The Bishkek 2nd Basilisk: part 7, shellshocked no more, a baby tank

OK, I figured out the shell problem and have decided to go with the Vindicator Shell, cut short at bit. Now I just have to round up a few more and I am set to go. Which thinking about shells, I dreamed up a little remote controlled vehicle with tracks that the guys can use to move heavy stuff like shells, around. In a burst of creativity I put this little thing together in one late, late night.

The Bishkek Command calls it: RBL for Remote controlled Bulk Loader, the non commisioned officers dare to call it the Rubble, but the rank and file call it by its appropriate name: the Gnome.

The Gnome has a shell carrier on the back, an little engine in the middle and a loading platform up top. It has a handy light on the front. The handler can run it with a remote control )joystick based) and with the use of tracks it can go pretty much anywhere. As with a few other Bishkek vehicles, this one has been built without the explicit blessings of the Omissiah, so don't expect to see these in mass production.

Here is how I made it (most of you will have all these bitz):

A Chimera piece with the attachment for the dozer, cut to make it narrower.

Glue this against the bottom sides; anything will work for this.

Go to your lady's sowing basket and find eight buttons, glue them to the sides like so:

Looks like a tank already! Next up: cut some chimera tracks in half:

This part is messy. I wish I had rubber Tamiya tracks, but alas. The top part will get covered so don't worry about the higher parts, make sure you make the bend:

On the Chimera hull sprue are two pieces with hinges, cut those to size and attach them. Also add the pulley from the Vindicator.

Make sure modeling is a family thing. Nothing is worse then making this a hobby for papa's spare time. My girls love to hobby themselves when I am busy and so does my wife. Every weekend day we have modeling hour (or two). here's my youngest one working on a helicopter from Balsawood.

Here's a comparison to a trooper:

I wanted to add stowage and a canvas over it, so to fill it up, glue down some old bitz, cut down to a shape:

I dipped paper in glue and put it on, after drying added some yarn. I made the loops from plastic rod. Added an antenna for the RC use

Then to the spraybooth. First a light beige, then some UHU tack over it and added some dark brown

doesn't look like much

Devlan mud over it

Impatient as I am, here's my fast drying solution. That orange thing is my magnifying glass

And after a lot of weathering: there it is!

On the canvas: I painted it catachan green with brown drybrushing, came out very nice.

With his handler

I might add it to the diorama..

here's another angle

let me know what you all think..

Mike

The Bishkek 2nd Basilisk: part 6: halfway there and painting!

Friends, the holiday weekend has given me some time to make substantial progress on the Bishkek 2nd Basilisk Battery. I painted the base, one of the soldiers and the gun itself. Here some some images to check out:

The gun is not finished but close and I haven't decided if I will add the shield on the front. The soldier is not glued down and I am playing with his position. I am tempted to put him up top to create some point of interest on the rather glum hill.

Here's the other side. The siding of the diorama looks a little ragged and I still have to paint it perfectly black.

From the back. I added nails to the wood and made them look old and worn, the same with the ammo storage. On advice of a reader, I am going to add a metal platform to the base, about the size of the gun. The base itself will be finished last of all, when all the stowage is added. I will add sand and paint it on the spot...

top view. Realize how much room I gained by removing the base structure (see post 2)

The gun is weathered, which I love to dabble with. This time it is very simply done. Here's the order

1. camo

2. devlan mud wash

3. red/orange/brown mix, spunged on LIGHTLY

4. dark grey spunged on for damage

5. add silver highlights in the grey, only on edges

6. black wash in oily parts

7. after that I spunged on the light beige colour on parts of the camo and the grey damage, to lighten the effects of it a bit

(click on it to see it better)

Where there is a lot of wear, I added some more metal highlights. Remember the plastic card strip that I added to the base in post 2? Now you can see why; having edges to work with in painting really helps you make the model get line and shape, here's after

and before

Here as well: I added an old hubcap in post 2 into the back of the barrel WITH extra rivets, which gives you more opportunities to make it look good in paint. You will be glad for the extra effort. Again here's after...

and before

Here is our lone soldier. Check out the bareheaded German heads from West Wind, they are excellent for Guard, as are a lot of other heads in that range.

