Cornelivs Maximvs Allied Regiments

[GreenScorpion]

It has been a busy week, so I will start with the most pleasant topic first :)

Yesterday I published my second sci-fi book, whose story is a part of the reason the miniatures are being built as they are. Have a look into the cover before we move on to other topics:

 

I have always liked trains and as you might have seen in this thread, I actually have 1 I plan to use with my miniatures as part of the town I am planning to build (and which will include most if not all of the building concepts shown here). That is the reason I decided to make some tracks and a wagon:

 

Afterwards I worked on an octagonal bunker to be used as part of the defensive lines, potentially as a fortification linked to the trench networks. Essentially a strong point to help defend a sector from enemies.

 

Then I worked on a simple modification of my previous unmanned turret to make a fixed missile platform for defence:

 

Since I was focusing on turrets, I thought it made sense to make a manned one (soldier for reference only and is not made by me):

I have built some seated crew members which you can see in this thread somewhere and the plan would be to use them with this sort of weapons or as vehicle drivers/crew.

 

I have some military hovercrafts in my book, so I decided to make some vehicles that would fit that concept. Keep in my mind that these are meant to travel through small sections of land or shallow waters, not through martian deserts or similar terrain. I started with a chimera sized transport, which uses the manned turret shown above and some infantry I found somewhere else for scale indication:

It is a bit of a mix of an hovercraft and the landing vehicles used by the allies in WW2, potentially looking like a certain dunerider.

 

The second concept around the hovercrafts was an heavier transport, something similar to the size of a baneblade and with a bit more weaponry:

 

Likely I will focus on a light scout hovercraft next and potentially a light tank equivalent of an hovercraft, in order to have some more amphibious firepower.

[The Pounder]

The plans look good.

 

Will you be using the Mechanicum hovercrafts as a base for your designs?

[GreenScorpion]

The plans look good.

 

Will you be using the Mechanicum hovercrafts as a base for your designs?

I was actually thinking about making them from scratch as I have lots of parts from my other vehicles that I could detail them enough to look better than my very simple designs. I also have lots of stuff (things typically referred to as garbage :D ) I can scavenge for some of the parts, beyond doing the major part of it as either mdf/hdf or plasticard (not familiar enough with plasticard to know if I could use it efficiently). Some putty here and there, some paint over it all and I think it will look great despite the base material.

 

As a side note, the approval for my early return has arrived this week, so some of these concepts might start to take shape in a couple months. On the downside my landlord is not very happy that I am leaving early and if a new tenant is not found I might have to pay the rent for the months till the end of the contract. Lets hope someone replaces me to avoid that.

Now I need to plan my travels and pack my stuff to leave the island.

[GreenScorpion]

It has been a very fluid week, lots of calls because of the apartment, the return home and also because my physical copy of the book arrived to Portugal today (amazon is really quick to print custom books). The fluidity applies also to what kind of stuff I worked this week :)

 

I started with a hovercraft scout, essentially a very small vehicle with a weapon at the front, which is also used to steer the vehicle (perhaps I was just being lazy and didn't put any controls elsewhere or most likely I made it too small for that :D ).

 

Then I worked on a tank version of the original hovercraft. The concept is similar to the Mechanicus thing and in my case it is also the same base chassis, with just some heavier protection around the turret. It also has more propulsion than the transport due to the added weight of the armour plates.

 

Then I switched to aerial vehicles and decided to work on some aircraft concepts, mostly based on modern fighters and so on.

I started with a fighter, which can also serve as light bomber. It is not the most beautiful concept in the world, but it fits the tasks and is not particularly stranger than regular 40k stuff.

 

Next I worked on a bomber concept, which is obviously larger and slower than the fighter. You can see the difference below.

 

For transportation of vehicles and large numbers of infantry something like a C-130 would be a nice thing to have and while things like this exist ( https://www.italeri.com/en/product/2351/1/2 ) it is often out of stock, but it is certainly a nice beast and large enough to shadow a baneblade :)

Almost everything seems to have guns :)

 

For smaller squads it may often be required to use VTOL's to drop or extract them behind enemy lines without landing strips. Although I have a few Hornets from Mantic (a really nice model and many parts can be assembled without glue, which is great if you want to change it later), there are never enough vehicles and I certainly lack air support at the moment. This VTOL is not defenceless, but it won't handle other aircraft well, although they can certainly provide close support to infantry (similar to Valkyries/Vultures).

