Aeronautica Imperialis - Orc Dakka Dakka Fighta Bomba - Trials and Tribulations ...

Oh, I felt so relieved when I could call this project done. Sigh. You secretly know to yourself when you are overworking something and that is what I was doing here - but I honestly could not see a way to stop myself. I was overthinking the problem. The formula I used for the previous "Red" little Orc fighters just did not seem to work well at all for this "Yellow" two man (sorry Orc) fighter bomber, and it was only ever so slightly bigger a modal. In hindsight I thought I had possibly even overworked the "Red" Dakka Dakka fighters (but in my defense I was applying multiple thin coats rather than one thick one) but I liked the "Red's" resulting "comic book" character and the depth of colour I had achieved (so the pain and time was worth it - even enjoyable), however trying the same technique on the "Yellow Terror" seemed to tie me down in too much of a repetitive cycle of coats of watery yellow paint that did not quite cover. Yargh! Working up from a shade of light orange was a very bad starting point, it meant I had to work double as hard to effectively change from this "orange" colour. More fool me for using the Vallejo Game Colour chart that is good for small fantasy figures on small areas (see below, my Flaming/Hot Orange starting point, it should have been a simple Golden Yellow on a white primer [I had used Airfix Grey Primer]): 

I say all the above the stuff about orange and yellow because I slavishly applied a brown wash to get a ugly feeling of rust in the paneling, cracks and missing parts that are a signature trait of "orc craftsmanship" (see below, but everything just went a "darker orange"): 

The model started taking off when I finally got a couple of coats of Golden Yellow onto it (see below, this was the colour of the planes that harassed and attacked me in the iPhone game of Freeblade .. and I so liked shooting them down as they exploded beautifully .. hats of the the graphic designers, animators and computer programmers for a job well done):  

Again slavish to the "rust concept" I plonked another layer of brown wash on it (see below, oops I think I am missing a trick here as I pretty much undid all the brighter yellowness of the previous stage for not much texture gain, and in hindsight I was putting a lot of paint on the model - less is good in most cases): 

At this point Sun Yellow came to rescue me from insanity, the first coat starts to bring me round to the yellow look I an after (see below, but it was very patchy and would definitely need another coat - seriously I am putting too much paint on this model .. and I cannot get the knack of putting thin coats of yellow on it to look right, so in desperation I am globbing more Sun Yellow paint on than I know is really right):  

At this point I honestly could have easily given up on the Orc Fighta Bomba and who knows in a none Covid-19 scenario I might well have done. Instead of aborting, I took a big deep breath and left it alone for a while and busied myself in another concurrent ACW project I have on the go (more on that in a future post). I came back when my painting frustrations were abated (also with a tick in the box for the ACW project) and with a nice strong cup of tea in hand, plus a plate of calming chocolate digestive biscuits I (see below [although the natural light is on the dim side], the second coat of Sun Yellow seemed to saved the day and I resisted the brown wash on the yellow [good decision] - but I did re-apply the brown wash and needed to do some black lining on the silver leading edge paneling):  

Now I just went full-throttle for the finish, using Moon Yellow and a very slight touch up on the silvery bits (see below, you may also notice a bit of brassy gold applied [and a subtle brown wash] to various pipe things and vent things as a contrast to the silver/gun metal): 

The beast is complete, but it did have one final bite to give me. My big clumsy mitts managed to either smear some red on the canopy and nose, or rub yellow paint off to expose the orange .. urk, it looked a mess .. but I took a deep breath and undercoated it white so I could reapply the Moon Yellow. In a spur of the moment decision the leftover white+yellow paint ended up being dabbed a random patches of super highlight (see below, all-in-all it seems to have worked and I am fairly happy with the final results): 

Time has truly expired on this one, but as a final touch .. or should I say insurance .. if there was ever a model that needed a strong coat of varnish over it to protect it from rough handling, this is the one! Note to self: I put that last bit in to remind myself to do it later ;) 

The only remaining thing to do is get it in a game and take delight in shooting it down!