The G.U.A.R.D. flyers blister was the next on my Monsterpocalypse paint queue. I put them off for a while as that's kind of what I do, but finally I decided to knock them out. Once I started painting it was actually a pretty quick process by my standards; I think it was about two weekends of actual painting, over the course of less than a month I believe. That's largely because of this whole "isolation" deal taking my usual weekend social activities off the table.
Something about the look of the Strike Fighters brought to mind that old fashioned raw alumninium plane look. So I went for a simple silver colour scheme. The sky-blue windows are supposed to be, well, reflecting the sky. Red details just look right.
The planes are covered with very fine panel lines. Initially I tried painting a black wash directly into these panel lines to make them more visible, but it was very hard to keep it neat so they ended up looking a bit messy from up close. The end result was visually pleasing, but very cartoony; it just wasn't really what I was going for and didn't really match the style of the Monpoc models I'd already painted.
The other thing was that shading in all those panel lines individually was exhausting work that took HOURS. I was not prepared to repeat the process three more times, so instead I tried a much easier shading method, where I simply applied a black wash to the whole model then drybrushed a silver on top to try to regain the bright metal basecoat. This barely did anything for the panel lines, and the surface ended up looking duller and dirtier than the pure silver of the unwashed model, but it was MUCH faster and easier, and stilled looked alright; actually the much more subtle panel lines are kind of more in keeping with the idea of this being a large vehicle at a very small scale. So I stuck with this scheme for the rest of the fighters.
I liked the idea of the Rocket Chopper having a dark stealth look, so I basecoated it in a metallic black. Of course just black is boring, so I picked out details in silver (to stand out from the darker gunmetal highlights). I painted the canopy blue in keeping with the fighters, but when for a darker blue to fit the darker theme. Of course the rockets needed to be red, which works well to make them pop, but I refrained from using it anywhere else.
In this case painting pure black directly into the panel lines worked very well, as the effect is more subtle than with the silver fighter, but also more necessary as otherwise the panel lines would be almost invisible with such a dark colour scheme. It actually didn't take as long as it did with the fighter either, and I was more willing to put the time in anyway as, while I'm somewhat indifferent to the Strike Fighters, I really like the Rocket Chopper.
Colours
The Strike Fighters were airbrushed with Vallejo 71.065 Model Air Metallic Steel. The first one had The Army Painter Quickshade Washes Dark Tone painted directly into the panel lines, while the rest where given a full wash followed by a drybrush of Vallejo 72.052 Game Color Silver instead. The canopies were basecoated in The Army Painter Warpaints Electric Blue, and Citadel Glaze Guilliman Blue was applied directly into the recesses. The wing tips and other details were then picked out in Vallejo 72.106 Game Color Scarlett Blood.
The Rocket Chopper was airbrushed with Vallejo 71.073 Model Air Metallic Black. A mix of water, Formula P3 Mixing Medium, and Vallejo 70.950 Model Color Black was painted directly into the panel lines. I highlighted some of the outer edges with The Army Painter Warpaints Gun Metal, while several details were picked out in the much brighter Vallejo 72.052 Game Color Silver. The canopy glass was painted in Vallejo 72.021 Game Color Magic Blue, then washed with Citadel Glaze Guilliman Blue, then Magic Blue was layered back into the middle of the individual panes. Finally the missle heads were picked out in Vallejo 72.106 Game Color Scarlett Blood.
