NOCF 2015 - Drop Pod tutorial!

A little while back I posted about assembling some Drop Pods for one of this year's NOVA Open Charitable Foundation Charity Raffle armies - The Sons Of Orar Space Marines, to be exact. At the time I asked if anyone would be interested in a walk-through of my build and paint. There were a few who expressed interest, so here we are : )

After going through and cleaning all the parts for three Drop Pods, I started to create the sub-assemblies. You can see them above. They basically breakdown to:

• Engine and stormbolter
• Center console and harnesses
• Base and doors
• Five fins

Here's what it all looks like when three sets of sub-assemblies are gathered in a pile. After this, all parts (except the fins) were primed black. More on the fins later.

The bases, engines, and consoles were all heavily dry brushed with VGC Tinny Tin.

Everything was then dry brushed with AP Gun Metal.

I then washed the parts with my "super secret wash".

And drybrushed everything with VMA Aluminium.

I flipped over the base and repainted the armor panels black...

...and then masked off the engine base.

I sprayed the tips of the doors with Mephiston Red  (not pictured) and then I used a custom cut mask/sheet of styrene, and sprayed the rest of each door.

Here's a shot of the doors before removing the masking tape.

I then painted the edges of edge internal door with Averland Sunset (shaded with Skrag Brown).

These hazard stripes were hand painted - nine per side, 90 per Pod, 270 in all.

Back to the fins. I primed them white, shaded then with some Mechanics Grey, painted the panels black, masked them off and finally sprayed them with Mephiston Red.

After some detailing on the parts, here's a look at a set ready for assembly.

On each of the center consoles I painted a silhouette of an Eldar Craftworld, with three glowing points representing the three Drop Pods.

They Pods were then assembled; glue the consoles to the base then one fin in place; glue the engine to the fin then glue the remaining fins in place.

I then gave the Drop Pods a healthy dose of chipping and weathering.

And here they are. All ready to deliver Sons Of Orar directly to the heart of the Alaitoc Craftworld.

In the coming days we'll finally have photos of two of the NOCF Charity Raffle armies ready to go up online. When we do I'll be shouting it from the rooftops! : )

Cheers
Dave