BCK's Thread of Stuff: Maybe not eldar...

[Augustus b'Raass]

Augs - I got a resin model so hot one time that when I took it out of the water to straighten a piece of it out, it completely deformed with the slightest touch and I was never able to get it back to its original shape. Maybe melt was the wrong word for it though.

Holy crap, that sounds like a horrible experience! I can now imagine even more your sense of panick when that macharius fell in. I guess it depends on the type of resin used, though. Maybe you could put in some pieces of flash next time, to test the resin's reaction to boiling water? 

[lionofjudah]

Ahhh... that other pic helps out a bunch.

Painted a huge amount of FOW 10 years ago and spent many hours pouring over armour colorings. Gotta say the octopus would look killer on the stormblade as I fee the 2 tone colors will highlight the armor while not overwhelming the senses as the 3 tone ambush tends to do- at least that's my take on using it with plasma based vehicle weapons (learned that one on my plasma cannoned/plasma sponsoned/plasma everythinged leman Russ;)

As the glow/osl then was in competition with the camo colors.

[Brother-Chaplain Kage]

It is a nice camo pattern, a grey black variant could work, almost urban camo, then with red dusk raider symbol to really make it pop

 

Either that or the bone white and grey, almost ghost effect like your shield and mace wearing terminator captain?

 

I missed that bit about the bone white and grey the first time. That terminator praetor was for my Crimson Sons.

 

I really like what you've done with these alternative tracks. I think it adds a level of realism to the model.

 

Realism is the whole reason I'm doing it. The original Macharius tracks I replaced last year actually looked decent enough, but there was a lot of broken edges and they were sunken a little in the middle giving them a concave shape. These plastic Baneblade tracks though, ugh, so very bad.

 

Gawl dang, this looks nice. Always impressed when people can point out and fix the soft-science stuff in 40K hardware - you really have to know what to look for.

 

Thanks. I've always believed a thorough grounding in realism makes the fictional stuff easier to take. The goofy floating road wheel and the position of the return roller were relatively easy fixes, and much easier than trying to rationalize how a 310 ton tank could even work with sci-fantasy magic technology. The heaviest production tank that actually saw combat here on Earth was the German Jagdtiger tank destroyer weighing in at 71 tons, and it had some serious issues not only crossing obstacles, but sinking into wet ground.

 

But before I go off on a whole tangent about that sort of stuff, another change I'll be making shortly is to the front glacis plate, which is this part:

 

http://i.imgur.com/beuc2vF.png

 

For those of you that might play World of Tanks or something similar, you probably already know where this is headed. I'm going to move the top of that glacis plate forward so it's angled downwards because sloped armor greatly increases the chances of a shot being deflected, or if it doesn't deflect, decreasing the chances of a round penetrating the armor because it increases the armor thickness. Here's a pic of what I mean from a WWII Russian T-34 tank.

 

http://i.imgur.com/ihyVxb7.png

 

The armor plate is 100mm thick and would be easy to penetrate if it was sitting up straight at 90° and the chances of deflecting a shot at that angle are practically zero, but if it's sloped at 30°, it not only effectively doubles the thickness of the armor, but greatly increases the chance of a round bouncing off of it with little to no damage. This is a simplification of a very involved subject which you can read about here if you want. But any tank gunner or someone with an anti-tank weapon worth his salt shooting at this thing from the front would immediately target that glacis plate and punch a hole straight through the driver and probably the power generators and/or engine.

[Lord_Ikka]

Alternatively, you could use that glacis plate as a mounting point for an anti-mine blade/flail. Smoothing down the Aquila and adding some large brackets would turn a vulnerable section into something that has a logical reason for being flat at no deflection angle- it has to be that way to hold up the weight of the anti-mine device without it shearing off of the tank.

[Legio Draconis]

You know, I've always wanted to do an Iron Wing First legion army, seeing how much goes into some of these behemoths i might have to reconsider. I'm loving your work Brother chaplain, keep up the good fight. 

