WIP: 'Instigator' Assault Recon Vehicles...

...from the Anvil Industry Shards of Liberty KS. Couldn't wait to make a start on these two - been looking forward to building/painting them since they where first mooted! They're cracking little models - wonderfully designed in both style and fit of parts and expertly cast in resin with little or no clean-up work required other than removing the parts from the resin sprues. There are 27 separate components in the bag - with a fair percentage allocated to the figures; driver, a standing gunner and two seated troopers and while the seated troopers have their heads cast onto the torso both the gunner and driver have separate, optional heads. More about the figures in a later post but they are little beauties! There are also several accessories; a driver weapon with a clasp for attaching to the vehicle moulded on, a bed -roll, two modern looking fuel cans, an ammo box (?), a spare driving wheel (if you don't want the driver in the cab and separate hand grips with a view screen for the main weapon.
Build of the Instigator is quite straight forward but be aware that the front wheels are steerable and have a different shape mount to the two rear wheels. The roll bar and roof are cast separately and to ensure a good fit I placed the roof on the rear (two location pins) and held it in place while I glued the front roll bars to the roof and fitted them to the bonnet/hood.
Removing the roof I dry-fitted the driver (he comes in two main parts - torso and legs both of which have the seat harness attached) and found the fit of the harness to the locations on the seat was nigh on perfect. I removed the torso and making sure the lower harness straps where lined up to the attachment points put a dab of gel-type superglue on the waist of the legs and then attached the torso (fit the stub of the steering wheel in it's location then manoeuvre the torso into it's correct position using the slightly slower drying time of the gel to tweak the fit). After a couple of minutes the driver can be removed for fitting after painting of both the vehicle and driver is complete.
Painting commenced, after a good wash to remove any mould release agent from the resin, by spraying GW's Chaos Black from a can and then airbrushing with Vallejo Model Air German Grey followed by a highlighting coat of US Grey and then US Grey with Lt. Grey. Panels and engraved detail was shaded with a very dilute Model Color German Grey and the edges highlighted with Lt. Grey, Seats were painted to represent canvas using US Dark green (still to be shaded and highlighted). Decals to follow...