Ornstein and Smough or A Tale of Two Superheavy Tanks

BRRING BRRING
"Hello, Forgeguard Activated First Armored. "
"Tanks department, please."
"Speaking."
"Do you have anything that can flatten an infantry company by itself?"
"Sure do. How many do you want?"
"Uh, one?
"Just one? Are you sure?"
"No. Send me something to blow up other super heavies, too."
"So, which is it?"
"Better send one of each."
"Hold please."

With the sad closing of my local game store, they were liquidating all of their stock, so I was able to nab a some superheavy kit cheap. I remembered what folks like Joel over at Mordian 7th had done with their super heavies and some custom parts from Machinator's store on eBay, and decided to order up a set. Machinator even subbed out some tracks for dynamo generators, which was terribly nice of him.

Fighting them both at once is a terrible bitch. I mean, LOOK at them. 

Anyway, as soon as they arrived, I set to work on Dragon Slayer Ornstein and Executioner Smough. In case you're not in the know, these are two characters from the From Software video game Dark Souls, one armed with a lance and the other with an enormous hammer. They attack you together and the fight is a tremendous pain in the ass. While painting both tanks gold to reflect the characters was a bridge too far, I decided to reflect them in spirit with matching gold nameplates on both tanks, not mention their armaments.

FYI, I used the old shelf paper instead of the new mini-lightbox, as these tanks were too darn big for the lightbox.

Smough, the Machinator-pattern Stormhammer, boasts two turrets, each with a pair of twin-linked battle cannons, and a brace of four anti-tank lascannon mounts and five twin-linked heavy blotters for sticking it to any infantry that survive his initial barrage.

I had enough leftover parts to have two long barrels for Destroyer Tank Hunters and two Demolisher barrels for Thunderers or Vinidicators. These tanks are breeding tanks. crazy, I know. 

Mounting the sexy turret sculpts was no mean feat. The top deck had to be trimmed and remounted every so slightly to allow for the forward turret to be able to traverse, and even so, its firing arc is partly limited by one of the sponson turrets. I suppose it'd be better to drop the forward lascannons and add targeters a la the Shadowsword (and pre-Heresy Stormhammer) but oh well. Everything's twin-linked anyway. I was tempted to add pintle mounts to it, but when I did the mockup it just looked silly, so I left them off.

Every other M-type Stormhammer I've seen out there sports multi-meltas in the lower sponsons instead of the upper ones, which I generally regard as a tremendous mistake. MM's are short-ranged, and the Stormhammer is a barrage vehicle, not an assault tank. This way Smough can keep tanks at bay while pulverizing infantry.

I had actually painted Smough second, and was running out of metallics by this time.

Machinator's armored fuel tanks make more sense than the stock Baneblade barrels, and help the tank stay more true to its epic-scale origins. The tiny shrine took some elbow grease to cut free of the old back panel, but it fit the little sleeve in the custom backplate like a glove.

I kept the grill and engine hatch loose as well so I could display them open. It's the little things.

Ornstein was something else entirely.

He has two configurations (well, more if you count the barrel length variants, which to me are unnecessary) Shadowsword and Stormlord, and is switchable to everything in between.

I was tempted to get extra sponsons, but then the gunners wouldn't have had any field of view.

There's even enough space inside the model to contain its spare parts, which is nice. Note the two bits of L-bar. That's really all you need to do in order to make the hull switchable.

The little top panels are magnetized, while the side panels are long pins. In retrospect, I could've made the interior guns swappable with flamers, too, but honestly, where's it all end? The sponsons are switchable as well, although I left the middle panels static. I realized my mistake only after everything was dry, because now if you stick a pair of rear sponsons on in Stormlord config, they obscure the rear stubber mounts. No big deal, as stubbers are kind of crap, but it's the principle of the thing. I suppose I could halfway ruin the thing and pry the plates off with a screwdriver, but ehhhh.

The (underpowered) Stormlord main gun is magnetized to go into the turret. Everything else relies on gravity and friction.

I subbed in two surplus Valkyrie door gunners and painted them in Forgeguard Activated First Armored colors. I was tempted to do servitors, but with all the AdMech stuff out now, I wanted to make a differentiation between human auxiliaries and pure Mechanicum forces, which my army now seems to be splitting into.With their metallic bits, they do look slightly servitor-y anyway.

