Tag Archives: Tank

Basilisk “Bertha”

2014/11/05 KeptainKayak 1 Comment

I first mentioned my new Basilisk in this post. This has by far been my favourite model to build so far.

Basikisk parts as they arrived from the eBay order: Partially assembled and unpainted

As I mentioned in this post, the parts weren’t complete so I had to partially disassemble and re-assemble the Hellhound and Basilisk so that there would be enough parts for both. Part of the puzzle was that they supports for the Basilisk’s Earthshaker Cannon weren’t included. So I improvised using some spare parts.

I started by painting it with similar colours to my infantry models, chimera, taurox, and hellhound. A lot of Administratum Grey, and all the metal parts were primed with Imperial Primer and then highighted with Leadbelcher.

After I started painting, I realized I wanted to do something special for this tank. The Earthshaker Cannon is so iconic of the Imperial Guard Astra Militarum that and unsubtle that I felt it needed something. I wanted to make it something I would be personally proud of. And that meant going back to my Engineering roots and adding some electronics and circuitry.

I wanted to make the gun light up and make sounds. The simplest way to do this would be to scavenge the speaker, light, battery and control circuitry from a Dollarama Toy Gun. I got the below toy for $3 (plus tax).

Dollarama Toy Gun that was scavenged for parts

I must admit, I had a lot of fun exploring the device. It was kind of like an autopsy or a dissection of a mysterious object.

Dismantled toy gun showing speaker, integrated circuit, vibrating motor, light, and wiring

Taking it apart, I discovered it wasn’t very complicated. There was a tiny integrated circuit that handled the noise generation. Connected to the circuit was a simple speaker and a LED. There was also a motor that made the gun vibrate. I wanted to use that to make the tank shake, but it was pretty bulky and heavy.

Toy gun's integrated circuit I scavenged for the lights controller and sound — Toy gun’s integrated circuit I scavenged for the lights controller and sound

I decided I wasn’t going to use the vibrating motor thing. But the light and sound were very necessary and I was looking forward to using them.

Simplified circuit of lights and sound for my Basilisk tank

Actually fitting the electronics into the tank was trickier than I expected. The inside of the tank is actually quite small, so there isn’t much room to work with.

The tank came mostly assembled from the person I purchased it from on eBay, so I actually had to break the tank apart to get inside.

I mangled the battery holder from the toy gun and shoved it into the tank. The batteries are surprisingly bulky! At the same time, I slid the speaker into the forward section below the ‘hatch’, positioned the integrated circuit chip behind the battery, and made sure that the control wires and LED light were free to reach the outside of the tank.

Crafting the battery holder and other parts into the inside of the tank.

I punched a crude hole int he top of the tank so that the light and control wires would come out. The idea was that the wires would come up just below the Earthshaker Cannon so that they could go into it with minimal distraction.

The LED went into the cannon from behind, and I installed a momentary pushbutton on the back of the cannon. I rather like the way the barrel of the cannon lights up!

After all that fancy assembly, I needed to finish the paint job to make it presentable. It’s mostly just Administratum Grey with Auric Armour Gold highlights, like the rest of my army. However, I’m proud of how the wash on the skulls and wings on the top of the guard turned out.

New basilisk, left side view. You can see the pushbutton on the back of the cannon.

New basilisk, rear view. The pushbutton doesn’t stand out much, which was the idea.

Why did I name this tank Bertha? Well, it’s a very unsubtle tank, so I thought it deserved an unsubtle name. And, there’s the historical Big Bertha.

Clockwise from left: Chimera “Dauntless”, Basilisk “Bertha”, Chimera “Eaton”, Hellhound “Cerberus“

I really enjoy that it’s an ‘active’ electronic model. I plan to incorporate electronics of some sort into future tanks.

My biggest regret is probably that the battery is inaccessible inside the tank. Changing the batteries is all but impossible, and I’m worried about a leak eventually. It’s something I’ll keep in mind for future projects.

