HeavyTankBuilder

AOP all done and dusted, 3 rd place over all in my local store.  Disappointed? Yes.  My entry focused on models, display board second.  I went about this wrong from all the entries I have seen online.  The models of course need to be good (1 st and 2 nd had great models) but the display board carries far more weight with the general public.  Lesson for next time! The board was fun to make and I don’t regret putting more time and effort into the models, as that’s the core of what I produce and enjoy anyway.  AOP is a great competition for a whole host of reasons; it forced me to finish stuff that perhaps would have dragged on otherwise, I saw some great stuff produced by other people and came away with a whole host of other ideas for the future.  This article runs through what I produced and how I went about it.

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.

Here are some shots of everything I have finished since Apr 2013.   1000pts would have come up sooner but things inevitably caught my eye (the Glaive, the Scorpion, the Falchion and Terminators – most of which still unfinished!! Terrible ><).  

A brilliant day at Forge World Open Day 2014.  Lots of new stuff to see and managed to speak to all the major designers including an in depth chat with Mark Bedford and Phil Stutcinskas (big fan of his new Falchion Super Heavy tank).  The Glaive was well received in the painting competition however it did not win – a fantastic Apothecary Marine in the larger scale took the painting competition, and rightly so – it was awesome.  Was great seeing my tank in the cabinet and seeing peoples interest in it and answering questions on it. So the new stuff…

So I was really happy to see one of my tanks up on the Forge World Facebook page model of the day,having been encouraged to get it on there to see what the community thinks.  It seems to have gone down really well!  I will certainly try to get to the Open Day now so others can see it up close.  Now to get the next project finished!

After 2 weeks of 4-6hrs a day working on it the job is done.  I am really pleased with the results despite initial frictions with the model and paint application.  It has come out lighter and more worn than my other tanks, fitting in with it being an older, rarer war machine.  I am very keen what people think about the finished model and where I can look to improve on upcoming projects, namely more infantry elite units, a Storm Raven and a Fire Raptor. 

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.