It's kind of frightening that according to the rules you can load the thing with Skitarii or Kataphron heavy servitors and drive it straight into the heart of the enemy with all cannons ablaze. Twenty infantry models from the top deck is a lot, even with that number reduced for model size you're talking about a blistering amount of firepower. Plus, if you use Kataphrons (why didn't they call them Praetorians? It sounds so much better) you'll have tiny tanks riding inside an enormous mama tank, which is both silly and horrifying at the same time. Let me know if you try it. 

Mechanicus Praetorian H-Alpha-Rho-Kill-3-R

I'm slowly eking my way through the characters in the IG Codex, and I wonder why I haven't  made (or used) Harker (or HaRK3R) sooner. A BS4 relentless Heavy Bolter? Yes please. It took a bit of bits box digging to make him work, however. I'd quite forgotten I had some Maxmini bionic bits left over from some time ago, including these fantastic kneeling legs. His left arm is from an old Battletech Banshee-S that was in a container not meant for such things. As such it was a godsend when I found it and the reason the whole project went forward. 

I am, however, now severely low on machine-y looking backpack bits, and am having to make do with scraps. I suppose I could cobble together an alternative and send it to a recaster, but my AdMech army's pretty much finished as far as infantry models go, so is it worth it? Hmmm....

The mounting for the right arm is from a Micro Arts Iron Brotherhood mini. There's a metal rod running down the center of it from his body to the HB. Looking back, I supposed I should have done a drum and a chain feed, but really, he has to fit into a Chim with the rest of his squad, so it'll have to be clip-fed. 

He, of course, doesn't have a power fist in the rules, but I gave him one anyway. Punching an enemy with your cannon arm is an awfully 40k thing to do, so why not? The fingers are made out of pewter daggers from the old RAFM Heavy Gear line, and held on by CYA glue and prayer. I tried to go Weathered Penny while painting his metal bits, but then decided to bring the higher areas up with some silver and boltgun metal to distinguish him as a good guy (as opposed to those nasty copper Necrons...)

Some New Wheels....

So maaaaybe I had a third Valkyrie kit under my desk, and maybe I was going to turn it into a Storm Raven, until I realized that there were some triple-Vendetta IG lists I wanted to bury the local Eldar with. So, I started putting together the third bird and, as you do, I was looking at photos of Black Hawks and Ospreys when something dawned on me. When a Valkyrie breaks down, do they just work on it out in the mud, or drag the thing into the hangar? And how do they do that when it's on skids? Now, you might started shouting things like "replusor-lift skids" or "they waddle like penguins!", but me, I need something more to go on.  Since I had some bike wheels lying around (and the thing was already magnetized) I decided to try a simple conversion you see above 

As you can see, the thing can sit on its big, comfy airplane tires in either under-hull or winged configuration, which, for some reason, leaves me immensely satisfied. Now some guy in a tractor can drag the thing around, or a bunch of strong-backed lads can get back there and give her a push, and off she'll go. Sure, I presented all sorts of reasons why putting load-bearing gear on the wingtips is a bad idea, and maybe I'll add another belly gear like the AV-8B, but otherwise, I'm quite pleased with the way it looks. 

This also visually distinguishes the Vendetta from the old stock Valkyrie by another notch, which is fine by me, because they're different aircraft that do different things (yes, I know, they both carry troops). I thought about adding some aft engine cowling to alter the silhouette a bit like the vehicle carrier version, but at the time I think I was too lazy to go out and buy some plasticard. 


Also, I put watermarks on things now. 


So there you go. 

Adeptus Mechanicus: Techpriests, Engineseers, and Adepts

Like some other GW models, the lowly Engineseer is one of those characterful pieces that seems like he should do more, but isn't as great as he could be, somehow. In my AdMech army, I've been using them as filler models for things like Veteran Squads, heroes and other odds and ends (but strangely, I have yet to field an actual Techpriest in an army list, with or without servitors). The two above are stock, of course, but made for a good STC to use for others. Respirator, robes, backpack, servo arm, tools. Off you go. 

I'm not sure whether Dark Age is a defunct series or not, but I keep finding their box sets cheap (as in $6 plus shipping) which makes them ideally suited when found. The one on the right donated his head to a terminator conversion, and in return got an old Necron trooper head (look closely) under his green stuff cowl. The right hand one kept his human one, but wears his as a cogitator skull on his belt (which head is the dominant one is anyone's guess). They're adorned with IG and Flagellant belt bits, along with Necromunda pistols, where possible. 

You may recognize the fellow on the left as an ancient terminator, the old cobra-backed one that never really fit in with the other models (and as such, never joined my Ultramarines) Not to fear, as he gained an Obliterator power fist and augmetic arm with a Heavy Flamer. A few green stuff robes to complete the image, and you have a nice Praetorian flame trooper, and a hulking one at that. 

