first part

second part

Well, this post should be at least two parts because it covers quite a lot, but I did not have the opportunity to take many photos, so here you go.

The base

Was primed with dark grey Vallejo primer, and then I misted different shades of grey over it from the top down- this leaves nice shadows at the uneven surface. I used a dark brown wash, and the Mig Neutral wash also got some use finally. (It is a lightish grey color and so far I could not figure out where and how I should be using it.)

I dry blended some green and reddish oil paints at patches to give some color to the terrain, representing the different colors of sea vegetation.

The squid

The monster was painted with the same dark grey Vallejo primer as the base first. I was thinking about how to paint the suckers, and I came to a solution: instead of painting individual suckers, I leave the part of the arms dark grey, and crape the paint off the suckers gently with a blade.

Painless, and looks good – a win-win in my book.

Most giant squids I’ve seen (on photos) were red. I started to paint this guy red as well: first gave deep red overcoat to the arms (leaving the side with the suckers grey), making sure that the underlying dark primer shows through. This gave a reddish tint to the beast. This was further glazed by several layers of progressively lighter reds. To make the squid a bit more interesting I used purple on the head section (in glazes), and painted purple and white bands on the arms; they were “blended” using an overcoat of diluted red ink.

The eye was painted white first (leaving the pupil black), but it looked somewhat lifeless, so I added a yellow ring, leaving the inside of the cornea white.

The head was treated similarly, only the hood was painted purple using different shades glazed on top of each other. The edges were highlighted with pink, and then I blended everything together using purple ink diluted. The squid got a layer of gloss varnish, and then I used mica powder mixed with a little varnish to make it look iridescent. The eye and its surrounding area got a bit more of the mica treatement.

The Nautilus

Since the sub looks really steam-punky, I decided on bronze/copper instead of the steel color Verne himself gave to the Nautilus. In his book the ship was a dark steel contraption, but it’s my model, so I call the shots here. Let’s just agree it is not historically accurate, and leave it at that.

The Nautilus was first primed with Vallejo’s black primer for metallic paints (it is a shiny black), and then I applied MRP’s dark bronze. Man, that paint stinks… (I did not notice that while it is an acrylic, it is not water based.) But it did work, unlike their creme color on my Panther. I can wholeheartedy recommend this paint.

Once it dried, I used Vallejo’s gold and bronze on the panels in uneven layers, with the dark bronze showing through. I did not want to paint the whole thing in an uniform shiny metal color, because it would look like a toy like that. The scale effect (and the natural weathering of the metal) would cause the Nautilus look duller, and darker, so this is what I tried to replicate.

As the last layer I misted some copper over certain parts. The aim was to have an uneven, shaded surface everywhere; and this seems to have been accomplished quite nicely.

Detail were pained with AK’s True Metal paints (bronze and gold); they were used as highlights. (I love those paints, by the way. They are very easy to work with, and look pretty good. They do not polish as well as the videos would make you believe, but nothing is perfect I guess.)

The ship was glued to the squid at this stage using two part epoxy. I really wanted to make sure it stays there.

I removed the masks from the windows, and this is where the disappointment strikes: hardly anything can be seen of the interior. The nacelles of the windows distort the view, and the bloody LEDs are not very good at providing a good source of lighting. Obviously I will have to learn some more before the next project about creating ambient lights. The LEDs work more like spotlights, unfortunately. The bridge can’t be seen at all, so the captain’s wheel, and the whole neat little room is completely unecessary to install. Another LED-related issue: the top spotlight was left off for now; the kit version was a solid piece so I could not fit the LED inside, and I could not fashion a suitable replacement. I will look around in the spares box to see if I can find something. For now it will be left like that.

At this stage I started weathering the metal. Since it is a bronze ship, the metal oxide should look nice and green – another reason to choose this color over the dull steel. The top part, which is exposed to the elements when the boat is not submerget got some streaking, too. Since AK Interactive’s latest products, the weatherin pencils, took my fancy, I realized that I have a lot of acrylic pencils in my possession -which are essentially the same thing. I used the black and dark colors for the streaking as a trial.

I was debating what color the plants should be on the deck; I think wood would look great (it gives a little contrast to the metal surface), but I’m still undecided. I might repaint it later. I used several greens to represent the oxidizied brass both as pin washes and as several layers of glazes applied selectively to specific areas. (Mostly near the edges of panels.)

And basically, this is it.

When I have some time I will fashion a larger lightbox to take some proper photos where the sides don’t show. For now it is finished.