Forum adverts like this one are shown to any user who is not logged in. Join us by filling out a tiny 3 field form and you will get your own, free, dakka user account which gives a good range of benefits to you: No adverts like this in the forums anymore. Times and dates in your local timezone. Full tracking of what you have read so you can skip to your first unread post, easily see what has changed since you last logged in, and easily see what is new at a glance. Email notifications for threads you want to watch closely. Being a part of the oldest wargaming community on the net. If you are already a member then feel free to login now.

And the second squad...




And both squads together - which completes the whole army! I'll try and get a full army shot at some point...

Those Oblits are utterly sick. I love them. Even the Space Crusade missile launcher looks good.

In fact, I love all of the rank and file in this army.

Do you think there is any chance of adding some of the cabling to the Rhino and Predator? I feel they need a little something extra.

Fifty wrote:Those Oblits are utterly sick. I love them. Even the Space Crusade missile launcher looks good.

In fact, I love all of the rank and file in this army.

Do you think there is any chance of adding some of the cabling to the Rhino and Predator? I feel they need a little something extra.

Thanks Fifty! I'll have a look at adding come cabling around the tube stacks. One of the issues with the tube tools is that the plates are only about 1.5" square - so making long tubes is quite difficult...

2014! COMPLETE REBUILD!!!

So, the quick rebase and wash got me through the last couple of years but those 2005 paint jobs are still bothering me, a couple of codexes have come and gone and the army needs a rejig.

So, I thought I'd go the whole hog and do a complete rebuild and paint!

- New pale purple colour scheme to be achieved quickly with AIRBRUSHING and WEATHERING! (My first attempt)
- Make all the sonic weapons consistent across the army (recasting the old ones where necessary)
- Change the RT Rhino and Predator models for some conversions using Ramshackle vehicles (the original Preds are going into a pre-Heresy Imperial army)
- Massive bunch of Cultists from Necromunda models
- Heldrake, Helbrutes, Helmaulerfiend and other Heldaemonengines

The first step in this is to disassemble and strip the whole army. This task is what has stopped me doing this sooner - I just can't be bothered. But a quick internet search turned up these guys - http://www.iwantapaintedarmy.co.uk/services/paint-stripping-service - who offer a paint stripping service for a pretty reasonable price. Thus, every troop model has been boxed up and sent to Gateshead! I imagine they'll take a few weeks to get back, so in the meantime I'll start with the big models and try and get my painting method sorted.

This is the sort of scheme I'm looking at - from rwzimmerman and magic8ball (spoilered as they're not MY photos).

I want the same purple base, but much paler, and dirtier. I'm planning to spray lavender, airbrush highlight REALLY pale lavender, paint some gold/silver areas, then oil wash and dirt wash and weather with dusty grey ground.

------------------------

Phase 1 - Rhino Vehicles

Since all the basic troops are off being stripped, I'm going to start with the Rhino chassis. The new vehicles will be based on four Ramshackle Iron Grumler models I've had lying around since they were £8 each about four years ago! They're gonna need a lot of work, but I think they'll look good as weathered early-mark Rhinos. This is the Ramshackle image...



Now, some big changes need to be made. First, the body needs to sit lower (level with the tracks) and the nose pushed back a bit. This should be easy - the Iron Grumbler comes as four main pieces.



The thing is, it's also a little large for a Rhino, too. Here's it next to one of my Arbites chassis.



And moving the nose back makes it much longer. So, I'm planning to take the engine section and chop off the turbine/vent section, leaving only the raised 'back' bit. If anything, this will make it a couple of mm too short, but much closer to Rhino size. The turbines will become some interesting terrain!



The other thing about Ramshackle stuff is that the separate blocks are designed as conversion parts, so they have detail on sides you never usually see. I'm going to sand down a lot of the detail work on the inside of the track sections and outside of this body section so the overall width decreases and the parts fit together better.



And finally, I have four of the Iron Grumlber kits. Two will be turned into Rhinos and two will be turned into Predators, using these old boxy 2ed Predator turrets - I think they'll look good on the battered frame.



Should start the sanding and chopping later this morning...!



Automatically Appended Next Post:
Spent all day on the Rhinos, starting with using a large rotational sander on all the parts to remove the rivets that aren't seen, and chopping off the engine blocks. After this, the basic four parts were put together with green stuff and glue and all the extras attached. The two Rhinos have side hatches and circular hatches on top. The two Predators have the turret plates.



