Restoration

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.

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.

The interiors

Bottom view

Undersides

 

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.

From the side the green and silver provide accents

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

The interior I am very happy with the details