Basilisk Tactics:

Both Grumpy Guardsman and Imperator Guides agree that the Basilisk is iconic but not particularly competitive. The main blast is a very impressive S9 AP3 large blast. However, the barrage rules give it lots of trouble. Its minimum range is a whopping 36″ which means it can’t use the Barrage rule within that distance. And scattering 2D6-3″ means it’s pretty likely to miss its target.

Hobby

Hellhound “Cerberus”

2014/10/07 KeptainKayak

Another new tank from that big eBay purchase all those months ago. It started like a a Chimera manufactorum, but I’m starting to make my way through the backlog and starting to field an army of tanks!

My tank factory (or Chimera Manufactorum). Most of these tanks are finished now

I’ve already published posts about my new transports Taurox “Lechon” and Chimera “Dauntless“. Today’s post is about my first non-transport tank: A Hellhound I’ve named “Cerberus”.

Construction

Just putting this together was a bit of a puzzle. The eBay package I bought of 3 tanks wasn’t exactly complete. The model that I assume was supposed to be the Hellhound was missing several tank track links. To remedy that, I pulled the track covers off of the Basilisk model and used them to cover the gaps in the tracks of the Hellhound. I have to admit that putting this puzzle together was pretty fun!

Unassembled parts of original Hellhound (left) and Basilisk (right). I moved the track covers from the Basilisk to the Hellhound to cover up missing tank track links.

There were other pieces missing like the top hatch and front window. I cut up a random piece of plastic to simulate the top hatch and used some liquid green stuff to fill in the gaps. For the front hatch, there was a mount for a heavy bolter in the Chimera kit which I wasn’t using. It looks like a sensor array in the front, which I rather like.

It wasn’t fun to clean up the mess of glue. The model seemed to be covered in a lot of cheap glue, perhaps even from a hot glue gun. I think I chipped off most of it.

Painting

I stayed with the same grey, black and gold colour scheme that I’ve used on my infantry, chimera, and taurox.

To make this vehicle unique, I freehand painted some flames on the front and on the back door.

Showing flame detail (and some liquid green stuff filling holes)

The tank commander kind of came together by accident, but I really like how he turned out. I used a head leftover from my Taurox kit. I think it was meant for the driver if it was a Taurox Prime driven by a Tempestus Scion with the gasmask. I also gave him a baton from the Command Squad sprue.

Tactics:

I followed the advice of Grumpy Guardsman on this post and equipped my Hellhound with a multi-melta. It is one of the few ways Astra Militarum can field this powerful weapon. However, I’ve used it in a battle already, and the BS3 of the hellhound makes it rather unreliable to hit.

I can also field this as a Devil Dog where the main gun is a 24″ blast melta. That would make quite a tank hunter!

I have parts to make a second one, so I’ll probably follow Imperator Guides’ advice and make one with a hull flamer and a pintle-mounted heavy stubber. Being a fast vehicle I can fire two weapons at once, so if the hull heavy flamer is out of range I can still use the heavy stubber.

Name Origin:

I thought of a few different names, and Cerberus is the one that stuck. From Greek and Roman mythology, Cerberus is the name of the eponymous Hellhound of Hades. It’s also the name of a somewhat sinister organization in the Mass Effect series of games.

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Chimera “Dauntless”

2014/10/01 KeptainKayak

Another addition to my mechanized army: A new Chimera!! I got it from an eBay purchase several months ago. It was completely un-assembled when I got it so it was fun to put together.

I originally thought of giving it white “Tiger Stripes” but it didn’t look very good, so I went back to the matte grey like the rest of my army.

I also made a conscious decision to keep it as simple as possible. The base model is 65 points so I left it at that. It’s a fairly versatile tank like this because it already includes a searchlight and smoke launchers. I can always add more features later.

Chimera “Dauntless”. Detail of nameplate

Chimera “Dauntless”. Rear view with guardsman exciting the hatch

Chimera “Dauntless”. Rear/side view with guardsman and Techpriest

Chimera "Dauntless". Detail of "Tank Commander" — Chimera “Dauntless”. Detail of “Tank Commander”

As you can see in the below photos, even though the design of each vehicle is quite different, the Chimera and Taurox look like their part of the same army by virtue of their similar colour schemes.

