In which I recover and rebuild a 2nd edition Space Marine Predator for my Iron Warriors.

I got this tank a couple weeks ago.  It was surprisingly easy to disassemble.  The original builder used minimal contacts for his superglue so it came apart very easily.  

The turret and sponsons, however, would not budge so I put them in the container on top, to weigh down the plastic parts.  If you haven't worked with Citri-Strip before, I highly recommend it for many recovery projects.  It is not compatible with Games Workshop resin, however.  I would test any plastic you intend to recover first.

Citri-Strip is very good at removing paint from models, cutting through sealer and varnish. It's particularly good on pewter.

The tank was soaked for about 15 hours or so.  You can see how well the paint came off most of the model with minimal staining.  It does tend to make super glue bonds weak, but it doesn't always dissolve them.  I use a small kitchen strainer to recover smaller parts that may separate during the time it's soaking.

At this point I ran into my first real problem.  The upper deck was covered in superglue and it made fitting the pewter deck plates very difficult.  Luckily the original Rhino kit is reversible. I flipped the central hull which was in much better shape.

I sanded the bottom of the tank, using old "Pirates of the Caribbean" coins to cover the old hatch openings. 

The hatch cover was sealed with plasticard from a "For Sale" sign.  Those things are a great source of Plasticard and very inexpensive.

The grates on the front and rear of the out hulls didn't come quite as clean as I'd like and since I wanted to give the tank more of an armored appearance, I used more stuff from my old "Pirates of the Caribbean" game to kill two birds with one stone.  

The center and outer hulls are reunited!  When working on these tanks it's important at this step to make sure both outer hulls are level with each other or the tank will rock back and forth.

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I wanted to give this tank a more menacing silhouette so I modified a third edition Rhino brush bar to give it the impression of teeth.  I also decided to paint the teeth in the black and yellow Warning Stripe that is part of the Iron Warriors look

The upper deck plates are two pieces: the rear part and the turret ring.  I had to do a fair amount of work to get the turret to traverse the full 360 degrees.  I did some work here to remove rivets off the upper deck assembly.  

There were still some issues with the tank.  I decided to strip the sponsons a second time after gently prying them apart.  I discovered that the turret was caved in to a large degree and the rear upper deck plate was not flat.  After some consideration I used a hammer to fix them, which is the first time I'd every done anything like that.  I then went back and used the hammer to get the deck plates to sit more flush with the upper deck of the tank (seen in the picture above this one).

The sponsons were missing the rear cover that the kit originally came with.  I used more bits from my "Pirates of the Caribbean" game to cover the backs of the sponsons.  This added even more of an armored look to the tank.  I actually like the way these sponsons look better than the original style.  I also removed more rivets here.

Sponsons attached!  Due to a defect on the left cannon, I had to glue it in place.  I chose to do that to the right sponson as well.  It does help with storage though.

The tank is all done!  Just needs priming and it's ready to paint!  The barrel of the turret was also damaged so I had to shorten it a bit, but I think it makes the gun look more menacing.

The tank was primed in Chaos Black Spray then hit with Leadbelcher Spray.  I forgot to add the replacement exhausts so I sanded down the top of the manifolds and cut some plastic tubes and glued them in place.

I think the 'teeth' and the barrel of the cannon make this tank look mean.

All finished and ready to mete out death to the followers of the False Emperor!  This project took me about four or five hours on a Saturday afternoon (not counting the time soaking the parts in Citri-Strip).  Painting Iron Warriors models for me is a very quick and easy thing to do.  I spent about an hour on the paint job itself, including details.  I paint fast.  I used mostly GW paint for this model with some P3 Bloodstone as my weathering/rust effects.

XIX Legion: The Raven Guard, sons of Corax

This army is more for modern era of play but was no less fun to collect and paint.

My current army as of late January, 2020.  It's a mix of different eras of Space Marines and home to some of my favorite modern era conversions.

This started out as a Sternguard Veteran that I picked up at a convention in a used models bin.  I had an old metal backpack from the 2nd edition Marneus Calgar lying around and I thought it'd make a good Captain or Lieutenant model.

Pretty happy with how he turned out.  Very simple conversion.

I love the Primaris Captain in Phobos Armor model, but it's pretty distinct.  I wanted one for my Raven Guard but I wanted it to look a lot different from the one in my Ultramarines army.  I did some looking around and this is what I came up with.

The original sculpt has a helmet hanging on his belt, so I removed that very carefully and used some packs from the Infiltrators/Incursors kit.  I used one of the Mk VI "Beaky" helmets from the Raven Guard Upgrade Pack after removing the original head.

The suppressed Bolt Pistol comes from the Eliminators kit.  I liked it's look for his sidearm.

I had a push-fit right arm from a Reiver kit and I used that to replace the right arm of the original model after carefully removing the Instigator Bolt Rifle.

Here he is all painted up.  

The Redemptor Dreadnought feels a little out of place in this army. Currently it's the only vehicle I have for the Raven Guard.

Chapter Master Shrike.  I like the new sculpt, dislike the scenic base which is a pain when it comes to storing the model.

The Intercessors and the two squads of scouts were the original nucleus of this army.  I really love the 3rd edition metal Scout sculpts.

I was torn about how to build these Eliminators.  I ended up going with Las-Fusils because the army doesn't have a lot of high strength weapons.  I've been pretty happy with them so far.

Incursors are another surprisingly good unit, very flexible.

Reivers were also part of the original build in the army, I don't use them often and I don't know if they're good or not.

I wanted a jump pack equipped unit to go into battle with Shrike and the Jump Pack Lieutenant.  I wanted them to be tough, too, and so I went with Vanguard Veterans with Chainswords and Storm Shields.  The Sergeant has a Plasma Pistol and Relic Blade.  They can deal with larger, lightly armored units pretty well while Shrike, the Sergeant, and the Lieutenant can take on heavier targets in melee.