Sons of Modinel Update

[tominator]

you are very good at keeping secrets Mr Lewis very good indeed

[Lew_b81]

Tom: I'll see if I can make it in then - depends on class really. And secrets? You don't know the half of it.

Rev: Cheers! Umm... that might be tricky, seeing as I forgot. It's a base mix of Scab Red/Chaos Black, then with other reds and Bleached Bone to highlight, with a few washes afterwards. I'll figure it out for the step by step tutorial.

PowerfulFawn: Thanks! I wanted to put an interior there, because it seems like a waste otherwise, but the Rhino interior just doesn't work for it, thus came the idea. I think the sponsons could work fine, only one way to find out!

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Alright, quick one tonight, just some pre-snow pics of the Thunderfire Cannon. This was the latest addition to the army, bought at the same time as the Scouts, but actually finished. Sort of a 1.5 update to this 2.0 version.



There we go. That looks really plain compared to the other miniatures...

Pop back soon for more updates!

[Solun Decius]

Excellent update man! I love how the Techmarine is looking up in the same direction as the Thunderfire is aimed. Always those little extras in your stuff.

[TheConverter15]

Great stuff Lew_b81, lovely techmarine with the thundercannon. Thanks very much for the close up on the custom sternguard head, very neat conversion.

[harlekin]

Just stumbled in here and thought
"Wait a minute... Lew in a 40k log... even HIS 40k log? Well let's see and awe (and btw. I have to visit the maneater log once again)."


With this introduction, I'm just able to second pretty much everyone else in here: Spectacular work, dude!
The Scouts remind me a bit on the Masterchief of the Halo series or the OSTs, so one could say: masterchief + decades of training... + proper armor = SPACEMARINE

I guess that would be the kind of SM army for me - not exactly many models, but each on in it's own way and it's own character. But probably Black Templars.
And I'd be so excited if you try out tyranids somewhere in time.

[SDKFZ]

Some awesome work on this thread ! Do like the "dirty" look on your SMs.

Also love that razorback. Theres a lot of work put into her. Just the cutting of the roof is impressive.

Back to stalking mode.

/ SDKFZ

[Lew_b81]

Solun: Thanks! Glad someone noticed! The plasma pistol has also been converted to be aiming in the same direction too!

TheConverter: Thank you! And you're more than welcome.

Harlekin: We keep running into each other eh? I'm surprised you're the first person to see the resemblance between the Scouts and Master Chief. I noticed when I was painting them and added the yellow visor. I wondered whether I should change it, but the whole army has yellow eyes, so decided to leave it as is.
Try out Tyranids? I have a 2000 point army of them!

SDKFZ: Yeah, probably a little too much work, but it's worth it now! I still remember how long it took me to cut the roof off. Gah.

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In update news, the Thunderfire Cannon is finished, and ready to fire trees at my opponents (there's a long running joke between a few of my friends that the difficult terrain shot is actually just the Techmarine loading some trees into the cannon)!



I don't think I made any changes to the Thunderfire Cannon itself at all - just some snow. The turret isn't stuck down or anything - the joy of twisting it to point at my target is just too much fun!



The Techmarine on the other hand has had a few changes. Most obvious of which is his left hand. When I first made him I thought it'd be neat to give him a big power axe like the regular model. While it was okay and all, when coming to redo him I decided I'd like him to be a little more WYSIWYG - he can't take a power weapon after all. So I replaced that will a new hand with a scanner. The other hand is the same, it's an old Apothecary arm - again breaching the gap in my chapter between fixing vehicles and fixing Marines.
The other thing I did was change the base a little. I made the rubble a little flatter, and repositioned the Techmarine a little more central. He looked fine before, but what with being metal and all, he was prone to falling over very easily. And when deploying in difficult terrain and ruined buildings all the time, I wanted him a little more stable.

And finally, a picture of them both together:



Don't they make a cute couple? Like Bonnie and Clyde.

So that's your update for today! I'm super busy with uni at the moment - two deadlines next week, but after that I'm pretty free, so I'll be back before next week is out.

Thanks again for all the comments. I'll keep posting so long as you keep replying!

[SDKFZ]

Great work on both of them.

Painting and weathering also way up there

/ SDKFZ

[TheConverter15]

Crackin' stuff! Great paintjob as always and the snow effects are superb. Well done

[harlekin]

Hm, that makes sense.
Any chance to see one of your nidz.... accidently :P?
Or does exist a plog on this board? I'd love to see them!

[Hadriel Caine]

They look really good. As I have come to expect. I was a little upset I couldn't have a thunderfire cannon in my Dark Angels army when I came to re-read the book. Oh well. Whats next? What are you doing at Uni? Hope the work eases out for you.

[punkfish]

Nice cannon and Techmarine, I wish my army could have one too ( I play Blood Angels) but I still painted one anyway.

I like the scenic bases, excellent as usual.

[Seville]

Wow! This is great stuff!! Very nice work. Beautiful painting and creative theme.

[Lew_b81]

You guys!

I'm sorry it's been so long since my last update, I got real busy with uni stuff. I'm back now though, with a new tank!

SDKFZ: Thanks very much!

TheConverter15: Thanks to you too!

