HeavyTankBuilder

This post has been sat in my archive for far too long. I am not going to pretend it is new work - it has been up on my Instagram for some time but I thought I would show you some WIP photos and talk through some tips on making what is a very large project manageable. Hopefully of use to someone out there! Three Kinghts is a decent amount of work - but to be fair, you pretty much have an army once you are done.  To keep me motivated and to make the project achievable I broke it down into stages: 1. The Metal Skeletons 2. Panel Work 3. Bases 4. Weaponry. This approach will save you time and will help you get 3 Knights above table top quality quickly and efficiently. It won't feel like it as you go - but trust me when you reflect, you will have saved yourself some serious time.  There is also a uniformity you can't replicate from doing 1 then adding 2 later on... Take the pain and work in multiples....read on... 1. The Metal Skeletons: Army Painter Silver Rattle C...

The final part of my GK/UM allied attachment is finished.  Now to get on with the GK Librarians.  The Grav Cents have come out pretty well.  The OSL and colour blends are pretty good. The transfers are not quite as smooth as I would have liked; my fault for missing a step (GW varnish on the Humbrol Acrylic Gloss Spray where the transfer sits).  The over all unit looks great together - the bald headed guy looks better than I thought.  Initially I wasnt convinced by the sculpts. 4 Cents is a lot of work.  The bodies and shoulder pads could be built and painted all assembled up.  The pipes, weapons, amps, heads, pistons, rear plate, side metal work and arms all had to be done separately to access all the nooks and crannies.  The OSL looks great but comes at the risk of ruining everything you have done to get to that point!

Here is my latest offering now I am back into some kind of routine again.  This has served as a good warm up project, having kept it slightly simpler this time around by not doing a full interior.  There is a limit to how much effort I can repeatedly put into 35pt models!

Finally finished the Falchion and another model in line with the core theme of the blog.  I picked this up back in March at the Forge World open day, with a view to have it finished before wider release... anyway...  it's done now.  The techniques involved are covered in the Glaive tutorial.  This time around I have tried to apply some of the pointers and tips passed on from Matt Murphy-Kane and Mark Bedford from not only Warhmmer Fest, but the FW open day to.

Managed to get the Techmarines completed at last!  Pretty happy with the final look and feel of each unit.  Most of the techniques for painting these can be found in previous articles.  What I will say is their performance in games has been outstanding.  From vehicles, massed troops, important characters, these 2 cannons have laid waste to huge chunks of opposition armies.  Thundefire cannons are top of my list right now in terms of getting on the roster once all my troops choices are in place. 

Another squad now complete at last!  I fell into the trap of having too many projects on the go but have stuck to my 1750 list and continue to work down it.  They have come out really well and the tiny magnets have worked great.  I can now come back later and add any combi-weapon I choose based on play testing.  It also allows me to swap with Sternguard Squad 1 so I can have a no combi-weapons team, or loads of combi-weapons or a complete mixture. The new wrist mounted weapons mean it is far easier to magnetize the wrist joints.   I use a 3mm x 1mm diameter magnet in the wrist and a 2mm x 2mm diameter magnet in the weapon hand.   You have to be very careful drilling out the 2mm magnet in the hand but it can be done.   They marry up very well – only issue is getting the paint to stick to the surface of the magnets.   Even if it does chip off it doesn’t matter, it cannot be seen.   I may use these magnets on my next special weapon ma...

This is my new Chapter Master model.   He is made up of bits from the Limited Edition Captain model # 2, Vanguard bits, Sternguard bits and the Masters of the Chapter Storm Shield.   He has come out as well as I could have hoped for.   There were 5 major parts to work on; the body, the hammer, the shield, the banner and the cape.   All have come out pretty well and combine to make a strong centrepiece model to protect Tigurius and work alongside my 2 Sternguard Sqauds.

All three drop pods are now complete.  Happy with the look and feel of them.  I think they fit in well with the Army and have served me well in the last few games.  I need to get better at the burn/re-entry marks made using the airbrush but that aside I think they are all good. 

I hit a bit of a wall with larger vehicles and turned my attention back to finishing some of my more basic units to help get up to 1000pts.  I knocked together my Sternguard, Devastators and Aegis Defence wall a few weeks ago and had the base colours all completed.  I then got distracted with the Glaive and Falchion.  Going back to something different was a good move as it made me re-visit a few techniques and do some smaller, finer work. 

