Landraider Crusader WIP Part 2.5 and Chemistry Class

Where is Land Raider?

What? Expecting a lame random picture of Waldo? LOL

The Interior Front

The good news is my the part I ordered from the UK arrived last week Being stuck on whether I could work on it at the in laws place I decided to leave it for when I returned. Speaking of coming from the UK, I used Bitzbox and they came through having the package delivered within the guesstimated time so I will gladly use them again. I ordered a few other parts, but I will discuss those later on. My only con would be the lack of shipping information, but its not a big deal as they had a refund policy if your parts go AWOL after a certain point.

Sunday I cleaned up the part I needed (Sensor) and attached it to the new part I had to order (Front Hull) to get the missing part. I added a bit of gap filling material on the back on sensor on the interior side. Hopefully this will help cut down on the small amount of dust spray which gets in when spraying the actual exterior hull. Red dust from the red spray setting on the bone interior somewhats ruins all the hard work placed within. I then sprayed the interior side with a white prime and a bone base.

Exterior

Interior

I need to make a few minor interior paint adjustments and then it is assembly time. Wait, what you had all this time, lol. Halo4 came out remember. Might I add my wife won't play 40K, but she plays multiplayer with me and she is good enough to rumble with the rest of the uncoordinated team members so I am 1 uped for coolness.

The Exterior Front

Last week I did spray the interior portions of the side hulls where the side doors will be placed. My last Land Raider I did the same so I could remove the doors. However, one will not come off and the other fall off on its own. This spraying left a bunch of over spray on the sides. I know I can simply leave it, but the light color under the red spray later might through off the color slightly. I needed to find a way to remove the excess spray paint without having to redo the spraying.

Upon conducting some research for alternate ways of removing paint beyond what I already use I decided to take a trip to my local Walgreens for some Distilled water and some Non Acetone Nail Polish Remover. When I was there I was wondering if people would wonder what I would be doing

Remove paint better with studio beauty!

Plus, not a random picture.

Be warned, this stuff smells to high hell and its pink tone and mental effects will temp you to Slaanesh.

Sort of, not really. Masta Cheef is the disciple of that territory as he is the Master of the plasma spam fun fest. It reminds me of the movie Killer Klowns From Outer Space. The Clowns shot popcorn from their guns. In turn, I think the plasma chaos marines shoot confetti from there guns. However, some die on both sides so it probably is plasma.

The nail polish remover had to be tested first to avoid damage, despite using the non acetone remover. I grabbed three test pieces and placed nail polish remover on the side of two pieces with paint and on the side of one piece with bare plastic. Research mentioned this product removes paint in minutes so I return to the pieces after about five minutes.

No effect.

No, not actually though.

I remembered one of the painted pieces came off slightly as I swiped the product on with a q-tip. Plus the bare plastic was still bare plastic unchanged. I then took some and rubbed it on the Land Raider hull and it started stripping the paint right off the plastic. Not only did it strip the paint, it stripped through two layers of spray paint. Often I find it difficult to remove the lower layer of spray paint. This improves the overall power to strip paint in a matter of seconds compared to minutes.

With the Walking Dead on I commenced to strip paint off both exterior hull pieces and was highly successful. Only a small trace amount of color form the spray remained from each spot. The trace amounts I can leave without worry.

Here is the end result showing three important ideals and proof using Non Acetone Nail Polish Remover works to safely remove paint from plastic.

1: The actual color of the interior spray
2: The trace amounts of color left over
3: The undamaged bare plastic

Exterior

Undamaged

Interior between hull

Undamaged

Overall I would recommend using Non Acetone Nail Polish Remover as a targeted paint removing medium and continue to use other full paint removal mediums as normal. If any would like additional test subject evidence feel free to ask and I can see what else the Dok can work on.

Prior to gaming over the weekend I heard the silent lash crack of where is Landraider Crusader WIP Part 3. With this in mind assembly of the Land Raider should take place sometime this week.

The Masta Cheef and I just might get some Battletech in before Sunday. So look for another battle report.

