The Showcase - "Word of Blake Shadowhawk by Dave Fanjoy"

For the next "Showcase" I knew that I had to get Dave Fanjoy in there. He's been an icon to the CBT painting community for over a decade. Always updating his skills and techniques to keep up with the latest trends while consistantly pumping out great work. His website www.heavygauss.com is one of the best reference sites for CBT painting out there. He is also one of the founding artists of www.camospecs.com and has over a hundred minis on that site as well.

Dave I want to thank you for not only inspiring me to get into the hobby, also thanks for taking the time to answer a few questions.

DF - No problem, Jimmy. I like sharing my work with people, and your feature seems like a great way to do it.

With the CBT Jihad coming out and players getting both Word of Blake and ComGuard forces ready, there are probably more than a few people who would like to know how to go about painting white. What techniques did you use to get the smooth paint scheme on the mini?

DF - White is somewhat unique as far as base colors go in that it can be the easiest or the most difficult to paint well, depending on the technique and what look you're going for. I have seen white blend jobs done with 4-5 shades of white that look really nice but take 5-10 hours to do. Personally, I usually stray towards the "easy" side of things and this piece was no exception. I started off making a simple, table-top quality mini and it just came out well. The technique I used is often referred to as "lazy white". It starts from an evenly-sprayed coat of white primer. When the primer is completely dry, a light wash is applied with black ink. Once this is dry, a heavy white drybrush is applied to the entire model. Finally, touch-ups and smoothing is done with a thinned-down white paint to catch the highlights of the curved surfaces. Not counting drying times, the base coat probably took less than half an hour (and most of that was the touch-ups). This technique is ideal for new painters or people that want to build a big army.

When you paint white minis, do you prime white or black?

DF - It really depends on the technique; I've seen a lot of people start from black. As I said before, I use white when doing the "lazy white" style. However, it is very important to get a smooth, consistent coat when trying this method because the wash goes directly onto the primer. Otherwise, it wouldn't be a big deal if there were a few spots where bare metal shows through the primer.

I really like how you did the cockpit/face plate. Is this what folks refer to as “jewelling” or is it some other technique that artists use?

DF - Ah, the cockpit. It's good that you ask, because it's not technically jewelling. A jeweled technique tries to make the cockpit look glassy by catching some off-scene light source. Here, I have used a fade which is similiar but but without the simulated lightsource. The effect makes it look like the glass is tinted black with a red tinge, and perhaps there is light coming from the inside. The method of painting is to start from a flat black base over the whole cockpit. Using some thinner (or extender), make a very thin mixture of red and apply that to the lower half. Once this dries, mix a new thinned red with slightly more color and apply over a portion of the previous red, working down to the bottom edge where an unthinned line of red is used.

A lot of folks would probably like to know what brand of paints you used to paint this mini up and what kind of brushes did you use?

DF - For this mini, I used these: the white for drybrush was Delta Ceramcoat White, the touch-up white was Vallejo Model Air White, the ink was Citadel Black Ink, and the cockpit red was from the Vallejo Model line. I think it was Vermillion Red, but I can't remember. The Model Air paints are pretty handy; even if you're not airbrushing the extra thin mixture means you don't have to put any effort into thinning them down for detail work. As far as brushes go, I have gotten a lot of mileage out of Loew-Cornell. It's a pretty common mid-range brand that you should be able to find at any craft store. I used a big #8 flat for drybrushing, and most detail was done with a 000 round. For a couple parts (like the missile doors), I used a 10/0 round.

Now, onto the sweet part of the mini – the base work. Let me just say that it’s totally awesome!!! What inspired you to put the battle damaged Cobra on the base?

DF - Ha ha, thanks. Really, what started it on this model was the amount of free space I had on the base to work with. The Shadowhawk has a relatively small footprint, and because of the long shoulder gun I wanted to mount it pretty far back on the base to avoid too much overhang. That left me with a lot of room to create something, and I decided to try something complicated like wreckage.

Wow…did you use a new Cobra mini for this?

DF - As it turned out, this was a trip to the bits box. A few years ago I made a custom mini called the Conquistador which is based on the body of a Cobra but with the torso intake sawed off. This left me with the intake, head, and shoulder plates in the bits box. I started from there and built out the rest of the wreckage from brass tubing, guitar string, and ballast.

I love the “glow” of still burning metal on the torso…care to divulge your “secrets” for getting this very cool and realistic looking battle damage on the torso?

DF - Sure... if an artist is keeping secrets, it probably means he doesn't know how to reproduce what he did. :) I started by painting the entire wreckage black, and then trying to paint the outer armor in the appropriate colors (blue and white for the Lyran Guard). Since the armor is pretty wrecked in the front, this was kind of abstract but the key is to keep the bright colors out of the crevices. Next came the soot: this is just a very, very dry drybrush of black radiating out from the front. After that was the lighting effect. I'm not an expert in lighting effects, but I'll tell you how I did it using several colors from the Citadel line of paints. The first was Scab Red, which I painted in all of the crevices I wanted to glow. I also splashed it up on any metal that would catch glare, such as the Cobra's face plate and the shoulder frame rod. Next, I painted the center of the glowing crevices with Red Gore, and used a small amount of that color on the reflections. I repeated that process with Blood Red and Blazing Orange on the "hotter" areas, including the chin line of the Cobra. Finally, I put a small amount of Golden Yellow in the 2-3 brightest spots in the torso. When attempting this technique, don't judge it until you've finished because it will look pretty bad in the intermediate stages.

Did you freehand “Dio” on the back of the mini or is it a decal? If it is freehand, how would someone go about doing that kind detailed work?

DF - That's freehand. It's pretty easy to do with a Micron pen and some practice. It is important to find some sample text that has the font you like; I was looking at some calligraphy from a medieval reference. Practice the writing on a piece of paper until you can get the shapes and spacing of the letters how you like them, and then practice writing them very small. Then, find a smooth surface on your mini to write. Even a small crease or mold line will really mess up text when you apply it this way. A final note is that you'll want to use a spray sealer on the mini after the ink dries because a lot of pens will run if you get water (or wet paint!) on the ink.

One final thought on the mini, if you don’t mind – I noticed that this is a reseen Shadowhawk, what’s your opinion on the new resculpts of the older/classic minis?

DF - You're talking about the Project Phoenix minis, right?

Yes, but also the new revised TRO 3055 mechs.

DF - To be honest, I wasn't much of a fan when I saw the first few. However, some of them turned out to be the best minis out there in terms of artistic feel and quality of the sculpt. The Shadowhawk is a good example because although I don't really like the bulk of the shoulder gun, the rest of the 'Mech has good lines and is sculpted really well. Some of the others such as the Phoenix Hawk and Wasp are much more detailed and dynamic than the originals. I still like the originals, but the new sculpts really breathe new life into the designs. I'll reserve judgement on the newer 3055 stuff until I've got a copy of the book. So far, I have been a little disappointed in the Vixen mini but very impressed with the Hellhound. In fact, that's going to be my next project.