[Brother-Chaplain Kage]

Ikka - I appreciate the suggestion, but not quite what I was wanting to do with this tank.

 

Legio Draconis - This much work only goes into one of these behemoths if you're a masochistic perfectionist. For a normal person? Nah, not nearly this bad.

 

I got both sets of tracks done, but I think my usb camera cable might have died on me so I can't put up pics.

 

I'm also thinking I want to paint another vehicle or two with the weathering techniques I tried on the Macharius before I paint this Stormblade to get some more practice in. I will still be working on the build phase, but I have a few other things I can paint first.

[Brother-Chaplain Kage]

And speaking of other vehicles to paint first, it's been a while since this pile of trouble got mentioned.

 

http://i.imgur.com/CzG67z7.png

 

Terrible fit problems with the body and track sections. The side doors that came with it don't even remotely fit. The assault ramp, both upper and lower parts, broke while I was trying to finagle them into fitting. An experiment with the lascannon sponsons went bad and I ruined them.

 

But this warp-spawned nightmare will not defeat me.

 

I will persevere.

 

I will craft a new ramp from a suitably thick piece of sheet plastic.

 

I will steal parts from an unfinished Land Raider to complete the upper assault hatch and side doors.

 

I will use my greenstuff gap filling technique I developed on the Macharius build to fix the huge gap on the rear of the tank.

 

http://i.imgur.com/hwpT3zV.png

 

I will build armored track covers for the upper portions of the tank and replace the awful resin tracks with vinyl donors from a real tank kit.

 

I will craft a new, better looking lascannon array for the sponsons.

 

And I will render it in the true colors of the XIV Legion -- the storm grey and the deep red of the Dusk Raiders -- the bloody right hand of the Emperor himself.

[Brother Desultor]

But this warp-spawned nightmare will not defeat me.

 

I will persevere.

 

Spoken like a true Techmarine...

[Magos Kasen]

I admire your resolve and look forward to seeing progress. I'm not much a tank modeler, I think problems of that magnitude would have caused a nervous breakdown haha.

[Lord_Ikka]

Ouch, is that a legit FW/GW tank? Some serious quality control issues if so.

[Augustus b'Raass]

http://img.pandawhale.com/78387-dis-gon-b-gud-meme-G1Ya.jpeg

[Brother-Chaplain Kage]

Ouch, is that a legit FW/GW tank? Some serious quality control issues if so.

 

No, but the only problem I had with it that I've not read about real FW versions having is the assault hatch pieces breaking due to the more brittle resin of a recast. The internet is full of angry posts about the FW version of this thing and what a PITA it is for how much you have to pay for it. The recent change of casting it with the tracks on helped one of the major issues, but the heinous fitting issues of the body and track sections persist.

 

I admire your resolve and look forward to seeing progress. I'm not much a tank modeler, I think problems of that magnitude would have caused a nervous breakdown haha.

 

Oh, I'd all but given up on it for a long time now, but I really like the way it looks and didn't want to waste the money I spent on it even if it is a cheaper recast. Time will tell if I'll be able to save it.

[Lexington]

Ooooh-hoo. I've wanted to do similar things with a Spartan since just about forever. I'll be watching this one with an unvarnished intent to steal techniques. ;) Edited March 14, 2017 by Lexington

[Brother-Chaplain Kage]

Wait 'til you see what I'm doing for the new quad lascannons. ;)  It'll remain a secret for the time being, but I think it's gonna look awesome.

[Lexington]

[Brother-Chaplain Kage]

Here's a shot of the extent of the GS that was required to fill the enormous gap between the left track section and the body.

 

http://i.imgur.com/0Pw2vom.png

 

On the left, you can see some of the crosshatch lines I cut into the body surface to help anchor the GS as I was unsure just how far up the gap would run. It's actually a 50/50 mix of GS and the grey ProCreate, which will cure much harder than just GS alone, so I cranked up the saturation of the green in PhotoShop to make it more clearly visible.