More next week!

Mike

Barter Bucket: Saturday, November 27th 2010

Welcome to the Barter Bucket!

The Barter Bucket has one purpose; gamers helping other gamers. Hard-to-find bits, regular pieces, and whole models is what in the details. The Barter Bucket is a place to trade in your old stuff for new, or to get that one piece you need without buying it as part of a much more expensive kit or especially as an overpriced single bit. This concept is kept alive by the cooperative spirit of our gaming community as a whole.

If you see something below you can help out with, or see something you're interested in picking up, please contact the individual directly through their listed email address.
___________________________________________

av8hotrod at yahoo.com has two, just two, vital requests:

1. Black Templar chest piece with tabbard and armored collar, seen here
2. A head that fits an Armorcast Reaver Titan, original or replacement

for trade they have:

1. lots and lots of stuff, just inquire, there's a good chance he's got it

chaplinaustin at yahoo.com is going old school and needs your help! They're looking for:

1. Rogue Trader era Space Marines (any)
2. 2nd edition Tyranids
3. Rogue Trader era Space Marine Dreadnoughts

jackal at lglogan.com has some requests this week and needs:

1. Ork Kannon with crew x 3
2. Ork Zzap Gun with crew x3
3. Ork Power Klaws
4. Mega Armoured Orks
5. Cowled Necrarch Vampire on foot

For trade they're offering:

1. Space Marine Bits (Just ask, they may have it)
2. Various Eldar bits/models
3. Cadian Mortar teams (x3)

flclfan89 at yahoo.com is looking for:

1. Fiends of Slaanesh, x5
2. some chaos space marine helmets, x20
3. mask face from the Dark Eldar Wyches
4. jump packs wings or Sanguine Guard packs, any
5. either a Bastion Stronghold
6. or Basilica Administartum.
7. WM Menoth stuff, any
   

In turn they have for trade:

1. approx. 50-60 termagaunts
2. x4 forge world brood nests
3. a few genestealers
4. a semi converted shadowsword (ork conversion, should be easy enough to disassemble though)
5. a cache of bitz from orks to IG, Space marine to Chaos
6. Armies for trade or sale: they have a WM Skorne army and a WHFB Vampire Count army
   
7. They will also trade random bitz bags if that is what you are after; standard sandwich bag size, just tell them if you will be trading 1/4, 1/2, or full baggies

pvt.donut@gmail.com just got back into gaming and is looking for:

1. Necromunda plastic bulkheads, any
   

mike.tess at charter.net, our very own SCWH Mike, is looking for

1. an IG Baneblade

This is to start a nice modeling/conversion series featured here on Santa Cruz Warhammer

___________________________________________

I'm the guy with the bucket stuck on his head, Mik of Mik's Minis, welcome! To participate, all you need to do is send me an email to miksminis at gmail.com listing what you are looking for, or have as surplus that might help someone else out. Make sure your email is in list form with plenty of detail, including the quantities of each you're looking for and quantities of what you have. Emails received by Thursday will post that weekend here at Santa Cruz Warhammer, otherwise they'll get queued up for the following week. Thanks, and remember, change comes from within...your bits box!

Mik

The Bishkek 2nd Basilisk: part 5, shellshocked

OK, first of all, here's where the whole project is right now:

The story is simple. 3 guys are destined to be together in a trench, kind of out of the way and not in the frontline. They are doing some maintenance, some cleaning and other things soldiers do when they are not in a fight. Suddenly one of them sees something. He runs op to the trenchwall, hops on a few barrels and then signals his mates with his right hand.

(the model is Brin Milo from the Gaunt's Ghosts)

One of them leaves his work loading shells and runs over with his lasgun..(head: West Wind bare headed germans)

the third one just stares at his mate (GW)

Follow this? It's kind of fun to think up a story.

I built a bunch of sandbags out of green stuff (here's the tutorial on how to do that) and played around with the barb wire a bit

Here is a picture with all the bitz I am using. Click on it to make it bigger.

