One of the interesting aspects of miniature painting is
looking at things you painted when you first started and realizing how much you
have grown in skill.
The only drawback
to this is when you have very unique pieces you purchased that you really wish
you hadn’t painted so early on.
Forge World
items come to mind here.
My number one
reason to tell people to wait on Forge World is you don’t want to buy those
models until you’re comfortable with your skill level.
The simple fact is as you get better you’ll
really be bothered that some of your nicest pieces are not painted to the best
of your ability.
Yes you always get
better, but I do think there is a key period in those first couple of years
where your skill takes off at a dramatic level and after that your improvement
is more subtle.
So at least for me I
really should have waited on some of those nicer Forge World pieces.
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| The stripped piece |
For the most part I purchased those pieces but never really
panted them. My pack rat tendency to
purchase, collect, and not open actually worked to my advantage. The few things I did paint I didn’t finish
and were generally not too far along where I couldn’t go back and retouch
them. In this case I have a Tau Orca
which is partially painted. I have been
stripping it here and there as a side project.
In this entry I want to feature the pilot pod from the Orca which had a
base coat and was primed. The priming
was done with an aerosol can some time ago.
I stripped that down as best I could for the most part it was fairly
clear with small patches of primer here
and there.
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| The interiors |
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| Bottom view |
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| Undersides |
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| From the front you can see the highlighted edge built up |
I wanted to see how this model would take priming and
painting from an airbrush. I primed it with
Vallejo surface primer and used the airbrush to apply the general coats and an
edge highlight. I finished up the finer points
by hand. The interior was airbrushed as
well with the details done by hand. All
in all I was very happy with the results and look forward to paining the rest
of the Orca in the future.
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| From the side the green and silver provide accents |
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| From behind and underneath the lime green can be touchy to paint when possible I prefer to airbrush this color as it builds better with an airbrush |
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| The interior I am very happy with the details |
