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Operation: Dory

OK, this is not so bad.

After the first hilarious fail with the space commander, I have decided to take an attempt at the naval commander.

For that, I had to define a color scheme. And also, at this point in time it would not hurt to have an overall picture in mind for all commanders. At least a vague one.

OK, so... let's stick with the primary colors based on the game itself:

  • Diplomat: green
  • Land: brown
  • Naval: blue
  • Nuclear: red
  • Space: black

OK, so naval will be blue. Let's take inspiration from nature, because a color scheme found in nature is ought to natural!

Blue... water... Dory1! She is a regal tang2, which I think is actually fitting for the Naval Commander too:

Paracanthurus hepatus by DerHans04 (CC BY-SA 3.0)

So, we have the color scheme, I have also studied the mini for a bit and decided which parts di I want to have which colors.

The results are... not great, not terrible.

Naval Commander #1 front/back

It needs some slight adjustments, the yellow part is too overwhelming, so after rehashing:

Naval Commander #1 front/back

Steps applied on a zenithal primed mini were:

  1. Apply thin blue paint (AK11180 Imperial Blue) on the parts designed blue
  2. Apply thin yellow paint (AK11045 Deep Yellow) with neon yellow (AK11049 Fluorescent Yellow) mixed into it on the thigh pads, the knife and the hair
  3. Mix grey from
    • blue (AK11180 Imperial Blue)
    • black (AK11029 Black)
    • white (AK11001 White)
  4. Apply grey on weapons, BCD/respirator, and boots
  5. Dry brush metallic (AK11212 Gun Metal) onto the weapons and BCD/respirator
  6. Apply white highlight (AK11230 Titanium White) to designated areas
  7. Dry brush with white (AK11230 Titanium White) from a point-of-view from “stage right above”

It still could be a lot better, but also a lot worse.

Will I redo this before varnishing? Most probably yes.

What have I learned from this experience?

  • A color scheme is a MUST for me (at least for now, maybe 10 years down the line not any more...? But it does not hurt, for sure!)
  • Need to thin the paint... a lot more than anticipated
  • Even with thinned paint, the zenith priming will be "lost", even though it adds a very subtle base, it's more a base and a helper until I see it
  • Paints get darker as they dry... A LOT darker
  • Black overpowers everything. That color is no joke!
  • You need to let the paint dry and rest a lot, otherwise it will get messy and mix on the mini. It's a patience game.

  1. Finding Dory on Wikipedia ↩

  2. Paracanthurus on Wikipedia ↩