Making of a tau army.++WIP++

[Wynter]

Started on ebay with a purchase of some really beat up tau. Battle force box devilfish & codex.
http://img188.imageshack.us/img188/6356/841b5qf.th.jpg (http://img188.imageshack.us/my.php?image=841b5qf.jpg)

Last time I stripped down plastic minitures I used brake fluid and it did a great job, This time i thought I would put simple green to the test along side the brake fluid.
The minitures arrived and well they were in pretty bad shape, the paint was pretty thick so after a few pics into the vats they went.
http://img111.imageshack.us/img111/3681/picture257vq.th.jpg (http://img111.imageshack.us/my.php?image=picture257vq.jpg)
http://img111.imageshack.us/img111/2869/picture276mp.th.jpg (http://img111.imageshack.us/my.php?image=picture276mp.jpg)
On the left is the simple green and on the right is the brake fluid.

Im not sure which stunk the most, simpe green smelt like a pine forest exploded in my office, and the break fluid well that is bad as it is.
I left them soak for a few hours and checked out the 2 containers, The minitures in the break fluid had already started to flake the paint off, as for the Simple green they smelt like a pine forest. After another few hours I took the break fluid covered minitures and started the process of scrubbing the paint off with a stiff brush, the paint just slid off. Once they were cleaned I opened the simple green containher and started scrubbing the top of the devil fish. Nothing. Nothing happened. So I let it soak for 24 hours, After that I took out an engine and Scrubbed it, REALLLY hard, Alot of work to clean up a model in Simple green,I desided to throw the minis from the S.G into the Brake fluid. 2 hours later they were ready to strip. Cleaned up very well, I was to pissed at this point to take the pics of the semi stripped models, but Now there all cleaned off I got the final product.
http://img111.imageshack.us/img111/1069/dscn00289xg.th.jpg (http://img111.imageshack.us/my.php?image=dscn00289xg.jpg)
http://img111.imageshack.us/img111/3567/dscn002910vv.th.jpg (http://img111.imageshack.us/my.php?image=dscn002910vv.jpg)
Im painting them in the codex style Desert camo.
Additional pics will be added till the army is complete.
Stay tuned for the next part.

PART 2

Molding the Crisus suit feet.
Got out the green stuff and mixed up a ball and placed it on a coke bottle top. Flatened it out a litle so when I press the foot into the G.S it has an even surface.
Because the crisus foot is wedge shaped I figured the est way to make the mold was a 2 part mold, Top and Bottom.
http://img290.imageshack.us/img290/6697/dscn01049lw.th.jpg (http://img290.imageshack.us/my.php?image=dscn01049lw.jpg)
Before pushing the foot into the G.S I put a small amout of vegetable oil on the flat surface so the foot wouldnt stick, then i did the same to the top. I pushed the foot in about half way then used a modeling knife to get the G.S even around the foot. i let ths sit for about 30 mins under a light so it would cure a little then i pulled the foot out, to make sure it held the right shape.
After this I pushed the top half onto the foot so the whole foot was surrounded by G.S and let it sit under the light for 5 mins, took the top section off and there is the inprint, The to peices lock together so it forms a capsule type mold. Now I will let the mold dry for 24 hrs before I make the actual foot from the mold.
http://img290.imageshack.us/img290/8523/foot4ak.th.jpg (http://img290.imageshack.us/my.php?image=foot4ak.jpg)
I used the same technique on a chaos terminator skull shoulder pad,
http://img290.imageshack.us/img290/7477/skull26wd.th.jpg (http://img290.imageshack.us/my.php?image=skull26wd.jpg)
http://img290.imageshack.us/img290/4118/skull9rz.th.jpg (http://img290.imageshack.us/my.php?image=skull9rz.jpg)
Once its trimmed up it fits right over the plain shoulder pad on the terminator.
Until the Next part.
thanks for reading
Wynter:thumb:

[aceofchaos]

wow
simple green doesn't work as well as break fluid?
who knew

[Dante]

w00t! I have a similar jar for my brakefluid needs too! :)

So is that devilfish a product of your painting?

EDIT: Nevermind...Just saw the first pic. Good job so far on the devilfish then! (silly me:p)

[Deathbypeasents]

Great googly moogly

anyways post some more pics soon,great tort so far

[Dankest Mango]

Are you doing to green stuff the missing antenas on the gun drone, forget about them, or do you have extras?

[Wynter]

All the gun drones have there antenas Alot were broken and a few got snaped off in the clean up process, But Nothing fixes them better than Testors plastic cement, it welds the 2 peices together and makes a better bond than the orginal. the only green stuffing I have to do is on one of the crisis suits, it has no feet! So im thinking of doing it 1 of 2 ways, Make a mold from one of the other suits, Or sculpt a new set from scratch. Still up in the air on this one.
More to come :thumb:

[Deathbypeasents]

non of the enlarged pics show up for me....Wonder why

[RZetlin]

non of the enlarged pics show up for me....Wonder why


Did you bother to click on the images themselves to bring up the enlarge pics?

[Deathbypeasents]

Yes Rzetlin.......geeze

They show up now but earlier when i posted they wouldn't great job so far.

I'm ready to start my second army, well after i sell my Nid stuff(don't freat my first army is Orks and the nid stuff was an impulse buy from a freind who was switching to chaos).Well to stay in relevance of the thread i'm planing on getting a tau army next,or an eldar whatever the outcome of the next coin flip is.Anyways i'm going Tau hunting on ebay to try and get it on the cheap. This will help alot thanks man.......................................................................................DEATH STALKS

[Wynter]

Molding the foot added to first post.
Enjoy:thumb:

[aceofchaos]

wow didn't think it would be that easy