A shift in gear… the new Leagues of Votann vehicles are the focus of this latest adventure, exploring the development of my Nagrim Hegemony Force as I tackle more of the ArcArmy Challenge.
I’m also painting the Brokhyr Thunderkyn and the second unit of warriors in parallel to getting the vehicles built but we can get back and look at progress on the painting front for them next time.
This article I’m focusing on the Sagitaur. The first part of that project was to decide on a base.
I’m feeling that I need to base both the vehicles.
Particularly as the directional OSL lighting on the base and the models themselves, in the other units painted so far, helps create that asteroid at sun rise look. I think it gives a very striking directional view on the finished model.
Without a base having the same lighting effect of the red lighted parts of the vehicle may not have a context for any of those colours. So step one was to crank up Tinkercad and design a new base topper for the 120mm base I planned to use for the Sagitaur.
So it was printed, glued in place, any gaps filled and covered with a slurry of astrogranite texture paint all over.
The next big thing was to build the Sagitaur. So funnily enough the first thing I always do when I open a new kit is to flick through the instructions to familiarise myself with the build. What subassemblies need to be done or might help speed up the process, and if anything can or should be prepainted…
And there it was - step 1c Paint Before Assembly!
Damn that changed things. Because before I could build it I’d have to paint the Cockpit of the model.
Well actually I had to build the cockpit, spray it, and then paint it so it was ready to be built into the rest of the steps of building the kit.
Seeing all the other models in the army painted to this point had multiple OSL added to them… why not the driver! There were displays, lights, switches and panels all of which could create glow effects onto the pilot.
Once that was done I also chose to paint the gunner IronKyn in his little cupola - I masked the area off and created sub assemblies four the gunner body and the control panel.
With these two sections painted it was time to build. I had to scrap back any overspray of paint as even the micro thin layer of paint meant that what had worked as a dry fit wouldn’t align once I’d painted the cockpit! Probably should have masked off any parts not being painted…
I focussed on securing the front of the hull so that there where no gaps around or near the cockpit. So I just glued the areas close by and secured everything in place with rubber bands. Once the front was dry and i checked the fit the back had glue applied and once again rubber bands used to hold it all together securely.
After that the build went to plan. Just following the numbers and putting the parts on in the right places - except the clear canopy pieces. I repositioned the front right suspension so that the Sagitaur would hub the bumps and dips of the asteroid base.
I decided that the armour plates would be best painted off the model and then installed later. They would be a different colour to the main armour of the vehicle.
So I removed them all from the sprue and then glued a repurposed piece of sprue at the back of each. This meant that i could clean all the mold makes off the sides of the pieces giving a clean smooth surface to paint.
When I was happy with the positioning of the Sagitaur on the base I then put pins in each of the wheels and sunk holes into the base. I chose not to glue it together at this stage.
I could better undercoat and base coat the model and the base if I was able to take it apart at certain stages and to check when creating shadows and lighting effects.
I masked up the two cockpits and got underway with the painting. Vehicles have large flat surfaces and in the case of the Sagitaur curves that will need to be highlighted with a softer gradient between areas. Nothing works better than an Airbrush.
Rather than do a long winded explanation - all I’m going to say is I used the same colours for every stage of painting that I had used in painting the Einhyr Hearthguard. I wanted the vehicle armour, and armour plates to be in the same tonal range.
The airbrush helped create subtle transitions on the dark armour plates that was then edge highlighted with a brush to make it pop.
Next I added all the bits that were painted separately - like the aerial and the gun. Finished things with some transfers applied and then weathered. The lighting effect of the rising sunlight on the right side just wouldn’t work without the base - can I say it grounds the model!
So I’m happy with the results on the Sagitaur… now to finish some more Warriors and tackle the those Hernkyn Pioneers which are now basecoated!
