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.