I then went and Chaosified them - all have smoke launchers and the two Rhinos have the old IG spiky Searchlights. Then various chaos accessories were added to make them spikier..



And finally, I removed the 'noise tubes' from my two old RT Preadators and attached them to the new turret.



There's still a lot of filling left to go, which I hope I'll get done during the week - a lot of the hatches and exhaust bits just 'bolt on' leaving a lot of gaps, and there are still gaps between the body and the track sections. So, lots of Milliput to start filling with!!

This evening, I'm going to strip the paint from the other turret and construct the Predators' side sponsons.


Automatically Appended Next Post:
And at the end of the day - TWO PREDATORS!

I made the side lascannons out of some long Chaos muzzles and some exhausts from the Leman Russ kit. The rest of the metal parts are the old 2ed Predator.

Nice work with the Iron Grumblers. I like the Ramshackle stuff I use their models as trucks in my Ork army. Good luck with the strippers.

Having missed the thread entirely the first time round very much looking forward to seeing how stuff progresses. Especially so now I've seen those tanks, had no idea they existed till you posted em and I'm rather the instant fan of the models.

Llamahead wrote:Nice work with the Iron Grumblers. I like the Ramshackle stuff I use their models as trucks in my Ork army. Good luck with the strippers.

Thanks - yes, I'm not sure how long it will take for the stripping, but hopefully I'll get a nice shiny box of bits back in the next few weeks!

Ignatius-Grulgor wrote:Having missed the thread entirely the first time round very much looking forward to seeing how stuff progresses. Especially so now I've seen those tanks, had no idea they existed till you posted em and I'm rather the instant fan of the models.

Well, they can be found at http://ramshacklegames.co.uk along with lots of other things. I'm a big fan of these not-Rhinos - they look a bit like the oversized Heresy-era prototypes from the Visions of Heresy books.

I'd be aware, though, that they need a fair amount of work to get up to scratch - the resin is smelly, heavy and quite brittle and there are a lot of bumps, bubbles, etc. Not nearly as easy to work with as FW or Finecast resin!

MOAR WORK DONE!

I've finally got around to filling the vehicles - Milliput in all the cracks to make them look a bit better...



I've also drilled and added a flat magnetisation point to the back corner of the hull on every vehicle, for upgrades



And then built the first batch! Three Havoc Launchers and two Dirge Casters. The Havoc Launchers are built from IG Searchlight backs, some plastic tubing, some plasticard riveted sheeting and a variety of different missiles from the bits box...



Here's how they look on the vehicles

Massive gap while I was away for work and ordering LOTS of new toys and modelling supplies.

I've had my first ever go at airbrushing! I'm really getting to like my new airbrush setup after this - spray painted the tanks the base pink colour and then mixed up a paler shade for highlights and here's the progress so far.

(My good camera is at work so apologies for the dodgy-colour-balanced iPhone photos!)





I also sprayed the tracks and dozers silver, and I've started on the rest of the base colours - mostly silver and gold. Then I'm going to town on the weathering.

The airbrush makes things REALLY fast. I like this.

Congrats on the first airbrush experience! Will definitely need some more photos with colour balance when you can get em as it's hard to tell they're even pink in some of them

Looks like the colours went on nice and smooth though, airbrushing base coats does indeed make things really fast, and smoother, and easier to blend, I could go on about how much I love it too.

 Ignatius-Grulgor wrote:
Congrats on the first airbrush experience! Will definitely need some more photos with colour balance when you can get em as it's hard to tell they're even pink in some of them

Looks like the colours went on nice and smooth though, airbrushing base coats does indeed make things really fast, and smoother, and easier to blend, I could go on about how much I love it too.

Thanks - yes, I'll get some better photos when I'm back in the country. The first image is closest to the real colour. The actual base layer is spray painted, and then I used the airbrush for panel highlighting and grading, which I've never tried before, and then to very quickly mask off and paint the tracks.

I've got a week off and I've been busy!

I've been away for a few weeks, during which time my minis arrived back from the stripper. He didn't charge me for most of the plastics as he said he was having a really hard time stripping them and once I got them back I could see why - not sure what method he was using but he seems to have been scraping the paint away? Seem like a terrible way to do it. Anyway, the majority of plastic were still paint covered, but all the expensive OOP metal parts came up really well.

