Barracuda
Air Superiority Fighter


This is project log of my Barracuda. I'm nearly finishing it, but I thought I'll post up guide for such a beautiful model.

All pictures are links to higher resolution themselves.

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Unpacking

I will start with pictures just after opening package:







There are some overmoulded (?) and miscasted pieces and... two cockpits! Empty and with pilot! Great! And so detailed cockpit meant I'd have to make canopy opening - whoa! It's pretty smart part...:



Now let's see how it looks after magnetizing two cockpits:



Wondering how to make it sliding and not flying after turning Barracuda upside down...:



Oh, how to make closeable landing gear...?

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Magnetizing

Here you can see all magnetized parts, including landing gear (partially green stuffed) and canopy. I'm pretty proud of gear and canopy:

I've put magnets in flyer's body as you can see, and as you can not see I drilled holes in gear covers and put into it small pieces of cut paperclip.


Canopy can slide and I'm able to put cockpit empty or with pilot:

For canopy that was tough part. Eventually, I took four magnets as you see, and I filed space for some paperclip pieces in cockpit cover.


There are pics of Barracuda with landing gear pulled out and hidden, in her (its?) most beautiful pose:

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Green stuffing


Showing places which needed GS's attention:



Huh, as per today I think it's enough. Soon I'll add next steps. Have at it!

Great start to your project log, Amis. I think we shall move this to the Project Log Forum for you.

The second cockpit can be used to represent an escape pod for the pilot. I used mine to make a Tau Objective Marker.


Enjoy the Barracuda; it is a really nice model. Just be wary of the antennae, as they can snap very easily.

E.

I've seen people magnetize antennae to avoid that very problem..

This looks great Amis; I'm eager to see how you paint it. Could we get a close-up of the empty cockpit?

Undercoating

First I primered all parts and of course main body with Skull White primer, not too original idea here. Then I undercoated upper part in pure vomit brown:



Then I made mix for underside: It was lots of Skull White with bit of Ice Blue which I added until I found appropriate level of blueishness which IMO was Sky-ish (hope it looks like sky for you too ):

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Painting


Then I took no pictures of painting camo effect, my bad.

But it's no more than how it looks now: I just painted upper part with some delicate werminbrown stripes, and bottom part with white stripes. So that is gallery as it looks now:



Now, from upside: Camo; Details like lenses, underslung seeker missiles bay and opened landing gear; flying stand mounting: I just drilled hole in clear plastic stand from GW, and thanks to fabrical hole in Barracuda I just had to cut fitting piece of 3mm rod, for which I used old metal file:



As you can see there are no highlights on any part of model, and I'll probably stay like that, firstly because I fear I'll destroy that beautiful (at least for me ) camouflage, secondly, because I've never seen highlighted Barracuda. Really. Those which I found on net all were unhighlighted. But if you have pics of highlighted one, please show me.

So for WIP that's it.

What I ask for are ideas on how to paint pilot. I just have completely no idea if I should paint him like Fire Warriors, or in bluish colours, like he is from space, or, or... no, grey will blend with pod.

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As for antennaes, I magnetised every part of whole set. Really. I think I'm in some way in love with those little metal friends... Ah, You got me. Not every. I glued engine thrusters. And yes, Barracuda is really enjoyable model, Eiglepulper. Plus thank you for idea of making empty pod objective. I'll surely try it.

And especially for you, Militant.Jester, escape pod's pics took under every angle:

One thing I would suggest is to shade your panel lines, since there's a lot of detail on the model that isn't really visible (and where you'd expect to see some shadows). Just get a fine-tipped brush and paint a wash directly into the lines. And it doesn't even have to be that dark, if you want really distinct lines, you can use a pure black wash. If you want a lighter shade, use a brown wash, or even a watered down black or brown.

Yes, I would agree with Peregrine's suggestion there. The upper surface definitely could benefit from a bit of panel-defining, but I think the underside isn't too bad as it is. The fact you have white stripes crossing the darker blue colour seems to be giving a kind of emphasis to the panelling. If you were going to make the lines more distinct I would suggest using a heavily watered down Shadow Grey - maybe as much as 9 parts water to 1 part paint - and then proceed as Peregrine mentioned for the upper surface.

