykes would lie down, but the fleet must be assembled and dispatched in mere hours, and the trials of the daytime job start soon after that. Friday, it feels like a tuesday: the international day of tribulation.

Edit: a few closer pictures.

I like the blue Interdictor and the red stripes on the ships.

I'm not so sure about the green interdictor, your painting skills there are commendable, but good lord that fleet and your work is beautiful. Superb work! I wish I had as steady a hand as you.

Your skills are glorious!

Wow I assume that was a commission Vykes?!

That must have taken a long time. Beautiful work!

Thanks mates!

Aye Undead, I rather like the darker red stripes as well. I typically go for white as it makes the chipped paint (masking solution+sponge) effect really stand out, but it worked nicely here. The blue interdictor was fun but the green was more of a learning experience. I may have to try for a stronger green light source one of these days.

Ah Forresto, mate, so much of that painting is just using the lines already there and faking it until it looks right That and an airbrush; I've gotten to the point that I'm convinced that with that horrible, foul, unfair advantage tool, a bit of dark wash, some windex, water soluble oil paint, an old sponge, and potentially a single miniatures brush, you can make a masterclass ship.

Aye, that it was Big Mac. I figured that I can't make it to Worlds, but at least one of my fleets shall. Good cause, but the time span was insanely short: the fleet was painted in about 40-50 hours over 5 days (this was despite my day job. So, 2 all nighters and one call in day which resulted in a 24 hour painting marathon). I learned a lot about how to maximize time. I'm pretty proud of that fleet.

now to finish up some IA and finally get a start on those Mk.I's. Though I sorta kinda ran out of my favourite ink and am waiting on it shipping in.

Amazing stuff Vykes! Can you recommend a decent airbrush for someone that has never used one?

Hmm, good question Dedmanz, mate. I wish I had more expeirence but I've only tried 3 total, and only have the feel for 2. I rather like the one I'm using, a Badger 'Patriot' 105, though the Iwata 'Neo' starter is pretty decent from most accounts. I'm not a big fan of the Aztec from Testors, impossible to clean as it doesn't break down into components.

There is a sort of irritating learning curve, at least there was for me (still is, I'm no expert) and a lot of the issues is around dry tip and paint to thinner mixtures. Now, the Patriot is a somewhat expensive little thing (got mine for half off from a Michaels weekly sale) but it can do okay detail for a fairly large needle. That said, it does have some nice chunky parts which make damaging the things harder. It's a little bit more resilient than most and replacement parts are easy to find in most craft stores. I'd consider a gravity fed one for most as it's easy to clean and change paints.

Any progress on the Mk 1's?

Meh, not really. Got some grey on it and washed but I may take a look at them again and see if I need to strip and redo them. Been busy with everything else since then. That's all I've gotten to.

Spent more time with IA stuff which is at that 99% done stage.

Newest WIP of the 'Ravager', it's a sliiiight conversion of Mel's Mk.I Type III. Yeah, I added something.

Anyhow, the greys are done. Now I need to figure out what markings to give it (then some weathering, engine colours, lights, etc. All that'll be done tomorrow, but for the meantime, I'll work on the other 'stock' Mk.I Type III.

Clean and now not-so-clean. Probably overdid it but we'll see how it looks with lights. Besides, I still have another one to work on.

FFG should hire you to do custom painted ships for tournament winners. That would be a real prize.

-laughs- I'd do it too. I've considered doing up a few ships as prizes for tournaments and the like to try and bump up some numbers; not sure why I never got around too it. That and no one ever asked

Still a big commitment as an ISD is a cool 12-14 hours of work. But that is an ISD. Other ships are, well, notably less. I'd still seriously consider it though.

-laughs- I'd do it too. I've considered doing up a few ships as prizes for tournaments and the like to try and bump up some numbers; not sure why I never got around too it. That and no one ever asked

Still a big commitment as an ISD is a cool 12-14 hours of work. But that is an ISD. Other ships are, well, notably less. I'd still seriously consider it though.

Aye, not a surprise at all. ISD's are a -lot- of area to cover, and until you've done one, I'm not sure many gamers grasp just how much surface is on them. The moment you start to do lining or adding edging, the hours start to really pile up. My takeaway from the last fleet is almost certainly gaining a methodology which reduced my total painting time by at least 1/8th per ship just by (and no joke here) eliminating one stroke on every edge layer.

Without an airbrush, I know it would quadruple the time (I know because it's how I used to do it )

There we go. Not my best work but not bad. Part of my issue is I'm never sure how the prow of a Dreadnaught should look and if I even like the 'canon' appearance. Personally, I'm thinking of erasing the whole prow lighting scheme and making it bare rusty metal again. I like the armoured look more. So I may redo the front of the model and even possibly the upper gundecks below the new bridge.

But I still have that other Mk.I to go (Wayland games, unsurpirsingly, hasn't shipped my P3 Ink that I like using despite it being a month ago.)

Thoughts, opinions?

Your Stuff is awesome, as it is always... I think I prefer the lit prow though - solid armour would be a little lacking for me - but I also see your point to it...

But I do have a semi-related Question...

You professed a love of P3 Armour Wash, previously...

And I'm wondering what the *hell* I'm doing wrong with it... I've gotten 2 bottles of the stuff, and its stupidly thick and goopy... I can shake the crap out of it, and it come sout as a solid ball...

... All efforts to actually reduce it seem to get nowhere, too... I get a powdery suspension, rather than what I would consider a wash or an ink... Is that how I should be trying to use it? Like a Suspended Weathering Powder, or do I give up on the fact htat the two bottles I have are rotten and I need to invest in another..?

I can see why, the lit prow certainly makes it look a little more interesting, but I always feel the armoured prow is a little more like a warship that could simply ram an opponent into submission. Feels more... gutsy, I suppose. I was considering a red stripe or something but there's a lot of greebles to break up that patterning.

Sure -laughs- honestly I don't like P3 products, but their armour wash is something I like as a very real acquired taste. Why, because I had some massive problems reducing it too and it never turned out right; same thing here, it was goopy and shiny. I shook it for about 2 minutes and in the end it's sorta okay. What I found was that P3 armour wash is really only good for a deep recess wash, but it worked brilliantly on my dreadnaughts, star destroyers, and I can feel how wrong it is these days when I don't have it. Reduction for me tended to be on a 2:2:1 P3-water-vallejo thinner mix (and if I need less coverage, then it's 1:2:1). It works nicely with other tones, (notably citadel's older blue and chestnut inks, but Minitaire ghost tints work fine too) which make it a 2:4:2:1 wash-water-thinner-ink mix. It's really just a matter of finding that weirdly nebulous spot and working around it. It's not as solid a toner/filter as GW or Minitaire but it really has its uses.

P3 is hard to find here, irritatingly.

Well, I was asked for a bit of a tutorial thing for doing light masking. It's really not all that hard... simple, actually, but here it is.

You can brush the lines on, but the use of a spray can or airbrush makes things incredibly painless. I didn't want any actual stripe on this ship buuut it's a painless process up till here. But here's a closer picture of a sprayed GSD. Make sure you do any lighting work after this step, not before.

Brilliant. I have been hand painting all my striping, but then I have not done any of this width. This is giving me ideas. The masking I know how to do, but the sea salt for breaks is brilliant. I may have to revisit some of my paints, specially to do some lighting work. Thanks for all this info, very nice work!