Bot War - Cult of the Destroyer

After a week away from the painting table I managed to get back to the Bots this weekend to make some headway.

Firstly on Saturday I was able to get the remaining 4 Bots (Dumptruck, Digger, Roller, Dozer) up to Stage 3 of my workup, so that on Sunday I could then spend more time dirtying the yellow up and going through the weathering motions with the aim to have the yellow armour at the same point as Loader’s by the end of Sunday.

1st stage was to roughly apply Citadel Thondia Brown over the armour plates.

2nd stage was to then use AK Interactive Orange-brown to elevate the brown base coat.

3rd stage was using Scale75 Sahara yellow to begin adding the underlying yellow tones.

The rough painting and stippling method I use for these layers is very hard-wearing on the brushes so I use old synthetics to do this. It helps if the bristles are slightly splayed as this helps with the randomness and blotchy effect. 

With all the bots at the Sahara Yellow stage I set about brightening the armour with AK Interactive Dirty Yellow. This was applied in the same way as Loader by using a tiny piece of blister pack sponge, roughly torn, and then pinched between a small crocodile clip stick.

Using the sponge dipped in the yellow, wiping off any excess so that it’s not too heavily covered in paint, I dabbed this over the highlight areas, in the centre of armour panels, and over raised edges. The torn sponge creates randomness which helps the underlying colours still show through and represents faded of chopped paint, from yellow down through orange, to brown, then black at the very bottom of the paint pile.

My favourite part of this scheme is using the Pro-Acryl Transparent Orange to really boost the vibrancy of the yellow.

Transparent paints are heavily pigmented so I really thin them down to create a glaze, a little of the paint goes a very long way.  The glaze helps to both harmonise the yellow>orange>brown layers where the underlying paint is visible, but it also helps to collect in crevices and around rivets to give a rusty effect.

To help emphasise the rusty buildup I dab some of the glaze into recess areas I want it in, then go back and use an even more thinned bit of the glaze to draw the buildup around the area. Leaving the initial glaze in place for a few seconds helps to stain that area and give it the blotchy effect I want. I also just randomly dabbed some of the glaze into areas to add contrast and interest.

With the orange applied, I started to go back into recess areas with AK Interactive Chocolate, Citadel Thondia Brown, and Scale75 Sahara Yellow to reviver any parts I’d missed or I’d made too dark or too bright. This is where I really add up the layers as I work backwards and forwards through my workup until I’m happy with where I am.

And with that my weekend is over, the yellow is mostly done, I have edge highlights to apply and work in, then I will be able to start on the under armour joints and details.