Rocket power
Habits made me want to call the Elemental chemical rockets as Jump Jets. In this post I was going to refer to them as Jump Packs.
First time looking at the CGL's Elemental Point I was wondering that in the Empire was I going to do with those bubbly effects? I didn't know how to paint a fiery effect, I had never even tried. Well, now was the time to give it a shot.
Blending
Pretty much all I knew was that we'd be following Bob Ross' "wet on wet" approach instead of drying layers all the time. I ducked a few articles or posts to read about the rocket- or missile effects and build my own mental model on how that'd be used.
My simple plan was to start with a full red, then lighten it up via orange and yellow towards almost whiteness. Perhaps to the bottom, on the cooler parts of the pyro cloud, some blackness, even. Onwards to the test bench!
Red base
Just because this was the first attempt ever I started cautiously with one jump plume. I painted it red (VMA 71003 Red RLM23). As I hadn't had the time (or presence of mind) to buy any retarder for airbrushing, I did this very quickly so that the paint woulnd't dry too before its time.
Introducing yellow
Right after I added some yellow (VMA 71002 Medium Yellow) onto my palettelike thing. I mixed some with the red to get a colour something like red-off-towards-orange. I applied this to areas where it looked like it belonged, then added some more yellow into my mix to build up the brightness and slowly made smaller and smaller changes on the surface, continuously moving toward the rockets.
Same for the second jumper
The first Elemental Warrior looked pretty neat at this point, so I followed a similar approach for the second person's jump effect. They didn't end up being equal, but the effect seemed to work decently and that was my goal.
The second Point
Yeah, I was content enough to do this for the other Point as well. First the quick red basecoats.
Again, while playing with ever-yellowing paint I didn't dare to take photography breaks. So this is how it looked like a few shades later.
My jumping quartet was pretty impressive as they were, even though the hex base looked foul and ruined some of the effect.
White highlighting
As usual, I got carried away with the madness and decided to take this even further. I had been, in my estimate (and based on visual inspection) quick enough to mix in some white (VMA 71001 White) just where the rocket nozzles were, to the very top parts of the fireballs. In the photo the rightmost Point had gotten the white treatment, for A/B testing purposes. Of course.
Grey and black for different Points
The rightmost Point's billowing cloud of smoke, the bottom part, was something where I thought I'd try some grey (to make it look more smoky). I applied some light grey (VMA 71050 Light Grey), it wasn't as neat and effect as what I had had in my mind.
On the left Point I used black (VMA 71057 Black) to show the cooling down of the outer, oldest edges of the fireball created by the chemical rockets. This worked better than grey, ok for a first attempt.
Reblackened hex bases
Because my hex bases looked more like modern art or space rock album's cover, I painted them flat black. Now a viewer's eyes could actually grab a hold of the miniatures themselves.
