Jewelization, oilification and basing

Additional effects

In one quickish painting session I did all the three jewel effects out of the way. This time I managed to get it done in three substeps.

Cockpit

A yellow cockpit was what I used the last time to stand out from blue/grey, so I painted the viewports with yellow ochre (VMA 71033), then mixed in a bit of white (VMA 71270 RAL9001(White)) for the bottom-right blob and then I added each of the 5 panels a pixel of almost clear white.

Energy weapons

My Medium Pulse Laser got a green lens effect on a black base. First I painted most of the lens surface green (VGA 72732 Escorpena Green) and mixed a slightly lighter tone for the bottom right sector and for an animelike reflection a dot of white into the top left sector.

The underslung ER Small Laser was done the same way, black base covered in red (VGA 72710 Bloody Red), a lighter splotch and a final reflection dot to the opposite side.

All these three stages needed a bit of gloss varnish later on to be declared done.

Pin wash

All of the shadows and panel lines got a very enthusastic sepia oil wash. From these photos I noticed a couple of places that got a bit too much shadowiness in them, things I didn't catch as easily with my own eyes. One good example was the Right Arm pod between the leading edge and the caution stripe. I just couldn't be happier with nature's own undo function.

Recipe from 2011

I checked what I had done for the 25th Anniversary Box's OmniMechs and their home-made hex bases. My recipe had been simple: a layer of glue, Woodland Scenics' Ballast and a scattering of foliage.

After the glue had dried I could brush off the excess pebbles. For a quick comparison I took Summoner and Hellbringer for a group photo:

 

Mongrelgrendel was only missing the other five edges of the hex base and the aforementioned excess oil wash cleanup. In addition to the bigger shadow, the LRM doors also had some stronger marks than what I wanted in the end. Just a few minutes of work, next week I'd be sharing the final photos already.

Stop the press!

One thing that had started bugging me for no obvious reason were the Jump Jets. Maybe I had gone insane and I decided to paint bluish white fusion glow effects in them after all. Jump Jets or cockpit-melters, whichever suited you and your enemies best.

To get this done I used electric blue (VGC 72023 Electric Blue) and white (VGA 71270 RAL9001 White), again in a couple of layers and shades. Something yellower/redder would've stood out better from the grey-blue overall paint scheme, but that was hindsight for you again. Painting this was pretty challenging, the nozzles were absolutely tiny and prone to spillage even with the tight-pointed 5 | 0 brush.