Tabletop Apocalypse: Vehicles

Showing posts with label Vehicles. Show all posts

Monday, 24 March 2025

Infinity scale Sci Fi Cars - scenery/terrain project

I'd been wanting to get my hands on a few cars to compliment my new Infinity terrain I've been working on, and was scratching my head for some time. The best option for a while looked to be trying to get hold of some diecast models. There are a few proper options out there, or resin 3d prints maybe, but it was looking a bit expensive. I don't like putting too much money into terrain pieces. While pondering this, I had a flash of inspiration- what about that box of run down old Scalextric cars that had been in a drawer for 20-30 years?

So I pulled them out and hey - the scale wasn't bad. Maybe a little on the big side, but who knows how big cars will be in the future right? - I'm not a perfectionist for these things. The other advantage was that they were really really dirty... no wait that wasn't the advantage, the advantage was that as they were race cars of a few types they already looked sort of non-mundane and a bit futuristic. Also according to Downfall (an Infinity book/novel - which has been really good) there are still cars that don't fly and even sports cars. It was all coming together.

With nothing to stop me, I set about the task of cleaning the dust off of them. I decided to keep the clear windows as were, so I put masking tape on those, and then undercoated them with a bit of black spray.

Some airbrushing later, a few very hasty panel highlights and a freehand go-faster-stripe and here we have the finished result - apparently ready to deploy my Yadu multi-rifle and tacbot into the fray!

It's always nice to repurpose something from the junk heap of life. These cars almost went in the bin about a year or so ago during a house move, so it's a cool thing both to have for the field and to rescue from oblivion.

Original photo below of the condition of the cars when they were found. You could almost just clean them up and pit them on the table if you don't mind the cheap plastic look and are in a hurry, but I wanted then to match the aesthetic of the game. I pulled 3 cars for the initial batch. So far I've only finished one, but it's a start.

Well, that's about it for today - I posted this really in the hope that one day someone else could do the same. We'll see if the idea catches on.

Thursday, 13 March 2025

Infinity Aleph Rudras GunBot

Work on odd Infinity pieces continues. A big part of the appeal of the game is the high tech cyberpunk style aesthetic and rules. In that vein, I've painted a rather nice Aleph remote. In terms of the game it functions similarly to a fast heavy Infantry, but also comes with a handy repeater installed that allows you to use it as a sort of hacking hub to expand the reach of your hackers.

This also gives me a slight opportunity to show some of the infinity scenery I've been working on. It's a mix of different MDF kits and I'm keeping yhr bright colours coming. I love a bright and exciting looking board, so I've had that in mind with the scenery too. I really want it to pop on in the table, and nothing says futuristic like neon bright colours!

The paint scheme for the Rudra matches my Aleph. Essentially based around a white grey base airbrush blend with everything else being jist normal brushwork. The numbers and letters are all freehand too.

All the metals are non-metallic style on this thing too. It's a technique I've experimented with a bit over the years, and have made decent progress on. I think to do it really well takes a very long time, so for me I'm happy to get only passable/decent results if I can do it relatively quickly!

Tuesday, 16 July 2024

Steel Legion Imperial Bombard

This model has been on my painting radar for far too long. I always wanted a Colossus back when they first appeared in the guard codex - I think it was 5th Edition? - anyway, they never did make a proper model. At the time, I had high hopes for a joint plastic kit with the Medusa at some stage, but it never happened.

Fast forward several years to about 2018 when I started the Steel Legion force out of the ashes of a few failed past armies, and one of the things I knew I wanted was one of the Forgeworld Bombards. It was actually sprayed in a batch with my first Basilisk and then sort of ended up hanging around. I changed projects and it just never seemed to get finished until now. It also didn't help that somewhere in the middle it took some sort of knock during a house move that caused it to fall apart a bit.

Anyway, the tank uses my standard Steel Legion Scheme - there is a full tutorial on here somewhere, so there's not much point in recounting all the colours. It's easily found on Google under "how to paint Steel Legion tanks" if anyone is interested.

One factor that slowed my progress on this thing was deciding what to actually do with the mortar itself. Originally the dark grey body was camouflage like the tank's hull, but it just didn't work and looked a bit too murky. The red stripes help add an accent of colour to it too.

And that about rounds it out for this thing. I really should post more often!

Sunday, 7 July 2024

Armageddon Steel Legion Scout Sentinel

OK, so it's probably been at least a year since I posted anything, but not for lack of progress. I rarely have the photography lights out these days for pictures, and true to form these photos were taken in the natural light of the conservatory.

I've always liked scout sentinels- traditionally, Armageddon have the armoured cab due to the toxic environment, but it's definitely fun to see the pilot. In terms of this model, it's pretty stock, but the pilot head is swapped with a plastic death korps head so he doesn't die of exposure up there 😅

I have painted a lot of units recently, and one of the things I've started to introduce to the Steel Legion is a bit of foliage. There are jungles on Armageddon after all, and I like the contrast of having the occasional plant in there. I'm actually using really cheap plastic plants and spraying them with undercoat and with the airbrush to get them to look good. I had the idea that the plants on Armageddon would be sort of sickly and quite yellow in colour which would explain the regimental uniform colours.

