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Well my Lightning arrived this morning from Forgeworld (ordered on the Sunday 27th, arrived Saturday 2nd) along with some Weathering powders, the Model Masterclass book and a Valk Vendetta conversion kit, which thanks to the general incompetance of the Royal Mail ended up with just shy of £150's worth of kit being left on my doorstep.
Thankfully however that's where the problems ended. After unpacking the box I'm really very pleasantly suprised by the quality of the kit. I've heard a lot of horror stories about Forgeworld stuff and was expecting to have to Milliput wash and GS fill a patchwork of casting holes, though this doesn't seem to be the case at all. Two pieces are suffering very slightly from warping (and I do mean very slightly), but they'll be easily put right with a bit of hot water.

I'm going to try and document the build as much as is humanly possible, because despite all the project blogs I've seen previously very few seem to show exactly what to expect in the way of flashing and mould lines and the amount of prep required. If you want to see any more details please post and let me know.

So far I've cut away a few large sections of resin feed from the engines and hull (these were done with a fine razor saw), but I'm relucant to do any more real prep until I can grab a dust mask.

subscribed. cause I likes lightnings. Do a good job.

Also subscribed. The rules don't do this model justice. I hope you make us proud!!

Right sorry for the lack of updates, all the pieces have been trimmed, washed and sanded (didn't use a mask, did most of the prep work wet to keep the dust down, if I post a blog later saying I'm dying of silicosis feel free to gloat...).

So far the horror stories I've heard of working with resin haven't been bourne out, in many ways I actually prefer it to plastic (softer compound, easily bent with hot water, takes pinning easily) and I much prefer it to the white metal they use for the figures these days (I don't find it nearly as easy to work with as the old lead).

I'm just working on pinning the pieces together now. I'm probably going a bit OTT with my pinning but the idea of dropping it and breaking anything off really scares me.

I'm looking at picking up an airbrush on Friday along with some masking frisk and some acryilic thinner for my camo paint.

More pictures as soon as I have anything worth showing, I'm just waiting for the undercoat to dry (g/f allowed me to spray them in the bath, to avoid knackering them in the snow ) and I'm going to have a crack at the pilot and control panel.

I'm thinking of a maroon and light brown uniform for my navy crew... any thoughts?

Cool.

I hope this goes well for you

It's a lovely looking kit so I'm looking forward to seeing what you do with it!

Cheers,

Dante

I might just be brainwashed by movies, but I feel that flight uniforms should either be blue or camo green. I don't know why....

But hey, you're the man who owns a Lightning fighter!!

I've heard of spraypainting over the bath, does it work? A friend told me it didn't leave a mark...I was never brave enough to try it.

Yeah the primer doesn't adhere to the porcelin. Just needs a little scrub.

Does resin really bend so easily in hot water? I've immersed pieces in boiling water for at least half an hour with no change. Am I doing something wrong with it?

Awesome model, hope you have fun building it.

Valk

s.j.mccartney wrote:I might just be brainwashed by movies, but I feel that flight uniforms should either be blue or camo green. I don't know why....

They also come in Black, Tan, and Camo pattern.

Then again, more than just pilots wear them in the USAF, too. Which apparently ticks the fly boys off to no end.

s.j.mccartney wrote:I've heard of spraypainting over the bath, does it work? A friend told me it didn't leave a mark...I was never brave enough to try it.

Well I'm spraying into a box on newspaper in a bath, so I'm not all that brave... but yeah you end up with a light mist of black that settles on the exposed enamel but that comes off easily either with a baby wipe or a splash of hot water. It's a good alternative in this freezing weather.

Valkyrie wrote:Does resin really bend so easily in hot water? I've immersed pieces in boiling water for at least half an hour with no change. Am I doing something wrong with it?

Awesome model, hope you have fun building it.

Valk

I've certainly not had any problems bending it straight although both pieces were relatively thin. The lb-autocannon (shown above) had a slight rake to it as did one of the wings. All I did was to boil a fresh kettle and pour some over the bent section, after that it went like limp celery. A quick splash with cold water firmed it right back up again. Were you working with particularly thick bits of resin?

Platuan4th wrote:

s.j.mccartney wrote:I might just be brainwashed by movies, but I feel that flight uniforms should either be blue or camo green. I don't know why....

They also come in Black, Tan, and Camo pattern.

Yeah I did consider a more traditional uniform pattern, but I guess the real effectiveness depends on the terrain they're working over. This proposed brown and red number would probably be great on Mars (well the Nasa photoshopped version of it anyway). I'll see how it looks, I may well wimp out if it ends up looking too outlandish.

Ok first pics of the pilot. I appologise for the quality of the photography, I'll try and work on getting it a bit better for the big shots.

The visor is inked over and gloss varnished so has a nice pearlescent sheen in real life.

It's certainly not my best work but I'm worried that if I carry on then I'll end up over working it.

I've also posted a pic of the main cockpit instrumentation, it's really stupidly fuzzy, but it's quite a small item to be snapping. You might *just* be able to make out the artifical horizon.

C&C welcome.

