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.

                            

 

                             

 

                               

 

                              

 

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.

WIP: Three Super Heavies pt. 2

Super Heavies pt. 2

The tanks have pretty much been built. The spots that need to be masked off to prevent paint have been taped off. The reasoning for this, should be well known. Plastic and super glue do not connect well to a painted surface. They tend to eat at the paint and generally make for a much weaker bond. 

Anyway, I digress, while looking the tanks over, I could see a few locations where the resin just did not have a great fit. It left a gap due to a bad fit or from the resin just splintering due shipping or whatever. There were several that needed filling just from the resin fit, or lack of. The overall build of a Baneblade tank leaves large gaps on the sides where the armor plates meet. Those spaces are just too big. They will just swallow washes and look huge! I had to do something about them before I put down a primer.

Looking to fill in the gaps, I had many options, greenstuff was available, but it just seemed to be too time consuming, but would fill any and all. I am always looking for shortcuts, and I saw sitting in one of my drawers, packages of styrene. Hmm, I had three sizes to choose from, two rods of 1.2mm and .8mm and flat strips of 1mm. You will need superglue to fill any resin to resin gaps, but plastic to plastic gaps are easily filled with standard plastic cement, Tamiya liquid cement please. This could be much easier than greenstuff in general and a stronger bond to boot when plastic is involved!

                           

You can easily rearrange these steps to whatever you need, cutting first is always a good practice, with the gluing last, just in case. So here is the process I used.

Simply lay the plastic rod down into place. In this case, it's just behind a sponson. One of those regular Baneblade gaps.

Next, I added glue to begin the bonding. You will have some time to work the the plastic before it really sets. This instance, the glue gives the fitting some bite so the styrene isn't sticking to you finger or wanting to just fly out, etc.

Tamp the styrene down or maneuver it into place to get a good fit. I used my sculpting tool with a rounded end. With the styrene rod softened due to the glue, you have some ability to force it into tight spaces or even shape it slightly. You are also able to bend the rod for curves. 

The leftover piece was then carefully cut away either with a sharp knife or sprue cutters. Be mindful that the unglued piece will have a tendency to 'fly' away the shorter it gets.

                                      

Other examples of the process are shown below

                          

Your mileage may vary depending on what gaps you need filled. With the different pieces of styrene, you can fill differing gaps or try for varied effects. Here the flat strips are used to fill in along the sides, and a rod on the front where the resin top meets the plastic front. In addition, they can be used for other decorations or designs. You may have seen the strips used for rifle straps. 

If you do a quick search for fillers you may also come across super glue with baking soda

Scale Model Guide also has a couple of links

Link 1

Link 2

I'm hoping to get at least a primer of black down on these three tomorrow, maybe even the first grey. 

WIP: Three Superheavies for Bolter and Chainsword

E Tenebrae Lux IV

'from Darkness Light' in general

The Warhammer 40k forum site, Bolter and Chainsword, is having a painting challenge amongst its many sub-groups. The contest revolves around painting 'vows'. You must take a vow to complete a model or set of models of X amount points, but not more than 3000pts per vow. You can make up to 5 total vows. The trick is, you can only make vows for a single faction. There is no splitting your vows between Dark Angels and Astra Militarum for example. All of your vows are aimed towards a single faction. 

Your first vow must be stated before the end of May. This gets your foot in the door in the competition. Otherwise you will not be able to take part in the campaign. The ETL ends on the 1st of August. Any vows you have made that are not complete are then void. All of the work you may have done would then be for naught. Do not bite off more than you can chew. 

To accompany your vows you must show a Before picture. The photo has to be of the item/s you are vowing. An After picture must also be shown to complete the vow. The reason behind the shots are to prevent any shenanigans. With this in mind, I was unable to claim my two recently completed Sentinels as I did not issue a vow before I started them. So, I decided to start my vow big! 

Previously unfinished Baneblade

Back in 2007 GW released Apocalypse for Warhammer 40k. If you are somehow unfamiliar with it, the rules allow for any and all your models to be used for a massive game of 40k against a like armed opponent. To go along with this spectacular ruleset, Games Workshop put out a plastic Baneblade tank that had previously been only cast in resin. Forge World had also got on the bandwagon and had a sale of three Baneblade variants for 300 British Pounds or so. I jumped at the chance and purchased a trio, two Shadowswords with the Titan Killer, and a Stormblade with the massive Plasma cannon. Not too long after they arrived at my door, GW came out with their version of the myriad variants for about the same price... but in plastic. Deflated about this, the tanks then sat in their box for the next seven years.

I have gotten over that. Since I have been in the process of constructing models that haven't moved in years: this was the perfect opportunity to get these guys out and onto the table! I have vowed all three tanks for a total points value of 1,560. 

Since the vehicles are based upon the plastic Baneblade chassis with resin structures and accoutrements, there will be warpage. And there appeared to be quite a bit of misshapen parts, especially of the larger pieces. 

                              

 

Fortunately, if you have a large enough container with which to microwave water for about three to four minutes, then you can change the angles of the resin parts. I had a large cast iron casserole pan specifically for this moment. Any pieces that needed to be reset were dunked into the water for a time until I could see the piece in question actually bend and flex when I moved it in the water. From that point you can easily reset the part, let it sit for a few moments or even place it into cold water to set it.

I constructed the chassis to start with in order to have something with which to gauge the depth of the warping. During the process of setting the piece after sitting it in the hot water, I was also able to use the chassis to act as mold of sorts. Heat it up, set it place, and let it sit until it hardens. 

I will be building all three tanks first. They will then be painted simultaneously to get a similar paint scheme across the three. The goal is to paint them in line with the Forge World example. Something with a sharp light to dark border that then blends into the dark, then repeats with the hard differentiation. I will post more WIP pics as I advance.