Minotaurs! (no the other kind)

Gallery - Got Guns, Will Travel

Last time I brought you images of a squad leader, now here is his unit. A pair of Leman Russ tanks armed to the teeth with Heavy Bolters! Here again I've tried to add some unique details which extend beyond the simple addition of stowage from a range of sources. One of the tanks carries a big tin of paint, I haven't worked out how I'm going to mark this up yet, but suffice to say I imagine they get through a lot of Desert Yellow! I'm also a little annoyed that the techniques I use seem to show up mould lines where I thought I'd got rid of them!!! (not quite sure what to do about that)

Looking at the images again and thanks to my own personal paranoia, I can see ways to improve some elements, namely the cola bottle. It could definately use more of a green tinge to it as well as some more highlighting and glossing to bring out the idea that it is actually made of a glass / plastic material.

Gallery - Leman Russ

You're probably sick of all... these... tanks by now... but my latest 3000pt Armoured Battlegroup List includes no less than 17 of them. This guy will be one of the squad leaders, the stowage on the back is again a mix of different stuff, plastic and resin... the bucket is from a Tamiya kit and I filled it to help add some interest. You'll hopefully also spot the tow cable, its not the first one I've done, but the idea is to cut the ends off of the standard plastic cable and then part drill them so that string can be partly inserted. This can then be bent naturally around the form of the tank, here left to dangle under its' own weight.

I probably should have used a more nylon based cable as it would give the idea of a metal cable rather than this which gives the impression of an actual rope. Having said that, this string is incredibly easy to form to the contours of the model so gives a great impression of weight. In any case, I'm pretty happy with the result and try to tell myself that the 41st milleneum might well have a rope material just as strong as a cable would be.

Gallery - Company Commander

Any Company Commander worth his salt will go to battle in his own personal Vanquisher! Being a Commander, 8 kill rings doesn't seem too far fetched, so lets just hope that he can live up to his reputation!

The kill rings themselves were my first attempt at using decals (transfers) in more than a decade. These ones came from the Imperial Guard transfer sheet, applied over a gloss finish. I couldn't help but fiddle with them so some rings have a bit of chipping. Once dry I covered them with another coat of GW Gloss Varnish and the matt finish spray helps to blend it all.

Given the ease with which the transfers were completed I began to think why I ever stopped using them! (Probably something to do with trying to put transfers on Space Marine shoulder pads) Needless to say, I think that I'll be using more transfers in the future, not least of all to create custom tank designations (you'll note none of my tanks are numbered yet). The great thing is that I should be able to simply apply transfers to my tanks at a later date... To help them fit in I can chip away at them using a sharp blade and then gloss and matt varnish them to make them seem like they've been there all along!

You can check out more tanks using my Gallery.

Gallery - Plasma-tastic

You may remember that I previously painted a Leman Russ with Plasma Sponsons. They aren't always to everyones taste, but I love them... and I've now painted TWO more! I spent a bit more time concentrating on some details, as you can see if you click on the image to the left!

I don't think I'm good enough to paint the words, but I think that you can all recognise the brand of soda can... This might be the far future, but some things stay the same!

You should be able to make out the continued theme of adding blue and red wash to the metal of the plasma in order to give it that heat effect you'd expect. The Russ above and the previous one both included sand bagged turrets from the GW classic range, whilst below you can see the third tank belonging to the squad leader... it's been loaded with other sandbags from a resin kit. The sand bags are a recurring feature of the Plasma Russes... perhaps they are useful for soaking up reactor leaks or, heaven forbid, putting out fires!

I'm also thinking about trying to add some scorch marking around the front of the tanks to give the effect of the Plasma Cannons constantly firing next to the hull, but I'm not entirely sure how to go about this.

Gallery - Commissar Tank Commander

So a little while ago I posted work in progress pics of the Commissar Exterminator I was working on. It's done... but also you'll be happy to know that the reason I've not really been posting so far this month is because I've been frantically spending free time painting not just this tank... but seven others too! They are done, so you can expect a flurry of posts showing the labours! Sorry Mordian7th, but I haven't ventured to painting the lenses yet!

Unfortunately, the pictures were taken whilst the matt spray varnish was fresh from drying, it seems to bring out these small white fibres, though they can be brushed off easily enough once the thing is absolutely and completely bone dry! Seeing the picture of the Commissar up close now I can see that I want to go at the medals and add some colourful bands to them.

Gallery - We got infantry too!

