Castor&Pollux finished

So this is it... I finally found some time to weather the twins. 

First I applied some chipping - not too much, and then I contimued with weathering powders. I hope I got the exhaust pipes right. 

I'm pretty satisfied with the result and I hope that someone will be interested in purchasing them. Some people contacted me already so I think that I will wait a few days before I put the models on eBay.

This was a fun project, I learned a lot from it. Of course there are plenty of things I'd do differently but overall I'm happy with the way it came out. 

Please comment if you have something to share, feedback is always welcome.

And now the pictures:

Previously on this project:

Castor & Pollux update

Castor and Pollux basecoated (sort of)

Diaskuri update II.

Castor&Pollux after painting before weathering

Castor&Pollux after painting, before weathering

I finished painting the details of the predators just an hour ago. I quite like them. I tried some new techniques during painting, enough material for a few quick tutorials. Unfortunately I couldn't use a lightbox for these pictures, which is a shame, for there are some subtle highlights that can not really be seen due to the hard light.
Now the final stage commences, weathering.
I plan to use relatively few scratches and battering on the machines, and no heavy weathering. I preserve these for IG vehicles, marines for me are much better maintained, and their equipment is much closer to parade ground look. It is only a matter of preference.
Don't forget that these models will be for sale once they are finished. If you are interested, stay tuned, and if you have a buddy who is into classic models, spead the word!

Previously on this project:

Castor & Pollux update

Castor and Pollux basecoated (sort of)

Diaskuri update II.

Diaskuri update II.

Just a quckie; I made a few photos before I airbrushed the twins (Diascuri as they are called in Mythology) with gloss varnish and used various washes on them. They look much better now, but as usual, documentation is a few steps behind the actual work.

Previously on this project:

Castor & Pollux update

Castor and Pollux basecoated (sort of)

Castor and Pollux - basecoated (sort of)

I had some time for the twins lately. I basecoated them dark gray as I usually do and basecoated them with VMC Ultramarine blue. Much to my surprise it turned to be really ultramarine whereas VGC and Citadel ultramarine is not...
Anyway, I continued with adding some shade and zenithal highlight with my airbrush. After this I drybrushed the predators with a mixture of VGC Ghost gray and VMC ultramarine blue.
Unfortunately the pictures with the early stages fell to the warp, but here what they looked like then:

As you see they looked OK, but there was much chalkiness in the details, especially on the metal parts:

I was kind of expecting this and decide to give it a glaze at this point I heavily diluted VMC transparent blue (vallejo's transparent range is excellent, I can only recommend them, they are like heavy glazes) with liquitex airbrush medium and Vallejo's airbrush cleaner (which I use to dilute acrylics with great success) and gave the tanks two thin coats. Here's how they look like:

As you see the chalkiness is practically gone, and most of the highlights are still there. The new colour is much better suited for the mainstream Ultramarines, and since this is a commercial project, I tend to favour the mainstream... :-)

I think, after retouching the most extreme highlights, the predators will be ready for the painting of the details. I can't wait!

Previously on this project:

Castor & Pollux update

Scout paint scheme

This week I was thinking about the best colour scheme for the scouts, these are the trial pieces:

The right one of course resembles the Sentinels' colour scheme more closely, whereas the left one for some is more pleasing. Which would you rather chose? Or perhaps a variation? lighter tan or darker grey? Please comment!

I also thinking about the chest eagle. Just have seen an excellent blood angels tutorial over All Things 40K and got totally hooked on that shoulder pad. Do you think that a chest eagle like this would look better? Please ignore the paintjob, I spent just about 5 minutes painting the whole thing.

Land Speeder Redux

Some old time followers might remember one of my first posts back from January; it was about a Land Speeder, full of details that later turned out to be unnecessary. The paint scheme changed too, and as I became involved With my Land Raider Mk1 the work on this little one has stalled. Until last week, when I finished it :-)
Actually it is not finished, as the magnetized parts may get some transfers and freehand, and still need to be weathered.
The model is fully magnetized, all the doors/accessories/weapons can be removed. I'm a big fan of magnetization, both for versatility and portability.
The base is made of a standard AOBR base and a piece of carbon fibre rod, as I dislike GW flying bases.
The junk on the ground are made of plasticard (heated up and bent over fire) pieces of tin sheet and resin parts.
The scratches on the bumper and the hull are the weakest part of the paintjob, hell, next time they will turn pout better. The speeder was given a little coat of dust pigment (dust, dusty green and sand) as I felt that as a flying machine stronger weathering would be out of place.
As always, feedback is welcome.

