Caine's Astra Militarum Tournament & Hobby Log

[The Pounder]

Congrats on the wins and the Black Templars!

 

You’re gonna love painting them they’re a fantastic reimagining of the Space Crusaders!

 

Glad you’re still working on your Guard and hope you have further victories.

[Captain Caine 24th]

Thank you Duz, Warriorfish, Jud. I am looking forward to the Templars. Something new anyway.

 

Well, Adepticon is this week. Getting a team together was a disaster, but we've got four. They're obsessed with the 'pyromaniacs' trait, so I guess I'll bring flamers. And, even though the doctrine doesn't apply to the Malcador infernus main gun, it fits theme. If we win even a single game I'll be shocked. 

 

Back to the display board. So, to recap the normal 3x2 foot limitation on size at adepticon is just a non-starter for cool terrain building. There is a 5x3 category, but it's limited to 12 spots. I emailed them to get a spot, but didn't hear back for sometime. I made the decision to go with the 3x2 in the event I didn't get a 5x3 spot. And, by the time I heard back it was too late to turn around and start a whole new board. So, while the footprint is limited to 3x2... there is no height restriction. The board is then (1) a ground level no-man's land and (2) an underground bunker.

 

 

The Electronics 1& 2: Thus far lights have worked out ok. "Evans Designs" sells pre-wired LEDs, shrink tube, wire, and the power adapter. This means some flashing red LEDs for the undergound bunker (alarm/alert/emergency vibe). I'm thinking soft white for the tunnels. Due to size I abandoned two other lighting ideas on the board - the search lights, and the taurox sunken in a crater (maybe next year...). I thought it'd be really cool to have headlights coming through resin water effects. Next I found a programmable sound board from "Electronics 123." It took a little bit of messing around, but I got it to work. The actual air raid/tornado siren is a common free MP3. Meanwhile, "Zinge Industries" has an actual in scale resin siren. Originally I had planned to have search lights and the siren (even hydra flak tanks for anti-air) but display board space was an issue (and I don't have time). 

 

The Rail Yard. O Scale (roughly 1/48 depending on manufacturer) is somewhat close to scale, but a bit big. HO (1/72) is too small, but the track is commonly available and fairly cheap. ON30 is about right for 'narrow gauge' rail (consistent with great war trench railways), but is more expensive. So, ON30 works for a moving railway, but it's ultimately too small to move leman russes (rail cars are too narrow without somewhat intensive conversion/modification - though maybe doable with time). So, I made a rail yard at O Scale to transport lemans into the battle, and ON30 to move supplies/casualties to and from the front trenches. I was able to get reasonable deals on these flat cars off Ebay. And, painting them isn't bad. I did have to use a razor saw and x-acto knife to make wood texture before painting the wood board surface. A bit of chipping and they're good enough. I can add lots of rust effects if I have time. A cool note here - attaching magnets on the bottom allows me to add chains to secure the load of leman russes (each fits two).

 

Now, the railyard doesn't have to move so I can just paint those tracks, but the actual moving trench rail has to maintain electrical connectivity. I used "Blacken It" (chemical used for firearms, etc to blacken metal surfaces). It functioned, but it also caused all kinds of electrical problems. Lots of time and money was lost on that misadventure... Anyway, the sides of the rail can still be painted so that's what I'm doing now. 

 

So, for hades breaching drills we've got three tunnels here. The practical benefit is fitting a lot more squads on the table. We've also got the necromunda floor tiles for the main bunker, with some doors and sidewalls (where the red flashing lights are to be installed). 

 

A bit of real world inspiration & help from doggo - 

 

The Smoke. Well, what are craters without smoke? I picked up the Fog Monster II. Way more expensive than I want to admit, but it is cool and fun. More importantly, It doesn't use chemicals. Some fog machines have heating coils and I'm sure someone would complain at a large tournament and get my display shut down. So, While I'm sure one could find a recipe online to make a fog machine for $10, this machine is simply water, sound vibration and a fan. It's also complete so it saves me lots of time. I also have blast/smoke effects made out of clump foilage as static display pieces. Having a fog machine here just checks another box of technical effects for the tourney. Notably I'm not using the pipe that they sell due to cost and availability of cheap PVC pipe in my county (not a perfect fit, so I'm using electrical tape for snugness & seal). 

