The AeroSpace weather may be somewhat unpredictable

A weathering round

So... It really didn't make any sense to cover an AeroSpace Fighter, generally speaking, with mud, rain streaks or spacegull shit. The panel differences I ended up creating earlier were a part of the weathering process, but especially some dents and such felt to me like key ingredients.

To get one sort of dents onto the plane I used the traditional sponge methond and applied some dark grey (VMA 71056 Black Grey) here and there. Mostly I concentrated to the front edges and the larger panels. A few of the dots ended up lining up, as if they showed where some kinetic projectiles had hit.

As my second dent colour I chose an ocreish brown (VMA 71133 Dirt) that I applied randomly with varying pressure. Maybe I should've taken it easier on the horizontal stabilizers, but generally the brown brought some variety to the overall redness.

Mid review

The destruction of the paintjob was about done now, so I installed the ASF onto its pedestal for the first time. Pretty nice.

Nationality- and unit markings

The Combine roundel

Marking the Sword of Light units was still the same: on the left side a DCMS roundel with the dragon's colour telling the unit (a golden one for the 5th) and a flaming sword (a saber, based on the examples I'd seen) on the right side. The biggest problem here was still that I really didn't have any drawing skills, even less painting skills.

My roundel circles were not perfectly circular, surprise! My golden dragons (VMA 71066 Gold) again... well, being that small you couldn't tell much, but I had truly tried to copy the reference image.

5th Sword of Light

Having little idea of what I was doing I painted a saberlike thing (VMA 71065 Steel) with its handle on the right wing. The cross guard (I had to check the part names from wikipedia) I made out of the same gold I had already been using. Maybe it looked like a sword?

While these were drying I jumped on the canopy bits. For a simple effect I applied a fine layer of a 20+ year-old green wash (Citadel Green Wash).

Because I had started on this, I had to continue. The mandatory flame effect I painted as if I was watching Bob Ross: it was good, why did you make a mess of it now? Oh hey, it actually worked and the full piece became better thanks to the change. As it fit the theme, I borrowed some paint from the Project Assistant I (VGC 72008 Orange Fire).

Washing and detailing a bit

Following the footsteps of the Savage

Before I started using the purpose-made washes, I wanted to try darkening the engine nozzles in a different way. First I just applied flat black on the center tube on the top half of the plane, and then wiped the fresh paint off. What remained was a noticeably darker but still red surface.

Encouraged by this working so nicely I flipped to miniature around and did the exact same thing on the three engine bits. At least in this case it worked, in my opinion, more nicely than a brown or black wash applied over a gunmetal (or some other metallic) layer.

Panel linings too

I didn't want to get the full AeroSpace Fighter that dark, so for the panel lines I used some black wash (Citadel: Nuln Oil). Wherever I got a bit of an overspill I wiped it immediately away. This of course darkened some panel edges a bit, but I didn't find it detrimental to the overall look. It was always nicer to look at a bit lived surface than a fresh one.

My weathering was purposefully pretty simple. I also just found the look fine. Of course I'd need to compare it to its bipedal siblings in arms, whenever I had the time.

Cockpit canopies

On my four earlier red DCMS warmachines I had used some pretty bright green colour on the viewports, so I was going to stick to the ancient plan (VMC 70942 Light Green). This mini had three bits to be painted this way: the obvious main viewport, the round dome behind it, and one that was going to be useful for landings in the bottom front. Later I'd apply a green wash to make them look a bit more interesting, but that'd be later.

Things I missed earlier

While I was detailing the chin-mounted LRM launcher (Shigunga LRM-20) I noticed that I hadn't even thought of checking what a mainline Shilone even had as the loadout, so I may have committed errors when painting the laser barrels in the wings (2x Diverse Optics type 20 Medium Laser)! Sarna.net/wiki knew to tell me that in addition to these there was a centrally mounted LLas (Diverse Optics type 10 Large Laser), so that one I painted on the right side of the cockpit.

Those little panels in the inner edges of the wings I painted steely (VMA 71065 Steel). I expected that these panels were protecting the fire control system's sensors.

The tail end also had something obvious that hadn't been obvious enough for my woeful eyes, but as soon as I knew what I was looking for, I found it. The rear-facing medium-capacity SRM launcher (NCK "Thornbush" SRM-4) got a dark metallic surface to make the tubes nicely visible.

I really had to tip my hat to the WYSIWYG modeling on the CGL minis. With a very little effort the key details were highlighted and drawing the eye.

A change of heart re: nationalities

Doubts

I really pondered on the idea of painting a lonely unit for Rasalhage and how much sense it made. To help myself I checked my archives for what I'd done with the awful-plastic -made Inner Sphere BattleMechs. I had done this pondering once already, at least.

Of course!

Draconis Combine

So, one of the five freebirth Lances was a DCMS quartet. Their group photo pretty much jumped into my eyes and almost yelled "me me me meeeeee". I considered myself properly inspired, and as everyone knew, Rasalhague was just a space-Sweden that detached itself from the Combine yesterday afternoon. So with the same ease I changed my pre-locked decision on the motherland of this Shilone.

Therefore I painted the ASF bright red (VMA 71003 Red RLM23).

 

Funny thing, the belly had space for a sick amount of bomb racks!

Shiny metal

Next I painted the obvious bits with Gunmetal: the outermost wing bulbs to represent the lasers, three sets of engine nozzles and the LRM20 launcher's front plate just behind the cockpit's lower front window. Those inner front corners of the wings I left untouched at this point, to wait for a slightly brighter metallic such as steel or chrome even. If my memory served, these plates covered the sensor- and tracking equipment.

For a short while I thought if I should paint the full engine tube from the back of the fighter as metallic (re: Su-27) but I just felt it would make this setup too bright, somehow. With the same reasoning I left the corresponding engine bits red on the bottom too.