Warhammer 40,000 – Tank Wrecks Pt 2
After stripping the Leman Russ in the last article, it was time for the next step.
I needed inspiration for a tank wreck, and gathering ideas wasn’t all that easy. Since Warhammer tanks are much closer to World War II-era vehicles than to modern combat tanks, I looked for inspiration there. That led me to a Panzer IV wreck in Normandy and a Sherman wreck, this one was used in Lebanon in the 1980s, but in terms of design it is still very much a 1940s tank.
The question was how to transfer this kind of damage onto the Leman Russ while still keeping it retro. I found a great reference on DakkaDakka by NeoxRonin: an excellent burned-out wreck. As you can see when comparing it to the model from the last article, the version is much more modernized and a little too grimdark for the colourful tables of retrohammer but it is still an amazing paint job and conversion. He also used Death Korps trench rails and air filters on the model, along with replacing the sprocket and wheels with parts from a model kit.
Warhammer 40,000 – Alien Cactus Plants
You can't play on an empty stomach ... err table, and therefore not only ruins and buildings are needed, but some proper flora and sometimes even fauna. One of the most iconic pieces of plant terrain are the alien cactus plants we've seen across multiple battle reports and army shots.
The picture below shows them in an Ork village in UK White Dwarf 164, from an extensive terrain building article by Adrian Wild on modelling cover for your games of Warhammer 40,000.
And after seeing them in action at the Chaosbunker Classics, I decided I had to build my own and I'd like to share how I did it!
Warhammer 40,000 – Tank Wrecks Pt 1
In addition to the other items I've built for my terrain collection, I wanted to add some tank wrecks. In 40k 2nd edition, they actually served multiple purposes, as vehicles (and some other larger models like walkers/dreadnoughts) were not simply removed from the table, but were recommended to stay on the table as wrecks, to provide cover or an obstacle for the remaining units.
I have an "eBay rescue," if you will or rather, a former colleague of mine stopped playing Warhammer and sold off his remaining collection to me — that I wanted to turn into a terrain piece. As it was someone’s first kit of this size, some pieces were not properly cleaned beforehand or had issues with the glue. Therefore, it was a perfect fit for terrain, as it would be a bit too much work to put this to use in the retro army. Not impossible, but simply a good donor vehicle for my purposes.
But first, let us take a look at this Leman Russ kit.
For the Leman Russ Battle Tank, a few "marks" were released over time. The initial/original plastic kit was released in 1994, which got an upgrade in 2003 (for the release of the updated 3rd edition codex) with a newer Imperial Tank Accessories Sprue, and a bigger update in 2009.
What we have here is the 2003 model, which is the same as the 1994 one but with different tank accessories (the classic sprue of 1994, the "newer" sprue of 2003). All the bits marked in red come from the 2003 sprue and are, as such, not fitting for the 40k 2nd edition time frame of 1993 to 1998 and shall be removed.
Until I finish the reviews and build reports on the Leman Russ, you can look up the assembly instructions that I uploaded on the blog for orientation if you intend to do something similar.
Furucius – Stone Trove terrain
Last year I had a bunch of rock formations printed, using the Stone Trove files by Dana McDonald.
The project originally came from Kickstarter, and you can now buy the sets on MyMiniFactory in different bundles. There are also a few shops running a merchant license if you don’t have access to your own printer.
All parts were printed on a Bambu Lab A1 Standard, using the High Quality PLA profile with a 0.08 mm layer height. That already gives a very clean result, but on the top surfaces where layer lines were still visible, I went in with a 1:1 mix of filler and white acrylic paint. I just brushed a fairly thick coat onto those areas and let it cure fully before touching anything else.
Star Wars Shatterpoint – Outer Rim Outpost Terrain Pack
Atomic Mass Games provided us with a roadmap for Star Wars Shatterpoint. Among last year's releases were several squad packs and the announcement of four terrain packs. The SWP60 Star Wars: Shatterpoint Outer Rim Outpost Terrain Pack was the first to be released. Having seen teasers at shows last year, I was looking forward to reviewing this one.