 

I think next I might work on a bigger and heavier bomber with some gunners along its hull for close defence. Not sure after that.

Tomorrow is the spring equinox, time for some cake and some remote celebrations with my family :)

[GreenScorpion]

This week was a bit slower compared to others, as I have gotten back to writing and that obviously occupies more of my evenings. The story needs to be told though, so it is fun getting all that out of my head :)

 

I made a heavy bomber concept, which is essentially something bigger and more powerful than the regular bomber and more similar in size to the transport above. I has some turrets at the top for defence, similarly to some historical aircraft, as the bigger bombers were always an easier target for fighters (and an important target as well). I am thinking the top of the turrets could be a clear dome, but it might depend on materials I find (there was a transparent detergent cap my family had lying around that might be the right size for one of the turrets).

 

As a follow up of the VTOL transport, I had also considered making a version with more weapons and less transport capacity. The VTOL support vessel is essentially the same hull but with rocket pods on the side and some additional weapons on the rear. The objective would be for it to serve as support to ground forces, as most of its weapons would be more efficient in a ground attack role, rather than against other aircraft, perhaps something like the Vulture from GW but looking more like the Hornet from Mantic.

 

If things go well in little over a month I should get back to thinning the pile of unbuilt or unpainted stuff, especially with mandatory quarantine meaning that upon my return I will have 2 weeks to just stay at home with no interactions except with the little models :)

[The Pounder]

Who doesn’t like a plane! Especially a well armed bomber!!

 

Only a month before you can tackle the building from your plans?

 

I expect you can’t wait?

[GreenScorpion]

Who doesn’t like a plane! Especially a well armed bomber!!

 

Only a month before you can tackle the building from your plans?

 

I expect you can’t wait?

Yes, not necessarily according to the order here and not all in one go, but the idea is to start with some of the concepts and get some more once I settle somewhere near the office again, as I will need some extra supplies, but I should start making some interesting stuff.

I am really anxious, mostly because of returning to see the family obviously, but the hobby part is a nice plus :)

[The Pounder]

Yeah always family first!

 

Though it’s nice to have some escape time.

[GreenScorpion]

Well, despite the difficulties imposed by covid regulations, I am finally home to enjoy some holidays before I have to return to work at the portuguese offices (or remotely but as if I was in those offices depending on the case).

 

Not one to waste time, after a night to rest, I have started the hobby stuff again, by diving into the assembly of my american civil war cavalry as rough rider equivalents. The plan is to use the civil war miniatures as a specific regiment and use the entire contents of the "battle in a box" set I got. I will mostly assemble them as per the kit, although I might get additional boxes for conversions and after comparing them with some of my other models, Perry Miniatures scale really nicely (considering they are not so bulky but also not wearing armour).

 

I have built the 12 cavalry soldiers and the 2 box set exclusive mounted officers. I have built 1 flag bearer and I will make a custom small flag possibly from EVA foam (my mom has some for crafts and it seems easy enough to paint/glue stuff into it). Once I start clearing the backlog a bit, specially the painting queue, I might get 4 boxes of the cavalry and bring the total riders to 60 as that is a rounder number (I know I have issues, but some numbers just feel better to me than others).

 

 

 

Remaining pictures under the spoiler:

Flag bearer in the front and middle.

 

A guy with a horn to serve as a vox equivalent and normal soldiers :)

 

The officers, one with binoculars and another with a sword.

[GreenScorpion]

I have mentioned that I am big fan of reusing stuff and materials lying around. Something I had been thinking was a way to spend the many heavy weapon bits remaining after building my converted cadian HWT. The first prototype had some issues and many mistakes were made that I will need to fix for future iterations (mostly the way to efficiently attach the different parts due to different materials), but I think it should look nice enough when painted.

Since the wheeled weapon platform was too tall even for a standing operator, I decided to make a seat using some sprue bits from the conquest issues (the reason for the DG green).

