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monkeytroll wrote:How did you find covering up the previous weathering? I've been playing with sponges a bit and I'm guessing I'll be using it on my urban guard (whenever I get back to them ), which already have some scratches and chips on.

The previous weathering powders vanished with the gloss coating as they hadn't been fixed on, so it was just a case of targeting the previous chipping with the sponge when working on the newer stuff. When chipping a dark coloured tank I'd suggest picking a lighter colour for the chipping, otherwise (as you can see) it won't show up very well. Something like a red-ish brown or lighter grey should do the job providing a contrast.

I've been having a play around with different colours and so far I'm liking a camo that uses Dheneb Stone, Graveyard Earth and Shadow Grey. It's got interesting contrasts, but still weathers very easily.

This really is impressive stuff, and is making think hard about new ways of using tamiya powders. Also, lost your email, eaten by norton - are you going to scratch build a malcador?

Eventually I'll have a go at building a malcador, but I've got quite a few other bits I need to finish off first. Least of which is the tank I started back before christmas!

Is that the plasticard one with a stretched and widened hull?

I'm looking forward to seeing that finished off

YOUR BACK YAY!

I am still here; have no fear. I tried to respray one of my Chimera on friday, so I had something to work on in front of the tv, but my airbrush seems to be refusing to play ball. Air is coming through nice and strong, but no paint, so I need to dismantle it and re-clean everything to see where the blockage is.

Warhammer World's staff continue to lose millions of points as, for the second week running, my Macharius failed to turn up. Once again they numbskull didn't pass through the order to Forgeworld, even though he said he had.

Thankfully Forgeworld gain a billion points for being thoroughly nice people and sending out the order this morning without any indication that I'd ever actually placed the order!

Are you using my airbrush? I'm having the exact same problem

Unfortunately mine is a really cheap all in one piece airbrush, so I might have to just soak it in some cleaner fluid.

And hopefully this means you will get two and only pay for one

I was just thinking that Silver!

2for1 ftw!

SilverMK2 wrote:Are you using my airbrush? I'm having the exact same problem

Unfortunately mine is a really cheap all in one piece airbrush, so I might have to just soak it in some cleaner fluid.

Looking around in them there interwebz. There are two causes for this. 1) the needle isn't fastened in tight enough and isn't being withdrawn when you press the button. Or 2) It's gunked up.

I had a fiddle with mine and I think I need to soak mine as t needle won't come out of the airbrush, even though the locking doofer-ma-whatsit has been removed... so I can only assume that something has gunked up the inside and needs clearing off. Any idea what the best thing is to dissolve dried on acrylic paint?

SilverMK2 wrote:And hopefully this means you will get two and only pay for one

It would be nice, but doubtful. I'll keep my fingers crossed though


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Minor update, but I went back tonight and started working a bit more on the Russ wannabe. Right this moment it is now fully enclosed, smoothed down and the gaps filled with putty. Tomorrow once the putty has dried I can sand that down too, so it's all nice and smooth; ready for some detailing.

Of course, what I forgot to show you all last night was what the tank now looks like placed together. The body is wonky because it's sat on a piece of foam and the side pieces are just balanced on, so neither are lined up properly...



The side trims will eventually slope up to meet the top of the body so they look a little bit more chunky. As for the rest of it, I certainly need to put rivets on there as well as some plate definition and hatches.

I've been sat here looking at it for about 10 minutes trying to work out what looks off about the model. I think the turret might actually be too small. Ah well, at least it gives me the chance to make something that won't castrate anyone looking out the cupola whenever it fires

Looking real good!

Seconded

endtransmission wrote:
I've been sat here looking at it for about 10 minutes trying to work out what looks off about the model. I think the turret might actually be too small. Ah well, at least it gives me the chance to make something that won't castrate anyone looking out the cupola whenever it fires

I have found that, next to the older style of turret, these new ones have a lower profile and, certainly, a smaller demolisher cannon. When I built my extended-hull Russ, it was very noticeable.

The Russ as a whole is a bit too small for my liking, so I'm not sure why it surprised me that the turret looks small on a much larger hull


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Some extra thoughts from this afternoon. The plan over the next week is to assemble bits to make a slightly longer, but much wider turret, with the cupola towards one side, like the standard (not Vulkan) Macharius turret and bump it forwards a bit so I can put some grilles or something at the back of the chassis. First up is to find a piece of pipe that's about the right size to make the cupola...

I also picked up a copy of this months Military Modelcraft International while browsing in WH Smiths at lunchtime as it had a couple of nice weathering articles and a spread of desert camo schemes for the Sherman II in 1942. I've not bought a modelling magazine since I stopped making planes when I was 14. It was a surprise to see things have moved on quite so much, with loads of reference photos and diagrams. I may have to look at future issues if I'm going to carry on building more and more tanks.

