Making some spaced armor for your RAV 6 x 6

As promised, time to show you the images from the extra armor I made for the Secret Weapon tank.

Here are the supplies... plasticard and polystyrene tubing.

I wanted these to be magnetized.  My first step was to cut some tubing that would prop up the extra armor over the wheels.

With those rods measured and cut, I grabbed some reasonably thick plasticard to make the side skirts.

I measured them out, and drew my design on the plasticard.  This card was thin enough that I could use a scissors.  If it was any thicker, I would have gone with an exacto knife.

With the first side cut, I made a few templates out of it so that I could make more!!

The second piece.  In the next episode, I will show you how to build up the textures on these armor plates, as well as magnetize it.  Then some fun details!

This figure from the Raging Heroes kickstarter is going to be my tank commander!  Go check that out...

Another flesh tone video mini from Reaper

OK, folks!  Time for another flesh tone video.  This time it is oriented towards an African tone, using a Reaper Miniatures dancing girl.

As with all the flesh tones, it's about balancing warm and cool shades of a very narrow color band. Just a little tweak here and there make all the difference!

It seems like every game comes down to a "games of inches", but last night's contest certainly did.  I never saw so much 'debris' on the ice, and so many consistently crazy bounces of the puck.  It looked more like a superball.  If the puck hits some of those helmets and sticks, you might get a very different result...

Fortunately, hockey continues in the Windy City.  That is very good, given the lousy season the Sox are having!

Assembling your RAV 6 x 6 from Secret Weapon Miniatures

The last unboxing post showed you just how nicely produced the RAV 6 x 6 is.  In this post, I will show you how I assembled it.  There were very few mould lines to file down.  The gates and vents were also very much under control.

The most stuff that had to be removed was on the back of the wheels.  You don't see much of this part, but I wanted to make sure they were all gone.

  

I don't use a Dremel, as I prefer the feel and control of carving tools.  In this case, I was using one of my wood carving tools.  It is rounded, as you can see, which was perfect to preserve that inverse curve of the wheel.

Clearing away the last of it...

With the top and bottom halves glued together, it was time to glue the side pieces in place.  These snap into place very easily!

No worries about warped parts here, or gaps!

Getting the other side ready to glue together.

With that done, it was time to focus on the turret.  It fit very nicely in place, so I didn't have to do anything to make it steady, even with the weight of the metal turret weapon.  You can see that I put a pin into each weapon, so that it would remain steady.

I also put pins in the axle sections of each wheel, so that I could mount them on dowel rods for painting.

The underside of the vehicle has some nice details, but they are not too crazy to paint.  You won't have to struggle to get the brush into tough places here!

Some features that I was glad to see excluded on this kit were air bubbles and giant gates!  Notice the lack of green stuff!!

Looks like some autocannons are ready for action!!!  I love how this larger turret looks when it is turned at an angle.

This is the weapon that gave me the idea to try and make a Leman Russ conversion.  That is being worked on right now.

Everything primed and ready to go!!

This vehicle was very easy to assemble, as you have seen.  A stark contrast to so many other vehicles I have had to deal with.  As far as resin vehicle kits are concerned, it is vastly superior to a certain other company :-)  None of the crazy miscast issues to worry about.

Tanks for the Memories: Unboxing something very special from Secret Weapon Miniatures!

Who doesn't love tanks?  I know I do... and I am sure all of you as well.

What don't we love?  Tanks that require us to sell body parts to afford them, or are like a brick to the face to assemble!

When I first saw these on the Secret Weapon site, I thought I had found a solution :-)  And I did.

This is a resin/metal kit.  All the parts are shown here, right out of the bag.  I was already very excited, and I was more and more pleased as I started to work my way through the parts.

First, as you can see, there are not ten bazillion little parts.  This is it!  That means a whole lot less scraping, filing, washing, etc.  Also, there were no warped parts.  No scalding myself trying to bend things back into shape, or dropping said tiny parts down the drain (yes, it has happened).

As I tried to dry fit the parts together, I heard this alien "clicking" sound.  No that was not a fragile or miscast, hollowed out parts breaking :-)  It was parts clicking into place!  Very cool.

So much so, that these pieces stayed in place with no blue tac or anything.

This is another helpful way your tank costs are reduced.  As you can see, there is a huge array of weaponry here.  Just about anything an I.G. player could need.

You have hull mounted weapons, plus seven more primary weapons that can be changed out as needed.  I know you can convert Chimeras, Russes, etc. to possibly do the same, but this is how you start out, which is yet another time saver.

The hull mounted weapons...

They fit it perfectly, with no magnets needed.

From a visual standpoint, what I enjoy most about these vehicles is the turret.  I LOVE the bigger turret.  When you have it at an angle such as this, it looks so much cooler than the tiny turrets of the usual I.G. tanks.

Speaking of which, this scales out to a Chimera, for those who are curious.  I will do a size comparison shot to illustrate this.

My next post will show how this was assembled and prepared for painting.  Speaking of painting, this wonderful vehicle will now be used for the "Weathering and Battle Damage video"!  I cannot thank Justin and the folks at Secret Weapon enough for allowing me to use these.

Vestal in pale flesh...

All right, time for the other Blood Vestal!  This time, we have the classic Dark Elf color scheme, all set for the how to video.

Hard to believe this is a one piece cast, but it is.  Pretty amazing.  More fun from Raging Heroes!

A comparison of the 2 flesh tones side by side.  Next up, the African skin tone!

Fight Club... the view from above

I think these views show the overall base a little better.  As I mentioned in the WIP post on the base, I had to add a lot of material around the edges to make it fill out the big oval base.  You can see the barbed wire I put in this image...

This view shows some of the fun shading I was able to do on Abbadon's armor...

This time some of Loken's armor, and the extra skulls from Secret Weapon that I scattered around the base...

Another fun view showing the back of Abbadon's armor.

This time, the sword, and more of the base!

Queens of the Underdark... Drow Flesh tone

Hey folks!  Back again!  This time with the Drow Flesh Tone figure for the Painting videos.  Obviously, another Raging Heroes fantasy Blood Vestal.

I have the pale flesh tone version done as well, so that will be posted tomorrow...

The amazing thing about all the Blood Vestals is that they are one piece casts... even the standard bearer and musician!