Land Speeder Stage-by-Stage

The Land Speeder model has always been a massive favourite if mine despite the fact that I’d never used them on the tabletop. Finally I’ve got round to it and this is the journey of one of my Typhoon-pattern speeder’s progress from plastic to painted. Even though it’s almost identical in appearance to the original 3rd edition plastic kit this new effort is much easier and pleasing to put together. The old kit was a bit of a pig to put together with unwieldy seams and ill-fitting parts but this one is a much more streamlined affair and the parts layout and construction makes far more sense. At last you don’t need three hands to put it together satisfactorily. To put things into perspective the old kits take me around 45 minutes to assemble, while this one takes around 15. Massive, massive difference. The base was magetised as per the tutorial here.

I really hate painting vehicles but I persevered and gave it a black spray followed by a few base coats. This first stage was surprisingly quick on this, helped along the way by copious amounts of coffee and Hob Nob biscuits. The seats got a coat of Mechrite Red, Iyanden Sun for the lights, Codex Grey for the missile tips and the metal areas were done in Boltgun Metal. The control panel console details were painted in using the same colours plus a little Snot Green and Ice Blue. I glued the original flying base onto a 60mm base simply so that it matches the rest of my army. Completely unnecessary but my OCD thinks it adds to the cohesiveness of the army.

This next step took hours (and hours). Sometimes I question what I was thinking when I started this army, particularly that moment lay in the bath where I was thinking that painting stuff black would be easy? I highlighted every single panel edge and recess as per usual with Codex Grey- I even highlighted the Recaro-lookalike seats with a little Blazing Orange despite the fact that they’ll hardly be visible when assembly is complete. I think it’s worth the time and effort although it’s demoralising and fatiguing during the painting. It seems to take forever with no end in sight. All the metal areas were washed with both Devlan Mud and Badab Black before being highlighted with Mithril Silver. The base was built up using railway ballast mixed with PVA glue, before being washed in Devlan Mud and drybrushed with Codex Grey followed by Bleached Bone. A final application of Citadel Scorched Grass finishes it off.

To make things more simple the crew were painted separately, following the same techniques and procedures as the rest of my marines. I must admit I wasn’t truly happy with the model until the pilot and gunner were test fitted. It’s like flicking a switch to ‘ON’ – all of a sudden everything looks ‘right’.

The crew and heavy bolter were removed again and varnished separately using Citadel ‘Ardcoat, while the speeder itself was removed from its base and given a couple of sprays of Vallejo Brilliant Gloss. I prefer spraying tanks and vehicles since the finish is far superior to using a brush.

And there’s the finished Land Speeder. The whole thing took four evenings to complete, although I did a second in just two nights. They really are wonderful models and look awesome on the tabletop, as well as being effective in gaming terms as well. An in depth look at Land Speeder tactics can be found in the first installment of our Chapter Standard here.

Celebrating The Three Thousand

If anyone would have told me when I started up in February of this year that I would would be where I am now then I wouldn’t have believed them. In fact I wouldn’t have thought I’d have even been capable of it. I’m inherently lazy and that’s compounded by a short attention span. At times painting these has been tough going and I’ve wanted to throw the paint brush away, but the rewards far outweigh the pain. Being able to plonk this little lot down on the battlefield fills my heart the kind of indescribable geeky pride unattainable elsewhere. As Brian says, the odd compliment certainly doesn’t do any harm either and I’ve more people praise them than those who’ve not particularly liked what I’ve done. I think it shows what can be achieved in a relatively short space of time with enough dedication and effort, even with limited ability.

It got me thinking though. How much of an obsessive collector am I? My intention was not explicitly to have thousands upon thousands of points of models, more just to have enough to be able to select my forces freely according to whim. I know I’ve always been a hoarder, and anyone who knows me would likely agree, but with 40k it feels slightly different. In fact I’ve attained so many models in just a few months without even realising it. I dread to think of how much money I’ve spent and I’m sure if my wife knew the sums involved there would be severe repercussions. I’ve exactly 3000 points painted as of today, but probably a further 5000 points sat in various stages of development and that’s after getting rid of some stuff via eBay. I’ve got boxes of grey plastic, boxes of undercoated plastic, plastic sat in bottles of Dettol and then the plastic I’m working on now. Realistically speaking how many times am I ever actually going to be able to field 3000 points? Let alone the rest of the crap buried in the office? What about the titans and thunderhawks I’ve got planned as well? I know for a fact if GW introduced a brand new unit, no matter how bad it was on the battlefield, I’d likely go out and try it.

I know I’m not alone with this either. How many gamers can say they have a 1500 point army and that’s all? I dare say there won’t be many. Shiny New Plastic Syndrome has tightly grasped us all firmly by the genitals and we’re pretty much incapable of getting ourselves free. And, even if we could, would we want to? The lure of massed marines, hordes of Tyranids or mobs of Orks is strong enough to keep us motivated. Strong enough to keep us all building, converting, painting, playing, and most importantly of all, enjoying ourselves.