 

Also, there are flickering LEDs, I didn't realize I wanted them until the time crunch was too late. So, I bought some cheap tea lights (fake candles), and very cheap I might add. So, I'll just add tea lights into the craters to help the fog effect visually.

 

The Mud. I've got the board covered now. Using a heatgun (outside and ventilated) helps get the general shape of a battlefield. I still needed more shape so I used foam scraps. Turns out 'gorilla glue construction adhesive' works wonders on the foam - CAUTION many glues do not work or set well. I saw this one on youtube ("Black Magic Craft," I think had a video on glues to use on foam). After getting the shape, I then went to a mix of plaster, sand, paint, static grass, rocks, etc. I don't like plaster, because it cracks, and is heavy. However, This is just a layer, and I'll be continuing to shape the craters and ground. Still haven't gotten the texture quite right. Airbrush will go a long way to blend and give a bit of depth (darker for shadow, etc). 

And you can also see the floor of the trenches a bit here. It's 'Amaco Wireform extra fine 1/16th mesh' - to simulate steel grating. I actually put a layer of railroad track ballast under it. In terms of realism this would really help water flow and mud. But visually you can't really see it. Part of me just wanted to flood the trench but I don't think I've got time to do it right.

 

The Elevator. Originally I'd intended to use a skyshield landing pad as an elevator through an above ground bunker complex. Alas it didn't work for space. And, as for time, my redesign is more of a stop gap than a key component. Still, for imperial guard (being way over the top) it didn't make much sense to me to have a large-scale bunker without a way of moving material to the surface. Said another way, our team tournament army has a lot of tanks, and I need an explanation for why they are in an underground bunker. So, let's make the best of it and break out the sector mechanicus terrrain! Telescoping styrene wasn't a huge issue, the Evergreen Styrene website lists the sizes that fit into one another. Of course this is not a great design against enemy artillery.... but it is what it is. I don't know, maybe I should have set a void shield generator up there or something.

 

The Trench. Greenstuff world makes a product for in-scale corrugated steel effects. They also sell tin sheet to use in it. The vastly cheaper, and perhaps even better, option is to use a paint/toothpaste squeezer, and 36 gauge (heavy) tinfoil. Works beautifully. The problem is that it's hard to make the corrugated sections straight - the machine wants to curve all over the place. I have a photo below of using my thumb to hold down the tin strip so that it doesn't flail about. As to the project, due to time I'm making all the trench walls out of this material. But, I think a proper trench ought to vary quite a bit, and especially in miniatures uniformity seems to look wrong. 

 

I'm nervous... I'm almost out of time! But, lots of progress has been made.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Edited March 21, 2022 by Captain Caine 24th

[WarriorFish]

Can't wait to see the finished article, there's a lot going on already :tu:

[duz_]

Wow! Good luck hope you and your board make it safely to adepticon! Lots of pics expected! :yes:

[The Pounder]

Definitely liking what you’ve done so far.

 

Gonna look amazing.

 

I wasn’t sure on the Taurox model but yours look fantastic!

[Captain Caine 24th]

Ok, well day 2 here at the adepticon team tourney. Pyromaniacs was a terrible idea and we all knew better. So, teams of 4, each player with 1000pts, and games are 2 on 2. Going into round 4 we are 0-6. It's been fun though. The Malcador infernus actually survived one battle and killed a space wolf lord. But, with filling out our team with 2 new players, it's been a long journey to get here. You almost need to plan the army a year out... Anyway, on to the display. 

 

I'm happy to report the results exceeded our expectations. We were selected for the army showcase! So, there's a huge bracket (I don't know how many teams, hundreds of players anyway) and being a finalist makes us top 18 (I think, it's like the 6 best from each category). We clearly aren't going to win (some of these guys are golden demon painters and our army is very haphazard, but its a great honor to be considered). 

 

Here's the set up for judging:

 

And for the army showcase, the selected teams set up in the convention center hall for four hours and the crowds come through and talk about the display. In our case, a lot of guard players really loved it. Even GW people were taking a lot of photos (though I doubt we'll get anything posted - we've got 3rd party bits all over our table). The fog machine broke several times, but then worked great the rest of the night. The train broke electrical connections every time we moved it (I need to solder better). The air raid siren also really tied it together. Anyway, hope you like it. I'll post more this week once I get home to round out an epilogue to the post... 

