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Hey everyone.

Thought I'd post some WIP shots (not the best, as they are taken from my phone) of my first tactical squad Razorbacks.

I have the Rhino hatch on my workbench, so at some point I'll be painting that up to match, so it can be used as either.

This is the first of the four I need for my tactical squads, but I'll be working on two for now (as I need them done for an upcoming tournament).





This Razorback is a treat to myself, as I have slogged my way through a 10 man squad - and I really hate painting infantry. Next up will be the second tactical squad, then their Razorback, then some scouts, and a Landspeeder, some Vanguard and a Drop pod...you get the picture - paint some infantry, reward myself with a lovely vehicle.

All in all, the Razorback has taken around 6 hours from a black undercoat. The hardest part was masking off the yellow areas, which is a real faff on a very angular vehicle.

Just out of interest - how many people out there would comission a tank like this? I've never done any comission work before but if I set myself up to only paint vehicles I reckon I would quite enjoy it. Do you think it's good enough? I suppose I'd have to have some cleaner looking vehicles in my portfolio too.

Anyways. I rambled a bit there.

tl:dr

What do you think of the tank?

The Razorback looks great - definitely salable. Not sure how much call there'd be for a vehicle-only painting service, though. I could see the average painter having an easier time with infantry than tanks (don't have airbrush equipment, harder to "assembly line" to good effect, greater time investment to finish each "step" completely (necessary for continuity over large surface areas), etc.) and wanting the help, but I could also see you being glossed over in favor of studios that do entire armies. From what I've seen, people tend to commission entire armies or single display models - I've seen plenty of vehicles done as part of the former, but rarely as the latter. Closest examples were done at a squad, not army, level, with a pimped out tank and the unit that will ride in it (frequently including a named character) commissioned together.

Add on the standard caveats about painting on commission (the ever so delicate balance of time/effort, price, and quality being first and foremost) and you've got quite a bit to consider. If you don't jump in too deep from the start, though, I'm sure you'd find a few customers and make some money. Whether your gains would be worth the time and effort expended, however, is the sticky bit.

But yeah, nice tank.

Loving the tank. I can't really comment on the commission as I wouldn't ever have someone else paint my little army men.

I am curious, did you just stipple the damage on with a sponge?

It looks great and I am starting to paint some of my Ork vehicles and would like to recreate the damage you have done here.

Yeah, the chips are stippled on with a sponge.

I've found the trick to getting decent looking chips is never to use black, always use a very dark colour that is complimentary to your base. In this instance I used a very dark mix of old GW Terracotta and Black.

Just a quick bump to see if anyone else has any thoughts on the tank?

Looks good, I like the battle damage and the colors.

I have two issues:
I'm not sure if you meant it this way, but the turret is on backwards. The gun mount should be closest to the rear of the vehicle.
I love the grime/rust streaks on the sides but the one ones on the topside of the tank don't belong. That kind of streaking is reserved for aircraft or fast moving vehicles. If the tank moved fast enough to cause that, the streaks on the side would exhibit a similar effect.

Overall, the tank is fantastic and you should be proud of your work. I also have to say 6 hours isn't that much time when looking at how nice the finished product is; it looks like you spent way more time on it than that!

I did mean to put it on that way, aye.

I find it balances the model a little better - as when it's on the correct way the ammo feeds have nowhere to go.

This way it looks like those hatches are a way to get into ammo hoppers or something.

It also steals a couple of inches on the assault cannons range.


Do you think the grim around the rivets on top should just be static then? It's oil so I can still mess with it. I could blend the steaks back into the panel and have a general ring of dirt on the rivet.

The tank looks ace
I have seen the hatch both ways, I also like it more to he middle of the hull. It is the same with Land Raiders, you can put the sponsons both to the front or to the back hatch.