Pablol - Imperial Guard - Month 5 - Wild card

I started painting two Leman Russes, but only managed to finish one in time. I was close to finishing both, but ran out of time. 

The second edition Imperial Guard codex has two Leman Russ variants:

The Leman Russ Battle Tank has standard stock equipment with no options. I was missing a few parts on this model so I made molds from blue stuff and cast replacements from milliput. I magnetized the battlecannon and the heavy bolter sponsons, because future editions have weapon options. I added some small plasticard details to the Heavy bolters, because they looked a bit bare.

The Leman Russ Demolisher has a demolisher cannon and a few side sponson options. In case I want to make another Leman Russ Demolisher I made milliput copies of the weapons. The demolisher cannon is attached to the turret, but the side sponson weapons and the Lascannon are magnetized. I had to cut the Lascannon from another Leman Russ hull, because this tank came with a Heavy flamer.

Both tanks needed quite alot of seam filling and a bit of damage repair. Undercoating the tanks also helped to see what details still needed to be fixed.

I did'nt have time to put up my studio so this month will have to do with smartphone photos.

I'm quite happy how the tank came out, but I noticed that the Vallejo colour in the new clear bottle is a bit different toned from the old colour I've used with the two previous tanks.

Leman Russ Battle Tank 205pts

Hope everyone managed through this month! Good luck for the last month!

On my last month to do list I have:

- A bunch of characters and my command HQ

- One lasgun servitor to complete the 5 model unit

- Three guardsmen to complete the heavy weapon squad

- The second Leman Russ to finish

- A second Chimera

Pablol - Imperial Guard - Month 2 - Rank & File

February was dedicated to refurbishing an old Hellhound. I was planning on also painting some infantry, but I was quite occupied with a big work project most of this month. The tank had some original metal bits, some 3d printed reproduction bits and some bits just missing. The hull had also taken a fair deal of damage. Removing some accessories from the tank also left some marks.

I decided to recast all the small turret bits from milliput so that it would look uniform.

I filled most of the surface damages with milliput and sanded the surfaces with files, sand paper and scalpels.

Some rivets were missing so I made new ones from plasticard.

The turret got new old hatches instead of the original targeting cupola, because I didn't have one and I wanted to add some accessories to the turret. The targeting cupola looks like its a solid lid which would prevent any of the crew members actually getting to the accessories I fitted on the turret.

I had a second round of sanding after the white undercoat.

I tried to paint the Hellhound more or less the same as the Chimera from January.

Hellhound 165pts

Sadly I didn't get any infantry painted this month, but I did work on something else. I wanted to have a photo backdrop so I searched for some inspiration from 2nd edition 40k books and decided to make a neo gothic industrial wall. The main structures are mostly Kapa board and a few different thicknesses of card. I was tempted to add much more detail to these, but I tried to stay true to the 2nd edition esthetic.

I sculpted a bunker style window from which I made plaster casts.

The door is a plaster cast of some 40k terrain I made about a year ago.

Everything just about fit in the group shot. The base is 16" x 16" and it will also double up as a Necropolis28 board.

A lot of photos, but not so much text. Next month I will have to get some infantry painted and my March tank will most likely be a Leman Russ. I hope everyone else had a productive February!

Pablol - Imperial Guard - Month 1 - Rank & File

I started off pretty strong with a Chimera almost painted on the 10th of January. That's all I had originally planned for this month. Then about a week ago I thought I could paint a whole infantry unit that I hadn't even finished putting together. A lot of faffing about, building flagpoles, making molds to convert some models and suddenly there was only a few days left of the month.

Very last minute, but I made it.

Larger size photo 

Imperial Guard Squad 100pts

Sergeant: Power sword, Plasma pistol 10pts

Heavy weapon team: Heavy Bolter 10pts

Special weapon: Grenade launcher 10pts

Chimera 140pts

Total: 270pts

I only later on realized that my Chimera is a not an MK1 model, so I added some Hellhound armour plates on the turret for compensation. I also made a flagpole and flag similar to the ones in the 2nd edition codex. While I was rushing to get everything finished I totally forgot the Chimera Storm bolter and couldn't manage to finish it in time because I hadn't made a pintle mount for it. It'll be mounted by next month. Tank markings will also be added.

I didn't have quite enough Cawdor gangers so theres a few Catachans and a Bretonnian archer to fill the unit of 10. The heavy weapon also changed from my original plan.

For my tribute I painted an Aspiring Chaos Champion in Terminator armour.

Side view 

It is in the post on it's way to Slaaneshchild. Slaanesh models didn't get a lot of attention in the 2nd edition codex, but I think these Daemonette bits go pretty well together with the terminator armour. I hope it has a similar mid 90's vibe as my Imperial Guard models. I was close to putting this on a 40mm base, but I'm glad I sticked to the original 25mm.

Next month I will paint another tank and hopefully also another unit. I hope to have atleast one tank painted per month.

Good luck for next month!

Byron's Pirate Eldar- The Wave Serpent of Aedysseil - Rank and File month (240 pts)

 Life has been a tad hectic this first month (doesn't bode well, I know) as I transitioned from sculpting dwarves to painting Eldar. So my offering for this month is fairly limited, just one big vehicle. 

This is the Wave Serpent of Aedysseil. As I explained in my intro post it is a hybrid between the early Eldar Wave serpent and a later Dark Eldar Raider. In the best traditions of Rogue Trader it has been made from found objects - Marbles, chessmen, bottles, cardboard, lego rubber treads etc.

Primed

Combining the themes of Warhammer Fantasy references in my Space Fleet and Greek inspiration I freehanded the Isha Rune from the 5th edition High Elf army book on the prow. I hope that it comes across like the Greek eyes at the front of triremes. 

This picture is to show off my basing a bit. I made an elongated hexagonal base for the Wave Serpent to match the bases used for the minis. Also, to make it look like it was hovering, I stole some Jenga blocks from my kids and glued them on the bottom. I then put some painted cotton balls underneath to look like wind getting kicked up. 

This is a pic for scale. The vehicle is way too big. 

Points

Wave Serpent (grav attack tank, with increased capacity, swapped weapons for a single las cannon, -2 damage, and only a 6+ save.) = 240 pts 

Fixing up a book

I had an additional project related to my army this month, fixing up an old Rogue Trader book. I got this copy of the Book of the Astronomican for $20 off Facebook. It's in rough shape - no good for learning about the Pirate Eldar of Olde.

Assessing the Damage

Here are some pics to take stock of the damage.

Spine falling apart.

Lots of wear and tear

Gluing the Pages Back in

   With so many pages falling out I will need to reglue the pages in.

Here I am applying the glue to the back of the pages. I use a comic book bag between the pages to prevent any spreading glue from accidentally gluing the pages together. 

Brush to smooth out the glue.

Lining up comic book bag

Placing the book atop another baggy so it doesn't accidentally stick to the surface

Baggy on top

Weight to make sure it dries flat.

Marking up the worn pages

The next step I took sharpies of various colors to color over the white areas where the book was worn. This isn't going to result in a perfect restoration of the book, far from it, but it makes the white wear less immediately noticeable. Finally, I put a strip of packaging tape along the spine and the leading edge of the front and back pages. I have kids and I've found this makes the pages less susceptible to creases and further wear.

Final Comparison