Amarillo Pattern LeMan Russ varients

Comptroller Bellormus' standard indents into Departmento Munitorium supply lines have secured some armour which was already earmarked for the DKK.

These are LeMan Russ varients supplied by a Styrgies VII statalite forge.  The Amarillo statalite forge is renowned for the high quality of it's products, however, the forgemaster suffers from ill health so productivity is sometimes not what it could be.

These have Styrgies VII equivalents to Mars Alpha hulls.  These bigger engines and generator units enable the further modifications which allow varient weapon loads without sacrificing mobility. 

The Amarillo pattern turrets have a large bustle which, in the vehicles supplied to Devos IV, either capacitor/battery banks for the Anhilator las cannons or ammunition storage for the Predator cannon.

The varients supplied to Devos IV are Predators with Heavy Bolter sponsons and hull mounted Heavy Bolter. 

And the Anhilators with hull and sponson mounted las cannons.  The unusual, increased capacity allowed by the larger hull and turret.

Another two of each to build !
 

Environmental concerns - extra post, to give a chuckle, perhaps.

 

So the sorry saga begins here and I soon decide that I need to stop and get some gloves on. 

 And yeah, I've been washing them in a bucket - forunately the weather is pretty benign at the minute, I can rise them, leave them on the Brick of Scrutiny's table to dry and they can stay outside in the shade.  The main culprit was already deceased, probably through ingesting plastic.

He/she may look peaceful, but these little twats have eaten most of Admiral and Mrs Drax's worldly goods as well as most of Austrailia.  And their behaviour in my garage isn't condusive to a long lasting peaceful co-existance, either. 

That's not weathering, it's mouse shit. 

Needless to say, a new plastic container with a fitting lid has been obtained for the air armada.

I've got over 200 hours in Voss Pattern Vultures. All simulated.

So the latest four reinforcements for the Imperial Guard on Devos IV are actually technically members of the Imperial Navy's Close Orbit Command. 

The same heads as the Valk crews

Those cockpit assemblies are much more detailed that the ones I did for the Valks.

And into their flying stations. 

Lots of work still to do, but some meaningful progress is always nice.

Gyps fulvus

Because you can never have too much BBBBRRRRRRT in your Iggy army. 

And you can blu-tac missile pods and hellfire missiles to Valkyries.  

Grey, grey, grey and grey with a Tamiya signal yellow id flash. 

Added decals.  Bird 9

And bird 6.  Any similarity to JG52 markings is entirely co-incidental.  But they look good with the greys, no ? 

 
Port side

Port side of the other bird. 

Crew information panels - the decals are actually from a 1/48 US WW2 bomb kit. 

And the other bird as well.  They still need a bit of work...

28mm 40K imperial fighter on KS

Here !

Looks good, multiple airframes on offer...

Mortian "King Russ" MBT

If you're a long term reader of this blog, then you're probably aware of the Mortian MBT, which was made by a German craftsman (Heavy Support) some years ago.  He was a model maker and indeed, I believe had made vehicle kits for GW

He stopped doing them a few years ago, but I'm aware that I wasn't the person emailing him and asking for more (seriously, if you want something you've seen, ask - generally the guys casting these types of things up in their garages are hobbyists as well - if you ask nicely and make it worth knocking a batch up the results can reaffirm one's faith in the world)

So though the miracle money pit that is kickstarter, these and a tank destroyer variant were made available as a one off run, in quantity.   Having learned that sometimes you have to get these things whilst they're available, I put my order in. 

I have put four of these together already and only have another two to go.

It's a nice kit to put together.  The resin is altogether more brittle than FW material but the detail is super and the sculpt certainly looks the part as far as I'm concerned.

It's a decent size and so might count-as a not twin linked macharius.  But equally, could just be a LRMBT with an ensuite bathroom.

Here are all four, providing security for the Brick of Scrutiny. 

And here it is with a Mars Alpha LRMBT for scale.   Same height.

A bit wider

The angle which actually shows just how big it actually is.

And the rear view.  S'all for now, more later.

I get by with a little help from my friends

So by prior arrangement Karitas and Admiral Drax came over to give me a hand.  The idea was "just" to line up my iggies.  That is all.  The gettin' em out and puttin' em away again took the best part of seven hours. 

