Remember this old thing?

In a galaxy a long, long, bloody loooooong time ago I began construction on a Hovertank to use alongside my other Helsreach creation. Now, I could just say that I got distracted by something else and lost interest, but that'd be bullshit. The real reason I stopped working in on it was that I was beginning to feel a little daunted with all the airbrushing OSL work that I knew I'd be needing to carry out soonish. So, I just left it in it's 2/3 finished state for almost two years.....christ! I didn't realise that it was that long ago until I began writing this post just now.

Anyway, enough waffle from me. On with the show;

I know, I know.....the diorama doesn't suit it, but I ain't got no desert scenery yet ok!

Front door.

The front sidey bit.

The noisy end.

Disco lights in full swing. The inhabitants of Helsreach really know how to party :)

The shot from above, or something?

Control panel, with a poorly lit photo from me.

Look! It has a flip top lid too! For mini insertion......mmmmmm, insertion!

The ubiquitous teddy bear up front. Every heavy vehicle has to have one of these.

My "almost" successful OSL on the engines.

More of the same.

An arrow pointing to something important.....like a glowing thing that gets hot?

Oil leaks, good mechanics are hard to find on Helsreach.

More streaking mess along the sides of the hull. Roadworthy check? Fail!

The big arse boom stick & a shark maw. Nothing says "get outta mar fuckin way hombre" like a set of shark teeth. 

An oil pipe with yet another leak, a Heavy bolter and a cow herder on steroids up front.

Now comes the staged disco photo shoot. Kulo and a few of his gang were volunteered;

Nothing gets the boys more psyched prior to battle than havin a boogey on the Hovertank dance floor.

"Iz a liket up eer, Iz kan shoot a lot a umies!"

"Oi! wats dat out eer?"

"Iz kan see ya, but yooz karnt see me. Muhahaha"

Once the disco's over, the REAL fun begins.

The Hovertank and Co. on the lawn, in front of a fake brick wall. Really helps to set the scene now doesn't it :)

Ok, now some boring critiques from me. Hold on! Here goes;

I'm a bit annoyed with the weathering, again. I think I overdid it.....again! If I compare it to the the state it was in before I took to it with the oils, pigments and other paint stuff that I used, then I can see that I've covered up a lot of it's original colour. It turned out ok, just a tad too much on the aged look for my taste.

The OSL on the engines looks too flat as well. More time spent with the airbrush probably would have helped I think. I didn't lay enough coats down to make it "pop" enough. Oh well, live and learn I guess.

I was going to give this thing a name or put some personal graffiti on it, but I couldn't think of anything suitably corny or witty on both fronts, so in the end I just gave up and left it plain, bar a few transfers :)

The photo's are a bit crap too, coz it was too damn big to fit it my light box. I had to rely on my ceiling lights instead :( Sorry guys.


Wow! Quite a lot of whinging from me hey? But overall I'm pretty happy with the beast. I'm just a bit disappointed with how some of the elements turned out. It's still gunna be a lot of fun to use in game though. I foresee a lot of unfortunate individuals getting run down with it.


Actually, now that I think of it, can anyone think of a really cool, kick arse name for it? The winner will receive an overly enthusiastic -e pat on the back- from yours truly  :D

Cheers :)

Tank's for the orks..... what a terrible pun!

More progress on the Hovertank & orks.

Look at these pictures, please, I beg you!

This is one side.

This is the other.

Not sure which angle this is?

Oooh! Let's boogy!

All I've done to the Hovertank so far is applied the base coat, copious amounts of an ink wash & drybrushed it. I'm pretty happy with how it's coming along.



Next up is the ork horde, please look at them!

The Dave Andrews/Asslessman combo :)

Red era improvement.

The thieving bastard who stole a power fist.

Hat man, what a guy!

Cheesy grin while he shoots you in the face.

The rest of their brother's, eagerly awaiting my attention

So there you have it folks, more mini mayhem. I'm getting pretty bored with the tank to tell you the truth, but I'll battle on & finish it, coz I know/think it'll look great in the end.....it bloody well better!!!

