My First Valkyrie

[cregantur]

In between all my other projects I decided I really wanted to paint a Valkyrie. I have never painted a 40k vehicle before and I was inspired after watching CMON's 7 Day Army Painter dvd- which was great, btw.

The bird was fully assembled last night and the primer is currently drying, so I'll start my airbrushing later today. I did go out and buy a new airbrush with some birthday money and a wonderful 50% off coupon for my local Michael's. I originally was going to save up for an airbrush that's mentioned in the DVD, but with that coupon, and after looking at what they have available and checking reviews online, I decided to buy local. I got a Badger 175 airbrush- it's a bottom fed unit that comes with 3 different nozzles with matching needles, which means I can switch out and go from pencil-fine lines to wide spray for basecoating, which is really nice.

After getting used to the airbrush I decided to do a test card using the color scheme I want for this Valkyrie. I decided I really liked the rust from the video, so I created that as an under layer, masked it off with liquid latex, and then sprayed on my main paint colors. I decided to use Catachan Green, then a 1:1 mix with Camo Green, and a final highlight of pure Camo to create the paint color. Once that dried I came over it with an oil based wash, using both black and brown oil paints ot create weathering streaks. I also tested a white stripe that I'll probably paint on the wings. I'm very pleased with the results and can't wait to paint this bird!

[cregantur]

The first major step in the painting process has been completed. I finished all of the rust, did all of the masking, painted all of the armor color and highlight, weathering, and did the white stripes. Alll in all it took about 4 - 6 hours, including drying time, to do all of this which is pretty darn good.

It's not done yet, but you can get a good sense for how the finished piece is going to look once I clean everything up. I do think I masked it a bit early after varnishing the rust because some of the rust turned white and chalky. I can clean that up during the next steps, but it's something to keep in mind for next time.



Later tonight I'm going to paint all of the metallics that aren't going to be rusted and give them a heavy wash to help weather them. Along with that I'll also be cleaning up a few areas of the armor color, but the biggest thing will be finishing the weathering. I'll be adding more pronounced rust stains in certain areas, blackening from weapons file and engine wash, and applying a gem like effect on the cockpit glass to make it look good. It's going to be challenging because I'll be switching to my airbrush's fine nozzle, which means I'll need a lot more precision and control.

[3ff3ct]

Looking very dirty so far! I usually would have left the cockpit clear, so I am interested to see how it turns out when painted!

[KRIEGEIRK]

Me too 3ff3ct, very curious.... it looks great so far! Can't wait to see more!

[Yeti's Yell]

Looks like you have a wee bit of white overspray to touch up, if possible. Overall, I really love the execution, even if my own Commisar would immediately execute the ground crew at inspection for such gross negligence in maintaining flight-ready status.

[Trooper One-Nine-Seven-Four]

It looks really nice--will it serve as a crashed/abandoned vehicle? I ask, because with all the rusting and weathering it seems like it would be appropriate as a downed vehicle (applying the maxim that the dirtiest an aircraft should be is equal to the cleanest that a tank in the field would be). Did you seal the canopies with tape so they will be clear plastic on the finished vehicle?

[jerbat123]

Na ah,the ground crew is just lazy........ their mantra is "If its not broke don't fix it"
Looks great the whole model done with the airbrush and that much control? Nice job!

[cregantur]

The Valkyrie is finished and looking good, if a bit weathered.

CMON voting link

It's available for sale on ebay

[Shostak(AWOL)]

That is some great painting and some truly epic pics.

[3ff3ct]

If it was a lady, I'd wolf whistle and give her a cheeky wink when she turned around

A great job mate!

[swampy]

Very nice paintwork man, i got that modelling masterclass book from forge world a couple of years ago and tried all the techniques in there and found it really rewarding,

all these rust and weathering effects work really well for orks which is what i have mostly painted before, iused some of the techniques on the humvees, seeing this model you've done here has inspired me to paint some more guard vehicles

great stuff