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That's looking pretty cool, can't wait to see it finished.

I love it but the stalker is a but static, how about curving it a bit?

todeswind wrote:I love it but the stalker is a but static, how about curving it a bit?

I still can, and will try to give it as much of a curve as possible before finish it.

A short update today. Unfortunately, one of my co-workers has left for a better job, and other coworkers are cramming in their vacation days, so I've had a rough last week which will continue until they eventually find a replacement. But, here's what I got:

Here are the legs, which I attached to a piece of cardboard with blu-tac and then sprayed with black enamel from Lowe's.



Yes, I used a giant roll of christmas wrapping paper to protect my desk. It works well, and it's cheap.

To try and save time, I decided I'd attempt airbrushing the legs instead of using a brush. Definitely a tradeoff.



The tradeoff being, I spent less time then it would have taken to paint all that junk, but used at least twice as much paint, too. I wound up using about 40\30\30 Boltgun Metal\P3 Pig Iron\Flow Improver. I used the P3 because I was very unimpressed with it, as I am with the rest of P3's metallics. In this particular case, though, it served well as boltgun metal filler. I counted drops - I'd say I used about 50 drops of paint. I'm pretty sure if I was hand-painting I could have used less then a drop per leg and maybe 2 drops for each of the big mini-leg sprues. The airbrush is a real pig for paint. In this case, the airbrush is a Badger 150.

I own 2 airbrushes, and have mixed feelings about them. I had all these grandiose dreams of being a fantastic artist with them... I'm not very good with oils or brush painting, but I can draw decently enough and can be a quick study. It never came together, though; I had too many technical problems with the airbrush. I got my compressor on clearance from an air store. It's Paasche D500 I think, or a cheap Chinese knockoff. I'm not sure if it's my lack of skills, or the compressor, or what, but I can never seem to get the fine lines requires for good work. It's always spattering, and randomly spitting, and clogging. I had to add an aftermarket regulator\moisture trap from Harbor Freight to it, and my settings are right; I'm outputting exactly the 30psi required. Despite that, the finest I can get is a half inch wide no matter which needle\head attachment I use. I got a bunch of stencils, and had poor luck with those as well, the paint was always being very blurry around the stencil lines. My lack of skill along with how long it takes to clean after using it for even just a few minutes has proved a severe disincentive to using it.

I tried getting a better airbrush, a Renegade Series Spirit. I love that it uses a gravity feed, and you can put the bowl on either side in any position. I especially like being able to use it like a pen with the bowl pointing up. It comes in a very stylish case, as well. Have a look.



and here it is with all it's stuff:



I love when I use this one, because I feel like an artist. I also hate when I use this one, because I know I'm not; I'm just a fraud who found an extremely expensive, loud, and tedious way to quickly basecoat models.

Looks good! I had no idea forgeworld gave out free grape soda with the tomb stalker!

How does a dremel work for pinning? I own a dremel, but have yet to try it out on any models. I'm kind of scared!

Holy crap, so many little fiddly parts.

Love how it's looking (especially that base!) and I'm certainly excited to see how it turns out. I like the idea that you had of stringing it together with wire to get a pose down first - very smart idea.

The big thing with airbrushes once you get used to them is that they make highlighting and blending super easy.

Invest in some low tack masking tape from a hobby store. You can get some pretty thin stuff.

Oh, and take a look @ different paints, and keep an eye on your pressure.

My Dad used to swear by Tamiya paints for airbrushing, thinned with high % Isopropyl alcohol. GW Paint doesnt react well with alcholol though.

Wow this thread is awesome and thanks for the decal tip!

Samus_aran115 wrote:How does a dremel work for pinning? I own a dremel, but have yet to try it out on any models. I'm kind of scared!

Assuming you're using the same 1/64th width pins I am (thinner then a paper clip) then it's a real finger saver for when you're doing a lot of pins at once. For 1/8th pins (or for magnetizing) it's the only way to fly.

It should not be used on metal models at all: the torque and high speed just causes the bits to snap unexpectedly. I broke about 4 before I realized I really should be doing it by hand.

wolfshadow wrote:The big thing with airbrushes once you get used to them is that they make highlighting and blending super easy.

Invest in some low tack masking tape from a hobby store. You can get some pretty thin stuff.

