13th Armoured Division Sable Knights – Commander Glofski’s Squadron

Using the fine pen, I marked out the feather divisions on the eagles and the blocked in with chaos black.

The transfers came from the Cadian Troops sheet, the Imperial Guard Tank sheet and the Bretonnian Knights sheet. NOTE: in the heat the transfers take only a matter of seconds to come off the backing paper once immersed in water. This can prove tricky with the quite delicate transfers. Nonetheless, I mainly applied transfers to the turret, flag and the Commander’s coat.

Once each transfer was applied and dabbed carefully dry with absorbent cloth, I used a small amount of ‘ardcoat to seal and protect the transfer. NOTE: when it comes to the weathering next, I will use Citadel Stormshield as a matt varnish to dull the gloss before applying weathering powder.

Before weathering the tank, I’ve decided to create the base to mount the Leman Russ on.

As with the Savlar Chemdogs project I will be using old CDs (100mm diameter). The CD hole was covered using some gaffer tape on both sides and then on a level surface one side was covered with Polyfilla.

The Chemdogs’ bases represented a toxic landscape, but for the Sable Knights I want to continue the idea that Glofski’s 13th Armoured Division was kept in reserve to fight the Orks of Bork in the overrun urban areas. Hence I embedded urban rubble including an old printer metal spring as razor wire and part of a tank trap.

Whilst still wet I sprinkled Citadel basing sand to give added texture. Next will be spray painting with Chaos Black… once the Polyfilla has fully dried.

After spraying with chaos black, a smorgasbord of paints have been used on the dry round base.

I started with a sepia wash followed by  red, green and agrax  earthshade washes. Rubble was highlighted through dry brushing using a variety of colours. Metal debris was painted with leadbelcher and dry brushed with  chainmail before further washes.

‘Ardcoat was used to create pools of water amongst the debris to reinforce the urban destruction.

Commander Glofski’s Leman Russ is mounted onto the base after weathering. First of all metal chipping was achieved by using a sponge [from an old blister packaging] and dry brushing with chainmail. I selected parts where the tank would encounter potential damage. Once dry, I used Forge World light rust powder to dust around the chipped ‘damaged’ areas and continued the powder weathering on the base, especially on the metallic debris.

Putting Glofski’s Leman Russ Executioner aside, I’ve moved on to the second tank in the unit and named it “Eight Ball”…

This is a Leman Russ Exterminator with Lascannon. As with Glofski’s tank, this is the GW 1994 kit and it arrived from eBay in a pretty poor condition and dark green paint scheme. However, with a bit of TLC and bits from bits box it was resurrected. The main damage was around the turret and it needed a new cupola and some bits of track.

I put track guards on the top as the top tracks were warped and so could be best hidden this way.

The tank Commander is an old, classic, metal Necromunda Delaque ganger with lasgun. I clipped the top of his head off and added a tank commander peaked cap clipped off the plastic head of the one on the tank accessory sprue and filled the gap with a little liquid green stuff.

The paint scheme follows Glofski’s tank by using the blue-grey element as the main base colour but with a camouflage effect included using chaos black, bleached bone and then averland sunset to create a ‘mesh-like’ pattern that feels urban enough for the backstory.

The eagle side insignia from Glofski’s tank was replicated on this tank to tie the two together in the unit (I’m not planning to replicate it on any other tanks in the unit at the moment.) However to make this a unique, personalised tank, I painted an ‘eight ball’ on the each side of the turret and used a standard Imperial Guard black tank number transfer to give it its designation.

So, as “Eight Ball” is waiting for a base to be made – I’ve got some more Polyfilla on order, I turned to the next two tanks to join The 13th Armoured Division. “Big Joe” and “Little Joe” were also acquired cheaply through eBay.

I guess it’s me tuning in to my socially responsible and green motivation to recycle other people’s rejects. I have to see the potential for a refit or conversion. There are always Leman Russ tanks available to buy second hand, but many are overpriced under the misconception that they are painted “professionally” or well, but actually aren’t… obviously beauty is in the eye of the beholder. I prefer to get those tanks that are imperfect and usually state that with some honesty.

So “Big Joe” and “Little Joe” arrived together again rather worse for wear. Not sure about an obsession to paint tanks dark green (like “Eight Ball” earlier) but these two were thick in layers of paint. Both had missing bits of track and cupola and crew. One was missing a side sponson and the other had a severely warped turret.

My bits box came in handy fixing these two up. Track guards on “Big Joe” helped hide glue-melted top tracks. Having bought so many new tanks over the years, I’ve got plenty of spare bits, although I admit it is a shame that the new Leman Russ does not include the tank accessories sprue, which you have to get separately from GW online direct.

Both “Big Joe” and “Little Joe” had problems with their exhaust pipes. “Big Joe” had one missing which needed a replacement and “Little Joe” needed new tops to the existing exhausts – giving the opportunity to experiment and customise with two extended exhaust pipes made from round sprue discards. I’m assuming “Little Joe” has a super-improved engine hence the unique exhaust system.

Both have been painted in the urban camouflage paint scheme to tie in with “Eight Ball” and I’ve added transfers to “Little Joe” which includes a left over small homemade eagle transfer that I didn’t end up using on Glofski’s Leman Russ. Paint job is not finished yet on either tank, but painting and rebuilding them in parallel has been enjoyable so far.

So, like many of you, I watched the excellent Weekender this morning, and it’s just as well I did because it’s set a deadline for the Spring Clean challenge. I now need to be realist in what I can achieve over the next week, although I will continue after the 2020 Spring Challenge has ended on 20-06-20 not just with this project but also my fantasy “Beware the Jabberwock, my son!” which has reached a display board stage.

So whilst waiting for the Polyfilla which arrived today, I’ve beavered away on “Big Joe” and “Little Joe” so that they can be based and weathered, and I’ve refurbished a Leman Russ Conquerer for a Commissar.

Did I tell you the Polyfilla arrived today? Yippee… I could get on and make four more bases in the same way I made Glofski’s Leman Russ base. So remember these are old CD-Roms with a diameter of 100mm with gaffer tape stuck over bothering sides of the central holes.

It is quite a hot day today so I’ve had to work quickly spreading the plaster then embedding urban debris – old computer printer springs, sprue cutoffs, broken pieces, manufactorum spare flooring, wrawl plugs and Citadel Basing sand. I found a couple of 15mm diameter copper 90 degree right hand pipe joiners to embed for something a bit different but within the urban theme.

With one week to go, I’ve settle on a realistic goal to get the five tanks finally finished and mounted and hopefully good enough for the table top. So, here are the final WIP shots in actions.

I’ve completed the bases with the same smorgasbord of colours and washes but maintaining an dark urban rubble theme. With a dusting of Forge World Light Rust weathering powder on the bases and tanks, I think it actually works quite well at marrying the two things together.

Water effects again were created with generous dollops of Citadel ‘ardcoat, but to get the flowing water out of one of the pipes, I cut down the transparent support strut from a flying base and liberally covered in ‘ardcoat.

Finishing jobs to do:

1) Commissar Tank Banner Painting – it’s been constructed with a Bretonnian knight’s banner and a banner top cut from 40k old scenery accessories of a skull with eagle wings. It’s based painted black at the moment but needs colours and transfers.

2) Finish highlights of baggage hanging from turrets.

3) Decide if I need to or have time to add a couple more crew riding the tanks.

4) Get some better photos of the finished final five to upload.

5) Develop the backstory for Commander Glofski.