Rescued Russ II

The rescuing of the Russ continues!

The tracks and body were reassembled after having been taken apart and some issues corrected. I again used WeldOn4 and some gentle pressure in a vice to close gaps and ensure everything was straight.

Some of the panels were damaged when various accessories were removed - I skinned them in thin plasticard. A raid of the bitz box turned up the power plant from the Throne of Judgement and after using some scraps of plasticard to block out the back . . .

. . . it attached just lovely to the rear.

The turret assembly was an old metal conversion I had lying about. A circle of MDF left over from a Miniature Scenery kit was (conveniently) exactly the right size to fit the turret ring of the Russ.

While working on the turret, the guns broke off and I decided to change their orientation when I reattached them. I used various spare bits to build some walls for the turret and add a searchlight and missile launcher.

Some decorative pieces from the bits box (some taken from the original tank) added a shrine to the rear of the turret, icons and so forth to the hull, some snazzy lights, and various accessories.

And here is the tank with a coat of black spray on it. This was, genuinely, a $10 tank - of course, I used pieces from the bitz box and plasticard and so forth, but I already had those and, frankly, it is good to use them up rather than have them just sit there and gather dust.

Hopefully, you have found this enjoyable and perhaps learned something by what I did!

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Rescued Russ

The Russ arrived and is in pretty good shape.

A picture from the eBay listing

Looking at it, the paint is fairly thin and there are no great globs of glue on it. These are the two major problems when trying to rescue a vehicle - thick paint and glue obscure the details. A number of the pieces hadn't been properly trimmed from the sprue, but cleaning that up isn't difficult.

A more serious problem was the assembly - a lot of the pieces were misaligned, not glued in to the slots provided. This meant there were some gaps but, more importantly, the track units splayed out at the bottom. Some scoring with a sharp knife and judicious application of force separated the tank.

Another problem was a gap between the track links. This is a known issue with the Russ; you need to split a long section to have a gap at either the top (if using the track-guards) or at the bottom (if not). The assembler did neither, instead leaving a visible gap on both sides.

I cut out the tracks, removing them between the gap and the track-guard, and removing the track-guard section too. I also had to remove a wheel so I could reverse it to get a "clean" side to glue the tracks to.

You can also see a removed sponson here.

A bit of clean up and the tracks were glued back in.

I also removed the sponsons, cleaned them and the sockets up, and glued them back on square. I used some WeldOn4 solvent glue, which is my go-to plastic glue - but used more than I normally do and let it sit for a while to soften up the plastic. Then, I set them in place and held them in a vice with gentle pressure. This gets a nice tight bond, with a thin bead of plastic squeezing out (which can be trimmed off later).

I also cleaned up (and even removed) some of the damaged locator rails from the track units, to allow the chassis to sit squarely there.

Two things I have learned doing this;

1) It is simply not worth it just to save money unless you are really cash-strapped. I bought this model for $10 inc. shipping - you can get a Leman Russ for $42.08, brand new, on sprue, with free shipping from a dozen places (and it has the turret!) I could have assembled a dozen Russes in the time I spent so far - unless you really need to save $30, it isn't worth it just for the cash.
2) The process is super fun and more than worth it. As I remarked when assembling the Tornadodo; if your goal is to get the most hobby hours for your buck, then kits that require a lot of work are your friend. A rescue is also additionally satisfying because, well - you are rescuing a model! You are "upcycling" it or whatever the funky new hipster thing is - it feels good to do this.

Anyway - that is where I am right now - comments welcome!

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Finishing The Year Out

It is nearing the end of the year - two weeks or so to go - and things are very busy at work, I just got a promotion which involves more effort and stress, and I am bedding into it. So, long story short . . . I am going to take a break from the whole "must do something each day" on the hobby for the rest of the year. I might do something on some days, but I am not going to hold myself to it. I've been doing this blog (and the hour a night thing) seriously since - I think - early this year, and I think I've done well. I've managed to keep on keeping on and I've got models painted and so forth (I even got a "conversation starter" badge on the Facebook group!)