Typhoon variant with multi melta (some sooth will be applied)

Tornado variant with heavy bolter

Engine glow

Scratchbuild - The Land Raider MkI part 8.

It is complete. It took me two and a half months and about 150 hours to get this far. Thanks for all the support and the inspiring comments I received all along. This was my first ever attempt at scratch building, so while there are tons of things I'd do differently if I started today I'm quite happy with the result.

While the vehicle is meant to be plain old school Land Raider, I allowed myself a little freedom for further developments; therefore I magnetized quite frequently. The driver options are magnetized (please note that arms, heads etc. are missing as that is my painting method), so are sponsons, the hunter-killer missile/ cosed hatch options and the bush cutter. The antenna with the small flag can be removed too. These not only enable me to elect to make a crusader/redeemer variant later if I so wish, but make transporting the model so much easier.

So that is it folks; I think I stop here and stick to painting for a while, but I'm positive that this may be my first, but not last project.

Stay tuned for the primered pictures soon, and the painting project later this year when I buy an airbrush.

See also:

Scratchbuild - Land Raider MkI project part 1.

Scratchbuild - Land Raider MkI project part 2.

Scratchbuild - Land Raider MkI project part 3.

Scratchbuild - Land Raider MkI project part 4.

Scratchbuild - Land Raider MkI project part 5.

Scratchbuild - Land Raider MkI project part 6.

Scratchbuild - Land Raider MkI project part 7.

Scratchbuild - The Land Raider MkI part 7.

Tonight I proudly present you the newest addition to the project, the side sponsons. This is how they look like:

The lascannons are made in similar manner as as John from Santa Cruz Warhammer made them on his marvelous Death Guard Land Raider. Perhaps this beauty and Ron's gorgeous Deathwing Land Raider gave me the greatest inspiration during the project. 

Back to the cannons, I cut the upper one to make it longer and added extra plating to the guns. I think they came out quite good.

  

The guns are attached to a mount by a joint. Both the joint and the gun mount is affixed by magnets, so they can move freely though they seem to be quite sturdy at the same time.

Unfortunately this last picture is not very good. Anyway I made a prototype of the gun mount and then I cast it in resin using the plain and simple open mould technique to have exact copies. Please note that the mounts are actually two piece each as the center part is separate. On the mount I used (it cannot be seen unfortunately) a new microdetailing technique, that I believe is my genuine idea. I'm quite happy with it, so I will write you a tutorial later.

I see the end of the tunnel now.

See also:

Scratchbuild - Land Raider MkI project part 1.

Scratchbuild - Land Raider MkI project part 2.

Scratchbuild - Land Raider MkI project part 3.

Scratchbuild - Land Raider MkI project part 4.

Scratchbuild - Land Raider MkI project part 5.

Scratchbuild - Land Raider MkI project part 6.

Scratchbuild - The Land Raider MkI part 6.

My little one is on track. Literaly :-)

It took me a week to finish the tracks, but now that I'm done, I'm getting close to the finishline. This is how I made it:
First I made the master links from plasticard. I needed two naturally, one for ordinary links an one for the 12th links.

Once they were ready I made a one piece mould as I explained earlier, (ok it is a simplification, I made two, first one for an ordinary single link, and I used the resin casts as ingredients for mould two, that has one single link, one three-link piece and one with an aquila on.) and cast enough for the whole track on both sides.. Around 60 links, unfortunately not 36 links per side. I was sloppy and did not plan properly and therefore on the bottom the 12s don't match, but I don't really care. All right, I may be a perfectionist, but not that much.

Attaching the bits to the chassis was pretty straightforward, as you would imagine, though I had to trick a little to get the perfect fit. Where it was needed - in angles - I applied a bit of green stuff to get the joint correct.

What is left is to make the gun mounts (I will remove the 25mm bases) and some minor detailing, and the finishing touches with GW bits.

See also:

Scratchbuild - Land Raider MkI project part 1.

Scratchbuild - Land Raider MkI project part 2.

Scratchbuild - Land Raider MkI project part 3.

Scratchbuild - Land Raider MkI project part 4.

Scratchbuild - Land Raider MkI project part 5.