Two more Marauders to add to third platoon this week, both the M8 ‘Ape’ variety. Having built the first ‘Ape’ some time ago and not being entirely satisfied with the end result, I adjusted my approach with the next two in an attempt to add some variety to the squad. The first task was to reposition the first Marauder into a more ‘aggressive’ pose. I did this after studying some of the CGI footage from the Roughnecks series and noticed that the hands were opened out more when the Morita Ape specials were firing. Additionally the shoulders were positioned higher with the arms spread wider. To emphasise the effect I needed to narrow the Marauders stance at the hip joint and allow myself some more movement in the legs, which was achieved by removing the ball socket joints on the hips and inserting some plastic tubing and rod as filler to give me a new mounting point. This allowed me to ‘open’ the marauder’s stance more while leaning it forward into its trademark hunched over appearance.

 For the Ape Specials I removed the plastic gun stub from the ends of the arms and replaced them with a short length of aluminium tubing. The same tubing was then used to create the flatter cage/rollover bar over the cockpit canopy. For final detailing I used a narrow pin vice to drill out the barrels of the Derringer and Trip-Hammer mortar and that was it, the model was ready for priming and painting.

In the case of the third Ape I used exactly the same approach as I did for the one above, but mounted it onto a base covered in angled wreckage. This allowed me to position the model with its feet hugging the angle of the base detail. This is a trick I have used on other walker models in the past and creates an optical illusion that makes the model appear to be precariously balanced on an uneven surface. In reality only one of the ankle joint has been repositioned to follow the slope of the terrain, the other simply placed leaning forward to pitch the model into a lean with its apparent weight on its left leg. The extreme angle can be countered with a small twist in the waist, which turns the torso and cancels out the effect restoring balance to the model and creating a dynamic pose. A good tip when positioning models like this is to use some putty or blu-tack to temporarily stick the parts together so you can play around with the positioning until you find a pose you like that balances well. Once you are happy with the position simply remove one piece of the blue-tack at a time and glue the piece into position working your way around the model until its all stuck in place. I find starting with the legs and working up to the torso and arms last works best.

Heavily weathered paint effect.

The worn paint effect on the two marauders here is not as hard to achieve as it may look and is a technique I generally use on tanks and especially aircraft. The basic idea is to start with the weathering effect first and then add the base paint on over the top of that, rather then the reverse which is to paint the model and then add the weathering as a final touch. I decided to adopt this approach as I still wasn’t satisfied with the colour depth of the initial two models and wanted to increase the appearance of fatigue effects further again.

I started by dry brushing the entire model lightly with gunmetal. Although primarily I concentrated on any edges, as these would be where I would show the most wear and tear, I also picked out panels around joints and rivets. I then painted on my base colour; in this instance graveyard earth, however, and this is the important part, I painted in block areas leaving the edges free so the metal was still showing. I then built up the areas of block colour by adding increasing amounts of desert yellow which was applied as a very watered down paint so as not to leave any undesirable brush lines. By only working in the areas inside the block colour you can build up the contrast between the tarnished paint along the edges where the most rubbing would occur and the colour of the model. It does take a bit of practice, but the end effect is worth the effort and will look far more naturally weathered than by just painting it over the edging afterwards.

Four Marauders down, just the NCO’s M8 to go and that’s the third platoon completed for now.

Next Up: Third Platoon NCO. Do you want to know more?