Well, it took a bit longer to get around to it, but once I set myself to finishing these guys, they were done in two days. I love how they look as a whole, and can't wait to see them in action. Thanks to
Master of Ordinance for some of the pictures, and the beautiful islands! They really inspired me to keep working on the navy. All the planes got done way quicker than I anticipated. They were a good lesson in chipping away at a long project into manageable sections to keep from getting too disheartened.
The Eagle was done freehand with a micron pen to draw some initial boundaries, and then reworked with paint until I was satisfied. It becomes a push and pull between the main colors and the background colors to clean up lines, so it helps to have a fairly consistent background to be working on top of. Gradients and textures become much harder to touch up. I had a slight shadow gradient on the upper ripple of each section of canvas, but it was easy enough to replicate the shading at the end.
On the other side I settled with an Iron Cross, partially because I liked the look of it on other Imperium sky fortresses, but also because I just didn't want to deal with an identical eagle..
-Dan
Well, it took a bit longer to get around to it, but once I set myself to finishing these guys, they were done in two days. I love how they look as a whole, and can't wait to see them in action. Thanks to Master of Ordinance for some of the pictures, and the beautiful islands! They really inspired me to keep working on the navy. All the planes got done way quicker than I anticipated. They were a good lesson in chipping away at a long project into manageable sections to keep from getting too disheartened. 
The Eagle was done freehand with a micron pen to draw some initial boundaries, and then reworked with paint until I was satisfied. It becomes a push and pull between the main colors and the background colors to clean up lines, so it helps to have a fairly consistent background to be working on top of. Gradients and textures become much harder to touch up. I had a slight shadow gradient on the upper ripple of each section of canvas, but it was easy enough to replicate the shading at the end. 
On the other side I settled with an Iron Cross, partially because I liked the look of it on other Imperium sky fortresses, but also because I just didn't want to deal with an identical eagle.. 
-Dan