Part 2: Super Detailing on the First Tank
Assemble the components
Start by assembling the tank from the kit. I have left the three gun nozzles unattached so I can change the tank model from a bane wolf to a hell hound etc.
Leave the turret base plate unfitted. This will make the adding the lifting hooks on the turret much easier.
Leave the pipe run, the back door and the vats out as well.

Physical scratches and chips
Once the hull and turret are complete, take a scalpel blade and carefully make nicks and scratches and gouges on the hull and turret. I pay special attention to the base of the side plates and the area at the base of the front and back of the tank These are areas that will be bounced off and scuffed by stone, brick re-enforcing trees etc. First the Turret.

Hatches with Hinges and Handles
Drill the turret hatch barrel all the way through with a 0.8mm hole. Fit the hatch into the hatch hole and drill the turret hinges. If it goes well the drill bit will find the hole in the hatch and guide it through to the other side.
Once you've got the hole, cut a length from a paperclip and push it through the hole. Trim to fit. Touch a super glue brush to the sides of the hatch hinge, capillary action will carry the super glue into the hinge.
There would be an inner handle to let the crew pull the hatch shut. I fitted this with a small bit of 0.6mm brass wire, bent as best i could with a pair of pliers.

Turret Casting Number
This Turret is casting run 2-P6. The letters are cut from a games Workshop sprue. I changed up the scalpel blade for a fresh one just for the task. Carefully slice the letter or number off the sprue, trying to take just the number and not any of the surrounding material.

Once all three letters and the dash were cut off, I puddled some plastic cement in my palette and used tweezers to pick up the letter and gently touch the letter to the puddle of cement. Then put them on the turret. I used the butt of the scalpel to push the letter onto the turret. The idea here is to stick the letters on without leaving large glue smears on the turret plastic.

Turret Lifting Hooks
There are three lifting hooks fitted to the turret, two on top at the front and one on the side at the rear.
Lengths were cut from a paper clip and bent over a the neck of a GW sculpting tool to give a small radius U shape, with one short leg and one long leg.
With an 0.8mm bit, drill a hole in the turret where the first hook will go. Push the long leg of the hook into the hole. Mark where the short leg lands, and drill the second hole. Superglue the hook in from the underside of the turret. Repeat for the other two hooks.

Pintle Mount ring
The Pintle mount is mounted on sliding rings rather than fixed to the turret hatch ring. This is made from a 1mm sheet of plasti-card cut into a strip 3mm wide, then glued carefully to the step on the turret hatch ring.
The mounting arms are from the GW tank accessories sprue. A slot is cut into the end of the arm to allow it to slot over the pintle mount ring. The Guns themselves are from the Death Korps Grenadiers special weapons kit. These have been pinned to the Pintle arm in an 'at rest' position.

Then on to the Hull
Hatch Handles and crew access handles
I added a paperclip wire staple (a piece of wire bent into a 'C' shape) to the engine maintenance hatches on both sides of the vehicle. I also added a smaller staple to the shoulder of the vehicle just above the hatch. The theory is the crew can stand on the engine hatch handle and hold on to the hand hold on the shoulder and swing themselves up.

Fuel Cap All vehicles need em. I have fitted some after market resin fuel caps to the rear vat cover on the left hand side. The cap hinge was drilled out on one side and a length of 0.5mm rod bent into an "L" shape and pushed into the hinge as a primitive return spring to close the hatch again if a crew member leaves it open. Extra Amour?

Sand Bags?
Not today

Smoke launchers
A smoke launcher comes from the Imperial Guard vehicle Accessory sprue I cut off the ends of the some of the smoke launcher tubes and drilled out the tubes to simulate smoke rounds that have been fired and not yet replaced by the crew.
The Launcher was then fitted to the tank above the Melta cannon. Three 0.5mm have been drilled into the hull and the into the smoke launcher. Telephone exchange wire was used to show the firing wires for each smoke tubes.

