ETL V: Stormlord

Longtime in coming...
I've been busy just not with painting and such. Yet, the latest ETL V over on Bolter 'n Chainsword called to me. I had to get another entry in to assist the Imperial Guard Astra Militarum.

I grabbed a cheap Banblade variant from Ebay and thought it would make a perfect super transport for my Kanak Skulltakers!

The before picture. A simple Stormlord with some modifications, but nothing outside of the ordinary. I did remove the Imperial Eagles from the front fenders. If it's not obvious now, the Skulltakers are slowly drifting from the Imperial truth!

Throughout, I removed any Imperial Eagles outside of the tracks. The Mechanicus symbol was kept simply out of ease, and the fact that the Adeptus Mechanicus doesn't shove the love for the Emperor down your throat!

 A couple of skulls had been added and many spikes throughout. A large Minotaur skull had been attached to the front of the vehicle. A 'raccoon' tail has even been added to the antenna to give it the full redneck look and feel.

The sides where there is quite a bit of dirt and wear, in front of the stubbers, are where I will attach a cargo netting. This will be used to represent the location of the embarkation point for the troops. Currently my wife is working on that part of the plan. The discolored parts are to represent replacement pieces scavenged from other vehicles: damaged bogies, ruptured fuel tank, or simply to repair a damaged skirt.

                            

 

                             

 

                               

 

                              

 

Kanak Hell Spawn Veterans

To go with the Chimera 'Hell Spawn', I built up a squad of veterans for my Skulltakers! Much like the other Kanak units, these are a mix of Chaos Marauders and Catachans. But these guys have a twist!

The twist is I am using some Blightwheel heads with masks. They are quite what I imagine a Bloodpact trooper would look like. I preferred these over the Secret Weapon heads with masks due to the overall sculpt. The Blightwheel sprues also came with horns with which to glue to the helmets. I didn't even bother as they are so tiny, a small bump or snag will pop them off. I tried to drill a small hole to countersink them into to make the bond stronger, but just couldn't find the right diameter drill bit. It was either too small or too big. I quit while I was ahead. I think they look fine nonetheless. I used most of the shoulder pads I had to give them the extra armor look if I want them to be Granadiers with carapace armor.

The squad itself is armed with two melta guns and a demolition charge, whom is a metal figure with a head swap. I must say, I am really impressed with the Imperial shoulder pads from the Baneblade sprue. Those pads, just seemed to fit the look perfectly. You can see them mainly on one of the melta gunners and the banner bearer.

The sergeant received the huge skull shoulder pads. They fit the role nicely. To show their subtle change to Chaos, all the visible Imperial Eagles were removed or filed down. The Sergeant could be said to have an 8-point star on his back, or it could just be a huge target symbol...

All of the troopers have tattoos of flames on their wrists. I also tried to incorporate the symbol from the rune on the banner onto their arms. The banner 

The only thing I did differently for these guys was to try and use oil washes and other tank specific weathering techniques on their shoulder pads and helmets. The results were mixed. As they are so small, the weathering gives the appearance of a camo pattern.

Third ETL Vow

I finally finished my third vow for the ETL IV hosted by Bolter and Chainsword. I was hoping to get two more vows completed, but things have gotten in the way... Anyway, this one was relatively simple, a Chimera and a Deathstrike Missile Launcher. It still took me about two weeks, twice as long as planned.

The Chimera is to be a transport for my soon to be Veteran squad. With that in mind, the Chimera was done up with some slight alterations to show a possible taint by Chaos. The spikes added and the rusty hooks on the side are there to add to the atmosphere. I even painted tiny horns to the skulls of the Aquila on the sides. The silver face is a Mordheim leftover. I am just trying my best to avoid adding any other Imperial symbols to the craft.

I did another variation on the camouflage, a sort of poor man's urban camo. I created my company with an urban environment in mind, hence all the greys I've been using. I also reached a bit further and put a face on the dozer blade. It may be a bit hokey, but there is precedent. During the Korean War, the US Army painted tiger faces onto the fronts of M-26 Pershings, as some of the Chinese were superstitious. In order to make my veterans more fearsome, their tank too received a face!

I just had to add a huge template weapon to my list. The Astra Militarum cannot get any bigger than the Deathstrike Missile! Since I like to paint in pairs or more, I grabbed a Missile Launcher. 

I haven't yet used the weapon yet, but I am dying to see what it does.

The missile was primed white with the warheads masked off. I then used Astronomicon Grey, masked it off and then Mechanicus Standard. 

I made no modifications to this one. The front line troops are the ones suffering the changes. The backline troops have not yet begun the metamorphosis. 

ETL IV: The Second Vow

I made a second vow for the Bolter and Chainsword painting contest. I decided to add two more vehicles that had been sitting in my 'to do' box for the last few years, a Stygies Pattern Vanquisher, and a Mars Alpha Pattern Exterminator. Both of these are Forge World items made of resin to add to plastic kits.

Overall, the pieces were in great shape with little to no bending to be done. The lone exception was the auto cannons on the Exterminator looked to be cross-eyed. There were some excessive mold lines but nothing that required major surgery. The rear end, near the exhaust pipes on the Exterminator needed some additional puttying and sanding afterwards, but for the most part the tanks were easy builds.

One of the dust filters for the back end broke at the hose, so it was set aside. I added some extra stowage to the turret from my extensive bits box. These were painted separately and glued on later. This made access to the turret and the bags much easier when painting. More so when it came to the weathering as well. 

