Big Momma's Tank

Recently I recieved one of these bad boys (or should that be girls?) from Puppetswar and I was very impressed. The casting was pretty good, with only small amouts of clean up to do and the fit on the Rhino chassis was excellent. The only piece which was a little miscast was the plow, (slight mold slippage and damage to the leading edge) but since that would take a few knocks in use, I intend to just paint it up as battle damage - no problem!

The shell hoist is a little fragile, I broke mine when the tank fell over when I was spraying it with undercoat, but luckily I was able to glue it. Perhaps building it across the rear deck woul have been a better idea, or even better still, magentizing it!

The plow is a fantastic size..really menacing..I love it!

The kit also comes with 4 shells (2 styles)

And here it is with the initial painting done, I need to obtain some masking tape to do the doors (or get Forgeworld ones) and plow plus find a cupola with bolters.

I've also started work on a datasheet for this tank, in case I want to use it as something more than a Vindicator substitute, more on that later when I've made some suggested corrections. Here's my first version, more for testing how to use the template I had and with a completely overpowered gun for too few points. I'll update with somethuing better soon, and hopefully a picture of the completed model!

Joys of the dollar store!

Or cheap wargaming at its finest! Over the last few weeks I've been thinking about setting up a project to bring datasheets for old Epic models to 40K, much like BOLS' Lords of Battle, but filling in the gaps they left. To make this worthwhile, I thought I'd first need to actually make some models to use with these sheets, and of course to provide artwork for them as I much prefer a datasheet with a picture! This fits neatly with my ongoing battlewagon building project (see the Lungbursta posts) too, so a win all round. I don't know what form this project would take, who'd be involved or anything at the moment, other than if I build them,  they will come, i.e. I need to make the models first! To achieve this I knew I'd need plenty of wheels and where possible some kind of toy that I could use as a base onto which I could stick new superstructures. Where better to find this stuff than the dollar store? Actually I should also say I visited a local second hand toy dealer too, and got lots of good stuff, but not everyone has one of those!

My haul from my local Dollar Giant netted me 6 F1 style racing cars, and a couple of large quad bikes and I've already started hacking one of the cars to pieces to make my prototype Mekboy Dragsta. While it's a little long for what I need, at C$2 per car, I can live with that, and change my design a little, besides everything Orky, is 'Kustom'! I'll deal with details of each of the builds as I do them as they might be a while away yet as I've got lots ahead of them in my 2012 queue, but I now have parts for the following vehicles:

Mekboy Dragsta
Mekboy Speedsta (Rokkits)
Mekboy Speedsta (Shootas)
Mekboy Speedsta (Lifta-Droppa)
Mekboy Speedsta (Bubble-Chukka)
Doomdiver Magna-cannon
Braincrusha
Gobsmasha
Bowelburna
Spleenrippa
Gutrippa
Bonebreaka
Bonecrusha

Bloodreaper
Deathdealer

Watch this space!

Brass Scorpion

I wasn't supposed to be starting this for a while, but since I'd just built my Defiler, I was in the mood to tackle it, so here's the initial WIP. It's going to be more or less a straight copy of the one in the Apocalypse rulebook (i.e. made from 2 Defiler kits), and using that datasheet, rather than the Greater Brass Scorpion one for IA. The top plates have just been placed on for this photograph, hence why they are a little wonky!

Lungbursta (4)

Almost there! Added the last few details last night plus the roof and gave the whole model a quick blast of black primer. I still need to Greenstuff a few bits (the primer help show up what needs to be done) and add the commander in his hatch to the roof. I'm going to try and sculpt an Ork torso in the hatch to save using one from my boyz, it'll just be shoulders and neck with a commercial head, no waving arms this time!

Lungbursta (3)

I'm cracking on with this one as I'm both enjoying it, and looking forward to being able to work on more immediately required items. Here's a picture to show the progress:

For those that read my 2012 plan, you should know I've already been derailled! I've been invited to play in a big Apocalypse game in about 4 weeks times. This means that CSMs are off the hotplate, and all my Forgeworld Dark Eldar need to be painted, plus my remaining special characters, some extra Raiders and Ravagers, and if I can manage it, my Helions (8 to finish). This means that last night's effort to get this Daemon Prince done (base is all that remains to be finished) are now in vain, but painted is painted, and it'll be ready for when I need my Chaos next.

Bloodpact Halftracks

In  other news, I've ordered the next batch of halftracks for my Bloodpact army. For those who've read my previous posts you'll know I'm using the 1/32 M3 and M16 halftacks made by Newray (sometimes sold as Testors), and now I'll have 8 chassis so I'll be making the following counts-as models:

3 x Chimera (Roofed over and with a Chimera turret)
1 x Hellhound (Fuel drums in the back, with turret)
1 x Hydra (M16 with IG autocannons)
1 x Manticore (roofed over and with rockets on the side, Stuka-zu-Fuss style)
1 x Salamander (Autocannon mounted in the M3's pulpit)
1 x Some kind of tractor for my field gun (counts as Trojan?)

