Retro 40k Duck Style

So by the time that I got around to trying to weather the paintwork that I had so carefully applied with the airbrush, probably around 12 hours had passed and I was a little apprehensive that the hairspray would not reactivate, but it was fine. I simply applied some clean water and dabbed at it with a cocktail stick and the surface paint I had applied (both by airbrush and normal brush) came right off revealing the chocolate Brown below.

For next time, this would probably work better with a lighter paint colour, the red is very close to the brown and so the effect isn’t obvious, but I do like it none the less, as it leaves paint build up near the rust, which I think looks better than painting the rust over the base coat, which is what I would probably normally do.

Anyhow, the left hand picture is before scraping, the right is after.

I then spent the rest of the evening applying recess shades, classic Ork chequer board patterns and detailing the wagon and was pretty happy with the result. I hit it with a coat of matt varnish to seal everything in and then only one task remained…… the banner.

Now I have never really painted a banner before. I’ve certainly never made a banner from scratch, but after a bit of internet searching and YouTube watching I decided to opt for Gerry’s suggested approach of win bottle tin film.

This involves taking the thin tin film found around the lid of a winebottle and re-purposing it for a banner. It’s a really good material as it can be bent easily and cut with scissors or a hobby knife.

I also had to decide on a pattern and opted for a simple Orky skull with some more chequerboard glyphs.

This montage shows you how I went about turning the wine bottle tin into my Orky flag……

In 3, I have primed the banner black and then started by boxing in the 4 corner quadrants for my glyphs. I figured this would help me keep the forthcoming freehand design in the centre of the banner.

In 3 and 4 you can see how I tried to put this together. I made numerous mistakes and just went back in with black to adjust until I got the lower jaw the way I liked it.

As you can see in 5, I went back and forward a few times until I got the eyes the right size and in the correct position to give the right feel that I was looking for.

After that I worked in the horns (6) and the shoota’s at the bottom (7). I then added a stark highlight in (8).

I then applied a couple of targeted red glazes (9) to blend the transition and smooth everything out before tidying up (again) with black. Finally I added Wraithbone borders and more chequerboards (10) and some Orky glyphs (11).

Building and painting the banner took nearly as long as the tank itself to be honest with you, but it was the first time that I have really challenged myself with freehand and I expect something that will be required again with these 2nd edition Orks as everyone seems to have a banner!