Painting Tutorial - Ord Buhkep pt.2

Now that all of the metallic details are masked off, it's time to paint the white sections of the Buhkep.  This includes the floor, interior, and doors.

Step 1

Start by laying down a nice, solid base coat of Vallejo Game Colour (VGC) Sombre Grey with the airbrush. This is thinned using the alcohol/distilled water mixture described in Part One of this tutorial so that it sprays evenly through the airbrush. The consistency of milk is ideal.

Alternatively, you can use Vallejo Game Air for these steps, and less thinning will be required.

Step 2

Next, airbrush highlights with a mixture of VGC Sombre Grey and VGC Wolf Grey. Mix a color that is half way between the two - this will require using more Wolf Grey than the darker Sombre grey to get a "value" that is directly between the two colors. The exact ratio will differ by paint brand, and even within different batches of the same paint, but try starting with a 40/60 ratio of Sombre/Wolf.

Step 3

Paint further highlights with pure VGC Wolf Grey.  You can see that the highlights were focused toward the center of each floor panel.  Keep the airbrush moving in small, circular motions to keep the gradient natural and to prevent paint build-up in a single area.

Step 4

Final Highlights are airbrushed with White.

Here you can see the removable doors, painted with the same steps as the floor.  Highlights are concentrated at the tops of the doors, toward the "sunward" edge.

The masking of the metal parts has been removed. To help separate the metal from the white, you can paint in the panel line with black, or use a Pigma Micron pen of the smallest size (005) to follow the grooves and reclaim the dark panel line.  This is also useful if you spray too much paint on an area and fill in those panel lines by mistake.

Step 5

Because the tops of the doors are somewhat visible, even with the roof of the Buhkep in place, it is necessary to paint the top edge of the doors in the same color as the exterior. In this case, they were painted with a regular brush using Privateer Press P3 Cygnar Blue Base.  It may take two or three coats to get a nice, opaque color over the white.

Step 6

With the white complete, now mask off all that work before painting the main color of the building. To save masking tape, use a sheet of printer paper to mask off a majority of the floor all at once.  After taping, liquid masking fluid was used to finish masking the hard-to-reach areas.

To avoid overspray through the vents and gun ports, place some masking tape covering those holes from the inside.  

Now the Ord Buhkep is ready for the main color to be painted in the next instalment of the tutorial.