"Flight, this is lead. Stoop and sting..."

The final two planes of my Imperial Squadron arrived today! I'm still trying to aquire a lock on some enemy air assets as well and indeed have a couple of targets in sight but will have to see if I can stay on them.

Anyway, without further ado, here's the big reveal:

Mechanicum Darkfire Castellax Maniple - Completed

With just a couple of days until the end of the 'month' for the Heresy Challenge I'v got 'The Triplets' finished up:

I'm glad I pushed ahead and converted darkfire cannon for them as I'm still awaiting useable replacements for the miscast ones from Forge World - the added bonus of that though is that they're uniquely mine - in fact these Castellax have 'Lacedaemonem Pattern' cannons.

It's not much of an update but I also got around to highlighting the hair on the Hasslefree 40mm Artemis I started around Christmas time as well:

And as Rictus correctly guessed I'll be working on an Aeronautica Imperialis squadron shortly. I'm still waiting on two miniatures arriving before I start working on them properly but in the mean time:

Mechanicum Darkfire Castellax - Update

I've made quite a bit of progress with the triplets over the last week or so:

So they should hopefully be finished up before the 15th in time to complete this months painting challenge. This will then clear the deck a little for some 'specialist games'... here's a sneak preview of what one of them is:

US Marine - Completed

Finished this mini up this morning. It's been great painting something 'real' in 28mm.

The base had to be left plain for the competition it's being entered into but I'll get something sorted for him once the comp is done.

Mechanicum Taghmata Omnissiah Darkfire Castellax Maniple

Newly inspired to add to my Mechanicum forces by both a local surge of interest in Heresy gaming and the new Forge World Scyllax models I thought I'd add some anti-heavy infantry punch in the form of a maniple of three Darkfire Cannon armed Castellax. The triplets should be able to put down what the Mauler Cannon armed maniple cannot:

Unfortunately upon eagerly opening the models when they arrived from Forge World I discovered that the resin in two of the Darkfire Cannon hadn't cured properly while the third had suffered irreparable mould slippage. I contacted Forge World to organise replacements but then resolved that rather than wait for them, I'd kitbash some suitably arcane looking weapons to take their place. A quick bitsbox rummage and some cutting and sticking yielded three 'Lacedaemonem Pattern Darkfire Cannon':

Which were then added to the assembled Castellax who have been primed and base coated silver ready for painting:

I'm aiming to get these done by mid April and then move on to either a second Questoris Knight or a unit of Scyllax, keeping things firmly Mechanicum.

Warlord Games US Marine - Update II

Inspired by watching The Pacific and unable to sleep I've done some more work on this fella:

Warlord Games US Marine - Update

A little more work on this fella this evening, starting to layer up the green of his battle dress and khaki on the webbing and backpack, while the helmet received a green shade to deepen AMD enrich the colour of the steel. It will receive a further blue/green shade prior to the netting being highlighted:

IV Legiones Astartes Deimos Rhino APC

Finished this APC up this evening for a Horus Heresy monthly painting challenge. I had originally planned to do a small Loyalist Iron Warriors allied detachment for my Mechanicum army which would be lead by a Legion Praevian but the lure of Battle-Automata has proven too strong and I think that next month I'll add some directly to the Mechanicum. I'm not ruling out more IV Legion Astartes completely though.

Warlord Games US Marine

One of the IBoH's friends on Facebook is running a 'cannon fodder' painting competition this month. The rules are simple; paint up (but don't base) any standard troop model in 28mm or 28mm heroic scale. So I thought I'd try something totally different as I've not painted many 'true' 28mm mini's so far, though that might change this year. Anyway, I digress. I managed to badger a complete Bolt Action US Marine mini of a friend and I'm attempting to paint him up. I slapped on some base layers, the washed all of them dark brown so I can now begin adding in the flesh, metal and highlights to everything else.

"Big O" US Armoured M4 (105)

I managed to get the M4 armed with 105mm gun that I kitbashed yesterday painted up really quickly:

With "Big O" added, the platoon is complete for now:

Kitbashing - Making a US Armoured M4 (105)

After completing the build and paint on the M4A3 (76) last week I got to thinking about combining some of the spare parts in the Rubicon kit with a Warlord plastic M4 to create an M4 armed with a 105mm howitzer. I had a few reasons for this as adding a fifth Sherman to the four I have would;

a) give my collection a 'full' US Armoured Platoon 

b) give me more tactical options when gaming

c) allow me to keep building and painting tanks - it's gotten a little addicitive!

