Thursday, April 24, 2014

Ork Looted Leman Russ - WIP

Out here in the Valley of the Sun the heat of Phoenix Arizona can have some unexpected results.  Say for example you leave your Imperial Guard army in your car one day, after a late night of wargaming.  You may return to your car in the morning to find that your Leman Russ has melted, yes... melted.  So what does one do with a horribly warped Leman Russ?  Make it a looted wagon of course! Any critiques and suggestions are welcome.  I think I'm about done with the tank itself. I am working on making some grots out of green stuff to man the sponsons and a large ork to command the tank. 


Tank traps are mounted to front of the tank using a couple of I-beams.  A battle cannon was scratch built from styrene tube and is removable to allow for weapons swaps.  An oil drum has been converted into a rocket launcher.

A deck is added to the rear end of the tank for transport.  The exhausts are rerouted around the deck.

A lascannon power pack powers a spot light. Bits of worne styrene are 'riveted' about the sides of the hull and used to decorate the front of the track guards.

Green stuff was used to create weld lines, styrene rods were bent using the heat of cigarette lighter, and guitar string connects a spotlight to the turret.

Guitar string and Imperial Guard flamer packs were used to detail the engine compartment.

Using some orky pictures for reference, I cut a few ork icons out of thin sheets of styrene.

A great deal of the wear and tear inflicted on the styrene was achieved by chewing on it between my molars.

Here I swapped the driver's position and forward weapon.  I tore apart one end of a styrene tube and further bent the ends after warming them with a lighter to represent an exploded cannon barrel.

Tuesday, April 22, 2014

Tutorial - Plasma Cut Texture



Working on Orkifying a looted vehicle or want to add some repairs to battle damage on your vehicles?  You may want to give the illusion that a piece of metal was cut to size with a plasma cutter.  Here I will show you how I get that unique texture that a hand held plasma cutter will leave behind.

For this project you will need a hobby knife and some sheet styrene.  I prefer a thickness of 1mm or thicker for this.  You could use a thinner sheet but the texture we are trying to achieve will be less pronounced and harder to read.

Start by cutting off a piece of styrene to your desired size.  Perhaps you are covering a hole or adding additional armour to a tank.  Either way, make sure the piece is cut to the size and shape you want for the final piece as any resizing done later will negate all the work you did to create the texture.

Using your hobby knife, make a series of cuts running perpendicular to the styrene. I do this by tapping a fresh blade along the sides of the styrene. Do so with a slight angle and a random spacing. These cuts should not go very deep, perhaps a quarter of a millimeter. Continue this around the circumference of the piece.

Next, repeat the technique but with an opposite angle to your strokes.  As you do this you should start to see little pieces of styrene get cut away revealing slight grooves around the sides of the piece.

Repeat this process until you achieve the desired result.

Here are some examples of this technique applied to a looted Leman Russ I'm working on.




Sunday, April 20, 2014

Tutorial - Bolts and Washers


Whether one is detailing Imperial Guard... excuse me, Astra Militarum vehicles, building terrain pieces, or Orkifying some looted vehicles, details such as bolts and other fasteners are essential to bringing a finished look to your model.  Here I'll demonstrate a technique I've used to create bolts with washers.

To complete this project you will need the following:
  • hole punch (with multiple size dies)
  • hobby knife
  • sheet styrene
  • hex stock (hexagonal extruded styrene)
  • glue (plastic weld prefered over super glue)
Use your hole punch to make "washers".  Make sure that the size die you are using is larger than the hex stock.  For added detail make two sizes of "washer" for each fastener, one slightly larger than the other.

Using your hobby knife cut thin slices off of your hex stock.  These should be roughly the same thickness as the sheet styrene you used for the washers.

Here is an example of the two discs and one slice of hex.  These will become our bolt and washers.


Stack the pieces largest to smallest, using a dab of glue between each.  It is easier to place these if you apply the largest piece to the model first and then glue the remaining pieces one at a time on top of each other.  Below is an example of what the above process looks like when applied to a Grot Tank I'm working on.

Don't stop there with various sizes of extruded hexagonal styrene, styrene rod, and your hole punch, you can make all kids of different fasteners.  In the above picture, very small styrene rod was used to create rivets and a different sized hex stock was used to create additional bolt heads.