Imperial Sabre Jetfighter, Part 3

Here we are at the third and final part. Our fighter is ready for action. As you can see, I attached the tail elevators after de-orking them.  

I've actually surprised myself with the airbrushing, I feel I'm really getting the hang of it now with various techniques I've now tried out. 

Masking things off is a pain, especially the chequered band around the tail fin. Last time I tried is one some aurora chapter predators, I ended up leaving the tape on to long and pulled the paint off with it which caused all sorts of hassle. This time I was more careful though! 

My new favourite airbrush trick, is to spray the citadel washes through it to get a very light grubby effect. I think it suits this model especially well, and probably any flier. I can't imagine they get battle damaged and wether the same way of ground forced, tanks and such. 

I used both nuln oil, around the metal areas, such as the vents down the fuselage, and seraphim sepia just on the general grey panels.

What's a military aircraft without some nose art? Originally I was going to go with the classic eyes and mouth, but I thought I'd be a little more subtle, and a little more original than that. Also, flaming dice on a wargaming model? Doesn't feel like I can go wrong really! 

Just so you can see underneath. I thought about doing it a different colour, perhaps a lighter grey, but once I'd painted it this far, I didn't want to over do it! 

So the model is complete. How do I think I did? I'm actually pretty happy with it. I think it looks pretty imperial. Perhaps if I did another, I'd probably use some more stereotyped imperial guns, auto cannons, heavy bolters, lascannons, to really get the point over. I'm not sure if I might look a bit to 'Just stuck imperial guns on an orky plane' then though. I think the reason the painting works, is the shading between panels makes them stand out a lot, like a proper imperial plane. It almost take the eye of the fact it was an orky plane. 

I'd now be interested to paint up both an unconverted Dakkajet, and an imperial Valkyrie to put my skills to the test!

Gonders

Imperial Sabre Jetfighter, Part two.

Well, i've contuned to build the Imperial jet fighter, the conversion from the orky dakka jet. Since last time, I've made pretty good progress. I think I'm pretty much there on the building side of things. Just a couple of decisions need making before I get the airbrush out.

I've got the missiles set in place now. After that it was really a case of tidying up, tying up lose ends before painting really.

I've added some imperial aquilas to set the tone a little more. The clear canopies aren't glued down here, just to clear that up. I'm not sure on weather to add the tail fins at all. They could go either at the top, or the bottom of the tail, but when they're on they add quite a lot to the bulk of the jet and revert it to it's orky state a little to much for my tastes. 

As you can see in this shot, the plane does have a more sleek look about it without them.

Another view straight down the length of the plane. Showing drilled out stubber barrels and clear canopies removed. 

 Underside of the plane, with orky gaps filled and covered. I'm not sure weather to add additional fuel tanks under the wings too. I don't know if it might end up looking to much like a bomber, and perhaps over burdened with 6 missiles under the wings too.

Overall, I'm really enjoying this project. Its something totally different, that If i'm honest, is probably going to lead to me making more fliers in the future!