 

 

Edited March 29, 2022 by Captain Caine 24th

[WarriorFish]

The display is great, well deserved :tu:

[Captain Caine 24th]

Well, thank you again for the kind words.

 

Here's a few more words on the actual battles. So, team matches are two people each with a 1000 point detachment playing against two others. These were custom missions, with custom objectives. 

 

Game 1, Orks and Thousand Sons v. Guard. (2x LOSS)

• The Orks were on top of us straight away. We really didn't have much for long range firepower, and had relatively little to offer while the enemy was at range. We needed real anti-tank badly. It was a slaughter. A consistent issue is overwatch. With this odd list, we've got tons of hellhounds, but only one available stratagem.
• So, the opponents utilized pile in and consolidate effectively to engage more units outside the charge. Screening units seem much harder to place in 9th edition somehow. I never feel I have enough space. Units rolling a decent charge will have excess room to move beyond. A gap between units of 3" feels way too short. A gap of 6" even feels too short, but is way more than practical in setting up a huge guard army. Screening continues to be a very subtle and nuanced art beyond my faculties to predict the myriad of variations in enemy movement. 
• Placing terrain and deploying repeatedly seem to be as important (if not more important) than any decision on the battlefield.
• The malcador infernus only having 10" move is strangely slow - he needs to be in the center. But, by being in the center he is open to all kinds of fire. 
• Keep in mind though, in the team tournament the brackets are such that winning the first game can actually be disastrous. We had a great time in all 5 games. Knowledgeable and generous opponents. That's not always the case--the unpleasant side of the game the bloggers and youtubers ignore--strangers playing to win isn't a default nice place to be in. Occasionally they joke about rage quitting, but I feel the 'competitive community' entirely fails to recognize how exhausting the game can be with people not actively seeking to play in the spirit of the game. On some level I feel other games like Magic or such, (not that there's anything wrong with them) sterilize what to me is a hobby-centric game. Of course it's not for me to say how to enjoy the game, and we all love different parts. On some level though, I like the cinematic feel of tangible models instead of cards and accounting. Anyway, we had a good time with these guys. 

 

Game 2, Space wolves "Dark Angels" v. Guard. LOSS

• Deathwing are really tough. We saw a bit of sunlight in this game, but the ominous storm clouds blew down upon us soon enough. We really didn't have the firepower to weaken them enough. As we reached the end we had too little to hold points. The wound on a 4+ combined with apothecaries and storm shields proved too much. We did a little better with screening, but the bullgryns wiffed their counter charged (which actually could have swung a lot of the game). More fun players here, no hard feelings. I had to say something to them about using space wolves as 'counts as dark angels' but they good sports about it. 

 

Game 3, World Eaters v. Guard (2x LOSS)

• If you'd asked me, I'd have said they had a good army. It had lots of movement, combat power, and anti-tank. But, i don't know the army well. My guess is everything was over-costed and they lacked the volume of models on the board. So, they had two land raider achillies and all kinds of berserkers. It was actually a very close game, I think we lost by 4 points? It was a nail-biting finish, and nobody knew who won till we ran up the points at the end. Which, is exactly what you hope for in a game. Everybody was into it. The one guy worked for GW and was fun to talk to for a few hours. The other guy was from Memphis and constantly had funny quips about under-performing units. 
• And, as I looked at our teammates table, the grimmest, darkest reality unfolded... a greater brass scorpion came upon their lines. Amusingly they shot 2000 points into it, killed it, but still lost the game. A good one. 

 

Game 4, Morning, Day two, Space Marines v. Guard (2x LOSS)

Ok, I forgot to take a photo here, but they had lots of bikes and dreadnoughts. It was an army from a bygone era for sure. Very well painted. Snow bases and such (with the usual discussion about baking soda turning yellow and adding white paint to prevent it - I have that talk about twice a year). I feel bad I didn't take photos. Anyway these guys were fun. The one player said he'd collected 52 knights. It's interesting to see where everyone goes in the hobby. I mean I've got blood angels, imperial fists for some reason, Black templars now apparently, imperial knights, a huge guard army... the list goes on. Anyway, part of the fun is getting to talk various passion projects. These guys were good stuff. As to the game, they really had us on movement and staying power. I was able to bite back, but only to a degree. Hellhounds consistently blew up and caused mortal wounds everywhere. 