Chimera “Dauntless” with Taurox “Lechon”

Chimera Tactics

Imperator Guides and Grumpy Guardsman each have great tactics articles on the Chimera. I plan on using this as a “meltavets” Chimera with a squad of veterans and two meltaguns that can can fire out of the top hatch. It could also be an effective mobile command vehicle with a company command squad or platoon command squad inside with an officer, vox-caster and couple of special weapons like meltaguns or plasma guns.

Name Origin

I had the movie “Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl” on the background while painting this tank. The HMS Dauntless was a Royal Navy vessel. It was the vessel of Commodore James Norrington, so it was essentially a command vessel or flagship. I thought that sounded appropriate for what would be a command tank.

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Space Marine Vindicator “Subtlety”

2014/09/05 KeptainKayak

I’m finally getting through my backlog of vehicles and able to share some finished pictures.

The first tank I recently completed was a Space Marine Vindicator. Imperial Fists are considered to be siege masters, so the Vindicator seems thematically like the most appropriate tank for them to start with.

The Vindicator is a brutal tank overall. It is a Heavy Support option for 125 points and has AV 13 11 10 and BS 4. . This tank is based on the Rhino chassis but replaces the transport capacity with a ridiculously devastating Demolisher Cannon. That cannon is ordnance and has a rather limited range of only 24″, but is S 10 and has AP 2! In my battle with Andrew about two months ago, he used a Vindicator to vaporize a whole squad of my guardsmen with a single shot!

I got this particular model from eBay. I like to think I got a pretty good deal on it. It was primed black, but I could see that there were some traces of blue on the bottom. It’s an older version of the model, which I don’t mind at all. It doesn’t have the dozer-blade/siege shield, which would be thematically appropriate, but I decided to save some points and go without it.

I started by priming the whole tank skull white, and then did a dirty base coat of Averland Sunset. I highlighted the black and metal parts, but unfortunately some wound up on the yellow. Those are hard to clean up!

Base colours applied to the Space Marine Vindicator

After reviewing the codex, I realized that smoke launchers, smoke light and a storm bolter are included in the 125 points. I thought it would be useful to have the pintle-mounted weapon, and since it was already included, I decided to add it. I had to make some modifications to the tank commander. It was surprisingly hard to cut off the pewter arm, but I think the final product looks convincing.

Space Marine Vindiciator, now with pintle-mounted storm bolter

As I mentioned earlier, covering dark spots with yellow was tricky. It took several coats of Yriel Yellow to get a nice even colour, but I’m pretty happy with the end product.

Side view of my Imperial Fists Space Marine Vindicator Tank

I like how many of the paint features turned out. The leadbelcher metallic really shines nicely and gives it an industrial feel. There were other parts I highlighted with Averland Sunset and then covered with Auric Armour Gold, and it looks really sharp, shiny, and golden.

The wooden boxes in the back look pretty effective too.

Rear view of my Imperial Fists Space Marine Vindicator Tank

Front view of my Imperial Fists Space Marine Vindicator Tank

Why did I name it “Subtlety”? Well, it’s meant to be ironic. A bright yellow tank with a monstrously large gun is probably the most unsubtle thing imaginable.

My bright yellow tank with a huge cannon is ironically named "Subtlety" — My bright yellow tank with a huge cannon is ironically named “Subtlety”

I look forward to fielding this some day with my Imperial Fists allied force.

It's bad news time when you're staring down the barrel of a Space Marine Vindicator's Demolisher Cannon — It’s bad news time when you’re staring down the barrel of a Space Marine Vindicator’s Demolisher Cannon

And I imagine my opponents won’t look forward to staring down the barrel of the Demolisher Cannon!

Keptain Kayak

Tag Archives: Tank

Basilisk “Bertha”

Hellhound “Cerberus”

Chimera “Dauntless”

Space Marine Vindicator “Subtlety”

My Warhammer 40,000 Blog featuring Imperial Guard, Space Marine and Inquisitor Models