No, not the pro-Soviet leftist tankies, the "boom, shake shake shake the room" tankies.
High on the success of three models completed in less than a month, I took my own advice and decided to paint a tank (of sorts) as my next project. I also took advice from Duncan Rhodes on how to paint a tank. "That looks quick and easy" I thought, and promptly ordered a Chimera from Games Workshop.
Turns out: not so easy and certainly not all that quick. Thus I am posting this nearly two months after my last post...
[gear crunching non-segue into...] My good friend of wide renown Mr Trials (@TrialsofaCasualWargamer) has recently taken up a Guard army for a Warhammer 40K crusade. His colour scheme is a Starship Troopers-inspired mix of grey and blue; I thought it would be nice to paint my Chimera in a similar scheme - which is handily the same scheme that Duncan uses for his Baneblade tutorial.
Firstly, some thoughts on construction:
- The current crop of Games Workshop vehicles are much better designed and a lot better looking than the last tank I put together (a Predator circa 1995).
- There are lots of options for putting these things together; it might be nice for the construction guide to include a "standard pattern" guide to help those of use who aren't versed in the lore to work from. Should I add the turret-mounted autocannon or heavy bolter or neither? Is it reasonable to have a search light and the radio pack?
- The lasgun emplacements on the rear end are fiddly to put together, and horribly vulnerable to toddler-related damage.
- Getting the tank commander into position so his hand is resting on the rim of the hatch requires fore-knowledge and planning. Neither of which I had. My tank commander is engaged in a wierd half-wave which makes me want to say "calm down calm down" in a Liverpudlian accent.
Some thoughts on painting:
- In future I will (and I cannot stress this enough) avoid mixing my own colours for the tank body. Trying to remix exactly the same shade because my first batch wasn't enough, or it dried out, or I needed some for touch-ups or dry-brushing, was a nightmare. I also managed to get bits of old dried mix into the new batches, leaving a less-than-perfect finish on some areas of my Chimera. Much, much better to find the right colour paint out-of-the-bottle and save a lot of time and frustration.
- Painting the Chimera in three parts (the body, the dozer-blade and the turret) and assembling afterwords worked really well. I'll do that again.
- If I want to put some coloured glazes around hot metal elements (like the main gun barrell) I need to read up on the technique, prepare the right materials and practice a bit - not just slap on some coloured washes and hope.
Overall I really enjoyed working on something a bit different, and a bit bigger. Still glad I didn't go for a titan though... As for what's next, I have no idea. I should have a whole bunch of paints arriving some time in April (more on that next time) so I may take inspiration from the paints and see where that takes me.
Toodlepip.