Newbie Guide?

[Falconer]

Yeah, see, that’s the thing—I’m an über-geek, and shall we say, detail-oriented. I would notice the difference, and it would grate on me! Alright, well, plastic it is!

[marcus_aurelius]

Based on the advice I got on the thread earlier I approached by painting
my Kzinti this way:

1. Spray grey primer
2. Spray Tamiya Mica Red (gloss)
3. Apply all the decals on the gloss paint.
4. Spray a light layer of dull coat to protect the decals and base paint.
5. Paint the details (engines, phasers, sensors, etc) with
additional dull coat layers to protect every so often.
6. When done, dull coat again to protect the work.

I was very happy with the results. I will post the pictures on the
painting examples thread at some point in the future.

[djdood]

I'll be very curious to see what yours turn out like.

I started painting mine with a Tamiya red (and I think it was the same mica-red you used) and I hated the mica flecks. I ended up stripping the whole mess to start them over.

I'll be using a Humbrol ship-hull red on mine as I want a deeper, darker, red (almost a brown).

[Scoutdad]

Ha!
I painted the first group of 5 for the online painting contest with a very nice shade of Tamiaya red (and airbrushed a dozen of so others at the same time).
Now, when I'm ready to go back and finish the fleet - I find that that particular shade of red in no longer being produced, so I have a dilemna...

Do I strip and repaint 5 completed Kzinti so all 40 or so match...
Do I just paint the remaining ones in something close...
Or, does anybody wanna buy a painted Kzinti fleet box? For an extra 25 quatloos, I'll even sign the miniatures. Who knows - someday they may be valuable!

[koogie]

I use Testors Insignia red, airbrushed on over Tamiya primer (grey)

[Scoutdad]

I bought three bottles of Tamaiya Insignia Red forthe rest of the fleet...

[marcus_aurelius]

I'll be very curious to see what yours turn out like.

I started painting mine with a Tamiya red (and I think it was the same mica-red you used) and I hated the mica flecks. I ended up stripping the whole mess to start them over.

I'll be using a Humbrol ship-hull red on mine as I want a deeper, darker, red (almost a brown).

Here is an example of the Tamiya Mica Red.


They have a slight metallic sheen that doesn't fully come across in pictures. That is probably what you didn't like about the color.

The rest of my Kzinti pictures are posted in the Kzinti thread under the Starline 2400 Minitures: Painting Exampes topic.

[djdood]

I saw those, and they look phenomenal (I wanted to say so, but comments are to be kept out of those threads). Great job on them.

On mine, when I used that mica-Red, the "opalescence" was distracting and wasn't going to lend itself to the "dull" overall tone I was aiming for.

It certainly worked out well for yours though. I'm hoping to be painting, sometime after mid-July (I finally found an affordable paint-booth that the birthday-fairy may be bringing to me).

[marcus_aurelius]

Thanks!!

"Opalescence" is definately a good adjective for the effect.

I had a similar effect on my Hydran ships where I used
Tamiya Mica Blue. Again, the pictures don't show
the full opalescence of the paint.

BTW djdood I really like the F5W sculpt (I think you made it?)
I have 3 painted up.

[djdood]

Yup, the F5W was me (so are the FedEx and the new Fed oCA). Thanks!

[Dan Ibekwe]

M. Aurelius - Your painting looks fantastic, the pearlescent/opaleascent/slightly glittery/whatever really works.

Were the colour bands on the Hydran ships decals or painted?

(PS As one Romano-Byzantine to another, I'd keep an eye on that Constantine fellow. If you're not careful he'll legalise some barmpot mushroom cult and before you know it the place will be a theocracy and we'll have lost the western half of the Empire, er, I mean the Kingdom...)

[OGOPTIMUS]

Those are simply excellent!

I like those Tamiya Mica XXXX colors too. There's just something about that slight metallic hint that is awesome. I had the blue a while back and used it on some Klingon minis to good effect.

Once again, well done!

[marcus_aurelius]

Thanks everyone!

For the Hydran ships the colour bands are painted.

The process took a couple of trial and error attempts.
The final process was long and went like this:
1. Grey Primer spray
2. Mica Blue spray
3. Gloss coat spray (to protect the paint from the painters tape, etc.)
4. Use Tamiya painters tape and plastic wrap (SaranWrap or generic is fine) to cover everything except the band areas
5. Silver Leaf spray
6. Gloss coat spray
7. Painters tape and plastic wrap to protect everything including about 1/16" of the silver bands.
8. White/green/purple spray
9. Apply home-made decals
10. Dull coat spray (optional)
11. Paint top details and touch up hull color, if needed, with a brush
12. Dull coat spray top
13. Paint bottom details and touch up hull color, if needed, with a brush
14. Dull coat spray bottom
14. Crazy glue to base
15. Another Dull coat spray for good measure

Each spray step (except the last) is two sub-steps - one set of sprays for the top, let dry, and one set of sprays for the bottom.

Now that I write it down...Wow, I didn't actually count all the steps before! There must be a way to optimize this.

The only decals on them are the "chi-rho" and "alpha-omega"
symbols. Those are decals that I created myself with the
Testors decal materials. Some Hydran characters look to be a variant of
Greek characters (especially the theta) so I figured I would try
something different.

I hadn't thought about using the blue on Klingons (I already did
olive drab). Perhaps for a D7H in the future?

As for Constantine I was thinking that crown prince Maxentius would keep him in check. Perhaps I should rethink that.....

[Dan Ibekwe]

Well, the results are gorgeous. I haven't used painter's tape, I'll look into it.

(Considers joke involving Cataphract-class commando ship and Milvian Bri...er...asteroid or something... thinks better of it).