First take on a 1/35th Scale Tank Model

Since Mr Chaos (Carl) has come back from New Zealand for a short break, him and I were practically hobbying everyday at Hobby Forge. I even lent him a set of keys to the shop so he can do his hobby without distractions.

After I painted a crap load of Dark Eldar models, I've decided to give in and start on some 1/35th scale tanks, just to test out my hobby skills. Being exposed to Carl's tanks totally poisoned me to start this. And it also gave me a good excuse to spend some money on this distraction, which is totally worth it.

We made a trip to our local Tamiya Underground with a bunch of friends to take a look see at what they have. To my surprise, they actually have the last M26 Pershing in stock, my all time favourite tank, instant buy for me!

Seeing as I didn't want to screw up the M26 Pershing, I also picked up a Stug III for a practice tank, it seems simple enough to work on.

But. After rolling a die, the decision was made that I'll be working on the M26 Pershing instead! I mean, how difficult can it be?

This is the process from start till end.

Look at those rubber tracks! They actually work with plastic glue, awesome stuff!

The interestingly detailed manual.

This is the lower hull done with the tracks and road wheels.

Continuing on with the process.

Upper hull in progress.

Finishing the turret with it's accessories.

Spraying the entire model with Tamiya's Olive Drab, totally awesome spray can there, don't forget, really expensive too!

After working on some details, I moved on to working with the decals.

Once the decals are set, I moved on to weathering the tank.

After finishing, we did the obligatory awesome photo shoot for my first tank. These were shot with my phone.

And these were shot with his digital camera.

All in all, I got the model done within 3 days from start to end. I was really engrossed in it and I had a lot of fun!

Next up is the Stug. I was so wrong when I said that this model was easy. It took me more than 10 hours to complete it's assembly.

Apparently the brass etching was meant for really experienced hobbyist, I was totally unprepared for it. I was required to fold these little pieces according to the manual.

The assembly completion.

I'll now work on finishing this model.

Thanks a lot to Carl who guided me throughout the entire process of the M26 Pershing, I learned a lot from him about weathering and photography regarding this side of the hobby.

I shall now proceed to collecting and painting more beautiful tanks and upping my hobby standards. Next one I'm aiming for is definitely a Merkava and maybe an Abrams tank.

Deimos Pattern Predator

Since I've just gotten these, I wasted no time in starting out with my Deimos Pattern Predators. I've ordered 2, but only managed to work with 1 for now.

The kit is quite interesting, first you have to assemble part of a Rhino which will be modified a bit, and the rest of them are resin parts.

This picture shows how it should start out.

The back of the hull needs to be flat to fit a new hatch.

This is how it kinda looks like when partially assembled.

Well obviously, the turret needs to be "encouraged" a little.

Found something nice.

So yesterday I had some time on my hands, went out for an early dinner with the other half since we skipped lunch. I went to our local thrift store, and I find this, an MDF board which is approximately 6mm thick, which would also mean, no warping of the board will happen. The board is a little less than 8 inch by 12 inch.

I figured that it would be a perfect display board for my Dark Eldar and/or pre-heresyBlood Angels (since I use the same basing method for both). It fits nicely into the IKEA Detolf glass cabinet without taking up the entire space, which would mean that I can place it in any way I want.

After rummaging through some of my boxes for terrain pieces, I built a small terrain piece to be set at the corner of the board. It's meant to create another surface level for me to place more models on.

Tonight will be my last night to continue with this as tomorrow I'll be flying back to Penang for Chinese New Year for a week.

Lots to paint and work on.

I've been quite busy painting lately, especially after recovering from a 3 week sickness! Phew.

My focus has been shifting and changing a lot too. But it mainly revolves around the Dark Eldar for Kindred 4, pre-heresy Blood Angels for the Legio Army Throwdown, and planning for a Warhammer Fantasy army for the next Throwdown.

Anywho, here are some shots using a newly acquired camera. I intentionally chose one with wide lenses and the ability to do awesome macro shots.

A squad of 5 Kabalite Warriors.

The Kabalite Trueborn squad that I'm quite happy about.

Also, a completed Relic Contemptor Dreadnought, which upon looking at these pictures I realize that I haven't finished some details.

I'll do my best to blog more often now since I got a proper camera to use now.