Does anybody here paint anything just for the practice? I've been accumulating a lot of leftover parts thinking I might just use them for kitbashing or as basing material. But why not use these pieces as an opportunity to get in a little practice? Perhaps try to new techniques or ideas?
So there's a leftover Imperial Knight arm I didn't have much use for. I wanted to practice making hazard stripes, oil washing, using weathering pigments, and try out some Citadel Contrast paint. (The armor plate with the hazard stripe was attached after painting was completed but before washes and pigments were applied.)
If you use a metallic undercoat, Contrast paints, at least Blood Angels Red, finishes with a metallic sheen after one coat. I based coated the armor plate in black, applied masking tape, using the airbrush threw on a few thin layers of white ink, and followed that up with a few thin layers of Pro Acryl transparent yellow. I then mixed some orange and black oil paint with some enamel thinner to make a wash which I applied the the model. I let it dry for a bit, then used a sponge wetted with enamel thinner to remove the wash from most of the model leaving the nook and crannies dirty. I learned two valuable lessons.
1. Don't use enamel thinner. If you look closely at the picture below you'll see where I stripped the paint down to the plastic. It's most noticeable on the elbow.
2. Use white spirits (odorless is best just so you don't have to smell it).
3. Give oil paints time to dry.
I used some rust colored pigments to add some nice weathering to make it look extra dirty. I ended up using some black pigments to cover up the bare plastic but I don't have a picture of that.