40k Tank Traps from Battlefield Accessories Set (Neglected October ’19)

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40k Tank Traps, Citadel Battlefield Accessories Set

I just finished these tank traps/hedgehogs an hour or so ago, and took them outside to photograph them along with all of the models I’ve completed in the last few days to get photos for the next few days worth of posts. These tank traps come from the rather old Battlefield Accessories Set. I actually did paint these years ago, though I did so by painting them all copper and then giving them a brown wash. It actually looked okay, except not at all what these things would or should look like, so they got wheeled in again some time ago for a repaint (aka a respray, and then left in a tub), but with Conquest Magazine being a thing and the issue with the sprue coming out here in Australia a few weeks ago, it was time to finish off the old and paint up the new.

40k Tank Traps, Citadel Battlefield Accessories Set

Orks and Ork-friends chat respectfully near some local rust.

This time I went for seeing if I could effectively paint a more realistic depiction of rust, while still attempting to keep it quick and not too incredibly tedious and painful. Here’s the breakdown:

  1. Spray Dark Metal
  2. Light Spray mid-steel-type silver
  3. Daub all joins and rivet areas really liberally with Vallejo Model Wash: Rust
  4. Leave models to sit for three weeks because you can’t be arsed with them right now.
  5. Decide “fuck this” earlier this evening and make yourself do them even though you really still can’t be arsed.
  6. Daub with Citadel Technical Paint: Typhius Corrosion (the brown, textured stuff) using a large, flat-ended brush, making sure to keep it a bit messy.
  7. Drybrush with Citadel Dry Ryza Rust. Carefully at first, then less carefully as the process drags on way longer than you’d anticipated.
  8. Daub the join areas more carefully with Vallejo Model Wash: Light Rust.
  9. Be slightly disappointed that Light Rust isn’t much lighter than the other Rust wash.
  10. Mix some Vallejo Model Colour 70.911 Light Orange with Dr Faust’s Magic Wash base (1 part Future Floor Wax/Pledge One Go, 4 parts Distilled Water) to make a lighter orange rust wash.
  11. Apply over the top of the Light Rust, while the light rust is still wet.
  12. Allow to dry.
  13. Photograph.
  14. ???????
  15. Profit!

And here we are. I forgot to spray varnish them, but it’s 10pm now, the shed is locked up, I can’t be bothered going back outside and I want to get this post finished and queued up to publish in the morning. I’ll do it tomorrow. There will also be at least two more October posts from me, plus any models I manage to complete after work tomorrow. I’ll sort that out later.

Oh, the last few days have had more typos than usual – it’s the new mechanical keyboard that I got with my replacement computer. Still getting used to it, especially when typing with any speed…

On a semi-related note to my old PC dying and being replaced, I’m now even more behind in replying to comments on my own posts, replying to comments on other people’s blogs to me, a beard-painting description, keeping up with your blogs and posts there, and of course the Round-Ups. We’ll get there eventually.

24 thoughts on “40k Tank Traps from Battlefield Accessories Set (Neglected October ’19)”

    • It also pretty well illustrates my mood when I was writing it last night. Now to see if I can write two more posts now to have queued up for tomorrow and Saturday morning, and get three more almost-done models finished tonight for another two November posts following!

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  3. Nice work on these – you’ve reminded me that I have some of them in a box somewhere that I’ve been meaning to dig out and repaint too. When I do I’ll consult your wonderfully accurate and honest tutorial 😋

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    • Thanks Dave. I think my plan will be to do October for my own and the challenge, then work my way back. Naturally, I’ve got someone over for what will no doubt be all day Saturday (painting tutorial for a friend) and so Sunday I’ll just want to chill and paint and play video games or something rather than blog…

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  7. These look like nice pieces to practice rust effects on. I do have some in my collection from the 3rd ed times, maybe I should finally get Typhus Corrosion and Ryza Rust and paint them up a bit like this (currently I have literally none of the paints you mentioned, but various browns/oranges from GW should work out fine..)

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    • Ryza Rust isn’t such a big deal, but Typhus Corrosion is absolutely awesome. That and GW Skrag Brown are my go-tos for rust effects, usually combined with whatever other browns/oranges I have on hand at the moment.

      Nihilakh Oxide is their other truly fantastic Technical paint. Best verdigris effects ever, super easily.

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    • Thanks msmatilla – they’re such low-interest models at their core that they’re really perfect to experiment on, or just throw caution to the wind and trry something to see how it works – which is pretty much what I did here. As Alexis says, Typhus Corrosion is a pretty good one due to the texture, though you could also achieve similar by mixing some fine sand in with your paint, or possibly even liquid greenstuff stippling..
      Nihilakh Oxide is pretty rad. I also like using it for subtle plasma glow, or glowing eyes, etc…

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    • Yeah, the issue can be when there are too few of them they don’t seem like worth doing – or like there won’t be enough of them to look better than awkward on a table – but then you get more of them and it becomes hell to grind through them all…

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  9. I agree with others above that there is no rush to respond to comments and other posts. Your productivity in the hobby and on the Bitz Box is impressive and I don’t know how you manage it!

    Painting realistic rust is something I’ve not had enough practice with but I think these tank traps look really good. It is way more work and harder to achieve than you would think.
    These traps should stand out on any board which I think is ideal.

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    • Yeah, I’m doing a little here and there on comments and catch-ups on other people’s blogs, but noty knocking myself out over it now. The challenge posts are a bit of a millstone around by neck, but I know that once I’ve had a chance to rest up (ha!) and regain some energy I’ll just have to suck it up and pour a day or so into each of them to get them over and done…
      I’m not sure what’s happened with my rust. When I look at mny older attempts, a lot of them just look a bit weak, while now I’m so much happier with what I’ve done in the last year or so, and it hasn’t been due to concentrating on technique so much as just going for it. I don’t know how that all works, but it seems to, so I won’t argue…

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      • That seems like a good plan. I can only imagine those posts take some work to do. I’d say you could also try and put in a little time into it maybe an hour over the course of the next few weekends and try to reduce your “backlog” on it that way too. With that said, I know you’ll figure out how best to handle it!

        Rust is one of those things that is hard to teach someone else how to do I think. You just develop a feel for it over time. I haven’t had enough practice to do so and I’m sure that is why you’re better at it now than you were earlier too 🙂

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