[Tom Norman]

After five minutes of experimentation with a carboard box and an airbrush full of watered down chaos black, I thought I was ready to give my Land Raider Prometheus 'tiger stripes'. Boy was I wrong! It was murder on a miniature scale and I had to rush to the sink and clean off all the black paint with a nail brush. Yellow is so unforgiving...one slip of the brush and you'll leave a mark you can never truly conceal. But when you deliberately apply black paint in broad lines all the way across your most treasured model, and then decide it was a mistake, then you're in trouble.

I'm so glad I matt varnished this model, I only lost little bits of paint here and there...guess I know where I'm modelling battle damage.

[hr]

"What did this to my Prometheus, Sergeant?" The Master of the Forge asked of a nearby marine, "Heavy bolter? Autocannon?"
"No my lord," Replied the marine, wide eyed and visably shaken, "It was a enraged giant with a nailbrush the size of a car."

[hr]

Undaunted, I attempted to do the same to my Predator. This time, I accomplished what I set out to do...although I wish I'd made the lines thinner, it's not a bad effect. But if you ever plan to do this yourself, buy a cheap plastic WW2 vehicle to practice on!

[Mage001]

Ouch on the Prometheus there Tom. However, congrats on the Predator. You'll have to show us pictures of the later. And perhaps instructions on how you did it?

[Tom Norman]

Originally Posted by Mage

Ouch on the Prometheus there Tom. However, congrats on the Predator. You'll have to show us pictures of the later. And perhaps instructions on how you did it?

Oh, don't congratulate me yet...wait 'til you see the predator. The stripes are so broad it's more like a black tank with yellow tiger stripes! It's alright...it's not so bad that I had to scrub it all off, but it's not exactly the effect I wanted either...it's just 'good enough'. :-\

I'll show you tomorrow, when I've got some natural light.

[Mage001]

Originally Posted by Tom Norman

The stripes are so broad it's more like a black tank with yellow tiger stripes! It's alright...it's not so bad that I had to scrub it all off, but it's not exactly the effect I wanted either...it's just 'good enough'. :-\

Well, then you got something unique. Besides you tried something on it and it worked slightly. All you have to do is modify what you did.

[Xenephobic]

Masking tape is your friend.

I had the same problem with my DW landraider - it used to be green then i wanted it the white....then with green stripes - luckily i hadn't put any detail on it yet, so it was just flat shades, but if your going to do stripes after you have painted it up - then paint them on by hand, and use masking tape to section of the areas.

[Tom Norman]

Sure. I found blu-tac useful for covering chapter symbols and what-not too. But avoiding getting paint on certain parts of the model wasn't the problem...I just screwed up the spraying itself (it kinda splattered everywhere).

Anyway, here's the Predator I did right after that:

[size=14pt]Before[/size]

[hr]




[size=14pt]After[/size]

[Mage001]

Looks pretty good actually.

[Tau Fanatic]

I agree. It's not too bad

[Howloutloud]

Actually, I'm wondering why you didn't tape it off first? I guarantee that it would have been easier to make a stencil out of paper, taped it to the predator and then sprayed. Plus it would have allowed you to thin or thicken the stripes as you saw fit.

I know, too much pimp my ride..... :

[Tom Norman]

Originally Posted by Howloutloud

Actually, I'm wondering why you didn't tape it off first? I guarantee that it would have been easier to make a stencil out of paper, taped it to the predator and then sprayed. Plus it would have allowed you to thin or thicken the stripes as you saw fit.

I know, too much pimp my ride..... :

Hehe. I didn't want clean, sharp stripes; I wanted that kind of 'dusty' effect...you know, more of a gradual transition from yellow to black than a sudden step. If I'd wanted sharp lines, I would probably have used a brush. Actually, I tried that initially, I tried stippling black onto a spare rhino top hatch. It just produced a splattering effect. I'm sure you can do it that way with practice, but I thought it was about time I used my airbrush. I've had it for about three or four months, and that was the first time it had come out of the box!