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I was convinced by a fellow Dakka member to start this thread. For a couple of months now I have been working on a Fellblade super heavy tank for my Iron Hands because I'm really into old school rogue trader fluff. I've only dabbled in conversion work, and have a done a little scratch building, nothing impressive, it's all fun for me. I was sitting on my cot in India one night thinking over the things I would do when I got back home. That's when I decided I would try my hand at a scratch built Fellblade. Having made it home I got to work getting it together and setting up a plan of attack. First off, I didn't want to just buy a Baneblade kit and paint it up to be Iron Hands. I wanted it to look unique while maintaining a Space Marine rogue trader era feel, a la the Fellblade card from the old Horus Heresy card game:



(I'll erase the above link if I'm not allowed to post it)

At first I wanted it to be completely scratch built, but I got a $20 Baneblade from my local gaming store (it was a missing a vital sprue, but not vital for my needs), so why not go with the flow and just do a semi-scratch build or conversion. I'm a pretty lazy person after all. Before this I played around with a turret from a 1/35 scale Russian T-62 tank and added SM hatches, radar, storm bolter, Kronus etc. The barrel is plasticard tubing with a muffler off a lemun russ. The front hull was part Shadowsword and plasticard, with the baneblade demolisher cannon, and the view port from a rhino. The wheels and the inner track assembly are from the baneblade kit, while the outer track assembly is plasticard and rhino doors. Rivets are carpentry nails. A bit rough, but I like it that way. The engine exhaust ports (no pic yet) were made by my brother, they looked cool so I added them on. The side sponsons are made from a plastic tube used to fix sinks and other plumbing things. The lascannons are from the SM landraider, and the mini turrets are all from the baneblade. As in the Fellblade HH ccg card, the lascannons are sponsoned and the twin linked heavy bolters are turreted, like the one on the front hull. Now the treads. I made the with plasticard and tubing and then a friend of mine (Stormrider at Bartertown) made a mold and casted them up for me. I made them to resemble the treads from the old Mk I landraider of yesteryear. It is still a WIP as I have not yet glued everything together and/or painted it.
My goal is to have something that doesn't just look like I bought a Baneblade and painted it to be Space Marine-ish. Comments are appreciated, be gentle.












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The spherical thing in the first of my pics is a drop pod built by my brother. At the time of the pic it was still a WIP. My brother is way better at this stuff than myself. I believe it is inspired by an old White Dwarf article.


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Also, I originally used the muzzle off a Shadowsword (I think), but switched it out with the lemun russ muffler after awhile.

Done!


My other WIP for new readers:

For someone who's "only dabbled in conversion work, and have a done a little scratch building" this is looking prety damn good. The tracks look almost spot on like the old landraider tracks. The t-26 turret matches the picture from the card, but looks a little goofy to me. I think I'm crazy for having that thought since the rest of the tank looks freakin awsome. Great work!

Thanks! I know what you mean about the turret, but it has grown on me. The only shame is that the barrel is static because the barrel that came with the T-26 (now the auto cannon) was way to small, and I didn't have the baneblade kit when I originally did this. Regardless, it was a small price to pay in order to keep the look from the ccg card.

Very nice work, and spot on with the CCG artwork.

Inspirational stuff, mate. Very impressive - especially the tracks.

Lovin it. Its great to see an original build.

Thanks guys. I'll have it put together and completely primed once I green stuff certain cracks and segments between the tread pieces.

Yeah, that is pretty damn awesome.

Very nice

Can I suggest using grey stuff rather than green? Takes hard edges much better than green; green's ace for clothing, flesh etc., but grey comes up really crisp for angles. On curves (thinking about your turret) a 50/50 mix is a good alternative (popular with mini sculptors for that reason).

I really like keeping a lot of old RT stuff in the mix, and this model just makes me happy!
Could we see some more of those side sponsons?

Thanks everyone!

@Inmygravenimage
Grey stuff eh, I'll look into that, I'm actually out of green stuff and epoxy so I'm up for giving it a try, thanks for the suggestion.

@JonnyDelta
Sure, I'm going to do a little more work on them to smooth out certain imperfections. My inexperience at this sort of thing really comes through in my lack of finesse when it comes to getting pieces together and cutting things straight. It was quite difficult gluing pasticard onto a curved surface, and the tubing I used was hard to cut, sand, and pin vice. Hopefully the painting it up will hide my hiccups a bit. Also, in regards to getting everything right and what not, I only have a small and limited amount of plasticard, so I have been overlooking little things here and there that a more experienced modeler would correct. Also, to be honest with everyone, the pics are actually being very kind to my Fellblade. If you saw it in real life you'd really see how rough it looks.
Thanks again.

