The Stoic Arms

This is a wonderful kit from 4Ground in the UK. This is a pre-painted, laser cut model kit of many pieces that is quite a joy to put together. The instructions are easy to follow of you have ever worked with one of their products before. They are step by step, and in full color. Sorry about the different sized pictures, blame it on Blogger!

The box came with two giant ziploc bags of pre-painted laser cut wood, and a bag of clothes pins and rubber bands with which to clamp the pieces together. I cannot stress enough to follow their directions to the letter. If you miss a step, and you invariably will, you will undoubtedly want to throw things across the room. As the pieces are MDF and take standard PVA glue quite quickly, they tend to stick together quite quickly too. Having to go back and remove a piece to fit another in can be painful to your completed product. 

I have taken photos of each of the floors to show you the detail of the item in general. 

Complete front, about 13" long

Complete back, almost 12" tall

First floor front

First floor top view

Second floor front

Second floor balcony side

Third floor front

Third floor 

Fourth floor back

Fourth floor front 

The entire piece took about 10 hours in total. I will say, the time flew by as the dopamine pumped. There were a few hiccups though. A couple spots there were mislabeled parts. Those were further in and as you get into it, you know what they're thinking and are able to get past them. This can cause some headaches for newer modellers though. 

There were also a couple of misfits that I had to fix. The third floor did not sit flush as usual due to two of the angles roof pieces not having notches in them for the balcony. 

I was able to alleviate the issues when I completed it as I didn't notice it until afterwards. 

Also the kitchen roof would not fit as built due to the third floor balcony. I had to trim the roof spine. Fortunately I didn't glue it on yet, allowing me an easier time. 

But back to the positives. There is lots of great detail in here. All of their pieces come with exterior and interior walls. They don't do things simple just to complete a model. There are cracks in the walls. The bar is fully detailed with shelves and a trap door. 

The kitchen has dual ovens too!

The exterior walls are actually glued on to blank wood to give it the yellowish look. Some of the interior walls are panels that get glued on as well. This can be mainly seen on the third and fourth floors. The instructions even come with posters for you to cut out and 'pin' to the walls!

All in all, it is an awesome piece. One that stands out even without any further painting. I highly recommend all of their products. Now back to work!

Kanak 2nd Platoon and Heavy Weapons

The Second Platoon uses bands to designate their squad. With the first squad having one band on their upper arms and the second having two bands. This is also mirrored on the squad banner. The basic idea of the squad composition is basic lasguns and a flamer. That's it. The sergeant may get a melta bomb or so, but really that is all.

Why does each squad have a banner, it doesn't do anything? Well, I had so many extra as the Marauder sprue has two types. Why not give each squad one? It sorta gives an old feel to the army. You may notice that each and every unit also has a musician. I have these guys to represent my vox caster. The squads will have drummers with a lasgun strapped to their back. The command squads use horns. Just another way to differentiate the basic squad and a command unit. 

The first platoon command squad has grenade launchers. Yes, I know they pretty much suck, but that unit is designed to move along with the squads. That whole platoon tends to be my speed bumps. Combining into a single blob squad if needed. The second platoon and command squad are my squatters and my counter-attack unit with the flamers. Pretty simple, and it keeps things cheap. Each of my command squads has an extra guy made up in case I need to cut out a flamer, banner, or something. To have them looking different, the command units have a 'barbed-wire' like band on their arms

I do have heavy weapon squads just in case. I've found that each heavy weapon sprue can make three different ones if you plan it carefully. You just need to decide if you want a lascannon, heavy bolter, or autocannon. As there is only one mount for those. Out of three sprues, I was able to get nine heavy weapon squads. I made three of each to keep things simple. The missile launcher and mortar both have the same bipod mount, but you really don't need it for the missile launcher. With these units, I got creative as the base would just be so empty otherwise. Each type of weapon follows the same theme, the mortars are behind stone walls, the auto cannons are behind barricades, and with barrels sitting in front of the missile launchers. 

With the nine different squads, I can make three heavy weapon squads or even just sprinkle them throughout the company.

Next post will have my cavalry and my Company Command Squad. 

Kanak Skull Takers

Long time no post....
I have finally gone back to the Imperial Guard, oops, sorry, the Astra Militarum. I came up with the plan to make the Kanak Skull Takers when doing the Four Color Chimera Post, link here. Orginally, the name plate showed Malvi, a planet from the Calixis Sector of Dark Heresy by Fantasy Flight Games. Long story short, (too late) I changed the name on the side to Kanak. I just thought the Skull Takers needed to be represented somehow. Also, since I had some extra Beastmen bits and Chaos Marauder sprues, why not put them to use.

