New Paint Fears

I write this from Colorado, where I have been skiing in the continental divide. While traversing double blacks and bowls, I find myself worried about paint. I should be worried about cliff or rocks or other things suggested by the extreme terrain markers, but instead I am worried that all the effort I have put into learning the specific properties of gw paints is for nought. Despite this, I embrace the change. The whole new paint line seems designed to make beautiful results achievable by anyone. This is a good thing. I believe the new recipe book and paints are going to improve the quality of the models we see, which is great for the hobby. Several of the blogs I read have already tentatively endorsed the change made by gw. I think if we were to take off our jaded glasses and approach painting with new eyes, we'd probably be really excited. I think the loss of hard won paint knowledge is just a fear we will all have to get over. I for one, am really excited about the dry brush paint. Fear is the mind killer.

Scratch Building A Ragnarok Part 2

So after hours and hours of sanding, waiting for liquid green stuff to dry, and then more sanding, I just decided to prime the model to see how it would look. As this is just a proof of concept, I am ok with the irregular construction. I hadn't planned this to be a practice run, but hey, that's how things work out sometimes. I've learned quite a bit during the construction.

1. I need to find a better way to cut out patterns. It was incredibly difficult to get anything to come out properly. I am quite pleased that the tank fit together at all.
2. Don't use sanding to get parts to fit. If cut properly they should fit the first time.
3. Don't rush ahead and put on rivets before all the sanding is done.
4. Use as little glue on rivets as possible. Any pooling at all will mess up the integrity of the design.
5. Measure rivet locations just as precisely as cutting the plastic.
6. Casting links is incredibly boring, and despite being able to pressure case, I find myself just letting bad casts through. I think on this model it will look ok since I can just mud up the tracks.
7. Pressure cast. My pressure casts are near perfect now. It just takes longer. 
8. Add more plates to the body overall, and use something as a spacer. 
9. Make just a turret next time.
10. There are always 10 bullets. 

I wish I had made more progress, since this tank is meant to serve as the base for a test paint job, but a friends 30th birthday got in the way, along with the resulting two day hangover! 

Scratch Building a Ragnarok Pt 1

With two cuts now bandaged, lots of green stuff to sand, and only 4 track links cast, I present you the first and maybe only ragnarok of the 413th DKOK. Working without all the proper tools made this build particularly difficult, but it was a load of fun none the less. I plant to test the tracks out and then decide afterwards if I am going to model a cleaner version. It has been a really long time since I have tried to scratch build like this, so my unsteadiness shows. I do see this as a sort of gateway drug. Once it is sanded, tracked, and painted, I am going to want to build more things like this. Just like painting, I can see that there are a whole host of tricks and techniques that I do not know. Scratch building is like painting for the first time, which makes it really exciting. Wading into the depths of a new skill really invigorates the hobby for me. I wish I had tried something like this earlier.

Caestus Assault Ram Weathered

I tried to keep the weathering of the CAR down to a minimum, and I think I succeeded in part. My normal weathering is pretty heavy handed, so I wanted to show that the CAR was in heavy use, but not totally trashed due to crashing into things all the time. I missed quite a few angles when I was trying to weather the thing due to the sheer size of the model. I've been finding it increasingly difficult to work with these large models and my current light source, so a revamp of my work area is in order.

I took a shot of the Ultramarines force as it is coming together right now. I managed to snag an original las/plas razorback turret, which adds one more original tank type to the legion forces. All these ultras need now is a Tallarn IG force supporting them. I think that will provide an interesting contrast in colors and in cultures.

Unfortunately for my painting, I've gotten the scratch building bug. I don't know what it is, but modeling ADD has been afflicting me a lot recently. For instance, I painted up that gigantic necron force only to leave it almost finished sitting on top of an ikea display cabinet. Maybe I need to play a game or something.

Another Old School Predator and Rhino

Two more old school vehicles have joined my Ultramarines Legion motor pool.  The rhino was in much better condition than most of my tanks, so it was a breeze to paint. The Predator required a little more work, since I had to added the sloped nose, as well as fabricate four exhausts. Fortunately I think it was worth all the work. I think the tanks look like they belong together despite the older metal turret being slightly out of scale. I was hoping that the not so subtle paint jobs would add cohesion to the force.

The Cassius is still on deck, but as you can see from the last two shots, I am experimenting with water slide rivets. The verdict so far is that they do not work well if paint is going to be applied over them. They certainly do not work well enough for me to make good molds and not loose the detail. I may have to make rivets the old fashioned way, which will make my scratch building project take that much longer. I've already tested the design with paper cutouts, and am ready to move on to the next step.

Three hints:

1. I just bought quite a bit of tallarn on ebay along with FW mumaks
2. I have a large DKOK army cleaned and ready to be built
3. Both of those armies can use what I am building. 

I'll let you guess what I am building.

Cassius Assault Ram Nearing Completion

 I made a lot of progress on the 2nd original predator and rhino, but those will have to wait till the lighting improves in my office/painting den. On the other hand, the Cassius is so large that I have a hard time getting photos of it under any lighting conditions, so may I present the C.A.R. #1 of the Ultramarines!

Despite all kinds of build problems, I have been having an immensely good time painting this guy. I know I said I was going to add some 4th company green to it, but that may have to wait. I am not going to dust the RAM like I did the tanks, since this thing would be far away from dust, but what about weathering?  Are RAMS's one use kind of things? I love the chipped metal effect on the tanks, so I am eager to do it to this guy, but would a CAR ever be reused, I mean this thing crashes into starships and titans as its SOP.