Recovered Piranhas

This set of models was a little tricky. So the story is that I sprayed them up long ago and bought the "Air Gun" from games workshop. Using that gun, I discovered airbrushing is awesome! However, I also discovered I ruined 2 Piranhas and a Devilfish in the process. The Devilfish is currently not recoverable and has been turned into terrain. The Piranhas on the other hand, I took and tried "Super Clean" to get the paint off. It worked great! I wasn't convinced at first, but when I laid down the primer, they were smooth and sleek like they should be and I finished them up.

I tried using my airbrush on these two models to put a base coat on though, as I've been having problems with the Army Painter Desert Yellow. It didn't work sadly. I had to water down the base paint quite a bit, to the point it was like water before it would come out of my gun. Determined to make these things work now, I decided to give the army paint another go. I've found that it's best if I hold my models on an object when spraying them. That I should hold the can a lot closer than I usually do. It's a fine line though. Hold it too close and the paint goes on real thick and you lose details, as can be seen on the crew for this vehicle. However, hold it to far away and you end up with the same problem that I've had in the past, specs and particles all over the model.

Now, I was also told it's better to spray indoors. I tried this and it sucks. Even with all the windows open, that smell and the fumes are really powerful things. I want to spray outside, but apparently for "lighter" colored primers this makes the particles clump up before hitting the model. Again, specs on the surface. It's ugly. My next plan is to seriously build a box with a vent on the back I can connect a fan to that will shoot the air out of my porch window. I'm just not in a position to build this box right now.

They're awesome though. I'm really happy I didn't toss them in the bin or turn them into terrain. It was worth hanging onto them just a little longer and try to recover them. The burst cannons are magnetized and I learned a new clever way to do them with the second Piranha. You basically take a T section of a sprew and put it in the top, and attach a magnet to the bottom. Works fantastically!

Speaking of magnets, been having some real issues with them of late. Keep putting them in backwards and don't realize it until the stupid glue is dry. Sigh. "Super Clean" apparently solves this, but I'm afraid they're so tight in their sockets that it won't work. I'm about to drill a hole through the back sides of the weapon to give the fluid another way in to disolve the glue and I'll push them out later.

Not sure what I'll work on next! I do have one more battle suit and then I'm done with the Tau until I acquire more models. Made a 500 and 750 point army though using these little guys. I'm looking forward to getting to use them today. =)