Rackham AT-43..a WIP

OK folks, something from me;

one of those pre-painted sci-fi figures from Rackham.

I like Sci-fi. I like the sculpts. The Pre-paint sucks. Still haven't seem much online of any repainting of these so thought I'd try my hand at it;

as in box and a disaasembled figure:


cleaned up, primed and ready for paint:


the armour basecoated and with a first layer of highlights:



I've done more to him since; My thinking is heavily late war German WW2 influence in colours......less of the grey and more DUST game colours. I'm looking at heavily chipped armour similar in tone to what the AFV guys do with the tanks.......uniform will be field grey.

thoughts and comments folks........this can go anywhere; new territory

Rob

I really like where this is going Rob!

Any plan on basing?

Looks interesting! Don't have much to say about the painting at this stage, but I like your idea! I'm looking forward to see it in a more advanced stage. What can you say about re-painting one of these minis? Are there any problems or issues with the surface quality?

regarding basing....urban industrial I think; that FW Elysian Drop trooper I was showing on some forums a while back is now based; got some etched brass 1/35 scale tread plate that looks good (but a bugger to cut in a circle). I'll show pics of him when I take pics....



The plastic is softer than a classic injection moulded GW plastic......it can be filed but is very soft to cut, although scraping helped a little. I did give the pieces a good wash before priming.

I've started writing a blog, and the pics here will be part of it in time;
http://orbminiatures.blogspot.com/
more musing and thoughts about it all there

Orb wrote:

got some etched brass 1/35 scale tread plate that looks good (but a bugger to cut in a circle).

Anders keeps mentioning a site that has great and easy to use basing material. I keep forgetting how they're called, but I ordered from them. They're great and at a reasonable price.

Thanks in advance Anders for putting a name on them .

Do you mean Antenociti's Workshop, Cédric?

They have tread plate textured plasticard HERE. Should be easier to cut...

Yes, thanks !

Cuts like butter (well almost ).

Why am always so late responding? I always just have to echo what the others say.. I like the ideas!

Any trouble stripping it?

You're not late Sven; I only posted it a short while ago!

Sven wrote:

Any trouble stripping it?

Well, initially I tried to strip it; a quick wash of liquid cement was too damaging, but some paint was removed.

Then I tried scotchbrite to rub the paint off.......nah

Then I simply primed over the surface.......no real loss of detail

According to Rackham the minis can be primed without problems without removing the pre-painted paint. I've seen some pictures on their site...

Ok cool.. then I might actually be painting an at-43 mini

Any progress?

funny you should ask........

not much, as I decided my painting area was a chaotic mess and was finding it hard to focus (to many nearly ran projects.............clogging up my mind!) but that's sorted now........

so here were go;



and a stupid enlargement!


these are still very early........getting a feel for the colours at the moment; currently defining the chips more, some darklining around key areas.......plan to add a few sand coloured highlights around the chips, push the highlights more on the uniform, and start the torso.

what do you think? Open and honest yet constructive comments expected!!

Rob

If you shadow and highlight the chips like you mentionned, then I really like where this is heading . Feels very "modelling" (and that's good ).

Did you do the chips with a sponge or a brush?

Cheers!

These were done with a brush; Saw Automaton's sponged marine on ST forums, but felt his sponge method a little too random for my tastes.

It can be done in a more controlled way, but I think you have to have a fairly good idea on how things wear out :

http://neomodel.free.fr/tuto/tuto-socle-flamer1.html

It's looking good so far, Rob! A little bit more definition on the dents would look good, but be careful so you don't overdo it.

Cyril's method probably works better for larger stuff like the tank in his tutorial. Personally, I would not put scotch brite crumbs on a mini and spray it.

Ritual wrote:

Personally, I would not put scotch brite crumbs on a mini and spray it.

Yeah, it kind of looks like a leap of faith until you've tryed it. I've done it a few times and am satisfied by the results, after, to each one their own technique .

I trust his technique... It's just that I think it would work better on larger things. Maybe a terminator armour could be a suitable object, but on a smaller mini like the one Rob is doing I would probably rely more on using a brush.

@Anders :

I've been thinking about trying that technique for a while, but haven't got around to doing it yet. I haven't found the suitable object for it yet... But some day! I may even break out my old airbrush and try using that.

Love your weathering! Looks great!

Yes I think the weathering on his marine is a bit too random too.. but cyrils is much better, more focused around edges and such. I guess a combination is the way to go!

This is really funny because I didn't know that they did like that. I just imagined they painted by hand. But yesterday I made a very heavy drybrush on the base to amoy and realised that it was probably a very quick way to do these kinds of chips.. I'll show you...

Do you think cyril uses decals like that on all his very sharp freehands of his marines? It would make sense. But I feel kind of fooled.. and also a much better painter suddenly!

The technique is no secret, it's used in conventional modelling.

On his older models he used to do it all with a brush, but this is just quicker.

Yeah sure, I know that! It is much smarter of course as well! It is the end result that counts that's for sure. But I have thought that he did it by brush and by such never thought I could do it ever. So it's a bit re-assuring to know that it wasn't. And don't tell me that it was now....

Getting close now to joining the torso to the legs......





hating my monitor right now......not entirely sure how bright this is.....