Christmas Post 2 Enginseers

Here are two enginseers.  A proper metal one and the new plastic one.  They are not unrealistically scaled; I know people (some of whom read this blog) who are either bigger or littler than me in the same ratio as these two. 

But unsurprisingly, it is the newer plastic one who is the larger, albeit not by much.  So the difference is not so much GW reflecting reality as scale creep. 

These two need basing but aside from that they're good for the table top.

Christmas Post 1 "Merry Siphmas"

First up on the Brick of Scrutiny are some finished models.  "Ah, it must be Christmas, Zzzzz has finished something.  But no, it wasn't me; Siph Horridus from Wee Men did these for me in exchange for some Sisters of Scissors. 

For those of you unfamiliar with such things, these are FW's Vorax; which are horde killing hunter droid.  Their aesthetic is based on the 'Crusader' robot from the old 1980's robots.  For some reason, they don't get pushed like some of the other FW robots.

These are obviously ancient assets belonging to the Ad Mech tide to the Legio Astorum, proudly wearing Warp Runners colours.  Unless you're tanks, plural (and even then, the Lightening Guns mean that's uncertain) then for the time being, the BoS is safe.

And just for scale, there's a Tech Priest. 

Many thanks to Siph for these - If I had the skill to assemble and paint these (they are fiddly kits) then I'd be sorely tempted to get some more; their sinister purposefulness makes them very attractive little models.

New from DragonForge in 2019

Long term readers will remember my fondness for Chimera conversion kits.  Always with an eye on what's going on I spotted these, from DragonForge, best known (so far) for outstanding resin bases and a 28mm jackhammer. 


Jeff (the DragonForge one, not the PVP one) is producing two things which might pique your interest.  One is a kit to up armour your Chimera - there's extra armour panels for the sides and for the front elevation as well.
 







That front kit is so nice; it's a clear quantum leap for those of us who lack the plasticard skills of Claus or Pim Mauve who could now use these to whup up consistently chimera looking chimera conversions.



And the second, possibly more exciting kit he's working on is the DragonForge 'Bison', which will be a multi option kit which can do (at least) Command Salamander, Recce Salamander and Griffon. 



So no, I'm not on commission (Jeff needs us to buy his stuff at face value, otherwise he'll go out of business and/or starve to death); but if someone puts this much effort into improving the hobby in terms of high quality options to expand my/your/our Imperial Guard army, then it deserves a bit more exposure.

And yes, I know I could have re-sized the picts, but meh, this shows of the potential of these kits. 

Kitbashed ISTs/shotgun vets.

These are Anvil Unity Council Marine legs, armoured shooting arms with a selection of phase carbines (Hotshot las-guns) and shotguns.  All of this confectionery held together with FW hazardous Canadians.
 

They have had more work on since this, including rural basing, as opposed to my usual grey rubble.  Don't know why, just a whim.

I like the look of them, there are some hoses or cables which do trail off and have no further connections once they go past someone's armpit, but compared to the sculpting and casting sins of yesteryear, that doesn't look so bad.  Not enough to warrant the likes of me monkeying about with Anvil and FW's work. 

And these guys generally look like know what they are (supposed to be) doing.  So that's a win.

These get lenses, weapon coloured weapons and some spotty three coloured camouflage before a gentle wash to unify the camo colours. 

They've already got mud and flock bases.  It may be time for the odd strand of static grass...

Stormblade Progress

As with the Macharius, I managed to put a little time in on the Stormblade.  I had a couple of days off sick - my delightful children had given me a sore throat, the type that progresses to a dry hacking cough which ruins sleep and renders one ineffective at most things.  But those one or two hours of functionality can reap a small commiseration prize.

The original call sign P20 was eventually declared BLR* and the hulk backloaded to be shipped to some Emperor forsaken armoury world somewhere it would be stripped down to the bare hull and rebuilt.  It's likely that some of the working parts (which kept failing) were hundreds of years old before it came to Devos IV.  The 10th Hvy Pz Abt has received its replacement asset; a Stormblade.

Kapitan Merkall has decided to make J5 her command tank.  It is entirely likely some one higher up the chain of command will decide to make it their command tank, however, until that happens, Kapt Merkall has the honour of commanding the only true superheavy DKK tank on Devos IV. 

Like the other tank (the Macharius) this has yet to much more in the way of weathering than a rather heavy pinwash.  Although there has been a bit of effort to make the back end look rusty, sooty, oily and dusty all at the same time.  The crew access ladder can go back on when it's looking a bit more worn

Macarius Progress

 

Welcome back to the marshalling yards of Acre, where arriving IG assets are received dirtside and prepared before being shipped trans oceanic to the front.  This is assembled, basecoated, camouflaged, pin washed and then the first stages of weathering applied.  

S9 is a replacement tank.  P10 was destroyed by a rebel T65 strike fighter out on the prairie in a sneak attack during the build up for Operation Dragonfire.  Unterofficer Ravell and S9 restore the 10th Hvy Pz Abt attached to the 19th Armd Regt to one callsign.  Previously the 'Heavy tank company' had been Lucius pattern vanquishers.  Formidable assets themselves, nonetheless the general feeling is that the Macharius is a more suitable weapon to fill out a 'Heavy' tank company.

There's more mud to come and a bit of tarting up.  Crew members, a driver's hatch section which keeps falling off.  heat discoloration on the flamers and maybe some stowage.  Chipping as well, don't forget the wear and tear.

Progress !

So I had a bit of time and I put the Stormblade together. It's a nice kit which is not too hard to put together.  

In fact the most pain in the butt thing is the way the floating wheel at the back wobbles about when you're assembling any Arkurian Baneblade chassis. 

And the Macharius.  The port side is a Macharius part, with the sponson in the correct place.  

Someone somewhere has a Crassus with a Macharius starboard side piece.  It's a genuine part, but the panels on the Crassus part are not as pronounced as those on the Macharius and are in different places.  

Which is what this pict shows.  The previous owner (careful, FSH, one lady owner) had smoothed off a little of the detail to fit the sponson to the vehicle.  But this position is way too far back towards the rear.  That sponson has to move forward. 

It wouldn't sit without a little more flattening out of the detail.  a couple of minutes with the dremel and we're good to go.  Am I worried about the apparent level of carnage done to this expensive and detailed FW model ?  Nope, I'm gonna glue a sponson over it and the paint and weathering are going to hide any overspill.