Airbrushing Deadzone Terrain
Two Ways of Painting Paint Chips
Since I’m not planning on spending much time painting this terrain I decided to use weathering to add interest to the surfaces. So far I’ve used two techniques for paint chips. The first is to sponge on black paint. I ripped the corner of a bit of blister pack foamĀ and used that to add some paint chips. Sea sponges or torn makeup sponges work just as well. Make sure you rotate the sponge and very your pressure and angle. One trick I like to use when creating a random pattern is to roam wildly over my surface instead of working on any one area. It’s hard not to fall into a pattern and it is more difficult to hide a repeated pattern when each instance is far from any other.
Later I picked up a bottle of Vallejo Masking Fluid which I used with a sponge to mask areas for chipping. This is an extra step which I’m not sure is necessary in every instance. It did come in handy when I added some extra colour and wanted to chip that down to the main base colour.
No matter what chipping technique I used I took the time to paint a little highlight on the underside of each chip. This took a little bit of time. For those who don’t have a steady hand you can get away with dabbing small dots for the highlight, adding more and more until they create a thin line. This made each chip pop out of the paint and give it a 3D look. The highlight color was an almost white version of the base colour.
Breaking Up Large Surfaces
Maybe it’s theĀ Star Wars fan in me but I really like the look of random lines of colours as accents on sci-fi buildings. It reminds me of an X-Wing fighter. I used regular masking tape to mark off some areas for accent colours. I would also dab on some of the liquid mask to break up an otherwise uniform, perfect shape.
Decals are another easy way to break up surfaces. I used some old Games Workshop decals but wished I’d had a good selection of numbers in a less distinct font. I didn’t end up using the decals much, something I regret.
Adding Washes
I’m not a huge fan of using washes for shading when painting miniatures. If I ever use it I apply it only to crevices for accentuating panel lines or the border between two different surfaces. This means I’ve been approaching my washes experimentally. I’ve played around with both Liquitex Acrylic Ink and Vallejo’s Smoke. I’ve pre-wet the surface, put it on and pulled it off and slowed down drying by misting with water. No technique has given me bad results.
Finishing Up
Once all the paint has cured for at least 24 hours I varnished everything with Winsor and Newton’s Matte Varnish. I used a water-soluble version so that I can spray it through my airbrush I get really paranoid once I’ve painted something and am always afraid of my hard work chipping off. Not that you would notice with all the fake chipping I did.
There’s only one thing left to do with the terrain once it is painted and varnished: PlayĀ Deadzone. Sadly I haven’t had the chance which is a real shame. Hopefully now that the holidays are over I’ll get the chance.
Let me know what you thought of my paint job in the comments. If you’ve painted your own set I’d love to hear about it. You can also find me on Google+ and Twitter where I like to show work in progress images. Don’t forget to subscribe for future content. Having a fully paintedĀ Deadzone boxed set just calls out for a battle report.