Need help painting the razorwing

After months frustratingly trying to paint my razorwing fighter, I am now officially totally miffed. ^^

My intention is to have the hull look like it is made of dark ice. I have tried several things, like drawing a thin line and then smearing it out to get a cracklike apearance. In the end I have a black hull with thin Green-blue lines along the panels and Nuln Oil smears over the black. I want a more gleaming hull, not a gritty one.

Can someone please help me? I'm getting desperate here.

The thing about ice is it is usually somewhat transparent.

My initial thoughts are to approach it like you would a jewel. Except that you won't really have a point of focus for the light source.

Transparents can be difficult to do. One method is to do them almost reverse of normal shading and highlighting. You would have dark shading at the edges, and you brighter colors would be on the larger areas.

the edges will be dark, but bright around the creases.

The weird thing about ice, is that the edges will show up as dark.

I did some yahoo searches of images of ice, and it provided some good ideas on how it looks and what what it needs to look like.,

GAR wrote:

I did some yahoo searches of images of ice, and it provided some good ideas on how it looks and what what it needs to look like.,

Ah, so my wife isn't the only person left on the planet using Yahoo instead of Google

Painting ice is an absolute beyatch. Even if you look at some of the ice scenery and bases done by the 'eavy metal guys they don't usually get it looking right. Kudos to you for making the attempt though Jmaeta.

i just found an awesome way to paint CWE crystal swords, maybe you can use that for your razorwing:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8i2Z8acq-ts&feature=plcp
and the how to paint razorwing, maybe you can use that crystaline with this:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0FKj41Alyx4&feature=plcp
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sA6GoYjrRKg&feature=plcp

Thank you for all the responses. I hope I can produce something looking like ice.The vids help and I did find some interesting pics on Yahoo. thanx again.

I never thought about doing dark angels green as a base colour for the Edges.

Btw, I did look at the ice and noticed that the cracks are almost white. I do have an idea about how to make them. Draw a thin line where I want the crack to be. then smudge it with a tissue just a little bit so that the depth of the ice can be seen. Then do a wash over the crack and highlight one side to make the top of the crack. (Hope this will work out.)☺

I think you can get the same effect by watering the white down alot (75% water/25% white paint) and then apply more and more white paint while making the stripes thinner and thinner (which must be painted over the original wider watered down stripes ofcourse). Then super highlight stratetic places with pure white.

Seeing the above pic I would indeed do this on Dark Angel Green basecoat. Wash this with Badab Black (don't be shy with the wash either). Then drybrush the raised bits of the Razorwing again with Dark Angel Green.

Watering down sounds good. I'll try that.

What's the difference between Badab Black and Nuln Oil? I've got Nuln Oil.

one of them is matt i think, or matter than the other. Iduno for black i use corrosion resistant black metal spray ^^

Jmaeta wrote:

Watering down sounds good. I'll try that.

What's the difference between Badab Black and Nuln Oil? I've got Nuln Oil.

To be honest, I don't know wat Nuln Oil is exactly. Lol. Is that from Citadel's new range?

Badab Black is basically watered down Chaos Black. It's great to tone down basecoats towards black. Which is what you need to get the effect of the picture you showed.

Nuln Oil is one of the new paints. Also watered down. I go check with a friend if the oil is matt and Badab is more gloss.

I think glossy effect wouldn't even be a bad thing considering the nature of ice.

I'm thinking of painting a thin layer of gloss varnish on the model anyway. So that might work as well.

I see. Sounds good. Can't wait to see the result. Get to work!

Badab black is the old black wash, replaced by Nuln Oil.
Gloss Varnish is good stuff, I use it on the gem shapes and eyes, it gives quite a subtle reflective effect I think. Just remember not to apply it before the coat of purity seal!

I was thinking about using the varnish instead of the purity seal. That will give the entire model a gleaming effect. Or would that be too much?

Grumble....

Painting these edges is pretty hard. Been at it the entire evening and this is what I have to show for it. I feel like the lines are waaay to thick. However, I still need to add the two highlights and then add the Nuln Oil. After that I will try my hand at the ice-cracks. I think I have something here. However... Did I mention that this is the first time in about a year that I have seriously started painting again? I might have bit off more than I can chew. However. We soldier on and see what happens.





Looking at these pictures again, yeah, I need to trim the lines down with abadon black.

The best suggestion I can come up with is to have a look at this excellent tutorial for painting marble and then attempt to apply it "in reverse" for a dark colour. I've no idea how well it would work, but worth a shot, I think.

To prove that I am actually painting. ^^





I'm not so sure about the cracks. I did find the following picture that gives a better idea.

The last highlights, and almost done for now.The rear and underside still need to be done, but the weather here is not helping me to paint. it's way too hot. I like where the highlights are going. Instead of green, the ship seems to radiate a blue light.

Still not sure about the icecracks. Perhaps adding frost will help with the icey feel.

I don't know about the ice cracks as I can't really see much in that photo but the overall look is very good.

That's because I'm chicken and haven't painted the cracks yet.

when you say marble, you mean like this?

http://hot-lead.org/advance/texturing_marble.htm

Erm, not marble, but Dark Ice. Maybe a bit like marble veigns. But the ones you show are not what I'm looking for. The undertone is nice, but again, not what I'm looking for.

This may sound odd ever think of using Crackle nail polish? Find a black, and blue. That might get the effect you are looking for.