Armorcast Baneblade

By Anthony Karl Erdelji

Early in September 1997, I made a offer to paint a super detailed Armorcast Baneblade for free. The first person to respond got himself a nice looking Baneblade for his Praetorian army and the model featured in this article.

Review

 This is by far the best model at Armorcast has released to date. The casting was excellent. The flash was minimal and I found only two air holes on one of the side sponsons turrets. The detail is leaps and bound over their pervious Games Workshop vehicles. If you've see it on a real tank, then you will probably find it here. Air filters, air intake fans, periscopes, side ladders, and storage bins are just of the few things modeled. It even comes with some metal pieces like hatches, side guns, and a couple of track links for show. Almost everything moves, you even have the option of not gluing the main hull down so it can be removed to show the interior detail if you decide to add any.

Some people might balk at the $130.00 price tag, but you must remember that this is not just a playing piece, but a fine model. For this amount of detail its a great price.

Assembly

Before assembling, read the instructions! When your done reading, read them again! If you glue together some of the pieces in the wrong order, you won't be able to add them later, so be careful. The only things I recommend not gluing on are the track links on the wheel assembly and the wheel assembly to the hull. The tracks are easier to paint in pieces and then later glued to the wheel assembly.

When assembling the main turret gun, brush some liquid latex rubber onto the joint where the gun swivels up and down. If you don't, your gun may start to droop after a while. The rubber make a tighter joint that won't wear away. Let the rubber dry before gluing the turret together.

A razor saw makes removing the road wheels from the sprue easy. For the tracks, score a line along the edge where the tracks meet the spruce. After a few light cuts, you should be able to cleanly snap off the tracks.

Try dry fitting the tracks onto the wheel assemblies before painting. I've built two on these and on each one I had a problem getting track #1 to fit flush against bottom of the hull. If you have this problem, simply make a cut between two of the links. You should them be able to bend to track to follow the shape of the drive sprocket. Hold them in place and put a couple drops of super glue on the cut and spray it with some kicker. The track will hold its new shape.

After removing any flash and filling a few air holes, I scrubbed the kit down with some liquid soap and water and a stiff brush. It was set aside to dry, then primered in white, except the tracks that were primered Black.

Painting

For the basecoat I used Polly's Middlestone. I used an airbrush to get a good smoothing coat. I followed with 3 stages of drybrushing for the highlights. A little more White was added for each coat and I use and large 3/4 inch flat brush for the best results.

After the main body color was done, I painted in the trim, engine, exhaust, and turret muzzles with a Polly's Steel + Black mix, and highlighted with Polly's Sliver. For some color, I painted the heavy bolter, assault launchers, and some of the stuff in the storage bins with Ral Partha Troll Flesh Green and highlighted with Green and Yellow. The rest of the stuff in the storage bin were painted with a couple of different shades of greens and browns from the Polly Scale line of paints. The model was then sprayed with Floquil Flat sealant and left to cure for two days.

For some shade, I took my Winsor & Newton oils paint and made a wash with Black, Raw Umber, Burnt Sienna and some turpentine. Working on one area at a time I applied the wash with a 1/2 inch brush and wiped off the excess with an old bed sheet. Don't forget to do the same with the track assemblies. I let the wash dry for about 2 hours and again spray a coat of Floquil Flat.

The periscopes were painted with Troll Flesh Green and highlight with a drop of White in the upper corners. I brushed on some Testors Glosscoat Lacquer where I wanted the decals. After I let the glosscoat dry for about 2 hours, I transferred on the decals using Mr. Mark Decal Softener.

While the decals were drying I painted the tracks. On real tanks, the tracks are the only parts not painted and they rust quickly so a heavily worn look is needed. I started with a heavy drybrush of Red-Brown, then followed with a drybrush of Steel + Black. The last highlight was a light drybrushing on Silver. A drybrush of Polly's Dirt was the final touch. The tracks were then glued onto the wheel assemblies in the order directed in the instructions. When done, you can glue the entire wheel assembly onto the hull. I recommend using some two-part epoxy glue instead of superglue. Then you'll have enough time to make sure they are seated correctly before the glue sets. Spray again with Floquil Flat.

The final touch was some colored 2.5mm flat rhinestones for headlights. If you decide to use rhinestones, be sure to spray on some kicker or the stones will fog up. At this point, I would of also added the antennas, but I think it looks good without them.

If your interested in additional information for painting tanks, there is no better reference material than Modeling Tanks and Military Vehicles by Sheperd Paine.