The Thugs: growing like weeds

 At this point in time, Silk and Velvet were about five months old and just full of trouble.

Some of their favourite spots were now getting to be a little cramped for both of them to hang out on.

This sequence of pictures of Silk are some of my favourites.  Just him chilling in a plastic bin.

Here he notices me taking pictures and gives me a look like "What are you doing, creeper?"

"No paparazzi!"

Silk and Velvet decided that these ugly green blinds just had to go.

Here is Silk giving me his best "I'm innocent" look.  I got that look a lot.

Cozy.

My worktable.  I discovered that having a couple of empty bins kept them from lying right in the middle of what I was doing.  However, the bins were no help in protecting me from a low-flying housefly.  

Picture, if you will, me sitting at my worktable with a freshly opened can of Coke at my right hand.  The table is covered in tiny bits and pieces of plastic models, with an open bin with more than a dozen compartments filled with carefully sorted tiny bits and pieces at my left hand.  

Suddenly, a housefly zooms by my head, right at eye level.  Followed almost immediately by two lanky and energetic kittens, scrambling in a mad dash in an attempt to catch the fly.

There was what can only be called an explosion, an eruption, a cataclysmic paroxysm of plastic bits and pieces, Coke, and cat fur.  They didn't catch the fly.

"It was like this when I got here."

I think they were about six months old in this picture.  Look at how long Velvet is, yet it still hadn't really sunk in just how big they were going to be.

       

The Kitbashes: 3 Stages of an Ork

A few years ago I participated in a competition on Yaktribe where the objective was to build and paint three versions of a model that showed it as a novice, experienced, and veteran.  I decided to do three stages of an Ork: showing him as a yoof (otherwise known as a yoot), one of the boyz, and a nob.

What I ended up with...

What I started with...  an old GorkaMorka boy, a standard Ork boy, and a standard Ork nob.

As the GorkaMorka models are bit smaller than the standard Orks, I figured they'd do nicely as yoofs.  As an eager young Ork, he started off with whatever gear he could scavenge - a rusty knife and trusty six-shoota.

The only real change I made to the model was to put some little horns on the helmet.  I planned to paint them up as Goffs, and Goffs seem to like horns.

As he got older and more experienced, he replaced his six-shoota with a slugga.  After loosing his right hand to the nob's ferocious pet squig, he was forced to visit the doc to have a choppa attached to the stump of his arm.

Silk, as usual, oversees all the progress.

Eventually he took over as the nob of his mob.  I added some extra armour using plasicard, and if I remember rightly, the mask is from a fantasy model.

I combined two sluggas to make a kustom shoota.  I seem to recall this bit being very fiddley to make.

He also got a bionik power klaw.  The standard one was a little weedy, so I made it a little bigger with plasticard.

I put them all in the "say what again" pose.

The number of stikkbombs you get to carry apparently increases with experience.

The painting process.

The yoof.

I gave him a scar on his left arm.

Ork skin gets darker as they get older, so as a yoof his skin is pretty light.

I was experimenting with clear bases.  While I like the look of them, it's a royal pain in backside to mount the models on them.  Eventually I'll get around to rebasing these dudes.

The boy.

How awkward would it be to have your lower arm replaced with a big honkin' blade?

Armour maintenance apparently isn't a big priority for Orks.  Well, this guy anyway.

While his skin tone is darker, his scar has lightened some.

The nob.

I'm pretty happy with how the power klaw came out.

His skin tone is even darker, but the scar is lighter still.

"Say what again."

       

The Kitbashes: Imperial Guard Leman Russ Tanks

A year and a half later...

So, it's been a while.  Pandemic + depression = lack of motivation.

I guess it's time to start posting again.  I was originally going to post pictures of my builds in more-or-less chronological order.  Screw that.  I'm going to post about whatever strikes my fancy.  Which makes sense, since that's pretty much how I approach doing my builds anyway.  I can start a project, get it about half built and then get distracted by something shiny.  Then the project languishes in a box for years until I finally get the urge to finish it.  Many of my projects are still waiting.

So today we're going to show a project that I recently (mostly) finished.  I still have to do some greenstuff work to fill in gaps and whatnot.

This is a Leman Russ tank that was a cheap Ebay purchase.  It was in pretty rough shape with some parts broken off and my original intent was to fix it up and paint it.  But once I had it in hand, I felt like it was just a little too... stubby.

And thus the idea of lengthening the tank was born.  Over the course of several years I collected the various bits and pieces I needed from bits sellers when they had a sale, and a few weeks ago the inspiration faerie finally smacked me upside the head and said "Build yer tanks, ya git."

A bit of cutting and filing later, and here we have the first lengthened track.

The body then had to be cut in half and lengthened as well.  I shaved off the lip that the turret fit onto.

I ended up 3D printing out the top plate as I still haven't mastered the art of cutting a nice circle in plasticard.  I used model train rivets from Tichy Train Group, as my attempts to print out the tops with rivets didn't turn out so great.  What a fiddly process this was, inserting the stems into those tiny holes.  They had a distressing tendency to go flinging off in random directions.  It's a good thing I had lots, because I lost quite a few.

The top plate in place.

I magnetized the weapon mount on the turret and 3D printed an addition for the base.

Assembled turret.  This is the turret from another Ebay tank rescue.  The tank itself will likely end up as terrain.

Two new tanks.

I also decided to work on a couple of alternate turrets.  Here are the 3D printed fronts, with more Tichy rivets.

I printed the turrets as well.

My original plan was to take a couple of turrets from the Ork Battlewagon kit and de-orkify them by shaving them down.  But now that I have a 3D printer, it seemed to be a much easier idea to simply design and print the turrets.

The idea is that the ork version is simply a looted turret.  They cut off things like the ladder and top bits and added extra armour.

STLs can be found here:  https://cults3d.com/en/3d-model/game/kv2-inspired-turret

Silk and Velvet watch as a train hauling a couple of new tanks rolls by.  I'll add a post about my 40K trains later...

I think the tanks look pretty good.  They have a bit of a Russian KV-2 look to them.  I still need to finish the back ends and will likely add side sponsons.

A close-up of some of the printed details.

Here is a size comparison with the original Leman Russ.  

The hatch is hinged and the gun mount is magnetized so I can add a gunner if I want to.

Now I just have to finish off the back ends, add sponsons, do some gap-filling and cleanup, and paint the bloody things.  Check back sometime around the year 2030.  They might be done by then.