The Crashed Aquila lander... ... (tumble weed)... ...

[Shirlzknight]

Hey guys I took delivery of a rather beaten up box from eBay yesterday, it was my Battle for Macragge box and although the box was very distressed the contents were all in a great condition (with the exception of a few Marines and Nids who had been very badly painted, but I knew that before I bought the kit!) I originally messaged the seller with an offer for less than half the price he was asking as I only really wanted the Crashed Aquila, Lieutenant Varras (the Pilot) and the power generators. he accepted my offer and sent me the lot- so I got a bit of a Bargain.
Righty down to business. I clipped the Crashed Aquila from sprue, cleaned up in the usual manner and took to Google for some inspiration....and didn't get any, so my next port of call was Youtube...nope nothing appealed to me there either (at least I never found anything) The problem is I need the Crashed Aquila (CA) to look like it has just recently crashed and all the tutorials, photos, videos etc are showing an old wreck, all rusted as if it has been there years. Don't get me wrong some of the paint jobs are really nice but not what I need to reference to inspire me. So I am still sitting here staring into space and just not knowing where to begin! Hmm just had an idea!! Forgeworld's Crashed Thunderhawk, although I have the feeling thats been rusting for a while as well...
(Just had a look and nope- no inspiration from there either!)
Any ideas guys?

[Gagoc The Ancient]

Why not paint it in whatever colours you want, then do a scorched effect as though it crashed from re-entry.
You can find such effects on Drop Pods.

http://darkfuturegaming.blogspot.co....drop-pods.html

But with this you should also paint the "Disturbed Earth" on the sculpt scorched as well.

[Shirlzknight]

Now thats a great idea! Why didn't I think of that, I even took the afternoon off watched a movie and came back to it only to draw more blanks!
Nice one I am off to look up some Imperial navy colour schemes. Many thanks Gagoc the Ancient one. :)

[LutherMax]

Yeah if you want it to look recently crashed I would suggest painting it like you would any normal vehicle and adding damage / weathering to just the areas of impact.

[Shirlzknight]

I am still undecided what colour scheme to go with. I believe the Aquila is a Navy Ship but I can't seem to find what colours the Imperial navy use, well nothing concrete.
I think I will go with a light grey and white scheme with blue markings- or something like that. I added some scatter to the model and some wires etc and primed it up yesterday so we should be good to go today, tonight- whatever. Thanks for the tips LutherMax :)

[Shirlzknight]

Righty we are off, decided to go with white as the main colour (I know whites not a colour).. but thought it would show up some burns and dings well and a dark blue as a secondary colour for the wing tips etc. All very well and dandy. Right I have hit my second problem, I know, I am a total P.I.T.A. Right this lander has crashed in a built up environment, the model shows its dug into the substrate as it has crashed but I don't want this to look like sand or earth so what the heck do i paint it up as, ashes? Maybe. I am beginning to think I should have glued more bits n bobs from my terrain kits to represent rubble and collapsed buildings etc. Am I just being too fussy? My board is a city (Sector Imperialis) so I'd like it to fit it. I was warned about this board being restrictive when I was about to buy it but I didn't realise just how restrictive it actually was. Another example of this is my terrain buildings, I can't base them or I'd end up covering up all the nice details of the board. I think I'll try and make the substrate as neutral as possible then I can use it on other boards as well. I had intended having a secondary board as a side project this summer, haha thats summer almost gone and I still haven't finished the first one! I need to stop buying terrain kits, gun emplacements, craters, Aquila landers lol! The boards going to end up being too busy, although i suppose I don't have to place all the pieces down and it gives me scope for variety. Whoops I'm off on a tangent here, back to topic and what or how to paint this substrate.
Any ideas guys? :)
Just had a thought, I'd best move this over to the WIP area huh! :)

[Gagoc The Ancient]

Righty we are off, decided to go with white as the main colour (I know whites not a colour).. but thought it would show up some burns and dings well and a dark blue as a secondary colour for the wing tips etc. All very well and dandy. Right I have hit my second problem, I know, I am a total P.I.T.A. Right this lander has crashed in a built up environment, the model shows its dug into the substrate as it has crashed but I don't want this to look like sand or earth so what the heck do i paint it up as, ashes? Maybe. I am beginning to think I should have glued more bits n bobs from my terrain kits to represent rubble and collapsed buildings etc. Am I just being too fussy? My board is a city (Sector Imperialis) so I'd like it to fit it. I was warned about this board being restrictive when I was about to buy it but I didn't realise just how restrictive it actually was. Another example of this is my terrain buildings, I can't base them or I'd end up covering up all the nice details of the board. I think I'll try and make the substrate as neutral as possible then I can use it on other boards as well. I had intended having a secondary board as a side project this summer, haha thats summer almost gone and I still haven't finished the first one! I need to stop buying terrain kits, gun emplacements, craters, Aquila landers lol! The boards going to end up being too busy, although i suppose I don't have to place all the pieces down and it gives me scope for variety. Whoops I'm off on a tangent here, back to topic and what or how to paint this substrate.
Any ideas guys? :)
Just had a thought, I'd best move this over to the WIP area huh! :)

When I originally thought of this when it came to the soil what came to mind was the scene from the original 1970's Superman scene where his capsule lands on Earth.





The soil is scorched black and grey, kind of like how I'd thought the hull would be scorched.
And if it is a fresh crash there might a 'Glowing-Coal' effect coming from the burnt soil/buried hull.

[Shirlzknight]

Nice one, it is great to have these ideas flung my way, yea this does look good!