Keilerkopf APC

So here it is next to a Chimera derivative.  The model comes with a fully kitted out interior complete with crew and ten passengers.  If you're one of those weirdos who paints the inside of a Rhino before glueing it all up, this will really let you go to town on something no-one will ever see. 

The kit goes together extremely well; up there with Academy and Tamiya kits.  The engineering involved in this kit is comparatively up to date for a model kit; ie cutting edge for a wargamming piece.  The kit uses several materials, for instance, steel screws that hold the wheels on; these are allowed to bite into the polyethylene of the hull's axle stubs.

Real rubber tyres are not unusual in 'mainstream' models, but not that common in wargamming models. The multi jointed raising and lowering jig for the quad mount has nylon bushes, exactly like the swinging arm on your motorcycle.

Speaking of which, it might not visually scream fortykay at you, but having put it together and played around with it for ten minutes, I'm converted.  It's a crackin' little gadget.  Hat's off to the man or team (Mark Mandragon) who put this together.  I love it.  And it looks kool too.

Once again, Sgt Kwiz provides us with a sense of scale.  There are plates to cover the screws, but those wheels are coming off for painting.  Another thing missing is a wheel arch for those two back wheels, but it does just look kool without it.  It'll go on after undercoat, pre-shade and basecoat.

Sgt Kwiz says if he didn't fly everywhere, he'd like to ride about in one of these.  Paint next.

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,

Actual real mocked up footage.

Just in case you hadn't seen this on the book of faeces:

 https://vimeo.com/107454954

Not FW Tauros

OK, so you have seen all of the other models* out there which can proxy for these:

Arcing back to the 1990s, before 9/11 and the subsequent entanglements in Iraq and Afganistan, the British Army was trialling these:

Made by Wessex (and I don't know, but they might be the helicopter people ?).

The Wessex Saker is a space frame two man vehicle which mounts a heavy weapon.  The vehicle was envisaged as a recce vehicle; the FS role mentioned in the Tauros fluff is these days filled by the Jackel and so on; much bigger vehicles.

I think the upper two photos are old ones from the era when these vehicles were being trialled.  I'm also pretty sure that the bottom photo is from a re-enactment type event; hence the appliqué headlights and visible number plate (a "Q" plate in the UK is one given to a vehicle re-registered after being de-registered [by the Driver Vehicle Licence Agency] for some reason).  The number plate should really be arranged Q 598 OCR rather than Q5 98 OCR - it has been arranged like this to look more like a MoD registration.

Funny ol' world.

* Anyway, just in case you were wondering, here are some Tauros alternatives:

HALO Warthogs with the three barrelled gun replaced with an IG Auto Cannon

Here representing the Cadian 144th LRRR.

Antenocti's Warthog, Here serving the Cadian 127th.  A closed in lightly armoured four seater.

Antenocti's Viper, much smaller, a proper two man vehicle, again serving the Cadian 127th.

Antenocti's Bear SUV; unarmoured four seater serving the Cadian 24th

Antenocti's Zebu; four seater arbites cruiser.

The Later Phases of the War

Belligera Rex - Acquisition of this asset is the major war aim of the Skull Takers

Danny Bloodcoat knew from the outset that any military action staged by the PDF would only ever be a holding action.  Facing the Imperial Guard as foe, rather than relief force, his delaying strategy was only ever supposed to be buying time for a negotiated settlement.

This negotiated settlement could have included an amnesty for the PDF soldiers, even perhaps the officers in the early stages.   But despite ensuring his staff kept asking their political masters about the negotiations, time has dragged on.  By the time the Imperial Guard attacked the Cudlip defence lines, any hope of clemency for the PDF was long past. 

The rebel leaders told the PDF that the Cruel Imperium had rebuffed any attempt at communication.  The truth might be that any communication might have had to have gone through the Inquisition, however a perhaps equally entrenched view point and radical dogma existed in the cultist dominated Benq regime.   There is a strong suspicion amongst the PDF Staff that their political masters approached the negotiations in a half-hearted manner, if at all.

Porn Cultists - The Slaneeshi controlled areas a teeming with them.

However the cultists in the regime had not been idle and had been trying to find help.  And their requirements were being answered.  But as ever with the fickle gods of chaos, what Slaanesh and Khorne have provided is perhaps not exactly what they expected.