When it came to painting, the Exterminator was done up just like the Punishers. Although I did not do the initial fading on the panels this time. What I did do was to use oil paints for the fading. This is accomplished after all the base paints, decals, and gloss coats has been laid down. Using oil paints, you then place dabs of white, yellow, blue, and brown onto the tops and sides of the vehicle (other colors can be used as well to get differing effects). The lighter colors generally get placed in the center of a panel with the darker ones near corners or the base of the tank. Then, with another clean brush dipped in thinner (odorless terpenoid is preferred) mix the colors together. Usually pushing out to the edges so the darker colors gather in the crevices or near the bottom. The lighter colors then do their job and lighten the underneath panels so slightly. This gains you a couple of advantages, one as a filter it can level all the paints and decals beneath it, second with it being washed out with the thinner, the oil paints can change whole tone of the tank. It is a gradual effect. 

There are a few little details added to the vehicle, a burst rivet that has rusted through for example, extra support on the sponsons. The treads had to be done twice. The first time seems to have been wiped out by the final gloss/dull coating. So I redid them and set the powders with water. Things you learn. Oh, you can set weathering powders with thinner. This will allow you to wipe it away later on. If you set them with water, you may not be so lucky. Water tends to make powders permanent. Learn from my mistakes!

                         

The Vanquisher got a different paint scheme than normal. Going through the first Forge World book, I got some ideas. I ended up liking the paint scheme for an Imperial Thunderbolt done in greens. I simply ran with the idea in the greys I am using for my army instead. I will let you figure out the order of colors this time. The darker of the three greys is the Vallejo Black Grey from their model paint range. I love their colors and the dropper bottles. Yet, I've been groomed with the GW colors, and being colorblind... that is another post.

The Vanquisher got the most additions. Just little things I added here and there. The most obvious being the prow and maybe the rucksack in the back. Still, for me, this is one of my better results with regards to painting tanks. Many things came together to make it stand out.

I did not like the empty storage bin that is normally there on the old Leman Russ tanks, so I gave it a lid. Doing that made the other side look empty, so I added one to that side as well, rivets and all. I also added some reinforcing to the front around the lascannon too. The old Russ kits didn't always fit snug and left some gaps. Adding the extra armor strips filled those in while making it look a bit beefier. The ram in the front is from an old Ork war buggy I had sitting around. It looked the part to go with the Kanak style.

With each kit that I work on, I try to add a new trick, or try a new concept. Some work out like the axe handle, some not so much, like the jerry can (not extremely happy with it). But each step gives me an idea of what does and does not work. Or something that I may want to improve upon. Not every painter comes out with award winning items on their first try. They all had their stumbles along the way. I am just trying to get better and with each project. It's good to get out of your comfort zone sometimes.

Superheavies Complete

I have finally completed the three Superheavies for the Bolter and Chainsword ETL IV. This should be a big lift for the Astra Militarum subgroup. These three were over 1500pts in total.

Much like working on twenty guys at a time, working on three vehicles of this size at the same time was getting to be more of a chore; quite unlike the usually joy of finishing a single squad. As each step of the process was increased three-fold for every vehicle. Doing the oil wash meant having there was no down time between application and blending. It was almost too much to keep track of. I did have to go back and get some spots that I missed along the way, like the purity seals on the rear of the tanks. Beyond that, it all went fairly well.

                               

 

The Stormblade pattern superheavy carries the Plasma Blastgun. As this was the lighter in color of the three, the weathering really showed up very well. Except for the fitting of the gun, there were zero problems. I used a long brass pin to help keep the gun in place. Even still it didn't sit flat enough. It's not something that would be noticed during gaming.

                                

 


The Shadowswords came out nice too. Contrary to the above photos, they are the same colors. I'm still learning the camera.

                                 

 


I had to paint part of a 'three' onto the side to avoid it getting lost by the ladder. It was something I realized after I did the other side first. I just thought the numbers looked better near the back of the tank.

The weathering for all three was pretty much the same as the Macharius, Punishers, and the Sentinels. I did use the Van Dyke Brown oil paint for the pin washes. One thing I did that worked really well was, I pre-highlighted all the raised parts with a lighter color. All the rivets were painted a lighter grey. All the raised parts got some level of a highlight across all of the tanks. This really helped those parts stand out and help with the depth of the paints.

Only one thing gave me an issue. I tried to use the Mig Productions Rain Streaking effects. It comes in a bottle just like the Rust Streaking and Grime Streaking effects. It even has the same directions. I planned to use it as a way to fade the upper layers. The process is normally to put down a spot, wait a little while, then blend it with a brush and thinner to spread it around. Simple and very effective. Well, the Rain Streaks may have too much pigment in it. Placing a dot on many of the panels across the top of the tank 31, I then proceeded to blend it around with a damp brush. Problem was, it was leaving a ring where the dot was placed. It was drying too quick and making it look like a cheetah! I had to soak a Q-tip in thinner and practically scrub the Rain Effects off. The stains are still there, but when another layer was added and blended, they began to disappear.

To get it to work, I used two brushes together, one with thinner, one with the Rain effects. I placed a spot of thinner down, then the Rain Effects on top of that. I then blended it in immediately. This worked to make the paint look faded as a light translucent layer of a white was laid on top.

Fuel Leak

Battle Damage

After completing the painting, they all got a coat of Gloss spray and then Dull coat from Testors. I used graphite for metal marks on the rust and tracks. The following sprays caused them to disappear. I just went back over them with Leadbelcher.  So don't use graphite if you are going to seal your tank.