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

[Blackadder]

Years ago when my son first acquainted me with the Warhammer phenomenon he showed me a catalog of the FW products. Having been in the Service I had an awe of the mechanized armour although even then I knew

"A moving foxhole attracts the eye."



Anyway I fell in love with the anachronistic clanking abomination known as the Baneblade Super-heavy Tank. Not just the Baneblade but the Lucius Pattern version to be precise with looks even more archaic than the Mars Pattern.

Reading the spec's on this behemoth Gad 316 tonnes! 13.5 metres long 6.3 metres high that's literally as big as my house was at that time.

Then and there I resolved to get one of those vehicles but the FW price was prohibitive. What to do? well there was ebay, you can find anything for sale on ebay so I gave that a try.........

After a few days a Lucius Baneblade showed up.............

[url]http://i.imgur.com/2cM66kT.jpg[/url]


and I watched it count down the days to the final few seconds and at the last moment I dumped in my bid. Walla (sic) I won the bid! I forgot what I paid for it but I'm sure it was way too much but still a heck of a lot cheaper than a new one from Forge World..........

Watching the post regularly it ultimately arrived; Whoa what a piece of junk! It looked even worse than it appeared in the ebay picture Caveat emptor!

[url]http://i.imgur.com/NLcS2Az.jpg[/url]


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


of course I knew that the thing was assembled badly but I was pretty sure I could restore it to a semblance of its potential glory.

[interrogator_chaplain]

If anyone can, it's you.

(Although I'd rather see you finish that Thunderhawk...)

[whargoul666]

Every crappy falling apart model I have ever gotten off eBay has made me smile. Its easier to get them in the tubs of simple green if they are in pieces!

[Blackadder]

Yeah I know I have been procrastinating resuming the T'hawk project but in a week or so I will have ample time to work on all these projects if my forthcoming shoulder surgery doesn't preclude me from doing any work at all. I injured my rotator cuff this past summer and right arm movement is a bit of a chore. Typing is about all I can do for the past few weeks thats why I am dredging up 'old works' threads. This models work was actually done in 2005.

[interrogator_chaplain]

Well, my hopes indeed that everything goes well.

[SotonShades]

Hope the surgery goes well I know I've seen the end result of this before, but I'm very much looking forward to seeing how you went about it (and comparing it to the similar experience I had with a Macharius Vulkan

[Kirkanos]

Eagerly subscribes to another Blackadder thread to be in awe of!

Hope the surgery goes well chief, best of luck

[Blackadder]

Since I could little improve of the perfection of the Lucius Baneblade (FW) I restricted my styrene addiction and only repaired and modified that which was necessary.

FW models in my experience require a lot of TLC and reconstruction even when new so the time and effort savings between a 'New' and 'Refurbished' is about equal.

Another thing I found out about the older resin models is in spite of the brittleness of the material it can take a surprising degree of prying with knives and chisels to disassemble the pieces and not shatter. The newer resin models use a softer mix and has a tendency to tear when subjected to stress.

After disassembling the entire model I scraped every last bit of paint and glue from the pieces. A regular kitchen paring knife I found was the best tool to do this and a #11 Xacto blade and a pin vise with micro bit drill for those hard to reach places.

[URL=http://i.imgur.com/UOe7pUQ.jpg]http://i.imgur.com/UOe7pUQ.jpg[/URL]



[url]http://i.imgur.com/Kl8vF5i.jpg[/url]


[url]http://i.imgur.com/CBQsdA1[/url]


[url]http://i.imgur.com/nEF9P5h.jpg[/url]


In about a week I had the model down to the bare resin.

Note if you will the colour of the resin. It was almost white in hue; a much harder, brittle material than current FW resin.

[Bigred]

Yup, I know that resin well.

That has got to be one of the first resin kits FW ever made back in the day.

Back then, it was head and shoulders above the ancient "tan resin" Armorcast kits from the 90s.

[Blackadder]

Thanks very much for that verification. I have had replies on a few other forums questioning the authenticity of a B'blade of that colour.