Blue Tape Special

I wanted to do something different for my Dark Eldar. Not content with the gloomy purple & black, I wanted to embrace a Neo Toyko look with wild Japanese motorcycle striping.

After reviewing several airbrush tutorials, one stuck out that demonstrated some of the best airbrushed models were not done because of the airbrush, but by how well you use an knife.

After base coating the models with Wild Rider Orange, I spent weeks finding the right design. I ran the design through a scanner and took a picture of the jetbike so I knew the size & fit for the final stencil. I cut out a prototype out of frisket, but this was too rigid to bend to the shape of the jetbike. So I traced the frisket stencil onto painter's blue tape & applied the tape as shown above.

And repeat. A lot. Why did I think 24 Jetbikes was a good idea?

I used both the cut out the outer edges of the stencil to add variation to the same theme. Astute readers will see the frisket in the background as well future design plans

I airbrushed the jetbikes with tape in place. Started with black in the middle of the jetbike then painted a gradient of grays so the brightest grey to the edges of the jetbike.

Certainly not 50 shades of gray, but mixed them on the fly by adding white to the starting black in small increments

Moment of truth, remove the tape slowly

A rare moment when a jetbike is not jinking

Comparison of the postive & negative stencils side by side. Still a cohesive look for the army. I will have to differentiate special bikes by painting the riders different colors

I plan to do the same technique on the my 1001 venoms and raiders. I will also attempt something similar on the infantry. More updates to come!