Nurgle Rhino APC [Completed]

During this long and fairly arduous weathering project, what essentially kept me going was that it afforded me the chance to expand my painting/modelling skill set. Sadly, it has been a while since I felt any enthusiasm painting W40K stuff. On the bright side what I've left in my collection are Orks and Chaos armies so that means plenty of weathering practice opportunities. So here's the completed Nurgle Rhino transport or armoured personnel carrier (APC) in all its weathered glory. 

Nurgle Rhino Armoured Personnel Carrier [Completed]

While the Nurgle Rhino might not be a masterpiece, I've learned a lot from completing it. Sometimes it's necessary to call a project done before you can start analyzing how things could've been done better. Parts of the APC definitely has an unfinished look to it. For example the open hatch on the upper hull (the searchlight wasn't a good fit ... more on that later), the two tiny headlights on the upper left/right corners of the front hull, and the general lack of Nurgle pus and gore all over the vehicle. All of which had good reasons, chief among them is that it was time to move on and let go.  

Weathering effects on the Nurgle Rhino include chipped paint ...

... rust stains, streaks and pools; rusted metal parts as well as some dirt/dust deposits

Weathering on this project was more of a traditional military armoured fighting vehicle (AFV) wear-and-tear style rather than the W40K sci-fi blood-and-gore. That explains the lack of pus and gore usually associated with Nurgle vehicles. On a personal note, I felt that if I were to include pus and gore into the weathering process the whole thing might've been a bit much akin to adding sugar to a regular Coke drink. Not your regular hobby-related analogy but I'm sure you catch my drift.

Weathering style was a more traditional AFV wear-and-tear rather than W40K Sci-Fi blood-and-gore

My favourite weathering effect was the rust streaks-chipped paint combo

The umber-like rusted tracks and metal parts provided a welcome contrast to the greyish-green hull

In addition, there are two small headlights on the upper left and right corners of the front hull which remain in greyish-green tones except for the rusted metal-wire-cage encasing them. I had left them in similar hues to the hull as is the case for some real-life tanks with a monochromatic colour palette i.e. the headlights/searchlight painted in similar hues to the hull. A real world example of this would be the Russian T-90A Main Battle Tank (please click here for a scale model representation).  

In the end, I never bothered with any blood-and-gore effects around Lucy's head

Could the Nurgle Rhino have used more weathering? Debatable but I was happy with the results as is

If you've been following my past posts you might be wondering what happened to the searchlight. Well, as you can see from the photos below, the searchlight had two strikes against it which caused me to leave it out in the final completed shots above. One, the searchlight was just too big and felt wrong in terms of scale size. And two, the bright yellow lights I painted in seemed out of sorts with the rest of the colour scheme. Both are sore points and enough to tip the scale against including it.

Nurgle Rhino Armoured Personnel Carrier with a searchlight added to its upper hull

Personally I found the searchlight to be too big in terms of scale ...

...  and its bright yellow hue makes the Rhino look goofy which is why I prefer to leave it out in a display

Going forward, I'll be working on two scale model kit projects at the same time while hopefully finishing a long neglected Game of Thrones proxy miniature painting project. The former involves Bandai Star Wars Snowspeeder (painted up as a Wedge Antilles/Wes Janson version) alternating with an old Tamiya AFV model kit i.e. a Russian T-55A Medium Tank. Meanwhile, the latter will involve finishing a proxy for Bronn the sellsword using a Nocturna Models miniature. But for now though, I'll just wallow in the satisfaction of being able to finish the Nurgle Rhino. Just for this week anyway.

Nurgle Rhino [WIP - Weathering 'Metal' Tracks & Adding Dust/Dirt Effects]

Work on the Nurgle Rhino is now enteringn the home stretch with weathering of its 'metal' tracks completed and the addition of dust/dirt stains on the lower sections of its hull. It's about 99% complete with a few loose ends to tie up in terms of unifying the entire piece's colour scheme courtesy of a few minor touches here and there. Here's a step-by-step documentation of the final significant weathering process that the Nurgle Rhino will undergo before she is revealed in full.

Nurgle Rhino work-in-progress: Rusted track with metallic shine for parts facing wear-and-tear

As I hadn't put much thought into the tracks initially, there was bound to be some overlap in its weathering process. For example, I had already primed the tracks with an oxide red hue using a combination of Tamiya Fine Surfacer and Mr Surfacer 1000 primers. But when starting work on the tracks, I realised this hue looked a tad too bright hence the application of yet another primer coat i.e. AK Interactive Tracks Primer which sported a darker umber-like hue. Based on past experience, acrylic primers act more like a sturdier basecoats rather than a proper primer per se so essentially there isn't any primer coat overkill. Well, technically two primer coats is overkill enough.