So the Kanak Skull Takers are a feral bunch that tend to use axes and flamers a majority of the time. Keeping with the theme, most of my guys also have axes and flamers. I also organized them into clans based on platoons. So each platoon will have a similar skin color, identifying tattoos, and banners-styles that differ by color. First squad has a single slash or bar, the second has two slashes or bars, etc.

Squad One

Squad Two

Squad Three

The figures themselves are incredibly easy to put together. Just mix 'n match a Catachan squad with Chaos Marauders and you are set. I found one sprue of each could usually make a ten-man squad. A word of warning though. Some preparation is required ahead of time. As the chests of the Marauders do not allow for two handed rifles to be added easily. You will notice I use the Catachan bodies for all troopers that are aiming their weapons. The Marauder bodies tend to be carrying their rifles in one hand, have it slung across their back, or some other creative way to fit them in. This was the fun part; thinking of creative ways to fit them together.

Once I got to the Platoon Command Squad, things got a bit more difficult. I want them to be different and stand out more, so I put the Command Squad sprue to use. This sprue is more 'streamlined' as the figures are not as large. The other heads and arms from the troop sprue do not fit quite as well. Luckily, I planned to make some Rough Riders too.

Command Squad

The Chaos Horsemen sprue has sixteen different heads for the five riders. That leaves twenty-two extra heads if I make a full ten man cavalry unit. These heads are AWESOME and fit nicely with the command squad figures. All the helmeted heads go with the Catachan and Marauder bodies quite nicely too. Otherwise, many of the heads can appear too small for the barrel chested figures.

I also added a few little things like giving them something akin to biker jackets.

I am going to leave with just the completed first platoon. Meaning I have to come back and post more pictures of the others I have finished.


If you want to find out more about the Kanak Skull takers, here are another couple of links to the Lexicanum and the Manchurian Campaign put together by the Bell of Lost Souls.

Air Support

Back to my Dark Angels. I always paint in squads or pairs. This way I always complete an entire unit at a time, or, if one is good, two are better, philosophy. Besides, I would prefer similar vehicles or units to appear uniform. Painting two vehicles at a time gets them out quicker. I paint them at the same time, get a similar effect on both, and usually can complete them faster than working on them one at a time. 

This time I added one of each flyer for the Ravenwing. I painted them similar to the box version with the wing patterns, but the tail section got the changes. 

The cockpit and pilot were painted first, black with a grey dry brushing, as I was feeling lazy. That, and it's very difficult to see inside clearly. Although, all the panels were painted as well. Looking carefully, you can see the panels have some action on them..

As for the aircraft, to start, I just sprayed the aircraft a light grey, Celestra Grey for the Dark Talon and Ulthuan Grey for the Nephilim. For the bomber, I then added a light outline of where I wanted the Lightning effect to be. That was then added with short streaks of white, that's all. The fighter, after the grey was laid down, I then used a very thin spray of fenris grey to get the blue. Afterwards on both, I then masked off the 'feathers' and the painted tail, and covered them in black. One thing I did do more of, was to use the glazes more. The blue on the stasis chamber was a couple layers of the blue glaze. It tended to pool in the crevices and left the center not as dark. The emulations of the box pictures extended to the bomb. Definitely not the same, but you can see the similarities. I will work on this more. 

                                     

The bases required extra effort. To ensure a good bond, I glued the clear stand to the base first. The clear plastic was then covered with tamiya tape and the base was loaded up with debris and sand to my regular standards. With the stands complete covered, the bases were primed black and painted using my regular steps. The stands were still taped up when I hit them with the gloss/matt sprays, then it was removed. The bases still need some static grass of sorts to give it more layers. 

With them complete, I still haven't used them. I'm getting more into the mode of a happy painter than avid gamer. Though when I do play, I know my armies look good!

Leman Russ Punishers

In order to create space in my backlogged inventory, I have been working on the many kits that I have accumulated over the years. I am now working on some Russ kits I got back when Apocalypse came out. GW had a great deal on a three Russ squadron for $100 or so. Sucker me, I picked it up even though I didn't have an Imperia... Astra Militarum army. Anyway, these kits are for other variants that I will post in the near future. What I have finished recently are a pair of Punishers.

Everybody was in to the Executioner with its plasma cannons. I thought the Punisher was getting neglected. Besides what help the Militarum more than multiple shots, besides twin-linked? These have been sitting on my shelves for a couple of years before I grabbed them and put them together.

I went for a bit of Urban camo for these guys. They were primed black as usual, then Mechanicus Standard Grey. I added a touch of a lighter grey and hit the larger plates and sprayed vertical lines down the side for some pre-weathering. I then added some irregular shapes cut out from my Tamiya tape. Administratum Grey was then used. A touch of Pallid flesh (now Wyche Flesh) was added and again hit large open areas and added vertical stripes again, but trying to hit the same stripes I used for the darker grey to enhance the effect. It's difficult to see the result as it's quite subtle. Then decals, base colors, a coat of gloss spray, then the weathering. 

