More than 2 years ago I bought an airbrush. Although my first steps in airbrushing were sometimes a little bit frustrating, i rediscovered that painting could be a fun part of our hobby. Especially smooth blendings are so much quicker to realise! :D
April 2018 was the start of my first BT project since 2016. I was going to visit my brother in summer. He is living abroad since more than 10 years and I was visiting him for the first time. I wanted to take all of the lance packs and create some battle groups with the most iconic mechs of each fraction and give it to him as a present. I only had 2 month painting time. The colour scheme had to be simple: Main colour of each fraction and one metallic colour, battle damage (my first try), jeweling of the cockpits, dusting and basing.
It was the first time that I tried to work with a zenithal highlight and it was easy to achieve with my airbrush. Still I am no hero in making some good photographs. ::) The highlights are hard to see...
The battle damage is a little bit out of scale but making my first steps with it gave me some confidence.
To be continued...
Best wishes Knorpelkeks02
I admit my eyes are liking the bright colors. :thumbsup:
Airbrush? I just found mine. Mom had gotten it for me years ago, and it got misplaced. Then, next year, she got me a compressor to go with it.
Now that I have found both portions, I want to give it a try.
What kind of tips might you have? Do I have to be careful about what kinds of paints I use. How thin do they have to be?
Now, a minor critique - The dirt and grunge on the legs is too high up the shin. You mention stuff out of scale because of confidence. Fair. But, something to do is pay attention to things around you. Are you in an area with gravel roads? Do you see a lot of heavy traffic, like semis? If so, pay attention and take a few seconds to observe them. If not, I'm sure you could find some nice examples with a quick google search.
The point being, dirt and mud don't travel far from the ground, even in combat. This is why I don't go crazy with it on my Mechs, though I do put some around the feet and ankles. Yes. Mechs are heavy. They will kick up dust and dirt when they move. But, if you look at stuff that's been on a gravel road, or even off-road, especially semis servicing farm equipment, they're not that dirty as high up as some of your examples. Nowhere close, even. And, even then, a Mech's motion is more of a quick impacting motion, a one-time event in any given spot. People who take their pickups mud-running deal with a continual digging motion from the tires, which is why pickups can get so dirty in mud.
The only way a Mech would have that much grime on it would be if it fell, or took a knee, and had to get up again. That kind of dirt would have to be fresh, since I doubt any Tech worth his salt wouldn't quickly wash the crud off once the Mech's back from the field.
Which means, if you're going to have them that dirty, it needs to be in more places than on the shin. Maybe on fists, to show they used a hand to stand up, and on the knees, across that armor baffle. The back of the leg should probably be pristine compared to the shin up front, and the entirety of the foot.
Otherwise, you need much, much less.
As for the battle damage. That is a matter of how you view things working in the BTu. I think it works fine, because, in actuality, a lot of the misses aren't full-on failure to contact, but merely glances and energy weapons failing to keep the beam focused on one point and missile explosions happening prematurely from ECM interference. So-on and so-forth.
Lasers burn whatever they come in contact with, including paint.
Great job, none-the-less.
