Saturday 15 September 2012

Raising the Dead : Abraxas WIP Pics


Here are some work in progress pics of yesterdays completed Death Company Dreadnought Abraxas for those that may be interested.

I know I got these posts arse about face, but I just couldn't resist putting up the completed work first as it's such a rarity. Also I still don't take enough pictures when I'm working on a project to show detailed progression (takes me long enough to paint something without all the breaks for a photo shoot)!

But I did take a few of the little bit of conversion work I did on the banner which may be of use to some.


The Dreadnought started life as standard Furioso from the current plastic kit, I picked it up from a work colleagues son who had sadly decided to leave the hobby after the gaming group at his school folded. The model had already been built but unfortunately the lad had used Polystyrene Cement rather messily in its construction.


This caused me quite a few clean up issues and as I wanted to switch out the front of the Sarcophagus with the one for the Death Company; I had to hack it away and do some filling with Liquid Green Stuff, which worked quite nicely for filling in small gaps.

The banner is from the Forge World Black Templars Venerable Dreadnought set; I bought the Dreadnought a few years back during one of my lapses of reason and soon decided that despite it being a great model, it didn't really fit the look of my 'Drinkers army.

The banner however was just the thing to add the finishing touch to Abraxas and help him stand out on the table top.


I'm sure most of you are well aware of the need to prep resin prior to painting by cleaning off the release agent in soapy water with a bit of a light scrub with a brush. The banner had quite a liberal coating of the paint repelling agent and due to it's relative fragility I was unable to apply enough pressure to clean it well enough.

After a bit of pondering I tried giving the whole thing a light coat of matt varnish and it worked a treat, with the base coat adhering well to the surface.

I carefully cut away the small shields and crosses from the oath papers with a modelling blade and also sanded down the Templar insignia on the shield using my Dremel, which is such a handy and versatile tool for model making.

Again not wanting to teach anyone to suck eggs, but be sure to wear some form of dust mask when filing or sanding resin and safely clean up your work area after, this stuff is bad for your lungs!

I then balled some very small pieces of Green Stuff and applied them at the top of the oath papers, pressing them into place with the tip of another Dremel tool which had just the right circumference to form the indentation of a purity seal.





For extra strength I then drilled and pinned the banner pole (using brass rod) to the top of the Dreadnought.

The Chalice is a Green Stuff press mould from the Forge World Blood Angel Icon Pack , I cut the wing and blood drop away, repositioning the blood drop to form the Blood Drinkers insignia. It's a little rough around the edges, but for a first attempt at press moulds, I'm fairly happy with it.




Next up a 'New Life into Old Lead' post featuring my Death Company Chaplain, Samael - Mortifier of the Evocati.

'You know what's wrong with 40k these days? Everyone is obsessed with death!' ;o)

3 comments:

The Angry Lurker said...

That's a nice piece of kit and work Bix!

bisheh said...

good work there Mr Bix :)

Bix said...

@Angry, thanks, yes the GW plastic kits are just brilliant these days and FW, well what can I say; my Bank Account weeps every time I look at their site.

@Bish, Ta mate, pity it's probably going to end up as target practice for your 'Crons. ;o)

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