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Dross into Gold:

So what's Blackadder doing posting a painting thread; he doesn't know how to paint? Well I need a Space Marine army for my Thunderhawk and a Cadian army for my Tanks/Titans and Adeptus Mechanicus Priesthood Enclave again for the Titans so to show them off to their best so I decided to paint up some figures.

Once again as with my Tyranids airbrushing foray I am totally at sea regarding painting so this learning experience for me will be of help to newly initiated into war gaming.

I'm going to start with the Space Marines; my son with over 10 years in 40K Wargaming has progressed from a mere tyro to an accomplished painter/gamer but in the course of which has left behind literally hundreds of 'poor' to 'indifferently' finished figures so rather than plunk down beaucoup bucks for new squad kits I going to salvage the dross and turn it into gold (At least that is my intent and hope.)

Below you see about a tenth of the derilict SM host I have to refurbish:

http://i.imgur.com/bI6UGOp.jpg


These SM figures were in the scrap bitz box and number about 200 figures in varied states of completion and execution.

First I divided them up into homogeneous groups:

http://i.imgur.com/8S7FvTf.jpg


Again this is only a sampling of the number of figures I have to disassemble, clean, repair and paint.

I employed my tried and true method of hammer and chisel to separate the figures from their bases and worried the arms, jet packs, what-have-you from the basic figures and scraped, carved, filed, and sanded the excess glue and thick paint from the figures....

http://i.imgur.com/RJD9wUw.jpg


Next post Please...............



Automatically Appended Next Post:
Of course it's a judgement call, I'm not going to spend a lot of time cleaning and repairing garbage. Some of these figures only have a coat of prime and some are bare styrene. Most of the cleaning only requires paring off glued seams buildup.

Pieces that are too far gone can be used as hors de combat in related scenery.

There are quite a few metal figures as well.

The theme I am adopting is a basic black and 'Death World Forest' green which suits my understated taste:

http://i.imgur.com/lnrlqWn.jpg


and will go well with my proposed Thunderhawk and IG Cadians scheme.

Dreadnoughts:

There are only two complete Dreadnoughts that I can find; one metal and one plastic. I disassembled them as far as practical, filed the mating surfaces for a flush fit (especially the metal one that bore a resemblance more so to a piece of slag than a combat vessel.)

I filed the hood lines to crisp up the corners and re-assembled with sparing drops of cyanoacrylate glue......

http://i.imgur.com/r1nFyxu.jpg


These lump-like constructions are the better for simplistic paint schemes because the highly ornate paint work tends to obliterate their already murky lines.

The unfortunate Chaos model is missing exhaust pack and leg assemblies.

http://i.imgur.com/9pwjGdu.jpg


Dreadnoughts are not among my favorite 40K denizens being more refugees from 'Silent Running' so I'm going to use them for practicing paint schemes.

The marines look very nice. I'll be following this, it's always nice to see old models get a new lease of life!

Thanks for the bump...........

Glued For the Ages:

Okay before I go too far into this tutorial/ Learning experience I have to make a comment on model assembly. Now I know for a fact that these models were not built by my son because he got them from a friend.

For the life of me I cannot fathom why anyone would glue together the entire model before painting; at least the hard to reach places. Paint it first then glue it together. And what gluing!!!!! I had to hammer seams, pry, Literally snap the model apart on two of the cycles to get the driver out of the seat! YA DON'T NEED THAT MUCH GLUE!!!!! Scrap a bit of the paint off were the pieces join and put on a small drop of glue.

http://i.imgur.com/Mk5QSEy.jpg


That way as your skills improve you can disassemble the model with ease and upgrade your work.

Now nothing I did was irreparable because I've had a lot of practice. Chances are that no one will see the dissection seams but wouldn't it be easier to use a bit of discretion when gluing ????

http://i.imgur.com/XYqVJtF.jpg


Now that I've got that off my chest I can proceed with the painting.

http://i.imgur.com/1aLop09.jpg

Nice to see them Get salvaged, espeicxhly the very old pre plastic stuff.

Chaos Dreadnought:

The snows fall'n and I've got a bit of a cold so I'm looking around for something simple to do and came upon these Dreadnoughts I started to refurbish last Summer.

One SM plastic Dreadnought pretty much done but needs some embellishment on the top, the trouble is I have no idea what goes with it and I can't find it on google.