The Oblit fist came in a bits auction with chunks of another fellow you may recognize. In fact, I like the model so much I'll post a pic of him again:

Ah, Arch-Magos. So full of weapons and options that he's practically unfieldable without special rules (maybe as a Karamazov? Nah, too small..) That's a TL Plasma pistol, a flamer, a power claw, a blade of some kind, a smoothbore cannon of another kind, and some sort ocular mechadendrite. Oh, and a Rogue Trader Dreadnought left arm.

I suppose he'd be better off with Chaos Lord stats or something. Maybe a Tractor Beam (Lash of Slaanesh) but how to explain a TL Plasma pistol? The Tempus Fugitives list does feature a Magos Prime with a full servo harness and conversion beamer. Hmmm...

The forge halls must be built mighty large to accommodate this monster; he's practically a mini-Titan all by himself. Maybe he has a smaller sub-body to relax in and only wears this one when he's out in the field. 

The twins with their odd custom weapon-staves. I like the charging poses of these models, although the two-handed staff grip kind of limits conversion possibilities. The servo-backpacks are all made from standard SM packs, with the vents sawed off and replaced by machine bits, including the wicked saws, drills and claws from Necromunda pit gladiator bits sprue. I may look for some Cawdor or Redemptionist gangers the next time I'm fishing for Skitarii.

Female Mechanicum have always been rather interesting, and it's tempting to take them too far and make them look like jumped-up battle sisters. You have to walk a fine line between all the tech and weapons to keep them looking feminine, and as such these two presented more of a challenge than their male counterparts. The one on the left is a Magos Xenologis, as you can no doubt tell from her Eldar shuriken pistol and the rather arcane touches like the hourglass and cannon-axe weapon. Her companion is more along the lines of a Secutor or Skitarii, with a more aggressive pose and that folded-up flamer on her servo-pack. That hammer could probably do some damage, too...

Unlike the other Mechanicum, these two have purity seals on their weapons and gear. Are they plants from the Inquisition, I wonder? All of the Necron artifacts and gear about the forge might be cause for suspicion of Xenos contamination. Come to think of it, those strange conical "servitors" from a few posts ago have been seen ordering other servitors (and techpriests) about, and are devastating in combat. Hmmm....

Cloning Tanks Part 4: One Of These Things Is Not Like The Other...

Every motor pool has one (or more); the Chimera that's been repaired so many times it's a testament to spare parts stores and good ole'fashioned elbow grease. You folks will recall a post way back with some un-detailed and unpainted card tanks at the end? Well, I finally got around to finishing them off, and Chimera #3 is one of those. 

I like the way his rear section looks more like a little vault, thanks to the heavy rivets and imposing-looking hatch. Maybe they carry the regimental mascot and colors inside, for all the armor plating it has:

Those first two Chims came from a lucky eBay win (after unloading some old collectibles, a certain reseller had parts on sale, and... gee, can you guess my buying habits by now?) and I fitted them with upper track guards, so I've basically been holding onto the extra tracks for.... my, over half a year now. As you can see, the hull bears the same trademarks of my forge's reinforced armor, ie the heavy riveting (courtesy of ample sprue reserves). As Chimeras have a five-man fire point and no static lasguns anymore, it didn't seem an issue to model them. Our pattern multi-laser is more of a beam shotgun, as you can see, and the roomy turret actually accommodates a entire human gunner instead of just his head. 

Unlike the stylish sculpted GW treads on tanks #1 and #2, #3's are actually strips cut from a single sheet of Plastruct Clapboard Siding detail plasticard. The strips were laid over plastic  I-beam strips, which I also used for quick and easy track guards. The rear hatch is  static, of course, while I used lengths of paper clip (run directly through holes bored into the sculpted hinges) to articulate the Chimera hatches on #1 and #2. I would've liked the sub-doors on those to open, but they weren't molded in such a way that hinge-boring was possible. Oh well. #1 and #2's unused tread sections made two more Chimera tractor bodies possible:

Need quick and easy Hydra turrets? Get a $7 defense line turret, close the box with plasticard, add a top hatch and a Tau drone for a tracking radar, bolt the AC's on the sides, and then secure the whole shebang to the hull with rare-earth magnets. Those extra-blocky heavy duty treads you saw on the Basilisks way back are a thing of the past, I'm afraid. I'm quite taken with the i-beam-and-detail-plasticard approach to cheap, inexpensive treads. 

