IK-Painter: From Zero to Hero VIII: Defender / Triumph

Hey all,

in this tutorial, I will take you through how I painted my magnetized Defender / Triumph Warjack. Special techniques I used where pre-shading, OSL and weathering.

I started priming the model with my airbrush with Vallejos Polyurethane Acrylic Grey Primer. After this was dry, I started pre-shading the whole model, using black in all the recesses and white on all the high spots. After the mini was shaded, I applied thin and even layers of my main color, Hawk Turquoise, making sure that the shadows and highlights would still be visible. The end result was a nice and even basecoat with clearly defined but soft shadows and highlights.

You have to be careful after applying your color with an airbrush, as the coat is very thin and delicate. For protection, I sprayed the whole mini with gloss varnish.

I then added Ivory on some armor plates of the mini, to tie it in with the rest of my Cygnar forces.

Preshading all done

Varnished

Armor plates and head hit with Ivory

The silvery metals were basecoated with a 50:50 mix of Vallejo Model Air Steel and Chaos Black, for a very dark metal. I then washes it with Les' APJ Heavy Body Black Wash with two coats to dull the metal even further and drybrushed Vallejo Model Air Silver to get some nice highlights on the high spots. To further accentuate the shoulder plates, I hard edge highlighted them with VMA Silver.

Silver metals basecoated...

...and washed

On the gold metal areas I used my new Vallejo Liquid Gold paints. I first basecoated with Copper and then layered Red Gold over it, being careful not to get it into the recesses. The final highlight was done with Old Gold, really bringing out the details in the process.

Gold metals basecoated

The finished gold metals

The bolts all over the Defender where shadowed with a dab of Badab Black. To give them a used look I first hit each of them with VGC Gunmetal Metal and finally just a tiny dab of VMA Silver just on top of each rivet. After that I needed a break, as the sheer number of the rivets all over the model was enough to almost bring me down. Multiply it by 3 and you'll begin to have an idea how I felt when I was finished.

The magnet on the right arm was freehanded to give the impression of a giant screw.

Detail work

The shield was basecoated with VMC and Ivory. For the metals I used the same techniques as on the mini.

Basecoated and Ivory added

Copper

Red Gold

Old Gold

Finished

For the OSL on the hammer I basecoated with VGC Imerial Blue and highlighted gradually by adding Electric Blue and Skull White. To add some shadows I applied two thinned washes Asurmen Blue. For the OSL effect I mixed a small amount of the midtone (Electric Blue) and applied it with very low PSI all around the Light source. In a second pass I concentrated on the area just around the coils, adding a drop of Skull White to give the impression that the light is brighter the nearer it is to the source.

Baecoated

Highlighted

First OSL pass

Second OSL pass and cleanup

The smokestacks where Basecoated with VMA Red. I then added the highlights with VMA Orange and Yellow. The OSL where done with the midtone (Orange) all around the top edge of the stacks.

For basing, I created a destroyed armor plate. I took bitz I had over from an old GW Rhino and clipped off a piece. I then heated a nail and pushed it through the plate to create a hole where a Defenders shell might have punched through in the past. I then primed and baseoated the piece red and added some scratches with Gunmetal Metal. Then I used three different rust pigments to weather and age the plate. When all was done I glued it on the base and added some static grass on the edges to give the impression it had lain there for a while.

Rust effect WIP

Glued to the base

The eyes lens on the gun where done the same way as the OSL on the stacks - just with a brush instead of an airbrush. On the weapon I dotted the lens with Skull White to simulate a light reflection.