This is a Guest Post by Jon
Here's the Manticore were working on the other day with the final details added. I always like to add a hydraulic cylinder to a project like this to give the moving parts a reason to move. Just for reference, if you want to make a telescoping part like this, the outer tube should be 1/16" larger than the inner tube for Plastruct and Evergreen tubing.
The headlights were made from the tips of two of the shells from the Baneblade kit, and styrene tubing.
The paint scheme that I use for Vostroyan vehicles is a variation on the recipe that was presented on the GW website. I start out by priming with dark grey automotive primer, it works as well as any specialty model primer and is generally half the cost. Next comes a base coat of Bestial Brown, followed by a dry-brushing with Graveyard Earth with the treads left Bestial Brown.
This is where a deviate from the original studio recipe. I never quite liked the greenish build-up that was originally used for Vostroyan vehicles, I thought it looked too "Nurgly," so I replaced Rotting Flesh with Kommando Khaki. Next is a drybrush with a 50-50 mixture of Graveyard and Kommando Khaki, followed by a drybrush with straight Khaki.
It's at this point that I add the characteristic Vostroyan red markings using a simple stripe of Red Gore. I use Tamiya masking tape to make nice straight lines (I'm not as talented as Ron, who would free-hand it).
I now move on to the metallics; silver parts are simply Boltgun Metal whereas the gold parts are built up from a base coat of Tin-bitz, followed by Shining gold. The treads get a very light dry-brush with Boltgun. The inner sliding tube of the hydraulic cylinder is painted Mithril Silver follow by a wash with Ogryn Flesh to give a sheen of hydraulic fluid.
At this point, the whole model gets a wash with Devlan Mud,and the metallics get an additional wash of Badab Black.
For the final highlight, I do a light dry-brush with a 50-50 mix of Khaki and Skulll white, a light dry-brush with Boltgun on the silver bits, and a light dry-brush with Burnished Gold on the gold parts.
You can go back and see the construction process here.
