Vindicator Laser Destroyer Conversions

I've recently converted a couple of Vindicator Laser Destroyers, though they aren't finished.

These two were unfortunate victims of a bad decision. Both of them were rescues and had suffered horrible paint jobs. One of them was put together incorrectly. However I decided to put the two Vindis through something even worse. I put them in the oven...

I'm always experimenting with primers, as well as spray paints. I went for a midnight blue rustoleum spray, however upon application it left a strange textured effect I wasn't expecting. It was a clear day, not too cold, nor was it raining. Even worse than the texture, the paint didn't want to dry. Since I didn't have any varnish I decided to try something new.

The plastic in most modelling kits melts around 130F. I figured I could speed up the curing process of the paint by putting the models in the oven at about 105 with no ill effects, as long as I watched the models closely.

However, I forgot the oven wouldn't have a uniform temperature, or be perfectly calibrated. In short I ended up seriously damaging the siege shield and lascannon barrels on my models. I even warped the body of one of them. There was other minor damage, such as the tracks actually melting in a few places.

The paint cured, but the strange texture remained.

I cut the lascannon barrels off as necessary, and replaced them with either new cannons or replaced the end of the cannon with a gargoyle head. Then I ended up applying a very thin, wash-like coat of the old GW Necron Abyss foundation paint to the entirety of both models. I repeated this until the texture was manageable. My siege shields were totally destroyed, so I threw them out. In hindsight I could have kept them for terrain. The warped body I tried use superglue and a hobby vice, but the damage was too severe. I decided to leave the damage and just paint over it. Maybe I'll treat it as battle damage with some careful painting.

With careful painting I've managed to salvage the two tanks. Albeit they aren't perfect. They're currently at about 90% complete. I just need to add some weathering and pick out a few details missed.

This one I'm naming "Thunderchild." It suffered the least damage. It was originally put together correctly and the original paint wasn't too think. The oven also managed to warp only two barrels. One was very minor and I made due with a gargoyle.

This one is going to be named "Perdition." It suffered severe damage in the oven and the entire laser destroyer had to be rebuilt. The body of the tank was warped causing a large gap which is visible in the photo on the rear, upper right of the tank. I still am not sure what I will do with it. I should have filled it, but I'm hoping I can get away with making it into some kind of battle damage when I weather the tank.

One thing that I can't really show in pictures is the interference paint I used. Golden makes a fantastic paint that causes the reflections to show as a different color than underneath. For example if I used a green interference paint over a blue undercoat, all the reflected light will flash green but the model will be blue to the eye. I'll see if I can get some good pictures and do a review in the future.

Ongoing Projects - Part 1

Lets dive right in. I've got a lot of projects currently unfinished. I'm hoping that I'll be able to use this blog as a tool to both push myself to complete some of these, as well as well as perfect my painting and converting and scratch building skills.

Here is a list of ongoing projects:

1. "The Bound" - a Night Lords warband centered around a home brew campaign called "The Assault on Pertinaax". While this army is largely finished, I recently began the long task of updating my color scheme, and adding a few newer components. While this isn't my first army, it is the army I care about the most, and have been working on it for nearly seven years as of this post.

2. Unnamed Kings of War Kingdoms of Man Army - An army designed to be similar in visual and tactical style to the tercios of the 30 Years War. I'm waiting on a shipment from warlord games, and I already have some Games Workshop Empire models that will help to fill out my list. I've largely not started this list, and am excited to build something new.

3. With the purchase of several boxes of Dark Vengeance, I have a collection of Dark Angels snap fit marines. While I'm not opposed to Dark Angels in principle, I've been pretty disenchanted with the newer models in their line, and will be converting them into Exorcists chapter marines. They'll use Red Scorpion chapter tactics, by default, but I'll give them the option to apply other tactics as well. There will likely be an Inquisition detachment and a few Grey Knight allies in the final build. I just got a shipment of conversion parts and will likely lead with this project.

4. I also have a collection of Chaos Daemons that are usually relegated to allies in my Night Lords lists, though have made a few solo appearances. I have about half of these models painted, and the other half in various states. I'm now considering replacing the now rather worthless Horrors with Plaguebearers, and Blight Drones, which will substantially change the army.

Until next time.