2.20.2010

The Mk.1 Land Raider -- Part Three

To conclude the saga of the Paperhammer Land Raider... at least until I decide to make another one.

The main body of this beast was assembled. The next big detail was the treads themselves. This model has a great set of tread templates that work just like the GW models. Rather than a hundred little links, Part 3 of 6 just has a few long sections cleverly crafted to look like links once they're assembled on the model.

Helpful Hint-- Sort of like I talked about with the wheels early on in this project, you can breathe easy cutting out the treads. That complex, angled notch that needs to be cut a few dozen times? The inner half of that notch is going to be hidden by the "link" that goes on top of this tread section, so don't drive yourself mad trying to cut out that shape. Just do two straight cuts with scissors past the end and it will look exactly the same once the link is in place.

Also, trim the wide point at the ends ever-so-slightly flat. It'll make putting the links on much easier where the treads "bend."

I'm really pleased with how the treads look on this model, but I just think they might be a bit more imposing if they were thicker. Figure on this scale, they're about two or three inches thick. If I ever make another one of these, I'll probably make the treads from doubled-up card to give them a little more heft.

The lascannons glued on to the 25mm "mounts" with no problem. I also added on several of the hanging chains from the Chaos Vehicle sprue, because I've made chains a theme in my World Eaters army (based off the idea that Kharn's arms are wrapped in chains). I debated adding a few racks of spikes, but ended up deciding against it. No matter where I put them, they just seemed a little over-the-top (for my personal taste). Besides, the tank has numerous chains, the plates on the lascannons, about a dozen skulls, three gigantic Khorne symbols, and it's going to be painted with blood. If someone still can't figure out its allegiance with all that, well... as my friend Marc says, the Skull Throne isn't going to build itself.

You may also notice a lot of black paint on the model at this point. Austin Powers would call this the "warm liquid goo phase." Y'know how the GW guys constantly warn you to paint over foam before you spray paint it? Well, I had a similar concern. Card is just layered paper, and everywhere there's an edge all those layers are exposed. Moisture gets in there, paper swells, and suddenly my Khornate Land Raider has been possessed by daemons of Nurgle. I had a plain old tube of acrylic paint, classic mars black, and I used this to seal all the edges as best I could before priming the whole thing.

I primed it in three very light, dusting coats out in the warm sun. Didn't want to rush it and soak anything. Did taking my time make the difference, or was it using the acrylic paint? We'll find out in a few months when that tube of mars black runs out. Until them, I'll keep doing it this way because the Land Raider came out perfect. Once it was a nice, uniform gray it became very difficult to tell this was a Paperhammer model. Really, this is a fantastic set of templates and the original designer did some amazing work.

I don't want to dwell on painting too much, mostly because it's not my strong suit and I'd prefer not to embarrass myself. In brief, I painted the whole thing with Red Gore to start, doing the treads and wheels with Chaos Black. My World Eaters have a red and black color scheme, and I wanted this to match as much as possible. I used Tin Bitz on a bunch of details, as well. Some of these, like gun barrels, will end up closer to gold, while the more mechanical parts will stay dark and brassy. There will be much more later as I obsess over details, but this gives you a solid example of how a Paperhammer model can end up looking on the tabletop.

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