So, I've taken all these bits and assembled the first part of the infantry, which will comprise..

24 x Noise Marines
12 x Raptors
2 x Sorcerers
1 x Jump Pack Lord
6 x Warp Talons



The bodies are mostly standard Chaos Marines or Berserkers (with the Khorne symbols taken off). This is the pile of arms, shoulder pads, heads and parts that need to be painted - OOP GW Noise marines of all eras, resin parts from Maxmini and Kromlech, all sorts.



I've also got Maxmini Jump Packs for the Raptors and Lord



The Lord himself is a conversion from an old Raptor Lord with various Slaanesh bits. I couldn't decide what to give him, so I magnetised one arms and made sword, claw and fist options.



The two Sorcerers are the old 2ed models



And the Warp Talons I'm not so sure about. I was gonna make them almost possessed with Gargoyle wings, but now I've actually done them, I think I prefer the jump pack look - the wings just look a bit silly. Might remove these and order more jump packs..



I then started CASTING! I want to use the 2ed-era Sonic weapons for all the Noise Marines. When I originally built this army, the GW Bitz service was still running and I ordered 12, which I still have, and then I filled in any Noise Marines built since with the newer weapons. The old ones are pretty hard to find now, especially as bits, so I've been recasting them to make up the numbers (along with the matching old Noise Marine backpack).



Here's an early attempt - lord of flash, but I think I can make it work...



More progress as the week goes on!

Assembly finished and I have the entire first batch ready for spraypainting.



The weapon arms for the Warp Talons



Noise Marine backpack casts



Icons from an old Chaos Warrior set

I love those old 2nd Ed Noisemarines bits! I'd have so many more if I could get my hands on them for a reasonable price.

And I really like your idea of using Daemonettes claws on the warp talons. I think you should stay with the wings on them.

Hmmm, tastes of chaos...yummy.

Like what you've done with the ramshackle grumblers, those really do have the feel of early marks

I like the gargoyle wings on the warp talons, the 'natural' winged look feels more Slaaneshi than jet packs to me.

I'm working on some Emperor's Children at the moment, too. Those old school metal noise marines are amazing. I'm looking forward to seeing your progress on them.

 monkeytroll wrote:
Hmmm, tastes of chaos...yummy.

Like what you've done with the ramshackle grumblers, those really do have the feel of early marks

Thanks! I finished them the other day and was so pleased with my first weathering/airbrushing attempts that I made a Showcase thread. I might go back and dirty up the decals a bit more, though..


Predator 1




Predator 2



Rhino 1




Rhino 2




Upgrades

Those do look very nice indeed, some lovely weathering there, good job!

But, yeah, think you need to touch up the decals a bit, they seem to really stand out at present.

OKAY. Progress since last time - I've gone through and done all the base colours on the whole first Infantry batch. Here they are, no backpacks, base colours done



And the Lord, Sorcerers and Warp Talons, this time with quite a lot of airbrushing on the cloaks and talons - not looking that obvious in these rough photos.



And here's the whole batch awaiting backpacks and weathering/washing.



Speaking of which, I've decided to recast the old Slaanesh Lord backpack to use as Doom Sirens. Here's the casts, and the backpacks I need to paint next!!



I finally picked up the last five Maxmini Jump Packs for the Warp Talons at Salute this weekend (yes, going for Jump Packs instead of Wings I think).

I also had a bit of 'cool chemicals day' - there are so many small resellers at Salute that you can just browse all the weird and wonderful modelling product for ages. Here's my haul...



- 4 weathering powders from ProPigments - some of the military modelling guys sent me over to them when I was asking about powders - apparently a lot of them had switched over to ProPigments from MIG.
- 2 simple acrylic primers from Miniature Painter - cheap at £1.50 each, and always useful. I'll probably thin these down for airbrushing and put them in bigger dropper bottles.
- 4 weathering dyes from Modelmates - I have one of their pots and one of their sprays already. They're water soluble dye that works a bit like an oil wash, but is water-based - after it's dry, you can pull it around with a wet cotton bud. They also do spray cans of this stuff.
- 1 Modelmates Verdigris - this is another dye, but formulated thicker so that it paints straight onto opaque surfaces.
- 6 Vallejo bits - someone was selling Model Colour paints at 6 for £10, but the rack included all the technical stuff too - I'm not sure if those were meant to be on offer! Anyway, I got three washes, some Plastic Putty, Metallic Medium and Liquid Mask.

