Commission - Imperial Fists Sicaran Battle Tank

As my first commision paint piece in a over a decade I took on a Warhammer 30K Space Marine Sicaran Battle Tank from Forgeworld. Unlike some of the 'forgery world' pieces I've worked on in the past, this model was in pretty decent shape. It had been previously assembled and painted but nothing a little Super Clean couldn't strip right off.

After striping it down to its component parts I had to do a little bit of straightening. The bottom hull section had to be straightened but other than that the rest of the pieces were pretty straight. Regardless I had to use quite a few clamps to hold it all together during the gluing process.

There was also a bit of putty work to be done but nothing too complex. The paint I used was a combination of Vallejo Air, Vallejo Model Paint, and Tamiya Acrylics. Chiping with the sponge technique weathered with oil washes.

 I love the rusty exhausts.

 The side sponsons have been magnetized for swapping.

The lenses were colored using Tamiya Clear Acrylics.

If you're interested in getting a piece completed let me know. I specialize in vehicles and typically work for trade.

Fellblade Rescue

This thing has been a royal pain in the ass but it is finally assembled and ready for paint. A while back my buddy Joe picked up a Fellblade from ebay (check out his blog to see his awesome commission painting). When it arrived it was clear to him that the glue bomb he had just received was a recast full of problems. He brought it to me to repair in exchange for some trade. 

I had to begin by disassembling it. There were major gaps, broken and missing pieces, warping, and nasty seam lines. Joe had picked up some 3rd party treads and forgeworld doors he wanted to use. In addition to the extra bits he wanted to add, we had to completely replace the bottom of the hull as well as the two interior side walls. While I didn't take any 'before' pictures I have detailed the steps I took below.

One of the many broken pieces was the .5mm lip around the sensors on the main turret. I trimmed of the broken portion and replaced it with styrene cut to shape and size.

These little brackets were missing from the model so I whipped some up out of styrene and apoxie sculpt. The rivets are from MENG. 

The turret itself had several chips and gaps in the edges. A bit of putty, a lot of sanding, and a coat of grey primer later and its as good as new. When working with putty it helps to apply a layer of primer after sanding to see the finished product. Followed up by subsequent sanding and primer seam lines an blemishes disappear.

Several of the steps were broken or chipped so I shaved off what was left of them and replaced them with styrene cut to shape and size.

The lascannons needed some serious straightening, nothing a dip in some hot water couldn't help. The sight rails also needed to be replaced. Don't ask me why unmanned weapons need sight rails but apparently in the 31st century they do.

One of the back tread covers was broken and a duplicate of the opposite side. It needed a great deal of putty work to rebuild.

The third party treads didn't fit at all and required modification of the undersides to fit. The forgeworld doors only required a gentle sanding to fit in place.

Considering where it started out I'm quite pleased with it and look forward to seeing what it looks like painted. Oh, and yes, that is a Sicarian Battle Tank in the background, but I'm saving that for another post.

Storm Eagle Assembly

I recently started helping a fellow gamer (Joe) out with some of his assembly work in exchange for trade. The most recent project was a Forge World Storm Eagle he had acquired for his Imperial Fist 30k army.

The kit was new in the bag and ready for work. There was some mild warping of the hull, weapons, canards, wings, doors, well basicly all of the resin was slightly warped. Nothing a little hot water couldn't help.

After everything was straightened I went about cleaning everything off the sprue and touching up the resin bits where needed.

Joe wanted the interior detailed so I went about assembling all that I could before that point first. One of those steps was to magnetize the missile pods. This will help to prevent breakage during transport and allow for easy removal in game after receiving weapon destroyed results.

After the various hull sections were assembled I primed the interior black, gave it a drybrushing of Army Painter 'Gun Metal' and went about detailing the interior lights and screens.  I applied some OSL to all the lights and finished the lights and screens off with a gloss varnish. 

The front ramp got a little love with some hazard stripes too.

Later, after I assembled the hull I realized just how obscured almost all of the detail work I had done had become. Oh well, I suppose it's best to err on the side of detail.

Once the interior had been painted it was time to glue the hull together. I would normally use plastic weld, but because some of the parts are plastic and some resin I had to use super glue. I was also glad to have several small clamps on hand as the resin, despite my work straightening it, was still warped to some degree.

After a night curing in place the clamps were removed and I was back to work. The engines were added. Some areas needed either plastic card, putty, sanding, or a combo of all three to get them squared away. I also magnetized the wings to allow for easy transport and to reduce the risk of breakage later on.

All in all I was quite please with the end result and so was Joe.  Now that he has it in hand I'll be looking forward to see how it looks after he gets done painting it.