Warhammer 40k: Scratch Built Space Marines Razorbacks Part 3

In Part 2 we covered casting the weapons loadouts for the tanks. In this part everything comes together and I now have 3 scratch built razorbacks ready for paint. I have one more tank that I'm still working on. 90% of the components are already made. I just have to put it all together. I'm also working on putting together the original kit as well so once I'm finished I'll have 5 in total. So, without further ado here's what I have.

As you can see I "stretched" some of the bits from the kit to add a few more finer details to each tank. All the weapon loadouts are magnetized and can be swapped out from tank to tank.

The next tank below is the first tank that I worked on in Part 1 and is a little different from the other two. Specifically, the side sponsons were scratch built instead of cast.

Next steps are to get some paint on these! Part 4 will wrap this project up with the tanks all finished up.

Warhammer 40k: Scratch Built Space Marines Razorbacks Part 2

Continuing on with part 2 of this post to address the weapon loadouts needed for the tanks. So, the basic shapes of the tanks are pretty boxy, angular, and consisting of mostly straight line; relatively, easy to recreate. However, the weapons loadouts like the twin lascannons are a little bit harder to build out of foamcore and plastic. When I started this project a I picked up an actual Games Workshop Razorback kit to use as reference for my scratch built tanks as well as providing some of the smaller bits to cast.

A few years back I picked up a product that I've used so many times to great effect called Instant Mold. This is a fantastic product that when heated in hot water becomes soft and malleable like clay but cools to a nice finish like hard rubber. This material is perfect for creating quick and relatively easy press molds for casting just about anything. Instant Mold makes up the mold and I use Milliput as the casting material.

Below you can see a freshly cast lascannon. It's not perfect, the process is very elementary, and the detail is somewhat diminished. However, once it's cleaned up and painted, it can be tough to tell the difference sometimes. Also, like all cast pieces there is flash to be removed.

For the assault cannons I cast the end of an assault cannon from a Space Marines Terminator model.

I ended up casting several pieces. I cast multiple lascannons, assault cannons, and heavy bolters as well as the side sponsons and top hatch pieces. This was somewhat time consuming as I only had a limited amount of Instant Mold to work with so I could only cast so many pieces at once.

Everything will be magnetized so that it can be freely swapped out for a different weapons loadout. The assault cannons will end up using the heavy bolters as a base which is why the front barrels have been cut off.

That wraps up this part 2. In part 3 you'll see what the tanks look like completed and ready for paint. I'll leave you with a shot of some of the scratch built components and the cast top hatches and a side sponson.

Warhammer 40k: Scratch Built Space Marines Razorbacks Part 1

Since 8th edition dropped recently I've played a fair few games of 40k with my modest space marines army. Space Marine Razorback tanks are a very good points value in 8th and it'd be nice to have a few to put in my lists.

Going back a few years ago I started scratch building a few tanks but never got around to finishing any of them. The pics below were taken 4 years ago when I first started the project. I used foamcore as the skeleton for the basic shapes needed and thin plastic sheet will cover the entire models to give it a nice finish.

To get started first the two sides for each tank were cut from foamcore and then covered in plastic sheet on both sides.

Then using a top, bottom, and the two sides everything is glued together to achieve the basic shape of the tank.

At this point I started in on trying to get one complete by getting the sides cut out of thick sheet plastic.

This is as far as I got on one tank when I stalled out on the project.

Now fast forward over 4 years later and after sitting around buried in a box in my closet,  I'm finally getting back around to them. Here's a little teaser for what's to come in part 2.

Here is the original link from 4 years ago. 

Imperial Assault: Rebel Saboteurs

Enjoying painting the line of miniatures for Imperial Assault. The miniatures are pretty good for a board game but not so good that I feel guilty when I only throw a quick paint job on them. Anyways, anyone who's played IA skirmish knows how good these little guys are.

Imperial Assault: C3PO and R2D2

Finished these two quite awhile ago but just getting around to posting them. Been doing a lot of speed painting lately as it's a therapeutic break from high quality, detail work.

Warhammer 40K: Space Marines Bike Squad

Working on getting my modest Space Marines army painted. These are six bikes from two Dark Vengeance starter sets from last edition. Again, sticking to my process for speed painting that I've employed for my space marines. These are just base coated and washed in a heavy black of my own recipe.

Warhammer 40K: Space Marines Dreadnought

After doing the conversion to make this model have a dual autocannon weapons loadout, I took a little bit of time to get it painted up. It was a little bit of time too. This was one of the quickest and easiest models to paint. Only took me about an hour. For a speed painted model it looks pretty good on the table which is all I'm going for here.