Pods to drop and Lands to Raid (and Speed--Part 7)

Just when I thought I had left on a business trip with out my pics, I find them! So, here's an update. While last home, I found myself somewhat surprised to find that on e-bay the Land Raider Crusader bits I wanted to get extras of were going for more than the cost of just buying the sprue out-right from GW! Amazing! While pondering my next move I found myself working on the Landspeeder Typhoon that can be seen throughout these 'Pods to drop' articles (funny that I'm not currently working any Drop Pods, but I like the title!). So there I was working on the model, when I decided it was time to put the pack markings on their right shoulder pads. However I quickly discovered that trying to get a brush into those spaces, especially one dabbed in red paint, was far too messy and futile than I had suspected. If you've been following this series so far, you might have gauged that I like to build these models after I paint them to avoid having areas my paint can't reach. Therefore I was left with no choice but to get a bit crude and rip the gunner out!

Another thing that had bothered me about the gunner was that whoever the person was that assembled this model (I think I wrote before that I pulled this out of a garbage can at an old FLGS) was trying to get a more dynamic pose for the gunner, so their solution was to hack the bar that the gun is supposed to be mounted on, so that it rested lower. When I reassemble this, I will remount the gun back onto the bar, and just apply 'battle damage' to the area with the damaged bar. As you can see with this pic, the driver has a vast area where my paint was not able to reach, as well as the back side of the gunner and the area he sits at.

This other pic shows that the gunner's legs were difficult to reach too. I know that while being used in the game, the likelihood that anyone would spot this would be slim, but it would just bother me if anyone could.

Here is the detached gunner, and you see the very limits to where my paint could reach. Again, although the likelihood of the gunner's back being spotted is slim, the shoulder pad would definitely me an annoyance.

Here you can see that I did the base coat for the pack markings and touched up the Shadow Gray base coat.

Another thing that bothered me was the tail of the Land Speeder. In the top image, you can see that the previous owner put it on backwards. While liked this because it distinguished it from the other one I have built already, I always thought it was a bit fragile. Scrutinizing it while working on it, I decided that this was just fricking stupid, and tore it off. After all, the 'flaps' were backwards!

It's subtle, but you might be able to detect a slight 'bowing' in the center of this tail. Not sure how to fix that...

Here you can see that I have touched up those hard to reach spaces. The driver was secured a bit too firmly, but having the driver out was enough to enable me to get a brush into those tight areas. Having base coated those spots, I then applied the pack marking base coats. This picture really shows off the barren spot where the heavy bolter was, and where I'm going to have to apply battle-damage.

And this is pretty much were I left off! More updates on this, and the Land Raider, in about a week!

-Joel