Pack Howitzer

I've had lots of modelling time this week so here's something I've been working on, some pack howitzers to be used instead of mortar weapon teams. These are based on Old Guard's ones over on the AmmoBunker - he even posted up a tutorial there if anyone else wants to copy them.

Merry Christmas!

Wishing everyone a merry festive season!

If you don't have one, this Ork will pay you a visit!

Italeri Scenic Items Review #3

Last one, promise and then back to 40k goodness next week. I should have more time to get things photographed next week as I'm only working part time. I'm doing a handover as I've been made redundant - yeah just before Christmas, which is nice, so I have time at home when the sun is up! Should have my Blood Pact's Psyker Battle Squad and some Ogryn WIPs.

So the last review is for the Brick wall sections, and these are my favourite. They are cast in a red brick colour, so with a bit of ink/dullcote and a scrubbing with brick dust weathering powder you'd be away. There are some mould lines to removes, but nothing terrible and much better than the sand bags in my opinion. Obviously these can be assembled into bigger wall structures, or just used one or two at a time to add to heavy weapon team bases or similar, which is how I intend to use them. The single bricks are a nice touch for a few scattered ones that have been blown clear of their originating wall.

So here are the pics:

Italeri Scenic Items Review #2

It's Sand Bags this time. These are slightly smaller than the Tamiya ones, which is good as those are a bit big for many 40k applications. Not too much to say about them - they do look sand baggy, and the only downside is that they do have a heavy mould line around them though.

Italeri Scenic Items Review #1

I don't think I've really done a proper review with photos for a while now so here we are with the first of three of  Italeri's  scenery kits.

The Church Window Set 1/35

This looked very impressive on the box, and I had high hopes for it. On one hand, my hopes were justified as this is a nice sized piece of terrain, and very suitable for a piece of wrecked building, with a good level of detailing ideal for drybrushing. On the flip side (literally) there is a big problem - the building is only designed to be viewed from the front, the back is just the hollow space where the front has been extruded. I am attempting to fill mine with some carved up foam from a piece of foam core board so I may be able to salvage this. With that in mind I can only recommend this are part of a bigger building, something for a diorama or something you have to use your modelling licence to complete.

Count-as a Trojan

Been working on this for a few days and it's almost done now, a halftrack version of the FW Trojan for my Pact to move their howitzer.

Still needs a bit of greenstuff work on the rolled tarps and around the flamer as well as one more roof hatch then it can go to the paint booth (or rather the packing box as I'm not buying anymore red paint until I know if I'm moving or not).

Mortian Tank as an AT83

I've had this kit a while, and originally I wanted to review it, but I started building it and didn't take photos so now I can't really do a step by step photo review. I'm intending to use it as the Blood Pact's AT83 heavy tank - roughly comparable to Leman Russ, but bigger.

There were a few damaged parts when I got this, most were easily fixable with a bit of glue and filler, the only bits not were damage to the track pattern - I intend to hide this with mud paint. The parts themselves were very cleanly cast which is great - some needed a little straightening with hot water, but since that's normal for a resin kit, I have no issue with that.

It might look like a Macharius, but it's a bit shorter by about 2", but it's bigger than a Leman Russ. I will probably use it as one of those, except in Apoc games where I intend to use it with a custom data sheet which I'll publish at a alter date.

Here's my progress so far:

I have one of the later kits which feature the wheels as a one piece unit, but the last 2 wheels on each piece were all wonky, so I cut those off and remounted them straight - which means the tank sits level and the tracks are much easier to fit.

Progress is now on hold while I get a new drill bit so I can magentise the side sponsons/cover plates and the various turret gun options.

Doomblaster WIP

Took a (bad) photo of this WIP, but wanted to post it up because it's such a cool kit and I wanted you guys to see the neat work Blood and Skulls does. Here is the Doomblaster kit, with additional spikey tracks, also from B+S still needing more gold and red paint, shading on the red and then a nice blast of dull coat.

Drove my Chevy to Levy, 40k style

At last we had a bright sunny day so I could take some photos and make some more blog articles! Here's the first one of my batch of new stuff, a 1/48 scale Chevy staff car from Tamiya, 40k'd up a little. I thought it already looked a bit Grimdark, but with a nice coat of black and some Aquilas it's right at home as an Imperial Staff car. Being 1/48 it's a bit thin for GW's 28mm Heroic, but as a terrain piece it's not too much of an issue, and as such it got an outing in Apoc game last weekend - here are the photos!

Whirlwind Romance

Keeping with the Heresy theme, here's my Whirlwind Mk.1. It's based on the old Epic models, with some changes to suit commercially available parts, naemly the Chapterhouse Rhino conversion kit and the rocket launcher from  Armorcast. I dispensed with the bas for the launcher, shortened the 'stem' that fits into the base, and whacked a blooming big magnet on the bottom, so it can be removed for storages or weapon destroyed hits. Before any paint goes on I need to add the radar dish to the mount and add a commander.

Again sorry for the lousy photos - still haven't unpacked the proper camera.

Heresy!

I have probably mentioned before that I've been collecting a Heresy army on the back burner for a while, well I have finally put together the first few vehicles, a Rhino, a Vindicator and a Whirlwind. I was planning to do Imperial Fists, but may now do one of the traitor legions, it's all a bit up in the air! Here's my first Rhino using the Blood and Skulls conversion kit.

How? Howitzer!

I finished this over the weekend, so here are some photos - which are a bit crappy as I had to use the little camera as the big one is all packed away at the moment. It's a counts-as a towed Basilisk for my Blood Pact guys.

Blood Pact Stalk Tank

Not too much to say here, but I've started my Stalk tank - it's a modified Blightwheel Miniatures Mantis Tank. I've had the leg links duplicated and have added extras to the front legs, and I have re-profiled the joint for the back legs to make them more mantis like. Next up, new head and a revolving Autocannon mount on the back - the cannon from this kit is going into my count-as Gryphon halftrack.

A dark night in Gothic City

I'm Batma<cough>...no not really but I do have a couple pics of my gothic city models to share including one of one of the new items I added for Astro (the gun turret from Daemonscape). Many of the buildings still need details painting - I just did the bare minimum to get things on the table!

Here's some shots of my Blood Pact fighting on this terrain (with a borrowed rather spiffy mat). I'm fighting my friend Darwin's IG, with his amazing Chocobo rough riders!

Orkington expands!

A few weeks ago now I was at Astronomi-con up here in Vancouver. It's a great tournament run by some very dedicated guys, and it's a lot of fun - it's the tournament for those that don't like the normal beat-face tournament atmosphere. Actually I say normal but around here in the lower mainland, most of our tournaments are pretty relaxed and are about having 3-6 good, fun, close games and not about beating the other guy so hard he cries!

Anyway, I offered to provide scenery for Astro, known for it's great looking tables and interesting scenarios and got asked to provide 2 tables worth of terrain, which on one hand was cool, but also meant lots more work! One of the tables was my quite drab Imperial city whilst the other was to be Orkington, and so I needed to bulk it out a bit. This was a good choice it seems, as I won best terrain for my Orky table!

The items I added were 2 new buildings, and a Windmill from www.daemonscape.co.uk/, and here they are:

I also completed some of the items shown in my Linear Obstacles blog post:

I have a few photos of the Imperial City, but I'll save those for another day!

Blood Pact Infantry

Just a few quick shots of the Pact's footsloggers. You have here 2 of the veteran squads, the Etogaur (Lord Commissar counts-as) and the 30 man blob-squad. Photos of the other veteran squad and platoon command squad were iffy so I didn't upload those.

And here's the army at 1500 pts..