Exterminator Leman Russ

The last time I had an exterminator painted, I think it had pewter barrels (3rd ed?). But, the index exterminator rules are at least interesting for the first time in an age. It's 'withering hail' rule means that if this main gun hits, for the rest of the phase the rest of my army gets another pip of AP against the unit that was hit. And, since the main gun has 'twin linked' it's likely to actually score hits. Still, with vehicle toughness systemically improving this 10th edition, this gun only has limited value outside it's core targets. How much do I want to waste the main gun here? This will be of some help to boost indirect fire, though. Which, at least for now seems oddly and brutally improved. A hard left in an edition change here. I love artillery as much as the next guardsman, but artillery spam lists have been largely criticized for ages.

Odd that GW would go back to it, and apparently double down in it. Also, indirect fire has many drawbacks, and that could mean that pumping in a whole bunch of buffing units might be a moneypit/points sink. Typically non-los shooting is not super points per damage cost-effective. Such units are usually very vulnerable to assault as well. Certainly not moving = not scoring. Even still, assuming the sky isn't falling with the new imperial guard artillery list, how long before GW overreacts? It seems unlikely that present rules will remain for long. And that is a point of pessimism--not that GW will kill great rules, but that when they do they won't undertake to balance the rest of the codex. That is to say, without the great index units, what will be left when the nerf bat comes out swinging? All too often GW's nerf power seems one-directional. Well, part of my malaise at present is also about how quickly the new codex became obsolete. My beautiful vanquishers finally had a moment in the sun, albeit very short and largely controversial. 

ALL THAT SAID... let's build an exterminator. The old forge world Mars and Gryphonne patterns are long gone. So, I picked up the 30k terminator auto cannon to convert one up. The Contemptor auto cannons might be a bit bigger and perhaps better. In any case, I like the smaller barrels with the heat-sink, something closer to the mars pattern. I miss the WW2 style (conical) flash suppressor, but the 30k one is good enough. 

As the standard leman Russ turret weapon mount is too skinny for the forgeworld turret, I used a circle-cutter to cut out a number of circles. I then punched out some rivets from the styrene to try and get a bit closer to the forgeworld design. I also added some green stuff cables to conceal some seams and blend the whole construction in a bit. I think I'll have to cut off the support arm on the side and add two underneath. 

Brick Wall

With some foam scraps from the last display board I wanted to try out some bricks. I'm not sure if I'll just decorate a field ordnance battery or actually go all into another display board. I'm ok with it for a fist try. Since I have a 1/35 scale brick mold I can also make piles of debris to go with this. I think I should also experiment with grout in between the bricks. I'd like to try a denser foam, like AK interactive sells, but it seems Europe has the better foams at a better price (Styrodour). Such denser foams were discussed in NightShift's and Black Magic Craft's youtube videos. Ultimately it seems like denser foam will yield a better result, but the price gets really high, really quickly. I'm not sure yet what to do. I think there is something here though.