Tutorial: Cryx Battle Engine

Well, knocking off models from the "to do" pile turned out to be a bit tiresome, so I figured I'd dive into the new Cryx Battle Engine. This post is sort of a log of step-by-step build notes.

Started with the box and the tools I figured I'd need, including a dremel.

So here are all the parts. Most of them are in a soft, buttery resin. The metal was pretty clean, but the resin was full of horrendous mold lines. 1 - 2 mm mold lines through detail is trouble. I would have expected better for $85...fortunately, the model looked like it was going to be pretty cool and intriguing.

Mold lines were not the worst of the resin problems. Overall fit was pretty bad, and as can be seen in this photo, lining up all the pipes was going to take some work with a hair dryer.

The carapace was going to create a visible cavity in the model's interior, so this required the base model to be painted first. It got a base coat in black.

Moving on to the metal parts, the first thing I noticed was that the left hand was miscast. Great! :-(

As can be seen here the wrist guard and a portion of the wrist joint was completely missing.

Time to improvise! I had a spare Exemplar shoulder pad which made for a pretty good match. This would form the basis of the new wrist and guard.

Here are the two arms with the new wrist guard filed down and glued in place.

OK, all the components are glued in place and primed black. On the base, I've glued down a couple of detail pieces. These will get painted up later when I'm doing more work on the base.

The model is airbrushed with Cryx base and then a top-down overspray of Cryx highlight.

The brass fixtures and the head are brush painted next with Vallejo Bronze. I painted the tubing, which is often done in steel, with Vallejo dark rubber instead. This gives it a kind of PVC look.

This is about the half-way point in the painting. The brass areas got a wash with turquoise and I started into the MIGS weathering powders on the main body. Using rubbing alcohol and turpentine as a base, I worked up from the mud browns to the red browns and finally to the dust and rust patches. I also got the sand onto the base and built up a pile of rocks with cork and slate bits.

Well, skip ahead a few days and the painting and basing is all done now. The PVC tubing got a drybrush of Vallejo light rubber. The brass areas got a highlight of Vallejo old gold. Scraps of cloth are in Cryx base and highlight. Bare metal scrapes are done in steel and silver.

The necrotic Cryx green uses the P3 base color with a highlight of off-white and finally a wash of green ink. Not great, but serviceable.

As for details on the base, this is a Mantic skeleton. I thought the model was pretty cool, bursting out of the ground. I think it makes the Wraith Engine feel like it's rousing the dead as it passes by.

But this guy is likely a little too freshly dead to be roused! This disemboweled figure is from Army Painter.

Well, another Cryx corrosion piece for the collection. Despite the trouble the model molds gave me, the end result was pretty satisfying, and it makes a good centerpiece for the army.

Haha...while I was building and painting the Wraith Engine, I figured it would be little trouble to do a Harrower Helljack at the same time. Two for one!

'Til next time.