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Okay, so since my Krieg army is standing proudly at 1500Pts painted, I needed to start up something new for this summer. And never wanting to do anything small, I´ve decided on running a campaign for my gaming group in the faroes, centered on the well known planet Necromunda.

Those of you who have been around here for some time, may remember the =I=Munda campaign we ran almost two years ago. It was great fun, and allowed us to get back into a game system that most of us hadn´t used for years (if ever). I always wanted to use more vehicles in that campaign, but so many other factors were involved that we decided to do without them.

Based on the stuff I´ve learned from that campaign, here are the plans for this summer´s campaign.
- It will be based on the Necrommunda Rules.
- It will use some additional rules, mostly the ones from “Ash Wastes”.
- There will be a map, in order to base our campaign in a specific area, and allow people to keep track of their progress.
- The campaign will have a “Diplomacy” phase, allowing players to barter, exchange rumors and such.
- It WILL involve vehicles, all gangs should be fully mobile in some way.
- All models need not be created for the campaign specifically, but should “fit in”.
- Leeway will be given in regards to vehicles, if people feel that the added expense is too much.

I took a long look at all the different variant gangs, and eventually decided that we need to have a Journeyman gang. Some special (and very characterful) ash waste scenarios involve them, and they are very different from “Hive gangs”.
Because of this, they are the gang that I will be playing. I am in the process of designing my “Rig”, basically a giant Crawler type vehicle that transports supplies across the wastes. Think of the Jawa Sandcrawlers from Star Wars and you won´t be far off.

In addition to this beast, I will be using a small buggy and two outrider bikes. If FW release the 4 wheel Tauros soon, I will be using that as the buggy, and the bikes will be converted scout bikes. So far one bike is pretty much done. I have modeled it as a trike, with two wheels at the front end.

As for other players, well I´m hoping that most of the ones from the previous campaign will migrate over. This campaign will be more “low power” than the previous one, but the added elements of campaign map and vehicle combat should keep it interesting. Also, I am in the process of recruiting one or two more.

For starters, here are a few photos of where my vehicles were at about a week ago.


The outrider trike, almost finished.


A closeup of the rider. This is the first time I´ve tried to sculpt fur, I think his coat is a bit oversized, but I guess he just likes insulation...


A quick mockup of how the Crawler will look. Very little of this is final, but the general shape is there.

As you can see, a lot of the stuff for the crawler is plasticard. I want to see how much detail I can get into the vehicle, while using as few bits from GW as possible. If I can get the camera to cooperate, I´ll get some updated photos up later today. As ever, all comments are welcomed, please bear in mind that this is only the very beginning, lots and lots of stuff to come yet.

Looks very good cant wait to see the outrider trike painted!

Subscribed!

Well hopefully you won´t have to wait too long, I´ll begin painting some time next week.

I´ve uploaded some more current photos of the Crawler, showing where it´s at now. There is still a LOT of work to do, I´ve riveted one side of the front structure, which used about 200 plasticard rivets, and from some fast math I can see that I´ll need more than 1000 rivets in total, before I´m done. Also, I´ll be making this beast with removable sides and roof, and a functional interior, which can be used in games. Should be fun, even if it will lengthen the build process a lot.

As promised, Pictures!


A side shot, this shows quite well where I´m at right now. The track units are not fixed as of yet, they will be about half under the vehicle, and half sticking out.


A photo from the rear, on this one you can see the water tank and fuel tank placed under the cargo platform. I figure that these probably hold the most valuable cargo, as in the Ash Wastes you don´t want to run out of either fuel or water.


A closeup of the cargo deck, showing the plating better. Rivets will obviously be added, and a cargo crane will be set in the rear left corner of the platform. The walkway has steel net in, to allow sand and ash to flow out, and to give a better view of the tanks.


The railing for the cargo deck, made from plasticard and aluminum pipe. I´ll add some net later on, but I need to find the right material for it.


Finally, a size comparison shot, with my Outrider bike, and a model on foot. As you can see the crawler is not a small vehicle at all, quite in keeping with it´s status as "Moving Scenery".

So, that´s where I´m at for the moment, big things still to come include the loading crane, a pumping system for the fuel and water (separate of course), railing on the left side of the platform, lots more pallets with goods, a slanted armor section on top of the control room, and detailing the rest of the vehicle. Long long way to go, before a drop of paint even gets applied...

looking great! If you need some inspiration for vehicle combat rules, try and get a hold of Gorkamorka; it even included a 'serious injury' table for vehicles

Hey, thanks CommissarKhaine, we´ll actually be using the vehicle combat system from "Ash Wastes" by Arbitrator General and friends, I think it is based on the GorkaMorka system.

