WH40K - Deadly Deathraider ... Of Death - mostly painted

Here's the Deathraider, with a slap of paint. I have to say that the aftermarket resin pieces I added are all very nicely sculpted. I decided on basic black, with a sort of tombstone grey for the stone work, and bone for the skeletons and skulls. Tamiya metallic spray for the weapons and tracks, with a little black ink here and there to tidy up spills and mess. I will have to re-do the black parts again, because I am getting sloppy with my drybrushing. As usual, I am going for tabletop, arms length quality, rather than 'Eavy Metal.

A quick rundown of the extra bits:

- Angel of Death side doors and ramp, from Chapterhouse Studios
- Rectangular and angled panels, from Scibor
- Tombstones and grave markers, from Renedra.

Chains from a craft shop. About $5 for two metres.  I just drilled small holes and used little nails to hold the chains on.

Skeleton from the Warhammer Giant plastic kit.

WH40K - Ork Battlewagon with KillKannon

Another project which is taking a looong time from impulse buy to playable model: a KillKannon armed Battlewagon. (Orks are strong advocates of the BFG. They also approve heartily of More Dakka.)

I have made some minor conversions on the hull, adding a few glyph plates, some height to the uprights on the rear deck and closing up the cabin with various spare bits. Most of the work was put into the turret. I used polystyrene tubing for the barrel and mounted that on the gun that comes with the kit. The rear half of the turret is made from the sides of a spare turret, taken from another battlewagon kit. 

The gun barrel is much larger than the one supplied with the Deff Rolla sprue (extra bits that you can buy from GW or some games shops.) I think it is also a bit smaller than the resin Supa Kannon from Forge World, but it would probably be acceptable to represent that weapon in an Apocalypse game.

When I put the turret on the vehicle, it looked like it was just sitting there. So, I used some leftover parts of the turret to make a sort of basket. I also used one of the 'boarding ramp' pieces to make a ladder on the basket. It would be a tight squeeze for an Ork but I figure that the gun is operated by Grots.

Tools and Tips - Cheap circular cutter

I found this in the tool section of a discount store, among the blister packs of carton cutters and soon-to-be-rusty socket sets. It's a tool for cutting small pieces of pipe. I have used it on brass and styrene, and it works very well, considering that it cost all of two Australian dollars. I have cut lengths of brass pipe of approximately 5mm and 6mm diameter, and styrene tube up to about 13mm diameter.

It works by a circular blade (not very sharp itself) which freely rotates and is gradually screwed down over two steel rollers. The pipe is turned by hand on the rollers, as the blade scores and then cuts into the pipe. I have found that the brass tube does bend in slightly at the cut, so if you have bought two thickness of tube to slide into each other - for instance as pistons or gun barrels - you will have to file back the cut end so that the smaller tube can fit inside the larger. Also, when working with large but thin styrene tubes, the plastic can warm slightly in your hands. This means that the cutter will crush rather than slice through the plastic. I recommend going slowly. Again, the blade will score as you turn the tube, which means you can eventually snap the cut portion off. The end may be a tiny bit rough with a cheap tool like this, but sanding or filing will fix that.

Ork Flakka Trakk turret, with gun barrels made from sections of brass pipe.

I have been able to cut sections of pipe down to only a couple of millimeters length - basically brass rings. This tool is an incredibly cheap way to cut tubes for converting models: gun barrels, roll cages, suspension parts, pistons, rings and even 'brass' shells from fired ammunition.