In case you were wondering, some of the parts to make my groovy Rough Riders were sculpted by Rob at Curious Constructs.

Tuesday 23 October 2012

Armored WIP


As sighted in my previous battle post, I pulled some of my tanks out of the shed. The first 2 were a Demolisher and converted Hydra.

The Hydra was one of the first conversions I did around 15 years ago.  Originally it wasn't a Hydra but just a random tank. It later was used as a scout vehicle and Hydra when the first Imperial Armour Book came out (the old soft cover one).

The first things the tanks got was a heap of equipment to match my other painted tanks. The Hydra's guns were doubled from two to four and the ends of the barrels were extended to make them look more like auto cannons. I decided to keep the old original shell feed (mostly for sentimental reasons I guess), so I am making up two more to mount above the extra guns. Also, I have started giving them the tan coloured paint job that all my tanks of the 10th Armoured Reg will have. 
I am aiming for this look:
And I was inspired by this picture:
from Voyager on WargamerAU

 Here is where I'm at:
And obviously I have loads of other tanks to get to.

As well as tanks, all of my recent games have included a Vendetta. I put this chap together in a day and have given it it's first coat of tan. The stripes on the wings and tail are painting tape- the easy way to paint stripes! As soon as the tan is ready the tape will come off leaving three nice white stripes (I hope).
The pilot and navigator are both head swaps from the original Marbo figure and one of Curious Constructs life guard heads. The torsos are one of Rob’s and one of Vic’s (not that you can really see them). The oxygen masks were from the Cadian command box. 
 For the base I cut pieces of slate and glued it around the flying stand. It was pretty tough but turned out ok.
 The wing lasconnons were made from plastic tubing and sentinel lasconnons.
I didn't glue the roof on so I can paint inside and add the door gunners.


I'd be making more progress on the flyer if I didn't stop to put on 'Flight of the Valkyries every time I sit down to paint it!

12 comments:

  1. I LOVE that Flack Cannon on the Hydra.... Awesome!!

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    1. Thanks! It's so old now that I didn't think it would see the light of day. Its nice to get it out and about again.

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  2. Seconded on the flak! Really really nice - old Demolisher?! YES! - work you've done there and I can't wait to see how it turns out. I did a small force of tanks using that British red-white-red look and they looked really good.

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    1. Cheers. I Love the old tanks. The model is just a bit front heavy with that gun!
      I'm still not sure about vehicle markings.I'd like to use the diamond-triangle-square-circle markings for each squadron, but don't know if I'll go rad or something else.

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  3. Great stuff all round - particulalry the Vendetta conversion - simple and effective - the best kind of conversion.

    Love the slate too.

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  4. Very nice my friend, I really like the extra stuff attached to the tanks. The Hydra looks great looks like a WWII anti air gun platform. I like what you have done with the Vendetta especially the extra lascannons, the base looks fantastic to. Well done mate.

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    1. Cheers Dave, I'm really glad that the Hydra is getting a spruce up. I originally was aiming for that 'WW2 anti air gun' look, but having it sit around for soooo long turned me off the model a bit. Its just a pity that anti air guns now snap shot at ground units in 40k, so its not as useful in games as it use to be. Still I guess it is more realistic and means it spends all its time downing aircraft!

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  5. Great fun spottting the Tamiya stowage.

    Also like the vendetta bits, the sentinal LC look good; I tried (just with blue tac) LC sponsons frmo the predator kit and they looked like they should have snapped the wings off.

    And the pipe organ configuration hydra is very kool as well.

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    1. yeah I know what you mean! All guns are ridiculously big in 40k, but that doesn't mean that they will look ok on aircraft wing! I was unsure about the lascannon at first, but they have grown on me.
      On the stowage equipment- I must stop buying more! I cant fit any more on the tanks without them becoming a 'moving market place'.

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  6. I see my own meagre stowage effects need to be beefed up a bit after seeing these pics.

    Damn but you've been busy of late!

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    1. yeah I never get around to blogging about my projects- then it all hits the blog at the same time!
      I thought my stowage was full-on until I saw Colonel Scipio's. I'm sure you have seen this but here is the links anyway:

      http://palladian-guard.blogspot.com.au/2012/08/vehicle-stowage-sculpting-for-beginners.html

      and

      http://palladian-guard.blogspot.com.au/2012/08/making-vehicle-stowage-from-nothing.html

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