Imperial Navy RE-45 Lander

Side shot showing lateral, fast-exit, troop hatches, heavy thruster baffles, underwing air intakes and the rotatable jet nozzles used for hoverflight and fast lift offs.

It is a largely plastic model built over  a balsa wood chassis.

I made this scratch-build Imperial shuttle some time ago but had no idea what it was. However, the recent novel, 'Watchers of the Throne', cleared the matter up.

It's an Re-45 shuttle!

The RE-45 was a commonplace lander used to put Imperial Guard infantry platoons on-planet in hot drops.

It was phased out as developing Guard strategy required the immediate application of crushing force: the lander was just too small and so was replaced by massive landers capable of carrying entire companies (or even regiments) with heavy weapon support.

Most of the RE-45 landers were demilitarised to be used as civilian shuttles but, the Imperium being what it is, a large number of the original military landers are still found in use by various dodgy organisations like Rogue Traders and The Inquisition.

They are of course a bit beat up but that suits Inquisitors travelling incognito.

Bow shot showing the fixed lascannon and twin bolter turret used for point defence and to shoot up the landing zone prior to touch down.

Most RE-45s have acquired various additional blisters of equipment over the years on the outer hull - causing much teeth-gnashing in the Adeptus Mechanicus.

Stern shot showing the three primary thrusters, heavy blast baffles and vertical fins: note the heavy air brakes (located in front of the baffles) used for controlling steep descents.

Dorsal shot showing various augurs and void-vox ariels, dorsal twin thrusters, tail horizontal and dorsal fins and a pilot's hatch.

RE-45 parked alongside a Fury and Inquisition gun cutter.

Another size comparison shot.

The RE-45 is a much more robust piece of equipment than the Avis shuttle or a rogue trader space hauler. his makes it an Inquisiton favourite for insertion into problematic situations where armour, and a servitor controlled twin heavy bolter turret, are more important than comfort or convenience.

Seond Hand 40K

I desired to add a Hellbrute to my small Khorne Berserker army but the old bank account has taken a bit of a dive this month due to storm damage from the winter gales on my roof so funds for military expenditure were restricted.

However, eBay is full of second hand models from GW starter kits offered at very reasonable prices. I picked up this model for about one third new price. I chose one that had been painted flat red and black so it could easily be overpainted without another layer of undercoat. I also opened and reglued a joint that had come loose and changed the basing to match my army.

I will probably add trophies to the arm chains when time permits.

All told, this was achieved in a single evenings modelling.

Is it as good as a new bespoke Hellbrute, lovingly painted? Of course not.

Is it a usable model at a budget price and a few hours work? Hell yes!

Otto Rahn, Ahnenerbe SS

Otto Rahn hunting for the Holy Grail under a Cathar Fortress in Languedoc: note the miniaturised zero-point 'bell'.

Otto Rahn was an 'awakened' (i.e. rune-magician) archaeologist/historian who was a member of the Ahnenerbe SS and an expert on the Holy Grail.

Officially he died of an accident in 1939, but research by Kenneth Hite, published by Osprey, suggests he was active until '45.

Otto Rahn

He is believed to be part of the inspiration behind the Indiana Jones movie.

Otto Rahn

This model by Lucid Eye is perfect to represent this fascinating and complex character.

The End of Rahn?

After '44, the trail goes cold but Hite speculates that he may have raised something he couldn't put down.

New Space Marines by Belisarius Cawl

Belsarius Cawl

"Everyone's a bloody critic." said Belsarius Cawl, in binary. "You spend ten thousand years giving them new Space Marines with two wounds and do they appreciate it? No, they whine"

He gurgled down his breathing tube in indignation and switched to speech.

"They're too big. They won't fit in a Rhino. They get stuck in the hatches of space hulks........."

Later that evening, he was baiting a trap with cheese when an idea occurred. Maybe space marine DNA was more malleable than he had assumed.

I give you, Belsarius Cawl's deadly Space Meece.

"I hate Meeces to Pieces," Abbadon the Despoiler.

Scratch Built Imperial Navy Fury Interceptor P5

Vostock Pattern Imperial Navy Fury Void Fighter

   This is the smallest pattern of void fighter used by the Imperial Navy. It is intended for point defence around capital ships, space stations and planetary bases. As such it can transit through atmosphere so is moderately aerodynamic. It can mount ground strafing runs in atmosphere using its lascannon - the point defence projectile weapons are useless in atmosphere due to wind sheer as the fighter is very fast - but it has a turning circle measured in kilometres so is of limited effectiveness in ground support and next to useless as a atmospheric fighter. Needless to say such missions are not much to the liking of the crew.

