Painted Models! Plus, the Great Experiment

I ordered a decent Testors paint set and brushes last week, and this weekend I finally began putting some paint onto my models!  I have 3 mostly finished, with only a little detailing work left to do.

Brakiri Avioki Cruiser (left)
Shadow Battlecrab (bottom)
Battlestar Galactica (top)

For the Avioki, I used an olive drab green in about 2 layers, then did a wash of very watery black to get the crevices to show up a bit.  The guns are a Light Ghost Grey.  Finally, I did the striping using Insignia Yellow in about 3 coats (the green kept showing up!)  The little swirly "G" symbol on the top fin was very difficult, and took several attempts to get right.  All in all, I'm very pleased with how it turned out!  The only thing left to do is the windows.

For Galactica, I have it primed a somewhat dark Grey, and this weekend I decided to just do a black wash to get the ribbing a darker color.  While it's still a little uneven, I think it turned out fantastic looking.  The armor panels really stand out from the ribbing and it has a real sense of depth.  That said, the wash did manage to leave a few splotches of darkness on some of the armor panels.  But hey, Galactica is an old ship that's seen a lot of action - I think they look OK.  My last step is going to be the minor red striping and engine details.

The Shadow Battlecrab was pretty fun to do.  Because of the organic nature of the ships on the show, the Shadow Battlecrab has a mottled black-ish texture with some shine coming through in spots.

Luckily for me, the model itself has that mottled bumpy texture molded in already.  To bring it out, I decided to do no priming at all and just apply watery black coats, almost to the point of a wash, but a bit thicker.  Below on the right you can see how it looked after the first coat:

Before any paint - pewter

First coat of watery black.  The piece on the left looks very uneven!

I applied several layers of this type of wash, and finally went over some really dry uneven spots with regular black paint.  The end result is a mottled texture with a little bit of the underlying shiny pewter showing through in spots.  It looks fantastic!

And finally... the Great Experiment.  I purchased a Diamond Select U.S.S. Excelsior last week.  It measures over a foot long, has exquisitely detailed windows, colors, and even lights and sounds!

It lights up!!

I'll definitely be posting more model pictures in the coming weeks as I finish more of them.  Up next:  My Hyperion, Gunstars, and Victory Class Destroyer!