I'm a little annoyed about the skin tone on the orks, I didn't stop to consider how I painted the last batch. I undecorated them white, whereas I undercoated these guys dark grey & drybrushed them white. They've turned out a little too green, a tad too glowing for my tastes. It might be ok once I've got all the other colours on? I want them to fit in with the original group I did a few months back that's all.


Ok, back to work.


Streeb Greebling chums.

Nearing completion.

I've finished off the construction part of the build, no more bits to add, no more pimping.....I'm done.

Here! Look at this!!!!

A few more details added i.e. front cannon, twin linked bolter mounted behind the conning tower, side cannons & hydraulic ram's.

I removed the front cannon after this picture so that I could get better access to paint the interior.

 I glued the gun on the mounting rail -even though it could swivel around 360°- as it would end up rubbing the paint work off eventually.

Hydraulic ram dummy fit. These will be fitted after the whole lots painted.

It opens too! The drivers control panel will be fitted after paint as well.

Ramp down, ready for troops to embark......

For the RT disco baby!!!!

The next phase of the build was completed this afternoon i.e. base coat. Initially I was going to paint it "bad arse black", but after thinking on it for a bit I decided to go with a desert colour. Seems more believable, considering that's where it ply's it's trade.

Here's more stuff to gork at!

The subsections displayed in all their glory, on my painting desk, for you to enjoy.

Engines......their there somewhere in the photo, just have to look hard to find'em.

And a back door too!!! What'll they think of next?

Should have masked up those side cannons too, but I forgot :(

The shutter door...big black thing in the middle.

As always, painting it ties the whole lot together. After months of stuffing about at my painting desk it's starting to look like a complete vehicle. 

The LED colour turned out a bit funky, but I like it! I had a choice of white, blue & red LED.....I chose blue, the one they use to discourage drug users on buses from shooting up with.

I've got to fix up the over spray in a few areas, paint up the details (like the piping, engines etc) & then I'll hit it clear coat. I do this to seal all the paint up before I begin the weathering process. If I don't, then I risk ruining the basic job & having to do it all over again. You see, for me, the weathering part of the job is a bit of a "suck it & see" kinda process....apply a bit here, rub off a bit there, add some metallics, take some of the shine off the top of this etc etc.

I fear that this last phase of the job is going to take a looooong time. There's so much surface area to apply paint to, I could be here until Christmas!!! Hopefully not. I'll get stuck into it over the coming days & weeks.

Hope your enjoying the journey so far, now why don't you give it a go too?

Cheers everybody.....all 39 of you :)

It's finally finished!!!!........ nah, just kidding :p

Here's some more progress pic's of the Hovertank, taken with a new phone camera! About time.

Final incarnation of the conning tower shutter door.

The three variants I tried.

Test fit with locating shaft....the blue bit :)

Look, it opens too, yippy!!!

The hydraulic ram's I'm making to open & close the shutter door.

This part of the build had been a bit of a bitch so far. I first tried to have a cage like door for the conning tower, but it looked a bit meh. So then I tried heating up some acrylic sheet & bending it to the shape I wanted, but the heating process browned it so much that it looked pretty bad too. Finally, I bit the bullet & made one out of a plastic icecream container. I cut out some louvres for the front & cut out some sections on the sides....then stuck mesh over them. I think it looks ok, so after I've strengthened it up a bit more she'll be as good as gold.

Now I just have to finish off the hydraulic ram's, add the locating shaft's to the conning tower & shutter door and it'll be done.

Some of the wire & plumbing work on the left hand side.

Close up's, oooohh!

I ran a heap of wires along the left hand side of the Hovertank & then installed copper wire brackets to look like their being held in place by them.....instead of super glue :)

After the shutter door is done I'll start on the right side, adding some cabling & other bits & bobs.

Remember I said I'd fill you in on the history of theses engines?

Well, here it is baby!!!!!

Previously, I mentioned that the engines were not my original idea. They actually came from a Japanese kitbasher from back in the day (not sure when, but it was ages ago, ok). Here's a link to a page that shows you the many & varied model kits that he pilfered to make this beast,

http://www.maschinenkrueger.com/models/bk25_2.html

There is another page out on the net that tells you a bit more about the process he went through to build it, but you can see where I got the idea for my engines from anyway :)

Ok, enough blathering from me, back to the workbench for me it is then.

Cheerio.