An old soldier ready for another fight in his "Italian Red" battle suit.
Another Wave AFS from my workbench.. formally a G-Pawn suit.
Some in progress pictures:
Helmet details:
- Biceps, laser arm and cable receptacles on legs comes from the Hardboiled
- Shoulder pads from a Nitto SAFS
- Enlarged legs
- Resculpted joints using aluminium wire and Aves Apoxie Sculpt; it is blue because I usually add a bit of Vallejo colour to the mixture
- Pilot face is from Brick Works
The helmet shape reminds another AFS variant: the Rally Pawn, a Luna Pawn with a solar panel-antenna on the back.
This is what I usually do with all my AFS models
- Resculpting joints with Aves Apoxie Sculpt over a 4mm aluminium wire.
If you want to use the stock rubber joints, check this helpful step by step: <page1> <page2> in compressing Wave Luna Pawn joints from Crasher Eddy's blog.
"Compressed" joints help with the menacing look.
- Insert 1mm plasticard plate between Wave pieces to have bulky legs
Painting a red AFS :
- Base color: Lifecolor Rust Dark Shadows from Dust and Rust diorama set.
- Preshading: Vallejo Panzer Aces n.333 Germ.TKcr.(Black)
- Red: Andrea Color AC-13 Dark Red
I used a dark rust base color and brown-black preshading because I know it will be quite difficult to cover my usual brown-black base color directly with red only. In fact Andrea red turns "irregular" red over the rust and brown red over the preshading.
I used an old brush tipping and rubbing to leave many paint stokes in red color.
Overall wash with Raw Umber plus Burnt Sienn oil.
It could be called a "filter"
- Drybrush highlights separately with two Humbrol reds: matt 100 Red Brown and matt 153 Insignia Red
- Hairspray technique for Id Bands with Tamiya Flat White and a drop of Buff (for this I used my airbrush)
- Decals over Lefranc&Bourgeois matt spray can (actually it is a deep, satin, fantastic top cote)
- Reinforce and paint shadows and dark scratches using drybrush and tipping with Cassel Earth (main shadows like between legs and under arms) and Burnt Umber oils (in transition zones and around details)
- Lefranc&Bourgeois again (which is simply gorgeous!!)
Using different kind of colors: acrylics, enamel, spray can and an hairdryer all the painting could be condensed in only three sessions so you will not lose your "momentum".