Added a few vents to the back for spice. I need to replenish my stowage bits box. I sort of shot my wad with the Basilisks and Leman Russes. But of course, they're modular:

So now I can go back and make two more Hydra modules for the Basilisk tractors, and a couple of artillery modules for these, allowing me to potentially field up to four of one or the other at once! WHA HA HA HA!!! 

Ahem. Sorry, still on the Dalek high from last time. 

I would have made Chim #3 modular, but I'll always need dedicated battle taxis anyway, so it's better to have a mix of modular bodies and static ones, right? Hmm, come to think of it, I need to make something up to serve as a Hellhound, too, don't I? Can't field Hydras all the time.

Adeptus Mechanicus: Skitarii

Everybody remembers this one, right? Today's post is about those little dots at the bottom; the infantry. Backbone of any army, really...

I got lucky one day on eBay and bid on lot of twenty (yes, twenty) Bretonnian Grail Pilgrims. I have never seen another, before or since, otherwise I'd grow my ranks by another two squads. Anyhoo, the converting began. Again, inspired by Mr. Taylor's lovely example, I set about giving those toothless frenchies cyborg parts (made of just about anything I could find in my bots box) and green stuff (where needed, which was not so much with these fellows) so they'd match up. Instead of lovely clean Space Marine bolters, I decided to go the heavy industrial route and fix them with Ork shootas for weapons. Skitarii weapons are described many times in fluff text but never elaborated on, but no one ever says "bolters" or even "gunpowder-filled muskets", so I figured I had pretty much free reign. Ork shootas are cheap and come in enough variety to make each model interesting. In case you were wondering, the sarge is the chap in the top row, middle, with the shield over his right arm like a Zaku.

Skitarii are primarily vicious assault troopers, so these squads sport assault weapons like grenade launchers and flamers. At the time I was still experimenting with army list builds, and using melta vet squads to hunt armor was still something I eschewed. Hindsight being 20/20, I suppose I'll go back an convert up eight or so more with melta guns.

Then another odd lot came up featuring twenty Empire Flagellants on sprues, which yours truly couldn't pass up. These were a treasure trove of devotional bells, books, scrolls, tiny hourglasses, little hammers of Sigmar, and so on. Those of you who want to add little bits and bobs to the kit of any model would do well to pick up a box of these things, because they are well worth the money. (on eBay, of course; never pay full retail for GW) Plus, the variety of heads is absolutely astounding. That sarge is one of my favorites, with his flaming metal skull and power fist (taken from a Warmachine servitor who now carries a support weapon), and still carries the iconic arm shield. 

Besides being uniformly robed (a definite perk) they're also, for the most part, in action poses, not just standing there like regular guardsmen, waiting for whomever to rend them asunder. I did have to greenstuff iron shoes on most of  them, though. I had a buzzsaw arm from back when you could still order Necromunda Pit Fighter stuff to your heart's content, and fit that to this squad's sarge along with the obligatory shield. The Flagellant-based ones required more green stuff in the form of cassocks, although for some reason I didn't carry over the cog motif the Grail Pilgrim-based ones had. I don't know why, really, maybe I was tired of painting cogs at the time. 

For the longest time I had considered simply shelling out for massed ranks of Vostroyans, but never found them in any quantity. This one squad I got on the cheap, and converted them up with Pig Iron Productions heads. They really are quite fantastic, and very easy on the wallet, so I do recommend you check them out if you haven't already. This squad usually gets broken up when I field them; the support weapon joins the other Heavy Weapon Squads, while the rest of the lads get bundled off into a Vendetta with some Techpriests or Squats carrying melta weapons (more on those and other stand-ins later). I made the decision to use them as Veterans to the other squads' standard infantryman role, which I suppose ropes me into fielding more (as funds allow) to differentiate the two. Sharp eyes will notice  something extra on that support team's base:

I know modeled cover doesn't count, but honestly HWT's swim on those massive 60mm bases. I also had a small Facehugger from my Alien Queen kit, but somehow I like having the cat on there more. Kitty's going to get a real shock when they open fire.

I really do love the job they did on those Vostroyan models. Why they didn't simply release a plastic box or three of them while they were re-releasing the IG I'll never know. Oh wait, I do know: they're shortsighted berks. That's why it's easier to, say, go on Micro Arts site and buy some of their Skitarii. They're almost too well-made, though, and leave little room for conversion. Where's the fun in that, I ask you? Speaking of fun, it's time to unveil the real power behind my Mechanicus forces. Did you look closely at the very first image? Did you?