Track Guards
Track guards have been fitted in various states of damage to the tanks. Thin the edges that are exposed using a Dremel and needle files. Remember these are often not much more than pressed tin mudguards, and as such are definitely way too thick for the scale of the model. Carefully thin spots along the length of the mudguards until they are translucent. You can then push holes through the translucent but to simulate the track guards having been damaged by something heavy coming off the tracks in motion.
I also sometimes take off the rivet heads on the banding and drill out where the rivet heads were. Then carefully cut back the fixing strip where it has come away from the track guard.

Battle Damage
Melta /Gauss damage
None today

Laser Damage
None today

Shell Strikes
This Bane wolf has been in action for several years and taken a few hits from High Tech Tau, solid rounds. These have been simulated thusly:

1. Take a Brass rod 1.2mm thick heat the end over the Gas hob.
2. Find a spot you would like to damage and dig it in and twirl it around a bit.
3. Heat the rod again and scratch some lines away from the point of impact.
4. Then get the scalpel and randomly cut away wedges from the 'moosh' that squidged away from the poker. You want a rough edged hole with only a little bit of 'moosh' left.
5. I also used a Dremel to add a few more gouges radiating away from the hole.

Stowage
- Unditching Gear (Shovels, Picks Blocks Tackle Chains, Tow Wire, Lumber)
- Personal Gear
- Spare Tracks

Shrapnel Damage, Embedded Shrapnel.
None today

Next time I do a tank...

Headlights
Vision Block guards
Drill out the base plate in line with the earth mover blade, and fit 6mm magnets to both the blade mountings and the hull.

Part 1: Planning
I'm gonna make me a squadron of three Bane Wolfs. These babies rock! Get them outflanking with Lord Creed, and as a fast vehicle they can move 12" and fire all their weapons! Also, armed will hull mounted Multi meltas, they are fearsome Anti Tank units.

Lets start with the What?
What is a Bane Wolf, what do we know about the Bane wolf? very little directly. There is a lot more written about the Hell hound, so a lot of this discussion will be based on the Hell hound. The Hell hound and by extension the Bane Wolf are infantry support tanks. A weapons platform designed to work in close tandem with infantry during assaults, providing self propelled, armoured heavy weapon support.
The Hell hound is a flame-thrower tank and the Bane Wolf is a chemical/bio weapons tank. Given their specialist nature they are rarely deployed in company formations, but rather spread across infantry units as independent vehicles of squadrons.

There are three known patterns of Hell hound:
Mars Pattern:

Artemia Pattern:

Graia Pattern:
And one other, the new unknown pattern:
This unknown pattern most resembles the Graia pattern in body and turret design it . So I will be basing this discussion on the specifications given for the Graia.
So from the specifications given in Imperial Armor Vol IV, there is a crew of 3: Commander; Driver; and Gunner.
As far as I can see the vehicle has two crew hatches, one on the turret for the commander; and one at the front of the vehicle for the driver, although this may really only be a vision hatch that can be opened when not in combat; there does not appear to be a third hatch, meaning the gunner must enter and exit the tank from the tank commanders hatch (Sux to be him in a firefight!). There is a possible hatch to the left of the turret. This hatch is however, blocked by the turret almost throughout the traverse, leaving it at best an escape hatch and not an entry point. Why am I banging on about the crew? this will play a big part when it comes to weathering the tank. Paint work on vehicles tends to get most damaged where the crew comes into contact with the vehicle. So knowing where they get in and out is important. Also, knowing the number of crew may affect the volumes of stowage a tank may carry.

Then we have the Why?
Why would the Death Korps use a Bane wolf? It seemed simple to me when I read the description. Its a chemical weapons thrower! What could be more perfect for the Death Korps to use! Given the Krieg preference for infantry assault, coupled with the gas masks they never take off it seemed the perfect weapon for them!

Lastly the When?
291st Death Korps of Krieg arrived on Praxedes IV in the middle of the Imperial year 745.M41. At this time the regiment had 33 Bane Wolfs on the manifest in various states of repair. With three of the functioning vehicles attached to the 17th company of the regiment.
The regiment arrived with many of its vehicles still painted in the city fight livery of the Ixus V campaign. Many remained in this colour scheme, although some vehicles were repainted in a yellow tan colour for the summer campaigns in the sulphur rich environment.

More to follow....