Building the Valkyrie WIP#3 - Colour Modulation

Making progress...













This latest step was one I was looking forward to since the build began.  It represents a significant benchmark of progress and it gave me the opportunity to experiment with colour modulation.

Colour Modu...what?

To the uninitiated, the technique of colour modulation comes from the scale modelling community.  It's an airbrush technique designed to push the contrast of a model and ultimately make it look more visually interesting. In essence it prevents your model from looking 'flat'.

It works by gradually building highlights on the model to distinguish one part from another thereby drawing the viewers eye and hopefully at the same time creating more realism.  I've experimented a little bit on my other models but this time I really went for it! Although the effect on the Valk appears quite extreme, it will soften significantly during the weathering process.

Making life easier

To aid me in my quest I enrolled the Panzer grey modulation set from AK interactive.  It provides 6 increasingly light colours to create the modulation effect I was after.  This meant I could concentrate on airbrushing without worrying about mixing paint.

The paints are made for AK interactive by Vallejo and they come in the same 17ml bottles (numbered so you don't apply the paint in the wrong order!).

I used bits of cardboard and paper to provide a temporary mask while I was airbrushing each of the panels

Next steps...

I'm pretty happy with the result but it's kind of early to say what the final result will be.  There's a chance I've gone too far with the modulation effect but I really wanted to explore the limits a bit and be a bit bold. Time will tell on that one.

Next up there's a bit of tidying up to do and a little repair work where the masking tape tore off some primer on the lower areas of the model.  Nothing disastrous, just inconvenient, but lesson learnt for next time.

The next time I post, I want to have the decals on and the wash stage done.  The wash is the next bit that I'm really looking forward to, because it brings out all the details and the model finally starts to look like the finished article.

See you next time...

You can read the the previous WIP's on this project at:

Building the Valkyrie WIP#1
Building the Valkyrie WIP#2