I knew I wanted to paint Nym's Skurrg, and figured I'd do some pirate work on the other two H-6 I have.

First step, the Skurrg I bought all had some bending issues on the cannons.

Luckily, I knew the remedy for this. A dunk in steaming hot water will usually straighten out such things. I teased them a bit with a toothpick while the plastic was warm, but I find that simply dunking bent parts will cause them to straighten a bit on their own. The results are not perfect, but an improvement, as you will see.

Next, I repainted Nym's ship in Vallejo camo orange. I also did the pirate version in Vallejo flat black.

Next step was to start on Nym's paint chips, and to paint over his stripes. Reaper Aged Bone is a pretty close match to the stock Skurrg's color. Maybe a touch dark, but close enough for me.

After a dreadful attempt at edge highlighting the pirate's black areas, I settled on a drybrush with a wash to follow.

Here is the pirate with a black wash (GW Nuln Oil) and paint chipping afterward.

I attempted to use Mod Podge to transfer decals, but the results were not what I wanted. I couldn't seem to get all the paper off without rubbing away the decal results. So I rubbed them all the way off, and picked up some transfer paper.

Using paint.net to edit the images I found on a google search, setting the paper to 8.5x11 and 999 dpi to preserve the details worked well. I printed them out on white backed Testor's transfer paper and then after 24 hours for the ink to dry, sprayed the with a couple of coats of decal bonder.

Note that I used the "color picker" feature in paint.net to put a colored background on the decals. That way I can have a white skull (since clear transfers usually don't do white) and I can have Nym's logo on the proper hull color background. Any mismatch with the paint should be able to be blended in after the decals are set.

Next update will have to be next week, as I am flying my Skurrg on thursday, and didn't want to have half finished decal work on them. So I've sealed up the paint with brush on matte sealer and will do the decals after the weekend. Final update to come...

Looking good!

I have that Ghost too, I just haven't painted it. It's so much easier to field at that scale, isn't it?

4 hours ago, Force Majeure said:

Looking good!

I have that Ghost too, I just haven't painted it. It's so much easier to field at that scale, isn't it?

I acually haven't had a chance to fly it yet. But it's obviously a lot more stable than the official model and stand.

And here they are with the decals.

Those look great, really 'natural' if that makes sense?

I think maybe the decals could do with a bit of weathering, they look very clean compared to the rest of the ship.

42 minutes ago, petrol blue said:

Those look great, really 'natural' if that makes sense?

I think maybe the decals could do with a bit of weathering, they look very clean compared to the rest of the ship.

They do. I was considering chipping them, but I didn't want to accidentally obscure the details. So I got cold feet there. I could do some stippling... I'll have to think about it.

And I found that Reaper Polished Bone is a better match for the Skurrg hull color than Aged Bone, if anyone is matching paints.

those look great! i like the decals

So a player at our local gaming hangout asked me to print out some of the decals for him. This gives me a chance to tweak the color background, so that they don't have to be blended, and I'm thinking of doing a few of the decals, with paint chipping already on them, so he can pick out the clean ones or use the chipped ones to save a step. I can fit quite a few of the decals on one sheet.

With the decal paper, I thought you had to spray layers of clear acrylic over them before use, hassle like that? What decal bonder did you use? Those look awesome, and they're giving me lots of plans!

On 9/8/2017 at 4:24 PM, petrol blue said:

With the decal paper, I thought you had to spray layers of clear acrylic over them before use, hassle like that? What decal bonder did you use? Those look awesome, and they're giving me lots of plans!

Well, I never saw this reply, and was googling miniatures repaints and found my old thread. For the record, the Testor's decal sheets do require a spray with decal bonder. My process was-

Print out decals. Prepare the miniature surface with brush on clear gloss. Give both 24 hours to dry.

Spray seal decals with bonder. Give it 24 hours to dry.

Apply decals. Give them a coat of solvent (Microsol is ideal for this). Give them 24 hours to dry.

Apply another layer of clear gloss to "seal" in the decal and protect it from casual scuffs. Another 24 hours to dry. This makes a nice "sandwich" of gloss layers, to minimize silvering and air bubbles on the decals.

Paint the edges of the decal with paint that matches the hull. This blends in the edge of the decal. Another 24 hours to dry.

Apply a layer of matte sealer to the decal areas.

Yes, this process takes a lot of time (days of waiting for steps to dry) and if I were in a hurry, I would consider 12 hour or 6 hour waits on layers. But I had the time, and wanted good results, and it was just a week to run through the process, and really works well if you're painting a bit after getting home from work each day.