E.

Am I the only one who shuddered, just a little, when you said "I undercoated the whole thing in vomit brown?

Thank you for those pictures! That is a very detailed model.
Panel lines should definitely be painted... I would also suggest using a metal color instead of flat black for the vents on the underside. It's a little too much contrast, IMHO. As for the pilot, it seems like he would either be in a blue-gray uniform or camouflage that matched the ground cover, in case he was shot down.

I would think that painting them similar to the Forgeworld Air Caste pilots would not be wrong. That gives them a bit of camo should they need to eject.

Looking real good. Adding some panel detail will go a long way toward making the model pop. For the antennas you may want to look into magnetizing them next time. Having broken similar ones on military models magnets will save allot of grief.

Also my credit card thanks you. Seeing yours I ordered one and 4 remora to go with.

If those were Aeronautica versions, that wouldn't hit too bad in the pocket. If they were 40k size.... Ouch!

E.

(Facepalm) I knew I forgot something!

Thank you all for comments, and hazmatt I searched for them, but didn't looked for it in accesories , why I don't know...

Diehard, I bet you'll be fond of that order. BTW Give me signal when you have Remoras, I was wondering on them. Uh, and Barracuda doesn't come with stand, you'll have to buy it separately.

Well, I should wash recesses soon, but as this is my last school year, it may not be that soon...

They're a very nice model, IMO. I've got four of them myself, and all of the models were just fine quality-wise. Otherwise I'd say just look at the pictures online, it's pretty much what you see is what you get except for the fact that the wings fold up for storage.

To avoid runining your paint scheme but still making your panels "pop", I'd reccommend some black gouche. water some down a little (especialyl if it's gritty; the kind I found at Hobby Lobby tends to be pretty darn smooth) and apply it to the recesses. If it overruns or you get it on some bad spots, just get a damp cotton swab (I reccomend using saliva, seeing as you can control the amount of moisture better, and it seems to help break up the gouche a bit better ) and run it along the lines, gently spinning the swab so it doesn't smear. You may use up a lot of Q-tips, but I've had a lot of success doing panel lines this way!

long time since last update, and work is moving slowly, but... at least it's moving on!

Lining WIP

So, I used some Ogryn Flesh first, but it was too delicate I thought, so I took Devlan Mud. Now, I want to hear from you if this is good choice...

As for underside, I tried Asurmen Blue. I think it's just perfect, thought I ask for some comment ot that too.

So that's it (click for full res):

That Barracuda has to be one of the most gorgeous painted models I've ever seen. I'm not quite sure, but to me it seems that the underside lacks a bit more deeper shape of blue.. maybe it's just me..

Looks good, the lining has certainly given the whole thing a bit more detail, and hasn't broken up the camo too much. I would perhaps agree with FerrumIgnatus on the blue, it could maybe do to be a little darker.

As for lining the underside, I would actually say you could get away with not doing any at all, and if you do choose to make sure it's something very light, bold lining will look quite odd and will definitely break up the colours too much. It is supposed to be sky camoflague after all!

One day i'll own one of these fantastic models, you're a lucky guy.

As for underside, I forgot to add small comment: only Burst Cannons holders (forgot proper name) are actually lined. And that lining you see on picture is just because of Picasa - it chaged contrast. I shall post better picture today...

It looks awesome!

Loving this thread and I have to say the top half looks mint with the Panel Lines done how ever the Blue you used for the Bottom Half I think is a little too Blue so I would say to thin it down a little But other than that this has to be one of the Best If not THE BEST Cuda I have seen in a long time.


Uh could you explain this to me? I've never seen Remora with folded wings and this now perks my curiosity in them

Whitefire, If you look at the wings, on a Remora, you'll notice that their attachments to the long-barrelled burst cannons can also act as a hinge, allowing them to fold their wings over the top of the drone body. This is why they have those dinky little jet engines instead of larger ones: if the engines were any larger, they'd interfere with the folding action.

Forge World doesn't have pictures of folded wings in its 40k sized model, but they do sort of for Aeronautica.