Speaking of uniforms, this thing is yellow... it's a look I've been playing with. The majority of my vehicles are the traditional grey/sand type camouflage, but for some models I wanted to change it up. My theory being that they would have been deployed to the sands and wastes between hive cities on the planet.

All in all, I think I painted this thing over the course of a day. I've been hitting the Steel Legion stuff quite hard over the past month, so there's plenty more completed and in the works. Maybe I'll get some better quality pictures next time...

Friday, 27 September 2019

Steel Legion Valkyrie Conversion (Revell 1:48 Hind Helicopter Kit)

Something a bit different today. A few weeks ago, I was watching the A-Team (which is full of Helicopters), and I got to thinking how cool it would be to have one for my Steel Legion. Then around the same time, I played a bit of Red Alert on the old PS1 multi-tap. Needless to say, I played as Soviets (because that is probably the last balanced game ever), and I started building Hind Helicopters. It got me thinking how cool they are, and throw in a little Metal Gear nostalgia and this was pretty much the end result.

I should probably explain that there's a reason I took photos outside. One was for the cool "sky" shots, but the other was that this thing is just too big to fit in my regular set-up.

Build wise, I used a Revell 1:48 scale Hind kit. The 1:48 scale is quite close to 28mm. In face, I was able to use the pilots bodies as they were close enough in scale. It was an odd kit to build though, and my first foray into anything "historical" or real. Basically, the build involved getting half the fuselage and adding all the interior detail to it (including internal chambers and cockpit etc and then sandwiching it with thee other half. It sounds fine till you actually try to get that to fit. I'd read a bit online about people shaving various bits down to get it to fit, but it's actually completely unnecessary. About half a dozen elastic bands stretched round the fuselage as it dried ensured a good fit, and in the end no filling or anything was needed.

As far as conversion goes, I replaced the guns with some tank and Sentinel bits. I also added a crewman made from a few spare Anvil parts, and did a similar conversion (head swap and shoulder armour) for the two pilots. The flight base is from TT combat. I used an engraving tool to cut an "X" shape into the helicopter so it sits inside and is nice and snug. Painting was fine - a bit long winded because of how big it is, but nothing to report on really. I followed my usual tank scheme (there a tutorial for it here)

That's about it then. I think I still have another Steel Legion post to go... but I'm starting to lose track.

I also edited this picture to make it look like a battle scene - consider it a bonus!

Monday, 1 April 2019

Emperor's Children Venom Crawler Finished!

Well, Monster March is over, but I had a spare week after finishing the Shadowsword and I didn't want to let it go to waste. I picked up Shadowspear on the release day, and I've been working on the Chaos models since.

Obviously, the Venom Crawler was always going to be a nice thing to add to my army. I use a lot of Daemon Engines, and it's a cool design. I have to say that it was a real pain in the ass to paint though. It just has a lot of legs and a lot of filigree to get to grips with - so pretty much any painters worst nightmare! (which pretty much describes anything Chaos anyway)

I'm really happy with how it came out though. I've used my usual scheme for my Emperor's Children. The only differences are that I've moved to using the airbrush for the purples, and I also used some Blood for the Blood God on the tongue and demon maw bits on the side of the body. It's a nice high-gloss effect that I really like in moderation.

I haven't seen a lot of Venom Crawlers around online yet, so I think it's quite interesting to get a look at the model from different angles. Personally, I think there's a lot of cool details to be appreciated. I'll be working on some of the other Shadowspear models soon, so hopefully I can showcase them as I go. Next up is probably the Obliterators.

I'm looking forwards to the wave of new models we're seeing too. In particular, I'll definitely be looking to add a Lord Discordant, and one of the new Keeper of Secrets models to my army soon!

Friday, 15 March 2019

Monster March - Week 2, Shadowsword Progress

Work has been continuing at a good pace on the Shadowsword. I finished washing around all of the rivets and other details and did the light drybrush highlight on the whole tank. After I'd finished that stage, I started the laborious process of picking out the details.

Most of the detail parts are still just basecoated at the moment, and I really have a long way to go with them.

In order to get a bit more finish on the tank, and to get an idea where I was going with it, I also added decals to it. I always enjoy that stage a lot, so I couldn't resist. I free-handed a name for the tank on the side of it; the "Steel Panther", and before anyone asks, it is an intentional joke reference to the American comedy glam rock/metal band.

"Become the king of your neighbourhood, like Steel Panther, and Tiger Woods..."

If anyone's interested in how we got to this stage, I did a full step by step tutorial for how I paint my Steel Legion tanks, so if you haven't read it already, it's available here (Link)

That about rounds it up. I'm hoping to blast the rest of the tank out pretty fast now, as I've ordered a copy of Shadowspear, and as an avid Chaos player, I'm hoping to have plenty of time to spend on the goodies within!

