Chaos Armorcast Baneblade

By Doctor Faust

This is what I like to call a "Clean out the bits box" Project. Basically, if it looked good, I glued it on. Unfortunately, I lost the in-progress shots that I took of this project. Hopefully you can tell what I'm referring to in each step by looking at the final photos.

Before I start any major Chaos conversion, I look at the piece and decide if I want a living, fleshy Chaos vehicle or a mechanical looking one instead. I didn't want to cover up any of the great detail on this tank with fleshly warts and ooze, so I decide to go with the mechanical look. Next step was to go through my bits box and pull out all of my nasty looking bits. After dry fitting all of the bits, figuring out what looked good where, I grabbed my glue and smacked everything on. Not very technical, but very effective!

The following is a list of all of the bits I used. Where they went should be obvious. Black Ark of Naggaroth prow, 2 Chaos shields, Khorne Icon, 4 Slann palaquin horns, 2 Ork dreadnought powerclaws, Gorkamorka big grabber, Ork Nob banner, 2 scythes, Nercomunda pit slave buzz saw, Space Marine dreadnought power pack, 2 Gorkamorka rams, assorted spikes, skulls, and plastic tank accessories.

After washing and priming the tank, it was time for painting. The tank was brushed Black, highlighted by drybrushing with Ral Partha Drow Flesh, and then again with Dark Gray. The red areas are Ral Partha Deep Red highlighted with Red. All of the skulls were painted Polly S Khaki, and highlighted with Khaki and White.

Now for the fun part! < sarcasm>. All of the trim and every rivet was painted with a Gold & Dun mix. Just to give you an idea of how long it took, there are a total of 36 road wheels, each road wheel has about 40 rivets on one side. Times that together and don't forget about the 100 or so rivets on the tank itself! It took me three days to get them all painted. I hope I never see another rivet again!!!

The treads were painted before assembly. I primed them Black and brushed them with a Polly S Gunmetal & Black mix. I then gave them a heavy wash of Magic Wand Rust followed up by a drybrush of Gunmetal.

After all areas were base-coated and highlighted, I sealed the entire tank with Floquil Figure Flat and set it aside for 2 days to cure. Next is the wash. I got out my Winsor & Newton oils and mixed up some Black, Burnt Sienna, and Raw Umber with some turpentine to make the wash. I mixed in a little more Raw Umber than usual because I wanted to be sure it would show up against the black tank. Working one area at a time, I applied the wash with a large brush and wiped it off with a clean, lint-free cloth. An old bed sheet works well. On the sides, I wiped from top to bottom to simulate streaks from rain and oil running down the sides. The entire tank was covered with the wash.

The thing I really like about this "dirt wash" is that it shades every color. Its not very effective on the Black, but it works well on the Red, Gold, and Khaki. When done, I set it aside to dry for a few hours. Then I scrubbed it with a old toothbrush to be sure that there was no lint stuck to it. I then applied another coating of Floquil Flat.

The next day I touched up any areas that need it and repainted some details that I wanted brighter that were dulled from the wash.  I then glued the Track Assemblies to the hull. I used two-part epoxy instead of super glue to be sure I had them set in properly before the glue set.

The last things to do was to add the antennas and the headlights. I came across some colored rhinestones at my local craft store and they look great for headlights. I glued them on with superglue and sprayed them with some kicker. If you don't spray on the kicker the rhinestones will fog up as the superglue dries.

There you go! The results are very menacing, don't you think? I'm still planning on adding a command figure and I'm going to attach a couple of Whirlwind missile launchers underneath the sponsons, but I'll save that for when I have more time. That's it for now.