Keillerkopf APC with paint.

Pre-shading in red brown and then the 'usual' Dark Sand base coat.  This colourscheme has to tie in with the one used for the DKK without being the same (sounds like an android advert..) - not the thin wriggly lines of the DKK vehicle fleet but something close.

So I plumped for a hertzer like 'ambush' scheme.  What his basically means is ensuring that coverage between the three colours is 1:1:1 and then putting brown and yellow spots on the green, green and brown spots on the yellow and yellow and green spots on the brown. Possibly would have been better with hard edged camouflage, but it looks ok.  Spots can be done with a cut down old brush; giving a decent circle.  What you see here is me throwing on 'circles' rather impatiently There'll be filters and so on so I'm not so worried. .

The windows unmasked and decals applied.  One thing that did not work so well was the hair spray and salt over the red brown undercoat.  No amount of warm soapy water caused the desired weathering effect.  Not surprising really, there were three or four other colours over the top by that point.  Ho hum.  Wheels back on soon.

Update Sun 17 May 15:  Here's a learning point - you'll need the rear wings/mud guards on to paint it.  However, the wheels will not go on with the wing/mud guard in place.  I had to break these off - fortunately I'm an old hand at dismantling my own handiwork, but will stick to blue tac next time.

With filters (AK interactives) and euro dust (er, erm, Mig.  Yup, definitely Mig 'European dust') the wheels will be blended in with the rest of the vehicle.  But this view gives you a nice sense of the almost brutal aesthetic of these bad boys.  And here's the backside - the first thing I look at, usually.

Oh and Tanith Lee died recently.  We all will, but when it's someone you read as a teenager, it is that little bit more poignant.

Full Sized AT AT Progress.

So these are the 'titan' gatling guns for Mark Mandragon's (Ironcore) 15mm models.  I was sort of hoping that they would size up ok for the Vulcan Mega Bolters for my 'counts as' StormLordies.

If you are careful with the glue the multi barrel bit in the middle rotates.  Sgt Kwiz there providing us with a sense of scale.  As you were, Sgt...

This is them blu-tac'd in place on the head of an AT AT.  That broken off bit did get stuck back on an hour or two after this pict was taken.  Hey, the garage can be a dangerous place, y'know !  I'm happy enough with this as a look.  Now all I need to do is identify eight of something the same to use as spacers to mount these babies...

And just for completeness, an all up shot.  Once again, Sgt Kwiz providing us with a sense of scale.  Obviously doesn't completely replicate all of the features of a StormLordie, but bollocks to that, I'm gonna put four of these on the table and stomp my way to their deployment zone before disgorging hordes of iggies into someone else's personal space.

MWA Ha ha ha ha,

Social whirl

I've just been for a nice cup of tea with The Responsible One at a chain coffee emporium between Marylebone and Baker Street.

We had a nice chat (he's quite good at it) for about an hour on house prices, job security and the concentric rings of cost of houses, which is centered on W1 somewhere.

And amongst the other things that cropped up on the periphery, kickstarters, sources of mid-eighties citadel metals, 40K LARP (no, really, I've seen the picts.  But Aberdeen ? Really ?!?!).  And of course struggling through one's plastic crack mountain.

Anyway, the point of this post is that it is a marker, an aide memoire for me; I have some Chimera parts to locate somewhere in the garage.  I will let you all know when I find them and hopefully at some point in the grim darkness of the far future, The Responsible One will show us their eventual employment.

And here's a not - tank.  'cause tanks are festive.  Well, in winter 'flage at least.

More soon(ish).

Heavy Weapon Progress. Curious Constructs Cannon Carriages

So then, it's the middle of last year and some of those other heavy weapons from the Cadian Heavy Weapons set still need homes.  Oh look, Col Gravis is having a kick starter !

And the very first option is the carriage without a weapon.  That's handy, one thinks to one's self, there's a potential home for the weapons.  One quick backing later and I've got me carriages. Now the weapon shield does not allow one to fit a GW weapon to the CC weapon carriage.  So rather than hack it about, these are going to be done naked.

So this them glued up.  I'm thinking that the las cannon battery can be mounted on the axle at the front and then perhaps connected up with a bit of pretty heavy gauge brass wire.

In case you're wondering, there is an autocannon propped up on that las-cannon.  So, then, a week and a bit later and we're here:

Undercoated, base coated, monumentally heavy pin oil wash and then a few details like the cartridges in the auto cannon drums, auto cannon cocking handles and las-cannon barrels.

When you click on the fots, you should be able to see that muzzle shroud on the las-cannon and the muzzle brakes on the auto cannon are suspiciously green; I was holding them by the muzzle as I worked on them, figuring that this would be an area that got extra work later.

I know one of them is pointing at the ground.  But hey, in the Grim Darkness of the far future, even the dirt is probably worth shootin' at.  More tarting up to go on these, but as I write this the 60mm base las-cannons are done.

And in other news, I remembered to get Mrs Zzzzz a valentine card before the day this year.  So ratcheting up the brownie points for Col Winterbourne's extravaganza.  As long it doesn't clash with anything else.  I've been dreaming up justification for his battle, but that can wait.