Constructing a Necron Tomb Stalker Part 3, Finishing Touches

Well, I intended for this entry to be longer, but I feel that the pictures speak for themselves.

I went over the flat areas of the base, and flocked it with a dirty earth color powder. After gluing the Tomb Stalker on, it was ready to go out and play.

I still want to make one addition to the model, but I wanted to get these posted now, and with winter break and Christmas upon us, I just don't know when I'll be able to get to that last detail.





Enjoy, and please comment! I really do enjoy reading them! Especially all you international readers out there, please speak up! I look forward to hearing from you all.

Constructing a Necron Tomb Stalker Part 2, Painting

If you were out at Evolution this past Wednesday, you saw me bring the Tomb Stalker out to play. It's about 95% done... I still want to make one more addition. Unfortunately, the TS didn't really get into the battle, (Stoopid phase out), but I will post that battle report soon.

I put more into painting the base then I did the TS. For the Tomb Stalker, I stuck to my Necron Army paint scheme. I start with a black primer, then drybush Boltgun Metal on top. After that, a drybrush of Mithril Silver is added. I picked up some metallic colored paints from my local Michael's store, and I use those pretty often, especially with the Necrons. I use the metallic turquoise to paint the Necron sigil, with a highlight of the sigil itself in shining gold. I then went over the eyes with metallic red. That pretty much sums up how I do it, however, the best trick is the sealer. I use a heavy coat of Armory Matte Sealer. That really dulls the shine of the metal, and gives it a dead, souless, look.

Sorry I don't have pictures of it up yet, but I felt that the basing was more important, and you'll see it in the finished picture shots.

 For the base, I used the standard 50/50 mix of Elmer's glue and water to secure the talus rocks to the base. The Rhino shell I painted with a 50/50 mix of shadow grey and space wolf grey, so that it would have space wolf colors. I then used a heavy wash of black and brown inks to dirty it up.

 Next, I painted the whole base with a dark brown (P3's Umbral Umber). To simulate the blast marks, I used some "grimy black" weathering powder. This stuff is absolutely amazing, and very easy to work with. Look for a product review in the near future.

To finish off the base, I drybrushed a brownish/grey color (P3's Bastion Grey) over the rocks to make them pop. Next, I sealed the base with the matte sealer.

Finally, I glued the Tomb Stalker to the top.




I'll post more pictures in Part 3 of the series, flocking the base, and the finishing touches.

Until then!

Constructing a Necron Tomb Stalker Part 1, Construction

Ah, Forge World. What a cool spiky model.
Curse you! What a spiky model!

With building any large unit, I always really want to put some extra zazz into it, and really make it into a showpiece. The Tomb Stalker is not exception. I really wanted to put an edge on the model.

 In the Forge World pictures, the Tomb stalker is crawling over a piece of wreckage, and I thought that was a brilliant idea. Instead of using the aircraft that FW used, I opted for a Whirlwind hull I picked up off of eBay.
Obviously, I didn't need all the parts, so I just constructed enough of the hull to be convincing. It's going to be wreckage anyway.

After placing the constructed hull on the base, you can see it is larger than the base. This was easy to fix, I just took a razor saw and cut the hull in half.

 Once the hull was cut in half, I placed it on the base again. It was still too big, hanging slightly off of one of the edges. I cut another hunk of the back end of the hull to make it fit.

 Now I lined it up against the base one more time just to double check. Fits perfectly. Now, onto the next step.

 Using an emobossing tool (a glorified heat gun), I melted the hull in strategic places. A heat gun or a hairdryer that gets really hot could work too, I just use the embossing tool because it generates a small stream of very hot air. It is much easier to control than a heat gun or hairdryer. On the flip side, it does get hot, and quick! I had to move my painting mat because it began to warp under the heat.

 As you can see, a few seconds under the heat and the plastic begins to melt. Using a sculpting stick, you can poke, adjust and warp the hot plastic to the desired shape.

 While it is still hot, I placed the hull on the base. Pressing down lightly, to help the plastic adhere. I didn't have to use any glue here, a light bond is all I need, as I am going to sculpt the terrain up and over the wreckage.

 Using some sculpey, (yes, SCULPEY!) I began to fill in the cracks between the wreck and the base. I like working with sculpey for a few different reasons. It comes in just about every color, it only costs about a $1, and it is easy to work with. I know many people prefer to use green stuff, I just can't justify spending that much on such a small amount of putty. (On a side note, I do plan to compare Green stuff/grey stuff/and other 2 part epoxy puttys in a future article). Sculpey is an "oven bake" clay, and will not harden until exposed to heat. Obviously, I cannot put the base and wreckage in the oven, but I

 can use the embossing tool to cook the clay. This is a trick I've used since building terrain up around 'Mechs for Battletech. Sculpey may not be as hard  as green stuff,but it isn't exactly fragile either.
Once the sculpey is hard, you can sand it. I sanded it down to remove finger prints, and add a rough texture.

 The Tomb Stalker's body comes in 12 different segments, and is super poseable. Starting on the tail end, I began to glue the pieces into place, comparing it to the contour of the base.
After assembling about 5 segments, I started from the head and worked backwards. Again, I matched the contour of the base.
Once I had the tail and the head, the mid segments fell into place rather quickly.

 As you can see in the picture, the Tomb Stalker is contoured right over the wreckage.

 I used a few rather large lumps of sticky-tac to hold the TS in place while I worked on the legs. This part was insanely hard and time consuming, as it has 22 large legs, and 20 small ones. Only the large legs need to be positioned, and the claws on the end of the legs are seperate, and can be positioned as well.
I did not glue the TS to the base, so it will be easier to paint.

With the TS complete, it's time to move onto painting. Part 2 of this will detail the painting, and basing of the model.

Until then!

Concerning tips and advice

So, I just deleted the blog I was working on. I thought to myself, "Who cares?!?!?!" I need to offer my audience a unique angle, not another opinion. I was working on a review of a store I frequent when I'm visiting family down in the Detroit area. It was a rather lengthy review, but I just broke it down with one question. Why go there? If I can't answer it in a sentence, then why even review it.

I started this blog to offer tips, tricks, and insights, not to become another of the masses of naysayers out on the web.

So, with that in mind, I hit delete.

I will however, tell a great tip about glue.
It drives me absolutely insane working with super glue sometimes, especially when it doesn't set or do what I want it to do.

Loctite is the brand I prefer, and I totally recommend the gel version that comes in the black bottle. It doesn't run, and sets pretty quickly, yet gives you time to position the piece.

For basing, I found the best thing at Menard's. Loctite also offers a liquid glue in a pot with an acrylic brush. It works wonderfully for large surfaces where a bead of glue is overkill, like gluing a figure to a base.

Both glues run around the $3 mark, and a bottle will last quite some time. Usually this is cheaper than the glues offered at the hobby store, and are a better quality in my opinion.


Next Time: How to build an awesome gaming table on the cheap!!!!!!