Auction Ending - Leman Russ

Only three hours remain in the auction. Don't miss this deal on a fully painted Leman Russ.

For Sale - Catachan Leman Russ

I need to make way on my shelf for more of my Pardus 8th Armored Regiment so I am selling off my Leman Russ. It has a custom made barrel which can be swapped out for either a standard Battle Cannon, Punisher Gatling Cannon, or Demolisher Cannon. If interested stop by the listing on ebay and give it a look. I hope it finds a good home.

Previous Posts

Leman Russ Battle Tank

WIP - Leman Russ Battle Tank

WIP - Catachan Ork Hunter - Update

I got a little more work done this afternoon. My Catachan Ork hunter now has hair and a couple of souvenir Ork teeth hanging from his right shoulder guard.

WIP - Catachan Ork Hunter

This was a rather productive weekend. One of the things I was able to work on the Catachan Ork Hunter for my Inquisitorial Retinue. I reworked the shoulders adding armour to each side, one with an Inquisition icon cut out of aluminum sheet. I repositioned the rifle sling, and swapped out the ork axe with a less obtrusive sword & scabbard. I replaced the handle with a carved Ork tooth. I threw in an obligatory purity seal for good measure.

I still plan on adding some Ork tooth jewelry, and some hair.

Have You Seen This Model?

This model, of what appears to an Imperial Guard Catachan Jungle Warrior holding a severed Ork head, was posted on the Facebook Astra Militarum - Imperial Guard group by a member who received it via trade. He had no information regarding the source of the model. From the pictures it can be estimated to be roughly 10 inches in height, resin, and of a fairly high quality. 

If anyone can identify the source of this model it would be much appreciated I have to have one for my collection.

Sgt. Harker Revisited

While Sgt. Harker may have been nerfed in the most recent Astra Militarum Codex he's still a badass and I always run him with my veteran squad. Today's post is a republishing of a very old page I made dedicated to my custom Sgt. Harker project.

Why buy a character figure when you can make your own?  I'm sure there are plenty of good reasons out there but for the sake of this project let's just pretend there aren't.  Yeah Games Workshop makes a Sgt. Harker figure, but I wasn't in the mood for that.  You see I had lot of extra Catachan Infantry lying around and a whole lot of bits to play with so I went about making my own. 

I started with a standard Catachan Infantryman.  I chose the bare chested torso with legs which were in a bracing position.  Since Sgt. Harker is carrying a Heavy Bolter he was going to have to brace himself for both the weight and recoil.  One arm was a standard Catachan trigger arm and the other was a Catachan arm extending a sword.

Using a hobby knife I trimmed off the rifle butt from the trigger arm, the sword from the extending arm and carved away the ammo pouches and straps from the torso.

Next using Apoxie Sculpt I began bulking up the muscles.  In order to get a good shape for the neck and shoulders the head was glued in place.

For Sgt. Harker's heavy bolter I salvaged one from a Catachan Heavy Weapons Team.  It was a little long so I trimmed it down using my miter box.  I then smoothed out some spots with the hobby knife and added an aquila to the front facing side using apoxie sculpt.  I also drilled out the barrel and vents.  This is an important part which a lot of people overlook.  Simply painting black dots where holes should be is just tacky!

At first the ammo belt stumped me.  After looking at some different examples of heavy bolters I decided I'd make mine in the style of the Space Marines.  I measured the width of the chamber on the heavy bolter and trimmed numerous pieces of 3/32" styrene tubing to fit.  I then affixed these tube sections to a long thin strip of masking tape I had cut to be roughly 1/3 the width of the tubes.  This allowed the belt to remain flexible until glued into place.  After the tube sections had been wrapped down the middle with masking tape, the lengths were a little nonuniform.  I evened them out with a few passes over an emery board.  If I had it to do again I would have created the bolter before I did my sculpting.  Because the sculpting was already finished I was limited in how I could position the bolter and drape the ammo belt.  I ended up with layout seen here.

The shoulder strap with ammo pouches was created using Apoxie Sculpt for the belt, salvaged bits for the ammo pouches and sheet styrene for the buckle.  A sword and sheath were positioned in the middle of the back

You can also see here the addition of the forward arm.  A little more Apoxie Sculpt was used to create a forward handle for the bolter.

I finished bulking up the muscles and repositioned the head.  It had been buried in his neck.  I think now he looks like Sgt. Harker, not just a Catachan Infantryman with extra muscle.