Emperor's Children.

 A cohort of the Emperor’s Children has arrived, led by Eidolon, former Equerry to Fulgrim, now a Deamon Prince.   Almost all of the cults on Devos IV are Slaneeshi aligned.  The rulers of Benq are Slaneeshi cultists.  Regardless of other Slaneeshi aims, Eidolon is still fighting the war his master and his master’s gene-brothers began ten thousand years ago.  He sees the war Danny Bloodcoat is fighting.  For the time being, the invasion retarding plan remains the best way.  But what Eidolon sees is a need for more resources, he can’t punish the lackies of the false emperor with the remnants of the PDF alone.

Eidolon, Equerry to Fulgrim

When the Emperor's Children arrived, their appearance was spun by the Benq Government, to the population (included) as the arrival of Space Marines to save them from the invader.  reinforcing this impression, the emperor's children were almost instantly attacked by Wild Riders of Siam Hain, the perennial bogeymen of Devos IV's culture since mankind first set foot on this green and blue world, whenever that was. Of course, Danny Bloodcoat and his senior staff, having served in the wider Imperium, are well aware who their new allies are.  What they make of this remains to be seen. 

The tattered remains of the Skulltakers Warband, much depleted since their zenith on Vraks centuries ago, have arrived led by Zhufor. The Skulltakers are on Devos IV to claim Belligera Rex, a warhound titan inadvertently left behind by the War Griffins in the wake of WAAAHG Burkat.   Eidolon has given Zhufor passage to Devos IV, a chance to get a titan and somewhere to use it.

Skulltakers

But Khorne is ever Slanesh’s rival.  So whereas all of these veterans of the long war have come from the Eye of Terror, there are also combatants arriving from the Sabat Worlds.  A detachment of Bloodpact have arrived; probably hidden amongst the convoys bringing supplies and reinforcements for 72AG.  Khorne likes iteration and after the PDFs experiences, there is a good chance that the Bloodpact will stiffen the Bloodcoats and draw them closed to Khorne.

The Lord of Decay will not be left out.  Warpsmiths of The Cleaved have arrived in the ruins of San Cantor and resurrected any servitor that they could find.  

More lil'men that I painted.

These guys are Malifaux Freikorps.  I was in the FLGS in the Wirral and saw these; they were an impulse purchase, but I kinda like them.  Why anyone commonly known as Friekorps would be seen brandishing a Colt 45 and Kukri god only knows, but I get the impression that that is the point of Malifaux.

Anyway, they are two likely candidates for a close protection team (counts as bodyguards), intrusion team (counts as deaf cult assassins) or just wounds for an inquisitorial warband.  I dare say that there'll be plenty of excuses to field them, it'll just depend what box they end up living in.

Two PDF 2nd Regt (La Gardia Presidentiale) grenadiers.  Scion arms and legs, pig iron swedes and 3rd party armoured torsos from the old, old version of what used to be Urban Mammoth's thingy.

I seriously need to do something about the purple ink spot on the tops of their heads.  It's not too bad in the dim light of the garage, but shows up quite badly in the daylight photos.  Ho hum.

Three officers from the 2nd (LGP) Regt.  There weren't really any to speak of before these three- obviously GW tank crew bodies and legs, assorted GW arms and a pair of Tamiya 1/35 binos - still smaller than the GW 1/58ish giant binos.  No wonder Cadians have big, manly arms, lugging all that over sized kit about.

The Officers in gas masks are Puppets War and the other dude has an Eisenkern Officer's head and the GW Officer's body with the medals.

And this is the Ad Mech AAA for protecting the precious Titans from baddies with aircraft.  It was red when I got it; I was basically practising weathering on it.  Hopefully what you see when you look at it is successive layers of mud dried in different colours.

I now think that narratively, it would have made more sense to the casual observer if the older, drier mud had been the lighter colour and the newer, wetter mud was darker - a lesson for future models. In case you're wondering, Salisbury Plain is mostly chalk just under the surface, so the deep liquid mud churned by tracks and HGVs is a sort of bleached bone type colour.

Cdr 902 Div's Crassus

Over all, I'm pretty happy with this.  It's not supposed to be that badly beaten up, being the Divisional Commander's trundling HQ.  The stains around the fuel filler caps are better in the flesh.  The main disappointments are the sooting where the exhaust chucks out the diesel fumes - this looked great until I tried to seal it in with a bit too much varnish - hence it looking like a spray on coating, rather than an accumulation of soot - go figure.  Generally speaking I was a bit heavy handed with the varnish all over - you can see white patches on the tracks as well.

I will go back and sort those out.  The other track treatment that doesn't show too well is rubbing pencil lead shavings over the tracks (rather than highlighting/drybrushing with a metallic paint) - this normally gives a really good result.  However, I used too hard a pencil this time and it's just not showing up.  Sad face.

Anyway, here he is, side by side with the Korps Commander's run around.  It sort of points out the difference between the 3 Star Vostroyan Korps Commander - 30' high walking chimera.  And the 2 Star ASL Divisional Commander - large capacity very tough crassus.

Still - more stuff to go on the mid year report can't be bad, even if it does need a little bit of fixing. Anyway, having a little bit of time, I thought I would examine all of the ASL assets.

ASL Chimerae, very rusty tracks; the sky/eau de nile/rotting flesh needs sorting out before any more work is done.

The rest of the ASL fleet - the LRMBT need some euro dust on the tracks.  Those little curiously constructed gun carriages need some dust as well.  And the muzzles need a bit of work as well.

The Stormsword has been done once (by JTS) in grey.  And this will get some rotting flesh/sky/eau de nile as well. The whole lot do hang together quite well.  The Stormsword is technically Gen Welbahn's tactical vehicle.  In reality, it's command is delegated to his crew chief, Kaptain Hammith, as Gen Welbahn has a whole Division to command, which is possible in the Crassus in a way it isn't from the cupola of the Stormsword.

The un-usual world of COSPLAY.

So, I know a couple of LARPers (no names).  LARPing (google it if you don't actually know what LARP is) does by definition include a bit of acting and sleuthing and problem solving etc etc.  Where as COSPLAY seems to just be dressing up.



Picture from here

COSPLAY is popular in Japan, we know.  And it always seemed to me to just involve dressing up as an anime character.  But things evolve.

Idly browsing the interweb I came across these:

Pre enacting the guard

Young lady in various costumes

I used to not care for such things.  But upon reflection, these sorts of things are, perhaps, as much part of the 40k hobby as building an army of little resin, plastic, metal and failcast men.  It certainly takes dedication and effort to craft yourself a proper costume and then a dash of chutzpah to actually wear it somewhere. All good stuff, IMHO.

The browsing showed me a remarkable quantity and standard of artwork out there is quite breath taking.  Which had be thinking about the origin of it all; If you google 'John Blanche' there are a number of blogs and 'sites devoted to show casing the Grimfather's work.

And whoops there goes another two or three hours.  Oh well.

Anyway.  Here are some more people all dressed up: this time from Salute.

Black Library Audio Books

  

I've got one, "Black and Red" (I know, I can see it too) which is about SoB being called in to assess a world's piety immediately after first contact.

Anyway, the voice actors do the best they can and the direction is what it is and it's all a bit, er, how I would have wanted it to sound had I produced it in 1982.  Lots of forced reaction and caricature with a predictable shoot out at the end.  Now the idea behind the audio book was a good, solid premise for a Grim Dark story.  But it could have been a bigger story, in a book and been quite the piece, instead of being crammed onto one planet in an audio book.  Jus' sayin'.

So they're now offering this:

Which I am really interest in - I really quite liked 'Flight of the Eisenthing'.  Any way.  Here's the rub; I have almost no time in my life to listen to things (really  listen, I mean.  The radio may be on the background, but that's background stuff).   Whereas I do read.  I'd like this as a book.  Or books.  Or e-book or e-books.  And having been disappointed by 'Black and Red' I'm not really in the place where I'm gonna blow £50+ on a punt that this might not be as awful.

Another thing is the way in which I consume my hobby product - bit of weird language there, but I hope you get what I mean.  I would want this to sit on my shelf, with the other books I like.  Not be crammed and lost in with the Jason Donovan and Take That CDs.  Oh well, £50 saved, I suppose.

Do I have a point ?  Not really, just sharing an opinion.

OBTW, Astrubel Vect has a facebook page !  Who knew ?