Great work all around I exceptionally love the man made tracks you did.

i think if i were sitting on a cot in India, my thought would be more like get me the hell home! but hey, that's me.

seriously though, i don't think you can say "I've only dabbled in conversion work, and have a done a little scratch building, nothing impressive," anymore! holy smoke that's an awesome project. and so original! can't wait to see how this turns out! keep up the great work.

@Empchild
Thanks, I knew from the start that the treads would make or break my project. In a way it was the last thing I got to in my project. Plan A was to out source them to a third party, which fell through. Plan B was making a 3 piece and a 1 piece (see pic) from scratch, and hope my caster friend would help me out. Luckily, plan B worked and I didn't have to use Plan C, which would have been scratch building every tread piece by scratch, this would have tested my patience and may have resulted in me chucking the model at my wall. I'm glad you like them. I have one more that you can see in the background of some of my pics that will also use those treads.

@Alarmingrick
Lol, I was thinking that as well, but my start and finish time in India was determined by the plane tickets I had already bought, so I had about 6 months to mull things over. You're probably right, after this project(which is not my first, but my second real project) I have gained a lot of good experience. Keeping with my rogue trader theme I've always wanted to make a Mk I thunder-hawk, the aptly named flying brick from Epic into 40k scale, that should be a hoot.

This project oozes awesomeness.
I love the tracks, and if you have any of the RT Land Raiders it would be cool to see them and the Fellblade side by side!

@Vladsimpaler
I do, but it is hundreds of miles away from me right now. My guess is that the Mk I Landraider tracks are spaced closer to each other than the ones I made, which have a more angular component in the treads, and thus creates more space between links. My hope is to one day make a website showing my collection side by side, since I have many items form various 40k eras. Thanks for your support!

I bow before your might! I shall erect a statue in your honour and go on a crusade in your name!!!! Awesome work bud!!!!

Don't let him fool you, this thing looks awesome up close too!

Looks great.

To give some advice. Try using card board (the kind from the GW boxes) for the curved surfaces. It also works good smaller add on plates. I've used it and once it gets painted you really can't tell its card board.

Keep up the great work and post your other projects once you start those.

Awesome work. I can't wait to see it painted!

Care to elaborate on the uber vindicator or that other big tank?

Also, dino riding space marines are cool. GW should have never done away with those.

Thanks again everyone! I may use cardboard for bigger projects down the road Werewolfhunter, knowing that GW boxes are good to use is good advice. Hmmm, Aramus, I only know of one person who has seen my fellblade up close
The big Vindicator thing in Pic 4 from the top was my first scratchbuild attempt. I was basing it off of the old Epic Mk II Vindicator. But as you can all see I made it too big. Not until I got the old Rhino with the Armorcast Vind upgrade did I get a good size base. I plan on redoing it in a smaller size. The big guy I did made will probably be played as a Space Marine Bombard. I've always thought SMs lacked good siege weaponry. If people want I can post WIP pics of it. I'm thinking I'll just turn this thread into a continuing project blog.


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About the SM riding a lizard. It's the only one I ever plan on owning, don't worry. It's not very Iron Hands

The lizard would need bionics for that

It's no weirder then riding a wolf with bionics

Well, I finally put it together, primed and base coated it. I don't know when I'll get to painting it seeing as I have another super heavy tank in the works that I really want to do more with while I'm in this scratch building customizing mood. The pics show the Fellblade from every side, it is missing the Kronus/ tank commander, seeing as I will paint that separately before gluing him on. It's not perfectly aligned in places, so I wouldn't say it very perpendicular, but for my second attempt at a real project I am very happy with.

My friend, it is a thing of beauty. Evil, evil beauty... You've prodded me into trying to get my Baneblade primed tonight! Nice one, mate.

@Inmygravenimage, that means a lot coming from you, I really admire your scratch building skills, thank you.

I only see one thing that I think is offish. I look at the turret and I look at the hull and I see a contrast where they should tie together better. I don't know if its too late but it strikes me that the broad curves of the front of the turret need some sort of additional detail to tie it together. You don't need to do it like this but look at the MK2 predator from 2nd ed. how it had similar curves but they added rivets and what not. You just need some 40k-esque detail.

I think the simpliest way would be to simply add a machicolated patter "held on" with rivets along the lowest edge of the turret.

This looks amazing, really good work. I like the slightly more rough-n-ready look than GW goes for, looks like it's been earning it's keep!

Impressive stuff. Especially appreciate the RT style tracks. Makes me wish for my old LR I left in storage back in Blighty.

Hope you can find time to start on the paint job soon.