Baneblade update

I picked up an old forgeworld baneblade for dirt cheap a year ago and it was in pretty sad shape. The initial forgeworld piece looked very similar to the old Armorcast baneblade. either way it had been painted and repainted about 5 times. (including a "most attractive" purple and black camo). I'm posting this to show how I took this from a very sad piece to a more attractive version. But also to show some of the modelling tricks I used which can be applied to detailing any military vehicle.
The first thing I did was strip off the old paint. There were so many layers of paint I ended up using a furniture stripper to do this. I also wasn't intending on keeping much of the existing detail so this worked ok. But use a more normal technique if you are just stripping a mini because this stuff will eat the plastic. [pagebreak]

I cut off the fist sized rivets and all the detail off the sides and top
that I was not intending to keep. The side sponsons needed a "turret plate
" so I removed a section of the sponson 5/8 inch tall and 3/4 inch long on
the two adjacent forward sides. The cut went all the way in to the center
hole. For the turret plate I picked up a small section of 1 1/2 inch PVC
pipe from the hardware store. And I quartered it cut it to fit in hole in
the sponson. Next the plates on the side of the vehicle weren't flat so I cut
out plastic card and glued it to the sides and fenders. The detail on the sides was made using a plastic scribe from Squadron. The side doors are two more plastic card plates cut to shape. The door handles for the side hatches, which are hard to see in the photo, are a short piece of plastic rod and a piece of plastic half round. I also put weld seams around the hatch plate but there will be more about how I did that later.[pagebreak]

The front of the tank got the same treatment of detail removal and plastic
sheet covering and so did the bottom and back.
After I got the card on I started adding details from my bits box. The
hand rails and the vent are from a Leman Russ model. The heavy bolters were probably from a land speeder, but I got them in trade so I'm not certain. None of the Games Workshop pieces were purchased specifically for this project.
[pagebreak]
Adding more detail, the hatch covers are from a modern British tank model
called a Warrior. All of the tan colored pieces are from this model. The
lights come from that model but the smoke launchers are from a Russ and the
targeters are from a land raider. In order to get the upper flat hatch to
sit right I had to take a piece of plastic card and cut a hole in it the
size and shape of the underside of the hatch. When I glued it down I
created weld seams around the plate using a fine tipped soldering iron.
Also the lower earth shaker is from a Russ but the main turret cannon is two
sizes of plastic tube cut to length.[pagebreak]

The tank is starting to get a little closer to the final product. The steel
fittings on the main barrel are pipe fittings from the hardware store. The
spotlight is from a Russ. I cut bolt heads off the side of the Warrior kit
and put them in places where I thought bolts should go. You can see them on
the side hatch doors and along the plate in the front of the tank. That
same plate also got some tow eyelets which are just plastic T with a hole
drilled in one side and rounded to shape. The twin heavy bolter turret
needed a lot of work It got rounded along the back and flats along the
sides. It was detailed with plastic card armor plates and bolts from the
Warrior. The twin bolters are from a weapons sprue they were cut to size
and mounted in a notch carved in the front of the turret. I drilled a hole
in the bottom of the turret and put in a piece of plastic rod. I then
drilled a hole in the tank where the turret was going so it could swivel.
The sponson lascannons got hunter killer missile hatch covers on the top and
a piece if wire run along side of the barrel.[pagebreak]

In this final picture. there is a bit of work. The ammo loading pod on the
side of the turret is a solid block of plastic as is the base for the
exhaust. I looked around town and found a supplier for industrial plastics
and asked if I could buy some spare pieces. They had some small pieces I
picked up for a few bucks. The next thing was to put it to shape and add
detail. The exhaust pipes and mufflers are a stack of tubes one inside the
other cut to size and glued onto the exhaust block, The vent screen from
the original tank was removed and replaced with some window screen covered
with plastic card and a half round frame. The one thing not in the picture
that should be is I took some plastic card and made some supports for the
1/35 scale oil drums that went on the two back fenders. I then mounted some
of the Warrior road wheels in front of them.
The vents beside the exhaust are also from the Warrior. There are some
additional detail parts from the chimera kit used around the exhaust as
well.[pagebreak]
And here is the final product. There are a few extra details like the jerry can holder, the tarps and camo net and the tow rope. But these were parts from the warrior added after the model was constructed and painted.[pagebreak]