Spring cleaning a Stompa! CLEANED!

This is what I’m starting with:

• A mostly built body, in need of repair and rivets
• A buzzsaw arm, in need to final detailing
• A gatling arm – in need of detailing and tidying up
• A shoe – in need of final plasticard details
• Various bitz and gubbinz

Not shown is the Ork commander that is in another bitz box to be found…

In the next post, I’ll add some details of the build to date and the materials used.

Here’s a close-up of the completed shoe. This foot is going to be raised from the ground, hence the detailing underneath. The second shoe (to complete) will be on the base. The overall pose will betaking a big stride.

I’m using deliberately big and cartoony rivets on this model. The rivets are tiny beads I bought on a well-known auction site. They can be glued straight on, but are more secure if you drill a small pit for them to sit in. Tweezers and a pin are your friend for super-glueing!

Recalling how I made the legs…

The pelvis running through Mr Stompato comes from an old printer or toner cartridge

The thighs are those sticky rollers (Pentel I think) after they’d been used up.

The shins and calfs are spring pens.

Joints are made from round bases, plastic cogs – anything really!

Having been unwell the last 2 weeks, I’m still feeling really grotty. Being unwell from work is rubbish, but from my sick-bed (okay, front room!) I managed to get a little work done today.

Before I can go too much further on assembling Mr Stomptato, I need to finish off some core details on his body. Mainly this is about the chimneys and exhaust ports and the power cables.

Don’t worry, just one more post where I’ll trot out this bad pun – promise!

Here’s how I got the rivets done.

Repeat that over every panel, until all your rivets are glued into place.

Last time for the pun as promised!

All the rivets are now on, and this is what they look like all over.

One thing I was never convinced by on Mr Stomptato when I first built him was the durability of the upper arms. They certainly looked Orky, but had very thin contact points to join to the body and I genuinely didn’t know how to get them to stay securely.

Digging around my Bits Boxes, I found some GW industrial scenery pieces and also a couple of bags of Mantic Terrain Crate pipes. These look like they’ll do the job well. Sure, I lose a little bit of character, but I gain in robustness and some easier posing.

Some busy time with glue and various objects and clamps to hold it together and we now have a fully assembled Mr Stomptato!

Next stage – priming!

Just a quick update for now – but I’ve hit the model all over with Citadel Leadbelcher. It’s a great dark metal to start as a primer and basecoat for building up from.

Immediately, all those random pieces of junk are tied together and look like a cohesive model.

Am really happy 🙂

I spent a day or so thinking about the colours for Mr Stomptato (yes, this is his official name now).

Candidates were:

• Red – obvious choice for something Orky, and a colour I am familiar with painting and experimenting with
• Yellow – another common colour for Orks – but am I ready to paint that much Yellow?
• Green – how about going full Ork and painting him green, with a pink lower lip etc – making it look like a big nekkid ork? Or would it end up looking like a fat Gherkin?

What do you think? Is red a good choice, let me know in the comments?

Am working on a tutorial post for the armour panelling which is well underway, but in the meantime – here’s a big ol’ eyeball!

Much digging in boxes – eventually into the attic – and I found the Stompa Commander I made 10 years ago!

I painted him back then, and he looks okay – but I think I’ll freshen him up in a few places and smooth out some of the finish.

The Grot is going to be standing on the Skull Glyph at the back, kinda like a Crows’ nest.

Leave all this to dry, and then we can move onto some weathering and chipping!

With all the base colours down on the Armour plates, the next stage is to add some weathering.

There are so many ways to do weathering and chips on models, and there are loads of people who can do jaw-droppingly realistic chips using sponging, salt and hairspray etc.

My method is just using paint and brush, creating a very graphic cartoony style, but which I like.

Paints needed:

• Abaddon black
• Runefang Steel
• Wild Rider Red
• Lugganoth Orange

Not a big update at the moment, but a little more progress while I put together a tutorial on transfers.

Been carrying on with painting red. This time, got the thighs and shoes done.

The main areas left to paint now are the armour panels on his back, the white parts of his shoes and the white panels that make up his underpants.

Yes, you read that right – Mr Stomptato is wearing a Bowler Hat AND Underpants.

Classy!

With all the body work completed, my next stages are adding details. I’ve chipped and scratched the paint work, and probably should have done the transfers first, but I’m going to apply a few to add some detailing.

I know there are special transfer dissolver solutions and things out there, but the method I’ve described below works for me, with just basic tools.

Now that I’m really happy with the painting across the Mr Stomptato, its time to start all the finishing details and touches that make a model “complete”.

As it’s the last messy job, I’m going to get the base done.

For ease, I’m sticking to a tried and tested desert type basing effect.

• I’ve already glued some pieces of bark onto the base as rocks, and then used PVA Wood glue to add some fine gravel.
• Next, I painted the whole base in XV-88.
• Once dry, drybrush with Ushabti Bone and then Pallid Wych Flesh
• Wash with Seraphim Sepia. I go for an even wash, and then while wet a heavier wash underneath the model to make a deeper shadow effect.
• Finally, once dry – a lighter drybrush of Pallid Wych Flesh to brighten the edges.