 

Game 5, Final Game, Sisters & Guard v. Guard (2x WIN)

• Well, making our way to the bottom tier of the tournament, we landed with some good sports from Texas. While I had a 7 hour drive, they had a 13 hour drive (estimate that at about 75 miles per hour). The malcador infernus was a terrifying foe in this game. It was just slaughtering sisters and everything else. Apparently it's not titanic, so I could use 'relentless' to bring it up to full movement. I felt a little bad, they were good sports, but not having won in two days I needed a win--and to get started on my drive home.
• The sisters player had some really poor rolls and didn't have volume anti-tank fire to compensate. 
• The guard player had some great plasma on tank commanders. I thought we were ruined for sure. But, our bullgryns got into combat, and waded through a lot of units.
• The bullgryns made some key charges and held some key points. I'm still never really thrilled by bullgryns, but I see their value. I mean, against fusion pistol harlequins, they evaporate, but against many targets they do have staying power. I don't have a good replacement. I love my death riders but Krieg is a hard regiment to take, and death riders don't kill anything. I don't know, I kind of feel like bullgryns are playing the durability game but don't do it as well as other armies (deathwing). Still, that doesn't render them useless, but instead means don't use 3 full units of them, and don't deploy them like they're invulnerable. It is nice to have a screening unit that can take a charge. 

 

Part of me originally thought this might be a farewell to krieg. One last go of it. But the plastic unit came out for kill team, and we got such a positive (and overwhelming) response on our display board at the tournament... well, I feel like I'm going to keep going. I feel like I can make a better display, and paint the army better.

 

So, 2-8 is not great. But, we knew that going into it. And, honestly we didn't have a bad match. If we'd had played a serious army and won the first 6 games then fought out and lost the last 4, I very well might have had a bitter time of it. Which is weird. There's an important caution or reminder worth mentioning here. People will often talk about enjoying the hobby--as in you should be enjoying it, and if you aren't you need to seriously reconsider how you are spending your time (even matt Cexwish brought it up in the loaded brush class this weekend--seriously great painter and fun teacher from Germany, look his stuff up). But, usually after adepticon, I don't do any hobby for a month or two. I'm burned out. But not this time, which is a strange thing with such a losing record. I feel rejuvenated in the hobby.

Edited March 29, 2022 by Captain Caine 24th

[Captain Caine 24th]

And, for the fun part

 

Display base/Diorama: Imperial Trenches on the Fields of Vraks 

 

Final Touches

The hard part was doing this in the hotel as the time crunch. Next go around, I definitely need to start working on the project a year out, like right now. Soooo many things went wrong. I was up really late and early in the morning the whole week. And, I didn't have room for the airbrush when I drove down, so a lot got painted by hand in the hotel. The hard part was that I continued to find--no matter how long I spend on it--new places where I failed to paint. Little pink or white spots everywhere... The sand bags weren't too bad. The epoxy sculpt worked well, and it was much less expensive than greenstuff, probably around 5x less expensive or more. I do the sandbag method of rolling a log of the putty, and cutting/dicing 1/4" or so chunks off the end. Then depressing the chunk with my thumb it makes a sandbag shape (well, that's what I was going for anyway). Using my t-shirt cloth, instead of my bare thumb creates a texture, which takes to washes rather well. A bit of nice detail for little work. I also slice the side with an x-acto knife to make a fold for a bit more detail. I should add a knot with a bit of putty to represent where the bag is tied, but I was out of time (it's on my mortar team bases though).

 

On the kitchen counter and on the bathroom counter here...

 

Amusingly, after 80-100+ hours, or whatever it was this past month, the one thing people always commented on was the train. Everybody loves a train. People talk about their anti-gravity speeders with 18 weapon options, but I have a horse-pack autocannon and a train.

 

But the fog machine and tea lights really gave it theme and feel. The happy accident (yes, very intentional) was that when i made all the small craters, the fog machine would pool into it. It really made the whole thing look like chemical weapons. Really scary looking. I wish I took better photos.

