Painting a Clan Jade Falcon scheme
The mini was prepped as usual by removing mold lines, etc., supergluing to a base and filling with spackle before priming. The scheme that seemed most iconic to the Jade Falcons was Delta Galaxy, which calls for “bright green with yellow highlights.” I chose Delta Ceramcoat (DC) Spring Green as the base color, with Vallejo Game Color Sun Yellow for the highlights. The first steps involved basecoating with a somewhat larger brush, then blocking in the yellow.
The next step involved shading the green. This is the same concept involved in jeweling (in terms of a gradual color-fade), but applied to the mini’s body: I mixed a glaze up using one drop of paint, one drop of Liquitex Matte Medium and about 8 or more drops of water. This glaze is applied in several layers to gradually shade parts of the mini. I did so twice; the first time using DC Jubilee Green and the second using the darker DC Green Isle.
Next, I shaded the yellow portions with Vallejo Orange Fire using the same glazing technique. I also blocked in the metal portions using Reaper Gunmetal.
Next, the mini was blacklined using a dilute mix of Vallejo Black, one drop of Future floor polish and about 10 drops of water. Various mistakes were also corrected, like color “bleed” over panel lines. I applied the black with a fine brush, and not with a general “wash” since that would’ve darkened up the green in inappropriate places. The black was applied in all panel lines, corners and around all raised panels…I even put a little in the cockpit recesses just to see it better.
I decided that the green needed to be a bit darker, so I re-shaded it in two steps again. After that, the mini was highlighted in two steps: once with a color just a bit lighter than the basecoat (I took the basecoat color and simply added a bit of white to it)…this was applied to all the edges. The second highlight was even lighter than the first, and was applied to the corners. This process was done for both green and yellow portions.
I painted the cockpit black, then jeweled it with Vallejo Hot Orange, Bloody Red, Gory Red and Scar Red. The holes on the LRM launcher and left arm autocannon were filled in with dilute black. The right arm PPC was faded concentrically with Vallejo Imperial Blue, Magic Blue, Electric Blue and DC White. The Base was painted with DC Burnt Umber on top, and Vallejo Black around the edges. After all the painting was done, I applied Jade Falcon unit and galaxy decals (from Fighting Piranha) to the left arm. I gave the mini a good dusting with Testor’s Dullcote.
Lastly, I superglued some mixed buff onto the base and washed it with a slightly watery version of DC Burnt Umber. After drying, I splotched some patches of Vallejo Earth on it and let dry. Then, I used DC Sandstone to drybrush on some highlights. I finished by supergluing some Gale Force 9 static grass onto the base.
