Centurion Vehicles: Predator

I subscribe to several modeling magazines. The most mainstream being Finescale Modeler. This magazine has some good articles, but it seldom deals with the subjects I like to build. It’s usually full of WWII armor and aircraft model kit articles, a few car pieces and an occasional miscellaneous history kit. It was here that I got the idea to finally put some paint on my long built, twice broken, plastic Predator model.

I’ve had this model for at least ten years. I got it for Christmas along with a Rhino, a Land Raider, and a few box sets of WH40K figs. Right after I got all these, I totally lost interest in WH40K.

At some point in the intervening years, I assembled the kit. I must have wanted it for a game, but I honestly can’t remember when I built the kit. Caius has been playing with it for a few years and broke the autocannon on the turret. Games Workshop has since introduced a new Predator with a shorter (and smarter) turret weapon. When I repaired the turret on my Predator, I shortened the barrel a lot. I think it makes for a much better piece.

One of the reasons I decided to paint the kit when I did, besides being bombarded with armor articles, was the discover of sienna. I mixed a fabulous warm green color with Liquitex acrylics (raw sienna and phthalocyannine green). I just fell in love with the color and knew I had to use it. (I built my rhino just to use the remainder of the color).

I airbrushed the green over the kit and then used thinned raw sienna for the complimentary brown of the camouflage. I didn’t use any pattern, but just eyeballed the model and tried to break up the patterns of the tank. I realized quickly, that the brown and green weren’t enough and I’d need black on the edges. I painted the black edges after the brown and then used the green and sienna again and again to clean it up.

I struggled with my airbrush. I’d heard criticism of the Aztec airbrush before, saying that the fine line nozzle (brown) didn’t paint a very fine line. With my limited (but growing) experience with the airbrush, I struggled a lot with the lines, and, like I said, had to go over the lines again and again with all the colors to get a good line.

Another problem I faced with the airbrush was aiming. Once I knew where the paint would hit, I was better able to paint, but the first shot invariable missed where I wanted to paint. I read recently in Finescale Modeler that someone put a pistol laser sight on his airbrush to aim it. It was treated with great skepticism, but I can see how it could help.

I painted the treads black and then aggressively drybrushed steel. The on the back was painted black and then using my old favorite gold acrylic, carefully painted it. I had to black line a bit afterwards since I was sloppy. The front lights are just a generous supply of Ral Partha Lantern Yellow.

I have some decals for the kit I may ad, but for now, I like the model well enough to display it as is.

Immediatly after finishing this kit, I built and painted my Rhino.

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