Dagger-shaped ships and something else that's just Super

The wee starships from last time are pretty much done now. I've all but omitted detailing their undersides, as they won't be visible. I've decided they will be proxies for the Gorns. I ran the numbers, and I could field about 2,800 points of ships, which is quite a goodly force. In the event of deciding to make some Mon Cal ships, I do have something to fight 'em with. I've left the details pretty minimal, and should get them undercoated today. While waiting for the Milliput to dry I also did a bit of work on a superheavy for 40K, which had been sitting unloved for a while. I added a bit of bulk to balance out the gun. It's the bit the officer's standing on. On the advice of a friend, I'm going to extend the rear of the vehicle somewhat. Well, that's how things are going at the minute. Hope all is well at your end, gentle reader.

Shadowdagger

What else could I call a baby Shadowsword? Yesterday I spoke of a wee baby human and baby ducks. Today I speak of something more appealing to many wargamers: a baby Shadowsword. I had a spare main gun left over from some mostly forgotten construction project, and I had some sides left over from making tank road-wheels from Lego heads. So what I joined together let no man put asunder! I am divided between finishing it off as a Valdor tank hunter ( http://www.forgeworld.co.uk/Warhammer-40000/Imperial_Guard/Imperial_Guard_Super_Heavy_Tanks/VALDOR-TANK-HUNTER.html ) or coming up with some rather better rules that marry a Malcador hull to a Volcano Cannon. I believe I correctly recall that the Valdor rules were the cause of much lamentation at the time of their release. Anyway, here is where I am up to so far with the Valdor. Any thoughts appreciated - well, within reason: do not say that Audrey Hepburn was not gorgeous or I shall have to write you off as some wretched lunatic!

Superheavy Promethium Truck

Datasheet:
Vehicle: Clymene-class Fuel Hauler
Points Cost: 250
Type: Super-heavy tank
Structure Points: 2
BS: 3
AV: 12/12/10
Weapons and Equipment: Hull-mounted Heavy Flamer or Heavy Bolter, pintle-mounted Heavy Bolter or Heavy Flamer
Options: The Clymene is not a front-line vehicle, and so may not be given a Hunter-Killer Missile, pintle-mounted Heavy Stubber/Storm-bolter. Nor does it come with a searchlight or smoke launchers. It may be equipped with a Dozer-blade for 10 points and Camo-Netting for 20 points.
Special Rules:
i) The Promethium fuel carried by the Clymene is highly volatile. In the event of the destruction of the vehicle, refer to the Catastrophic Damage table on p.93 of the Apocalypse rulebook, and add 3 to the die result. Therefore, a roll of 1 or 2 will result in an Explosion, and a result of 3+ will result in an Apocalyptic Explosion.
ii) The Clymene is employed by the most farsighted generals of the Imperium, utilising to their utmost the resources of the Munitorum. Her presence indicates a very well-supplied army, and permits the following. A player fielding such a vehicle may choose to purchase an upgrade to the speed of his vehicles for the first turn. This represents the wealth of fuel which the Clyemene and her sisters have made available to the army. For a cost of 5 points for a Sentinel or similar, 10 points for a Chimera, Russ or similar, and 20 points for a superheavy vehicle, the following option is gained. Any vehicle that has paid the appropriate cost may move an additional D6" in the first turn only. This applies only to the first turn of the battle, and not to the first turn on which the vehicle moves (otherwise the book-keeping would be horrible!).

Clymene (her name means famous woman), those of you with a classical bent may know, was the mother of Prometheus (foresight). That is to say, Clymene bore Prometheus. My friend had suggested Epimetheus (hindsight), which is a vehicle which will make an appearance at some future date. I shall add pictures as soon as I can get to the other PC. On that note, I'm going to do my best to acquire a new laptop in short order. Until next time, dear readers!

The pictures, belated but here now. I have decided to go with a wet look for the vehicle, as though it is covered with the rain which has so mushed up the landscape. The grey gaps behind the tracks are a bit annoying, but are out of sight most of the time. I'll have to get some black spray for dealing with those areas next time.

