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Hi folks,

So, total n00b alert, I'm afraid.

I've begun work on scratch building a Baneblade. I'd be interested in feedback and thoughts, and hope that my attempts will help/encourage others.

The plans I'm using are based on Tony Cottrell's originals from WD (which I had planned on using) but have been modified to be more like the FW Mars BB. I further tweaked as I went along.

The principles were: (1) do it for less than half price (2) use no actualy baneblade parts unless lurking in bits box (3) beg, borrow and steal parts to make it work.

My spend was: 5 sheets of 5mm A4 foamcore (£3.25+£2p&p), 1 pack of GF9 plasticard (£7.20), 2 sheets of A4 0.3mm plasticard (£2), ebay bag of assorted bits (£3.50), ebay LR track (£5.10): £23.15



Right, begin at the beginning. For the hull I decided from the outset to use 5mm foam core and add some extra struts for strength (images courtesy of my phone, I snap as I go, so sorry for poor quality and excuse cryx in background).


Then, I also made the track width 0.5mm wider, to account for the wheels I'd be using (2x Fruitpura baby smoothie lids stuck back-to-back, courtesy of my 2-yr old, which are down in the bottom right of the image).


Upper hull was made from 1mm plasticard to give it rigidity (I also attached a piece to the front along the underside) whilst I panicked about how to make the turret solid and stable.


At this point I made the rear hull from plasticard. This was an unmitigated disaster, as it just didn't sit well and I could tell the weight was going to be all wrong. So, that got ripped off and a replacement made from plasticard.

For the turret, I decided to make top and bottom from foam core with Plasticard sides; sponsons' interior was made with two round slottas at the top and the lids off GF9 gret stuff tubes at the bottom; the guns were a couple of IG heavy bolters on the inside and predator hbs salvaged from a hideous pink 'n' purple abomination of a chimera that I'd bought a while back off ebay (and is now the happy little griffon in background of pic 2). Sponsons are mounted on a couple of Flames of War bases, to be nice and chunky.


At this point, I started experimenting with rivets. I tried various options with mixed success, but settled on tapping through the back of plasticard with a blunted brass hanging nail (I'll post a pic of that at some point). As you can see, plasticard's been added over the farings beforehand.


So, the finished main hull, with side door also mounted on FoW bases (each doulbe-door kis a single piece, with detail scored in - this didn't work, and I subsequently cut individual doors and mounted them over the outline):


Having worked out my plan for the turret, I gave it a shot (you can also see the beginnings of rear hull mkII in this, with plates from the old LAB mini game on the upper side). Pretty pleased, although much head scratching occured till I realised I had to account for both top and bottom being 5 mm.


To make the turret guns, I used a cannon barrel which I think may be from a shadowsword with the casing of Valkyire rocket pod over it; the rear end is on an old dozer blade to give me the thick, curved plastic set into the lid of test tube (wife's a microbiologist - told you I stole things for this) and held firmly in place with grey stuff. Autocannon's just a standard IG a/c cut-down, mounted inside a searchlight backing. I was very, very worried about getting the main gun to balance, but it came out pretty stable ( it's fallen off once, when the cat jumped on it and knocked down the whole thing. That it survived a 5ft drop at all astounds me).


Lascannons were salvaged from contents of bits box, cut down slightly; in order to give them a bit of balance, I again made the smaller turrets out of foamcore but recessed the cannons into that before adding plasticard sides. The demolisher cannon is another Valk pod and the broader halves of 2 slotta bases, whilst the remaining turret gun's a storm bolter (I know, I know, but I ran out of HBs and anyway, just looked too chunky otherwise.


For variety, I decided to add a bit more detail at this stage. Originally, I'd planned to use spare light strips off Valks, but they just didn't look right, so after some rummaging cam up with the fronts of 2 types of search lights and some very old rhino bits (more of those to come).


So that was the basics. I still had to figure out how to get the track to work, what details to add and how to keep it looking like a baneblade still.

LMK what you think, folks!

It's looking quite good so far

Much obliged!
I realised that I didn't make clear how I re-did the rear hull. Instead of following the plans, I made a box to size out of foam core then built a new plasticard outer casing for it, with salvaged hk boxes along the angled edges to give it rigidity, bulk and fluff.

I have more images to upload, which I'll attempt to do later.

Shaping up nicely - as always with these things, just keep layering on the detail and it'll come together. I'll be eager to know if you prefer this to buying a baneblade in the end.

Ta! Yeah, it's about finding that balance of making it look detailed without being too busy. At the end of the day, it's a big piece of kit, so it can take a fair bit I suppose. When I do my next photo update you'll see hatches, skirts etc. Just now what remains to be done is rivet plates on the sponsons and side doors; I'm debating plates on lower angled edges at front (be clearer with pics).