 

Phase 2: Working on getting a Land Raider door to fit as well as removing the road wheels from the top sections of the track (because it won't be driving upside-down anytime soon) in anticipation of the track armor. 

 

http://i.imgur.com/9SncI3Z.png

 

On one hand, I'm inclined to think no one at FW knows much about how things like tanks work, because the road wheels aren't actually what moves the track or the tank; it's the drive sprocket/wheel. Return rollers on top? Sure, but then they wouldn't look exactly like the drive wheels on the bottom. As it is, it makes no sense for a real tank, but I doubt the majority of customers would know that so on the other hand, it might have done for the sake of continuity on the model.

Edited March 17, 2017 by Brother Chaplain Kage

[Augustus b'Raass]

With games like World of Tanks around, common knowledge about tanks has much improved. I think the top rollers are there to harken back to the RTB05 Land Raider.

[Brother-Chaplain Kage]

Augs, you might be on to something there...

 

Ok, so, the secret of the replacement quad lascannons isn't going to be a secret for as long as I thought. I honestly had no idea how long it would take to work it out, and as it turned out, not very long at all.

 

http://i.imgur.com/v3vr5no.png

 

http://i.imgur.com/G8LUL9n.png

 

http://i.imgur.com/1l0XBcV.png

 

Yeah, it's a rapier laser destroyer array. I liked the compact, brutal look to it and ordered a couple, not knowing if I could pull it off. The sponson arm from the Spartan is too big to hold it properly, and the unused sponson arms from my Sicaran were too small. A little surgery here and there and the  patient is now recovering nicely.

Edited March 17, 2017 by Brother Chaplain Kage

[Hrolf the Cunning]

Inspiring   as always man. Blogs like yours are such a good hobby pick-me-up when I'm feeling low on motivation. Cheers

[Augustus b'Raass]

Augs, you might be on to something there...

Not sure if you're being sarcastic... but I'll take it :)

 

That laser destroyer array conversion is just wonderful. Much deserving of the official

Hidden Content

http://i.imgur.com/AFkTE.png

Are you going to run it as a laser destroyer?

[Brother-Chaplain Kage]

Hrolf, that's very nice of you to say and I'm happy to be an inspiration.

 

Augs, I was being serious because I forgot about that old kit. Will I run it as a laser destroyer? I don't play anymore, but if it gets mentioned in a story, yeah, probably will be a destroyer.

[Dantay VI]

Spartans can upgrade the lascannon sponsons to laser destroyer sponsons. 

 

Nice job of fitting the doors, I have had similar issues in the past, where I ended up making the door fit the hole rather than the other way around.

[Brother-Chaplain Kage]

Dantay, the problem with the doors on mine is that the ones that came with it are too small and look like someone tried to install Rhino doors on a Land Raider with this huge gap all the way around the door.

 

Busy weekend so I didn't get as much done on the Spartan as I had planned, which amounted to getting some filler putty over the GS I filled that huge gap with. Here's the previous 'before' pic:

 

http://i.imgur.com/hwpT3zV.png

 

And now.

 

http://i.imgur.com/Yjlw0zi.png

 

Not quite finished with the putty yet, but it's mostly done. I'm not worried about making it completely perfect because once the exhaust stacks are up, it's good enough that it won't immediately draw your eye to it like the giant gap did.

[Noctus Cornix]

Ah the Spartan... What a right pain in the ass that thing is to put together and then try to fill in the gaps so it doesn't look like a ruined hulk. (Exaggerating, but still..)  Solid job so far with the filling in and smoothing things up. Can really appreciate the attention to detail. 

[Brother-Chaplain Kage]

I also have a half-built Fire Raptor in just as bad or worse shape, enormous gaps from terrible fit issues being one of the biggest problems, but I'm really liking what the GS and filler putty thing can do and will probably return to it in the near future to see if I can save it.