Saturday 15 November 2014

Combat Wombat Bullfrog Class Lander/VTOL

I've been hankering for one of the little VTOL Landers that Scott at Combat Wombat sells. I needed to place an order for some of Scotty's turned brass barrels for another project, so I took the opportunity to nab a couple.

The Bullfrog is a 15mm lander made in grey resin. It comes in kit form and requires a moderate amount of assembly. The parts had some flash on them, as a result of the drop casting technique, but a rub over on some 80 grit sandpaper soon cleared that up and smoothed off the slightly rounded back face of the parts. I assembled using Zap-a-Gap thick super glue and a Filla-Glue kicker pencil.

The model went together very easily and the parts fit together really well. I chopped the detail off the upper surface of the pod and fixed it straight to the spine, but you could easily leave it loose and magnetise it for additional variety if required.

Bullfrog Lander. Croak.

I washed the model in some warm, soapy water and then, in honour of the name, gave it an all-over coat of GW Gnarlock Green foundation paint straight over the resin. A lander called Bullfrog has to be green. I have found the now OOP GW foundation paints to be really good at covering, and I'm happy to use them straight onto bare resin most of the time.

Finished version and kit form sans pod.

Once the green was dry I dry-brushed Dheneb Stone straight over the top then added a few metallic areas using the newer GW Leadbelcher. I then stippled on some Khermi Brown to represent paint chips. In retrospect, this was too light and I should have used Charadon Granite or Adeptus Battlegrey. The cockpit windows were then shaded from dark to bright using Necron Abyss, Mordian Blue and a very, very old pot of Lightning Bolt Blue. The blues were blended together whilst still wet to give a fairly gradual change.

The model can be assembled with or without the lift engines on the leg struts.

A few areas of black were added around the engines and landing gear and then, as usual, I did the next bit in the wrong order. Instead of a gloss coat (or a coat of Pledge floor wax) and applying the decals from my Gundam 1/100 sets, the whole model got a a thin wash of the ever useful Devlan Mud with Nuln Oil in the metallic areas. I'll have to add the decals then dirty them up again before finally sealing the model.

GZG OUDF to the left and Armies Armies Neo-Sov on the right.

The finished model is very nice indeed. There are few bubbles here and there, but nothing really unsightly. They are also a bargain at $7 each, which works out to about £4.50 so even with postage - still a bargain! One of my landers was missing it's pod, but Scott replied promptly to my email and is sending out a replacement and a spare to act as scatter terrain, which is a very generous gesture.

Exit ramp.

I've prepared a Gruntz card for the lander. This version is unarmed, as I see it more as a utility lander than a combat asset, but I figured door guns would be possible.

2 comments:

Simon Quinton said...

Fantastic looks great!

Allison M. said...

Unarmed grunt mover, a bit dumpy... I like it! You're right about the green too. It has a great utilitarian military look and once the decal markings are on it'll really come alive.