So when The boarding action set was released (decides to not look for the date to reduce guilt), I was really excited about it like many I guess. It's quite an impressive set though and a huge task which I dreaded.
So I took it in baby steps and first started clipping and sanding every bit off the sprue to organise them in zip bags. That took me the three Hobbit movies with the kids to get every bit sorted and prepared.
Fast forward a year and a half and I started last summer with the idea I could paint this set within the holidays. No kids around, good spraying conditions, if there was ever a time, that was now.
So I set a space in the basement and proceeded.
The first coat was a dark red undercoat from below:
Followed by a Zandri dust zenithal to give a nice preshading
The rest was mainly blocking metal parts and an oil wash on everything with a mix of burnt sienna and black.
Then a cream drybrush and the basics were done, followed by details, one colour at a time, methodically, using contrast paints whenever I could, trying to be really focused on completing the same colour over all the parts before switching to another.
WHat I thought would be a tedious mind crushing exercise actually became a soothing mindful moment everyday, using like 20 minutes here and there to complete one task until it all added up and the set was taking shape so rapidly.
Then a cream drybrush and the basics were done, followed by details, one colour at a time, methodically, using contrast paints whenever I could, trying to be really focused on completing the same colour over all the parts before switching to another.
WHat I thought would be a tedious mind crushing exercise actually became a soothing mindful moment everyday, using like 20 minutes here and there to complete one task until it all added up and the set was taking shape so rapidly.
If you're ever gonna paint that set or any similar from GW, I STRONGLY advise you to mask the pegs and parts supposed to go into others, the tolerances on those pieces ar eso tight even just a prime coat will make them difficult to assemble and two will make them a nightmare.
I learnt it the hard way and therfore masked those parts before spray varnishing :
I learnt it the hard way and therfore masked those parts before spray varnishing :
Now here's the fun part, I won't detail all teh bits I painted since they all come in 4, there are a few variations between the same bits but it's just minor stuff
I got to say this wall section (and the other 3) is probably the one that took the most attention from me, the screens just demanded it and were the occasion to do cool stuff. It really adds a level of immersion to paint stuff on them so I took the time to make them nice.
Now the big screens really are where I had teh most fun, can you spot the 5 easter eggs amongst them ?
The power device wall are the ones I dreaded the most and probably the ones I have more mixed feelings about because of the OSL. I tried to follow Artis Opus's tutorial and it honestly went quite well until the last stage where (despite the warning in the video) I tied to rush it and sort of messed it up. It's still OK enough for terrain and at table distance it does the job but I reckon I could have achieved that WOW effect if I had been careful enough.
The rest of the sections are more dull which is a good thing, several pieces are a little too busy in my taste and the copy/paste of details tends to show on some parts
Like often, it's tempting to try and paint every detail you see and that can make things blurry and hard to read. I've tried to keep some stuff undetailed and just let the sculpture do its thing.
The set also comes with a lot of doors on a lot of walls, like A LOT
I said A LOT
After the attempt with the power devices, I decided not to push my luck trying OSL on every light source so kept things simple with the ligt, I was also afraid it would make the set too gaudy which I dislike in general. I like model to stand out so I generally want the scenery duller.
You can see on the sides where I had to sand the parts back to plastic to make them fit easily in the other parts.
For some reason, I particularly liked the wall ends, don't ask me why
The pillars (all 32 of them), were simple enough to not take long and I kept the tiny control panels you're suppose dto attack on them for ater projects and keep them simple.
And then you have the 60 connectors where just sprayed metal, with a couple of black and brown washes, a silver drybrush and a bit of rust washes.
The whole set takes far less time to assemble than I feared and covers quite a juge area even if you've not really thought things through. There are definitely several uses in the near future where I'll need those.
So here we are, if you count the preeping phase out, the painting stage of this set took me about a month with small sessions done at lunch breaks and in the evening, nothing excruciating, nothing tedious. Some will look better or woll have been faster to do but against all odds, I had a lot of pleasue doing this, up to the point I'm now looking forward to other sets of the genre. That in itself is a great reward !
Happy painting to you all !