We´ll be using all kinds of different vehicles, large and small, should be fun.

Tonight, I got some more riveting done, as well as starting the inner walls, and cutting the hole for another viewport. There will be three in total, all with blast screens that lower to cover the windows.

I can't help but notice how incredibly exposed the gunner on that turret will be.

Heheh, yup he will.

There is a reason behind this however. I wanted to keep this vehicle as a civilian craft, so while I could have mounted an Autocannon or something equally hideous in a "proper turret", I wanted to have the tower as more of a lookout than a turret. I figure that in the vast emptyness of the wastes, they will probably have some unlucky goon sitting in the crow´s nest for hours on end, scouting the desert for potential trouble.

So in actual combat, the effect of the tower is limited, but I think it adds interest to the side profile of the Crawler, which was needed in order to make it more than just a box on wheels.

The harpoon cannon is more of a deterrent, and possibly to hunt ash wastes beasts with...

So as you can see, a lot of what I´m doing with this vehicle is as much down to my gang´s fluff as it is about practicality.
And game effectiveness comes third, or possibly even fourth, behind the rule of cool.

Sorry about the wall of text, just thought I´d explain a bit about how I´m going about this.

@Xanthos
4 things,
1) I agree with what Nowlan said, but by reading your last post it makes a lot of sense to me now, but maybe a little blast shield at the front of the turret? Then it wouldn't be too protected but it'd make Mr. Goon 1 a feel a little better about himself.
2) (i) where do the passengers sit? I presume within the main body itself and (ii) How do they get down?
3) If at all possibly, could I have a gander at the Ash Wastes rules.
But most importatntly 4) I'm loving the work you've done so far, it looks pretty awesom from my perspective.

And you were worried about a wall of text!

Awesome stuff Xanthos, the detail so far is great good luck with the riveting!

If the harpoon is also for hunting, make sure you've got a big spool of rope/wire to help convey that. Could be on a winch if they have the tech, or a hand crank if they don't.

Wow, loads of comments!

@Disjointed Entity:

1) You know, I think you may be on to something there. I think I´ll do some tests with a blast shields, see how it looks.

2) Yup, there are actually two decks inside, the lower deck houses the enginarium and crew quarters, while the upper deck is the control room and will have a chart table, scanner station and an array of screens and stuff to aid the driver.
As for exiting the vehicle, there is a door on the right side, right above the track unit. I´ll try and get some more images of that side, as well as the interior, up tomorrow or the day after.

3) Here you go! http://files.sigil.biz/data/fo_093_ashwastes.pdf

4) Thanks, glad you like it.

@Blackhand: thanks, I´ll need it. Riveted the cargo deck tonight, 96 so far, and not done...

@ Nowlan: Yup, a wire reel will be at hand, with a winch. You may be able to spot the guide eye on the harpoon on this picture:



Oh, on another note, I´m working on improving my rust techniques, using an airbrush. I´ve done about half of my bulkheads so far.

Dude, I can give you nothing more than appraisal for this! Very kick ass model and I love it that you are going for a more fluff based approach rather than sticking tons of lascannons and what else to it! You managed to actually create a civilian vehicle here!

Very curious what else you will come up with!

Tremendous job on the vehicle. The rivets look great, it reminds me of a total waste land feel, like a comic book style. I like it a lot.

Amazing project, I'm subscribing with high hopes.

Looking great, I love the rust efect and the harpoon! If you want to add some more weathering, you can add scorch marks, or some scratches revealing the metal undeneat the rust.

AWESOME!!

You are really learning fast sir! I think in terms of originality and execution this stuff is super nice!! Very much looking forward to more, and oh how I would love to live closer. My Dune Twists and their Alpharius would love to take part and build suitable scenery and vehicles to match.

Thanks for the kind words guys. I took some time to look at the bits for the tracks this morning, and decided to widen them considerably, they just seemed too thin to support the weight of this monster.
This means more plasticard work and more rivets, but the end result will improve,so it´s all good.

As for the rust effect, I´ll be applying it to this entire vehicle when it´s done, as an undercoat. Then I´ll work my way "out" from there.