Landraider Crusader WIP Part 2

Here is a progress update from Part 1

I wanted to show everything post Part 1 with some black washes applied to the metal parts and some cleanup paint applied to the hull along with all the new painted portions.

First up since I forgot it last time is the glorious Engine block.

Engine Block

The engine block is always the pride and joy of the interior for me. I originally was going to go for a red mechanicus symbol and decided against it. To not compete with the purity seals, I went with the previously used black/white as it stands out better as an over all seal. I might paint to more buttons perhaps, but otherwise it looks good. The black wash went well, not sure on the main engine block though as it is an easy fix.

The green pipes I am also cooking an idea on how to show a light see through black pipe look. I am thinking of apply very light black paint or wash on the sides and working to the middle slightly and then start from the middle and working to the side. I may have to test the idea. The pipes are fine as is and a mess up can ruin it.

Mechanicus Approved?

Computer Panel

The Computer panel I am glad how it has turned out so far. It is done unless I do anything else to it. The only thing I would do and I have had encouragement to do is the screens. White dot them or even apply some scorpion green to the upper portions perhaps.

One idea I have thought about is the design of the interface. A Land Raider carries a full ten marine squad or a full five terminators and in the case of a Crusader more than ten marines or more than five terminators. I consider the nine screen on the right side of the panel are separate from the two screens on the left for a reason. The two panels on the left are for command communications and the nine panels on the right are for squad members. If I was a damn good painter i won't paint miniature helmets or HUDs on each panel.

The HUD idea I think I can acomplish. Dots in the lower corner for ammo and so forth. I'm going to have to watch Aliens again. :) Lines in upper corner for health. I went looking through my stuff last night for a Blood Angels transfer sheet and could not find a single sheet. Maybe I can use yellow skull/wings for command and normal black skull/wings for troops. Question is which of the two screens to the left is the squad leader? I would say the top left is the squad leader. Even if a commander is riding within or part of the deployed squad he would have access to the left screen which is turned slightly to whomever is watching the panel. The rest of the screens are for checking on the deployed squad. The large radar type screen is for position.

Gotta love the shinny mirror!

Left Side Hull

The left side hull is almost done. It still needs to have the blue light painting on the top of the steel pipe, a small black wash on the seats, and maybe something done to the screens. I am so afraid of messing it up at least I can try a white dot or something.

If I can find them I want to add a set of special weapons to the weapons rack. Plastic melta and plasma are expensive to purchase, but I think I have a spare flamer which will look cool on it. Time to pay the Ork toll and dive into Masta Cheefs bitz bin of doom.

Right Side Hull

The right side hull is almost done. I need to paint the candle fire and the left and right arrow buttons on the panel next to the door. I figure I will have a green "open" button, an orange "close" button, and a red "stop" button. Also a simple black wash against the seats.

I have noticed in the picture you can't really see the difference from the bone spray cleaned up with the bone paint. Makes me happy.

In between painting the various pieces I am assembling the Hurricane Bolters which are a big pain and don't let me mention the metal Multi Melta which will be a nightmare.

My goal of having this assembled in in sight. I need to come to a perfection decision on red spray paint, figure out an ink recipe for my part. The weather need to stop being so stupid as wind completely halts spray paint operations.

Either way I am a happy camper for the meantime.

Halo 4 releases November 6th!

Landraider Crusader WIP Part 1

Here is an update of the interior of my Blood Angel's Land Raider Crusader I am painting.

Recently I have been in a good mood and willing to pick up my brush and paint this vehicle some more plus I feel a drive to finish it. I have joined a forums based paint per points challenge so this might be the driving force, but for the most part it is working for me. I think what helps the most is feedback and questions answered, especially for me because I can really get stuck on decisions a lot.

I found myself wanting to paint my previous Land Raider one night and I did. Don't get to excited as I was just painting a lot of black, but i painted a lot of black so this is progress. It would be nice to see both my Land Raider fully assembled and painted for once. The Crusader has only been in the box for about 10 years now, lol.