The seated operator is one of the crew/drivers/operators I build some months ago with anvil parts, pictures are somewhere in this thread :)

 

I think I will need some supplies before I make the second attempt with the wheeled platforms, but since I am still in quarantine I decided to work on some of the other stuff from the ACW box set I got. A small farm house that can certainly serve as battlefield decoration for some sort of poor farming world somewhere in the galaxy. It is a bit on the small side, but old farm houses were not that big at least in my country, so it should fit. I have also started assembling some ACW cannons and crew which will represent the artillery section of the ACW based regiment, but I haven't taken any photos and will likely wait until all cannons are built. I might have to create some additional weapon platforms for the cannons as well, since there are 4 cannon options per sprue, meaning a current 75% waste of bits from the cannon barrel perspective.

 

I need to see if I can get my painting box to start priming some of the unpainted miniatures, as the queue keeps getting bigger and I am a slow painter :D

[Bjorn Firewalker]

Ingenious reuse of bottle caps, toothpicks, and sprue bits, to create a carriage for the heavy bolter.

[GreenScorpion]

Yesterday I finished the assembly of the ACW artillery and crew.

 

Crew below:

 

I must say that Perry Miniatures models are really nice and although with the infantry I have noticed some difference in how details are sculpted from some of the older kits to the more recent ones, they all fit together rather well and the variability when mixing the different kits is amazing.

Yesterday I said to my family, jokingly, that since I had built the cavalry in 1 day and the artillery in another, that I would build all the infantry kits inside the box set in 1 day also.

My brother said I couldn't do it, even if I spent the entire day at it, so today I built 145 infantry soldiers and command models (and it didn't take my full day, although clipping all those models, even in smaller batches was tiresome). Since they keep falling over I will put on individual bases first and then take some pictures (the box set brings bases for groups of infantry rather than individual soldiers). I had purchased some square mdf bases for my other historical models based regiments and I will likely put them on some of those, as these miniatures will be mostly for use within the city and fortifications I plan on building, so square bases seems like a nice way of keeping it nice and tidy, especially on top of walls or inside trenches.

Given that I seem to have a very serious miniature building addiction, I really need to start priming some stuff for diversity :D

[GreenScorpion]

Do you know what 145 infantry soldiers built look like?

They look like victory :P

Now to put them on the painting queue which surprisingly is progressing somewhat well.

 

Some more enemies and allies were painted during the last week and finished yesterday

 

And I gave some shades to my nurgle enemies as well as the white was too clean before and I think they look better now despite certainly having some issues here and there. Should only need basing sometime in the future.

Between assembling some WW2 historical miniatures and painting the above, I have also been experimenting with something to reuse some of the spare parts I have lying around, including the Mantic strider parts. Meet the Nut Cracker, the current spiritual equivalent of the EGG.

The plan is to use a similar concept to spend the existing weapons, as well as the vehicle fronts (closed or opened and with a pilot inside) and their major objective will be allowing some themed but crazy conversions. I don't have a sentinel lying around, but this conversion should be somewhat bigger than a sentinel and a bit more closer to a dreadnought, based on the relative sizing of striders to those models. The "extremely beautiful" legs were done using a paper clip and a repair epoxy from a DIY shop (I wanted something that glues well to different materials). The epoxy can be sculpted like with greenstuff, but it solidifies more quickly and you are advised to use gloves while using it and since I only had very inadequate gloves at the time of the experiment, this was the result. Still, not bad for a first try.

 

All things considered, I have been feeling quite productive lately, although it should slow down once I return to work.

[GreenScorpion]

Have been working on getting some paint on the models in the queue, this week the fortunate ones were the Afghans which I am using to represent the soldiers of Harpig.

I have decided to go with something simple in terms of colours but somewhat consistent.

 

In the meantime, the nut cracker is evolving into a mini diorama with more stuff to come.

 

Next up in the queue are the raumjagers that represent the soldiers of Abistrev (currently drying from the spray paint I use for priming).

[GreenScorpion]

Some more painting progress this week, this time some raumjagers to represent the soldiers of Abistrev:

 

Additionally some more progress on the mini-diorama with some sculpting work done. Despite my lack of proper tools or real sculpting skills, I think the result was decently close to what I was looking for.

 

You might have noticed the cross in the mini-diorama pictures before and now the girl, this is the original inspiration, a puzzle I have made a few years ago (I really love puzzles )

 

Next on the paint queue is a leman russ demolisher and a few spider victims from wargames atlantic (from the giant spider kits).

