Six Leg Robot / Walker Step – by – step (Installment
4)
After the Base Coat
After
the base coat step I started to drill new holes for the many antenna masts that
I planned to plug into the body. Again,
a twist drill and bit were used.
fig13: New holes drilled for the antenna
masts to come.
My next step was to hand paint the
hoses, crew equipment and other details.
The crew equipment was painted with different shades of greens and
khakis. I used Vallejo acrylic paints
for this. Vallejo is a great paint for
brush painting and cleans up with water.
The hoses were first painted in a dark grey and then I lightened the
grey with a light khaki color, painting this as a highlight. The fabric dust covers I had sculpted earlier
were painted various shades of green as well.
Finally, I painted some of the larger canisters found on the legs and a
couple of domes on the body a faded turquoise color. I really watered down the paint for the
canisters as I had planned to render them in an extreme state of corrosion.
fig.14: Hand painted details using
Vallejo acrylic paints
Weathering - Washes
I’m now getting to my favorite part
of the whole process, the weathering stage.
This is where I feel the piece will start to live and take on
personality and a history. I start with
“pin-washes” and I used Ammo by MIG : Dark Wash.
This is a pre-made wash that flows nicely into nooks and crannies to
darken and delineate forms and separate shapes.
You can make perfectly serviceable washes from almost any type of
paint. Just dilute the paint down with
the appropriate medium so that it flows easily and leaves just a hint of
color. Take a fairly sharp brush (WinsorNewton Series 7 round no. 2 for me) and flow the wash into the corners and panel
lines, and around details that you want to emphasize. You should not spread the wash over the
entire surface but confine the paint into the recesses. If you use an oil based paint and medium, you
have the added advantage of being able to further work with the paint after it
has slightly dried. In my case, I was
able to draw streaks down by slightly moistening a clean brush with odorless
thinner and pulling color out of the recesses and down the sides.
fig.15: Details start to pop with the
application of washes.
fig.16: For added interest I’m
weathering each half with different intensities.