The SWP60 Outer Rim Outpost Terrain Pack has an RRP of USD 54.99 and consists of an Outpost Bunker, a few stacked supply crates, and a critter - in this case, a Bogwing on top of a GNK droid - just like the other terrain packs.
Star Wars Legion – 3D Objective Tokens
Last year, we reviewed the new starter sets for Star Wars Legion and had our eye on two of the new terrain sets. I find one of these sets, the Star Wars Legion 3D Objective Tokens, especially interesting for skirmish games, and we want to take a look at them today.
The SWQ102 3D Objective Tokens are a plastic kit containing various objectives of different sizes, ranging from supply crates to shield generators, and have an RRP of 44.99 USD. While these are not essential, as you could use markers or tokens from the cardboard sheets, the games benefit from the immersion these create. Due to their varied designs, they fit different scenarios and can also be used with Shatterpoint. All ten objectives (four large and six small pieces) come with pre-sculpted bases which are flatter than regular miniature bases, adding to the above-mentioned immersion with the board.
The box has four language markers on the packaging, but these are irrelevant in this case as no printed gaming materials are included besides the 'Read this First' leaflet with brief instructions in English, French, German and Spanish.
Great Escape Games – Gallows Set
Great Escape Games, the company behind Dead Man's Hand, has just released another plastic terrain kit for the Old West: a Gallows.
This new addition to their extensive range of buildings and accessories sees them move another staple piece of every Western from MDF to plastic. We received a pre-release sample of just the sprue and assembly instructions, without the official boxed set.
The Gallows Set contains the gallows itself, as well as four 28 mm scale miniatures, all on a single large plastic sprue. It has an RRP of 20 GBP and will be available from October 10th.
Warhammer Fantasy – Forge World Ruined Chaos Temple
I was able to pick up another Forge World terrain pieces, and this time it was the Ruined Chaos Temple. This one was initially released in 1999, as TR WFB S 017 (while the old online shop listed it with the Reference FWW019/MO and sold through the 2000s.
It started at 38 GBP but quickly was moved to another price bracket, at 42 GBP / 71 EUR / 84 USD for the eight resin pieces. The Chaos Temple was designed by Simon Harris, who did quite a few pieces for Forge World, among them some of the scenery pieces later collected under the Warhammer Forge brand.
The ruined chaos temple is made from a large base, which is roughly 18 x 23 cm in foot print, along with six pillars in different height and a ring for the pit.
Warmaster – A Fortress
Forge World used to offer terrain for Warmaster, you can find some pictures of it on the Collecting Citadel Miniatures Wiki. But these are incredibly rare and you can't really get your hands on them anymore.
Some reached out into the historical wargaming ranges, picking up medieval castles in 10-15mm scale and used those. But with 3d printing the opportunities moved and casting up larger pieces as a solid block of resin became less attractive.
We went with Dark Realms STL files for the Deth Wizards table, and they offer an interesting range of walls, towers and buildings under the name of Castle Argent as well. These should be printable at 40% and I gave the Dark Realms Castle Argent Gate & Walls and Keep a try on the BambuLab A1.
I checked the scale beforehand in chitubox, if they would properly fit the Warmaster bases and they turned out great!
Mortal Gods – Building a gaming table
Since it had been clear for a while that we wanted to do a Mortal Gods batrep, but I simply didn't have the skills to build a board myself in such a short time, I did the only logical thing in this situation: I asked a specialist!
Robert, alias Wolpertinger Miniatures, offered to build me a tabletop board on the first weekend of August. I must admit, I had my doubts as to whether this was even possible in such a short time, but Robert persisted, and so I made ample use of his expertise.
To call him skilled is an understatement, and he had already completed the structural framework for half of the board before I even arrived at his place on Friday. We ended up building the other half together.
Like us on Facebook
Follow me on Instagram
Categories
- events (206)
- fantasy (599)
- General (160)
- historical (632)
- Little Big Adventures (4)
- offtopic (5)
- reviews (537)
- science fiction (690)
- showroom (107)
- terrain (118)
- work-in-progress (420)