Superfuelled Painting

 Right, let's see. I'll take you through this step by step. First, I undercoated the super with Halford's Grey primer. Then I hit the vehicle with a coat of Lada Green. Quite why Lada should have chosen a colour more evocative of military endeavour than civilian life is a topic I shall leave to historians of the USSR. Next I applied a coat of varnish, as transfers sit more easily on such a smooth surface. Unstoppably came on the transfers, helped by a generous application of a solvent (Minisol, perhaps) designed specifically to break them down a little, to weaken them, and make them happier to sit on even a rough or uneven surface. I designated the vehicle B1C, showing it to be vehicle C of the 1st company of Regiment B of SFOR (the Supply FORce). I stuck on a few eagles, hazard signs and wee bits of text to add colour. The fuel tank itself is an S90 type, er, obviously, and its factory serial number is T123647. In a word, I had a wealth of transfers to choose from, and knew this vehicle would be unique. So I chose to go wild and give it stuff from all sorts of kits. SFOR is from an AS90 kit, the serial number's from some WWII vehicle kit, B1C from another, and so on.


Having applied the transfers, I took a few comparison shots with a Chimera-sized vehicle I had to hand (which needs a good clean-up, if not redoing completely, I agree) and a Cadian officer. Having done so, I decided to try my hand at a technique I have seen in some modelling works. One applies streaks of oil paints, then brushes turpentine over the top until the streaks are invisible (I notice I haven't been wholly effective in the second picture). I then did some work on the weaponry and applied rust to the body of the vehicle. I knocked up a mud mixture from black paint, Burnt Umber paint, PVA glue, sand and some Polyfilla-style powder and some "leaves" courtesy of Antenociti. Having applied this to the tracks, I took the vehicle off to dry. I'm lucky to have access to a place I can dry the vehicle quite quickly, so I was able to apply another coat half an hour later. Finding I still had a lot of "mud" left over, I decided to knock up a base for the vehicle. Having again allowed all this to dry, I applied a gloss varnish to both, and am currently in the throes of deciding whether to leave the vehicle gloss-varnished, to suggest it is caught in a rainshower amid all the mud or to matte-varnish the parts of the vehicle not tarnished by mud. Behold the pictures. The final update should come on Monday, dear readers.

Superfuel!

She's finished! In modelling terms, that is. I'm about to take her outside and undercoat her. Then I shall return and put pen to paper as regards her statistics. I have some vague ideas, as I have mentioned: she isn't your typical superheavy, as she's a fuel-tanker, but for that selfsame reason, she has the potential to be quite amusing in an Apocalypse game. Who doesn't love a massive explosion? If you're waving a hand, you at the back, then I submit you're not a fan of Apocalypse, anyway. ;-) Here she is completed and prior to painting. The tracks are undetailed as they will later be caked with mud, so detailing would be superfluous.

Good News!

I managed to get onto the downstairs PC. This won't survive me getting a job. I'll have to save up for some shiny keyboard-laden thingy then. For now, though, all is passable. Right, I promised you photographs, and those you shall have! The super-fuel-a-ma-jig is almost complete. That brings to mind that I don't have a name for it. Well, Imperial vehicles are usually named after Greco-Roman mythological (e.g. Medua) and historical (e.g. Crassus) sources, so I suppose I shall have to think of something in that line. That said, I welcome suggestions! Anyway, onto the real tofu (I'll keep making that joke until someone kills me) of this post.

I applied some plasticard to the sides to represent armour plating, and riveted the whole kit and caboodle. Lots and lots of rivets adorn this beauty. I fastened up the back, which was a bit sloppy. It looks a bit better now, although somewhat Orky. The wee grey hinges on the side hatches come from a Baneblade, I think. The Red Bull can was a bit narrow for the body of the vehicle, so I added some strips of plasticard until it sat snugly, then superglued it in place. Fitting the plasticard cover onto the can was such a bother that I almost gave up and decided to go with a bit of drainpipe I had sitting in a drawer. What? Doesn't everyone keep some drainpipe in a drawer for making toys? In the end, with the help of some superglue gel and a fair old whack of Greenstuff, I managed to secure the thing in place. I have just realised that I will need to perforate the can somewhere out of wight, lest the coming winter make it contract and go all nasty. I shall try to avoid poking battle damage into visible bits, because I intend to give it a special rule that will see it explode in Apocalypse battles like one of those superheavies that goes critical - Warhound Titans, perhaps.

