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I posted a pic of the punisher cannon up tonight for you to check out.

http://www.dakkadakka.com/gallery/116606-scratchbuilt%20punisher.html

let me know what you think, its removable and I can remount the original cannon if needed, plus it was originally almost an inch longer but friend convinced me to shorten it

Oh and your armour skirts on the russ have convinced me to give it a try.
I just got three horibbly painted russes to strip and repaint as well, but the sides on a couple are too messed up to recover so armour skirts are just the thing!


Oh , and the Vanquisher rocks BTW!

Thanks man, that cannon looks really cool. I think your friend was right in shortening it some, since it has a comparatively short range, and needs to reflect it a bit.

As it looks in that pic, it is very menacing, and very gatling´y.

The skirts on this tank partially came about due to that same problem. The side armor on the Russ looked a bit dodgy, so I wanted to cover that up, and I think the look really works for the tank, and changes the silhouette quite a bit.

Thanks for the praise on the Vanquisher, it is sort of the benchmark for how I want my armour units to look, so it needs to be quite crisp when it´s done.

I´m thinking about adding skirts to a Russ with sponsons at some point, to see if I can make that work, given the shapes that the FW armor comes in. It may require even more creative cutting than this version did.

I think armor skirts would work as long as they don't interfere with the sponsons but I like the German anti mag armor it just takes longer.

I'm a little confused by your comment about side armor on the new Russ. Is it possible for you to point out the differences? the only thing I've noticed is the turret.

I believe that if you look, the ceramic armour has a different pattern on it - the indents are straighter where as before they were slighly curved.

I would also like to say this blog is quite interesting - there are a couple of ideas that I am going to steal (and there's nothing you can do to stop me! Bwahaha!)

@Sonofruss: Yup, the sponsons are my big concern as well, I want it all to look as if it would work if used.
I really like the antimag effect myself, but want to try some variation, to break up the monotomy of using 11 Russ tanks in some of my lists...

@ChaoticMind: Sure thing, there are several differences in the design.
The main thing for me, is that the doors on the side are no longer separate things. Which I would be okay with, but they totally changed the look, they have them inset into the side of the tank and that I don´t like...

Added to that, the three indentations on the lower part are less defined on the new tank, and less defined.

Also, the bit at the front of the side armour, pointing toward the tracks (looks like a compression coil or possibly a hydraulics bit) is shallower on the new design, and the design has changed a bit, looking a bit more awkward..

Lastly, the coil bit at the front of the tank is shallower on the new model, this annoys me since it wasn´t aproblem before, so why should it be now?

I will say, however, that I do like parts of the new design, like the exhausts are better and more detailed and the plug in weapons are super. But I think the hull detail level is lower, which is disappointing as heck.


Automatically Appended Next Post:
SilverMK2: By all means, steal away, that´s part of the idea anyways, inspiration going back and forth.

However, if you do end up with some cool stuff, please show us also, so we can steal.... I mean, creatively use parts of it, where they match what we need...

For the skirts you can pick up some plasticard that is formed with squares of a smiliar size on one size.

I'm thinking of going that route, cutting inch wide blocks of it out and mounting it on another smooth peice that is shaped to cver the side of the russ perfeclty.

I have seen someone scratchbuild skirts for a chimera squadron in the same way to avoid having the same battle damage on all his tanks and it look pretty nice.

Thanks, I've only dealt with the previous version and have only seen pictures of of the new version.

Yeah, I may as well use plasticard for the skirts from here on, and do battle damage as I go.
I´ll probably keep the shapes though, I kind of like that it is not perfectly shaped.

I was considering just varying the pieces between tanks, and whatever way I end up using, I´ll reserve it for a few tanks, three at most.

@ChaoticMind: No problem at all, I didn´t spot the differences until I assembled the new ones myself. The new turrets are nice though, more detail and slightly larger. But as I mentioned, many parts have gotten less detail which I find odd given that the moulding techniques have improved.

I´ve gotten the bottom half of the Traitor Russ cleansed, the upper half is getting soaked at the moment. The paint came off beautifully, so in a day or two I should have pictures of the hull without paint.
At that point I´ll have to see which way I end up going with it.

What are you using to strip the paint, lately I havn't been having luck with simple green, the guys I'm buying the models off seem like using housepaint to prime their models

Hey Xanthos, nice models! And your title caught my attention

It's not by any chance a reference to Xan Kreigor is it? Or is it just the abbreviation of your name along with the Kreig Corps... lol

@Blackhand: Housepaint? Ouch....

