Blood Pact Howitzer

Some time last year I saw a project by someone on Dakka Dakka which was using tanks from ToySoldierDepot.com to make 40K vehicles - an Ork tank and some IG APCs. This is what inspired me to start on my Lungbursta project C(or rather what became a Lungbursta). Whilst I was buying those tanks I also picked up a couple of howitzers, which I'm told are cheap copies of the old Marx cannons. My plan was to use them for my Planetary Defence Force army, but I figured I didn't need both for that, so one has been seconded to my Blood Pact. The one that will remain Imperial, will be fitted with the shield from the Basilisk (you can find others that have done this conversion online).

I had a couple of hours spare last night so this is what I did, but I still need to fill the wheel backs.

For those that want to see the conversions that started me off on this crazy path, look at Brushfire's work on the Ammobunker forums, as it's easier to find that wading through the Dakka gallery.

Lungbursta gets a Big Shoota and I start a Gutrippa

Just to prove that the Lungbursta project is not dead, I've been working on the pintle big shoota. The gun is taken from one I ordered from Shapeways, but which was too crude and big for an Ork to carry. I've modified it to fit in the pintle mounts, added hand grips to the rear, 50cal style, and added a barrel, with some ridges on the top to make it look more Orky. The tank commander needs paint still and a head choosing fro him - I have several suitable ones from Kromlech so I just need to choose.

I've also started a second Ork tank as I had some pieces of plastic strip lying on my desk and I wanted to use them up. This will be a Gutrippa I reckon, using a battlewagon turret with a new rear deck and scratch built claws at the front.

AT70 Details

I've added a few details to the AT70 now, but I'm stalling on this one as I can't decide whether to build the turret with hatch open and a commander poking out, or all buttoned up.

Here you see the remove range finder, and replacement small sighting mechanism to the left of the main gun.

I've added trophy spikes to the rear of the turret and an aerial, and on the rear of the chassis is a ladder / stowage rack.

On the lower front hull we now have the Khornate symbol, some towing eyes and the small white piece on top of the hull is the bracket for chains (or something else if I don't like how the chains look.

AT70 for the Blood god!

It might seem a long time until August, but with one tournament to run and another to attend, the next couple of months will be quite busy, so I'm working on some of my Blood Pact army. For those who've followed my blog for a while, you may remember my AT70 Reaver, that has sat for months as just a hull with one track unit. Since I was really motivated the other weekend, I got a fair bit done on this and its sister tank, so here's a quick update of progress on tank number 1.

The second track unit has been added, this was a little trickier than the first given the Chimeras asymmetrical front hull, but on the second attempt I got it pretty square. Sadly the blanking plate covering the gap between the track top and hull roof came unglued, and so the repair has made it a little rough, hopefully I can disguise it with stowage or something.

The turret has been dry fitted, and the gun barrel lengthened with some aluminium tube, to represent the long thin 105mms these tanks are supposed to have. It's out of scale for a 105, but it's nice and sturdy for wargames use, which is more important in my view. Considering the standard LR model gun is something like 400mm if made up to life size scale we've a great deal of wiggle room here! I've removed the aquila from  the turret bin too, but left the damage so it looks like this is a looted tank, rather than one made after the Urdeshi forges were captured (great bit of fluff to cover my sloppy work! :)).

At the rear the Russ exhausts have been replaced by a set from a Defiler, which have been mounted on some styrene plates to make the assembly level, and to give a bigger surface that can be glued on to the tank.

Here are the pictures:

The second tank is a little different as it uses a Demolisher hull and turret, so a difference in engine grill details and turret bin. For the gun mount I'm using the demolisher cannon with an aluminium barrel, as it slots it perfectly. it looks a bit odd with the external recoil suppressors though - I might have to remove them, I haven't decided yet. Pics of tank number 2 in the next update.

GW Terrain

No exciting title, but then the subject isn't exciting, just good solid pieces that paint up really well with some heavy dry brushing. First off is the statue and the shattered Aquila from one set:

I added a small sign no doubt revealing all this Marine's heroic actions..

The second piece is the wreck Rhino and craters - I didn't like this much at first, but once painted it really grew on me:

Gothic City

No sign of Batman...but I do however have photos of the Pegasus building that I bought a while back, assembled and mostly painted. They all need doors painting and roofs scratch-building, but they look pretty good I think.

These are some pre-painted rubble piles, also from Pegasus, that match their buildings - pretty cool eh?

Trip to Orkington (again)

It's been a while since I did an update as my new job has been keeping me busy - in fact I'm there now at 6:30 waiting for stuff to finish. Rather than waste the time, I thought I'd type up a few more articles that I'll publish over the next few days, with this being the first. I should also say that I'm running a doubles tournament next month and there are still places available, so if you are interested please look at my blog for that.

Teamhammer 40K Tournament

For anyone that remembers my earlier posts, or looks back through the archive, you'll know I started some Ork scenery for a place called Orkington. Well, that place has received some further development, and here are the pictures.

This was the wind turbine thing I had planned, but the turbine I started looked a bit poor, so I fell back on my ideas to make some gun towers - this is the first design.

This is the Mek's workshop, I still want to add some glyphs over the rear door, and add a hoist to the frame out front.

Here's the "Tall House" different from the older "Long House" and the forthcoming ""Small House" and "Composite House".