Vrak Renegade Trojans

I had a couple of spare Chimera chassis so I made up a couple of Trojans. One has a tow/crane on the roof and the other has a larger cargo bay and a rear hatch.

Trojans are lightly armed and armoured supply and logistic vehicles. Their main use is resupply of artillery ammunition, towing heavy guns, and general transport. They are easy meat if attacked.

Vrak Renegade Gorgon

The Forge World model is lovely but unfortunatley out of reach of my wallet.

Sooooo........I kitbashed an Italieri 1:35 scale Buffalo.

The model is back to front to put the disembark ramp at the front. The bulldozer blade is made from two GW ones stuck together so that it can lift up to drop the ramp. Two heavy bolters have been added to the top deck complete with Forge World Vrak Renegades. It is also armed with four heavy flamers.

I have put a Forge World Malcador Defender in the last pic to give an idea of the scale.

The chaos icon plate are Forge World Brass, soaked in brown wash and then lightly sandpapered when dry.


The weathering is made from paint layers and MIG powders stuck on with Bostik, which are stabalised by lightly spraying matt varnish. A heavy varnish coat 'loses' the powder.

John

Vrak Renagades Support units

The siege of Vrak is a WWI game of mud and blood.

I continue to rebase my troops as per the advice of the Drunken Samurai in muddy brown.


Mortors are the local artillery for siege games so I have a battery of light and a battery of heavy mortors. The heavies still have their aquillae (aquillas?) on as they have only just been taken out of storage by the renegades and rushed to the trenches.

I also have a battery of lascannons that I have modified by placing on wheeled carriages. I wanted to get an archaic WWI look. The renegade weapons are from Imperial Storage and include 'obsolete' (how does that fit the fluff Forge World?) and second line equipment. The carriages are 1:35 scale Emhar WWI British field guns.

Finally, if anyone wonders what happened to the turret off the Atlas then yere 'tis. I fixed it on the top of a Void observation bunker. I wish that I had bought more of these when they were dumped on the market after Void went bust as they make marvelous turrets but, there it is.

The final pic is the turret in action, fighting off the great Wabbit-Daemon of Olde Englande

Atlas Armoured Engineer Vehicle

I had an old Leman Russ spare so I stripped off the turret and added an Old Crow vehicle crane. It fitted so well that it might have been purpose made. I weathered the hull much more than the crane as I wanted to give the impression that it was a salvaged vehicle with a shot up turret that had been converted in a field repair unit. I added a recent model of a bulldozer blade to add to the engineering 'feel'.

Possession of the battlefield after a mechanised clash is always very valuable because many non-runners are not write offs but can be salvaged with varying degrees of difficulty. One also gets the chance to destroy enemy equipment so it can't be salvaged.

One of the first wargame books that I every bought was by Donald Featherstone. It had a desert war scenario where a broken down tank had to be salvaged and towed away while under fire. I intend to use the Atlas for such themed games that I find more interesting than competition battles.

This vehicle will also come in useful as a special mine-clearing tank for Siege of Vrak type games.

Vanquisher

This is my Vanquisher model. I use it as my command tank, if I need one. It is a dedicated tank-hunter with V-cannon and lascannon. It only has a pintle-mounted stormbolter for defence.

The weathering is built up by multiple layers. I am a firm believer that tanks on campaign should be shown to be dirty. Real one are! Mig dried mud is used for the tracks. I stick it on with UHU. Because I use my models for wargaming, they have to be more robust that a display model.

It is well covered with 'bits'. A tank is home to the crew and there is not much room inside so they tend to strap things on outside.

Hope you like it.


John

Beauty is a Witch

You can find a snippet from my latest story - "Beauty is a Witch" here:

http://madgeniusclub.blogspot.com/2009/05/beauty-is-witch.html

I have sold this one to Baen and it is written for an urban fantasy anthology due out later in the year or early next year. The working title is "Walk on the Wild Side".

The English SF author Liz Williams is also participating.

John

A few Vrak More

An anuvver one or two!

Vrak Renegade Militia

Here are some more of my Renegades of Vrak infantry.

I now have rebased a full platoon with two squads, a rifle and an assault squad, a Disciples of Xaphod squad, an Ogre squad, and a company command squad plus various advisors.

I have photographed a few to give a feel for the unit.

Most are armed with autoguns and autopistols. The Disciples have plasma guns to provide support.

Black Templars

I need to raise some cash to fund new IG and Renegade armies so I am ruthlessly digging out armies that I do not use and I am putting them up for auction on eBay. Retired civil servants are not so well off as the papers would have you believe. There is also the issue of storage space. We intend to move to a smaller house now that the birds have flown the nest.

These are a few pics.

Rebased Renegade Ogryns

I have tried out Drunken Samuris advice to darken my bases. I have to say that I am converted.
Have a look at these with a dark brown base, dry brushed in graveyard earth, and decorated with 'rocks'.

Keep the comments coming in guys! All advice greatly received.


John

Vrak Renegade Ogryns

I am always a little disappointed by close up pictures of my figure models. I use an 'impressionist' style of painting which is designed to make the miniatures look good as a unit on the wargame table. The unrelenting eye of a Nikon macro lens tends to make them look a mess, like observing an impressionist painting from two feet away.

The Heavy Metal painting technique is designed for photography. Funnily enough these models never look to me so good on the table top. Too much detail and too many colours make them look 'toylike'. It is just a personal taste thing. I could not paint to Heavy Metal standard anyway so I suppose the popint is of academin interest - but I am a retired academic.

I am also mildly colour blind. I am the guy who painted the Pink Tyrannids from the Lambshead Nebula in the last Cyphus Caine novel. I thought they were Purple!

I am very sensitive to shade and tone, however, so I suspect that also affects my painting.


John

Etched Brass

My Forge World Etched Brass order arrived and I have been fitting then to my Blood Pact vehicles.

I have never used these before so I was at a bit of a loss how to deal with them.

I cut them out and fixed them securely to the models. Then I coated them in Sepia wash and gave them 24 hours to thoroughly dry.

I brushed them hard with a pan scourer and polished the revealed metal with a rotacraft polisher.

I am quite pleased with the outcome.

John