HeavyTankBuilder

I have painted something not blue for the first time in years!  These have come out very well and I had some real success using the Tamiya Clear plaints to get some great metallic finishes on some of the surfaces.  The Blue Sword effect Kenny uses on Next Level Painting worked a treat. I hadn't used P3 paints until he recommended them; they went into the airbrush no problem, giving some great results.

This is the completed 715pts I need for the upcoming UK Games Expo tournament (I expect to get destroyed, but want to get involved!).  Now I have 2 weeks to get the rest of the force completed which will be tight...Hopefully I will have at least some kind of competitive edge to my force and come away with one win out of five. I want to go to see what other people come up with and see how some of the more challenging lists play out. I have a back up plan which involves adding a Command Squad/Drop Pod, a Stormtalon or some Sternguard as back up if I fall short and don't get the GK's finished.  Fingers crossed. HTB.

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!

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.

Just a few snaps of what I am working on ready for Saturday and AOP.  Getting there...but not much time left and it still feels as though there is a lot to do!

Something that I am sure a lot of hobbyists have suffered from is having too much on the go at one time. I have talked about it before but still find myself falling into the trap of stocking up too many kits and wanting to build/paint far too much in too short a period of time. It's gotten so bad that it is actually hindering my ability to blog on stuff because I am not finishing things and getting distracted by the latest successful game test. Here is a run down of where I think I am going wrong. 1.  Play testing the latest good idea and then wanting to paint that to the standard of everything else in quick time. In other words, inability to stick to one list for an extended period. 2.  If find airbrushing more satisfying than brush work at the moment.  Not completing one project before starting the next. 3.  Taking on too much.  Articles, mock up builds to allow gaming, my first commission for someone and getting in more games ...

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. 

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 ><).  

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.  

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…

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.  

  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.

Forge World Scorpion Type II – Saim-Hann With my first project under my belt, I dug out a Forge World kit that had been left under the bed for a good number of years.  I could not ge the smooth finish I wanted so parked the model to one side, but never came back to it.  All the practicing of pre-shading, zen highlighting and shading using the Falcon kits drove me to dig it out and get it done.  This will be more step by step but do ask questions below if you want something made clearer.  Again, Buypainted! gave a vast amount of guidance and inspiration - credit where credit is due! 1.                The main hull was constructed, wing-lets, tail section etc.  The turret was also built however don’t do what I did initially and leave the pulsars sperate.  The crew and smaller weapons were mounted on old sprues to...

Ultramarines Land Raider This is my first blog on a site I am still trying to understand!   So this is more of a test run for me more than anything else. Over the last year I have been sucking up as much information on painting vehicles as possible.   I took the plunge financially and invested in an airbrush from Iwata back in March having exhausted my brush skills when it came to vehicles.  Despite best efforts I could never get a smooth, thin finish on flat surfaces.   Enter the airbrush!   It solved that issue and opened up a total new avenue within the hobby.   Furthermore it took my painting up a number of levels.   This was actually my first fully painted airbrushed model. What you can see just off to the right is one of two old Falcon kits I practised on before moving onto this expensive kit.   Buypainted’s youtube channel gave me most of my early guidance and tips.   His Vindicator tank pretty much set the t...