Sammael, part II

I wish I'd taken MORE pictures, but it was a chore enough to get through this, believe it or not.  I did run through a bike as a test model, so I could work out where I needed to be with certain steps etc, and if what I was doing was right. I will certainly be painting one test model in the future before an entire unit - I learned a lot.
Next time I post, I will be showing the test model, and the step-by-step of the bike painting by using the two attack bikes I'm working on.  Onto Sammael.

After I did my test model, I went at the Sammael speeder with the wash mix I'm using for this.  I have no idea why, but I forgot to block in the bare metal areas with Boltgun Metal, so I had to go over those carefully then wash them again.  It was more difficult than painting the Boltgun Metal before washing as it was awkward to tidy up mistakes afterwards. I was painting the two other speeders for this army I was able to catch my mistakes with the Sammael model and get done what needed to be done on the other models before washing.

I also painted the red guns in before washing the black over the Boltgun Metal areas too, then highlighted those as well once I was done.  I think the most trouble I had was with weathering the exhausts - I'm still not happy with those.  Also getting the brush in to do the buttons and such on the dashboard.  I'm not that worried about a Golden Demon, so I didn't do them all.  The banner hanging just to the rear of the step on the left side of the speeder kept breaking, so I cut it off and found a resin purity seal that covered up the problem.  It looks a little off-kilter with the gubbins hanging off the right side only but it will suffice, I think.  I don't like too much ostentation on the models - they're on a battlefield, not a catwalk!

Not happy with the exhaust, but I'll live with it.

The book was painted "on the fly" using colours seemingly at random - I wish I'd written it down.  The cover was in a mix of Orkhide Shade and Camo Green, the red ropes were Blood Red washed with Mud and highlighted back up again with Blood Red.  Nothing spectacular.  I based all of the gold parts in Iytanden Darksun and used Burnished Gold and Shining Gold with a Devlan Mud wash.

I'm quite happy with the edge highlighting, considering I'd winged it on figuring out where it should go - it looks good more than being correct, I think!  By the time I get to the other two speeders from my other Ravenwing Battleforces I should be a dab hand! 

Thanks to Scott at S6 Engineering for making these fabulous flight stands.  They really are quite sturdy and definitely worth the wait.  If you've got wobbly Tau vehicles, I'd heartily recommend these bases for them. 

I've been playing a bit of a Doublewing list lately using some old bikes and stuff from the used army I bought three years ago.  My son will get those when I have all of this stuff done.  Learning the nuances of scouting and flanking, and when to drop the teleport homers and stuff has made the game more interesting.  Until next time, so long for now!

Sammael Landspeeder, part 1

I'll be attending the Ordo Fanaticus 40K team tournament in Vancouver, Washington in August.  I'm planning on taking a Doublewing list.  Partly for giggles, partly as motivation to get my Ravenwing finished, and partly as motivation to get my Deathwing command squad done too.

As I have four Ravenwing battleforces, I wasn't short of parts to make Sammael's AV14 Landspeeder of amazingness. I went ahead and ordered a barebones Landspeeder body from The War Store which suited my needs.  Of course, it is one of the older bodies.  Not a big deal actually.  I've built a couple and have figured out the foibles and niggles of assembling these "bloody things".

I think I've more or less worked out where I need to trim and sand to get the best fit possible.  Then I went to work with the Squadron brand green putty.  After that had dried and was sanded I did the fine work with Tamiya White Putty.  You can see the result above.  I should not be able to see the join once the primer is on.

The antenna doodad was awkward too and took a fair amount of filling.

One more thing - I HATE the GW flying bases.  I'm sure I'm not the only person on the planet who feels this way.  They give you a long stalk and a short stalk with the base, and inevitably the stalk snaps at one end or the other.  The other thing is that the model is so unstable on the top of the stalk and spins around and lolls to one side.  Crap.  They made an improvement with the ball and socket thing but even that wears after a while.

S6 engineering in the UK has a unique solution and it involves magnets.  It's secure too!  They're quite easy to assemble after some test fitting and filing.  I wouldn't recommend using a CA or plastic glue to assemble the base though as the acrylic did cloud up on me where I glued the magnets in place.  But you can't see it unless you pick the model up.  Meh.

Sammael was relatively easy to source the bits for.  I used the commander armour with the high collar and a power sword from the Dark Angels veteran kit. Easy peasy!  I won't put the hood ornament on it as I think they look silly.  The scrolls and such though will fit the model and as it will never come off the base, there's no problem with them hanging low.

Next blog I'll be talking about the Deathwing Command Squad some more.