 

The Awards Ceremony

In the end, we actually won our category for the display base. Yes, I know it's no Golden Demon, but to our team (who hasn't won any award in 25 years in the hobby), this was a big one. I don't even know what to say. The other finalists in the showcase certainly had better painting and more coherent armies. There's no question they had us beat on virtually every category (well they didn't have moving trains ). The necron thing had like a glowing interactive stone for an electronic board thing that you could move and wake up the necrons--real next generation stuff, and way beyond my capacity. But somehow, the judges went with us. I can't believe it. All the finalists had really creative and interesting boards. I mean really, really good stuff. So of course, not thinking we stand a chance at the end of the tourney, I take off. I have a 7 hour drive, I'm tired, and I get going at 3:30PM. Other team members have much shorter drives and stay for awards starting at 4:30 or so. Anyway, a couple hours later I stop for fuel and see the following texts:

 

As an update: I see there were 96 teams (384 players). We got 28th Place (3 more points and we'd be top 25!). So, I definitely had the wrong impression of scoring. Theme and appearance are very much still a huge part of the score. Despite our losing most games, the custom missions and scoring balanced it out a lot. Long live the hobby! https://www.adepticon.org/adepticon-2022/#1522169753429-56090ada-ede0. 

 

Here's some more army photos from adepticon's website during the army showcase:

The company commander - 

https://m.facebook.com/AdeptiCon.org/photos/a.10153980572360080/10166236563175080/?type=3&source=54

 

Here's the team (very tired at the convention center since 6 a.m., now photographed between 8:30 and 11pm)

https://m.facebook.com/AdeptiCon.org/photos/a.10153980572360080/10166236563170080/?type=3&source=54

https://m.facebook.com/AdeptiCon.org/photos/a.10153980572360080/10166236563165080/?type=3&source=54

 

And even a quick shot on Goonhammer:

https://www.goonhammer.com/the-revenge-of-adepticon-part-5-you-wish-you-were-there/ 

 

Future Projects...

So, what's the next project then? I know I could improve this project in three-dozen ways. It's only after doing something wrong I find that I now have a better Idea on how to do it. There are definitely meticulous people in this world who do things perfect on the first go, and then there people who step in and figure it out on the go. I'm in group two.

 

But, next year the team wants to do Genestealer cults (heresy...). I'm thinking I ought to take this display out to some more tournaments and keep working on it. Really spend the time on painting and put the effort in. I'm also thinking about a railway gun... like a big WW1 railway gun. Something really horrific and terrible to be the centerpiece for Krieg. I think I can do it. I really got to learn a lot about model railroads in this project. I'm just not good at doing styrene conversions with real precision (there's always small gaps and such). Rougher projects are fun, especially making rivets, but really precise stuff is hard to pull off. But, no matter what, for me it has to be Death Korps. No other army compares. Not even close.

Edited April 28, 2022 by Captain Caine 24th

[Captain Caine 24th]

Time to revise and reset.

 

Display Board. I've got a googledoc going with my team members for next Adepticon. We'll see what happens there. But, why just look at adepticon?

 

I really enjoy the diorama work, and there's no army better than guard. So, I'm still stuck in the planning for the display board. I have a few thoughts going forward: (1) redesign it and just make it better (add bunkers, do more painting, details, and textures); (2) do a giant railway gun or fortress; (3) some crazy webway gate/battle of terra. And, I'm looking at other tournaments: 

• Renegade Open in November 2022?
• Adepticon championship tourney March 2023?

The problem is most tournaments do not encourage display boards beyond a simple painting score. Running a thematic krieg army into hyper competitive events will have predictable results. But, the existence of indecision on the tournament shouldn't stop progress. 

 

Bunker/Ammo Depot: The underground bunker/ammo depot did not come together as I'd envisioned it. I want to explore the idea a bit more for a possible new board or revising this board. 

In the overall limtation of a 3'x2' space, having a second level was necessary. The lower level functioned to (1) create space for tanks; and (2) add to the story. But, the story is the part I wanted to add onto. It's hard to say ammunition and supply present a riveting, or compelling story. So, I had the breacher drills digging tunnels on the one end. 

I've been thinking I want to add a tectonic fragdrill, but I see that's now OOP. I also think it'd be cool to change the design so that the breacher drills have run into something they shouldn't have - demons or tyranids, I think. Something like Alien or Reign of Fire with a room of eggs and angry mom. I think that'd be better than just having units run down tunnels. There may also be room to convert/kitbash krieg soldiers with shovels and picks - not just regular units placed there. I can also add barricades, lanterns, and lighting (originally the plan called for LEDs to be wired down the tunnels anyway). Certainly adding rail tracks and carts for debris while digging is an easy detail I've missed. 