Yea, I've been building and painting tanks... lots of them. But I just want to remind everyone that I also have infantry! After all, the terrain that is currently taking a bit of a back seat wouldn't be half as fun if all I could do was drive around it! Here is just a small snippet of the completed infantry thus far. Unfortunately, for every guy that is finished, it seems another two are waiting to be painted!

Gallery - The Devils Advocate

A lone Devildog helps round out my army list as a relatively inexpensive, ranged anti-tank unit. In the past I've not had good experiences with the Devildog, but I thought it was about time to give things another go. Being a fast moving attack tank I decided against adding stowage, after all I doubt others in the force would want to have their stuff blown to smitherines!

The barrel of the Melta Cannon gave me another opportunity to practice and refine the effects of heat on metal. I'm relatively happy with the process of washing that I use now and will be applying it to future models.

Gallery - Scout Trucks

These awesome looking scout trucks are from a shop brought to my attention by Mordian 7th. A little known independent called Ramshackle Games. They do a range of miniatures including multi part resin kits. This is particularly novel, as you can buy pretty much any bit they do individually, and combine the parts however you want! As such, this should be useful when I come to detailing my buildings, I've got a few ideas already.These trucks make for great counts as models for the Tauros, of Imperial Armour Vol.8. (I had planned on using them as stand ins for sentinels, though they are a bit longer than the 60mm base, and the Tauros fits the style so much better!)

I added some Games Workshop Stowage to help tie them into the Imperial Guard Army and fashioned a magnetised turret mount to be able to fix a weapon on top. Simple, yet effective. You can see the heat effects quite well on the exhaust shot, and as with my other tanks, following the matt varnish I went in with brown ink to help add some interest to particular areas. In this case, around the fuel caps. The last shot shows you all the size comparison.

Gallery - INCOMING!

Since I changed my list to drop the recently painted Leman Russ I needed to make a sharp move on and get a Manticore painted. At the time of the change, the vehicle was sitting half built and not content with simply finishing it I set about magnetising the rockets first. This was quick and easy to do, though took at least twice as long as it should have as I kept getting distracted by making all sorts of missile sound effects!!! Anyway, here is the result.

Gallery - Chimera(s)

Like a rip off Alien sequel this post is a little like the first "Chimera" gallery, except that there is more of the cool stuff... and less Sigourney Weaver (so perhaps better than Aliens). This time two Chimera with all their stowage kit ready to engage the enemy, as well as one vehicle assigned to a squad of vets and a final tank assigned to the Battle Psyker Squad... it's unique turret colour setting it apart from the others! Again, the stowage is a mix of bits from GW and Tamiya, as well as some resin bits from a Legend kit. Apart from the GW stuff, everything else was purchased new through e-bay for pretty good deals - you can check out some useful e-bay stores on the left.

Gallery - Executioner

They are coming in thick and fast now. Here's the executioner that I let you guys peek at a little while ago. I still have to sort out the lenses for all the tanks as discussed on that previous post, though I need to fully settle on the dark blue as suggested by Mordian7th. As the army needs to be done for the 40Konline Tournament on August 21st I might have to come back to do them later... The tournament is going to be at Triple Helix Wargames near Bath. 4x 1750pt games, so if anyone is interested in coming then head over to that link.

A close up of the most uninteresting part of the model. The only point of this is to show you the painting of the armour, including the progress I've made with my paint chipping & highlighting. You can also see the colour tinting on the exhausts to try and replicate the effects of heat on metal.

Gallery - Command This

This jeep will form my Salamander Command Tank (Rules from forge world Imperial Armour Vol.1 Update). It basically acts like a command team in a Chimera, issuing orders to nearby dismounted units... except without the added bonus of infantry jumping out and flaming your face. It's been converted out of a classic Ork Trukk. The way I figure it, the Orks stole it from us, so this is what it would have looked like before. Pretty much all of the bits and pieces are standard GW parts, though the driver has the steering column magnetised to make sure that it actually looks like he's driving the thing (he kept falling out!)

Gallery - Chimera on duty!

Well, the first of the Chimera is in a finalised state! I've decided that, as I am working to a very tight deadline, I will come back to the models to add transfers for unit identification etc. So, for now, this tank is complete and ready to carry some troops into action!

This first one has a converted Heavy Bolter Turret, using a Heavy Bolter from the Baneblade / Shadowsword kit and a combination of plastic, metal and resin stowage from a range of sources.