Yes, you were lead astray by all that Necron talk, pitiful humans. The Daleks are behind everything on Mars. All of it. Stop us if you dare, Time Lord. (yes, I know they need basing, I think they look a little ghetto, too; I rushed them out before a battle and never got back to them...)

These have been in practically every army I've fielded in 40k, standing in for one unit or another. Even the most stringent WYSIWYG Nazi has never, ever objected to my Dalek squad, and they never fail to elicit a smile . Psyker Battle Squads? Storm Troopers? Daleks can do it all. Back when I was building my Necron army, I had considered taking advantage of Black Tree Design's many (and generous) sales, and making the Necron force entirely out of Daleks. If anyone wants to commission such a thing, I'd be more than glad to assist them.

Happy Easter, people.

Cloning Tanks Part 3: The Proxy.

Part of the the fun of 40k is is making and fielding army lists, as we all know, but sometimes you just don't have that amount of models in your collection. Who keeps four Hydras anyway? What about when you want to field that many Hellhounds instead? Well, my answer for this has always been the Proxy Tank. This little fellow was my first:

A simple M8 mortar tank model, gifted me by a friend (he was moving and giving piles of stuff away) I fitted him with Sentinel multi-laser and painted him up in my Skitarii regimental armor colors (we're from a mountainous planet, hence the rocky camo). This little fellow stood in as my first Leman Russ for a while, until I found a LR kit cheap on eBay.

As you can see, they're nearly the same size. This little tank as also doubled as a Hellhound, a Chimera, and Demolisher, bless him. I was tempted to modify it with sponsons, but that would've pushed the model too far in one direction. The proper Proxy is an amorphous thing that could be one model or another, because it reads as both. If you're playing against good natured folks they'll give you the benefit of the doubt. Now this guy:

He's a sure departure from the norm, but he fits the theme of a Mechanicus force, which you'd expect to have weird war machines. I came up with him after seeing these things:

(image is copyright: Lucasfilm, used without permission) 
The Star Wars prequels suck ass, but honestly the Clone Wars TV show has to be the best thing to happen to the franchise since Return of the Jedi left theaters in the '80s. I loved the look of this bug-eyed artillery droid,a nd had been wanting to mess around with the Defiler chassis for some time. So, a few hatches and headlights later, you have Mr. Crabby:

Not exactly an accurate port. I probably could have mimiced that armor carapace using the Aegis Defense Line barricade set, but I also wanted to use the Defiler torso as a turret to tie him visually to my Leman Russ clones. The cannon barrel is from the Manufactorum sprue. I cut plastic card into cog shapes for the armor plating, thickening the leg shields and bulking the model out satisfyingly. Since he's supposed to stand in for a tank and not stride into hand-to-hand combat, I elected not to order the set of Defiler claws. I struggled for a while with the idea of replacing those foot claws with tread units running up the lower leg, but treads would buck the idea of having legs in the first place.

The turret is also magnetized (he's getting a Hydra turret soon)  and I kept the legs unglued because A) I like posability (though it's bitten me in the ass, as is the case with my posable Warhound) and B) transportability. Mr. Crabby disassembles extra-small, and fits into a cubby hole designed for a Sentinel model on my Vendetta's foam tray. He measures up quite well with Leman Russ models, too (although he's a bit taller):

That list down the foreleg is a list of campaigns and worlds. It's a nice little element that also adorns the hull of my proxy superheavy and a couple of Dreadnought. The superheavy is an old Sherman toy I resurrected and fitted with a massive Zoids Gojulas cannon:

That scroll under the eagle on the hull says "Ordinatis Minoris". I used it once in a friendly game as a Basilisk, but honestly the model is so much larger than a Chimera chassis, that it was just better for all concerned for me to make those clone Basilisks featured a few articles ago. I don't see that gun being anything lighter than a Titan's Volcano cannon. The thing is just too damn big.

Nonetheless the size of the model allowed me to do some cool things, like that little shrine inside the back compartment. I thought about making a roof to enclose the gunnery section, but the tank is as tall as a three-story building (apologies for not having an infantry model for scale) and realistically, an AP round is going to bore its way right through those slab sides anyway. I need to make a template for Mechanicus symbols; hand-painting them is a disaster. The half-cogs for my standard tank insignia come off well enough, but that one on the side of the SPG took forever to fine-tune and correct. If I ever make another one, I'll probably just use more Manufactorum panels.