Saturday, 9 March 2019

Monster March - Week 1, Shadowsword

Following on from my pledge for Monster March, I've been hard at work painting my Shadowsword. This is pretty much where we're at after one week:

Despite looking almost finished to the casual observer, there's still a long way to go. Basically, progress so far was all done with the airbrush, so in terms of time spent, we're looking at maybe 2 hours of work.

The new thing I tried was masking the tracks off so I could spray them silver. I absolutely hate painting tracks with a brush, so I'm really happy that it worked out well.

Other than the airbrush work, I've started the painstaking process of washing all the rivets and gaps with Agrax. It takes a long time, but is well worth the effort, and it has already added a lot of depth to the model.

Once I finish that stage, it's on to highlighting and then the bodywork will be complete. Hopefully I can get that done by next week - giving me the remaining 2 weeks to do all the detail work!

Monday, 1 October 2018

Dreadtober - 40k Skaven Dragoon - The Build

I've done it again, and I'm rather proud of this one. As with all of my work, I wanted the Dragoon to still be recognisable for what it was whilst also being rather different (and with a rat-man riding it obviously).

I decided beforehand that I wanted to change the Dragoon to have an upright body, and that it would probably have arms and a rider. Other than that, nothing was set and I went into this one knife in hand and ready to carve out the model one piece at a time.

With only a rough idea of where things were going, I built the legs stock as I wouldn't be changing those. I then cut the torso to remove the hip section and added all of that together to make a base to work from. I cut off the servitor driver as I wouldn't want him in there and then I flipped the body section so that the saddle actually formed the stomach of the beast. It also gave a nice neck form and a bit of shape. Overall, it was way too skinny though, so I kept building and adding parts to bulk it out, and his chest plate is made from the gun shield in the kit.

Sorry the photos aren't better, I was in a bit of a rush after spending so much time building it!

Overall, the conversion uses about 70% original parts from the Dragoon/Ironstrider kit. The largest part borrowed from another source is the front of a dreadnought (well it is Dreadtober after all!), which I used to build his shoulder pads as well as the command throne. There are also a few Killa Kan parts in there to build the arms and for some of the additional details. Don't ask me what else though, as it's a bit of a blur and I'm not sure I could name everything I've used. It was also quite a lot of work trying to shape the rat-pilot up top, but I like the big lever now that it's done!

In the end, the model probably took about a day to build, but I actually worked on it over 2 days to spread out the work and to give it time to dry in the middle there.

Style-wise, I've tried to keep it true to the rest of the force with combined Mechanicus, Skaven and Ork parts. I always try to give the models a bit of an evil look or edge to them too, as Skaven should look pretty bad to the bone. I'm always wary of keeping it looking futuristic though, and not going too all-out Skaven on things, as I never want the army to look too much like their fantasy counterparts.

Originally, I had thought of mounting the pilot lower down on its back, but after I added the exhausts I knew he wouldn't fit. I quite like the face that having him "up top" sort of echoes the position of the rider on the Doom Wheel for fantasy, so it adds a little throwback too. It does make the whole thing quite tall though, and I'd be interested to see it side by side with a regular Ironstrider.

Anyway, that concludes the build, which should give me about a month to get it painted. Hopefully it shouldn't be a problem, but it is a rather detailed model (and quite large now!)

Wednesday, 12 September 2018

Malcador Annihilator Tank Finished

I finished painting up this Malcador a few weeks ago, but I haven't been very diligent updating the blog, so I've only just had the chance to get some decent pitures of it.

Build wise, it was quite interesting, and the kit does show a little age in this regard. It reminded me a lot of building the original Chimera kit before the update where things like tracks just seem to be supplied in a big jumbled heap and you have to do a bit of detective work to get the thing together.

Armament wise, I did a bit of conversion work to swap out the lascannon sponsons for some of the autocannons from the Onager kit. It's one of the armaments that the tank I allowed and I've always been partial to autocannons. They also help offset the dodgy guard ballistic skill.

Once the build was finished, it was a joy to paint. I used my usual weathered scheme with airbrushed ammo and things. I've said it before, but the scheme I'm using for these tanks has been a joy to paint, and I'm really happy with the result that I've been getting for the time that I'm spending on them. Painting the crewman was a bit more of a challenge as I had glued him on in order to fit the heavy stubber properly, so I couldn't really use the airbrush for his yellow coat like I did with the rest of the infantry. I actually just made up his scheme on the spot using some of the same paints, but I'm pretty happy with how he came out in the end, and actually he matches the res of the force pretty perfectly.

Those of you looking at the pictures closely might have noticed that I named the tank the "Shagohod". The name brings back fond memories of Metal Gear Solid 3 for me, so I figured I'd go with it. I normally end up referencing metal gear at one point or another in battle anyway!

Finishing the Malcador also rounds out a fully painted 1000 points of Steel Legion. Always a great benchmark to reach. Due to some other good things going on in my life outside of the hobby, I decided to treat myself to a Shadowsword as well. I've built it and primed it, so hopefully I'll get that painted up at some point.

For the moment, I think finishing 1000 points has earned me a bit of a rest, so I'm hoping to switch gears for a bit and change projects for a little while to charge my reserves up a bit before I continue on with the Steel Legion.