Burnt-out Rhino

Last month, a friend of mine gave me several boxes of Games Workshop models to distribute into the Edmonton hobby community. One of the models I kept to do myself was this Rhino APC. This is a short step-by-step article on turning it into a burnt-out terrain piece for my Kill Team game boards.

First...build the model.

Second, primed brown. This gets the base rust layer down quite painlessly. After the primer dried, I sponged on some latex.

Next, I sprayed on the base layer of the camouflage colour. When that was dry, I rubbed the whole model to get the latex off and create the first rust chipping layer.

Another latex application, and then sprayed on a couple of camouflage colours. Not shown here, but then gave this layer a rub to expose the base light camo colour through the subsequent camo oversprays.

Next came lots of weathering effects. First, sprayed the model with Glosscoat and got the decals on. Then applied a dark pin wash to pop out all the panel lines. Then started into the mud splatters. These were done in three shades of Vallejo spatter mud colours. After that came rust pigments, dust and dirt. Also painted the tracks with Vallejo track primer and then weathered with AK NATO wash and a steel drybrush. Everything was settled in with pigment fixer and some Dullcoat.

The APC interior was initially primed off-white, and then "burnt-out" with successive layers of soot and rust pigments.

The final layers were done with pigment fixer and AK interactive White Ashes. Also did a final dust pass.

One more Dullcoat pass finished off the whole thing.

And so, the intention was to get a burnt-out vehicle onto my Kill Team boards to act as a flavourful terrain piece.

Mission accomplished!

'Til next time.

Weathering a Servohauler

This sweet little model is one of the ski-fi tractors in the Galvanic Servohauler boxed set from Games Workshop. I really liked this guy, so I thought I'd spend some extra time on it and turn it into another sic-fi vehicle weathering tutorial.

Assembly is first, and straightforward. There are only a handful of parts in this model. Next, the whole thing is base coated brown.

Next came a sponge application of latex mold builder. The latex was focused on raised edges, and areas that would have seen a lot of wear.

In a few minutes, the mold builder was dry. The model was then oversprayed white to prepare it for the yellow base colour.

Spray yellows!

In a few minutes, the yellow paint was dry, and it was then time to rub away the latex. Using my thumb and fingers, this was just a matter of rubbing away the rubber. This revealed the "rust" brown base paint underneath.

Next, all other details were painted in. This included the tracks, antennae, exhaust pipe, engine block and so on.

The fuel tanks for the torch-laser thing were painted red and blue. A lot of weathering paints were coming next...so the bits I did not want weathered were left to be painted at the very end. This included the rubber hoses, headlamp and external wires.

To start the weathering process, the model was sprayed with a clear gloss lacquer. The whole thing was then given a light wash of Agrax Earthshade.

Much weathering ensued...and you think I would have taken some photos. Well, here are the colours used in progression instead. Left to right. Where ever there was going to be rust, Snakebite Leather went down first. This was watered down, applied, and then "erased away" with a damp brush. Same for the Orange Brown that went down next. And the Scorched Brown. Walnut Brown was used for deeper pits on the chassis surface. Finally, Yellow and off-white were mixed and used to highlight the upper edges of the major rust chips in order to represent caught a reflected light.

The model was also treated with Corrosion and Rust technical paints. Corrosion in the deepest recesses, and Rust on the end of the exhaust pipe. The engine block, and some greasy areas of the model surface were also treated with these vallejo weathering acrylics to represent oil and fuel spills.

I should also mention that the tracks were painted with Vallejo Track Primer, washed with Nuln Oil, given a few spots of rust, and then finally dry brushed lightly with silver.

And, there you have it. As mentioned, at the end, hoses, wires and the headlamp were painted in.

Really a fan of neat little models like this. They add a lot of character to a game table.

As you can see, when the rust colours were applied, they were streaked down the sides of the chassis.

There are two other models in the servo hauler set. I'll do one other for sure (have it assembled and primed now).

'Til next time.