Climbing Hard Out Of Atmosphere

   It can be assisted out of a deep gravity well by a supplementary booster, piloted by a servitor, attached to the ventral surface as a fuel saving measure and time-intercept facilitator.

Bow

   The gunner sits in the front turret from where he controls all weapons and can alter the fighter attitude to bring the main laser armament to bear. In the rotatable nose turret is a twin autocannon for close in defence connected to a targeting auger (above).

   In front of the pilot's cockpit is the bow projector for the ion shield.

   Targeting augurs for the primary armament are located on the roof of the cockpit.

Stern

   Showing the main thruster bank and four vectored thrusters used to assist the centrufugal attitude controllers when under full thrust.

    On the rear top deck are located twin-linked heavy bolters for rear point defence along with their targeting auger.

Front Dorsal

   Above the pilot's cockpit are, from left to right:
(i) the main armament targeting augers
(ii) pilot's entry hatch.
(iii) alongside entry hatch are external power packs used to invoke the Fury's machine spirit when the main engines are offline
(iv) rotating void vox for communication between fighters and with their base controller when without an astropath
(v) emergency plasma vent

Mid Dorsal

   Rotating turret with long range primary search augurs. Note that when travelling in the void the twin fins are lowered flush with the hull where they won't impede the augurs. They are only raised to assist in flight trimming when transiting through atmosphere.

Lateral View

   The main armament consists of a lascannon on the thin front wing, two turbolasers on the thicker rear wing, missile battery above the main wing, and a seeker missile launcher below the wing (out of shot).

   On the hull lower left is a refuelling port, between the wings an inspection panel and anterior to the front wing the crew entry hatch. The fighter carries a minimum of two crew, pilot and gunner, but there are two more seats behind the gun turret for an astropath and enginseer.
   Above the crew hatch is found the lateral ion shield projector.

Lateral Rear

   Another view of the thrusters and stern point defence system. Note the rear ion shield projector on the rear side hull.

In Atmosperic Transit

   Note the bulges under the front wings holding additional fuel. This view shows the laser armament and the seeker missile launcher under the rear wing.

Mission Over

   The Fury is just about finished. When it reaches its Wing, it will join Yellow Flight and have a number allocated (I have the template on order).

   Modelwise I will probably build a trolley to display it on as it is intended for wargaming terrain, rather than a playing piece.

   Hope you like it, making a Fury has been a blast.

Scratch Built Imperial Navy Fury Interceptor P4

All the various bits of odds and sods added to the basic hull to add verisimilitude to the design.

The bow.

The ventral.

The stern.


 At this stage a scratch build looks terrible, like a load of old bits glued together - which is exactly what it is. But remember the old modeller's maxim: A lick o'paint covers a multitude of sins.

The model is sealed in with a generous coat of Army Painter white undercoat, a 'thick' paint that blends everything in and gives a continuous texture to the differently sourced components.

Then I airbrushed on Vallejo Air Cold Grey.

Incidentally, for this I used one of Rochester Models £25 double-action airbrushes. These are highly durable, Robust, and completely adequate for this purpose, saving wear and tear on my Iwata.

A dorsal view.

From the side.

Bow on.

The rear.

Scratch Built Imperial Navy Fury Interceptor P3

The next step was to fit the bow baffles to box in the turret attachment, add the dorsal superstructure and fit a pilot cockpit.

I filled in the large gaps around the turret baffles by coating then over with paper stiffened by polystyrene cement. Smaller gaps remaining along the joins were sealed with Humbrol plastic filler.Again I left it to dry overnight before sanding everything more or less flush.

At this stage I also added the point-defence twin-autocannon.

Next up the wings.

The front wings are a single sheet of polystyrene while the rear are triple-layered, the centre layer being slightly smaller to give a GW-style notched effect.

The wings are cemented on with polystyrene cement but a layer from a glue gun on the under-join held the wings in position while the cement dried.

I also added a top turret hatch for the pilot.

The rear thruster pack and vectored attitude-thrusters are made from cut up plastic straws attached by a glue gun.

It is starting to look like a void fighter rather than a plastic box.