I also picked up some cheap MDF city terrain and some Maxmini GravPistols - successful trip!

yeah,
Looks great mate.

What mdf terrain?

PAnic...

Started the second batch of infantry!!



I finished the first batch and even got a game in with Panic - battle report up soon - but noticed a few tweaks and details I wanted to paint differently before photographing them properly, so I'll get them online in a few days.

In the meantime, I started the second batch, consisting of..

- 3 differently armed champions for Noise Marines and Raptors
- 1 spare Noise Marine, so I can combine units
- 7 Chaos Terminators and a Terminator Lord
- 12 Havocs with 6 Missile Launchers (or a small CSM squad)
- Lucius conversion.

Here's Lucius, made from the front of a DV Chosen I had lying around, an old Chaos Warrior whip, Slaanesh power sword, and a GS cloak. He'll have a head from the old mutations sprue.




Chaos Terminators made from the old metals. Abbadon has been converted into the unit champion with some old Chaos Warrior bits. I don't like trophy racks, so all the slots were filled with milliput.



I think this is the old Chaos Terminator Sorcerer (??), made into my Lord by stealing Drach'nyen from Abbadon.



All the gun arms are magnetised, including these combi-plasmas made from old plastic plasma pistols.



I made 12 regular Chaos Marines - 2 Champions, 4 Bolters and 6 with missile launchers. I can field them as either 2 x 6 Havocs with 3 ML each, One smaller squad of Havocs, or a cheap CSM unit. I wanted them all to have the old Missile Launcher, so recast the weapon and the corresponding backpack..



And finally, additional unit champions. Raptor champion with a power sword (to use up my last jump pack), so that I can split my 12 Raptors into 2 squads. Two Noise Marine Champions, one with a power fist and doom siren, and one with a combi-plasma.

Yeah,
Looking good. will try and get the battle report photos online tonight.

The recast missile pack looks great, but you'll need to GS the missile warheads.
I still think you should think about getting some of the FW hersey autocanons.

Panic...

 Panic wrote:
Yeah,
Looking good. will try and get the battle report photos online tonight.

The recast missile pack looks great, but you'll need to GS the missile warheads.
I still think you should think about getting some of the FW hersey autocanons.

Panic...

Actually, I reckon those auto cannons might be more fun in the Iron Hands army I've been planning for ever! Maybe I could get some anyway, though I'm in danger of just having a million heavy support options and nothing else!

Meant to ask you if you have any spare regular boring chos marine heads? I've run out!

Yeah, I'm going to have to go over a lot of the missiles - the missile luncher pieces came out really well, but the front of the missiles were often lost. Looks like I'm gonna have an afternoon of rolling green stuff into little cones...

Yeah,
Your still doing the iron hands? fYi Dark sphere have a few copies of Clan Raukaan. £24.

Panic...

Nice looking army really like the Lord

Finally got around to taking photos of the first batch.

Chaos Lord


Sorcerers



Warp Talons



Noise Marines Squad 1



Noise Marines Squad 2





Noise Marines Squad 3




Raptors

So cool.

Those Rhinos look great and very chaotic. Screams that they've been at war for thousands of years (Warp relative of course!).

The muted pink was an excellent choice. I feel your colour scheme and modelling has really brought all your bits together incredibly well.

Neo-Retro Noise Marines a go go!

Don't see Slanesh armies very often. Subbed!

 Medium of Death wrote:
So cool.

Those Rhinos look great and very chaotic. Screams that they've been at war for thousands of years (Warp relative of course!).

The muted pink was an excellent choice. I feel your colour scheme and modelling has really brought all your bits together incredibly well.

Neo-Retro Noise Marines a go go!

Thanks! I'm much happier with this scheme. As I've got better at painting over the years, paler armies have become the norm. Certianly when I painted this army the first time around, I wasn't aware of things like washes, and so having most of the model black was an easy way of getting them painted quickly. The weathering also really helps hide all the different bits and influences, as you say (and the fact that there are some dodgy recasts in there!!)

Updates! I've finished painting and sponge weathering the second batch. All that remains is the oil wash and the bases! Here they are all shiny and glossy ready for their oil bath...

Champions


Havocs


Lucius


Terminators