Bot War - Cult of the Destroyer

With my test scheme worked out, I set about priming all of the bots with Badger Stynelrez black. Most bots were fully built, but a couple were made into sub-assemblies to make it easier to get to those hard to reach places, or in the case of Destroyer make it more manageable to paint.

These bots either had a pin attached (paperclip) or had a peg I could clip a crocodile clip onto to make it easier to prime. I like these Croc-clip sticks as I can then poke them into my honeycomb cat scratcher (my cat has her own one) to dry. I also find it easier to maneuver them when priming as you can get the airbrush into all the recesses below the model with the minimal amount of interference from a holder.

Once primed I picked out my first Bot. Loader

I really liked his pose with the exposed armour plates, as it means I can work on getting a good basecoat and learn the scheme without arms or weapons getting in the way.

In the above photo you can see I applied a roughly applied coat of citadel Thondia Brown over the black primer. I wasn’t worried about full coverage as I want the layers to be built up rough and random.

The below gallery shows the next series of stages. First I go over the brown with AK Interactive orange-brown, stippled to ensure that some of the brown layer underneath remains in the recesses.

Next I went over the orange with scale75 sahara yellow to start to build a yellow layer, focusing on the highest and most prominent areas as a highlight.

To increase the vibrancy I then used a bit of torn sponge to apply AK dirty yellow. This really boosted the yellow, and the sponge created randomness to let the previous layers still show in places.

With an initial work up complete, I went back in with a small glaze of AK interactive Chocolate around elated details, in recesses, and int he buckets on either shoulder. This is the starting point of adding dirt build up and helps to increase the contrast between the different elements.

I then went in with a very thin glaze of Pro-acryl Transparent Orange to almost simulate rust but to also harmonise and add warmth to the yellow which was looking a bit desaturated. When applying glazes its worth remembering that the pigment will be strongest at the point it pools, which will usually be the last contact point if the brush and the mini. With this in mind i dragged the glaze into the recesses and shadow areas, as well as the the lower parts of the armour to create a very subtle gradient.

To help visualise the final look I blocked in some other elements like the thigh joints, and the tyres.

I also used a mix of the AK orange-brown with citadel Thondia Brown to create a rusty colour that I used to paint in some details like the waist grills and tyre hubs.

The thigh joints and under armour was painted with Vallejo extra opaque heavy blue grey. This is my standard under armour blocking in colour for Bot War minis and features on almost every bot I have. For me if the Bot is in an “Alt Mode” then these joints will be consealed and will look differently to the weather outer armour. 5his will get highlighted up and shaded, but it’s just blocked in for now.

Today’s session comes to an end with more stippling and blotchy glazing of all colours. This creates more texture and randomness which really adds to the weathered paint look of a well used machine.

Below are some closeups of some details that I think really shown the weathered paint look.  There’s plenty more to still paint in Loader but I’m really happy with my progress.