Friday, August 6, 2010

Grendel Sci-Fi APC WIP

What we have today is a Grendel Sci-Fi APC that I am currently working on. Onto the good bits!

The Review

The tank is made from solid resin, which feels heavy and more solid then ForgeWorld stuff. The vehicle has a pretty high weight to it, and assembly was very simple. It was tracks, body and turret for a total of four parts.

I used two-part epoxy resin to glue this bad boy together since it had huge contact areas, and I wanted it to be solid, and use it as a gaming piece. The APC is a little smaller then a Rhino and matches 40k Scale pretty good and does not seem grossly undersized.

It has a cost of around $10 Canadian, and I use the word value! It really is caste very well and has sharp detail and low bubble count! So in the end, I highly recommend getting this vehicle if you are looking for something to fill the lines with a great price! $10, value indeed!

If you want to purchase this tank, it can be found here


The How-to

The first thing I did was clean the model with pink hand soap. It works really well, and I have gallons of it at work. I trimmed some flash around the tracks, and sanded the bottom of the turret so it would be more flush with the vehicle. As said before, i used a two-part epoxy resin to attach the part together.

The gun mounted on the turret the tank came with was a metal chaingun, similar to the bow gun. Since I will be using this tank in my Imperial Guard Catachan Mercenary force, I wanted to assemble it as a Leman Russ Exterminator. What I did was use some plastic hollow tubes I had left over. I trimmed them to make the cannon appear to have a thermal sleeve near the end of the gun, and armored mount including the first section of the barrel being armored as well. I designed the barrel, to look as if it would recoil into the tank as it fires, and being a smooth bore recoiling design, I didn't want a muzzle break.

On the turret near the cannon mount, there is a small heat extractor to keep the fumes under control during long bursts from the twin autocannons! I am certain this vehicle will be the bane of lightly armored vehicles like Armor Personal Carriers, light vehicles and most skimmers!

I primed the tank using Tamiya Brush on Grey Primer. This stuff has a huge chemical smell, but really helps prevent paint chipping off resin and metal vehicles. Make sure to always use a disposable brush, since the solvent in the thinner damages natural hair brushes.

For paint I used
  • Reaper Coldstone Grey
  • Reaper Icy Grey
  • Reaper Clotted Red
  • Reaper White
  • GW Chaos Black
  • GW Blood Red
  • GW Boltgun Metal
  • GW Black Wash
My coworker is the one who designed the camo based on model kits he used to do as a kid. This is actually the first ever vehicle that he has painted, not counting 1:25 Scale Cars. He did a pretty good job for an urban scheme!

Weathering Effects - Will be shown in a few days when I complete it! Be warned tho, I will be using alott of Tamiya, Vallejo, and Mig products to make this tank look battle worn!





... Mitch

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