Original Rhino, Predator, And Vindicator Refurb Pt 3

The transfers and base coats are done. Most of the details are not painted, but enough is done for me to see that this is the Ultramarines force I have always wanted. There are a lot of missing elements that will help tell the story. One of those is the stowage that I plan to add to each tank. I picked up some gauss to experiment with as well, which I hope will make one of the rhinos look like it is carrying a lot of stuff.  My plan is to build a replacement top hatch that has the equipment on it, which I can remove and use as objectives, or just have sitting separately. Another missing element is a deep warm red, which will be added by way of the sensor part of the spot light bit. I have all four of those ready for paint, and can't wait to add some warmth, and gloss to the model. Over all, I think this is not bad for a lazy Saturday!

I think I may want to enter this army in the Armies on Parade competition, but that makes my Herculean effort spent painting minty Necrons a wash. It also means I will have to build a new display board. Additionally the competition says that FW stuff is not allowed. Ideally I want to use my FW dreads, LR, and early mark troops, but I think that might be frowned upon.  In any case I plan to paint up a squad of scout bikers to add to the army.

Original Rhino, Predator, And Vindicator Refurb Pt 2

My MKI rhino painting factory has begun! First off, I had a bear of a time cleaning up the remainder of the tanks. Some of the models were in just terrible condition after I had stripped most of the paint away. In order to deal with the deficiencies, I am going to heavily weather these guys, making the broken bits battle damage, and the chunky repaint areas rust. In these photos the first round of dev mud is on the tanks, hopefully settling in as very light shading. I can see some areas where the wash is pooling kind of grayish, but it is too late to do much about it. The next step will be the rust weathering around the rivets. After that I'll apply the decals before chipping the paint and adding the dust on the tracks and lower portions of the tanks. I've decided to add a lot of dark grey storage containers on the tanks, as well as search lights and hunter killer missiles on each vehicle. I think the additions really make the models stand out,  with the added bonus of making them look more uniform.

In the last photo you can see the beginnings of my new bases. I've decided to put the marine on dusty broken streets. I think it fits with the ultra marines. I may try to add some ruined imperial columns or something to the larger dreadnought bases.

It may sound a bit odd at this late stage, but I still don't know if this color scheme will work on a regular old space marine trooper.  So far I have only painted a single Ultramarine. Fortunately, the vindicator model came with a tank commander, so I am trying this technique out on hime prior to stripping the model and painting it mechanics red.

Heading To The UK

While pondering the insanity of finding out that I am UK bound next week, I thought, why not invite all those 40k author-celebrities a chance to meet me? I mean seriously, they probably don't have anything better to do right. I'm not picky, I mean I'm willing to meet just about anyone. I started the game when the game started, so there is some nice symmetry there.  So who wants to throw down some dice overseas, or down a few pints discussing our favorite hobby?

Bueller

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Bueller

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Original Rhino, Predator, And Vindicator Refurb : Before Shots

I haven't posted not because I haven't been working, or wanting to post, but because I bit off more than I can chew! Despite an accurate assessment from Ron, I couldn't resist dunking my old Iron Scythe armor in two tubs of simple green. Three rhinos, a predator, and a vindicator will be added to the pre-heresy heavy Ultramarines force I've always wanted(always is relative here...I am a collector after all!). I think these tanks will look spectacular next to a FW Proteus Land Raider, maybe a few bikes and a load of space marines ready kick ass and take names. It was really cool seeing a nice paint job on an old kit. I've had these since they were released, so these things have been lingering near my painting desk for a very long time.

Anyone know when this kit came out? Maybe it is the whole 25 years of 40k, but I am considering entering this new force in armies on parade instead of my minty Necrons. The neurons are certainly better painted, but nostalgia has its place as well.

Newt Gingrich Is A Space Marine?!

There is a CNN article where the author states several flamboyant things about Newt Gingrich, the Republican Presidential candidate tar pitting Mitt Romney. The reporter, Timothy Stanley, writes that Newt is "a visionary, a historian, the inventor of supply side economics, a space marine a latter-day Casanova."

This made me smile while having my morning coffee here in overcast DC. New Gingrich is a Space Marine. Who knew?

Original Rhino Re-Paint

For some time I have been collecting everything Ultramarines, slowly building my stock until I am ready to begin painting my new 'vanilla' army. I knew when I began collecting that I had to come up with a different style for my ultra-marines. I want them to look as cool as I think they are story-wise. So with drive to start a new army slowly building, I decided to test paint a tank to see if my new recipe for blue would work. I did not feel like building a tank specifically for the task, so I reached back to one of my original space marine Rhinos, stripped it of paint, and gave it the blue treatment.

The Rhino is currently sitting on my desk exactly as it is in the photos. The base coat is done, and a light wash of dev mud has been applied, finishing off the pre-weathered chassis. Two thing stand out when I look at the model.

1. How do people paint ultramarines? I started with a black/enchanted mix followed by enchanted, followed by Ultramarines blue. I think I am close to a recipe that works, but I am just not sure. Maybe a light wash of Badab black at the end?

2. Is it possible that old rhinos can look good again? I think regardless of the color decision, I am going to push this Rhino forward. I can always strip the paint away again after the experiment. I have a lot of these rhinos, and could easily field 5-6 of them, so long as a few of them end up as donor chassis for damaged pieces. The real question is whether or not they would look good.

My old tanks have many layers of paint on them. Stripping the paint is almost like a mini-course in archaeology. This specific tank was originally purchased to provide transportation for an Imperial Guard platoon, and had IG markings two layers down. In honor of it's previous designation 3rd Rhino F company command, this tank will retain the number three somewhere on it.

So what is the verdict? Is miniature restoration worth it from a hobby perspective? Should I strip all of the old Iron Scythe Space Marine tanks and repurpose them?

Daemons So Far..

I completed a squad of 10 pink horrors, adding them to the 5 metal ones I had already painted years ago. since the models were so different I decided to paint them purplish to match the greater deamon. This way I have pink and blue horrors.  I'll try to get better photos of these, as the pink horror models are really quite nice. The Chaos Spawn models are a different story altogether....

I hated painting the chaos spawn. In every way I feel like I should love the models.

Pro-Spawn

• They are Spawn!
• They have spikes
• They are fallen-fallen (sort of like twice baked potatoes)

Con-Spawn

• The models are ugly
• The joints between limbs do not fit properly
• Details are poorly sculpted
• They are huge, which amplifies the detail problems
• There are really hard to paint because there are few distinct details. 

So how would I fix spawn? I'd put broken bits of space marine armor all around them, hanging off their tortured frames. If there were more to distinct areas to paint it would be easier to give the impression that these are space marines who failed the emperor, failed their legions, and then failed their chaos patrons. They are thrice damned! Thrice-baked potato, does that work?

Building A Better Abbadon

Abbadon is one of the original Sons of Horus/ Lunar Wolves, however the highly detailed finecast model just does not match his age or awesomeness. What the fin cast model does provide is an easy to dissect base from which to build a better Abbadon.

This conversion is not perfect, but the flaws are easily hidden with the terminator chaos lords cloak. Basically I took the shoulders and torso of the finecast model and married it to the plastic chaos terminator lords legs. The goal was to make it look good from the front. The back could be easily hidden with a cloak, which would make the model look more imposing in any case. After the body had its new legs, I used plastic terminator arm pieces to extend the arms holding the weapons. The original Abbadon model has weird stumpy arms, but huge hands. This turns out to be a benefit, because the forearm of the finecast model ends up fitting really well onto the plastic arm extensions.

All I need to do now is paint this guy up in black legion colors  and give him an honor guard.