A primer mixture of two oxide red hues (left track) was followed by a umber-like hue (right)

For some modellers, polyurethane acrylic primer is just a glorified acrylic paint basecoat

An application of track wash brought the rust hues to a darker tone

At this stage, both set of tracks have had a fairly generous application of the enamel wash

Rust hues for the tracks using a combination of pigments and enamel washes

Following the rust pigments and washes, a dark steel pigment as well as a pigment fixture was applied 

Most modern tank tracks comprise a combination of rubber and metal parts. However, for the purpose of the Nurgle Rhino I had assumed an all-metal track and weathered it as such. This meant a fully rusted track with metallic shine showing through in places where the track experiences frictional contact with surfaces. For a closeup view of each step of the 'all-metal' track weathering process as well as a description of the work involved, please check out the photos (including captions) below.

Step 1: A coating of AK Interactive Track Primer, light enough that some of the oxide red shows through

Step 2: A liberal application of AK Interactive Enamel Track Wash

Step 3: Application of AK Interactive's Track, Light Rust, Medium Rust pigments as well as Light Rust Enamel Wash

Step 4: Application of AK Interactive Dark Steel pigment, followed by its Pigment Fixer then another layer of Dark Steel

As a final touch of significant weathering, dust/dirt effects was applied on the lower sections of the Nurgle Rhino's hull. The intention was to add more colour variation to the monotone hull, yet not too much as to confuse the eye to what is already a heavily weathered hull. To add dust/dirt effects, I used a combination of AK Interactive Africa Dust Effects enamel wash and some white spirit. The latter served to either dilute the wash or clean off excess dust/dirt effects for a more stain-like look.

AK Interactive Africa Dust Effects and White Spirit used together to create dust/dirt stains on lower hull 

A light yellowish or beige-like dust/dirt stain was chosen to complement the greyish green hull

Closeup of the lower sections of the Nurgle Rhino's hull, after being weathered with dust/dirt stains

Blogging this entire project week after week has at times stretched my patience (not to mention that of my dear readers). It sometimes can be hard to maintain enthusiasm in a project when week after week sees only at times are small incremental steps towards a greater whole. To inject some variety into future posts, I plan to alternative blog postings between two completely different projects each week. This can only work if the two projects are sufficiently different or confusion may reign. Before that though will be the final reveal of the Nurgle Rhino project so please bear with me until then.

Nurgle Rhino [WIP - Acrylic glazes and a searchlight]

Despite the weathered rust effects, the Nurgle Rhino still looked relatively flat overall. So to break up the monotone grey green hue of the chaos transport vehicle, I lightly layered on some blue green acrylic glazes on selected areas of the hull. I had Moiterei to thank for this step. Although I had previously done some research about using filters (essentially enamel versions of acrylic glaze) on future AFV projects (Russian T-72B1 and/or B3 main battle tanks) it didn't occur to me at all to use that painting technique here. Until Moiterei, thankfully, reminded me of it! 

Nurgle Rhino work-in-progress: selective application of acrylic glazes

Instead of the usual dark brown wash, recesses of the hatch door were given blue/green glazes

For the purpose of this W40K project, the acrylic glazes were created using Vallejo Glaze Medium in combination with Vallejo Model Color Intermediate Green (70.891) and Blue Green (70.808) as well as water. The resulting glazing mixture had a consistency slightly more watery than skim milk. 

Paints used in this session: Vallejo Model Color Blue Green, Intermediate Green and Glaze Medium

Water was added into the mix to achieve a slightly lighter than skim milk consistency

How the acrylic glaze looks like on a kitchen paper towel

Effects are intentionally subtle partly because the Nurgle Rhino already had a lot of weathering effects on its hull e.g. paint chips, rust stains and streaks. It could arguably do with more glazes (even of a different hue) but in the end I felt the transport already had a lot going for it. I wanted to do just enough to trick the eye into seeing a more varied hue on the hull. Another reason I stopped with what seemed bare minimal glazing is because the Nurgle Rhino is getting yet another round of weathering effects in the next step i.e. dust/dirt buildup on the lower portions of its hull (sigh, will it never end).

