Diesel DM

Having acquired a Stormwall at Lock & Load, getting it assembled, painted and on the table has been my top Warmachine priority. Unfortunately a week of traveling interrupted early progress, but I’m rolling along now.

Mostly assembled and based

Here he is assembled with the majority of his basing work completed.  This particular model was not cast well.  There were significant mold lines on every piece, and a few of the resin pieces appear to have been cast with mis-aligned mold halves, making for very poor quality pieces.  The plastic pieces had a lot of flash attached.  I overheard someone at Lock & Load say they attempted to cut the plastic flash off with clippers only to have the plastic shatter into usable areas.  With that in mind I made careful use of the exacto knife for removing the plastic flash.

Rearview and the sandbag bunker

After much cutting, filing and sanding the Stormwall is in decent shape.  Some of the mold lines were in such horrible places that I was unable to remove them completely, so time will tell how those areas will look.  Also of interest is that some of the resin pieces are lighter colored than others.  The two large gun barrels for example, are different colors.  The main torso seems to be a much harder plastic than the softer resin that composes the rest of the model.  The metal pieces in the kit were not too bad, save for the head which had a major mold line done the center.

With assembly  complete it was off for primer.  I bought a $10 hair dryer to speed up the process, and what a fantastic purchase that was.  Instantly drying primer coats is a great way to help lay down a couple thin coats as it takes the waiting out for those of us too impatient with normal primer drying speeds.  The hair dryer was mentioned multiple times at the Lock & Load seminars for drying paint, and the Colossals book even mentions using it for primer coats.  Also mentioned in the expansive hobby section of Colossals is the use of two-tone primering.  Lay down an opaque black coat first, then hit it the model from above with a quick white coat.  This both shows where light should hit as well as giving a boost to your own highlights, as the P3 acrylics are a bit see-through.  This means an even coat of a single color will already have some highlighting to it because of the undercoat.

Primered and ready for the painting table

Primered the sandbag bunker also

Going for more of a “striding into battle” look with the arms, rather than the stock boxer pose

Shot from above to show more of the white in the two-tone primer technique