On the note of low tack masking tape, it's also great for vehicle camo. Undercoat, then tape up the area's you want to keep black, basecoat it (so a green jungle one, go with a dark green of your choice), then you can add different shades of green in the pattern you wish.

This is cool, nice to see the progression. Keep it up!!

The funniest thing I've read all day was the tiny resin for the resin throne. Thank you.

OK, here's an update. We're in the middle of a blizzard here, so I stayed home and did some painting. Well, assembling more then painting, but whatever.

First, I cleaned all the channels that the legs were going to go into, so that when I glued the legs in place, there would be a resin to resin join. I didn't have to clean the tops of the legs because the blu-tac that held them to the cardboard when I primed and painted them also masked them. To clear the channels, I used a 1/8th inch drill tip on the dremel, and at a low speed, pressed it into each well where a leg goes. I didn't use any pressure - remember, not actually drilling! - just enough to rub off the 2 layers of paint. Essentially kissed the drillbit to each well for half a second. Go slow, get a comfortable position - we need to repeat this 4 times per segment and control is utmost in this. Takes about 2 minutes.


those are some pretty messy kisses

Here are some of the legs glued into position. You're really going to want a gel type superglue and some kicker, or else you're going to be here all night.

On a side note, when I was going to Lowe's to get more spray paint, I stopped by the multitool aisle to get more cutoff wheels, and spied the chuck you see installed atop the dremel now. Best $10 I've used in a while... no more monkeying with that little wrench and my 3 different sized collets.


Sponsored by Loc-tite!


I had planned to use some washes on the legs after they went into place, so that some of it would settle in the new joins and make it look better. Unfortunately I jumped the gun and glued it to the base without washing the legs. That was a mistake; I should have washed the legs with Devlan Mud first. It looks like it's very hard to see the underside anyway, so maybe not a dealbreaker, but if I could do it over again, I'd do that differently.

Here we are nearly assembled.


and I'll form the head!

Still need to paint the eyes, the gauss... things, and wash the legs as best as I can before gluing in the head. I'm considering give the stalker a glossy coat to contrast with the rest of my army, as I did with the Monolith, to indicate it's a construct and not a Necron. Haven't really decided on that yet. I'm also going to magnetize the antennae - I've got some teeny magnets I think will work for that, 1/16th or so. Maybe smaller.

Very cool! I am sure that will make a very striking centerpiece for the necrons.

Kiliiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiilll it! KILL IT WITH FIRE!


Looks good.

Great work

So good, I love it. I really should invest in a dremal

wow thats such a cool model.

I LOVE the base!! I especially enjoy the space marine that was torn in half. Great project.

I gotta say I love this blog. The little comments after the pics make me lol each time.

Firstly I like this because it is not SM or IG.
Secondly there is a dead Space Smurf.
Thirdly it is a awesome base.
Fourthly a really interesting breakdown of a model I haven't seen before.

The only thing I can think of is would there be blood or scratches on its claws considering it just shredded a Rhino and its riders....

I'm thinking of getting a tomb stalker too, I like how you drilled the pieces and put em on wire. Consider your idea stolen!

Living Necron metal wouldnt scratch. It's impervious to such mundane things as ceremete.

Blood, maybe.

Very cool, I love it.

It looks a little shiny to me. Necrons have just awoken from millenia of slumber, I saw somewhere the age would have worn off the shine.

Corax wrote:It looks a little shiny to me. Necrons have just awoken from millenia of slumber, I saw somewhere the age would have worn off the shine.

If you're referring to the legs, then yes, they are too shiny: I haven't yet washed them. I hope to do that in the next few days. Unfortunately, my job has been making quite unreasonable demands on my time as of late; but they are adamant I won't get paid unless I come in. They're quite sticky about that.

The Tomb Stalker has passed the point where I can work on it at work, unless I want it to come home in more pieces then I took it in. Tonight it will be my Iron Warrior legs instead. I also got a bunch of Litko markers from my mom for my birthday, so those too.

Kawaii!!

I've always thought the tomb stalker was awfully cute myself.

Why haven't you finished this?! It's so close to done!

I have a ton of models that get to this stage - very nearly done, and then... eh. I can't seem to find the last few hours to finish them. I'm going to try and get this done, hopefully this weekend.

Ahh, that's a problem I recognise, get to the last few details and then I spot some shiny new stuff to play with

In the immortal words of the Mortal kombat announcer :

Aw man. Now I want to start up a new Necron army. Very well done.