Sledgehammer Project; Pt XXVI - Taurox - Painting with Primer

As I mentioned I need to do some paintwork on the Taurox before I can finish the assembly. This will consist to two distinct pages. I'll start with the primer, and see if I can work in some modulation, and add the basic camouflage to the exterior and get the interior ready for more detailed paint work.

Ready to go in the airbrush booth.

Failure to take some pictures. I have already used, Stynylrez Black, Stynylrez Grey, Stynylrez White and Vallejo Desert Tan.
I started with black, shooting (primarily) upwards from underneath. Followed that with grey, basically, perpendicular to the hull. I also used black on the interior but not the grey. The interior was shot with Desert Tan over the Black primer. White was sprayed downwards from above over the entire vehicle including the interior.

The basic coat for the camoflauge was Stynylrez Ebony flesh. While not completely visible in the pictures the inside of the rear door and the inside of the turret hatch also received this color.

After the base color was on I finished off the camo with Stynylrez olive green.

At this point I'm calling the initial priming work done. The rest will need to be done with a brush. I'll finish the interior first, attach the various other sub-assemblies and then finish off the exterior. I'll follow all of that up with weathering. I'll need to push forward on the Sledgehammer build so I can get the base coats on it as well and move forward with the two elements together to make sure they match.

I only used primer colors today, although I see I left the Stynylrez Grey out of the picture. I like the Stynylrez primers much better than the Vallejo primer at this point. They are much easier to use and don't seem to separate as much.

Sledgehammer Project; Pt XXV - Taurox Build

I was able to get some more build time in on the Taurox and the basic build is complete at this point. There are a number of pieces that I will attach after some initial paintwork is completed like the roof over the cab and the rear armor plate with the round door. I probably should have left the suspension off as well and painted that separately, another live and learn moment.

The Bison suspension parts from Blood & Skulls (Machinator248 on ebay)

Completed Taurox subsections, these will remain unattached until after some initial paint work is completed.

Putting the Bison halftracks together.

On the Taurox suspension the angle bracket on the edge needs to be removed

And now just to file it smooth

I may have the resin bar from the Bison parts upside down, but I'm not going to sweat it.

The same plastic surgery needs to take place for the front.

Then just attach the whole sub-assembly to the Taurox chassis.

Ready to roll. The only thing that irritates me about this vehicle is its to short. If the back end was another inch longer the proportions would look better. I'm not going to go to that much work though for what will be a secondary point of interest on the diorama.

The detail on the inside is going to be hard to reach if I glue the cab top and the rear hull plate on.

I'm leaving off the top armor plate for the back for that "topless" halftrack look.

Sledgehammer Project; Build, Pt XXIV - Taurox Build

I had a short window to get some work done on the Sledgehammer diorama. I'm still thinking my way through how to make something work on the gun itself so I took the time to start putting the Taurox support vehicle together. I didn't get far but far enough to realize this one is going to be a paint while build kit. There is a lot of interior detail that is likely to be visible that I will need to paint now rather than wait till the end when it will be far more difficult to get to. So expect to see some ongoing painting and weathering as I move forward with this kit.

The suspension system. These are about half finished and just need the aftermarket "Buffalo" suspension to turn it into a halftracked vehicle.

A couple views from the outside.

A view shots of the interior. The back hatch will be open and the top will be off, which means most of this will be visible and require a good bit of painting as I assemble it.

Sledgehammer Project; Preparation Pt XXI - More Acquisitions

Moving along with the Taurox side of the Sledgehammer project the Bison half track set arrived over the weekend. I found these resin cast parts on eBay. The eBay seller name is Machinator248 (also known as Blood & Skulls Industry) and they have a large selection of resin aftermarket detail parts for GW kits. There are a number of different suspension options in their store for the Taurox, two versions for half tracks (Bison and Buffalo), one six wheeled (Longhorn) and one eight wheeled (Wildebeest). I wanted something with at least some track on it so I opted for the half track option.

The parts arrived on Saturday and I am quite pleased with them. The resin is well cast, no bubbles, that I can find, at least on the important surfaces. There is a minor amount of flash that I would expect with any hand poured resin cast and is easily cleaned up. The detail is nice and crisp, naturally there are some mold lines running through that detail, that's just the way things go. If you are looking for some aftermarket parts for your GW kits or anything else for that matter you should take a look at their extensive selection.

Sledgehammer Project; Preparation Pt XX - Acquisitions

Finding a good model for the ammo carrier has been a real chore. I finally resorted to a GW product that I found last week the Taurox. Apparently there is not a lot of love for this kit out there, and with the funky tracks it has I can see why. However, I won't be building it straight from the box (which I didn't get anyway). I'll be converting this to a half track version using a resin detail kit off of eBay. I have seen a few of these finished off and I think it looks fabulous with even a decent paint job on it. My worry at this stage is will it end up being to big and over shadowing the Sledgehammer? Won't know until I build it at this point.

I also picked up some additional plastic for the Sledgehammer build. I think the diamond plate that I purchased may be to big though, I'll take it back and see if I can find a smaller pattern.

The half track conversion that I'm going to use does not use any of the tracks the kit comes with. That's a good thing because those track components are down right ugly. However, that means I will have plenty of track pieces to use as extra armor.

Diamond plate pattern, hexagonal rod, round rod and some rectangular pieces. The hex and round rod are destined to become nut and bolt detail.