So this morning I went to my local Warlord plastic crack purveyor and picked up another M4 plastic kit (the last they had in stock, I think I've bought all three they had actually) and then sat down armed with 3 sprues and my tools:

The build for the chassis and hull was straight off of the Warlord Games instruction sheet so I shan't trouble you with the details of that. But once I got to the turret I assembled the Rubicon 105mm gun and fore-plate of the mantlet and then the turret and rear plate from the Warlord kit: 

After some dryfitting I was happy that despite the slight overlap on the mantlet plates the 105mm gun fitted the turret so started to use some scrap plasticard to help hold it in place:

 

Once the glue had had some time to cure I finished assembling the turret:

And then fitted the turret to the hull:

All in all I'm pretty happy with this simple wee kitbash and despite it not being perfect I think it looks pretty effective... now to get some paint on it!

U.S Armoured M4A3 (76)

I think I'm getting the hang of this... This is the Rubicon M4A3 I put together yesterday complete and ready for to rock and roll:

"Alice" and "Sally B" form up ready for action:

Building the M4A3 (76) variant of the Rubicon has left me with a 105mm howitzer barrel and mantlet which I'm very tempted to combine with a Warlord M4 kit to make an M4 (105).  

Panzer Kampfwagen VI 'Tiger'

I finished this beast up this afternoon but I couldn't take photos until this evening:

Another of Detroit's Finest...

While working on getting the Tiger finished today (photos to come later of the Tiger) a new shiny arrived:

I've never bought or built anything from Rubicon models before and I ummed and aahed about this kit for quite some time because it has had mixed reviews from some hobbyists.

 Speaking to some of the Bolt Action elite modellers about this kit in particular and friend who has a zug of their Tigers (which are sans zimmerit anti-magnetic paste, making them late production - I opted for the Warlord one as it's an early/mid production model and with zimmerit and so would match my Panthers) allayed my fears sufficiently though and based on this kit I think Rubicon are definitely a company to keep an eye on in the world of plastic models and miniatures.

The M4A3 went together very quickly and painlessly:

and aside from the barrel of the .50 cal on the turret snapping when I breathed on it a little too hard - (I'm not kidding it's incredibly fragile...) I'd highly recommend this kit and Rubicon in general to anyone thinking of taking the plunge.

...Burning Bright...

Using the same colours and technique as the Panthers I've applied camouflage to the Tiger. The tracks went on after this and then a shading wash to add definition. Detailing will follow once the wash has fully dried and two successively lighter grey drybrushes have been added to highlight and weather the tank.

Tiger, Tiger...

My delayed Warlord PzKpfw VI 'Tiger' arrived on Saturday morning so this afternoon I sat down and put it together ready to reinforce my Panther Zug.

It's a fantastic wee kit that went together really nicely, though if I hadn't glued the mantlet in place then the barrel of the 88 would have drooped somewhat unimpressively. This minor niggle aside though, I'm very impresses with this kit.

In the images you can see the tracks have been left off, this is to make priming and painting easier, they'll be attached later.

Best job I ever had... US Armoured M4 Platoon

This platoon was finished up today:

Painted in a very similar manner to the Soviet T-35/85s I did earlier this year the M4's were relatively quick and easy to finish up. To compensate for this they've been slightly more weathered than any of the other tanks I've painted up. This is partly so they don't look so plain but also to make them distinct from the other tank platoons as I've used the same green paint for the German, Soviet and US vehicles.

I plan on adding an M4A3(76) to this platoon shortly and possibly an M4A3E8(76) 'Easy Eight' as well which should give them more of a punch when facing German armour...

Sd.Kfz.171 Panzerkampfwagen V Panther Zug

I finished these up the other day but have only just gotten the opportunity to take some decent photos of them:

These are Warlord Games plastic Panther kits and aside from a minor issue with the tracks (covered by the armour skirts thankfully) it was a pleasure to build the three of them and even more fun to paint them. To get the camo pattern random I sprayed them 'dunkelgelb' and then used blutac to mask off areas then sprayed the brown. I then added more blutac and sprayed the green before painting the details. 

This zug will be reinforced with a Tiger I Ausf.E once the kit arrives from Warlord.