On another note, I'm thinking about undercoating by hand - if only to avoid spray meltdown! Thoughts?

It's a good way of doing it, just make sure you use thinned paint, and a good quality brush, and don't rush it - it might take more than one coat

I'm very fond of MP Miniature Paints as they're quite thin to start with, and have a nice liquidity to them - so they glaze well too - probably applied with a Master large flat drybrush. I'd thought about breaking out the tank brush, seems only fitting, but I'd worry about coverage; cheers Million, that's helped me settle on that.

Dont forget a gazillion rivets or itll be sent back to factory lol

Really like that so far!

I wouldnt have picked up on the noobness. Never tried something like this but I want to make my own battlewagon so I'm watching with intrigue and learning from your outcomes!

Looking pretty impressive.

inmygravenimage wrote:I'm very fond of MP Miniature Paints as they're quite thin to start with, and have a nice liquidity to them - so they glaze well too - probably applied with a Master large flat drybrush. I'd thought about breaking out the tank brush, seems only fitting, but I'd worry about coverage; cheers Million, that's helped me settle on that.

No probs, thanks for taking the time to post the WIP. I've heard bad things about the official GW tank brush - I just tend to use a large sable brush for larger things

That's impressive. I'd like to see it finished

Looking good so far. Keep going!

Looking good!

Cheers for all the positive feedback, folks

Okay, so, onwards.

The rear hull's detailing was next on my list. For the exhausts, I used 4 plastic test tubes, courtesy of the wife. The metal plates are from LAB, the barrels are plastic checkers pieces stuck together on old-style dozer blade struts cut down, plus some rhino bits for detail. The armoured plate on the turret, incidentally, was another experiment that didn't survive.


Next up was hatch detailing. I filed and cut some old rhino plates for hatches, and added a set of very tatty roof doors to the front section.
Also, Gothic Lights were added to the top of the sponsons and the a/c, smoke launchers added and a couple of turret hatches, one mounted inside another checkers piece (grotesque americanism, but hey, it's thanksgiving), metal ring to barrel of main gun, random semi circles of plastic inside the demolisher mount, and a commander that demands to be driven closer that he might hit them with his sword.


Tracks were then added - very tedious, I might add. I only used 7 sets of wheels in the end, rather than 10, as they're chunky.

In the side view you can see some other detail, cut down sentinel exhausts, chimera plates etc.


And here it is - not quite finished but as it stands just now. Overall, I'm pretty happy!

Looks good! Cant wait to see that painted and possibly compared to an actual Baneblade?

1.) That's incredible

2.) I'd like to know more about these baby food lids you used for the wheels. I can't seem to find much on Google. Is this a UK only thing?

Great use of bits, cheers!

Ouze wrote:1.) That's incredible

2.) I'd like to know more about these baby food lids you used for the wheels. I can't seem to find much on Google. Is this a UK only thing?

1) Ta!

2) Peter Rabbit smoothies, which are available in the US (well, amazon us, so presumably stores too), use the same style safety lids:

http://www.amazon.com/Peter-Rabbit-Organics-Strawberry-3-5-Ounce/dp/B0026KP4GC/ref=sr_1_19?ie=UTF8&s=grocery&qid=1259239055&sr=1-19

Don't say I'm not good to you

Very impressive. That foam core that you use doesnt have 2 sheets of paper with foam inbetween now does it. I mean judging on the pics it looks like pure foam, or am i wrong.

That's damned nice. How much did that cost in materials?

Thanks for all the support folks!

@ Judge_Fear: It's foamcore between paper alright. Occasionally frays when cutting, even with a really sharp blade, which is mildly irritating.

@infilTRAITOR: £23.55 so far; I just bought a LR Crusadr radar dish for 40p as I think it'll look snazzy.

Well it looks pretty good so far. Very nice job. Just a warning when painting the foamcore tho. If your planning on using spray, you might want to cover the foamcore with something first. Regular model paint, a spackle of some kind, simply because spray paint will eat foam core for breakfast, and then youll be at square one again lol.
Good luck

looks awesome, just one thing....needs moar rivets!

Look great in deed, but more rivet would improve the look.

Man that looks awesome! Great job!

That is REALLY cool.

I worry that too many rivets will start to look silly (sacriliege, I know). Bear it mind that it's modelled on the Mars Alpha LR (which is surprisingly low on the rivet quotiant). Having said that, I suspect some more rivetty bits will appear - couple of door panels etc - and I've just started adding strips to the top and bottom of each sponson. I've got the card cut, I just haven't hammered them yet - can't be done whilst 2yr old is asleep, probably be sunday morning at this rate.

Wow, that is a very impressive scratch build. Good job. Looking forward to seeing it painted.

Question: Why a Baneblade? It does looik bigger than the plastic kit (perhaps you think it too small) but for the effort you could have had a Stormhammer, or something else unavailable.