Blackadder's Refurbishment of Derelict FW Resin Baneblades Thread.................

[KrewL RaiN]

I wonder if the extra glue is an "reinforced armour" upgrade! AND THE RED ONES GO FASTAAAH WAAAGHHHH.

These kits defiantly found a loving home though!

[Blackadder]

Removing Paint From Derelicts:

I've come across some really tenacious paint on these to models obviously some brand of spray enamel. As the models are poorly assembled and the paint coat varying in thickness of application it is necessary to disassemble the tanks and strip the paint. Simple Green by itself made little progress on loosening the paint even after weeks of soaking other than turn the 'red' paint 'orange' so then I tried soaking for a week in mineral spirits which helped but still needed to be scrubbed with a wire brush where you run the risk of damaging the fine detail. Finally I tried warm dish washer detergent for a couple of days and that seemed to do the trick at least the paint came off with a light scrubbing.

[url]http://i.imgur.com/6j5r276.jpg[/url]


So Simple Green for a week or so followed by a week in Mineral Spirits followed by a few days in Dish Washer detergent.

Interesting that the thinner the coat of spray paint the more difficult it is to remove.

Now to the building critique:

The orange Baneblade was fairly well assembled except for the treads and bogies so once the paint is removed from the hull a fine coat of gray primer is all that is required.

[url]http://i.imgur.com/bt9Nf5C.jpg[/url]


Note the excessive gap on the far right of the photo tread under the front mud guard

Likewise the upper hull of the 'polar bear in a snowstorm camo'd' Mars Baneblade just needs the treads reassembled.

[url]http://i.imgur.com/bniS33P.jpg[/url]


Note again the excessive gap in the tread on the right of the photo Sorry about the "Closeup".

[Darren Richardson]

Wow Blackadder your patience in refurbing these not so great works of art is amazing, I look forward to see more of this series....

Which reminds me I need to work on my old classic Razorback which arrived from eBay this week....

[Blackadder]

Breaking Down the Mars Baneblade:

This tank isn't in too bad shape Most of the fine detail is intact but for some reason the hobbyist left off the carburetor covers and the spare bogies. I'll have to make those.

The big problem is as always removing the sponsons. They are very thin on the top flange and the bottom support mount flanges and these are intact so I want to keep them that way.

I begin by gently tapping the chisel between the top flange and the tread housing

[url]http://i.imgur.com/4vbdkIu.jpg[/url]


This guy used a very hard and brittle epoxy and way too much. Better to file the inner surfaces smooth and when the fit is perfect attach the sponson with a drop or two of cyano-acetate cement.

This is an older model FW Baneblade cast before they upgraded the mould so there is a separate ladder instead of moulded in steps behind the sponson. I removed the ladder that gives me a good shot at the rear of the sponson.

[url]http://i.imgur.com/2PJPBLv.jpg[/url]


A couple of gentle taps and the sponsons loose.

[url]http://i.imgur.com/CIKUYkb.jpg[/url]


Note the barrels on the aft fender. These still have the very fine inner band flanges still completely intact. This delicate feature was changed when FW redid the mould and it is very rare to see them completely intact on both barrels.

I removed the treads and treadway blocks as demonstrated in an earlier post.

[url]http://i.imgur.com/gNS4l1b.jpg[/url]


The parts are now ready for cleaning

[Blackadder]

Time to Stop Fooling Around:

time to get tough with this paint. I tried just about everything to remove the gunky pigment from these models but I do have one ace up my sleeve. Acetone.

Very little withstands being coated with a ketone based solvent but I hate to use it because it ruins any painted surface it come in contact with.

[url]http://i.imgur.com/cOenxEo.jpg[/url]


After a light acid brushing with acetone the paint comes off with a bit of rubbing with a tooth brush.

[url]http://i.imgur.com/W0jK0aJ.jpg[/url]


I could get that last bit of orange off but I don't think it will be necessary.

[url]http://i.imgur.com/l8J3Pi1.jpg[/url]


I haven't yet applied it to the 'Polar Bear'; it's potent stuff and I don't like using it for too long of a period per day.

[Darren Richardson]

Hey Blackadder, how's the refurb coming along, this baby dropped down to page 10

I've been waiting for more info as I have some tanks that I need refurbing myself...

[Blackadder]

I put the "Derelicts" on back burner as there was a distinct lack of interest on this and other forums. I assumed that Resin Superheavies were not that interesting and most everyone was switching to the GW plastic version.

I personally find the GW Baneblade and it's variants too busy and contrived. I especially disapprove of the quad aux fuel drums while indeed more practical lack the panache of six foot diameter storage tanks.

I'll spool up the thread again, what information do you need?

[FireHazard]

I've been waiting for more info as I have some tanks that I need refurbing myself...

Likewise! I've stripped down my plastic Baneblade and resin Shadowsword. I'm interested to see how you deal with gappy tracks and getting those bloody track blocks to STAY IN . Also, I agree with your comment on the fuel drums. The big 'uns look so much better.

[Darren Richardson]

Likewise! I've stripped down my plastic Baneblade and resin Shadowsword. I'm interested to see how you deal with gappy tracks and getting those bloody track blocks to STAY IN . Also, I agree with your comment on the fuel drums. The big 'uns look so much better.

yeah it's the putting it all back together again part which we need, mostly how to deal with the broken parts, warped parts etc when you start putting it all back again....

For me I noticed that the 1st/2nd ed Razerback (and rhino in general) doesn't seem to fit back together very well at all...

painting wise we all can find so much info on that!

[Blackadder]

Okay so the tracks are the main problem and although I thought I covered the assembly of the tracks assembly pretty well on the second page of this thread I have run into an interesting manufacturing defect on the Baneblades I am currently rebuilding.

Fortunately I have some well assembled tracks on my older Baneblades (I'm going to use the generic name Baneblade regardless which variant I am actually working on.)

The problem I am running into is the actual tread segments are too short. They will never span the length of the 'Block' with the bogies, idlers and drivers mounted as they are from FW. Somewhere in the later runs of these model the wheel mount block has changed length.

I first discovered this on one of the models I recently took apart and there was an extra tread plate unit in the run along bottom of the assembly so instead of three plain tread units between the skull tread units there were four between the skulls in one segment.

Well this is one way of dealing with the problem but it's not acceptable to me so the following images in subsequent posts will demonstrate how I will deal with this anomaly.