Armorcast Baneblade

Jaq Draco

Vassal
Hey folks

I recently obtained an Armorcast Baneblade kit that I’d like to share with you all. The plan is to have it as the centrepiece for a RT guard army I’m working on. I’m releasing a few YT vids documenting the journey if you are interested to follow along.

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Excellent. It's a cool kit. I shall watch your build with interest as I have one myself (granted a recast - although to be honest the original casts are similar quality so you get the full garage kit experience!) that beyond some initial tidying up I've yet to progress seriously (poor thing has been gathering dust). I've been wondering how I might best fill the small gaps where the hulls centres slot in, but otherwise I think I'm mostly there with cleaning the kit up. I was going to magnetise the tracks I thought to facilitate painting, but allowing me plenty of playing time before I get to that stage :)

I think this quick snap I've just done shows most of the bits that needed filling (green stuff) on mine so far. Round the sponsons was a bit of a pain and the thin skirts needed some re-enforcing (superglue first then some filler). The Shadowsword barrel I sanded down rather than filled. Although the mounting point needs some TLC to get the alignment correct I think, so at some point the Dremel needs to come out.
baneblade.jpg

Looking forward to seeing this tank alongside your scratch built Titan on the battlefield!
 
The plan is to have it as the centrepiece for a RT guard army I’m working on.
You say in the video that you're going with a Necromunda scheme, presumably using the WD109 scheme also used in Blanche's The Scouring of Ralgor 7 painting.

I've been planning to paint a single Imperial Army infantry model, so I of course went through every Imperial Army/Guard scheme I could find from the '80s for inspiration. A lot of it is just grey, which I find a bit dull. There are some vehicle schemes in WD103 & WD105. Can post pictures if you are interested.
 
You say in the video that you're going with a Necromunda scheme, presumably using the WD109 scheme also used in Blanche's The Scouring of Ralgor 7 painting.

I've been planning to paint a single Imperial Army infantry model, so I of course went through every Imperial Army/Guard scheme I could find from the '80s for inspiration. A lot of it is just grey, which I find a bit dull. There are some vehicle schemes in WD103 & WD105. Can post pictures if you are interested.
I’m still in the planning stage mate so I’m not very knowledgeable about the different regiments nor do I have access to the WD articles you mentioned. I would love any help with this mate. I was going to give the tank a light grey and black colour scheme. I’m totally open any and all help you guys can provide:)
 
Excellent. It's a cool kit. I shall watch your build with interest as I have one myself (granted a recast - although to be honest the original casts are similar quality so you get the full garage kit experience!) that beyond some initial tidying up I've yet to progress seriously (poor thing has been gathering dust). I've been wondering how I might best fill the small gaps where the hulls centres slot in, but otherwise I think I'm mostly there with cleaning the kit up. I was going to magnetise the tracks I thought to facilitate painting, but allowing me plenty of playing time before I get to that stage :)

I think this quick snap I've just done shows most of the bits that needed filling (green stuff) on mine so far. Round the sponsons was a bit of a pain and the thin skirts needed some re-enforcing (superglue first then some filler). The Shadowsword barrel I sanded down rather than filled. Although the mounting point needs some TLC to get the alignment correct I think, so at some point the Dremel needs to come out.
View attachment 20944

Looking forward to seeing this tank alongside your scratch built Titan on the battlefield!
Thanks for the pic of your kit. I see we have the defects on the model so now I’m wondering if I have a recast too. Did you have pretty bad cast failure on the lascannon turrets near the nozzle?

I’ve filmed the A roll for the filing off the flash. I’m thinking I’ll get the epoxy filling done today some time.

I think I’m going to glue on the tracks after painting but magnetising them is a great idea.
 
You say in the video that you're going with a Necromunda scheme, presumably using the WD109 scheme also used in Blanche's The Scouring of Ralgor 7 painting.