I´m using crystal soap, not sure if that´s an international name, but it´s gel soap, made for cleaning wooden floors. It strips paint like a beastie, two-three days and it´ll go to grey plastic.
Oh, and it´s pretty good to the environ as well, I´m led to believe.

@Dessloch: Thanks a lot, glad you like what I´m doing.
I´ve been using the name Xanthos as well as Xan, all over the place for quite a few years.
And yes, Xan Kriegor is indeed one of the sources. Another is the old Necromunda game, which had a character by that name.

I must admit though, that I didn´t name the thread intentionally to mimick the full name, it just kind of happened that way.

My painting and modeling time is severely limited at the moment, having become a father last friday... So the house is full of family, my daughter takes up alot of my waking hours and my mother in law is staying for a week more. (Which is fine as we actually get along.. Take that, stereotypist!)

Still, I am hopeful that I´ll be able to update through the summer, and keep the project going.

Congrats on the baby!


...and on the mother in law

Xanthos wrote: (Which is fine as we actually get along.. Take that, stereotypist!)

Actually this stereotype is usually true only for one person in the couple, I get along with my GF's mother very well but my mother is despicable so she is the "mother in law" stereotype.
Ask yourself the question, does your wife (girlfriend?) like your mother?

Back to the minis, you always make awesome stuff, it's people like you who make me buy plasticard!

Xanthos wrote:
@Nowlan: Thanks for the tip! I looked at them, and they seem to be faster drying than I´d like... Have you worked with them yourself? Hmm.... I really want to test some new materials here, I´ll see if I end up taking the plunge.

Keeping it wet while you're working with it helps slow down the curing time. But you'll have to work in small sections at a time, maybe like 0.5" x 0.5" to start out with. Once you're used to doing it i'm sure you can do it in larger sections, especially if you get the lionroar tool for it.


Also, have you given any thought to adding reactive armor to one of your tanks?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reactive_armor

Reactive armor will probably be a nono for these, it doesn´t fit well enough with the vision I have of them as inspired by WW1 and 2.
ERA is a bit too hightech for these guys. Yes I know they have Lascannons and Plasma technology, but that´s the charm. Hightech and lowtech, mixed together to reflect off eachother.

lookin good! (I always wondered about how effective the FW LRBTs are over the standard GW ones) one question tho: why so green?
like I always thought the DKoK were more about black and city camo like the german forces (alla saving private ryan) and the Cadians were the military style camo...
Other than that looks amazing...wish I could paint clothes like that, mine always come out as streaky messes

Thanks.

I really like FW´s turrets, they´re larger by quite a bit, which to me looks better, can´t see how the tank commander would sit in the normal turrets without getting pulped the first time it fires..

True, the typical view of the Krieg is as visions in grey, compared to the more modern looking cadians.

But I felt that I wanted to place them in the same universe somehow, so I have tried to avoid getting too stereotyped with these guys, thusly there will be no references at all to actual period armies.

The green for the armor units was firstly to break up the mass of gray that I was painting, but also I wanted to steer away from the cityfighting theme, and more towards a battlefield force.
The way I see it, these guys have their primary mission in siege warfare, but the tanks are used in assaults on trench lines, so they might not be gray on gray.

Having said that, FW´s books have about twenty different color schemes for the Krieg tanks, and that´s just for the Vraks campaign.

The cloth is actually (relatively) fast. I basecoat them in a meium grey, do a basic shading and highlight, and wwash over that with badab black. After that, I sometimes do a last highlight, but for the rank and file that´s what they get.

The Commissar however, I had fun with. So he got wet blending, a ton of different layers and gloss effects here and there.

Wow, long post.

Hey Xanthos, I had a go at making some skirts for my LRs and posted a tutorial for making them here on Dakka.
I hope you don't mind but I pointed to this blog as my inspiration

Very nicely done BLACKHAND, those skirts certainly work.

And crediting me as inspiration too, you´re too kind sir.

Loving the tank Xanthos, any pictures of the LR after it came out of the gunk?

Well as luck would have it, Young_Logan, I was just putting together an update post.

The reclaimed hull rolled out of the scrubbing chamber, slowly emerging into the dim light of the repair shop. As the steam rose off her sides, bare plasteel was visible, for the first time in many years, no doubt. It had been discovered on routine patrol in the outer Van Meersland wastes, and the Enginseers had accepted the vehicle into their care. An effort would be made to re-sanctify the proud old machine, to make it useful for the Emperor´s armies once more.