More progress shots really.  Pleased with the stencils and the marginally darker blue this time around.  Will keep post short to keep the work on the models going.  Any questions on any of my stuff do not hesitate to ask.  Thanks for the interest; just over 6000 hits - nice!  HTB.

Work progresses slowly on the tank.  I hope to have more parts done up the stage of oil wash needing to be applied in time for when the main body needs that as well.  The stencil has come out really well on the side of the tank.  I plan to keep using the XIII stencil to bring some uniformity to the large tanks, but differ how I apply the grey secondary colour.

Day 1 and 2 WIP photos.  All the sanding, cutting, smoothing and washing of the component parts has been completed.  My weathering has begun – the tracks have been given a light coating of sandy paste.  

Making steady progress with the tank.  Main body colours are now complete and have spent several hours getting to grips with the smaller parts to allow Satin Varnish to harden up.  Hope you like the progress so far.

And this then would be the second project.   I have planned out my first 1500pts and would like to hit that before branching off and adding to the Army…that said I couldn’t resist leaving this lying around any longer and got cracking. The first stage saw me make sure I had all the bits and that there were no poorly formed parts, or anything broken.   Then came the tedious but essential job of stripping the parts from the casting blocks, sanding them all down, finishing with a wash in hot soapy water to remove any excess release agent from the construction process back in the factory.   The water must not be too hot or you will deform the parts – if you can put your hands in the water comfortably then the temperature is not too hot for the resin.  

So 2 quick updates as I have broken my golden rule and started 2 projects rather than see one through start to finish!  These Thunder Hammer Storm Shield Terminators have been sat around for ages so broke them out and added some Forge World details to make them stand out. 

The second squad is now complete.  Inevitably it has come out better than the first one due to reviewing and learning from the first group I put together.  This build uses new kit as well as a few components from the Sternguard box.  Again I have gone for Combi-Flamer and Flamer, however I have chosen to build a Missile launcher into this Squad rather than the more costly Lascannon.  In time this unit will get a Rhino as well, with the first Rhino now 99% complete and needing a write up for the blog. A change I made on this unit was to go a bit heavier with the VMA Light Sea Blue to get a better contrast after the oil wash and satin varnish was applied (these generally dull your highlights). The transfers on this unit came out really well and I think I have refined how I will approach transfers from now on.  The GW hard coat gloss brushed on seems to give better adhesion than any airbrushed gloss varnish when it comes to sticking in ...

  I recently revisited my Land Raider I completed a few months back having grown in confidence and ability with various different techniques.   I am really pleased I did go back because I think these additions have brought the model up another level.

So this week I have got back to building and finishing off a number of different projects.   I am keen to clear the slate to get onto some of the other bigger kits I have sat waiting to go.   I have managed to tie up one of the final hand painted units from my previous Space Marine Project: The Emperor’s Crusaders, finishing another Tactical Squad.   I have also finished some additional weathering on my Land Raider and the main chunk of this article – the Airbrushed Ultramarine 10 man Tactical Squad.

Ultramarines Forge World Rhino/Razorback WIP Part 2 So a bit of a delay in getting this up, but her comes part 2 – exterior and turrets done, and now getting ready to oil/pin wash then onto weathering.   The VMA blues are great for Ultramarines and make it really easy to shadow/highlight the various parts.   (VMA Steel Blue, French Blue and Light Sea blue – VMA thinner 50:50 with Light Sea blue all at 20psi through the AB). The Ultramarines U was made using the tutorial provided by Buypainted.   A good compass and cutting tool were essential in getting an even shaped U – it took a few tries, but worth getting right.   Lining it up on the part isn’t as easy as it looks – again take time to get it right otherwise you will be repainting the blue…(only once for myself….)

Ultramarines Forge World Rhino/Razorback WIP With the first of my 10 man tactical squads for my 1000pts Ultramarines Army complete, it took little convincing to revert back to armour, looking to build a battle field taxi for them.   I will do a separate post on the second squad having used the first squad to refine the way I plan to paint all the infantry for this force. I am trying to build a 35k Ultramarine force – I really like the new CSM releases (the Sternguard and Hunter/Stalker) and want to be able to include the Forge World Heresy designs as well.   The new tactical marines are great but I don’t want to go down the road of full Heresy or full 40k… anyway.   In short I want to mix the elements of GW I like with the FW stuff.   The best way I can make this work in my opinion is experimenting with paint schemes.   I really like the grey Razorback that pops up in the old codex and on the back of the Razorback box.   I don...