++A Cloak of Foes Felled++ Thunder Warriors in 30k

[TheTrans]

Good Afternoon gang,

Finally finished off a 6th ed inspired VC army for an event coming up weekend after next, so back onto 30k!

Obviously all the rumours leave me a bit terrified given this army relies on Blackshields, Militia & Cults and the Army of Dark Compliance rules, all of which don't really have 'official' models and given GW/FW's recent 'no model, no rules' mind set, its a bit of a worry, but we'll deal with that in HH2.0

Anyway the amazing Preferred Enemy 2022 is coming up rapidly in early June, so I've decided to get started on 'finishing' up the army to do that.

the list of to-dos are:

Thunder Warrior Master of Signals/Warmonger (this guy is going to do a lot of work as multiple consuls)

1 Sicaran Venator (This will be using the amazing Mortian 8 wheeled Aegos armoured car line)

5x Recon Auxilia (just normal Humans, again using Mortian Drop Troops, long guns and camo cloaks)

8x Auxilia Gun Crew (Mortian Drop Troops again)

1x Medusa Siege Gun

1x Thunderbolt Heavy Fighter

1x Fire Raptor Gunship.

Now all the Mortian gear is on its way down here, but I'm a bit concerned its stuck in shipping hell, it left Germany on 02/02/22 but there has been no updates since, so pray to the post gods for me gang.

But in the mean time I've recommenced work on the second Mi-24 and trying to match it with its sister ship is bloody hard! I've also decided to magnetise it so I can swap between the storm eagle and fire raptor load outs.

Now to do this I've for starters needed to make some weapon systems for the fire raptor, thus I give you the below:

As you can imagine, this is the avenger bolt cannon for the front of the flier. The large green angled part is so it can slot straight into the entry ramp hole, thus allowing easy, magnetised swaps between the two load outs. I've tried to keep a modern military vibe to it and nod toward current attack helicopters and their chin-guns.

Next up are the side sponsons, these are painful as I need them to fit in the side door holes of the MI-24, not giving me much room at all (29mm) so the autocannons are going to look somewhat large compared to the turrets.

As with 99% of my 3d work, its parts pilfered from far and wide. Fun fact, the main turret assembly started life off as a 1/35 Kugelblitz STL that required thickening and warhammering up. These will ideally slot straight into the door holes and be able to pivot and move around a bit as needed.

Last but not least, for a future project (but the latest Thunder Warrior will be armed with one) are some form of seeker rifle for a TW seeker squad. Realy wanted it to be a mix of the Anti-Material rifles of the TW Recon squad and the weird looking flamers of the Nullificators.

Hopefully all the gubbinz sort of gives a good representation of different ways to project all the different shots that seeker squads have available.


So I'll be smashing out work on the MI-24 (Fire Raptor) variant over the coming week or two to get it sorted and ready for undercoating!

Cheers!

[Pearson73]

The new weapon systems look cool! Fingers crossed your Mortian loot makes it down there safe and sound!

[TheTrans]

Heya gang,

Just finishing up the second Mi-24 variant. I'm going to be using this as a Fire Raptor gunship, but magnetise the front ramp/side ramps so I can swap a chin turret and ball turrets in so it can swap between a storm eagle and fire raptor as needed.

I thought it would be a bit of fun to up armour this one a little bit, maybe some ablative shielding etc.

Found a bag of the old FW chimera side skirts in the garage the other day so figured I'd hack them up and try my luck.

I think its come out decently and still keeps some very russian APS vibes to it.

Will hopefully get the turrets 3d printed tonight for a test fit also, so watch this space!

As always thoughts and input welcome!

The new weapon systems look cool! Fingers crossed your Mortian loot makes it down there safe and sound!

Thanks mate, hopefully they all fit ok once printed. Yeah fingers crossed mate!

[Pearson73]

That ablative armour looks ace with all the damage. Will be fun to paint up too!

[TheTrans]

Not dead yet gang,

Just been working on multiple parts of the project while not showing a heap of actual work getting done haha.

I've spent the last week get everything that needs to be built on the move, so I can start getting stuff undercoated and 'retool' my limited hobby space back to painting haha.

First up I've got the Cataegis Master of Signal/ Warmonger(if rumors are to believed, now gone) but the idea was cool anyway. He has a grav chute as I imagine him dropping in with a small contingent of Cataegis drop troops, not dissimilar to the sniper cataegis, but more in a shock-assault form an unseen quarter drop-in.