I took some strips of foil (drinking nice whiskey is its own reward, but it offers some incidental benefits to the modeller), and some car body repair mesh, gluing them to the can in semblance of securing strips, and then applied some more rivets.I went looking in a drawer in another room, and found a lot more Lego, which is handy! I then glued several more heads/wheels into place. I took one of those Lego computer screen bricks, chopped half of it away, and coated the remnants in plasticard, giving me something to attach a Heavy Flamer to for the gunner. It did occur to me to wonder whether it was a good idea to have a lot of fuel and a fiery weapon in the same place, until I recalled that the Imperium, if ever it heard of Health & Safety, is surely far beyond it now. I strongly suspect it's heretical, so fiery weapons near fuel dumps might even be a Munitorum requirement! Then I glued in place grab handles for the hatches, and I added a little armoured viewport for the driver, and realised I had left the vehicle shockingly undergunned for a super. It was never my intention to make this a death-spitting demon of battle, but a single weapon seemed a little underwhelming. One Heavy Bolter later and she's as well-armed as a Chimaera. That will do!

What remains is to find a handle-a-ma-jig for the pintle-Heavy Bolter, then get to work making sure the tracks look delightful.Here are the pics, folks. Fingers crossed my next post will see her complete.

Adding up AFVs

You know, I thought I had sold a lot of my tanks, but it seems that only a small proportion has gone into the ether. I decided I'd grab hold of them all and tote up what I have left. It's a humbling number. This is AFVs of all types, not just tanks. I've packed 72 of them onto my shelves, and another 22 mostly complete ones are scattered around the place. It looks like the mess of that item that didn't reach Germany is about to clear up. The Royal Mail say they (or rather their German partner, probably Deutsche Post) tried to deliver it on Saturday, so it's apparently wending its way back to me. My buyer was in, met the postie, and received some other post, but neither the package nor a note to say it had failed to appear. Nor does DP have any record of it. So at this point I'm giving up. I sent one item. It vanished. I sent a replacement. The postal services are at best colossally incompetent. So I'm hoping he'll just take a refund and all will be well again.


Then I mean to start getting rid of vehicles in squadrons. It'll let me decrease the numbers a bit more quickly. I did a bit of work last night on a super (Banehammer? Banesword?) to finish off a squadron of the beasties, which I'll then pop on Ebay. Although not until the next time they have a free listing weekend. I haven't paid enough attention to that, and I'm paying for it financially now. Had to renew my car insurance the other day, and it's ridiculously expensive. A friend tried to explain to me why insurance companies charge more to the unemployed (who are most likely to have no cash) than to students or the employed (who are more likely to have cash), but I still don't understand it. Still no response to these job thingies I keep sending out. Bah.

On a lighter note, I made brownies yesterday, and they're very nice indeed. I forgot to put macadamia nuts in, so earlier on I pulverised a few and had them with a brownie and some ice cream. Heavenly! I've been doing a lot of tidying and organising today, so no progress as yet on anything wargamery, but there's a while yet afore bedtime, so there's a chance yet. It's a good thing it's a few hours before sleep, as the models boxed and shelved have displaced books, which have now occupied my bed in serried ranks. Before I away, here's a teaser of the super I'm working on. Whatever their name, they're the long-range artillery variant. There's a third in the attic, with the regular allocation of sponsons, so you've guess correctly that this third beastie will have double-side sponsons. Twin-linked Heavy Flamers, of course - not because she is the sort of vehicle to charge into the action, but because she is the sort of vehicle that enemy deep-striking troops will go for. Until next time, mes amis, goodbye!

Supers and terrain

I've been doing lots and lots. First, here is good old Molly the Macharius Vanquisher.













Then Cedric the Stormsword.













This will be a missile silo.



This is the building I made out of the drain connector and some bits and bobs. The base is a bit of spare shelving from a CD storage doodah.





Tents!



Trees!



The Lascannon teams covered in camo betting made from bandage material dipped in a mixture of brown paint, PVA glue and water.



A storage container made from an old cocoa tin, I think.





Objective markers.



This storage tank is made from an old aerosol. One shouldn't really make terrain out of things that might explode, but it has yet to do so, despite sitting around for maybe eight years.



Storage tanks made from the plastic lids of spraypaint tins.





These buildings have been varnished after this picture was taken.



Back to the Lascannon teams again. They've had some spots of various colours added, then a drybrush of some creamy colour.









A nice wee copse around a rocky outcropping.