Additional ammo pouches were added to his waist.  These were carved from scrap sprues.

I'd have to say for my first major sculpt I'm pretty satisfied. Due to the difficulty in obtaining accurate detail in Apoxie Sculpt I would choose Kneadatite in the future, but Apoxie Sculpt has served me well for small applications as well as adding bulk. The tape and tube styrene worked like a charm for the ammo belt and I will definitely be using that technique again.

	A close up of the heavy bolter. The aquila was sculpted with Apoxie Sculpt using a dental pick.
A close up of where the shoulder strap meets the heavy bolter. It was sculpted using Apoxie Sculpt. The bracket was made using sheet styrene.
	These ammo pouches were carved from scrap sprues.

Catachan Hellhound

I picked up an old school Hellhound at a gamer's swapmeet some time back. Although I've been working on an armored regiment for my IG I thought this would fit in well with my Catachan regiment.

Imperial Guard Chimera

Catachan 2nd Company APC

After playing a game of 7th Edition 40K against a 30K Imperial Fist army I decided that my IG were in desperate need of armoured transport.  My choice was a Chimera.  It has been marked for the Catachan 2nd.  Those familiar with the fluff will recognize this as Colonel 'Iron Hand' Straken's company. 

Unfortunately I didn't have a camera handy for many of the steps in this build but I will do my best to explain my process.

First I made two tread guards for either side of the chimera. I created these out of sheet styrene and rounded them off with some modeling putty. I trimmed the ends with a thin strip of styrene and added pre-made rivets for detail. For added texture and detail I added some plastic netting to simulate metal tread plate. Not only does this give me a nice custom look and adds some real world detail, it saves me a lot of tank tread which I can use at a later time.

I also added some accessories from a Tamiya 1/35 scale accessories kit.

I wanted a heavy weathering effect on this model so I began by laying down a coat of rust colored primer. After that had dried I airbrushed a coat of AK interactive Heavy Chipping Fluid.  After that had dried I air brushed a series of Tamiya Acrylics: Nato Green, Nato Brown, Dark Yellow, and Flat Black.  Once that had dried I began chipping the camo pattern by rubbing a toothpick over the edges and other areas of heavy wear.

I followed up the chipping with additional wear by sponging on some Army Painter Gun Metal along the edges and other areas of heavy wear.

I also added army decals and rub on transfers which I chipped at with a toothpick.

I created a couple of mounting brackets for a shovel. These were made out of brass photo-etch scraps. The shovel I had in my bits box turned out to be a little too short so I cut of the spade and hilt and replaced the handle with a piece of styrene rod.

I applied a wash of oil paints (black and burnt umber mixed with Mineral Spirits) to each of the rivets, in all the grooves, over the details and across all the tread. Using a brush slightly dampened with mineral spirits I dragged the wash downward to create streaks of rust and grime. I picked up any extra wash with a toothpick.

Once the oil paints had dried I followed up by applying rust colored weathering powders from Secret Weapon Miniatures. These powders were applied by brush with mineral spirits.  I used the same process to apply dirt colored powders to the tank treads.

After I was satisfied with the weathering powders I applied MIG Fresh Engine Oil to the hubs and pistons to simulate leaking oil and grime. I also used the side of a pencil to highlight some of the sharp metal edges and the details of the tread.

I colored the lens of the viewports with a base coat of apricot followed by a coat of Tamiya Clear Red.

I created an exhaust effect by brushing a charcoal powder around the exhaust vents on either side of the chimera. I made the charcoal powder by filing down a piece of artists stick charcoal. This material should be readily available at any art store and is very inexpensive.

The interior was a bit more rushed and not as detailed.  I did however include a detail kit which I made out of styrene and green stuff, molded in silicone, and cast in resin.  I think it looks a great deal better than the bare interior that the kit comes with.

I magnetized the main turret weapons, except for the optional flamer.  I don't intend on using it and if I should change my mind later I will put one together.

Overall I'm pretty satisfied with the result.  I had nearly completed the dozer blade when my dog ate it.  It is still partially intact so I plan on piecing it back together later. I still feel like something is missing and I welcome any critiques or comments.

Scout Sentinel Squadron

A rather old Scout Sentinel Squadron I completed quite some time ago.  Each is armed with a multilaser.  All markings are hand painted and the camo netting is made of cheese cloth, painted brown and detailed with grass/leaf flocking.