Then I have a Metal SM Dreadnought that's also complete except for a broken left arm.

Then we have the problem of the Chaos Dreadnought that has two right arms, no left CC weapon missing one foot and the exhaust manifold piece.

http://i.imgur.com/q4GId6N.jpg


That's where I shall start today; making those missing pieces.

We'll start with the foot..............


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Dude These Things Are Expensive!

Hell I had no idea how expensive these hideous lumps of metal are.

The three I'm playing with cost about a hundred bucks!

So they're well worth repairing/refurbishing

The plastic foot which I've been scratching on and off today is coming out pretty good

http://i.imgur.com/BKDOkwr.jpg


I have to be careful to not make it too perfect otherwise it will make the metal one look too shoddy.

Seriously there is very little consistency of measurement regarding thickness or spacing of the toes and very few of the angles approach 90° square. it only takes a degree or two on something this small to make it appear haphazardly made.

http://i.imgur.com/gxkjWRh.jpg


I purposely made the toes slightly thicker than they are suppose to be so I can file them to shape when the foot is fully assembled.

http://i.imgur.com/EZFL0aR.jpg



Automatically Appended Next Post:

F**k this AUTO APPEND!

Here's a question; I just went on ebay and SM Dreadnoughts are going for $35 bucks a pop regardless of condition and Chaos Dreads and going for ten to twenty bucks cheaper; what's the reason for this?

Inquiring minds would like to know................

That's my rough estimate of the number of pieces contained in this foot.

Many of them much smaller than an ant, it only goes to show what can be done if you set your mind to it.

http://i.imgur.com/qSFF6VS.jpg


Now the real kick in the slats is if you go on ebay you can buy the whole Dreadnought for about $15 bucks including shipping.

So you're working for how much of an hourly rate Blackadder????????


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Cold Remedy:

Are plastic fumes good for a cold?

How 'bout toxic metals, whatever these Dreads are made of

Anyway the foot fits real good and my trio is shaping up.

http://i.imgur.com/y7MmJfL.jpg


Not bad for a pile of scrap they cleaned up pretty good.

The rear exhaust is coming along as well I think I made the holes too big but perhaps the paint will close them up a tad

http://i.imgur.com/tKTUNhk.jpg


These things are a lot of work for being as tiny as they are. I'm use to vehicles that are measured in feet not inches.

http://i.imgur.com/GbHFXrK.jpg


But they'll look good on the display diorama if for nothing else a scale reference.

http://i.imgur.com/ytE5xYf.jpg

Who has hundreds of spare minis laying around?


Automatically Appended Next Post:
Great tutorial, btw. Looks like fun.

 Cuchulain wrote:
Who has hundreds of spare minis laying around?

Well I do for one; actually they belong to my son who collected armies from friends who were getting out of the hobby for various reasons.

Since my son went to college he has not much time to refurbish these armies and I kind of took over. I hate waste so therefore I attempt to bring these to a condition where they may be worth something. I have built models all my life but none cost as much as these and it destroys me to see such flagrant disregard of hard earned money. While I'd much prefer to build scratch build the refurbishment of these sorry pieces also gives me enjoyment.


Automatically Appended Next Post:
Sh**t, well hell I just won't post............

Don't you dare stop posting!

I will reply to your posts when I can to break up the auto-append

Well Good Enough:

I had to fudge quite a bit of the exhaust stacks but it's a fair facsimile of a Chaos Helbrute Dreadnought exhaust.

http://i.imgur.com/uilgoWJ.jpg


http://i.imgur.com/BJq2vX5.jpg


Yeah I know 'Good enough' is not in my vocabulary but sometimes it is........

Ya gotta draw the line somewhere..........

That really is some next level recovery, has to make the finished product so much more satisfying

Good grief Mr B, you are going thread crazy lately... Too many to keep up with the AAA bumps !

Lol, blackadder paints!

Still no paint.

Great to see these guys getting fixed up though. You must feel like a techpreist some days huh?

They're primed, prime is paint..........

Haha, just teasin ya old chap!

This is a great project though and I hope you keep us updated. I'm interested to see the Dreadnoughts, I really like the chaos one so far.

I know that

Little Dude:

I suppose it's a lot of work for something that is relatively valueless but it makes me feel good to make this little dude look as good as he can.

