Like a make-up kit! Pigment in a firm medium that is applied with a pad or brush. I use the pad to highlight ridges, then the brush to liberally dry brush as appropriate. It works great for the ‘steel’ effect, but not so sure it is they way to go for the blue sections.
As it is essentially a loose pigment, it does require a coat after application to keep it in place permanently - handling would rub it off over time. But it is fairly well behaved and for the most part stays where you put it during application. Seems easy enough to clean as well, with dab of lighter fluid or some such on a cotton bud.
Since the camera on my Note 3 is complete and utter crap, here is another pic from a real camera of the torso that much better shows off the effect of the pigment.
Just dropping by to say those look amazing sharaleo!
For the blue, I would recommend some sort of oil pigment, like the one you have on the thrusters, and maybe hand painting tiny chipping marks (via sponge or just not-quite-dry brushing along the most prominent edges). if you are doing brush chipping, use enamel so you can clean it up if something goes wrong. My Hi’nu ver ka (the while one I posted a while ago) was weathered using this technique (the shots of the back of the legs).
I elected to break up the otherwise uniform blue by highlighting ridges and raised areas with the titanium pigment (the closest I had available to a lighter shade of blue than the base). Has the nice effect of breaking up all the uniform blue and lending the impression the model is metallic, without being shiny everywhere.
Don’t think I’ll try with any chipping effect on this model. It would be nice to get one gunpla model finished and I did not really envision this one having been damaged in any way. Though I did not really envision weathering at all when I started either!
As it is, it just looks clean-ish, with a nice bit of detailing and highlighting to break it up and give character. At least, I think it will when I get it re-assembled!
I may have screwed up the piping - I actually decided I wanted that to genuinely look metallic and went harder with the pigment. Hard to say until I get it coated and assembled. May be fine and just another visual variation to add character.
Other cheap effects is dirt pigments for the feet, makes them really stand out, although I think yours is a space-borne model, so maybe not adequate That backpack seems to indicate so.
One thing I did on my scopedog that I was amazed at the result of was to use a graphite bar (cheap from any art store) and using it along the sharper edges to give them a subtle metallic tone that looks awesome in-person (and I haven’t been able to capture on camera yet).
For the piping: some metallic pigments can be buffed with a fine cloth to make them shinier/more metallic.
That looks pretty awesome. I would love to see some more shots of it, though.
Do you get to use these on the table much, or is the painting the primary goal?
I need to dig out the ancient WH and WH40K Epic stuff my friend probably has stashed in his roof space. Be interesting to see if the painting hold up, or is way worse than my rose-coloured hazy memory leads me to believe.
Painting is really the primary goal. I generally prefer coop games when I want to play something and I like board games more than tabletop games. I do occasionally field models, especially if I can find another hobbyist gamer to to play with. Two carefully painted armies taking to the field looks pretty sweet. Generally though I find the wargame community to be a bit too highly competitive for my tastes.
Manged to get hold of some black pigment to have a better go at some soot for the thrusters on the Gouf. It would not stick - this stuff is a very dry loose powder. Mixed it with a little white spirit to a paste and applied with a make-up brush similar to the one that ships with the tamiya master sets. All good, much better contrasting visual effect.
So, final top coat was put on after that. Assembled ahead of a considering a final weathering pass - add a few details here and there, oil stains, etc. But, I don’t think I am going to bother. Really happy with the way it has come out and don’t think it needs much more, particularly being a space faring model as Juan indicated.
Barring one final addition, I think it is done. Hopefully get some shots up tomorrow, once daylight permits some more naturally lighted shots.
Pretty pleased with the result! Looks excellent in person. The pigment highlighting is quite noticeable, but subtle. I think it does a really great job of breaking up the uniform colour. It’s just a little difficult to pick up in photography, particularly as I did not really get a chance to take daylight shots today. First two are flash, second are with a 1500 lumen Cree LED torch pointed at the ceiling to try to mimic white diffuse light, with ~5 second exposures. All those are from a Sony NEX-7 with 50mm prime.
Just a reminder, that is a clean built, unpainted model. Though maybe it isn’t really fair to still call it that after all the top coating and weathering treatment…