But, I can feel myself getting fatigued right now - end of the year is a busy time with work, family, many things, and I don't want my hobby to become a chore. So... there might be posts before January 1st, but - right now - I am not going to hold myself to doing something until 2019!

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Cathedra Tank: 13 to 16 December 2018

I didn't do much on each day, and while I have a lot of pictures, they really don't show much actual progress each day. So, here is the final picture of how it stands.

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New Project! A Rescued Russ!

For my Sisters of Battle Postulants (who will function as Imperial Guard Astra Militarum in game) I wanted a Leman Russ variant tank (probably with meltas and flamers and so forth). I looked around eBay to see how cheaply I could get a Leman Russ. And I found this.

If you are reading this after the listing has dropped off the edge of the world, it is an assembled and part-painted Leman Russ tank, missing the turret, for $10 including shipping. So, a bargain in every respect.

The model in question

It looks to be in decent shape - I don't know what that paint is or how thick it is, but it does not look awful. It seems to be pretty complete.

Here is the project I am going to undertake - I will rescue the Russ and document the process; I've rescued a number of eBay finds before, but never really documented how I do it. I don't have a "process" per se - I am not some "tank whisperer" or anything like that. But pictures and descriptions of what I do might be interesting or instructive to others.

I will document this both here and on my other blog. For now, I just need to wait for the model to arrive!

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RPG: 14 December 2018

More Heroes and Heretics tonight, and the players met Captain Amelia (that is what she asked them to call her - they "wouldn't be able to pronounce" her real name) who is obviously stolen from heavily inspired by Treasure Planet.

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Tornadodo Drop Pod: 12 December 2018

The Tornadodo's drop pod wasn't quite finished - some judicious sanding cleaned it up and I glued the top plate in place so the rails would have somewhere to seat. This made it all go together nicely and there was no need for magnets. Except for some post-primer gap-filling, I think the flier-de-lys is done!

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Cathedra Tank: 11 December 2018

I gave the Tornadodo a rest and turned my attention to a tank that's been sitting on the desk for a while - originally, it was simply a Land Raider (built using the vehicle design rules for 3rd edition!) but that was dull and so I cut it up and used scenery pieces to build it out. That was done some months ago, and I recently added a magnet in the front so the Blackstone Fortress Fat Space Pope (TM) could go there. Tonight, I glued the rear tower piece into place.

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Tornadodo: 10 December 2018

The final few weeny little details - tiny things - glued onto the Tornadodo.

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Tornadodo: 9 December 2018

The wooden guns did not work, so the bitz box was raided. The bracer was extended.

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Tornadodo: 8 December 2018

Very little work done tonight - I just cut a piece to support the tail and help with fleur-de-lys shape.

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Tornadodo: 7 December 2018

I glued the tail in place with a bracing piece (both to support it, and to help with the fleur-de-lys shape) and some airfoils at the rear, and also built the weapon systems.

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Tornadodo: 6 December 2018

In order to make the outline of the Tornadodo look more like a fleur-de-lys (to create the flier-de-lys!) I cut a piece of plasticard to make a tail section.

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Tornadodo: 5 December 2018

The first of the fans was assembled while listening to a wonderful social scientist on YouTube; a good hour or more to clean the pieces and carefully glue them together. Slow work this model. Very, very slow work. But - as I have remarked before - good value for money if time spent "hobbying" is what you are about!

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Tornadodo: 4 December 2018

The Tornadodo has a cool little drop pod / troop compartment. I assembled it tonight - but I maybe should have left it unassembled to magnetize it so I can remove it from the model.

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Tornadodo: 3 December 2018

I will say this about these laser-cut MDF things; they go together very well and they are great value for money if you measure it by dollars spent per hour of assembling them!

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Tornadodo: 2 December 2018

More work on the Tornadodo, which I am going to use in my Sister's army (at least allied) - its shape is conducive to it having a fleur-de-lys design on it.

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Tornadodo: 1 December 2018

I started work on assembling my Tornadodo from Miniature Scenery - a fun laser-cut MDF flying vehicle!

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