WIP: Thunderhawk Gunship #7

WIP: Thunderhawk Gunship #7: The exterior is complete! This week I've spent way too much time painting rust around rivets and chips on armour. I will never get those 7 hours back... 7 hours just to weather a Thunderhawk. I must be crazy. Read on to see what else I've accomplished since the last WIP post.

 

In the before and after shots shown above, you can see the difference the weathering makes. I've also painted all the lights. They're either blue or red with a little OSL added just to reinforce the fact they're lights. I've also finally painted the name of my Thunderhawk on the nose badge. Thanks to Gary Therkildsen for the suggestion of Absortio.

The Hunter Killer missiles have been painted. The mounts are glued to the wings, the missiles neatly clip into the mounts so there was no need to magnetise. I choose yellow tips for my warheads just because it's matches my Storm Raven and Storm Talon. You can also see the hole I drilled out for the flying stand. 

I've also painted and glued on the Targetter for the Turbo Laser and just behind it I added the small black piece which I guess is a communication array. 

Despite being a large flat blue brick, all the touches I've added are really starting to make this piece "come to life". The massive icons and the white stripe break up the sea of blue. The bronze colours help break up the metals. The shading and highlighting of the blue with the airbrush has given the flat panels depth and has further been complimented with the use of a bright edge highlight on the upper edges. The introduction of the weathering has added context and touch or realism. 

Next job is the interior and then the base... or maybe the base and then the interior... suffice to say I'm really close to finishing the blue brick of doom.