Loving your work sir!


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Argh! pesky buttons! I meant to say maybe elevate the turret slightly? Alternatively, try a Stormlord-style turret on it maybe? As in, very broad but relatively shallow?

Thank you sir!
The Stormlord doesn't have a rotating turret, which may bring up odd WYSIWYG rule queries when using this new tank as a Russ if I need the turret and sponsons to fire in the correct firing arcs.

I like the idea though and may use it as a modification to the hull once I have the Russ version done.

Last night I tried a Macharius turret on the body... that just looked stupidly massive. The only other option of a premade turret is the Baneblade, but I have no idea what size that is compared to the Russ and Macharius. Failing that I need to make something...

Size difference between baneblade and leman russ: turret is a little wider than the original body, minus the tracks, and about as long as the body. Not including the cannon


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Here's a couple of pictures to illustrate said difference: (Pardon the slight blurriness, I have a shaky hand and a camera phone)

Thanks for the size comparison, it's much appreciated!

Width wise it's about right for what I want, but it's a bit too long/tall and the armour plates on the sides are too thick. But it has given me a good idea of where to start, so off to the drawing board for me I guess.

Did I send you templates I used for scratchbuilding a Baneblade? You can see the results in my gallery, but it's a squatter version of the turret. Might suit.

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Apologies for cheeky hijack:


So the turret profile is lower, overall; you can use the dozer blade that I used as a cannon mount for quick scale reference. Also, and this isn't so clear, the back of the turret is a separate piece, so you could remove that altogether.

Looking good there.

You did send over the Baneblade, yes. I'd forgotten I had that here... Even if it's too big I can always resize the template before printing it out. Good plan, thank you!

This weekend I wasn't really in the mood to play around with card and I still havn't declogged my airbrush to start repainting the tanks, so I decided to revisit the troops uniforms instead.

Previously I painted them in Charadon Granite as this fitted the mining colony background that I'd come up with.


On single figures, or up close it looks quite nice, but take a step backwards and look at the whole army on a table and it blends into nothing-ness and looks like I've not actually painted anything. Combine this with the colour issues on the tanks and I felt a new, lighter scheme was called for.

The original plan was to switch to cream and/or light-ish blue, but in the end this grey one seemed to fit much more neatly. The blue will probably end up being used on the vets instead in order to differentiate them a bit more.



Wow. See my attention span! I just went back to post 1 and looked at the test scheme I did originally and, blow me down... it's pretty much this one. After 500 posts in this thread it seems I've gone back to the beginning

Aww, I liked your grey scheme

too late

Some elements will retain the original scheme, but mostly just the odd command squad here and there. As a proper camo scheme, the original (granite) paintjob worked too well and they just blended straight into their bases and the tabletop.

You obviously just need to fight in lush green jungle or psychedelic chaos world settings then!

I vote for crazy chaos worlds

This weekend has been a mixture of making stuff for my Guard and Red Scorpions... so both blogs get updates at the same time. Neat

I've done a tabletop quality repaint on the whole platoon (20 troopers and 3 weapon teams) to see how the new camo scheme works in a group. I have to say, I think it looks nicer than the brown, even though I know some of you prefer the old scheme.




I also cleaned up all the pieces for my shiny new Macharius that *finally* arrived. *Mmmm* Macharius.


The Macharius came with a number of different options for the side sponsons, but they are so fragile that magnetising them will be an absolute pain. Inside each sponson is a rotating cylinder that you stick the gun to; no holes, no mounting... nothing. I'd be a bit worried that just sticking the thin barrels onto the cylinder wouldn't last... so I've decided that the better option is to create new weapons that include the cylinder mount so it's possible to just magnetise this whole thing into the sponson instead. It also means that if done correctly, I can use the same weapons for the Russ'

Have you thought about filling the sponson with something like polyfiller so you end up with a nice solid piece to drill into so you can pin/magnetise weapons more easily?

The weapons, other than heavy bolters, that come with it are so spindly that I don't think there's really any point in trying to use them; hence making whole new weapons to go into the sponsons.

Fair enough. Shame the weapons are a bit wussy, as the tank itself looks damn cool.

The tank is really really nice. It weighs a ton (not literally) as the kit comes in very few pieces. What you're seeing in the photo above consists of three pieces. The hull top, the turret and the front sponson top.

I was also expecting to have to carefully assemble all of the track pieces, but they come pre-cast onto the track units. There's very little cleanup to do and only a couple of pieces are warped... so all in all I'm impressed. I should put a figure next to it too as the photo doesn't make it's size clear... it's huge!