Forum adverts like this one are shown to any user who is not logged in. Join us by filling out a tiny 3 field form and you will get your own, free, dakka user account which gives a good range of benefits to you: No adverts like this in the forums anymore. Times and dates in your local timezone. Full tracking of what you have read so you can skip to your first unread post, easily see what has changed since you last logged in, and easily see what is new at a glance. Email notifications for threads you want to watch closely. Being a part of the oldest wargaming community on the net. If you are already a member then feel free to login now.

I'm hoping to do just that, it's just that it usually takes up a lot of time {something I often find myself in short supply of}.

Continuing on the modelling-sans-painting tour, I came across some very pleasant surprises:


Cebrius 251 with M40-pattern missile launch frames


Cebrius Assault Carrier for my Grenadiers

My hobby shop stocks these babies right now, I'm totally going to get meself some. Also spotted a nice ride for my planned drop trooper army (counts-as Sentinel):


Martyr MkIII with autocannon and Lehrian muzzle brake

What do you think?

these seem very cool! really like them!

those last three tanks could really be worked into some very interesting things. I see a ton of potential with them. i looked at similar tanks when i was thinking of tankifying my guard

WOW nice stuff, you have now inspired me to go find my old tiger I and churchill tank kits lieing arround, oh the posibities, oh the fluff.
Thank you.

Will be keeping an eye on this one, I adore German WWII armour.

These models look great. I shall be following this blog with great interest from now on.

I'm not sure I understand how you're planning on using a marder as a sentinel substitute, but I'll reserve judgement for later.

The Sd.Kfz will work well as a chimera substitute. Maybe add some height to the rear area with plasticard and add the multilaser turret to the roof? It's already got the access point in the back.

I've got a book of all the early war german armor in diagram form with basic dimensions (in 1:35), I can try to get it scanned for you if it'd be helpful.
Its got the Sd.Kfz 250/1, Sd.kfz 251/1, Marder II and III, as well as most other armor from before 1944 (up to and including early production Tiger I's, but no Panthers/Kingtigers)

Thanks for the comments!
@ Nowlan: The Marder has got a single heavy weapon; it's open-topped; it's got high tracks (walker); and it can be pretty fast because of its size. Need I say more?
The Sdkfz's will be my version of the Centaur assault Carrier (inspired by Bungaroo, credit where it is due). The big bad Tiger I that I posted is my Chimera. And about the book; I'd be most grateful!

This week's gonna see me off to school, and next weekend I'll finally start playing bass guitar (I hope).

Been playing around with the Articles section, and I've started an Army Profile of all my Guard there. Go and have a look if you're interested: http://www.dakkadakka.com/wiki/en/The_Lehrian_Guard

i resaw your article and started to wonder where you got these tanks? those model tanks are very cool and fit well with the IG models with some conversions. where did you find them?


the article you wrote is very well done

Most of my tanks are 1/48 Tamiya models, but the Ragnaroks are HobbyBoss.
I'm glad you like the article, it's really fun to write, believe me. I feel like I'm writing a 40K history book!

Inspired by HBO's The Pacific I wrote up some fluff detailing Captain Ludengott, the commander of 1st Company:

"The wind, rushing through the rusted metal bars. The leering faces of the man-beasts in the blood-stained fatigues, carrying trays of dirty instruments of torture.
The past few weeks had been a series of pain-flares, intermixed with the horrible periods of fear that followed them. After the first few days, the wretched figure in the metal cage had lost his perception of time. Not that there was anything about the daytime here that distinguished it from the period of night. The dark chamber was lit by a handful of light-strips that emitted a deep amber glow, without any other point of reference that might help to indicate any change in the world he had once known.
An hour before, one of the bloodthirsty torturers had been throwing him around the room, landing punches and kicks on his still powerful frame. Were it not for the under-nourishment and the neuropoisons they’d injected into him, he might have had a chance of fighting back. When he first came here, he had fought back. He had felled two of the man-beasts with his fist, killing one instantly. They had jumped on him and stuck the dirty needle into his biceps.
The ugly wound had gone sore, visible as a dark blue splotch among the multitude of other cuts and bruises he had acquired over the last few weeks. Now, the torturer leaned back on a lounge chair, seemingly occupied with the thoughts in his head. Twisted thoughts, no doubt. Thoughts that no loyal servant of the Imperium of Man could ever harbour in his or her head. Blessed is the mind too small for doubt, as the propaganda posters always said.
A day later, the torturers seemed to be getting nervous. There was the occasional deep rumbling outside, some followed by orders shouted down the hallways. Already, the man-beasts had killed two of the other prisoners out of what could be seen as frustration. From where he was, the figure in the cage was one of seven prisoners total.
Someone pounded on the heavy metal door of the chamber, its hollow sound echoing off the walls. One of the torturers hefted his bulky frame off the chair, which squealed as the weight was placed upon it. The torturer yelled something at the door, incomprehensible in his language. He opened the vision slit in the door, took a peek outside and nodded. He unlocked the door by removing the heavy metal bar on the holders.
As soon as the door halfway open, the torturer’s head exploded. Before his lifeless corpse hit the floor on its back, a soldier in field grey uniform stepped into the room. In his right hand he was holding an old pistol, its muzzle smoking. He brought it horizontally and fired again. Another torturer was hit in the chest and sagged down against the dark wall.
The soldier stepped over the corpse at his feet, looking around. He approached the metal cage and noticed the heavy chain-lock on the door. He severed it with a shot, and the lock clattered to the floor. He approached the wretched figure on the ground, and turned him on his back with his free hand. The soldier fell to his knees, gasping.
“Cap.. Captain Ludengott?”

