Stephan's Aquans of DOOOOOOOM!!!!!! (Just don't fire Nukes at them)

[Stephan]

Started work on my Aquans again.  Here's two in-progress ships, the Battleship and the Carrier.  Step 1 is to prime in GW Ultramarines Blue.  Step two is wash in Guilliam Blue to add depth.  Step 3 is to catch some of the recesses in white as a precursor to washing those recesses in a home made bright purple wash.

[markymark1970]

So forgive the novice painter...  Is the "prime" of GW Ultramarine Blue a real primer or is your first coat on top of a primer coat?  I was under the impression that it should really be "primed" with a primer (of which I've seen black, white and gray).  They looked real good, by the way.

[Stephan]

I've found you can use anything as a "primer", so long as it's in a spray can and provides a texture other paints will stick to.  In this case, GW makes spray paints in several of their basic colors, which makes painting whole squads a lot easier. 

[Landlubber]

That being said...with figures this small, I don't find that it matters to use an actual "priming" paint. I "prime" my ships usually with one of GW's gray colors (Codex Gray for my RoF) out of a standard GW paint bottle, thinned with a little water so it doesn't obscure the detail. I pick the priming color based on the overall scheme I have in mind; darker primer colors work better with darker paints, for example.  So if I wanted to paint my Blazing Suns in yellow, I'd probably prime them with a very light gray.

But that's just me.  The farther I get into this hobby, the more I realize there are many ways to do things, and usually none of them are wrong. Some techniques may just take longer than others to get your paint scheme to where you want it.

[Last Rites]

Rad paint job! Looking forward to seeing what else is to come!

[Stephan]

Made some progress.  Everything was going great until I hit the very last layer of dry brush and some mold issues popped out.  You can actually see finger print ridges on the carrier.  Process after the first steps was to do a heavy brush in P3 Cygnar Blue.  I then did progressive light dry brushes with P3 Frostbite.  Then it was just a matter of hitting the crystal facets in pearlescent white and other details in a bright green.  To get the pearlescent to take on the engine crystals, I first hit them with a thin regular white since the pearlescent is somewhat translucent.  I followed the same basic method on my Snappers, pic at the bottom.



 


 



 

[markymark1970]

Dang, those took fantastic Stephan.  Looking forward to seeing them in person. 

I am constantly amazed at what all of you guys are able to do. 

[Stephan]

Thanks!  These are definitely table-top quality, not display, but that's good enough for me.  I just need to finish 5 frigates and the Hydra and I'll have this fleet wrapped up (for now).  When are you going to crack open some paints?

[Landlubber]

Stephan, those look GREAT.  I would never have noticed the fingerprints if you hadn't said anything, and they really aren't that noticeable.  Really like the tentacles. 

[Last Rites]

Whew! Those are (first thing that comes to mind is "out of this world") incredible!! Excellent color selection and technique on the dry brushing.

[Ruckdog]

Thanks!  These are definitely table-top quality, not display, but that's good enough for me.

That's about all I ever aspire to, and your efforts here are much better than a lot of what I've done! Looking very nice. Can't wait to see some shots of this fleet in action on the table .

[Stephan]

Here's the assembled fleet.  I still need to paint the Medusa, my third Terquai cruiser, and the SRS tokens.

[Landlubber]

This is what they looked like before they wiped out my brand-new RSN last night...