Dreadnought canopy in 1:16 scale

Hi, this is a project I've been working on for a while now. basically I took an unused dreadnought box and replicated the little guy with all dimensions 3 times as big. I used mostly plasticard and spare pats from my scratchbuild boxes (friends and family are always on the watch for interesting pieces of plastic). No GW parts this time.

The scale is approximately 1:16; if we believe that 40K is roughly 1:48.
Anyway here is a wood elf wardancer for size comparison. Perhaps a marine would serve better, but this was the first mini that came my way.

The kit also contains a few resin parts where I felt that it was needed for uniformity's sake.

I tried to replicate every small detail, even in places not examined very often.

 I'm quite proud of the back part

Right now the project is stopped because I have to finish a few minis for a local mini exchange raffle and my local Golden Gobbo entry.
After these I will continue with the legs.
At this moment I havent decided on the armament or even the chapter the dred belongs. I don't even know what I'll do with it once it is finished... I'm not the type to put things I do on doisplay back home... Many of my friends still consider me a sane person, and I like to preserve this... :-)  I may not even keep it.
Stay tuned!

Back again - with a teaser

Real life has been a bitch for some time but things seem to settle now, perhaps not the optimal way but at least with much more free time.
Nothing is more pathetic then apologize for your absence on your OWN blog, isn't it?
Anyway, I started a new project that pretty much grown on me. A lot of work, but hopefully a most rewarding result. Can you guess what this WIP part belong to?

More pictures and an in depth progress report is coming down the road later this week.

Yorias Redux

I just finished him painting. I took a bit different path in painting him compared to the rest of the army, I think the characters will resemble him, while the troops will follow a bit more simple. So here you go, as always commets are welcome.

Yorias the Librarian

For some time now I've been converting this mini, the first true HQ choice for my little chapter. I have a full plastic army in mind, so there was a lot of work with him: all parts, limbs etc were converted, nothing is untouched. Actually this mini was made with a local converting competition in mind, I have secret hopes to win it. (In reality nearly always Orc or Chaos minis win these tournaments....)
I hope you like it!

 

The torso is made from a tactical sergeant's bit, the head is from an old Catachan mini. Instead of the banner, I used some banner-like things from the ravenwing sprue. The legs are repositioned, the feet have lobstered guards. The loincloth is that of an AoBr captain's

I made new style shoulder pads for him, and attached a laser engraved chapter symbol

I like the way the powerpack turned out...

The powersword is made of a piece of plastic, a terminator ornament some lead wire and greenstuff.

And the same with a coat of dark grey primer (as primer brings things together so nicely):

If you are interested in how tis or that detail was made do not hesitate to ask. Comments are welcome too.

Stay tuned for painted pictures.

Riveting - a mini tutorial

There were multiple requests lately to write a mini tutorial on my recipee for riveting, so I therefore comply:

Tools you’ll need (well, including optional ones):

•  Superglue
• A pin or something similar (in my case a sculpting tool)
• Pin vice with a thin dril
• Ruler and compasses with pin in both ends (optional)
• A scapel or an engraver tool (optional)
• Something like a metal rod with a blunt end
• Micro beads for nail art

 And the way it is done step by step:

Step 1.

Drill small holes in he surface you work with. Optionally you can draw a line and mark the rivets with compasses with pins in both ends. Sometimes I skip this and just drill the holes using eyeball Mk1.

Step 2.

Widen the topmost parts of the holes with a scapel or an engraver’s tool.

Step 3.

Pour a drop of superglue on someting, and using a pin or something similar, put some glue in the holes

Step 4.

Using the glued pin, find a suitable piece of bead and place it into the hole

Step 5.

Using the handle of the scapel (or something similar, this case the bottom end of a file) apply a little pressure ont he bead. Pushing them into the hole a bit makes the bond much sturdier. At this point you might want to sand the excess soperglue from the plasticard

This is the end result

Some remarks on micro beads

Micro beads are used in nail art and are available over the internet (eBay) or –like in my case – around the corner in the local nail art shop. Small pleasures of living downtown. Anyway they come in different colours and sizes. Unfortunately the beads –especially the small ones - are not perfectly uniform in size or shape, so you have to select them all the time. They are made of glass I think, so they are quite hard. One more thing: and the colouring is diluted by superglue – don’t worry they will not melt.

The biggest advantage is that they are dirt cheap, a small vial sells for about €0,8, and that amout will last you for about 50 years if you rivet Baneblades every day.

Good luck riveting!

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.

Scratchbuild - The Land Raider MkI part 5

It's been a while, but steady progress has been made. Superdetailing the hull area was VERY time consuming but a lot of fun. Now the scratchbuilding process is almost over: only the tracks are left plus I plan to remake the gun mounts on the sides. So, slowly I'm getting there. Naturally the work will be finished with GW parts like the round hatches, ribbons, symbols, purity seals and other tank accessories that will make a fine addition to the overall picture. I also plan to magnetize the model on key areas, just in case.
And now the pictures:

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 - The Land Raider MkI part 4

Just a quickie to keep you entertained with the progress:
After finishing the tread bay details (OK, 80-90% GW bits not attached yet, weapons neither) the hull is shaping up slowly. Some pictures:

See also:

Scratchbuild - Land Raider MkI project part 1.

Scratchbuild - Land Raider MkI project part 2.

Scratchbuild - Land Raider MkI project part 3