 

Departmento Munitorum. Another story I'd not yet completed was that the supply sergeant disengaged his servitor bullgryns to shore up the defenses - a very last stand, fight to the last man, hold the tunnels at all costs type of story line. Of course the old quartermaster model and servitors would be a really cool conversion, but I never did pick him up years ago, and I think he's legends now. But, besides story, conversions help the army appearance scoring (and are often my favorite part of the hobby).So, my previous work started with 3x. 

The initial bullgryns were painted up on a time crunch. I definitely could add more bits to them in hinsight. Now, I'm adding 3 more with ad mech heads and arms, sentinel bits, and green stuff cabling/wire. Not totally sold on the ad mech heads, but lots of neck wiring helps make it look 'grim dark,' as they say. What I have yet to figure out is a power maul... I suppose I could just make them out of styrene scratch, but I'm not sure it'll look right.

 

Detail. Meanwhile, the ammo depot detail is an ongoing project. Lots of grey plastic from 2017 or so is getting put together finally. The crane is tons of fun for ridiculous weathering. I'd like to work on 'wet effects' (like spilled oil) and dried oil stains. The storage containers are terrible to put together, but easy to paint. Turns out they fit perfect on 0 gauge flat cars (notably the 0 scale isn't quite right, the tracks are way too big and far apart, but On30 scale, which sits on HO track, isn't suitable for leman russ tanks and such - but, I like the 0 scale for the ammo depot, while having the HO track on the ground level battle scene above). 

 

Walls. I'm also thinking I could add walls (necromunda floor tiles are probably fine) and much greater detail to supports. Sector mechanicus, wires, and piping everywhere. But, a board redesign could be really cool too - I've often thought about nids crawling in the ceiling or a med lab (the sector imperialis objective). The Anephellion Project Imperial Armor book is great inspiration, and its lore is now copied on that warhammer + service. 

[sairence]

On the topic of converting Bullgryns with Sentinel-parts, I always thought the Sentinel chainsaw would be a neat little conversion for a sort of bionic arm replacement.

[duz_]

Impressive efforts Cpt :tu:

[Captain Caine 24th]

KRIEG DISPLAY BOARD (cont'd)

Mods let me know if I should move to WIP instead of AM/IG. It's a display board for AM/IG, but it is a titan weapon. 

Hobby Delay. I return. Work gets crazy and suddenly it's not April anymore. Even 10 minutes a night would be good progress, but I tend to work in fits and starts. While I can improve at every level of the hobby (painting, assembly, sculpting, etc) I think the most salient point is improving method. If I could just force 10 minutes a day, that could (1) keep me on track, and (2) actually get real progress done as "10 minutes" probably turns in to 45 or 60. Well, the best time to do something is yesterday. In failing that it's today. Far better to be back in the hobby with a clear head now than March 2023. Speaking of which, it's time to discuss the project...

Adepticon 2023. I can't hardly represent the Bolter and chainsword frater very well by showing up unpainted and without any conversions. March 20-something is the deadline. Let's get on it. As to major tournaments (I'll leave that to you to define) there are some near-ish to me. At least they have 50-100+ participants. In my local town there are a few hobby shops but only small Rogue Trader Events (RTTs) of 20 or so. Adepticon is really the only big option. Even if I could travel to larger events, well, let's just agree I'm not taking a 5x3" display board in an airplane. Adepticon remains the main goal. 

Adepticon Scoring. I ran the numbers on scoring based on the 2022 guidelines. I got very lucky to win a display board category at the team tournament. Lots of really great competition (read as: much better painters and generals there). That said, looking at the championship (singles) and the long war doubles tournament, there is also room for building a really intricate display board there. The scoring matrix rewards the hobbyists. And so, it might be nice to get more than one use out of a board requiring 100's of hours to prepare and paint. I'm thinking about it. Also, a 4x team for all the positives also carries a lot of stress with people dropping out - other tournaments might be easier to coordinate. 

Too much text, let's get to the fun stuff...