It had been dumped in cleansing oils and unguents for many days now, to fully remove the taint of heretical markings. And only now could a true assessment be made, regarding the tanks structural integrity. Preliminary reports spoke of poor alignment in the port side sponsons, gimbals would need to be exchanged, and the Machine Spirit was in need of much cleansing. But Enginseer Daahl had spoken. The machine would fight again!

Right, so I´ve finally gotten to a point where I´m happy with the paint stripping of this tank.


This image is from a few days ago, as you can see, most of the paint had come off nicely, but still she went back for a final dip.


And here is the current state of it. As you can see, there´s still a green tinge to parts of the tank, this is mostly where the paint has met glue, and there are a few places where the assembly of the tank has been less than perfect.


This is the worst of those. The left side sponson is basically at an angle, which bothers me a lot. What´s worse is, that it has been glued on with a huge amount of excess glue, and is therefore very unlikely to come back off.. But I´ll find a way to fix it.


Some of the spots where the green still lingers, are also in places where the plastic seems to have gotten a green tinge to it. I have no idea what this paint was, but I´m thinking it can´t have been healthy for the guy who painted it.... Oh, and also, both side doors came off while the tank was in the gunk, apparently there was next to no glue on them.


Here´s the rear of the tank. I´ve started removing things from the back, and will go with similar box type extensions as my other tanks have received. Luckily, these parts have very little glue on them, and are coming off nicely.


Here she is, with FW turret and all. The Commissar commander will be my Pask for normal games, and will be a Commissar Tank upgrade for friendly games. I have decided that all my turrets from here on in, will have magnetized guns, so I can switch more freely between types of Russ.


I made an Exterminator turret last night, from two spare Autocannons, and the base of an annihilator gun. The GS work is a little rough right now, but it´ll be sanded down and plasticarded properly, no worries.


I also added filters and such, funny what a big difference they make to the look of the tank. Still missing is the large air intake, but I need to finish with the rear of the tank for that.


Last night I started looking into the rebuilding of the tank, and one of the first things to go was the hull Lascannon. I wanted to go with maximum Dakka for this one, so dual Autocannons and 3 Heavy Bolters fit the bill. It will get a Heavy Stubber as well. I´m still debating whether or not I want to chop off the current Sponson HB´s and replace them with fresh ones, since the eagles have been defaced on these....

Next up will be finishing the negine bits on this tank, completing the Zimmerrit on my Demolisher, and probably changing the sponson guns on this tank. I´ve decided to focus on building till I head back home for the summer, at which point I´ll bring whatever is ready to paint, and paint that through the summer. So far it looks like that will be a Centaur, and two Russ´s.

Hmmm I remember my brother selling a toxic green demolisher at some point a few years back . . .

Xanthos, if you need a set of sponsons and heavy Bolters I can get you some. I don't arm my demolishers with sponsons and have extras. PM me if you need 'em!

@Irdiumstern: I´m not sure if this is the same one.... I got it from Iceland, but I would not be surprised if it had travelled a bit, it sure is beat up!

@SlaveToDorkness: Thanks a lot, I do have spares for one left, but if I end up needing more, I´ll be sure to drop you a PM.

It´s crazy warm here by the way... Above 30deg Celsius today, and not a breeze. So I´ve spent large amounts of the day sprawled over the couch, drinking loads of water and generally looking forward to the coolness of night.

its been a bit like that here in the uk. little amounts of sun where i am and stooooopidly high humidty levels. now i have too days off and a fan in room, its back to painting solidly.

anyway back to your DKOK, as a long time stalker and first time poster, i must say. i have enjoyed watching your army come together. inspiring me to head to forge world more.
awesome and inspiring work.

I like the exterminator turret , it came out really class.

Well done on the recovery of the Russ, that floor cleaner does a very nice job

@Howla:We can´t even have fans here, my daughter is a week old, and apparently kids of that age don´t take draft well...
Anyways, thanks for your kind words. Welcome to Dakka, be sure to post your stuff when the time comes.

@BLACKHAND: Thanks, I´m happy with how it turned out, I did a little cleaning up of the GS tonight, so it´s getting closer to Primer time.

The floor cleaner is very nice for this, and also cleans floors admirably.

Plus, it´s about 10Kr (1.3Euro) a jar, and I´ve yet to get all the way through my first one. Oh, and it´s not poison to the nature...

Tbh i quite like it as it, its just looks right

Thanks, It was a relatively easy conversion, the AC´s came from FW´s Superheavy Krieg upgrade set.
There´s one in each set, and a Tank Commander which I needed anyway...