Weathering the Repulsor...and Another Dreadnaught

Well...that was a long project!

I've been working on the Primaris Repulsor for the last few months...bit by bit. In fact, I've played it in a number of games, starting from when it was in black primer, and most recently before the guns and details were finished off. Regardless, it rolled off the hobby table today for the last time.

In this blog post, I want to go over the steps I went through to weather the vehicle. Looking back, I should have taken photos while I was doing the digital urban camo with the great stencil set from Anarchy Games. Next time. Anyway, I'm picking this up after assembly was 90% complete and five layers of the camo paint scheme were laid down.

The concept here was to have the Dark Angels repaint a Primaris Repulsor for an urban combat detail. As such, I first sprayed down the metallic green, and then masked over the areas where the major insignia would be left exposed on the vehicle. Next, the four layers of urban camo colours were sprayed down with the aid of stencils.

So, the first step in the weathering process was to coat the tank with a gloss finish. I used Testors Glosscoat.

Next, I applied all the decals. These came from a variety of sheets. Markings are for 3rd Company, Dark Angels Chapter.

Next, I wanted to give some Migs enamel products a try. I've never used them before, and it's been decades since I used enamel paint. Anyway, I wanted to use them for the pin washes and streaks, and use enamel thinner to see if it's better than acrylics and water.

And the verdict? I liked them. Easy to use, quick to apply, and a great general effect. This shading and streaking layer formed the foundation for everything than followed.

Next I mixed some Migs weathering powders with enamel thinner and went to town adding in rust and a base dirt layer. I also did some work on the metal repulsor "tracks" at this point.

The painted "tracks" were put on at this point, along with a generous application of dust and dirt pigments over the tank body.

I switched to Vallejo acrylic weathering effects at this point, and splattered on a number of mud shades.

Then it was time to paint the gun barrels, lenses, lights, and then add the commander and hatch covers. The vehicle was sprayed with a couple of coats of Testors Dullcoat at this point to bring the sheen down.

Then there was a final application of dust pigments to the top deck to finish the weathering off and give the whole tank a nice scale effect.

Very happy with the end result.

This is not a traditional Games Workshop vehicle finish, with the edge highlighting and so on. However, it does harken back to the old days when I used to build Tamiya 1/35 armour kits. That was a long time ago!

Anyway, I was really happy with the way the camo scheme worked out, and the weathering pulls the whole thing together.

And now this guy is ready to hit the game tables at the LVO next month.

It was the first week of holidays for me this week, so I had time to knock off another model. This is the "anti-personnel" version of the Redemptor Dreadnaught...which I seem to need to fight off Elliot's Tyranids!

This was painted using the same steps as my last Redemptor, but I spent more time on the base this go around.

After building one of these, the second went together very quickly, and the paint scheme is simple and fun to do. Again, happy with the results.

'Til next time.

First Primaris Space Marines

Well, here is the first Space Marine squad finished out of the new Warhammer 8th edition Dark Imperium boxed set. I've decided to paint my marines up as Dark Angels, 3rd Company.

The process for painting these guys was the same I used for the Word Bearers from the Calth boxed set last year (but green marines this time, instead of red). I started with assembly, and then pinned everything for easy handling.

Flat black primer coat.

The a gloss black coat to take the next metallic layer better.

Next, two shades of silver. Gunmetal for the "upwards" spray, and Duraluminium for the "downwards" spray. This is pre-shading for the Minitaire Ghost Tint spray coming next.

A coat of Green Ghost Tint.

That was followed up with the start of detail painting. Gold, sliver, leather, red, etc.

Bases were painted, decals were added, arms were glued in, final weathering scratches applied, figures based, and, there you go.

Squad number one is off the table. Much more to come.

This past week I also finished off one of the Hammerhal hero figures. A Chaos Lord, or Mage or something. Not sure what it's called.

Nice figure, though. I like it. Looking to play some Hammerhal in July.

Up next is more Dark Imperium Space Marines.

'Til next time.