Nice to see some progress. Pity about the fuzzy pics. I bet it looks great in real life!

elaverick wrote:Were you working with particularly thick bits of resin?

They were cables which connect titan weapons to the body.

Nice painting so far, although the pilot's eyes look a bit lopsided.

Valkyrie wrote:They were cables which connect titan weapons to the body.

That is odd then, I'd imagine they'd be reasonably flexable after appropriate heating, I wonder if you maybe got a batch that had been allowed to sit for a long while after casting. From what I understand resin has quite a long curing time and becomes harder and more brittle over time.

Valkryie wrote:Nice painting so far, although the pilot's eyes look a bit lopsided.

Yeah you can notice it a lot more in the picture, I'm having trouble getting in under the lip of the pilots visor atm, though I think I'll probably have another go at it tomorrow. I don't want a wing of wall-eyed pilots after all

Any lightning updates or pictures?

Qualude wrote:Yeah the primer doesn't adhere to the porcelin. Just needs a little scrub.

Just make sure that it is a porcelain bath - it'll stick to a plastic bath!

s.j.mccartney wrote:Any lightning updates or pictures?

Not yet I'm afraid. I've been spending the last few days doing some really non-photogenic things for it. I'm mostly waiting on my acrylic thinner to arrive so I can begin spraying with the non-foundation paints.
I don't think I'd mentioned the scheme I'm going for previously, but I'm going to attempt digital camouflage on the top side, with a plain grey under-belly to position the craft will be positioned as a H.A.L.O. fighter (High Altitude Low Observability).

I know Digital Camo is notoriously difficult to do well, so the plan is... print the camo pattern onto some masking frisk (done after some difficulty), cut the pattern out with a scalpel (part way through... pain in the ass), spray... repeat for second layer (joy!)

Once I get the thinner I'll start posting some more updates.

The one other thing I have done in the mean time is the Long Barrelled Autocannon, this was sprayed black, drybrushed with Boltgun metal (allowed to dry), sprayed with Purity Seal (first time I've managed to do it with out it frosting on me... I hate that stuff), sprayed with hairspray, sprayed with thinned Adeptus Battlegrey (allowed to dry), scrubbed with a toothbrush to wear away at the raised areas fixed with a final blast of purity seal and then detailed. I've also done some heat bluing on the muzzle with some purple ink (got some brown on order too). It looks pretty cool, but the distinction in colours is so slight I'm 99.99% certain you'll not see a thing in a photo :(

For the Purity Seal, warm the can a little before you use it. I find it usually 'frosts' if it's a very cold day. I just warm my can up for about 30 seconds - 1 minute before using it.

Will be nice to see more of this project though, I love seeing FW stuff. (Currently waiting on a Scythed Hierodule to arrive >_&gt.

Neith wrote:For the Purity Seal, warm the can a little before you use it. I find it usually 'frosts' if it's a very cold day. I just warm my can up for about 30 seconds - 1 minute before using it.

Will be nice to see more of this project though, I love seeing FW stuff. (Currently waiting on a Scythed Hierodule to arrive >_&gt.

Yeah that's what I've been doing... in fact to really ensure it, I've been warming the can and spraying indoors... not great for your lungs, but I was devistated with the first lot of ruined mins.

I'm currently waiting on my second FW toy (ahem, I mean serious collectors piece... ), got a Maurader Destroyer on order...

You legend. That is the best of all the Marauder Models. That will be truly epic. But it will mean nothing to me if I dont get to SEE PHOTOS!!!! only joking, but seriously though...

Quick teaser...

Don't get too excited just yet tho, I'm going to be disciplined about this and finish the Lightning before I begin even cleaning the Maurader. More good news tho, postman also brough my Acrylic thinner so I can begin spraying the Lightning too

I like your paint scheme on the pilot, looking forward to see this done


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also big thumbbs up just because I love cats

You have a cute cat, whats its name

jackvolerich wrote:You have a cute cat, whats its name

lol, the cat's getting more interest than the model. Dunno why but a lot of 40Kers seem to be cat people...

She's called Cleo, she's about 6 months old now and completely insane... good fun cat in other words. I spent about a year add "Cat" to the bottom of all my girlfriends shopping lists until she finally caved and agreed to get one. I've now taken to adding "Horse"... ever hopeful.

In the latest pic, are you sure that the Destroyer is the model?

Looking nice, whats actually digital about digital camo anyway? Is it just a way to make it seem hip trendy and down with the kids?

Digital camouflage is small blocks of shade designed to break up the outline of the craft. The reason it's digital is that it can be easily designed by computer algorythm and the blockiness fades as the distance increased.

As for the cat, I'd love to field her as some giant war beast but I doubt any opponent would accept her datasheet as being realistic. She's already been eyeing up a number of my forces as potential chew toys and a standard bolter would do next to nothing to stop her...

Ok well I went for the spray coat on the lightning, unfortunately the "low-tack" masking tape I used to block off the bottom section has left a load of sticky residue on the fusilage and it's not coming off with hot water and soap... less that happy as you can imagine.

Anyone got any good tips for removing sticky gunk?

try to scrap it off gently with a knife?


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Try to scrap it off genly with a knife?