Chief Apothecary Hulm Singa Complete!

 Chief Apothecary Hulm Singa:

It is a 1991 miniature (catalogue #070133/63) but as with my techmarine, I decided to go with a 2nd edition backpack to give him the iconic Apothecary silhouette (lamps etc).  For a long time GW published lists that gave bolters to Apothecaries as an option to support these miniatures.  At some point though they gave up and now only pistols and chainswords are on the wargear list.  So, because wysiwyg is important to me, I stuck a chainsword on the backpack too.  The pistol was already holstered on the sculpt.

White is tricky, but I feel I did alright with it.  I experimented with a little contrast in some areas like the shoulder insignias and studs.

Also I am fairly pleased with how the vials/IVs on the backpack turned out as posted before.  To finalize the glass look I put 'ard coat on them and it really made the difference.  Looking at the pictures now though I might go back and apply a bit more shading to the IV lines and some 'ard coat on them too.

Pinning the backpack was quite a pain, even though it is plastic (while the miniature is probably lead, or maybe pewter) the join tab didn't line up very well, and the older sculpts really had weird designs anyway.  Figuring out where exactly the backpack wanted to sit most securely and then figure out where the pin holes should go took almost +++redacted+++ [an embarrassing amount of time].  But now that it's on I feel like it's fairly well connected.  I mean obviously it still has a bunch of fiddly bits with the camera, lamp, and chainsword, but its on there.

Yay friends:

Master of the Forge Samus Dexter is Complete!

 Behold: Master of the Forge Samus Dexter!

Frater Dexter is truly a classic Rogue Trader - the model appears in the 1989 Catalogue as #410506.  However, model came with a standard plastic backpack which I decided to 'upgrade' to a slightly more modern 2nd edition metal techmarine backpack that features the servo-arm.  I felt this would better give wysiwyg options and the standard techmarine silhouette on the battlefield.  And the name is of course from WD97.  

I finally got that heavy pewter backpack pinned on the other week after a slightly harrowing drive over the mountains to visit my folks where I was able to get to the tools to do the job.  Pinning didn't quite go as planned, but it seems sturdy enough.  I then applied the basing (classic style to match the rest of the army) and then finished with dullcote, some metallic highlights that got dulled, and 'ard coat on the lenses.

I'm quite pleased with how the radar unit turned out, and the helm visor.  I must admit that I was a bit lost on these details originally.  Luckily I ran into the same #410506 miniature on instagram by stonecoldleadfigurepainting who had done an excellent job and so I applied the same ideas.

Whenever I get a chance to play a game the toolbox allows for me to suggest he has any number of wargear in the box, I love it.  I think the metallic green turned out really great.  It was gunmetal washed with contrast.  My dad has some toolboxes in approximately that color that inspired it.  Also, the drill!  Techmarines unfortunately don't have any drill wargear, but I'm sure I can create a custom weapon with the same stat line as an existing melee weapon they have for rule of cool factor.

I was really happy with how the Ultramarines sigil turned out on the backpack.  The classic techmarines had the weird demon hand on the shoulder which did not lend itself to displaying any chapter markings easily, so I just painted it chapter colors.  The bolt on the servo-arm was perfectly positioned behind it.  I would imagine that the sigil spins as the arm moves, but it would be upright when the arm is in the stowed position.

Stripping Paint the 'Easy Way'

Stay tuned for updates on Appy & Techie... they're nearly done and just looking for a warm day to seal and complete final touches.

So, in the background, I have moved onto the next project.  For the next project I have a number of metal models that I inherited.  Some of them were in various incomplete stages of painting, or had old primer.  At first I considered preserving the paint, but after looking closer I decided there were too many problems.  I wasn't exactly looking forward to the alternative - stripping the paint off, but it became clear that there was no other option - the paint jobs were not in good condition and were not at the level I wanted.

I looked for advice from the helpful 40k reddit folks and it seemed acetone was the way to go.  The basic advice was to soak the miniature in acetone for 5 minutes, then scrub with a soft toothbrush, and then finally rinse with warm water.

Here's the after and before:

I think it worked really well.  The adventure was a learning experience: I found a few tricks that made things even easier.

To start with I got some acetone and in the same trip out to my dad's workshop to drill some holes for pins and magnets, I also got out the sonic cleaner and dumped them in.

The first problem was that working with acetone isn't fun.  You want to be outside because of the fumes.  Also, it can really irritate your hands.  So here's what I found:

1. Latex/Non-latex gloves don't work, the acetone melted straight through almost immediately.  Instead we had some heavy PVC type gloves that worked, but it limited dexterity.  These gloves also helped with another problem - the rapid evaporation will suck the heat straight out of your fingers very quick, and so if you're outside in early spring it hurts a lot.

2. Dunking the toothbrush into the acetone and then immediately scrubbing is SUPER effective.  Just scrubbing after taking the miniature out of the tank, or applying acetone to the miniature wasn't nearly as effective and would require a lot more effort.  But by either dunking the brush, or using an eyedropper to wet the brush and then scrubbing immediately would pull the paint and primer off after just a few seconds of vigorous scrubbing.

3. I also held the miniature in a paper towel so that it would absorb the acetone particles/spray from the brushing and trap a lot of it from going everywhere.  It was also a good way to see how effective the brushing was.  By using the brush dunk technique the paper towel would immediately turn very dark gray/blue, while when not using the technique a clean towel would slowly turn light gray at a much slower rate.

(The other picture kinda looked like I just changed it to black and white, so with this one I wanted to get my hand in there to prove it heh)