UMS "Agram" : How to make chaingun shell casings - painting < Articles < Hobby

How to make chaingun shell casings - painting

Goran Krunić, 23th June 2020

In this article, we will follow the work done by our Goran Krunić as he converts his Blood Angels Space Marine. In the second article in the series, he is painting his custom made chaingun shell casings.

I begin this article with an important notice: since I previously painted the shell casings on the miniature itself, I will not be demonstrating the step-by-step in this manner, rather, only for an individual shell. However, this technique is applicable on shells which are assembled on a vehicle, flyer or miniature.

An individual shell casing is obtained in the same way as was described in the first part of the article, so I won't be repeating that part here. In order to facilitate easier handling of the shell casing during painting, I recommend to glue it using superglue to a piece of fisherman's nylon or thin wire.

We begin by painting the shell with a mid-tone of a golden-copper paint, I have chosen Viking Gold from Scale75, but any similar paint from any other paint line is acceptable.

After the paint has dried, we apply a layer of a shading wash, which is a very dilute paint with a small amount of a darker pigment.

After the wash has dried (the procedure can be substantially accelerated by using a hair drier or similar device), we use a 0.05mm thick rapidograph pencil to create a line on the bottom of the shell, which most real references I saw have. It is important to take care that the line is straight, and I recommend that you don't use a single stroke to make it, and to take your time and patience, thus ensuring a better-looking end result.

After this, we use a 0.1mm thick rapidograph pencil to draw a hole on the other end of the previously drawn line by using circular motions.

I then proceeded to highlight the edges of the shell by using a lighter copper-gold color, I have chosen Dwarven Gold from Scale75, but any similar paint from any other paint line is acceptable.

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Marko Paunović, 17th April 2025

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