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Blood Angels Land Raider Crusader

97K views 387 replies 47 participants last post by  Meph 
#1 · (Edited)
Blood Angels Army Project

Wehey! A new project to resurrect my Blood Angels army, paint up some new mini's and in a few months time, challenge a mate to a battle. That'll be the first in over 6 years or so ^^.

So here goes, the biggy of the army, a Land Raider Crusader to ferry the Captain, Reclusiarch and Sanguinary priest (all in termy armour), plus their body guard of a 5-man close combat Terminator Squad.

It's lightly converted with the Forgeworld BA doors and some Dremel'ed and remodeled battle damage. i also used some extra resin and etched brass details here and there.

Funny thing how regular thin masking tape is exàctly the same with as Land Raider tracks. ^^

It took quite a few hours to assemble properly actually. The plan is to use the weathering skills learned with my big Marine on this vehicle so no rush, patience is the key.

First steps after assembly, a black undercoat and a base coat of roughly 50/50 Mechadendrite Red and blood red, mixed with some Vallejo airbrush thinner and a little bit of Klear to give some strength to the paint. That GW paint gun is a lovely tool to apply base coats. No tricky mechanics to clean afterwards...








 
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#4 ·
I feel foolish for not thinking of using tape as you have. I have two land raiders to paint, and I have been so daunted by the task I have yet to start. But seeing such good progress on yours I feel inspired. I really like the red you have used. I look forward to seeing this as you work.
 
#5 ·
Cheers man!

I did some highlighting and drybrusing, as well as applied the decals before the weathering process starts but the lighting conditions were too bad to take any pictures yet... :(

I'd have to say, the main speed factor was the undercoat with spray can and the base coat with the GW spray gun.
 
#7 · (Edited)
Well, I'm planning to do a lot of weathering on the thing, using sponging, washes, oil paint washes, weathering dirts and the like. This puppy still has a long way to go. ^^

In the mean time, some progress; gentle highlighting using a brush here and there, very dry drybrushing and the decals are applied so they can be messed up during the weathering process.

Also included are some photo's of a mate of mine's SW Crusader, he's building and painting it at the same time as me. A perfect way to spend a Sunday afternoon away from professional life. ^^











 
#9 ·
Cheers, yeah it is quite fun to do again and very relaxing also.

Some progress on the army project.All the miniatures were put together over the past few weeks and have all been undercoated and basecoated. I stuck together a 10- man tac. squad, 10-man dev. squad, 5 Sanguinary Guard, 5 honour guard and 10 death company and a Razorback.

The Razorback received the most attention, vehicles are so much fun to work on. ^^

I basecoated with a mix of Mechadenrite Red and Blood red, together with some thinner and Klear. Then I airbrushed some gentle shading and highlights, followed by a drybrushing with the foundation paint orange. To soften up the dusty drybrushing, as well as add some colour depth I airbrushed on a layer or three of a roughly 35% Baal red wash, 15% Red Ink and 50% Klear.
I'll probably give the edges a gentle drybrushing again to bring out the edges a bit more.

I wanted something to break up the large red surfaces a bit, other than giving the odd plate a different colour. The extra brass and resin detailing will give variation in any case, as well as the weathering still to follow, but I felt it need a little 'extra'. As red wunz go fasta but he's already red there was only one thing I could do. Almost on instinct I spent the better part of an hour meticulously applying masking tape and voilà, racing stripes. :D
It came out looking surprisingly well I must say and just needs some tiny touch-ups. The stripes somehow do seem to suit the look of the Razorback. ^^







And I thought I'd post a few pics of the honour guards, all of them received some minor conversions.









And some of the Sanguinary guard. The colour appears a lot lighter on the camera, in reality it's more of a dark bronze. I'm going to go for a dark look with a lot of the detailing also metallic, I want to give them a statuesque look. I'm not I'll even put on the wings though as I feel they're a bit to thick, large and clumsy for jump troops. I think I'll paint the wings dark anyway so I can see when they look like before I make the final decision.


 
#10 ·
Long time no updates! Just because progress has been slow.