Harlekin: Hmm, there are a bunch of Genestealers in the Space Hulk log in my sig, but I don't know of anywhere you'd be able to see anything else...
I actually leant the whole 2000 point army to a friend at the end of summer. I don't have anywhere to keep it at uni, and he wanted to try it out! I'll get it back soon enough though, because it needs the same snow treatment as this army is getting!

Hadriel Caine: I'm sure you'll be able to have a Dark Angels Thunderfire soon enough! And against most people I'm sure it wouldn't be a problem anyway. They're pretty cool. Next up we'll be seeing the Master of the Forge I think, along with his personalised transport.

Punkfish: Well, you do get to have Stormravens, so I think that's an okay tradeoff!

Seville: Thanks you!

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Alright, new tank! The Sternguard's Razorback transport. First up, before the "treatment":



Nothing too special. Only one photo, because otherwise it's pretty similar to the other Razorback.
Afterwards it looks a little something like this:




Much better! Interior detail again. This one has a little shrine for last minute prayers to the Emperor.
One thing I'd forgotten about until I came back to the army was the liturgies painted all over the vehicles. I think it's a nice way to break up otherwise quite plain areas. Lots of prayers and scripture, applied as appeasements to the Machine God. On an Imperial Guard vehicle I'd have warning signs and stuff, but I think this works better for Marines.
When repainting I also got rid of a lot of the rust. I don't mind rust on models, but I think I went a little overboard on the vehicles, so I toned it down a bit.

Oh and of course, a little group shot!



"Over there! I think I dropped my contact lens!"

[Jonahmaul]

Although I think you're a little mental for converting/painting interior details (I glue all my doors shut!) the tank looks fantastic. I love the marine coming properly out of the top rather than the torso you usually get sat in tanks. This army has really inspired me when it comes to my own snow based army to really get the snow over the marines legs and although I haven't painted any vehicles yet I'm looking forward to giving them the snow treatment (I'm also stealing your liturgies idea!). Really inspiring and really great work.

[SDKFZ]

Very snazzy. Like the use of a upsidedown pred. turret as a base for the guns, great !

/ SDKFZ

[Carot]

Your work is very inspiring, it's caused me to add yet another army project to my list of things I want to try.

[Solun Decius]

The Razorback is awesome man! There's something to be said for the feeling after having finished a complex conversion and paint job on the interior detail of a tank. Like you've done something amazing and unique, but also something you should be ashamed of

[TheConverter15]

Loving how you got the pilot to actually climb out the top hatch, lots of character. Fantastic stuff as always

[Lew_b81]

Jonahmaul: Thanks! Glad to inspire with the snow. I do like it when miniatures get a little dirty. If you think I'm crazy for that interior detail, just scroll down a little...

SDKFZ: Cheeers man! That actually just came from necessity, but yeah I think it adds a little extra something to the Razorback outline.

Carot: Oh tell me about it. One of the best things about Warseer is finding awesome inspiring stuff, and one of the worst is then being inspired to make something yourself.

Solun: Thanks again! I definitely think there should be a word for that kind of feeling. It's kind of like when you're painting a room. You know there's going to be a cupboard in front of the wall, but you paint it anyway. Proud shame!

TheConverter: Thanks! I wanted something a little different from those half way out Marines, a good use of some otherwise unusable Assault Marine legs.

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Right, today I decided on the Vindicator. Again, a pretty easy process to get it done. Painting over the battle damage with the base colour and then going back with a sponge and some Chainmail. Then adding a bunch of snow and calling it a day!



That's it before the treatment. I used a lot more battle damage on the Vindicator than the Razorbacks to reflect its front line role. Plowing through buildings and blasting bunkers is bound to chip off a little paint! I really don't think the old battle damage shows that though. I think it looks more like it's been scratched by Tyranids. So, I changed it:



Better now I think, much more of a worn look than before. You may notice that this is the old Forgeworld Vindicator. Whole resin top and everything. The side panel is taken from a Land Raider to make it look a little different to the Rhino chassis. The statuettes on the back are added from a Cities of Death building kit in order to add a little height to the tank, it's a little flat otherwise.

Oh and of course, this guy has plenty of interior detail too...




Like the Razorbacks, I wanted the interior of the Vindicator to look significantly different to the Rhino. First things first, I needed to take off the top piece. It took forever. Remember, this is the FW one, and is made from thick resin. Then came the addition of the barrel of the Demolisher cannon. That's made from a chimney from the Manufactorum building, with some Rhino hatches on the end, with a piece from the Rhino's satellite dish to support it. I took out the middle wall that the Rhino has, leaving me space to add the barrel but also it left a big empty space where the driver goes. I wanted to separate the driver from the weapon, so added a wall in with a door that opens out onto the back area. That also covered up the right hand door. I then chopped out the seats from both sides, added the console from the wall section, and also a chest containing shells. Above that are some lights to show when it's safe and ready to fire, and of course a big red button for firing the cannon! Lastly, I wanted to add some different detail to the roof, as the resin piece was blank. The back generator from a Land Raider was cut down to fit on. There's now very little room inside the Vindicator, but that's okay! A few magnets to attach the top piece and the doors, and we're done!

There we go, how'd y'all like it? I deep sense of pride/shame when finishing this one! Took a long time, especially as it's something that lots of people just glue shut and has no actual effect during a game, and also is only noticeable if you know it's there! Oh well, I like it.