Migs, thanks a lot, coming from you that kind of praise is really flattering.
I´ve been trying to draw as much as I could from the Ash Wastes material, it really is good stuff, I think the next step will be to write my own campaign system for it. I´m doing that side by side with the modelling, and really want to make a map with textures, and recognizable terrain features to game over.

As for meeting up, I´ve been thinking along the same lines Migs. It would be great to have an international Munda fest.

As it happens, this campaign may have to be international in any case, because some of the people I want to game with, may not be able to come this summer, so we may be doing a separate Icelandic part of the campaign at least...

So where are you located?

Denmark for work, Iceland for holidays?

Denmark for work/school, andthe Faroe Islands for vacations. But two of my group live in Iceland, and may not be going to the Faroes this summer...

But yeah, copenhagen the rest of the year. If you come this way, give us a shout.

whoa, i love that crawler!.Bet after this project you will never want to see another rivet again

Glad to be of assistance Xanthos!
Ahh I see, that information really cleard it up for me. You thinking of doing a little wire mesh walkway with stairs for easy access of is it going to be ladder-licious?

Heheh, this sure is riveting work! (ba dump tish!)

@Disjointed Entity: If you´re thinking about the exit from the vehicle, it´ll be a short jump from the exit onto the track unit and then a climb down from there. I´ll try and get pictures of that side tomorrow.

As for the crows nest, totally ladder.

I´m trying to incorporate many different types of detailing into this project, to make it seem like more of a cobbled together piece.

This looks awesome. Loving the crawler.

You should check out this link for inspiration on the interior etc, its an awesome example of a similar project: http://easternfringe.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=4927&postdays=0&postorder=asc&start=150

Xanthos, where are those tracks from?

They are from the Ork Battlewagon kit.

Thanks! At first it reminded me of a Jawa Crawler, but you did a great job making it unique.

Wow! That crawler looks really nice. You are really taking the =I=munda far beyond what our group did, with the vehicles and all. Everything's looking great so far.

@ Xanthos
Aha I see! Interesting. This really makes me want to create my own now, but be extremely over ambitious and base it off an 'Elephant' from Halo 3. Complete with some manner of Buggy and a Gyrocopter.

Why can't I live near your fun and games?!

Nice work as usual Xantos... the crwler looks very good... looking forward to seeing more

I found something very interesting on the web while searching for necromunda and ash waste inspiration. You might be interested in this... It's a crawler town made of legos

Illumini, thanks a lot, that thread is great, it´s cool to see how differently two persons can interpret the same basic background story.

@Smashotron: As Jakkarra says, the tracks are indeed from the Ork battlewagon. They are my biggest single purchase for this project, since I need the tracks from two wagons for my Crawler...

@Col Hammer: Well, what I´m doing now builds mostly expands on what you guys (and our group) did with =I=Munda. Taking a narrative and running with it, letting the creativity lead the way, and adapting the rules if necessary.

@Disjointed Entity: I just looked up the Elephant, it looks excellent, and very "Crawler´y". If you end up doing that, please let us see it on Dakka.

And yes, wouldn´t it be amazing if more of the people on Dakka lived within "gaming distance?"

@konf: Damn, that´s a nice Crawler town! I find myself looking at all kinds of forums lately to be honest, Lego builders and MaK modelers are two excellent inspiration sources.

I may end up taking something from this in my track units.


And now, onto the promised picture update for today! I´ve been working on making the track units wider, pretty much doubling the width of the tracks from 16 to 30-31mm. This also means that they aren´t instantly recognizable as "Ork Battlewagon Tracks", which is good. I´m not sure if I´ll end up adding even more detail, but for now at least, I am done with this one. Three to go...


The extended tracks were made from plasticard, and of course, more rivets were used.


As you can see in this shot, the thin plasticard strips have also been bent a little, to simulate wear and tear from being in use continually.


And there it is, with a black basecoat sprayed on. Not too bad for two and a half hours work I think.


Also, for those of you wondering exactly how the guys get out of the rig when they need to, here´s the other side of the beast with the door visible. As you can see it will be quite difficult to leave once the vehicle is rolling, but that´s not a problem since you don´t want to go outside in the wastes anyway...


Sadly, this image didn´t turn out as clear as I wanted, I´m having trouble taking clear images of this "mini", since it´s so big!....

Tonight is gaming night at the FLGS, I´m going to bring stuff to paint, and hang out. Should be fun, and I may be able to score some more loot for this project. Other than that, I´ll be back with more updates on the project as it develops.