So I had an epiphany at my paint desk the other day:
(That time two scorpions, 4 dolphins, a pair of sharks, an eagle, and a spider are on the painting desk and it has nothing to do with Silent Death... thank Lord Alexander Telax Colos IV there aren't any ships tagged "Guillotine" or "Mudcrab" or I'd really be worried! EDIT: OMG THERE IS A GUILLOTINE!! This is Madness...)
It must be a sign from the painting gods that something Silent Death related must be painted. Then this thing arrived in the mail...
It came in under the advertised weight, but boy is it a nice clean casting. Props to the master moldsman, spin caster & fast shipment. It's beautiful.
Here is my account of what happened next...
First off- fearing for my safety were I to defy the paint gods, I brainstormed/researched a bit, picked this image of a WWI naval admiral -Colos OG- to define my color scheme-
-but wanted the overall look to be pushed further in-your-face screaming skull feel of the faction book cover, so I read some of that book for inspiration, and after a major distracting segway on a Firestorm Armada 3rd edition tangent (more on that later), hatched a plan to make the design a flashy statement much in the spirit of a matchbox car. Colos is all about the intimidation factor after all. the first faction that listed a Totenkoph in the sample fleet section was an
old Colos squadron by the name of Satan's Fulcrum-
the 139th Colosian Carrier Wing goes back to the 1st edition Overkill booklet and those colored unit badges in the inside cover spurred my imagination as a young pew-pew enthusiast. After throwing a few coats of digital paint under the line art layer in a pixel editor just like I had done with the Dracula last year, I finally settled on a hellfire concept:
The black/red/silver colors are represented, and it should still look like it fits in with the rest of the fleet I hope. Two opportunities present themselves with this design: A chance to try the bare metal trick on the hull, and the opportunity to use an airbrush gradient for the flames. Inkjet decal paper that's on the way in the post is a distant third technique I want to play with, but it might be tough working a decal in on this one: the concept images I did with mock decals look too small, contain white, etc. so I will revisit the idea once the model is mostly done in hand & after I test how small I can get with printed designs. I'm especially hopeful I can replicate some ASP/QVP/Sigurd/Kashmere iconography, but a proper Totenkopf or Maltese cross emblems would be icing on the cake. Fingers crossed, but not very optimistic. (edit: Just sourced some decals on eBay if my homemade attempt fails)
So 20+ years ago I had this Ral Partha Fire Giant-
the back and shoulder plates are just the bare metal lead -scratch-burnished (with an Exacto blade) brushed with a heavy, wet Tamiya topcoat to seal it from oxidation. For being so simple, it looked really smooth compared to most paint mica metallics back then- the airbrush alclad lacquers and similar weren't available at the time to my knowledge. The picture barely captures the look. So I thought I'd try that
again- having attempted it on the Sigurd Storm models to mixed results. This time I tried the felt polisher tip in the rotary box with the red buffing compound again. It did the same as before: spread burnt compound all over the piece. I haven't mastered polishing yet. I've heard Flitz polish paste works, but I didn't want to wait for it. After scrubbing the mini clean with a toothbrush & some toothpaste I was back to a minty fresh start. This time I found burnishing it with the end of my wooden sanding stick and later a toothpick started to show results. Next, I had the idea to burnish it with an old lead miniature thinking the lead might fill a portion of the pits and shine up more as lead does. Bingo.
Again, the picture undersells the effect, and the pits don't seem to be as noticeable to my naked eye but look at the mirror-like reflection in the beholder's -that's what made me want to try this again as I was scrubbing an ancient paint job off of a classic mini.
Moving along to the next steps, I inked the panel lines and used Tamiya X19-Smoke to tint & seal the metal, then a liquid latex canopy masking to mask it off for priming
In retrospect, I should've saved the inking & sealing step for later and just masked it off. Fun fact: that smoke bottle is older than 80% of the patrons at the game club. I love a lucky paint pot. The crust I had to break through to get her open probably kept her alive this long. Next came the fun part -blending...
I tested it on my palette spoons and figured I could practice with the flames later on those. Unfortunately right about now all I could hear in my head was "Tequilla Sunrise"
I know Dude, I know. It gets worse: