Humm. As F1 stuff is to family cars, so SF kit is to line infantry.

New kit will help soldiers see more clearly

17 January 2014

British troops are to benefit from up to £53m of new equipment to help them identify targets more clearly.
The MOD has invested in new night vision and laser equipment that will enable soldiers to spot potential threats earlier and better protect themselves against the enemy during day and night operations.

A state of the art laser light that can illuminate targets from up to 800m away will be provided to all infantry soldiers. Weighing just 244 grams, it fits onto the SA80 rifle to give more accurate firing in low light conditions.

More than 15,000 new lightweight, ergonomic binoculars have been ordered to be used alongside the upgraded laser lights. Designed to be easier to hold, the new models are 50 percent lighter but still offer excellent magnification to give better situational awareness.

"Tested virtually to destruction"

Lance Corporal Herbline Biscette tested the equipment. He said: "This new kit will help us to stay accurate and heighten awareness in difficult, low-light conditions. Being able to mark our targets from so far away means that we can prepare for the situations ahead and do the job with confidence.

"This kit also gets tested virtually to destruction – they get dropped from height, submerged, blasted with sand, left out in minus 20 degrees – all conditions that we might have to face when using it, so we know that it won’t let us down.”

The MOD has also invested in more than 4,000 additional Head Mounted Night Vision Systems specifically for the Army Reserve. They allow soldiers to operate in poor light or in dark tunnels and buildings and better identify both threats and other personnel.

Minister for Defence Equipment, Support and Technology Philip Dunne visited the Infantry Trials Development Unit in Warminster, Wiltshire, to see the new kit being put through its paces. He said: "The ability to see further and in more detail will allow British troops to stay one step ahead of danger.

"The multi-million pound investment makes clear the MOD’s commitment to equipping our Armed Forces, including Reservists, with world-class battle-winning technology. These binoculars, laser aimers and night vision goggles will improve situational awareness and reduce collateral damage across the Battlefield."

Free Gift !

You may or may not remember that I promised Admiral Drax a prize for fourteen consecutive posts over the Chrimbo holibob.

So these are three Heresy Miniatures SciFi troopers.  Now these fellows didn't have a home so, casting about the garage for something to fob off on poor ol' Drax, my eyes alighted on these.

 Sorry about the photo quality of these last few posts.  I suspect that more imaginative positioning of the lamps would have shown the little guys off a bit better.  No chance of a re-shoot, they went in the post a fortnight ago.

 They were fun to do.  Done in plain colours (revel ones, mostly), with washes and a smaller amount of drybrushing, esp on the armour.

 Their left shoulder pads are snot green (lovin' the name again there) with the IG badge from the Canadian transfer sheet and then dulled down and made to look like part of the same figure with successive washes.

 Hopefully, two shots with a bit more detail.  I like these figures, I think they look the part, the armour is not OTT, the weapons are not oversized for the people and their belt order kit is looking ok too.

So, that's it for these guys.  Obviously they went unbased, as my grey rubble would not match Admiral Drax's grass (man).  Good plausible excuse that.

Heavy Weapon Progress

 So, lots of us have the GW IG Heavy Weapons teams.  Which, once you've built your one heavy weapon team, leaves you with five spare weapons.  If you don't mount your missile teams on the stabilising stand, that leaves you with the bits to assemble a mortar baseplate.  So with another 60mm base, that's another heavy weapon.

 The dent bits to put the little men are 25mm electrical conduit.  Very easy to cut down with a scalpel or knife (doesn't need to be too sharp, either, this stuff cuts like something deliberately designed and manufactured to be easy to cut - funny that), but not super easy to keep an exact line - but I fill up to the rim (from the outside) with filler anyway, so it doesn't need to be too fine a tolerance.

 And slap on sandbags, bombs and so on; that's mortars in ubiquitan army green for any army short of supporting firepower.

 So, using some handy Valhallans, this should give you an idea of what you get.  Las-cannons up next !

Valhallan progress.

My final ten metal GW Valhallans.

 They are the same colours as all the others; and incidentally the scheme from which PVP worked out the colourscheme for the DKK.  I had at one point envisaged the whole army homogeneously completed in the same colourscheme.  I still like the idea of this, but have strayed.  Oh well.

 To be particular about these guys in particular, they are done to a slightly higher standard than most of the rest of them; the faces are better (don't laugh !) and I may go back and cover the goggles and field dressing on helmets.

 I like the way they've turned out.  As small squads and individual models they look good.  As a massed army, the realistic army colours mean the whole lot become an amorphous muddy mob.  Which, when you think about, is exactly the idea.

 Obviously I could go back and and highlight the lasguns, or put a different colour on the straps around the blanket rolls.  But there are over a hundred of them and I've got more pressing things to do; these guys are good enough (bar the bases).

 I like the sculpts - they make a basecoat and wash (Khemris Brown and Deluvian Mud) paint job look good.   They still look good, are in varied enough poses and headgear to not look staid or just plain rubbish and in a nod to the Commissar Caine books, some have comm-beads.   Although having said that. I'm not sure which came first.

 I do still have pig iron winter guard heads and wargames factory bodies so with a few more specialised cadian arms, that'll be it for 540th Valhallan (Kado) Regiment of the Imperial Guard.

Servitor Progress

 These fellows are the servitors for my Guard army's two Enginseers.  They each have two HB servitors and two Tech servitors each - if you're ever going to deploy an Enginseer, he needs all the help you can give him.

 They sat half done for years and you may have seen them on the table with grey undercoat skin and boots.  Indeed, I did want them to have sort of sallow and greyish skin anyway, but these guys have ended up with 'normal' skin (as I do it...)  Which perhaps actually makes these servitors (lobotomised cyborgs) perhaps a bit more creepy.

The dark patches on them are fenris grey (which is prussian blue [?]) over their shadow grey jump suits; this is supposed to be wet patches; biological fluids or mineral oils seeping out of them.  It looks ok in the flesh. 

 There is a bit in the Word Bearer's omnibus where the Ad Mech persuades the Iggy general that dead and dying guardsmen could be buried with honour, but that they could continue to serve if they were handed over to the Ad Mech as a resource.

 "Only in death does duty end."  So, if like the Dread Pirate Roberts you happen to find yourself 'mostly dead' whilst in the Imperial Guard, then you may well end up as a servitor.

 Fluftastically, the armies on Devos IV are led by a coterie of Vostroyans, who have strong ties with the Ad Mech, so if your named character gets wounded on Devos IV, watch out...

All eight of them.  Basing in the future, when whole loads of people will be based at once. 

Uh-oh

Progress so far.

So, the DKK are started.

I have also done some stuff: ten new Valhallans, that just now need basing.  There's eight servitors who have been half done for years who are now good for the tabletop.  And there's the little prize for Admiral Drax who did fourteen posts over the Christmas holidays.  Just decals, basing and so on for that one.

The Valhallan contingent are in the house (Oooooooh !).  Of all of my figures they are the ones who need the most TLC.  So they will get a touch up and so on.  I also took the opportunity earlier to go around their bases with a black marker pen; I've done this before for others and it looks fine from two feet away.

My purchasing strategy for the year will be to see what comes out in the proposed new iggy codex.