Now for those keen of eye, you'll notice his 'skirt' isn't the usual chainmail of the other Thunder Warriors. I've opted to add like a neat flak-weak looking skirt as I imagine it would make him a bit lighter and quieter for these sort of 'combat drops' also alludes to the difference in armour save. Once he has his bullpop seeker styled gun, this guy (and the seekers to follow) will hopefully have the same feral ferocity of the normal TW, but with an heir of controlled, tactical competency to them.

Also with his posing, it may not be abundantly clear yet, but his legs are meant to be free-falling almost legs. Once based his lower foot will just ever so lightly be touching on a high piece of terrain, I like to imagine its the last moments of grav-chuting prior to the proper touch down.

Here we have the fire-raptor parts of the gunship. I keep getting bloody failures on the weapon-pod prints, so while they have another crack the turret ring/mount came out fine for the other parts so I went about installing and magnetising them. They've fit in quite nicely to the door ports and the front ramp port and can easly swap out to the standard front shielding and side doors of the storm eagle.

This model is all done sans the turrets so will hopefully get getting a wash and a prime over the weekend!

Finally the Mortian order came in, with it some extra drop troops to round out some unit selections and more importantly the Aegos Tank Hunter which is an excellent kit to put together. This image is a little old, I've since added some whip aerials and some lift points to it with brass rod also. The cagey bit will have a heap of camo netting draped over it as I imagine this light little tank hunter would need to strike from ambush then get the hell out of dodge!

Anyway definitely getting stuff done, now to see if I can get it all painted and make a display board prior to early june!!

That ablative armour looks ace with all the damage. Will be fun to paint up too!

Thanks mate, yeah I think for the undamaged sections I may just paint a 'standard' matt green instead of the camo, as if the older parts where so badly damaged they've just chucked extra boards on that are fresh from the packet sort of thing.

Edited April 7, 2022 by TheTrans

[Majkhel]

Very nice builds! 

[space wolf]

Very cool stuff. Inspiring as always ;) love what you've done with the transports.

[Monstra Sumus]

This thread just gets better and better. 

[TheTrans]

Been away a while on this thread sorry gang! 

So I managed to get the army finished for Preferred Enemy, was an absolutely fantastic event, played some games against some good bros and was a great send off for HH1.0.

I managed to snag the much coveted EO's Choice for the army which I was astounded to get, given the level of hobby you seen in the Victorian scene!

I've not had the army setup on the display board since the vent (foolish of me I know) so the pics are from a frew months ago. 

I'll ad some close in pics to the post, but below is a video of the overall board (foolishly didn't get a 'whole board' pic.

Display Board Video
 

The Tattered Prince Commanding his forces.

Cataegis of The Nevidimyy supported by a Scout-Strelok

The Mountebank administering 'aid' to an Ultramarines Destroyer

Samolet Streloks advancing into combat.

An-3 Istochnik Utka's deploying their troops.

TheIL-2 Zemiya Udar coming in for a strafing run.

A loitering Mi-24(g) Pushka Yastrebi firing punishing salvos of support fire into enemy formations

The T-6a Laska offering command support from behind the lines.

A Cataegis standard bearer showing off the fallen flags of their foes

A Cataegis Field-Legate directs the mortal troops under his command.

One of the significanly more mutated Cataegis.

A BTR-84 Barsuk silently awaits enemy armour to reveal itself.

A Scout-Strelok section advancing under covering fire.

A Cataegis warrior moving in support of a Samolet-Pozhar Sobaka Section.

I've just started work on a counts as dreadnought for the CVGP so will get some pics of that up shortly! 

Hope you enjoy! 

 

On 4/10/2022 at 9:58 AM, NomadPainting said:

This thread just gets better and better. 

Thanks mate! Alas I'm slack with updating it!

On 4/9/2022 at 11:19 PM, space wolf said:

Very cool stuff. Inspiring as always ;) love what you've done with the transports.

Cheers, I figured something fun had to be done given how prevalent they where going to be! 

On 4/8/2022 at 7:14 PM, Majkhel said:

Very nice builds! 

Thanks mate! 

[Majkhel]

Lovely diorama!
And dreads??? Yes, please! I soooo want to see how you do them!

[Lord_Ikka]

I love this project- so alike and yet different from 40k. You've done an excellent job capturing a brutal, war-torn feel to the warriors.

[Pearson73]

Such gorgeous models, the prizes are well deserved. Very excited for this dreadnought!