I'm planning to start cutting the plasticard for these tonight so I'm ready when the last 3 arrive.

Lungbursta (2)

A little more work done on this little puppy - sadly now I have to spend ages making more rivets, such is the suffering of those modelling Orks!

The last photo is a bit fuzzy sadly, need to get that depth of field right!

Lungbursta

I'm slowly chipping away at this project, so that's good. What's even better is that I'm doing that whilst completing my Chaos Marines 1500 point force which is the new army I mentioned last time, but didn't say what it was. Anyway here's the progress:

And just because I can, here's a WIP shot of some of the Chaos Marines (no heads yet - maybe the skulls have already gone to the skull throne?)

Bloodpact AT70 Part 1

Following on from my plan to change the base models for my Bloodpact army, I decide to start work on my first AT-70 tank. This was manly to give me a break from painting the army I need for tomorrow, plus a chance to work at a different table (I cut plasticard in the kitchen as the worktops are bigger) which I need as I've messed up my back somehow. Here's the first shot, just a Leman Russ hull on Chimera tracks, with a plasticard floor and front. I've left the other side off for now as I may add magnets inside to help mount a dozer blade.

Keeping Flexible

No this isn't about my New Year's resolution, well actually it is as I'm planning on getting fitter in 2012 by doing more snowshoeing, but that's not what I intend to write about. What I mean here is not getting stuck into one mindset with your modelling and planning, and thinking there's only one right way to build something or one right model to use to represent something on the tabletop.

Whilst I was away over Christmas, and not able to do any modelling, I was giving a great deal of thought to which projects I wanted to do in 2012. This in turn lead to thinking about what I had already for them, what else I would need to obtain and how I should prioritise my work and purchases. The last of these got out of hand in 2011 and has left me with such a backlog I need to seriously plan out what I need to do by when so that I can get use my figures in games, rather than just having boxes and bags of bits and sprues all over the apartment. The project came out something like this:

1. Get another 1500 point army in a state where it is usable friendly games.

I need a change from Dark Eldar, which I've now been playing solidly for a year apart from two games with my Blood Angel successor and this will give me a second army to use, to give me a break between tournament games. This army will be fluffy and fun use whatever has been painted rather using a list around which I have to paint the required models. This objective is already well under way as I brought a partially completed army out of storage, and cracked on with completing it. I'm hoping this will be available for a game, even if some figures are not completed by next Friday. No details as to what it is as my club mates may read this, and I'd like to surprise them.


2a. Get my Orky terrain pieces completed in time for the club tournament.
2b. Get my Imperial terrain pieces completed for same (Optional).

I want to pull my weight at the club tournament and supply a table or two with scenery..plus it'll give me a chance to showcase some of my work from the last few months - bonus! The event is in the next few months, so after the army all the pieces that have been on my threads on the-waaagh need to be done, plus the crashed space ship centre-piece.

3. Get my Bloodpact to a 1500 point level for Astronomicon.

This gives me a focus to get this army done, but as we have until August this is priority number 3.

4. Get my other kits and conversions assembled so I can throw out boxes and sprues.

This is to help me tidy up the place..necessary if I have to return to the UK this year as everything needs to be packed well if I do, and completed models usually take up less space that the sprues they come on.

Well that was a bit of a tangent, what I wanted to write about was not getting stuck in one mental rut over how you work on something. The link all comes down to point 3, the Bloodpact. For those who follow the blog, you'll know I planned to use a Pz3 toy for my AT-70s, and a Sherman one for my AT-83s. The more I thought about using these, the less happy I was with them for various reasons and so I sought out alternatives. I'm now planning to use a hybrid Chimera/Leman Russ for the AT-70s because I wanted something to match the style of the AT-83 I found - the Mortian tank from heavy-support.com. I can't claim either of these is is an original idea as they are both copied from another blog I found, http://pickadamnarmy.blogspot.com/ but the point is I didn't get stuck into being forced to use the tanks I had previously selected, and with which I would never have been happy and hence the idea of staying flexible. There are many ways to model the Pact! The flip side of this is that I now had several spare tank chassis which I could use for my Bloodaxe army! (which never came into the plan, but since we're keeping flexible, we can change that eh?). This left me to start on this, in the spirit of completing item 4...

It's the start of a Lungbursta, and with the extra chassis I can also make a Bonecrusha, Gutrippa and one other Orky tank!