Below is a list with all the names and links of the products:

1. large weapon chests: Itars Workshop

2. barbed wire: Pegasus Hobbies

3. assortment of guns: Max Mini

4. Barrels (1/48 stowage kit): Tamiya

5. Wood Crates: Itars Workshop

6. Shells: we will get to that later

All this stuff will be incorporated into the diorama.

Shell Troubles

On to the shells. This is what they should look like:

But I cannot for the life of me find loose Earthshaker Shells for this Diorama. So I have pondered over all kinds of options, that could all work (kind of):

drywall plugs:

Robogear ammo

loaded ammo for concrete nail guns

I like these but what if one blows up a year from now?

They do look good..

And then Mr. Justin from Secret Weapon Miniatures offered me some of his unreleased shells in the making:

Cool heh? They come in two parts. But he also said they are sized for a Vanquisher, so I am not sure if one guy can hold one of these bad boys..

So I am totally stuck. I have no shells that work, does anyone have a good idea? Can you buy Forgeworld bitz by themselves?

Mike

The Bishkek 2nd Basilisk: part 4, the trench and hill, new barb wire!

Today I will serve you a long and detailed post with lots of interesting tips and products and I sincerely hope it will inspire readers to play around a bit with a diorama, it's very satisfying!

First of all, if you are a first time reader of this series, check here first and then come back:

Bishkek Basilisk Battery Part 1

Bishkek Basilisk Battery Part 2

Bishkek Basilisk Battery Part 3

OK, so after drying the wet and gluey news paper, the time has come for the building up of the hill in front of the fun emplacement. For that I used some non toxic, synthetic spacke. I just filled up all the holes until the ground was level with the buttressed wood planks.

While still wet, I submerged a bunch of specially chosen bitz, items that would be discarded during the many months of battle: pipes, posts, non exploded shells etc. I pushed them under pretty far but then had them re-emerge with a stiff brush. At the same time I also added some of the highly secret and special Santa Cruz Warhammer sand, drawn from a hidded cache in the mountains above Santa Cruz...

After that I felt the soil was a little too even and flat. Using a sculpting tool I made indentations and (subtle) impact craters. It's hard to see them well but after priming they will be very obvious and during the painting stage I can accentuate them with darker washes.

After having done that I sat back, putting the gun on and looking at it...

It's funny but my wife and I happened to look at each other at that moment and we both realized the same thing: the bottom structur for the gun was too big for the diorama...it was taking up too much space.

I don't know how it is for you, but for me it is really hard to let go of something that took a while to think up and build and then realize that you cannot use it...

But there was just not enough room. So this is what I did instead:

i drilled a hole in the bottom and stuck the gun in it:

In a way, it looks a lot more like the picture that started it all:

and

I will have to add some flexible stands that give a little after the gun fires to absorb shock movement.

With this out of the way I felt relieved and could work on some fun stuff in this piece: barb wire. In my Baby Krieg Project, my wife made me some barbwire and it looked great. But I want this blog to be about giving you all new ideas so instead of replicating it I went on the hunt for other options. GW and Army Painter both make it, but it doesn't have any realism to it and it's harder to change the diameter of the tubes. Then I found an amazing barb wire product from Pegasus Models (here's the link to their website):

I found it going to GameKastle in San Jose with John. It cost 8.99 for a ton and works like a dream. Here's one of the 3 sprues in the box:

Here's a close up: good barbs

The plasic is strong but supple and I did not break any of it while doing this:

Make sure you use a brush that has the right diameter for the size of your tubes, then wrpa the wire around and tape both ends. On John's recommendation I did this:

using the Hello Kitty blowdryer I heated the plastic enough to bend it to my will. My Storm Wardens shirt gave me confidence. And this is what it looked like after:

A very nice and realistic looking piece. It's a great product for a good price, their website has other good stuff as well like crates, barrells etc: Pegasus Hobbies

Hope you were able to bear with me. This project is turning out to be so interesting and fun and it has a lot of angles that I enjoy talking about to kindred spirits. Next post I will share my story line and the warriors in it, plus all the details like stowage, crates etc

Cheers

Mike