Just as for the Macharius, I followed many of the tips from the Forge World book.

Red-Tailed Mustang

A good friend of mine, who is also a World War Two buff, really likes the North American P-51 Mustang.

 For his birthday, I decided to put one together for him. I gave myself a week to complete it. I haven't done an historic model for some time, so this was a challenge of sorts. I grabbed a Tamiya kit. I always remembered Tamiya to be of high quality way back when. 

First off, it came out pretty good, not knowing. All the yellow and red was airbrushed, along with the green. The kit came with decals for the yellow stripes and red nose, sans propeller. I decided it was best to paint most everything, as trying to match a decal color will most likely not work. The yellow was eyeballed. The red nose, I just cut out the decal and made a stencil with some Tamiya tape.  The tail was taped off also. All the interior work was done by hand, cockpit, wheel wells, etc. I also didn't have a basic Olive drab for the nose. Probably came out too light to be accurate. I probably should have used a brighter/lighter silver, but I'm pleased with the overall result. 

After researching some photos online, I must say the model has some flaws. The kit is more of a beginner package with basic colors listed for the cockpit interior    2-1 yellow-green for example. The landing light inside the wheel well seems quite large too. The landing gear also seemed more fragile than most. 

Decal-wise, the wing insignia had to go over an airspeed indicator on the bottom and a raised slot on the top. I can't say I succeeded with the top, the most visible. I wasn't thinking ahead, didn't realize, and tried to muscle it on there, failed. Fortunately, GW Midnight Blue appears to be a great match for the USAAF insignia blue! The bottom, I knew about and slit the round part about a 1/4" and slid that around the indicator before pressing out the bubbles. I was disappointed it didn't come with kill markings though. 

What I did like was the pre-cut masks for the canopy that was included, bonus! Prevents unnecessary cuts onto the clear plastic. The instructions gave nice diagrams for parts placement and pre-construction painting. It was a nice easy model to assemble. I would rate it 7 out of 10 with 5-6 being average. 

Macharius Vulcan

I am trying to stick to a schedule of completing a unit per week. Since I finished the Dark Vengeance models, I've been focusing on building the items I already have in house. I am sticking to a moratorium of no purchasing until I clean out many of the shelves/boxes I have of unfinished kits. The Macharius Vulcan was ordered a few years ago and has been sitting around sitting in bubble wrap for some time. Since I've gathered more confidence in my weathering abilities, I figured let's go ahead and pop this guy out, and try a few things. 

For the size and detail, the model itself came in just a few pieces with the body being a top and bottom. The sides/tracks were separate parts and the turret was one piece as well. The extra fiddly parts were the twin-linked heavy stubber (three parts), the two exhaust pipes, three pieces for each sponson (flamer or heavy bolter or stubbers), engine cover, two cupola covers, and the extra tracks sitting at the back of the tank. Being resin, there was some warped spots with the stubber a bit crooked (still), and the chassis itself. I soaked the entire body into very hot water and fit it together until it cooled. It went together quite easily afterward. 

I wanted to stick to a basic grey. Using my airbrush, over a black primer, I sprayed Mechanicus Standard Grey, then added a touch of Fortress Grey, then a light flesh color. I tried to follow the steps utilized in the Forge World Masterclass's Earthshaker Emplacement. I then painted basic colors onto any metal parts or items of such, weathered it, and sealed with a gloss coat. An oil wash was then used and dragged down the side of the tank or blended on the horizontal surfaces with a brush using thinner. Since the vehicle was sealed, the original paint is protected from the thinner and the gloss really helps the oil paint to spread freely over the model. 

The main thing to practice with weathering is to do it in layers. Complete a layer, let it dry, then add another layer, and maybe another if desired. A single step of weathering can have a good effect, but if you were to add another and another layer, you then get a more realistic look and feel to the vehicle. Much like I stress the three layer effect of painting, base-shade-highlight, you want to follow multiple layers with vehicles and tanks too. Part of this was accomplished with the lightening of the base colors during the original airbrushing. The sponge effect was used to add paint chips and the weathering with oil paints and pastels over the top of that. 

Finishing a tank of this size and detail to this level really encourages me. I experimented with more weathering. Future floor wax was used to get an oily effect as well. What you really want to accomplish with each kit is to try a new technique or work on a difficult one to push and increase your abilities. With what I gained here, I plan to bring out and build my three Baneblade variants I've been sitting on since not too long after Apocalypse first came out. But first, I have to finish my Command Squads...