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Majere613 — XV-104 Riptide
Published: 2013-04-28 10:00:07 +0000 UTC; Views: 2519; Favourites: 25; Downloads: 5
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Description
A wild Tau appeared!Not the sort of thing I've been doing recently, but this is such an awesome model it demanded to appear here. My Riptide is basically built straight out of the box- I considered magnetizing the main weapon but it would be a bit of a faff and I don't see myself using the alternative Heavy Burst Cannon. I may mount it for use as part of a Tau Aegis Line at some point.
Minor modelling notes- this is a very nice kit to work with, it goes together well and the parts are not too fiddly. There was a lot of cleaning of sprue marks to do, but that was about it. The waist of the model has a smooth ball-and-socket joint with an anchor peg, meaning it holds together fine without glue and you can break it down into body and legs for painting and transport. I used the trusty brass rod and receiving hole method to attach the Smart Missiles at the top, allowing them to be removed for transport or if I decide to try a different weapon fit. Likewise, the Shielded Missile Drones sit happily on their flying base stalks unglued, which again is handy for transporting them.
Painting- pretty simple. Black undercoat, drybrushed up with Administratum Grey. The blue was based with Macragge Blue, layered with Altdorf Guard and edged with Calgar Blue, whilst the white was based with Admin Grey again and built up with White Scar and Ceramite White. I added a few transfers for interest- there are plenty of large, flat surfaces to receive them.
Oh, minor note- I also drybrushed a little gold and metallic purple onto the end of the Ion Accelerator to suggest mild temperature stressing. You can only just see it, but I wanted to keep it subtle!
The base was an experiment that came out quite well. Instead of just flocking such a large area, I covered most of it with the sheet grass I used on my Realm of Battle board. I then painted the rest of the base with Lustrian Undergrowth for texture, and sprinkled on static grass and my usual flock. It makes the base a little more interesting without making it look like a lump of rock is following my Battlesuit around.
Photography by me, all original miniatures (c) Games Workshop
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Comments: 7
Very jealous
Wish I had the money to purchase one of these beauties X3
Also, looks like your white applied sorta badly.
Did you use a white basecoat AND layer?
The rest of the paint job is above tabletop, thought ^_^
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I've had very little luck with my white paint, recently, in all honesty. It's white over grey, but my White Scar is not behaving itself particularly well. It does look a little smoother IRL, though, I had to use a rather harsher light than I'd have liked to photograph it.
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Yeah, White Scar's quite the pain.
Have you tried Ceramite White? It's a White Base, so perhaps it'd lay better? I've yet to try it myself, however.
And why the harsher light?
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I used both Ceramite and White Scar. Part of the problem, I think, was that I edge highlighted the blue armour but I couldn't really do that with the white. I think the light I used for the picture made the darker grey underneath show through a little too much.
I'm still tinkering with lighting in general. Using a curve of white paper or card as the background sets the model off nicely, but it seems to make the overall picture a bit dark, so even in daylight I'm using a lamp to brighten it up now. I think I'm getting a little better at it, anyway
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I see what you mean with the contrast, but I still don't think that's quite the problem; your lighting and photography skills are just fine.
The Whites just refuse to apply themselves. They're likely failing multiple classes.
In regards to the lighting and whatnot, I have the same problem; different backgrounds have different effects that can throw off my entire shoot. However, I don't have too many areas to take pictures in natural light during the day, so most of my photos are simply done with a lamp. They end up coming out rather oddly, not overly fond of it. I prefer to use a grey background, though, as I feel it still offsets the model nicely, as white does, but it's not as overly bright as pure white is.
On an unrelated note, have you ever considered entering your work into CoolMiniOrNot?
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I like to browse CMON, but their rating and comment system... well, to me it seems a lot like people comparing the measurements of certain critical parts of their anatomy. TBH, the community on DA is much more to my taste!
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I suppose that's correct ^_^
I post to both; DA is good for overall art and whatnot, but I find the CMON audience is a tad more experienced. Even if it is as you say, those with experience who are willing to help the new kids are fairly good....but rare >_<
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