Leman Russ Salvage 001

I scored a couple eBay wins in the form of Leman Russ tanks and 10 man squads of Steel Legionnaires complete with heavy weapon team. The Russes both came with extra armour in the form of plasticard spaced armour. One panel was missing, no big deal. One hull HB was missing and I think I lost it after it got here. Also no big deal I can make a new one...

Not bad for eBay, but I usually do alright. Bonus points they're painted in a similar colour to my scheme. This makes a repaint easier.

The first thing I did was to get the armour popped off the turret and hull. I cleaned off the glue from the panels and made some measurements. I made a replacement panel for the missing piece and then glued them all together, using a ruler to keep them aligned at the bottom. Some of the panels weren't straight on one edge or another so it gives it an in the field modification look.

After securing the panels together with more plasticard, I turned them over and began a labor intensive process of making a shitgob of 3mm squares to add to the armour. I got this far and decided that this wasn't the way I was going to get this done as I was rapidly losing motivation.

So I decided to just use whole panels. It worked out fine, and fits better with the field mod look of the armour.

The turrets both lacked the little storage locker that sits to one side so I built one up from more plasticard. I'll add some lenses to each and call em targeters.

Here is the final result of the armour modification. After I rebuild the hull weapon on the one Leman Russ they'll be ready for paint.

Cheers,

CJ

Saturday Workbench Uodate

Another weekend comes and July is just about done. It's been a hot week in the sun for me so I won't lie, hobby time has been encroached upon by cool drink and [adult swim] watching time.

I did get some work done on the Leman Russ tanks I got from eBay last month. They came with spaced armour and it wasn't doing it for me. I'll have a post on that going up tomorrow.

Finally a conversion kit for the Imperial Knight I've been wanting went on sale on eBay so I grabbed one. It arrived and I'll be working on it shortly. The gent who is selling them has a blog, check it out.

Cheers!

CJ

Saturday Workbench Update

This past week I wrapped up paint on the Inquisitorial Kill Team for the /r/Warhammer40k Summer Challenge. Above are the bases I whipped up before paint. This coming week (and the weeks ahead) will see the construction of a new Salamander Scout using my 'Chimera Project' protocol, the completion of the Gideon MBT and Vanquisher tank, and the refurbishment of these two Leman Russ from the wilds of eBay.

Finally, speaking of eBay... I got a hold of the Knight Scion at a very low price from an overseas auction. He's gonna get painted sooner or later, too.

Cheers,

CJ

Unrelated: My Hero Elon Musk

I'm a huge Elon Musk fan. That guy is 'wicked smaht' as it might be said by the guys back home. Anyway, ten years back I remember reading the Secret Tesla Motors Master Plan blog entry... it blew my mind a little bit. When he made his electric car patents open source, it blew my mind a lot.

This morning I woke up and checked the internet and lo, part two of Musk's master plan is revealed.

Maybe I'm a romantic and a futurist and a whole bunch of other adjectives that fit.

THIS STUFF IS FUCKING AMAZING THOUGH!!!

Self driving cars, okay. Self driving shared fleet?! Sign me up. I've wanted a Tesla Motors vehicle since the announcement. This bit of information is now a sweetener (as if I needed another). On top of that the different models being developed to fill the current market niches for both civil and commercial transportation? Brilliant. The work being done on self driving vehicles by Tesla and Google is something I find amazing. In my lifetime a self driving car has gone from an experimental HUMVEE literally crammed with gear to a sedan that seats four comfortably.

Solar is come into its own with the recent advances in photovoltaic efficiency. I know it's been around for a while but now we're to the point where having solar as your only power source (or as part of a sustainable system) and not being stuck on Electric Conglomerate's tit anymore....

Go read Musk's post. I'm just gushing this morning. I'm going to get some coffee and get moving.

Cheers,

CJ

Saturday Workbench Update

Nothing much happening besides these Inquisitorial Henchmen on my workbench today. I did try to get a hold of the Armoured Containers kit from my FLGS but they didn't have any come in. I guess it is a popular kit since it's temporarily out of stock on the GW site as well.

In other news I've been playing more board games lately. and most recently it's been Zombies!!! with my lady friend.

This is an excellent game. There are myriad expansions for it, although I've only ever played the first couple. I highly recommend adding this game to your collection.

Now I'm off to enjoy the nice weather.

Cheers,

CJ

Inq28: Mystery Character Retinue 003

It's been a pretty relaxed first half of the month here and as a result I've gotten more hobby time than I was otherwise expecting. I'm using most of it to get these Inquisitorial Henchmen painted up.

These henchmen will be sporting black fatigues and red armour. For the fatigues I used Codex and Fortress Grey drybrush layers over Chaos Black, and then washed the areas with Drakenhof Nightshade and Nuln Oil. I added the blue wash to the mix since these gents are pulled from the ranks of the Imperial Navy's armsmen. In that line I was considering dark blue or white berets. The red armour is the same recipe I've used previously on Inquisitorial Henchmen. Lastly I've gone in and based all the webbing, leather, and areas that will be gold with Scorched Brown.