So these photos are just a tease.  Karitas brought his camera and his photography is soooo much better than mine.  But there are reasons for his super competence; I tried a 'fly by' with my DSLR, there's someone cutting their grass somewhere nearby and the background noise makes it seem like drone footage.  However, watching it back, you can clearly discern my footfalls from side to side.  So that's not being posted.

Whilst we were doing this, Admiral Drax was posting on a closed group on fb.  Which was almost instantly getting comments.  Mostly about my mental state, judging by his cackling.  Like it says in the title - three of us working for between six and seven hours could be twenty one hours - I'd not manage such a task in a on my own (and quite frankly, it would sap one's mojo in the end).

So here's some 'high level' airplane and titan level views from the back of the parade.   And the main purpose of this is of course to publicly thank Karitas and Admiral Drax for all their help; this would literally not have happened without them.  And the chances are, if you're reading this, that your continued support of this blog is one of the things that keeps it chuggin' along.  So thank you as well.

I hope this has wetted your appetite - more parade picts soon !

Crowded skies

This is the T-65 Strike Fighter, as flown in number by the PDF.  Their two single crewed airframes were the locally reproduced lightening, flown in the air defence (interceptor) role and the T-65 Strike Fighter flown in the 'strike' or ground attack role.

Certainly with an internal bay holding a pair of air to ground (hunter killer) Anti armour missiles and its quad las cannons, it was an unwelcome reminder to 72AG that the PDF was still operative during their advance across the prairies of central Benq. 

However, the Imperial Navy did maintain air superiority and the individual raiders were invariably hunted down.

I keep hearing "Open wings to attack formation" in my head.  Of course the Thunderbolts did not everything their own way; as they closed in on Xyphoinca, they sometimes found themselves the hunted. 

A Xana II (sing it, everyone ! who doesn't like ELO ?) lineage HellBlade in Black Legion colours.

The HellBlade must be extremely confident to take on two Thunderbolts; like I noted in the previous post, if it gets in front of Thunderbolt, it's toast.

However, the appearance of the forces of chaos proper, emerging from the warp will invariably trigger a response from those watching from the webway:

Void Dragon's might technically be pirates, by they're still Eldar.  If they've appeared above Devos IV, then it wouldn't be coincidence.  Here configured for an air superiority role.

Hurrah !  (and thanks to Andy BG) I really must dig out the transfers for these.

The HellBlade (based to match the Brick of Scrutiny) attempts to peel away.  Possibly for the best.

Imperial Air Power

Just to credit the artists, Karitas put one of these together and the paint is by Jeff at PVP.  

I had a little time to myself and thought I'd get some toys out and share the love:  My Thunderbolts.  These are big ol' things, for 40K model flyers.  Compared with anything else I've seen Thunderbolts have heft and presence, even compared to bigger models. 

A decent pict of #9.  As anyone who has read Mr Abnett's Battle of Britain story will know, they use the quad autocannons dog fighting and the TL las cannons to strafe.  The thunderbolt is a heavily armed and armoured airframe.  You wouldn't want to get in front of one.

Then the pair.  Of course they hunt in pairs. And not just with their integral weapons.  They 'go equipped' as the local law enforcement authorities here would say.

And what more stylish manner could there be of putting eight hellfires on the table ?  Hunting for tanks.

Zoom.  Whoosh.  Eeeeeeoooooooooooww.  pew pewpew.

Would this ever be worth the points ?  What ?!?! am I kidding ? Who cares ?

1000 kg on the centre line with two 750kg free fall bombs on the inboard pylons.  This option really needs dive bombing rules (gotta sort an avenger/stuka at some point)

500kg on each pylon. Because bombs.  For when I just want to daisy chain blast markers across the board.  'Cause it's cinematic.  Presumably in eighth, this doesn't happen.  They just land with a splat.

Hunting other things; 'cause CAP are not all about sitting in the cab rank, waiting for an FAC to call you onto a target.  4x 50kg unguided GA rockets and 4x much bigger and more expensive AAM.  Because sometimes they might need to shoot something down...