Flying Monkeys

I've had three squads of primed Apes sitting neglected in my closet for a while. I would like to finish them. I had a bit of time so I thought I could knock these guys out quickly, but they took a little longer than expected as I found I wasn't really enjoying painting them. I'm not really sure why; I think I just don't like squad painting, I much prefer just focussing on one model at a time. Still, I think they came out OK, and I'm glad they're done. Only two squads left, hopefully I'll finish them THIS year... Ape Bombers:
Like the other Ape units I initially primed these guys in Vallejo 73.660 Surface Primer Gloss Black, but ended up having to airbrush a layer of P3 Menoth White Highlight on top before I could even start with the basecoats, just to get the colours to look bright. I airbrushed a basecoat of Vallejo 72.730 Game Air Goblin Green, then I airbrushed the bombs with Vallejo 72.710 Game Air Bloody Red.

The fur was painted Citadel Layer Skrag Brown, then drybrushed with Formula P3 Rucksack Tan, folled by a drybrush of Vallejo 71.132 Model Air Aged White over the upper-facing surfaces. The skin was Vallejo 70.992 Model Color Neutral Grey, which I roughly highlighted with Aged White then glazed with Citadel Shade Seraphim Sepia. The teeth were Menoth White Higlight, washed with Seraphim Sepia.

I stuck with Citadel Colour Snakebite Leather for the leather, but I'm wondering if I should have gone for a darker brown to stand out from the fur - with my current recipe the fur is turning out lighter than my previous recipe. Brass was Scalecolor SC-73 Dwarven Gold over the Snakebite Leather. Steel was just Vallejo 72.054 Game Color Gunmetal; I felt this had slightly poorer coverage than some other steels I've used in the past, but maybe that's just my imagination. Grey bits were Vallejo 70.862 Black Grey.

For the goggle lenses I ended up using a previous mixure of GreenStuffWorld 1872 Metal Color Neptunus Blue and Scalecolor SC-66 Speed Metal that I had left over from when I painted Defender-X; I felt this gave the impression of mirrored lenses reflecting the sky.

After this was done I dipped the models in The Army Painter Quickshade Dip Dark Tone, then airbrushed them with Vallejo 26.518 Acrylic Varnish Matt.