I should have these guys done in the next couple days.

I am also working on the mystery characters. More information on them will be forthcoming as soon as they're ready for the /r/Warhammer40k Summer Hobby Challenge.

In other news I'm beginning work on a Salamander Scout for my forces.

Cheers,

CJ

Inq28: Mystery Character Retinue 002

The character I'm building the retinue for arrived from the wilds of eBay. In the same delivery was yet another character who will be included in the unit. I'm putting this unit together for the /r/Warhammer40k Summer Hobby Challenge, the theme of which is Kill Teams.

Since the Space Marine Scout arms are too wide for the Imperial Guard torsos, I had to fill the small gap with green stuff. It was a quick job take care of, and with it finished these guys are ready for paint, along with the other two figures.

While I'm getting these guys painted up I'll be getting their bases ready. I'll prepare posts on both.

Cheers,

CJ

Saturday Workbench Update (Sunday Edition)

Everything got migrated off my work table and onto my desk yesterday so we could get the main room cleaned up for Rockband last night.

Today I'm back to work. Up next on deck is the Mystery Character's retinue.

It's nice to have a nice clear area to make a fresh mess in sometimes.

Cheers,

CJ

Throwback Thursday: The Chimera Project

Once upon a time I had a couple of Basilisks come to me and their Earthshakers stripped for terrain purposes. They were both in a state of disrepair and I sought to use the empty hulls as a basis for a modular Chimera. So I cleaned the hulls up and set to work.

Please forgive me the image quality, these are nine years old.

Firstly I build up a standard transport variant. It turned out alright, especially seen next to the standard kit.

Just the module that fit the hull.

Next I built up a Salamander Scout variant. Every one of those deck details is a bit of screen cut up and individually placed. The crew was pinned into place after being painted.

The modified hulls. I ended up making a Trojan variant as well, but will leave that for another post.

I've been going through my photobucket and I have a few things that will make for good throwback articles. Sucks though its mostly models I lost in the churn. C'est la vie, eh?

Cheers,

CJ

Inq28: Mystery Character Retinue 001

I scored a couple character models on eBay over the weekend. I'll keep the lid on who they are for now... but one of em has a retinue. In the spoil from another eBay haul was the bits necessary to build these fine Servants of the Emperor.

The legs and torsos are standard from the Cadian Shocktrooper kit. The arms are from the Space Marine Scout kit. I cut the oversize site rail off the top and it really makes the weapon look more manageable in the hands of a baseline human. I used the canteen and daggers from the Scions kit to indicate the veteran status of these models. The same kit provided rounds that work great as extra shotgun loads, and of course the beret heads.

Next up for these models will be greenstuff work and adding some more purity seals.

Cheers til then!

CJ

Gideon MBT 004: Painting

I got started painting the Gideon by giving it a primer coat of Krylon Fusion spray paint. After that it got my usual application of paint for my vehicles: Shadow Grey basecoat, drybrush of Codex Grey, wash of Nuln Oil, drybrush of Ice Blue, drybrush of Space Wolves Grey.

Oops. Ice Blue? What have I done??

One can see in the above images the contrast the extra painting step added to the model. In the end I decided I liked it (after about two days chewing on it) and will paint the other Gideons similarly. Iunno about the next few Russes but eventually everything will use the updated recipe.

Once the hull colour was sorted I went back and painted all the bits and rivets with black to provide a good base for the metallics... which I am in the process of doing at the time of this post going live.

Stay tuned for the completed tank.

Cheers.

CJ

Happy Birthday USA (and general update)

They spelled 'Murica wrong.

In other news, I cleaned up my work space and have an update from the land of unfinished projects and the Pile of Grey Shame.

Seeing is believing ha! That is a knight back there, I built him last summer while I was dead on the air here. I have a second Knight Warden kit in the PoGS... and Imperial Knights: Renegade. What else... A second edition Chimera to go with the Leman Russ, and of course Deathwatch, Assassins, and all those Betrayal at Calth Marines.

Add to that some other eBay wins I snagged: 20 more Steel Legion minis, two more Leman Russ tanks, a fourth edition Chimera kit (yay track guards!!), a couple figures who will remain anonymous, and a load of bits.

I have been at work on the Gideon MBT I got from Mad Robot Mini's, a little at a time. I want to add two more of these (at least) so I can have a squadron of them in my tank company (pending). One of the Chimeras is going to get kitted up as a Salamander Scout. I've always loved them on the field, effective or not.

From the land of unfinished projects, I'm finally ready to start painting on the base of the drawbridge. I think the top bit might be ready, too, but I'm not 100% that its done. The scrap pile is likewise ready for paint. I need to finish a few details on the big sump whatever and it will be ready for paint. I lost steam when I broke off one of the side tower things and didn't want to look at it for a while.

Watch this space for project updates on all the aforementioned things. And stuff I decide I need to throw together.

Cheers,

CJ