[Bjorn Firewalker]

Good job. Is the girl meant to be an objective marker? A sanctioned psyker or other specialist? Maybe a null in Inquisitorial service, to help shield your guardsmen from sorcery and witchcraft?

[GreenScorpion]

Good job. Is the girl meant to be an objective marker? A sanctioned psyker or other specialist? Maybe a null in Inquisitorial service, to help shield your guardsmen from sorcery and witchcraft?

It is just meant to be a part of a nice mini diorama along with the nut cracker walker I have built before. The walker is protecting her while she mourns whoever was buried there.

Think of the whole diorama as a tribute to those who have fallen in combat, which certainly many over the years.

There is actually no real gameplay reasoning behind it. I just thought the scene would look nice, after I used the large plastic cover as improved base and noticed how much space I could use for some scenic stuff.

[Bjorn Firewalker]

 

Good job. Is the girl meant to be an objective marker? A sanctioned psyker or other specialist? Maybe a null in Inquisitorial service, to help shield your guardsmen from sorcery and witchcraft?

It is just meant to be a part of a nice mini diorama along with the nut cracker walker I have built before. The walker is protecting her while she mourns whoever was buried there.

Think of the whole diorama as a tribute to those who have fallen in combat, which certainly many over the years.

Good imagination.

[GreenScorpion]

A quick update from the front, a leman russ demolisher and all the weapon options.

Also painted some spider victims which I will likely use as decoration.

 

 

 

Next on the queue: one of the mantic striders, a dwarvish spider rider and a dwarf on foot (the first test models I built from those wargames atlantic boxes).

Not sure when the next priming will happen as I am currently house hunting and the work restart date is getting a bit too close for comfort, hopefully this week things get settled.

[Bjorn Firewalker]

Taking inspiration from Cobra forces, in the G.I. Joe cartoon?

[GreenScorpion]

Taking inspiration from Cobra forces, in the G.I. Joe cartoon?

Not exactly, although this particular tank is looking close to the Brotherhood of Nod units from Command and Conquer. Not intentionally though, I just like the colour combinations and apparently I am not the only one to think that way :)

Just for reference, the G.I. Joe cartoons didn't exactly pass through portuguese tv that I can recall, nor were the toys common around here, so it is not something I have seen to be honest.

[GreenScorpion]

While going on a supply run for the hobby I spent some time looking through the cheap toys available at the store and found some interesting things.

This VTOL is roughly the size of a leman russ tank and should make an interesting fighter-bomber once completed.

I have removed the stickers, filled the empty areas inside the "missiles" on the wings and added some spare machine guns from the Mantic Hornet ship.

Still needs a bit more clean up before painting, as there are still some remains from the sticker glue, but I am tempted to go back to the store for some more of these, given it cost 1,50€

Obviously it is too small for a transport like the valkyirie, but I have the hornets for those :)

 

[Bjorn Firewalker]

It looks like the AT-99 Scorpion, from James Cameron's Avatar. Have it "count as" a Space Marine Stormtalon gunship? The rotors are in the same place as the Stormtalon's tiltjet engines.

[GreenScorpion]

It looks like the AT-99 Scorpion, from James Cameron's Avatar. Have it "count as" a Space Marine Stormtalon gunship? The rotors are in the same place as the Stormtalon's tiltjet engines.

After I bought it I ended up checking the Stormtalon rough size and it should be very similar, based on my guesses (without one in hand or exact measurements it is hard to know for sure).

I suspect it is likely the chinese version of that AT-99 or something very similar. VTOL's have been gaining ground in games and movies, especially in futuristic settings, so it is not uncommon for copies to appear.

The only downside of the model is the fact that the bottom details are mostly empty and thus I had to fill areas with stuff, so it looks decent from the bottom when painted.

[GreenScorpion]

Some more news from the front, this week I worked on painting my dwarf and dwarf spider rider test models, as well as a strider walker and a mule transport.

 

 

 

While the grey pile is still huge, I feel like I am making good progress and the number of painting models keeps going up :)

 

Next on the queue should be a chimera and a leman russ. Lets see how far I can go before I have to slow down for work.