Defiant Workshop's Project Log! Thrills! Chills! Explosions?

[defiantworkshop]

Hey all, since I'm less of a wargamer, and more of a model builder, figured instead of opening up a zillion onesy-twosy type posts, I'll just put all my various projects and other assorted sundry things here.

You all might remember me from my [URL="http://www.lounge.belloflostsouls.net/showthread.php?48906-WIP-Halloween-themed-Ork-diorama"]Orktober 31 diorama[/URL] ages ago, but I've kept busy, and a lot of what I've done hasn't fallen under the 40k banner as of late, but that boat seems to be headed back to my shores.

We'll start off with a few sets of power weapons I was commissioned to do for a Grey Knight player. He wanted the standard blue for some of his guys, and green to set his terminators apart.

[defiantworkshop]

With that out of the way, this is my Crimson Raider project. With me not really knowing much about what loadouts go with what, and what markings refer to which rules, I pretty much just build it how I think it looks coolest, so apologies if this (and any future ones) don't match up with the fluff/rules properly.

Started out doing the cockpit area, doing a quick spray for OSL:

[Wolfshade]

like the sword effects

[defiantworkshop]

Next step on the Crimson Hunter. Fully assembled, getting ready for primer by first masking, then dealing with the seams where the fins meet the body of the craft. Some of how the kit goes together makes seam lines turn into panel lines, but these pieces just look off, so I puttied them up.



Of course, its never as flawless as you want the first time through. The seam line is gone, but the transition just...isn't right after primer.


So I re-sanded using micro mesh to try to make the lines a little more fluid.


Finally, after all was well, its time for a sprayed base coat of gloss black. The paint I'm using is enamel, so it has a while to gas out before it fully cures to the point I can start doctoring it for a mirror smooth finish. That's good timing though, b/c I'm off for vacation in a week, so I can let it sit for a bit and get back to it when my plane touches down:


As always, thanks for looking!

[defiantworkshop]

Had a quick last-minute commission before hitting the road for a few days. Got to see how quickly I could churn a project out while packing, dealing with two kids, and the other parts of real life interfering with what "really" matters.

Anyways, client wanted a Grey Knights Nemesis Standard done up for his army before I left if possible, so I sat down while I wait on the Eldar Hunter to gas out, figured I could churn it out. Got it done in a quick afternoon, pleased with the result for the speed. Its still on the sprue, so I didn't get any good "finished" pics of it, but here it is on my armrest!

[Lord Commissar Maxwell]

Loving the standard!

[defiantworkshop]

Back from vacation! And as promised, the next pieces in my harrowing tale, painting in between on work and children!

So with airbrushing, as I said before, I need a mirror finish to start with, before moving on to the finer metallics. My original finish was done with too much humidity, so it had a little bumpy texture to it, if you look closely:



So I took to it with a 6000 grit micro mesh cloth, working my way up to 12,000 grit:



Unfortunately I wasn't entirely happy with the thinner I user, so I ordered a new batch and am waiting on it to arrive in the mail, so I'm off to find a kit to get building in the meantime! Sorry for the delay, but being back home after a few weeks off is great, and time to get back to business!

[defiantworkshop]

So while I wait on my new enamel thinner to arrive, time to keep busy with a new project. I bought a Tau Devilfish pretty much just to do a camo stencil design, so I got started with the build process on it.

Assembly on it is pretty straight forward. You can tell its an older kit, and there's some questioning as to what should be "panel lines" and what is a really bad seam. So, since its just supposed to be for fun, I figured I'll just make quick judgement calls. After assembly, I reinforced the illusion of the panel lines by using s scribing tool to deepen them after gluing them together:



The next step is to hide the seam lines that are obviously problematic, especially on the engines. I was able to see a finished version without the seams hidden on them, and its a big deal. So i hid the seams using styrene and its cement's natural welding properties. Glue the pieces together, and sand using a rough grit. Then re-glue the seam line, which welds the styrene dust together in the seam. After that, you just re-sand with progressively smoother grit sandpaper until it vanishes entirely:





Next, its on to the landing gear! Thanks for looking!

[defiantworkshop]

I plan on displaying this kit as "in flight" so I didn't want the landing gear down. However, landing gear down is the only option given with the parts on this kit, and the bottom skids don't fit into the area supplied, so physically, this can't actually work in a real life scenario, and means I have to fashion my own landing gear covers:


So, I set to work. I first measured out how big the landing gear housing was, then traced it out on a sheet of styrene, and did small superficial cuts with an Xacto and straight edge:


After that, you can just snap the pieces off, then glue them on! I didn't worry about any detail, asthe kit will be displayed as more "hovering" than "airborne" so you won't see much of the detail on the underside, but three gaping housing units would detract the eye from any position.

[Haighus]

The sand-cement-sand-cement technique is really effective! Will totally be stealing that one... You wouldn't know there had been a seam there at all without having built the model yourself.