I've been planning to paint a single Imperial Army infantry model, so I of course went through every Imperial Army/Guard scheme I could find from the '80s for inspiration. A lot of it is just grey, which I find a bit dull. There are some vehicle schemes in WD103 & WD105. Can post pictures if you are interested.
Is the OG infantry box art the Blanche painting you are referring too? If so yes I think that’s the one. It’s the banners that got me. And I love that they recruit from the gangers in the hive. I’m hopefully going to include a few skulls with knives embedded in them and a scattering of spiders. I was a bit bummed with grey/black/gun metal scheme too but I think with lighter tones on the uniforms, gang markings and regimental pageantry it will hopefully pop a bit on the battlefield.
 
Tank colour schemes are quite vibrant for Spacemarine(6mm). I really quite like the shadow swords painted white with striking blue zigzag patterns featured in WD. But I think if I paint that scheme it will look a bit weird for over all army cohesion.
 
I’m wondering if I have a recast too
Given the resin colour although that will yellow/darken more with age there is a good chance I'd say. Awesome model no matter. Speaking of Baneblade kits I see Mike has released some laser cut bits to make building the scratch built version from WD easier - https://www.bmt3d.com/product-page/baneblade-builder-parts-part-1 and https://www.bmt3d.com/product-page/baneblade-builder-parts-part2. The las cannon and hex base sponson turrets seem notably absent. Interesting GW had stopped producing hex bases even when that WD article hit. There is a note in a later issue about people phoning Mail Order asking for hex bases.

Anyhow so below we have a recast item between two original titan bits:
armorcast-colours.jpg
The other tell tale with the resin is the smell. The armorcast original stuff is smelly, I imagine each sniff probably knocks off about five years of life, you really notice it. And for all our readers at Ofcom do wear a suitable respirator when sanding resin!

The detailing bits - the sponson bolters and so forth were metal accessories at least at release, I don't know if they ever did them in resin, but I don't think so. Although there have been a few variations on it. For instance there is a released version where it's just the bane blade - no removable hull and the tracks are cast as part of the body. So it could well be they did later do them in resin.

I'd not worry, in this case original Armorcast casts were fairly poor quality and needed a lot of prep work - my first Reaver Titan has so much green stuff to tidy up the model under the paint you'd not believe it. Let along the amount of rebuilding I had to do for the pipework to get it looking good. So even with the recasts you get the original experience! :) Getting hold of original Armorcast kits in the UK (from UK sellers) is tough because GW decided to tweak the Armorcast licence and stopped them selling direct into the UK quite soon after issuing the original licence, so even back in the day you had to have a friendly adult who might be persuaded to bring one back with them from a business trip or something. I don't know what the rules were for Australia, but I doubt huge numbers ended up there. I decided with mine that I was less bothered about getting a re-cast kit now, I'm glad my titans are original (except my Eldar Renevant), but GW are never ever going to release these kits again and I doubt they even have anything to master new moulds off. Armorcast (whilst they still exist) don't have a licence to produce them and who knows if they even still have any moulds or masters. So really it's a 100% second hand or recast market. I decided for my expanded collection I could live with that especially for the "I'd quite like" models. As discussed on other threads I really don't like people selling re-casts as originals (although to be fair not everyone knows and models do change hands), in my case I bought mine from the person who did the casting (doesn't advertise anywhere now).

Did you have pretty bad cast failure on the lascannon turrets near the nozzle?
Not in my case. I expect you ended up with an air bubble trapped there. On one of my Reavers I had a huge air bubble take out a good chunk of the "engine" under the carapace. So needed to rebuild that with green stuff.

I think I’m going to glue on the tracks after painting but magnetising them is a great idea.
I just know it'll take me ages to get round to doing the model properly and I'll want to play (lets not pretend it'll be "gaming") with it before then :)

I've really no ideas about what paint scheme to do so I'm going to be super interested to see both what you end up with and what you consider - let you do the hard work! ;)
 
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