How to paint Nebula/Space

I was surprised how quickly the mural came together.  I consider it the "make or break" piece of the Deathwing Land Raider.  "Sure anyone can paint up a Deathwing Land Raider and throw it on Ebay.  How does mine stand apart?"  That is the question I had when I thought of Ebay'ing a Land Raider at the end of '10.

Decided Deathwing Land Raider would have The Rock painted on it with El'Jonson's sarcophagus surrounded by Watchers in the Dark.

Might have wondered why this side hasn't been painted.  Here it is.

 Painted for about 4 hours on Sun.


Giving credit where credit is due: Would like it noted Coldflame1987 from deviantART was my source of inspiration.




Wet pallet, check.



Saw this piece of foam at Fantasy Flight and swipped it.  Figured it would be helpful with stippling the black.

Matt Black on wet pallet and foam.

Turns out it was a waste.  Would've only lead to majour mess.  Grabbed some pluck foam from Army Transport cases.

Much better.

Ok, big mistake.  Should've just used my stippling brush from the Eldar skimmers.

Finally receives the coverage it should.  Canvas for mural done.

Stippled Vermin Brown.

Knarloc Green.

Stipple brush wasn't quite right.  Gave it a proper cleaning with brush cleaner and looking almost like new.  More importantly working like new.

When stippling grab some paint with the brush.  Then tap it to remove paint from the brush.  This allows the paint to not be  so thick.  Allows for a light finish.

Rotten Flesh and Tallarn Flesh for nebula on right side of sponson.

Adding some shadows?  Supposed to be shadows.  Storm Blue and Liche Purple.

Felt it was too bright.  Wanted to dull the nebula.  Stippled Matt Black over it.  Much better.

Paints used sans Storm Blue.

Star time.  Little dot of Blazing Orange.

Highlights with Golden Yellow and Flash Gitz Yellow.

Mixture of 1:1:3 Blazing Orange, Golden Yellow and Flash Gitz Yellow.  Using this for the gas from the exploded star.

3/0 brush stippled waves of gas.

Added more Flash Gitz Yellow to mix.

Highlights added from the mix.  Added some stars

Figured it was a bit bright.  Added some shadows to the nebula.  Scab Red for shadows.

Still found it a bit bright.  Decided to added one more layer of shadow.  Actually liked it before the second layer of shadow.  Something learned for next time.

Brushes used.  3/0 Raphael Kolinsky 8404 (same job could've been done with 0 size), 3/0 Princeton (stippling), Army Painter Small Drybrush (absolutely horrible for drybrushing, great for grabbing and mixing paint) and 2 Scholastic (broad stippling).

Dark Angels Green for gas infront from nebula.

Matt Black for middle of gas infront of nebula.  Light from nebula can't pierce through the middle.  Only the edge.

There was too hard of a edge between Matt Black and Dark Angels Green.  Want to soften it.  3:5 Bad Moon Yellow and Dark Angels Green for the medium.  Blended nicely.

Didn't like how mute the star and centre of nebula was.  Felt it should be brightened up a lot.  Same mix as before with some Matt White and more Flash Gitz Yellow.  Brightened up nicely.  This is where I learned I dulled the nebula too much and started adding some brightness back to it.  Like it much better this way.

Time to add some stars.  1:5 Lightning Blue and Matt White.  Also figured at this point there were too many stars.  Particularly on left side.  That string in the middle.

Much better.  As they say less is more.  At least for most things /wink.

Celebratory cider for clearing that hurdle.

slainte mhath