WIP: Cawdor Gang 2 Basecoat & Shading

Switching from Grots to gangers, here's the latest WIP shot of my two newest Cawdor gang initiates:

The above photo shows the two after a basecoat and shading.

While using the airbrush to lay down a basecoat on the Grot Tank, I thought I might as well use it to put paint on these two as well:

PROTIP: Always properly dilute your paints (about the consistency of skim milk) before putting them through an airbrush.

I got lazy toward the end of the airbrushing session and failed to properly dilute my paint. The Vallejo Model Color (VMC) Burnt Cadmium Red (814) was the worst, as you can tell by the splattering in the photos above, and it ended up giving the airbrush a nasty clog that took a couple of days to properly clear out.

I tidied everything up with some brushwork:

These are the first gang members I've painted that are wearing undershirts. I initially went with VMC Burnt Cad, as you can see in the airbrushing photos, but decided it was just too much red. So, I did them up in the same color as their brethren's tank tops: Vallejo Game Color (VGC) Khaki.

I also simplified some of the paint formulas from the first batch of gang members. I dropped the VMC Red (926) from the pants and removed the Citadel (GW) Rotting Flesh from the skin mix. The changes saved time and won't alter the final look of the models.

Finally, I made sure to completely basecoat both models before moving on to shade them:

There's still work to be done on the Dragon Forge Design bases before I can move on to highlighting and weathering, but these two gentlemen are coming along much faster than the first group.

For details on basecoating and shading, see here, here, and here.

Next up: Basecoating and shading the Grot Tank.

So, until next time, keep painting!

WIP: Grot Tank Final Prep & Undercoat

In lieu of an update on the two newest additions to my Cawdor gang (basecoating plods along), I thought I'd share the latest progress on my Grot Tank.

Since my last post, I've fixed the mold lines on the grotzooka that comes with the Forge World (FW) kit, constructed a big shoota as well as an ammo box to go with each option, and undercoated all the pieces.

As you can see in the first picture, the grotzooka required extensive filing and puttying, as each side of the barrel had an approximately 1-mm-wide mold line.

I'm guessing this was due more to misalignment of the molds; unfortunately, most of the weapons and a few of the tank bodies in my kit suffer from this.

The grotzooka ammo box is constructed of 1-mm-think sheet styrene, which I roughed up to give an orky (groty?) appearance, 1.5-mm angle and flat strips, and various thicknesses of rod for the rivets.

Most of the material in the grotzooka ammo box is FW sprue, which goes to show that you shouldn't throw anything away.

The big shoota turret mount is 9/32-inch diameter plasticard tubing, which matches the diameter of the FW turret mounts perfectly, as well as some strips and rivets.

The big shoota barrel is from the FW Ork Weapon Set; the barrel was carefully separated from its stock and pinned to the turret mount.

The big shoota ammo box is constructed of 0.5-mm-thick sheet styrene, 1.5-mm channel (the top of the box) and flat strips, and some thin floral wire for the handles. The dags and rivets round out the orkiness.

Each item is magnetized:

So I can switch between the grotzooka:

And big shoota with ease:

The ammo boxes attach to the tank through a small magnet I sunk into the deck lid:

After final prep and cleanup, everything went into the spray booth:

And Grot Tank #1 is now ready for basecoating.

Next up: My second batch of Cawdor models basecoated and shaded (for reals).

So, until next time, keep painting!

WIP: Grot Tank Prep & Conversion

So, what's green and rhymes with "shot"? Well, "Grot," of course!

I've been prepping a squadron of Grot Tanks the last couple weeks and will be working on them one at a time alongside my Cawdor gang.

Through some combination of camaraderie toward underdogs and being enthralled by the wacky nature of Gretchin, I've always been a big fan of the Orks' short-statured brethren.

This tetrad of tanks will form the core of a 750-point all-Grot army, which will also include a few Kans and a couple blobs of Gretchin infantry. It's not going to win any tournaments, but the force should be a lot of fun and a good challenge.

I haven't gotten my hands on Imperial Armour Vol. Eight yet, but I hear it covers Grot Tanks. I also hear that like other tanks in the 40K universe, there's an option for a pintle-mounted weapon. The Grot Tank models don't come with those, so I thought it would be cool to add them.

So, I grabbed a spare shoota from the bits bin and got started:

Next, I used some Instant Mold to make a copy of an orky grip:

I also constructed a pintle to mount the shoota to with some 1-mm-thick plasticard as a base, and 0.25-mm-thick plasticard and rivets to add visual interest:

The pintle is mounted into a rectangular hole I cut into the turret to provide a stable footing. With the addition of some green stuff molded to look like weld marks, it'll be hard to tell it wasn't original after the paint goes on:

And here's the first tank prepped and ready for the spray booth (Note: The big shoota is attached for reference. I'm magnetizing the main weapons so I can switch between grotzookas and big shootas, and am currently working on building them):

Next up: My second batch of Cawdor models get a basecoat and some shading.

So, until next time, keep painting!