Krieg Railway Gun. After significant deliberation the 143rd Siege Regiment is getting a Railway cannon. 

Backdrop. As you can see from the above photo, my plan is to create a backdrop for the display board with an explosion. The problem is the volcano cannon is not a nuclear artillery piece. This would be great with the Quake Cannon, but shouldn't I be shooting an energy beam? Whatever, the idea is too good to let go. I'll fix the science later. 

Krieg Railway Gun Design: Let's Go Forgeworld!

• I had first thought about a 1/35 model kit. Trumpeter and Dragon make a 'leopold' big railway gun. It's a fascinating design, but among the reference photos there are dozens of other really crazy and cool looking designs. Also, I don't want the conversion to be too much WW2 Germany. Interestingly in sitting down with some reference material, in WW1 France was the major producer of railway guns (Schnieder and St. Charmond). The Germans, however, seemed to make the bigger guns most noted by the press. The biggest of the guns were more political terror weapons than valuable in any military sense (highly inaccurate, largely ineffective, and taking away from valuable manufacturing capability). Notably so far I've found the French did make a 520mm gun in 1918, thoroughly gargantuan, but of the two made one had a shell explode in the breach during testing, and it's not clear that the other saw action before the end of WW1.
• All that said, I want the design to be very much 40k, with the French WW1 to be significant references. This is consistent with my horse-drawn heavy weapons teams, etc. 
• Next I thought about 3d printing, but I don't have a printer, and learning to use an online design program would probably also require significant time and money (not opposed to it in the future though). 
• I also though about a machine lathe - the barrel is the biggest issue. Assuming I could find schematics of a 14" naval gun, I'd need a lathe. There are shared tool workshops around nowadays (i.e. Maker's Space) but it's $40+ a month. Here as well I'd need a course on the lathe as I've not used one since high school... which was not recent. 
• The next option is good old styrene sheets (Evergreen or Plastruct). I know I can make heavy railway trusses, etc. I know I can do rivets (which is my favorite). But, I can't make spheres, cones, or circular shapes. Even cutting out circles is difficult for precision. In short, I can make the carriage; I can't make the gun. 
• I did see a volcano cannon from a shadowsword converted with an Alcomite Stack - sector mechanicus (big shadowsword conversion on warhammer community this spring). So, basically a big volcano cannon. This is actually a contender. It's cheap (compared to other options) and its small enough to fit on a railway. The problem: it's too small. yes, I recognize I'm dismissing a titan killer as too small. We should all relish for a moment how outrageous and ridiculous my opinion here is. But, I really think a 'small' railway gun is probably the most intelligent way to proceed first as proof of concept. In fact, the easiest of all proposals I would think is this converted barrel on a 1/35 railway gun chassis. We could have that built in a week. 
• The final option: Oops, I bought a Forgeworld kit. Just couldn't exercise some self control. We just have to do it the hard way. But, this actually makes a lot of sense: (1) it ties the gun to the hobby - not just some historical thing, but actually science fiction; (2) it's appropriately scaled. The problem is cost, and no carriage. Apparently they used to sell the quake cannon separately from the Nemesis titan, and that would have been perfect. Now however, I'd need to buy the whole titan... That's not optimal. Also, there used to be an Ordinatus Saggitar - very cool adeptus mechanicus vehicle, but it also is sadly discontinued (and $700 on ebay). So, in failing to find great options, we can settle for the battle or warlord titan volcano cannon; or the laser blasters. The laser blasters are actually really cool because they sit on the warlord's shoulders - that is, they are right side up and mounting on a gun carriage is easy(ish). The volcano cannon needs to be flipped over and it could require some rather serious conversion... I'm not sure yet... Maybe I'll work around the existing structure instead of chopping it up. We want to avoid a $169 mistake... So, let's go forgeworld!

Reference. I picked up a couple of Osprey books to get my mind rolling on this. The Photo above is from a Super Guns book. But the design option photos are much better in the book below here. Some of the coolest designs are set on two tracks, or have gantry cranes loading ammo. 

Edited August 16, 2022 by Captain Caine 24th

[The Pounder]

Inspirational stuff! 
 

Really excited to see how this turns out! Wish I’d thought of it!!

[Captain Caine 24th]

Thanks Jud! Good to be back at it. 

