Han Solo's DL-44 Blaster

[Milamber]

Made with the new Eris.

[Captain Starfish]

Nice work, Pug. Guessing it's not your first rodeo when it comes to paint, texture and weathering?

[Milamber]

Thanks. Honestly, I've never tried to weather anything. Lots of learning happened on this. Here was an attempt to model heat effects. I didn't end up using it.. I do, however, draw. This wasn't too different from that.

[Xenocrates]

May I suggest the excellent weathering magazine from Mig Jimenez, and if you don't have one, an airbrush (I personally am very fond of Badger's line). I think a blue wash or glaze applied over your heat effect attempt would rescue it somewhat. Minitaire ghost tint plasma fluid would be the color I'd use, but it's pretty much air-brush only. I might also harden the edges where you have a chipping effect with a 000 brush, as they look a little soft and not very well defined.

It's a very nice bit of work no matter what else you do with it though.

[Milamber]

Its hard to see in the photo but I did use a pearlescent gold wash that gives it an interesting shimmer. I intended to break out the airbrush and try again but I just kind of ran out of energy for it at the moment. I'm not sure how I would harden the edges... I'll see what I can find about that. The titanium color is actually on top of the black, not under it. Im relying on the "illusion of expectations" to reverse the effect.

Always ready to learn something new so thank you for the tips.

[Xenocrates]

I could tell the titanium is over the black (I stare at entirely too many miniatures, and have acted as a painting judge for tournaments involving them), thus why I mentioned hardening the edges. Just use a small (00 or 000 is what I prefer) brush with black on it, and use it to remove any fading between colors, as well as to add somewhat angular lines to it. That helps it mimic chipping better.

I totally understand running out of energy with these things. Often I burn out in the later summer and early fall, after all the gaming conventions are done, and don't paint again until mid winter. So in the spring I end up sometimes with three airbrushes connected to a manifold and loaded, and 4 tables of miniatures to work on priming/basecoating/blocking. It's a vicious cycle.

[barry99705]

Pretty sweet blaster.
Last miniature I painted was in high school. So that was 22 years ago!

[Xenocrates]

Pretty sweet blaster.
Last miniature I painted was in high school. So that was 22 years ago!

What sort were you painting then(I presume white metal mostly)?
I know that 40K and warhammer were around then, as well as battletech and a pile of different D&D lines.

[Milamber]

Just use a small (00 or 000 is what I prefer) brush with black on it, and use it to remove any fading between colors, as well as to add somewhat angular lines to it. That helps it mimic chipping better.

Lol...now that I know about it, I have to do it! Are you saying that, with this technique, to use whatever the base coat color is? i.e. If the blaster had been, say, grey, outline it in the same shade as the base coat?

[Xenocrates]

Just use a small (00 or 000 is what I prefer) brush with black on it, and use it to remove any fading between colors, as well as to add somewhat angular lines to it. That helps it mimic chipping better.

Lol...now that I know about it, I have to do it! Are you saying that, with this technique, to use whatever the base coat color is? i.e. If the blaster had been, say, grey, outline it in the same shade as the base coat?

Yes, precisely. It's a bit time-consuming, far more so than using a chipping medium, but it's cheaper to implement and let's you turn a stage quality (quick and dirty) to a display quality prop without starting over on the paint.

[Milamber]

I'm going to give this a try. Maybe YouTube will have a video where I can see it being applied. Time to conduct some "search-fu"

[barry99705]

Pretty sweet blaster.
Last miniature I painted was in high school. So that was 22 years ago!

What sort were you painting then(I presume white metal mostly)?
I know that 40K and warhammer were around then, as well as battletech and a pile of different D&D lines.

Lead, or whatever was more kid friendly. Some of the warhammer hammer stuff was plastic. Mainly the Tyranids. Also did som mechwarrior stuff, love the Marauder 2. The new online game sucks, can't believe ms owns it now.

[Eaglezsoar]

I don't know about the air brushing but the printing of the Blaster was fantastic.
Great Job!

[Xenocrates]

Pretty sweet blaster.
Last miniature I painted was in high school. So that was 22 years ago!

What sort were you painting then(I presume white metal mostly)?
I know that 40K and warhammer were around then, as well as battletech and a pile of different D&D lines.

Lead, or whatever was more kid friendly. Some of the warhammer hammer stuff was plastic. Mainly the Tyranids. Also did som mechwarrior stuff, love the Marauder 2. The new online game sucks, can't believe ms owns it now.

Heh. I mainly collect Tyranids myself. Got a pile of old battletech too. Also, random trivia, MS only owns the IP for video games, Catalyst owns the old battletech stuff now, and the Unseen are actually starting to get licensed back to catalyst/FASA and Ral Partha