Building the Primaris Outrider Bikes

Why can't I do anything the easy way?

I sat down to work on my Skaven Warp-Skryre Tower, but couldn't make any progress on the project. I'm struggling to come up with a suitable configuration for all the platforms and tech. I'll get back to it, but in the meantime, I decided to build the Outrider bikes so I have something to display on my new bases.

 

I'm assembling these with an eye toward priming. I'd like to prime the yellow parts with my Wraithbone and Tamiya Camel Yellow spray technique, and avoid having to paint black and metal in and around it as I pick out the weapons, wheels, and engine. I also want to make sure the joins between the two halves of the bike cowling are completely sealed and smoothed over, so I can't simply paint the two bike halves separately. My solution is to break the bike down by components, and assemble and paint each of them individually. (This is really only an issue with bright colors; If these were going to be a dark color, I could largely ignore the deep recesses, but yellow spray in the nooks and crannies will be difficult to cover and will stick out like a sore thumb.)

To start, I cut away the cowling from the leg and exhaust pipe, and remove the front wheel cover:

 

 

I'm going to assemble the cowling and slide it over the front of the bike chassis. In order to do that, I need to cut off the pegs inside the cowling, as well as the vents (circled in red). In order to maintain some kind of vent detail, I'm adding small strips of sheet styrene textured with ridges. (Evergreen #4527 "Metal Siding" .040mm thick with 1.5mm spacing, if you want to replicate this yourself.)

 

 

Here's the inside of the cowling with everything trimmed away. I'm leaving small nubs where the pegs were. They are small enough that the cowling can slide over the chassis, but will still seat into the holes in the sides to ensure that the positioning is correct.

 

 

The two halves are super glued together with a bit of masking tape underneath, and the seam on the top surface is filled with Aves Apoxie Sculpt and sanded smooth with fine sanding sticks.

 

 

I do the same for the front wheels. In this case, the tires are primed black before assembly, and then the fender and forks are attached, puttied, and sanded.

 

 

When it comes time to spray them, I'll cover the wheel with tape and spray the component yellow.

 

 

The bike halves are glued together and the barrels and exhaust pipes drilled out. I'm not worried about the seam in the front because that will be obscured by the wheel. 

 

 

One other touch is to remove the sergeant's helmet from his leg so I can give him a helmeted head from the Imperial Fists accessory sprue. The rough spot on his thigh is covered with a bit from the same accessory sprue. I'll get to the torsos later, once I have the bikes painted.

 

 

Here are all the bike parts laid out. Now I just need to wait for the current wind storm to die down so I can go out and prime them!

 

 

'Til next time!