So with a coat of primer and a coat of flat black he's ready for the gilt.

http://i.imgur.com/8qJFqYY.jpg


Now a Question for Chaos aficionados, is it correct to have a Dread painted with the same colour scheme as a Chaos Warhound?

http://i.imgur.com/c2PXtCu.jpg


I mean there is no Adeptus Mechanicus for Chaos is there?

http://i.imgur.com/20UesYU.jpg


So what would a proper colour scheme be if not the rotted green and rusty steel of my Warhound?

Surely you can do whatever you want with the paint scheme, this is chaos after all - but then I have no idea on the fluff...

Paint them to match! It will be like they're bros!

I think the dread would look just fine painted up to match the war hound.

Well I didn't want to open a can of worms but I do want to be pseudo-future historically accurate if for nothing more than not having to defend pseudo future history inaccuracies (My head hurts) So f**k it I'm painting my dreads 'vomit green' or some other equally noxious hue and may god have mercy on my soul.....

Thanks for the replies (I think)

 The_Blackadder wrote:
They're primed, prime is paint..........

D'accord.

If you need a bump, ask one of your regular posters to be a "bumper-buddy" and PM said person to give you the bump when needed.

Also, a better term than bumper-buddy might be nice.

The powers that be really need to disable the auto-append function for the P&M forums.

 Red Harvest wrote:

 The_Blackadder wrote:
They're primed, prime is paint..........

D'accord.

If you need a bump, ask one of your regular posters to be a "bumper-buddy" and PM said person to give you the bump when needed.

Also, a better term than bumper-buddy might be nice.

The powers that be really need to disable the auto-append function for the P&M forums.

Bumper-buddy- so wrong on every level...

We're the 'Anti-Auto-Append-Alliance'

And I've asked recently on Nuts & Bolts but the answer thus far has been a resounding NO :(

Chaos Dread' Boneyard:

Well the last two of the Dreadnought squad has been cleaned, quite exhausting as the painting was thickly brush applied oil based gloss enamel that completely obscured the detail. I soaked everything in 'Simple Green for two weeks and wire brushed off as most I could then I boiled the remainder until softened and scrapped off the residue. The result came out pretty clean.

We see the result here with the four previously primed and base-coated flat black cadre looking on.

http://i.imgur.com/7QGHaI8.jpg


Once all are is a similar state I can commence the painting proper.

http://i.imgur.com/Xsyg4f2.jpg


This was an arduous task for a bunch of worthless metal..........

WOW! This Blackadder is incredibley talented it would seem. Did you make all those extra Dreadnaught bits from scratch with Plasticard? If so, that is amazing and I really want to know how you did it!

Naah, I just made the couple of replacement parts for the one dread'; a foot, the back panel and the exhaust.

Dreadnoughts are too inexpensive to expend a lot of energy scratchbuilding them. I only build stuff I can't afford to buy.

But you piqued my curiosity so I googled 'Scratchbuilding/scratch building in images and none of my stuff is represented..... How 'bout that? Ha!

Good job , espeicxhly the very old pre plastic stuff.

Love that Death Forest Green on your marines. What do you wash/highlight with?

No highlighting or washes done yet strictly just the acrylic paint.

No Excuses;

Well they're all cleaned and primed so there are no excuses left to not start painting these bad boys so first a highlight base of Vallejo German Grey

http://i.imgur.com/d18ta4M.jpg


on the flat panel areas..............

Soooooo much ArcheoAwesomez!!!!!!!!

Thanks for the AAA bump........

The Joy of Sex:

Sexy airbrushing that is; in the few short months that I've been building I'd forgotten how much fun it is to spray paint (with an airbrush of course) primer and basic black aerosol spray doesn't count.

Well I fired up the old airbrush; it was completely clogged (someone forgot to clean it last Summer) so a quick cleaning and back in business.

All I know about painting I learned from watch 'Buypainted's videos on youtube If there is a better painter I haven't found him.

Anyway first a highlighting coat on the flat surfaces leaving a rim of black next to the raised metal areas...........

http://i.imgur.com/3SmLfKD.jpg


I'm using 'Vallejo ModelAir German Grey 71.052' for the highlighting, it's almost black so it's hard to see in the images but the flash picks it out better than natural light. You don't want it perfect because each Dread will be subtly unique but they all will have the same basic colouring so they look like a squad.

http://i.imgur.com/rhga7my.jpg