Save vs. Blog

Just an update of what I’ve done on my Land Raider Achilles! When last we left it, I had placed the decorative plates into the sides of the tank, but there were still big, uneven gaps between the plates and the hull. Using the magic of Green Stuff, I sculpted a frame for each of the plates. This sort of precision work is not my forté, but there’s no way to get better at it without practice. Here’s a shot of the sides:

There was unevenness in the front of the Land Raider as well (that’s just how it goes with resin bits, really), so I pounded some Green Stuff in there too. This is a picture of the rough work (before I trimmed and sanded it):

With the Green Stuff initially in place, the Achilles is really starting to come together. (I should come up with a name for it, like uh… Death Skull Angel Death… that might be too long, though).

So, then I cleaned up the Green Stuff and fitted the guns on. I glued the sponson (the side gun) mounts into the door holes, but the multi-meltas, the Thunderfire Cannon, the sponson top, bottom, and sponson gun pole are not glued in place. It’s too hard to paint in those crevices.

This thing looks great! I am going to put a magnet under the hatch before I glue it on, then I’ll magnetize the storm bolter and HK missile in case I care to stick them on at some point in the future. (I don’t really see that happening, given that the thing is bristling with firepower already, and 10 points for a couple bolt shots isn’t usually going to be as good as the same 10 points spent somewhere inside a Tactical Squad.)

So, it’s nearly ready to primer, and then the painting can start!

Edit: I forgot to note that, with the reaper decorations in the front nooks, the armor plating that is hanging out over top of the tracks had to be trimmed down. This trimming is imperfect, so before I paint, I’m going to try Squadron’s “Green Putty” in those gaps. This will be the first time I use Green Putty as opposed to Green Stuff, so it’ll be a fun experiment (as soon as my Green Putty arrives)!

After making my own custom miniature (my daughter, born on September 18th!), I’ve been out of commission for blogging purposes. But now I’m working my way back into action! So let’s see a few things I’ve had time for.

First, I’ve been putting together some bits from Scibor to decorate my Land Raider Achilles. These beautiful pieces are decorated with the Grim Reaper, complementing the commander who rides in the Land Raider, Captain Tharsis the Grim. Here are some photos…

I had to cut a big hole in the side of the Land Raider first:

Then I placed the (50mm square) reaper plate in the hole (this is the opposite side from the previous photo).

I glued sprues across the back, providing both a glue point and a way to keep the plates basically straight:

Here’s a shot of the Land Raider sides and top (with additional reaper plates, which did not require cutting big holes in the Land Raider):

Of course, I need to put some Green Stuff borders around the big plates – there are big gaps (neither my knife nor Scibor’s plates were perfect) and the plates obviously don’t match the contours of the tank. I debated cutting the back corners of the big reaper plates to match the angle of the back of the Land Raider – that might have looked better, but I think framing the square plates will look good.

If I did this again, I would consider trimming off the “background” of each reaper image and rounding the sides and bottoms of the plates. This might make them stand out, kind of like statues more than engravings. Then I could just smooth down the Land Raider and glue the “statues” to the sides. That might fit onto the tank better. Still, cutting out the plastic means the plates sit into the sides of the tank, rather than sticking out of the sides. I do think a clean border around the “plates” will look great… all I need to do is be skilled with my sculpting!

Second, I worked on two more Captains for my Space Marine army. I’m pretty keen on heavily customized Captains… and when I run out of Captains, I’ll do Honor Guard. And when I run out of Honor Guard, my sergeants are going to start looking real good.

Introducing Atlan the Doughty, Captain of the Immortals (1st Company)…

Atlan is a Scibor body (looks kind of like an Adeptus Custodes to me!) with Scibor shoulders and Grey Knight Terminator arms. He is “counts as” Vulkan He’stan, so that’s artificer armor, a relic blade, and a heavy flamer.

Alongside him is Ptolomaeus the Unyielding, Captain of the 3rd Company…

Captain Ptolomaeus is blurry, but he’s basically a Force Commander kit with some Green stuff on his legs and arms from Sanguinary Guard. I love the Sanguinary Guard bits, so you’ll see them scattered around as I work my way through the box. I also did some work to add wings to his helmet, which doesn’t look great here. He needs a bit more work, but he has artificer armor, a power sword, and a plasma pistol (and he “counts as” Cato Sicarius).

Clearly, I need to take better pictures, but I don’t have an ideal setup right now…

And… I should really be painting, but uh… I avoid painting like the plague. I think my fear that my painting isn’t good prevents me from painting, which means I don’t get practice, which means I don’t get better. I just need to sit down and do it… but I haven’t yet!

Thanks for reading – more to come soon!