It always takes longer than you think...

DOC and the Brushboyz came round at the weekend to help me try and complete the mammoth task of painting all these walkers.

In fairness, I am sure Drow didn't expect to begin the day by changing some strip lights in the garage... but such is the organised life of a crazy scratch builder with a 4 month old daughter... (My wife is very understanding... amazingly so in fact!)

so anyway..

Friday night I did my best to base all the Kans, but sadly didn't have enough time to get everything done, it's amazing how the basing process always takes longer than you think.

Everyone will base things differently I'm sure, with these Kans, as with many of my projects, I usually have precious little time for anything other than a cursory bit if sand and gravel PVA'd.

As I learned many years ago, applying a watered down PVA seal coat once this is all in place means you won't find sand and Gravel in your army case afterwards!

Roll forward just over 12 hours, and some strip lights later and it was Saturday afternoon, Drow and I had based the remaining models and undercoated everything apart from the Dreads. Then DOC finished work and came round (with another strip light!) and we got to work.

I'd discussed the Paint scheme with DOC earlier in the week so knew roughly what I was doing, and I'm fairly pleased with the results, I think they hold up as a group, but up close it's clearly evident there have been several different hands in these, although that said, I'm sure it's nothing that a bit more detail and a (magic) Devlan Mud Wash can't sort out...

This is where the three Brushboyz got to by Saturday night. (with a bit of Hypa work on Sunday morning)

Below are two DOC painted Kans against one I have brought to 90% completion (some finer details are missing)

I had spent most of Sunday bringing 6 Kans from Basecoat colours up to the 90% mark (Drow and I had been working on them the night before). DOC took the thee he had almost finished home with him, and that leaves three in the hand of another Code Member, though by and large the Kans are finished.

all this leaves then.... are the Dreads and the Mega Dreads and Meka Dread,

Here is the current state of play on them.

..Do you know.

I am beginning to be very grateful that I have taken Friday off Work *just in case*

Hope you like the progress so far... and if you are a Beakie going to the SVA Tournament this year.

Be afraid!

Kind Regards

Hypa

KANS STOMP IN

Hi all,

Completed pictures of three scratchbuilt killa kans (built by hypasist). Amazing fun to paint something so different to my wolves.

Hope you like?

DOC

Aaaargh! Resin kits

Hello again.

So here it is .... the model I've been dreading!Guess what..... it was as tricky as I'd expected. I've now built 2 of these bad boys, the first one was an utter pain.

If you've never built a resin model before then this is not a good choice for a first go, I'd recommend a more organic model, eg warboss on bike or chaos sorcerer, I found both of these to be much more forgiving with their curves and rumples.

The biggest issue with the drop pod is the inevitable warping of the parts, an unfortunate but unavoidable side effect of the casting process. This manifests with glaring obviousness in the 3 vertical vanes which form the frame of the model, the solution.... submerge all the parts in very warm soapy water, this will soften the parts in a couple of minutes so you can reshape them into nice straight (or nearly so...) vanes instead of grey bananas!! At the same time you need to wash the pieces so as to remove as much of the residue lubricant from the casting process. Leaving this infernal substance on the parts will dramatically reduce the adhesion of paint, as I discovered with my first attempt at a resin model!

My second tip for building resin kits is..............PIN EVERYTHING!!!! That's right pin all the joints where practical. The drop pod is very heavy when complete and needs all the joints pinned for extra strength. I failed to pin the first one I built and it fell apart after I'd picked it up a couple of times. For pinning I use 18 gauge (1.20mm) jewellery wire which is readily available from many craft outlets, get the unpainted stuff cos the paint will come off inside your joints and they'll fail! This gauge fits nice and snug in holes drilled with the 1mm bit you get with the citadel pin vice. I find that this tight fit along with super glue works a treat.

So below is a photo of the base top part with pins fitted and ramps in place ready to fit the base bottom part, a good splodge of glue and some patience along with 2 pins and it all went well.

As an aside, forge world conveniently put a dimple in each of the 2 base sections to show you how they should be positioned, just align the dimples and the pieces fit nicely....after a lot of filing and shaving of flash, another of resins big issues.

I then pinned the joints between the vanes and the base and the vanes and the central turbine, the assembly of these pieces needs to be done quickly as the glue needs to be on all pieces and can dry quickly. I find the key here is to do several dry runs and to be patient! Very very patient!!

Below is the finished build..

I'm quite pleased overall, it's better and stronger than the first one, not perfect by a long way, there are small gaps between the ramps and vanes when it's closed up but after all it'll be open when it's on the table so it should be all good.

To conclude I have several points to make regarding the model;

1/ Typical resin kit.... lots of small air holes which needed to be filled (green stuff works well).

2/Really badly warped vanes, I got these virtually straight with warm water.

3/On the base top piece the holes for the ramp hinges to slot into are very thin and prone to breakage, in fact one of them had a bad case of air bubble AND flash and I had to remove it and replace with some green stuff which I shaped to replicate the original...only time will tell if this holds...

4/ Resin kits are tricky but well worth persevering with..... patience, patience and more patience.

My next post will be the finished article.....

Hope you found this interesting

Dauntless!

Hello all.

Been a bit slack recently unfortunately but finally finished my predator "Dauntless" for the SVA XI strike force. piccy below...

Next job is the Lucius pattern dreadnought drop pod!!!!

The Dreadmob Grows!

OK, been a while since an update... but I *promise* I haven't been slacking (well apart from tonight.. special dispensation from the Warboss and all that ;)

so first up, was the state of play about a week ago. 8 kans completely finished, as pictured below, however it wasn't long before these little fellas were to be broken up like a litter of new puppies and sent off to a new (albeiot temporary) home!

See DOC's stirling post's on their new and exciting journey!

Then, in the last week, I made some more progress. and by progress... I mean PROGRESS!!!

(and there was the recruitment of a local Spanna boy to throw into the mix!)

Below are the remaining 9 Kans which include 2 of the 8 above, (you might be able to spot them!) and 7 of their new, grot filled brethren, all steeling to kick somefink big an Green!

The, erm, large chap in the distance might be recognisable from a previous post...

Yes,. the Meka dread is in Town!

So this monstrosity has been created with removable Rokkit Bomm Racks, a Shunta (which is basically an Old Dark Eldar Raider piece, with Eldar weaponry shoved on in spades) and a dead bigg Rippy Klaw which I think is made from Grabba Klaws (Kindly donated by local Warbosses!)

Along with a top down, and reare view. This Behemoth is fully riveted, with feet and everything, and now just needs a road test to prove how dead 'ard an killy he is!

Hope you like them, and with just under two weeks until SVA-XI it's going to be tight, and a lot of Grots might get squished along the way! (But I'm sure it will all end right!!)