Stormlord

I picked up the Baneblade kit late last year at the Modelzona competition in Mesa, AZ. I knew I wanted a lot of firepower so I opted for the Stormlord build and ordered a second pair of sponsons from Games Workshop. I built this as an addition to my Pardus 8th Armored regiment. 

I based out the model in the same Tamiya acrylics I've been using on all my Pardus armor. All the metallics were primed in black and brushed with graphite as outlined in this tutorial.

I wanted to make use of the rear deck. I stuffed five guardsmen in the back in various firing positions.

I wanted a couple of guys stepping up or taking a knee. To do this I cut one leg off a standing pair of legs and cut one off a kneeling pair and then swapped them. I cleaned up the edges with liquid greenstuff. It came out great!

I wanted the tank to have a real lived in feeling. To accomplish this I applied a bunch of bits to the model including a great deal of storage from Value Gear Details.

I also added a bunch of sandbags around the rear deck and top hatch. Laying down a layer of plastic wrap first allows you to work greenstuff into position but still remove it after it sets for painting.

Once all initial details were painted I applied a layer of shipping using the sponge technique, then applied a gloss layer before laying down decals.

After some oil washes a layer of dullcote was applied. That was followed up by additional weathering. The tracks were painted with GW Typhus Corrosion followed by another pass of graphite and a layer of Secret Weapon Miniature powders.

I sculpted the power cells directly into a Value Gear Details crate and made the spent power cells out of styrene.

The spent shell casings are piles of styrene rod cut to size.

I airbrushed some soot around each vent using a light coat of flat black.

Razor wire and rope helped to tie together the storage.

I added jewelry chain to the front and back tow hooks.

All weapons and sponsons, including the main vulcan cannon are removable for game play.

I pleased to say that the Stormlord took 1st in the Science Fiction Fantasy & Space, Fantasy All Scales and Types category. Considering it was painted with Tamiya paints it's fitting that this award was sponsored by Tamiya.

Fallout Hobbies Custom Decals

After participating in their Kickstarter campaign I have finally received my order from Fallout Hobbies. I have to say it has been well worth the wait and Ron was great to work with. Not only was he able to produce some amazing custom decals, he made sure to keep his Kickstarter backers well aware of the overall progress of the project and touched base with me to let me know when he planned to have my order out the door.

The Shipping

I had ordered a custom set of decals and their standard Military Airbrush Stencil 2. From the time the Kickstarter closed to the time my package arrived was indeed a while, but one should expect that from a business being built from the ground up and I had no illusions going into it that I would have a speedy turn around. That being said Fallout Hobbies kept us customers well informed throughout the processes. My order arrived today packaged in a durable cardstock envelope and both my stencils and decals were packaged in zipper bags with card stock backers. All of this was consistent with the high level of professionalism I have come to associate with Fallout Hobbies.

The Stencils 

Fallout Hobbies Airbrush Stencils are low-tac self adhering vinyl which are cut to allow use as either positive or negative stencils. Fallout Hobbies offers a variety of pre-designed stencils from simple lettering to complex Chaotic Stars symbols. If they don't have a stencil that fits your needs you can either provide them with a finished graphic to use, or have them design what you need. I will be using these for my vehicle lettering.

Please excuse my cruddy pictures but it is damn near impossible to get a good picture of the semi-gloss of the vinyl.

The Decals

I am currently working on a Gaunt's Ghosts army and really didn't want to go full bore into it until I had some quality decals to bring it all home. When I placed my Kickstarter pledge in mind I was just hoping that I might get something designed that would be decent enough to pass for the classic Tanith skull and daggers. What I received exceeded my expectations.

I had provided Ron an example of the Tanith patch and requested white decals in his Army Standard Spacing. This is a sheet of infantry, vehicle, and larger sizes. I also requested that the infantry decals be no larger than 5mm in diameter to fit the shoulder pads of standard Imperial Guard infantry. Due do to their small size over 200 infantry decals fit on the sheet! As part of the custom order process Fallout Hobbies will send you a proof to approve before they print allowing you the opportunity to ensure that your custom order will be exactly what you want.

The sheet included 4 extra large decals, 5 large decals, 18 vehicle size decals, and 209 infantry decals. Keep in mind that I requested specific sizes which allowed Fallout Hobbies to pack in a lot of decals. They make sure you get your money's worth out of each sheet.

The detail in these decals is amazing. Each one is crisp and clean. The lettering in the banner can be read on all but the infantry size decal, granted a magnifying glass is needed to read the smaller ones, but the detail is there even if you can't see it with your naked eye.

The quality of the decals does not decline as the scale decreases. Each is detailed and read well, despite my poor attempts and photographing them.

So many decals! With two sheets of decals in hand I don't think I'll ever need another Tanith decal but I know I'll be ordering different decals for other armies and projects.

I'm eager to get some more of my infantry assembled so I can start slapping these decals on my ghosts. I'll follow this post up soon with a review and photos of the decals after application. In the mean time I highly encourage you to stop by Fallout Hobbies and see what they have to offer. No doubt they either stock something you need or could make it for you.

Gaunt's Ghosts - Flame Trooper Lubba

The first of my assembled Gaunt's Ghosts. Flame Trooper Lubba. I started with a flame trooper, and a Vervunhiver at that, because I need to create some custom lasguns. The Tanith born carry lasguns with custom nalwood stocks so not just any lasgun will do. 

With that in mind here Lubba. I got the torso, head, and legs from Victoria Miniatures. The flamer and arms are from the standard Cadians. The camo cloak is greenstuff as is the fuel hose. I used the Green Stuff Industries tentacle maker to make the fuel hose. I cut down the standard fuel tanks to only one. I wanted something a little less bulky.

Pardus 8th Armoured Regiment

In the book Honour Guard, by Dan Abnett, the light infantry of Gaunt's Ghosts are partnered with the heavy weaponry of the Pardus 8th Armoured Regiment in defence of the Shrine World of Hagia. As I begin to build my Gaunt's Ghosts army I am building all of my armour in keeping with this theme. The Pardus 8th is mostly comprised of Leman Russ Conquerors, Destroyers, Hydras, and various support vehicles. The following are my completed Chimera, Manticore, and scratch built Salamander. To follow will be 3 Conquerors, 2 Hydras, at least one Destroyer and some yet-to-be-determined Baneblade variant.

I used the same process for all my vehicles:

1. Primer grey
2. Airbrush basecoat
3. Mask off and airbrush secondary camo
4. Paint all details
5. Sponge chipping effect
6. Gloss coat
7. Apply decals using MicroSol
8. Oil paint/mineral spirits wash
9. Dull coat
10. Weathering Powders
11. Dull Coat
12. Gloss details (lenses, grime)

Salamander Scout/Command Vehicle You can find WIP photos of the Salamander here.

Chimera "Death's Chariot"

Manticore "Emperor's Vengeance"

I just noticed that this is misspelled, oh well I suppose Guardsmen make mistakes too.

Comments and critiques welcome!