Left hull interior

The left hull interior piece I feel is coming along well. I am still debating upon painting the upper portion of the seats a leather color. I know it sounds silly, but then again all the metal armor sliding around on metal seats sounds silly. The screen I will probably keep a plain green. Me and designs are not their yet to be honest. The yellow light I have been able to work a bit better as well. The metal valves I am thinking about using a light blue wash to give them kind of a blue steel glow. Finally there is the clean up and touch up and its done.

Right hull interior

The right hull piece is at the same level as the left. Only the small debatable decisions and painting the buttons towards the entrance. I also need to paint the tips of the candles. The silver mirror in between the candles is really shinny so kind of throws off the eyes a bit.

Control panel

The control panel I am pleased with and all the smaller buttons are what is left. The screens look better than my last Land Raider I painted. I used a different green first and then applied the current color. I have also applied a glaze as well. The top two small  screens to the left of the largest screen I messed up a bit including the middle, but I like how they are now as it gives a more older and perhaps broken screen feel.

Engine block

I forgot to take a picture of the engine block.

Please check back later for the engine block.

My goal is to finish all of the interior pieces and assemble the main hull together within the next few weeks at most. I feel I can achieve this goal easily.

Battletech Battle Report

My last game of Battletech was probably one of the most intense matches yet and was pure fun. I think my opponent Masta Cheef at some point found a drive (Mountain Dew or not) and stuck with it till very late.

If you are in for some Battletech and in for a story then read and enjoy the newest installment of my Battletech combat tales set in the 3025ish era.

Lego for life!

Lego Minifigures Series 8

Besides my love for Battletech and 40K I have a bigger love for collecting Legos which predates any of my days of table top games by at least a decade. Before I started 40K I have a large Lego collection and throughout the years I amassed a large collection. When I was dating my wife, my love for Legos rubbed off and we both collect them now. In fact I am using a software to help us get a near count by set pieces and I am at about 46 thousand pieces of Legos.

Saturday while out running errands near the local mall I decided to have a quick run by Toys R US which to me is still fun to go no matter what age you are. Usually I check out all the new Lego sets and look for an interesting Transformers to add to my collection. I came across a custom storage case for Lego's minifigure series 8 line. Bonus!

My daughter lost the Space alien gun. :(
Duplicate I want.

With the price at $3.99 I couldn't pass it up. The storage case has a big picture of all 16 Series 8 minifigures along with three separate sorting bins. I had a big smile when I found this and I also picked up three more minifigure packs. When I opened the packs I scored two new unique minifigures getting my total for Series 8 to eight unique minifigures and one duplicate minifigure.

Lego Heroica

My wife happened to spot a great find as well. Sometime last year Lego released their version of a light fast paced dungeon crawler game called Heroica. I immediately bought into the game upon release picking up the  large set called Castle Fortaan and one of the medium sized sets called Waldurk Forest. The cool thing about Heroica is you can use as little as one set up to all of the sets to run a game. Anyway a little after Heroica's release date a large storage case was released to hold all the contents for the first four adventures. The price point dictated me not purchasing it, but my wife found it on clearance for $14.99. Bonus 2.0!

The case includes a large foldout map and a plastic storage bins made to fit all the pieces from the first four sets. I was smiling again.

Last but not least I picked up a new Heroica set called Ilrion which I thought was part of the original four sets. To my amazement it is part of the 2012 Heroica set line which increases the total amount of Heroica sets to six. Plus since I spent $19.99 I also received a free Lego Hobbit poster. Bonus 3.0! 

My daughter thinks it will look good up in the computer room where all our game stuff is stored, but she thinks it might be moved to her room. Bonus 3.0 minus 1.0 still equals Bonus 2.0!

Sometime this week I will have a great Battletech battle report post  ready for your reading enjoyment so I'll see you next post. 

Replacing Citadel Blood Red Spray Paint

Here lies the quest to replace the beloved out of stock supplies

Citadel Blood Red spray paint
Citadel Red ink
Citadel Chestnut ink

Trying to fill the gaps still held by great products now long out of production is difficult. However I have been somewhat successful is locating a few possible replacements. I want to remedy this issue as it has now made a definite halt in painting and further assembly of new models for my Blood Angels army.