Practice Games. There is a local tournament this weekend, but I don't have the Nephilim Book. Oddly I don't see it available on ebay. Another supply issue? I also don't have an updated army together. I need to get a lot of heavy weapons painted up for my infantry squads. Unfortunately I really hate to skip the tourney as this is the one shop putting on tournaments within 2.5 hour drive. I missed the last one in May with COVID. But, without being up to date on the rules, a tourney just isn't a good idea - it'll be sloppy and time consuming - not a good time. We'll get em the next time.

KRIEG DISPLAY BOARD/DIORAMA - Railway Gun.

Brainstorming and Measurement Phase.

Side View. Ok, we're looking at a length of about 10-12 guardsman. Concededly an odd unit of measurement... I need to figure out the overall length of the gun and the various component pieces. Scaling may get a little weird. Do I want room to place troops (25mm), or do I want to actually incorporate troops into it organically - like glued in? I'm thinking there will be various railings and walk ways to adjust levers and wheels for elevation etc. I really like both of these guns. I may yet still try the ordinary shadowsword volcano cannon conversion with the sector mechanicus alcomite stack pieces. 

Top Down View. Ok, so the railcars are from the last diorama/display board. I don't intend to use them now, but they are useful for sizing up the project. Especially if we go with o-scale track and wheels. So, for now, I'm trying to get an eye on: (1) does the Mars Pattern Warlord Titan Belicosa Volcano Cannon (MPWTBVC?) need two side-by-side tracks (like the WW2 Dora gun) or can we actually fit it on a single track; and (2) i'm envisioning a rear loading compartment (notably we don't actually have projectiles for this particular weapon system). 

Overall Length. So I'm going to need a bigger engine, probably. The 2022 display board ultimately just had a little trolley. This was because the board was designed with an auto-reverse track - the bigger train (On30 scale) here needs something like a 18" track (turn) radius, which is unwieldy for a display board. But, if I have a static display, do I care? Alternatively, why not just build a bigger board? Well, who says there couldn't be moving trains, and then the gun sits as a static piece?

The basic design is also laid out here. I imagine the gun sitting on a big steel structure. Due to the intricate and high-priced design of these forgeworld guns, I think the steel structure should have numerous openings or holes so the detail is not covered up. Lots of rivets and flanges. Basic reference is probably a leman russ hull or simply a photo of a railroad bridge. In any case, the big steel structure will sit on two carriages/wagons. These will have 6-8 sets of wheels. At the rear will follow an ammo car. At this point since this is an energy weapon, I'm not sure on what an ammo car should be. I put the plasma generators there as a placeholder to try and figure this out. 

Wheels. So the wheels are a disaster (or learning experience depending on our point of view). On30 are probably close to the right scale with the krieg troops. However the guns are massively out of scale for that. The flat cars in the picture have O scale wheels, and they're a bit big, but probably look ok with the guns. I really wanted spoked wheels for a more antique feel, but that is very expensive. I looked up San Juan Details for some wheels. They have options which I'll try out for a couple of dollars (interestingly they also have wagon wheels which I'd like to see if they'd work for heavy weapons teams...). Slater's Plasticard has perfect wheels in sizes and design, but it's 10 pounds per wheel set. Nope. More to the point, I found MiniArt has 1/35 wheels. These look legit (even come with leaf springs), and aren't horribly expensive. They may be a bit large, but I may be ok with that. I'm ordering some of those, but with them being a Ukrainian company there may be some delays with the War. So, late August to early September. 

Next Steps. Despite not having all materials acquired, I think I can start designing the superstructure or whatever I'm supposed to call it. Without knowledge in the area of computer aided design, I'm going old-fashioned, meaning it's time for some cardboard mock-ups. The styrene sheets are probably going to be 1mm or .8mm thick for the main sides. It'll have to be thick to look like it actually supports the weight. On the edges of steel plates I'll make a lip like an I-beam with thinner sheets, maybe .2mm to .4mm. I anticipate some curves and will need to be able to bend the material.

I hesitate some as I don't have the wheels yet - if Miniart doesn't work I'll have to pivot, probably to cheap o-scale wheels.  That could effect the overall design dimensions. I think I may need to wait on cutting styrene, but that shouldn't halt the whole construction process. Meanwhile, the army always needs updating. I can work on heavy weapon teams to get ready.

March 2023 isn't far away.