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.

WIP: Super Heavies Pt 3

I was able to get the first layer of paint onto the tanks. Sticking with the same paint combination as the Punishers and Sentinels, these will also be in greys.

I taped off any areas that will be getting any glue afterwards, such as the track wheels track guard locations, the cannons, the turrets/turret bases, and where the large fuel drums connect to the back of the tanks. The reason these were left off were to make painting easier. This is especially true with the tracks and the fuel drums. Also by removing the turrets, it makes the tape laying much simpler. The tracks will all be painted on the sprue and added afterwards. 

All the tanks and various unglued pieces were given a primer of black. The extra bits like the turrets and ladders were put down onto painters tape and sprayed from there. The track guards and fuel drums were held in place with clips or by hand.

The Shadowswords were given a base of Mechanicus Standard Grey. The Stormblade was based in Administratum Grey. In proper order the tanks should be left to sit for 24 hours or so to let the paint settle. I let them sit for about 14 hours before I proceeded to add the tape for the next step. Sorry, I'm just impatient and eager to jump to the next step, sometimes this gets me into trouble.... Anyway, no issues this time.

The colors were then reversed for the tanks. The Shadowswords getting the lighter grey lines and the Stormblade getting the darker lines. The idea is to use the tape to get a hard line for the camo with the rest of the spray trailing off to get the soft fade. I only airbrushed to one side of the tape to get the effect. To me, the design makes them look to be underwater.

Now comes the touch ups, decals, the base painting, the tracks, the gloss seal, and the weathering. It may be due to them not sitting, but if you look closely at the cannons in the top right, you can see on one of them where the base and primer peeled off with the tape.

It seems I still I have art least a couple of more days to go as these guys are huge and have lots of rivets and such to get attention.

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.