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Crooked Dice have released a range of resin scenery items including a pack of four mattresses.

There are two mouldings, one intact, the other with the stuffing leaking out.

They are certainly of generous dimensions - William Killian for scale.

And a Rubicon T34/85.

Civil War Sniper

This is a Civil War sniper fromWarlord Games.

 Now that looks uncomfortable, but the long gun is supported by the sword. I have seen models of modern snipers in similar poses.

Some commander is not going to have a good day.

I must get round to finishing off some more of these figures.

Iron Hands work in progress

This is almost complete, but I have not fitted it with a backpack.

 One of the features of this particular chapter of the loyalist marines is their self harming initiation ceremony involving the removal of one of their arms and its replacement with bionics. The forearm of the left arm was removed, two plastic rods fitted into holes drilled in the hand and the elbow.

A mark 7 head with additional optics was used to indicate their ideology of metal over flesh.

I just need to find a suitable backpack, do some last clean up and paint, and this is ready to go.

Alpha Legion Sniper

So continuing with the Alpha Legion theme, they are experts at intervention and underhanded tactics.

Sometimes direct pinpoint action is required, so there is a need for snipers.

Now there is no "sniper" option on any army list that covers Alpha Legion, however there is no kill better than overkill, so I chose the longest range weapon available on my lists -  the Las Cannon.

Again I used the normal Space Marine kits - this time the heavy weapons one and the kneeling legs.

Now for "Line" marines I have used a combination of Chaos and normal marine parts avoiding anything too chaotic. Now the sniper is going to be an Elite choice so I used just normal marine parts.

The kneeling pose suits the sniper concept.

The only problem is the power cable between the cannon and the backpack, as you can see here it would pass through the knee, so this figure is awaiting my attempting to connect the two.

Alpha Legion Terminator work in progress

More figures from the work in progress box, in this case Alpha Legion.

My take of the Alpha Legion is that they attempt to look like normal Marines rather than the spikes and tentacles of the other traitor legions. Their subversive activities mean they need to pass as normal marines.

We are marines from the Hydra Legion, now where is your central defence hub?

Their equipment is going to be a mixture of old and new, picked up as they go along.

This is exemplified by this Terminator.

With the exception of the weaponry and the head it looks like a regular terminator suit (except that it lacks a Crux Terminatus). Armed with the old style Reaper auto cannon shorn of any overt chaos symbols it would appear to be a loyalist suit.

Built from a Terminator body with the head opening widened to take a Marine mark 7 helmet. The reaper is from the Chaos Marine Terminator kit, the power glove is a marine one as are the two shoulder pads. The Crux Terminatus was shaved off leaving the skull.

The body was sprayed with Citadel Incubi Darkness and I have started to paint the black base coats on the weapons, cables etc.

Chaos Reigns (at least on the workbench...)

While I was shuffling round the contents of the figure boxes I came across a few Chaos Marines that are still work in progress.

Iron Warrior terminator

Iron Warrior Terminator Lord

A Nurgle Terminator Champion (based on a  Womblehammer Nurgle character).

I might get round to finishing them sometime.

A Handful of Ninja

Crooked Dice brought out three ninja figures a while back. I have finally got round to painting some up.

Surrounding a woman in a hoodie, they are in for a surprise.

Shadow War - Armageddon Cadian Kill Team go visiting

Well, last week I had a chat with the Daniel, the local minion of the Great Womble and he mentioned that he had never seen one of my figures.

So having "finished"the Cadian Kill team, I took them in to show him.

I bought a couple of "Figures In Comfort" mini boxes for the West Wind Empire of the Dead game way back when. They are small and convenient for carrying a small number (12) of figures. I added some of my Womble figures to fill the available slots.

Of course they cannot stay there, the box is normally the home of the Ortega Posse, and frankly I do not want to get on the wrong side of Perdita and her family.

Smith Gun - Cheap and cheerful British artillery

At the Imperial War Museum they have an example of a Smith Gun. This was a cheap artillery weapon issued to Home Guard units.

Using a 3 inch smooth bore barrel, it was designed to fire standard 3 inch mortar shells. Though it was claimed to have a range of 1500 metres, in practice it was found to only have a range of 450 metres.

Warlord Games is releasing a model as part of their Operation Sealion range.

The Wikipedia article can be found here.

Some Assembly Required - the Private Eye

Krysten is a hard drinking but accomplished private detective, with hidden talents.

Hasslefree's Pulse prepares to investigate the mean streets.

Shadow War - Armageddon: Cadian Kill Team part 6

Here is the complete Kill Team.

The bases need finishing, and I might add some decals from the supplied decal sets.

Shadow War - Armageddon: Cadian Kill Team part 5

Here are the finished (sort of) Kill Team.

The Veteran Sergeant.

Veteran Grenadier

Veteran Guardsman 1

Veteran Guardsman 2

Veteran Guardsman 3

 x

Veteran Guardsman 4

Guardsman 1

Guardsman 2

M1A2 Abrams "Giraffe", a Twilight 2000 tank

In the mid to late 'eighties Games Designer Workshop released a role playing game based on a Third World War scenario. The forces on both sides started out equipped with current and bleeding edge (Ultra-Modern) military hardware.

Many of the designs were based on experimental vehicles and test beds, others on "to be delivered soon" equipment. As the present steamrollered over the "future" many of them fell by the wayside.

A revised version was released with a revised "future" after the fall of the Berlin Wall.

One of the vehicles was the M1A2 "Giraffe", a slightly futuristic design based on the current M1 tank.

One of the continuing thoughts on tank design is how to reduce the width of the turret to reduce weight but still provide protection to the crew. One way of doing that would be to move the crew into the hull and operate the turret and gun remotely. There were a number of designs before the M1 Tank Test Bed (including a Cromwell with a remote turret).

The Giraffe was based on this concept. History (in the form of the US Army) moved on and the M1A2 became an enhanced M1A1.

So I built a number of vehicles to represent Twilight 2000 vehicles. This is the Giraffe.

It was built more than 25 years ago, so I cannot remember the origin of the Abrams kit.

The hull was built according to the instructions. The turret ring was plated over  leaving a hole to take the Meccano bearing.

A Modelscenes Sewer Pipe  was used to raise the turret above the hull..

The basic turret was constructed according to the instructions to make a suitably robust structure, it was then cut with a razor saw to remove the gun mount. The new turret was then cut from plastic card. The armoured box that contains the sight, the commander's hatch and the wind speed detector were added to the basic turret box. Milliput was used to smooth the transitions.

The plastic sewer pipe was attached to the turret box and a Meccano bolt was milliputed in place for the pivot.

Various items of stowage were added to the hull.

 The loader's hatch was added to the revised deck of the tank.

The camouflage was taken from an example in the US Army vehicle guide published by GDW.

This model has been in storage for more than twenty years, only being brought out in response to a posting on a forum.

References for the M1 TTB (normal warnings about external internet sites apply)

http://warfaretech.blogspot.co.uk/2015/05/m1-tank-test-bed-ttb-with-unmanned.html

http://forum.worldoftanks.com/index.php?/topic/488315-what-happened-to-the-m1-ttb/

http://www.steelbeasts.com/topic/10260-m1-based-ttb-and-cattb/