This will be a long write up with plenty of photographic evidence for discovery and acquisition. So please follow me to the beginning of Part 1 in the great journey to replace Citadel Blood Red Spray paint.

Blood Angels 6th Edition Battle Update

Wednesday evening I played my first game of 6th edition against Masta Cheef's Speed Freaks Ork army sporting a lovely choo choo train looking center piece. We kept the game simple by avoiding psykers and using 1,000 point army.

At 1,000 points a my army list was as follows.

Headquarters (Warlord)
Recluse with JP

Command Trait - Coordinated Assault

Elites
Furioso Dreadnought with Blood Talons

Troops
Assault Squad with 2 x Melta gun and PW - (All headless as always, lol)
Tactical Squad with Plasma gun and Lascannon

Fast Attack
Bal Predator with HB sponsors
Land Speeder with 2 x HB

Heavy Support
Predator Destructor with HB sponsors

I went with a variable selection of units to try and see how everything would play out in the new rule set.

The Reclusiarc, although expensive, his extra +2 strength in combat was nice.

The dreadnought I counted as an anti-tank asset, despite having claws versus fists. The dreadnought never got to infantry combat, but got a lucky shot and blew up the grot choo choo. The dreadnought also took down a  killer can before be destroyed by one.

The assault squad was fine. I kept them away from taking out the killer cans for fear of being assaulted and killed off. Be honest I am not sure of the Reclusiarc' +2 strength could win the day. The assault squad was lacking the power first. Normally I add a sanguinary priest to the squad so it was good to see how they would fare.
The tactical squad was fine and this time I gave them no rhino and no special weapon to save some points. The lascannon and plasma rifle was a good change. Funny thing is the time both the lascannon and plasma got to fire in the same turn was when the squad was on the move towards the objective. The lascannon killed an ork out of snap fire and the plasma over heated killing the marine.

The Bal predator was a pure assault tank. I seized the initiative and forgot to scout move it closer.
The land speeder with two bolter is a great harassment unit and I really like taking them. Plus the move 12, fire two weapons and still receive a 5+ save is really good.

The Predator Destructor was a good all around tank. I wanted to take the Annihilator or maybe the lascannon side sponsors, but the cost was it bit hard to get in.


The game went well and it was good to finally try out the 6th edition rules. I rarely get to fight Masta Cheef's orks and I understand his reasons. I put so much fear into thinking I was going to get pulverized, but I really have no idea why. He almost won by having his killer kans sit on the objective while the warboss trotted along to retrieve it. Once I destroyed the rest of the killer kans it took almost two turns of a stupid amount of shooting to kill the warboss, his right hand ork, and a few of his boyz.

The game was really like a game of two yodas.

From the start of the game I had an overwhelming fear of being shot to pieces and assaulted to death by mobs of truck fast orks. Masta Cheef could smell the fear and was constantly asking why.

Yoda of the Orks

While Masta Cheef use this against me in the future?

Turn after turn of the game, the fear of being shot at and being assaulted turned the other way around. My Blood Angels destroyed every vehicle and killed every ork. Around the second turn I was wondering about my opponents ork's demise.

Yoda of the Blood Angels

I did lose a handful of assault marines, the dreadnaught, and I immobilized my predator. (Go Me!) He also managed to assault my assault squad first again.

Masta Cheef did have some nice comments for a power sword held by the tactical squad sergeant I painted long ago. I know I am a good painter, but a slow painter and I often am distracted and flat out quit I suppose. I need to get going with it already. The sergeant belongs to an all beak helmet tactical squad. The sergeant has both frag and crack grenades and has his beak helmet attached to his waste. The segeant also follows the squad with an ammo pouch on the right shoulder pad and an ammo pouch on the back pack. Lets not forget all members of the squad have a pointy stick attached to their weapon.

Tactical squad sergeant with power sword.

My next post will describe my current road block with painting my blood angels and provide a way to unblock the road to painting.

Note.

The whole idea of "much profanity" is a rolling joke between Masta Cheef and I and our gaming and it should not be taken seriously at all.