Space Hulk Doors

I had hesitated about painting up the Space Hulk door stands as I wasn't sure it was really worth the hassle... but, having painted up the Genestealers and most of the Termies... I took a look at them sat in the box looking all boring and purple and decided... fine, I'll paint them. I think if they'd come in black or silver plastic, it would have been a lot harder to bring myself to put it on the table.



The aim here was to get them painted as fast as possible (took about 2 hours over 2 days to get them all painted up). I wanted them to look decent, but they're not exactly meant for a Crystal Brush. I'd worked out an effective and quick method of making weathered, dark steel for bases. Unsurprisingly the secret is drybrushing:

Stynylrez Black primer airbrushed onto the stands. No zenithal on these as I'll be drybrushing through up to the brighter colors instead.
All 20 stands, primed

Coat D'Arms Dark Grey applied in a heavy drybrush (sometimes called a wetbrush as the brush carries more paint than true drybrushing). Notice that I have areas that are intentionally painted more heavily - this is for the reflection. Although this is a dirty, warn metal - it's still metal and so there is some increased light reflection in parts.
First coat of heavy drybrush applied

Tree Fellas Light Grey to apply a true drybrush over the dark grey. I waited a while to do this. One of the things about drybrushing is that the paint doesn't adhere as strongly and I find, giving the paint a little extra time to bond helps prevent it rubbing off as more layers are applied. I continued to build up the brighter areas with this layer. I think the bright spots are a little too focused and look more like wear than reflection but they still give some nice detailing to the pieces with next to no extra time.
Second coat of lighter drybrush

Army Painter Leather Brown kicks off the weathering. Applied as a targeted drybrush, this is not the most 'realistic' means of weathering but it conveys the idea.
Introducing some weathering with targeted stippling

Vallejo Game Color Filthy Brown is the last step with a super selective drybrush / stipple to just give the rust a little pop.
Brightening the weathering with stippled fresh rust

The finished result is not amazing, but it does the job, it 'feels' right and it's better than raw purple plastic! Remember folks, painted is better than perfect.

- Raggy, signing out

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