Some more weathering and finishing the details, which are time consuming but have to be done before the weathering continues.







The Land Raider that a mate of mine's doing, less pics because his progress is a bit slower. ^^




The Razorback. I'm especially proud of how the plate on the dozer blade turned out and the silver wings.






And progress on the thing I hate the most, the painting of the black, for all the metallics and detailing. A cursed job it is.



 
#12 ·
That Razorback is awesome! How did you do the gold eagle on the blade because it looks great, the gold looks weathered and old, just how it should! I also like the purity seals on the landraider, the bone color is very smooth. Also the bullet holes on the land raider are awesome, did you add those? Keep up the good work!

-The Herald
 
#14 ·
Cheers guys!

@ChaosWarrior2010: Thanks! Yeah, I'm very happy on how they turned out. they're basically just: basecoat, two layers thinned brown ink, one layer thinned sepia ink, and then just very dry drybrushing with the GW golds and a light (also drybrush)touch here and there with Mythril silver.

@Typhus: Well that bronze plate on the dozer blade was actually deceptively easy to do. Black undercoat, base coat was the same self-mixed bronze I used for the Sanguinary Guard, then I drybrushed it with Burnished Gold and then Shining Gold and a very ligt drybrush with Mythril Silver. And then came the magic trick, Vallejo's Smokey Ink, I brushed on the ink so the whole plate was covered and then I just rubbed it of in one direction using...dun dun dunnnn, my thumb! Just rubbed that ink right off in two or three strokes, and the effect is what you see. I was so gobsmacked by the effect I promptly applied the same technique to every bronze plate and detail I had on te models. ^^
One key thing though, mask off the details using masking tape and/or masking fluid.

The purity seals are just Dened stone with two/three layers of thinned smokey ink and then a very light and very dry drybdrush of deneb stone again.

And the bullet holes were actually pretty easy as well, I ground out some depressions with a Dremel, but not all the way through. Then I filled up the holes with green stuff, let it dry for a small half hour, and then pushed in the holes using the back end of a pencil. I then used a sharp modeling knife to crease it a bit and pull up some of the edges.
And I also let the dremel loose on the edges around the models, never applying much pressure because that thing éats plastic and resin... Just gently touching it here and there to create the dings and chips.

@Praxis: Thanks for the rep, mate! I'm glad you're liking the models. And you know, weathering can be done even after a model is finished... ;)
 
#17 ·
Came here from the FW marine and I find more nice models from you Meph, you make me ashamed for how little I've used my airbursh as I keep seeing an army on the shelf that could at least have been basecoated now. I will blame the weather and my lack of a garage lol.

I agree on the painting black being tedious and unrewarding, it's enough of a chore to have made me undercoat black and drybrush the basecoat for a long time, just so I didn't have to repaint black.

When are these tiny BAs going to get some more love?
 
#18 ·
Cheers, mate! Yeh, progress on this is rather slow, especially with two more projects on the shelf... I'm planning to grind through the application of black during the week I think. As i don't have a 'dirty' desk which I can get up from and leave alone, I'm stuck with a tedious 10 minutes unpacking/set-up time as well as packing everything back up again... :( But I've actually set aside just the equipment needed to paint some black so i hope to get some more of them done now...
 
#19 · (Edited)
Some progress at last. I got tempted and bought a Terminator squad and some FW shoulder pads.
In the interest of my economy I decided to magnetize the heavy weapons guy so I can just switch arms and missile launcher. And I must say, it was very easy do do actually...
Also, some progress on the Land Raider. I decided to give a light spray with some thinned dark brown oil paint over a coat of varnish to give it a nice weathering/inking but the mix seemed to have been a bit too thin. Just after spraying it it looked real neat around all the rivets and in all the recesses and such, but after drying out there's almost nothing visible. I'll add further oil paint weathering by hand I think.


 
#20 ·
Nice work, I've really only magnetised vehicles myself but I've just started a foray into doing it on the infantry level, hadn't thought about the Terminator heavy weapons, I would certainly do it for the assault cannon / heavy flamer, but the cyclone? That's just crazy - tutorial please!

