Undefined Advances

Having knocked up a few fighting compartments for the Basilisks, I ended up with several very bare sides for the fighting compartments. What do real SPGs have? Stowage and boxes for stowage on the sides, of course. So I took a couple of bits of Lego (pics 1 & 2), and boxed them up with plasticard (pic 3). On the Wild West front, I cut up a spot of balsa, and then glued and nailed it together (pics 4 and 5). What am I about? Well, what does a cowboy need that ain't a cow? A horse, of course. Enjoy, people!

200th Post Extravaganza: Emperor's Wrath Artillery Company!

Yes, that's one Chimera command vehicle and 3 batteries of 3 Basilisks: nine of the beggars! Three have had their basic coat of paint, and the remaining vehicles will do soon enough. Imagine the destruction you can wreak on a table with that sort of firepower. Imagine the weight of firepower that can bring down pretty much any target that these guns represent. The Apoc formation of the title allows you to land every successive shot atop its predecessor without variation. Want to pulverise Marines at range? Want to overwhelm a superheavy with S9 Ordnance? We've got you covered. With high explosive, no less! Yet why stop there? Who wants a measly one company of artillery when you could have two of them?

Yes, the second company of these beasties is on the chopping board as I type. Keep your Berzerkers, Orks and Eldar. I'll take the Guard, and blast you to smithereens at ranges nobody would believe. These monsters have a twenty foot range, remember, so they really can reach out and touch the opposition - and don't just think about blasting the enemy in front of you. Your guys are a bit close, say, and you don't fancy the scatter. Fear not. Blast the snot out of the enemy attacking on the other flank of the battlefield, twenty feet up-table. If you hit a couple of your allies, well, it's the fun kind of friendly fire!

I could cheer myself a bit more, but I shall just let you guys gawp at the guns. ;-) The first pic is actually of parts for the next six Basilisks, but all the others are for this first completed company of Bassies. In the Emperor's Name, chaps, enjoy the firepower!

Basilisk batteries and Lego

Yes, batteries of Basilisks: six of the fellas in various stages of completion are on the bench at the minute. Come to think of it, there are 3 outside, so I could sell the lot as a complete Apocalypse formation at the end of all this work. The look is somewhat inspired by the German WWII Elefant (see below, sourced hence). I have previously espoused the benefits of Lego, and today is yet another opportunity to use my oratorical, rhetorical and declamatory skills in favour of it: it's great! Ages ago I knocked up parts for loads of Bassies, but got distracted by other things, and depressed, so the parts remained just that. Lately I've been getting back into the groove, and Lego has proved a godsend. Do I want an angled front? Lego can provide it (see pic 1). Is 0.5mm plasticard great for cutting to the right size but not quite strong enough on its own? Lego can help (pic 2). Do I want some additional internal structures to strengthen my build? Lego can help (pic 3)! Then I boxed in the rest of that vehicle, added a spare Baneblade exhaust (pic 4), and added a spare Baneblade Heavy Bolter to the front (pic 5).

But Lego isn't just handy for that sort of thing. I had three roofs and sides for Basilisk fighting compartments, cut long ago. I wanted a regular look to their angled side, and structural stability. Yet again, Lego helped out (pics 6&7). There was a slight case of overhanging fighting compartments, but when you consider that I accidentally made the hull widths 5 Lego blocks across and not 6, and that the roofs and sides predated any intention to use Lego, it isn't so bad. In fact, I rather like how it turned out. The guns (Russ muzzles, plasticard tube, some plumbing thingy as the base) were superglued to 0.5mm plasticard which was superglued to Lego blocks. Two of these were glued to the turret roof, and the third was glued to the floor and uses an angled block to suggest that the gun is inclined to fire at range (pic 8). Lego is more adaptable than this. Anyone experienced with it will realise that you could use the stuff to have guns aiming up or down. Pics 9 and 99 show the battery together, prior to the backs being closed in.

Sorry again for the delay in getting these things up. I was working on 'em the whole time I was watching stuff. I don't know about you, but having something distracting on really helps the work fly by! I'm going to head upstairs now and see whether I can find the Basilisk bits I made for the second company of them. I don't know that I made so many of the extra pieces, but the guns exist! Enjoy these pics, dear reader.

Rambling

Way back here are some Laser Destroyers, Exterminators, Thunderers, Chimeras and Griffons on Ebay. These are lots of wee toys to play with, fellow wargamerinos! On a different scale of return, I see that I now have 20 followers, although I don't know who you are because my machine is utterly primitive. My 200th post approaches, so I might soon employ said post as an excuse to do all sorts of things. Perhaps I will hire an acrobat, but I might as readily acquire for myself a gun-toting halibut. Er, less readily, since I'll assume that taught halibuts are being exploited by their masters.

I will be putting up a lot of pictures later. Two things have combined to prevent me from so doing as yet. First, I'm watching Dexter. Second, he's on an External HDD which commands the same socket that the camera does. Ergo, I have the one socket either to watch stuff or upload it. I would like to say I have another socket, but while I agree that another computer exists, I can't use it. I don't know whether Mum's using it to access genealogical records or Dad's updating Church records or my brother's looking into his finances. Any one of these three is really inconvenient, but that's just how things are!

Anyway, good luck to you Ebayers!