Effect of blue green glazes, top (after) and below (before), on left-side of hull

Effect of blue green glazes, top (after) and below (before), on right-side of hull

At extreme closeups, the acrylic glazes become more noticeable especially on the upper left and right corners of the transports back, near the tow hooks. Meanwhile on the upper hull, the acrylic glazes were concentrated on similar panels, hatch hinges and raised square block thingies.

A closeup of the upper left corner panel (near tow hook) which took on a bluish green hue after glazing

Similar panel on the other side of the Nurgle Rhino, a bit more noticeable on this side

Upper hull with the hinges, panels and raised areas glazed with blue/green to make it stand out

A miscellaneous Nurgle Rhino part i.e. the searchlight was also completed with the 'lights' painted in as well as a bluish green glaze on the upper small light fixture (see below). 

Nurgle Rhino searchlight which incidentally had its upper part glazed with a blue green hue

All that's left to do now is to paint and weather the Nurgle Rhino's tracks and add some dust/dirt effects to the lower portions of its hull. The end is near ... 

Nurgle Rhino [WIP - Rust Streaks, Stains & Pools]

This Nurgle Rhino project is starting to drag on a bit (... ya think?). So to move things along at a faster pace, I intend to double the amount of posts per week which in turn should result in more weathering completed in the same space of time. That's the idea anyway and so far it's working. Granted the organic bits and panel lining earlier in the week wasn't much progress but it did set up the first (and possibly only ... time will tell) 'exponential step' of the weathering process. A step which I define as the one that starts bringing all the separate weathering elements together and make it work.

Nurgle Rhino work-in-progress: weathering rust streaks

This 'exponential step' involved the use of enamel weathering products from AK Interactive namely Rust Streaks, Light Rust Wash and regular White Spirit. One key characteristic of enamel or oil-based products is the ability to manipulate the resulting paint job with white spirit. After allowing the rust streaks (painted straight out of the bottle) to dry for about 10 to 15 minutes, I used a brush moistened with white spirit to soften the edges of the painted streaks. Essentially the excess painted rust streaks were being removed by the white spirit and what remained was being blended for a 'softer look'. 

Rust Streaks Step 1 of 2: Paint downward strokes of rust streaks, straight from the jar

Vertical rust streaks painted with enamel paints straight from the bottle

Rust Streaks Step 2 of 2: Use white spirit to 'soften' or blend the rust streaks, in upward and downward strokes

Vertical rust streaks softened/blended using white spirit, a solvent for enamel paints

Another less obvious rust effect added was rust stains on the bottom hull using a diluted light rust wash. In addition, the pooling of rust was recreated on the upper hull using more concentrated light rust wash. Both rust effects help complement the overall rusted look of the Nurgle Rhino (see below).

Light Rust Wash - diluted with white spirit to create rust stains

Rust stains on the insides of the Rhino track wheels

Light Rust Wash - used straight from the bottle to create rust pools

Rust pools accumulate around raised areas of the upper hull, which is admittedly a tad over-weathered

In my opinion, rust streaks are an essential component of the rust weathering process. Without rust streaks the level of realism drops down a few notches. The following images are a series of 360 shots at 45 degree intervals of the Nurgle Rhino with rust streaks in place. 

Nurgle Rhino - work-in-progress, rust streaks and all (front view)

Rust streaks help tie-up the separate weathering effects up until now

Rust streaks were softened considerably to avoid a sense of over-weathering

Rust streaks are an essential component in the weathering process

Nurgle Rhino - work-in-progress, rust streaks and all (back view)

Without rust streaks - the level of realism drops down a few notches

Still no idea what to paint behind 'Lucy' the head ornament on the lower right corner of the right-side hull

Even with rust streaks the Nurgle Rhino still lacks depth which only filters/glazes and dust/dirt effects can overcome

Applied earlier (see previous post), the acrylic semi-gloss clear coat helps provide a protective coating to the underlying paint job, against the enamel weathering steps shown above.

Clear acrylic semi-gloss coat forms a protective coating for the subsequent enamel paint weathering

Future to-do lists include adding depth to the flat hull colour via filters/glazes; painting the light in searchlight; weathering the tracks; and adding subtle dust/dirt deposits for yet more depth. And as the Nurgle Rhino nears completion, I've actually started working on another Star Wars project that might be included in alternate blog postings. But I'll likely finish up with the W40K transport before posting updates on the Incom T-47 Snowspeeder. At least things will brighten up colour-wise from the dull rust hues of the Nurgle Rhino. Until then, thanks for reading and have a lovely weekend.