LR looks beter with a bit weathering, helps to break down the bright red-ness of it :)
 
#21 ·
Sure thing, here are some pics I made. For the arms it's very simple, just find a drill bit that's the right size for the magnet. I first made a small notch using the tip of a modeling knife where I want to start drilling, then I drilled a small pilot hole using a pin vice and a medium-sized 'tiny' drill' (a bit bigger than the one on the pic), and then the full size hole using a hand drill. I found the best way to handle that clunky hand drill is to put it on your lap, bracing it against one thigh and then slowly drill with your right hand while holding the mini against the drill with your left. Since you're drilling very slowly, this goes ok and is quite accurate. More accurate I feel than clamping the mini in a vice and holding the whole weight of the drill on the mini.

For the cyclone it's a similar process. I drilled quite a deep hole in that torso so I could fit two magnets in there for some more magneto-power. and then covered he hole with some green stuff to make it flush again. mind you, this is a very thin layer, you can see the magnet's edge just where the groove of that little top armour plate is. And then, as you can see from the pics, the magnets I used fit neatly inside the missile launcher itself. that was the handy bit about the plastic cyclone. I assembled the cyclone after the torso magnets were in place and left off the front section. Then you just put the magnet in, right-side up, and put it on top of the termy to dry-fit. Take it out, a drop of superglue in the cyclone's middle section, put the magnet back it and put the missile launcher on the termy as usual. The magnet will position itself neatly while the glue's still wet., with the minimum adjustment needed. And when that's dry, glue the front back on. the cool thing is that those little magnets are strong enough to hold the cyclone on even with +-3mm between them, and the little plastic mounts of the terminator body and cyclone hold it neatly in place. It's not the strongest of bonds though although you can pick up the model by the cyclone, but I wouldn't flick it very hard...

Oh and on a general note, I found that the handiest way to put the magnets in the holes is, for the first magnet; a drop of glue in the hole and then just stick the whole little stack of magnets in the hole and then you can just slide off the stack while leaving one magnet in, that way the magnet sits nicely level and flush. Pushing in one by finger tends to be less level.
And when that's dried I just put on a single magnet on the already glued one so it's centered and right-side up, put a bit of glue in the hole of the second part and push the part onto the magnet, squeezing it in. And then slide off the part. Worked like a charm.

 
#22 ·
Thanks for putting that up, nice method for the cyclone!
I might try to copy this if I get round to it. Magnetising is definitely handy but it can be such a fiddly job (just magnisted assault launchers and hunter killers on an Ironclad yesterday, that was very faffy work).

You would have more rep for this but I have to spread it around first...
 
#23 ·
Yeah, it can be fiddly indeed. Last Sunday I spent a whole afternoon magnetizing a Baal Predator so i can switch between the dual AC's and flame cannon (plus corresponding ammo addon for the turret), as well as the sponsons. I even bought an extra pair of sponsons on ebay But I still have to magnetize the little protective plates that go on the sponson weapons. The holes in which they normally fit on the weapons are so huge, they need covering....
 
#24 · (Edited)
That LR Crusader is amazing, I'm very impressed with your work! Everything looks top notch A+... but the only thing I dislike is the racing stripes on the Razorback, seems tacky to me, especially with the caliber of your other models.

Also don't forget to touch up those targeting/sensory lights and spot lights on your vehicles :)
 
#25 ·
Cheers mate! Ah well, i felt I really needed something to break up the huge red area's and I didn't feel like just painting just a few arbitrary hull panels black. the stripes do grow on you though. :)
Oh, and the vehicles are by far not finished... I even made it worse for myself by buying a Baal Predator and magnetizing the hell out of it.
 
#28 ·
Ah, the joys of thinned oil paints...
She's looking beautiful Meph!

Looks good, unfortunately I can't see it properly due to the way the images are displaying scaled vertically to the page!
If your browser supports it, right click on the image and select open in new tab/window you should then be able to view the image fullsize without the forum software restricting the size.
 
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