Creating and painting a Lord Solar Leontus conversion for my nun Astra Militarum army

Let's not beat a dead horse. I dislike the new GW models for being way too busy/crowded, not to mention their price tag. But this idea has been floating around in my mind ever since the Lord Solar came out. Here goes Mother Solara Leona, zipping around the battlefield in her open topped transport. Let me assure you, it is at least as safe as riding a horse.

Assembly: base

The original model for my 3d printed tanks is pretty small. Sort of right for this. But a bit big for an 80mm base. So let's make it fit by having it traverse rough terrain. Prepare the terrain using a roughed up cork coaster.

Dryfit 10 times, cut once. In fact, I first dryfit the model to the empty base, then started building, dryfitting each layer to make sure I was on track.

Avoid the terrain looking like layers of cork by filling out with milliput.

Finally, cover in terrain paste. Leave the contact points clean.

Interlude: painting the tank

Scratched black metal body. Paint the tracks metallic. Weathering later! Spray varnish now.

Interlude: painting the mud

Paint it about half and half Snakebite Leather and Cygor Brown. 

Assembly: pinning the vehicle

Drill out the cork.

I took no chances, and used 2mm rods.

Finishing off the tank and base

Weathering tank threads. At the drybrush phase also include the mud on the base. Finally, paint the rim of the base black.

Preparing the crew

Driver, gunner and commander all painted as nun high command in the blue edged white of the Sisters of Charity. 

Adding in the crew

The commander is pinned as she is standing on her legs and she's made of white metal, while the other two are 3d printed and simply glued in. Make sure to scrape the surface before gluing.

Final touch: name

Finished!