“To be honest with you, we thought you were gone, Theodore. Considering the length of your.. visit here, you know..” said major Vorendorf.
Theodore was half-conscious when he was carried out of the torture halls in the mountainside. He was told he passed out in the field hospital, where he had stayed for four days while the medicae personnel treated his wounds.
Now he sat on a boulder on the outskirts of the camp, looking out to the wide horizon of mountain ranges before him. It was a bleak sight. The sky was dark, slightly darker than the land that stretched out in all directions from where he was. It was pock-marked with holes and littered with huge, smoke-belching forms. Tank corpses, hundreds of them. Luckily they weren’t Imperial vehicles.

The ground shook as a tank rumbled past. Theodore and the men around him felt their abdomens trembling.
“Who..” he breathed, “Who got me out of there? The man with the pistol, a trooper I think.” He couldn’t remember seeing any rank badges, from what little he had noticed in there.
“That would be Watchmaster Greur, a tank commander from the 130th Armoured. He.. he died three days ago in the battle of Zielonus. Good man, God-Emperor rest his soul.”
Theodore was taken aback by this. He didn’t even get the chance to thank the man that saved his life.
“What of the other prisoners? Were they..” He faltered.
“Political prisoners. People who had opposed the heretic government, sent here to be left at the mercy of the beasts that ran this place.” said the major.
Theodore’s eyes turned grim at the mention of the torturers. “Any of them still left alive?” he asked with a threatening tone.
“Suffer not the heretic to live, remember? We hunted them down like rats in there. Cowards hadn’t seen combat for years, they weren’t used to opponents that fought back. We burned the corpses.”
“Good, good..” Theodore said. He was, in a way, disappointed with it all. He had wanted to punish those that had done this to him and the others in there.
“We’ll leave you alone now, Theo. Get some rest, you’re going to need it. The doctor said you’ll be fit in a week, take it easy until then. That’s an order.”
The major patted him on the shoulder and left. The other two, a lieutenant and the major’s adjutant followed him. The three disappeared into a command dugout.

Oh, he would get some rest. The God-Emperor had granted him survival, a second chance to fight the enemies of Mankind. And he was determined to make damn good use of it."

I did it for a school assignment, by the way. My English teacher has a son who used to be into 40K.

Update, though not what you might expect. I've come across a site on the internet and bought a couple of things, namely a Finnish rebreather and some police gloves.



"Do I look like a Blood Pacter yet?"
I'm really liking this, it looks pretty frightening, actually! It could pass as a 40K rebel/cultist, the gas mask's nose is a bit similar to the leering masks of the Blood Pact. Rebels/cultists with a nasal obsession?

Perhaps if I can find some people crazy enough, we could make a war/40K amateur film . Just imagine three or four guys dressed up as above walking through a shabby hab-zone, carrying converted airsoft guns..
Alternatively, of course, I could use this 'costume' as a way of making fluffy pictures for this log (besides scaring people shitless)!

Very Important for 40k Fans:
Follow this link for the best 40k replica stuff you will EVER see: http://commissar.proboards.com/index.cgi?board=picpost&action=print&thread=4010 !

I agree with an above poster. The Marder just doesn't work as a sentinel. Imperial Guard have a huge range of sp-artillery available, the marder is a sp-artillery piece.... maybe use it as one?

@ Illumini: I understand people's questions about what should be used as what. I chose the Marder/Martyr because it was a open-topped tank hunter vehicle, mounting (of course) an anti-tank gun. This kind of screams 'Sentinel!' to me.
One thing I want to avoid is putting out-of-proportion guns on my vehicles, not counting battle cannons of course. I prefer the 'realistic side' of 40K.

I'm not sure about the size of the Marder model, but if it is chimera sized, you could use it as a basilisk or a medusa, both open-topped sp-artillery pieces that can do sterling work as tank hunters.

The marder is tracked, so it's just not a walker. How does it fight in close combat? How come it can't be immobilized in terrain like all the other tanks? Why does it move so slowly? Isn't it much bigger than a sentinel?

I can see some vehicles being used as sentinels, but they have to be small, like humvee's or buggies (scouting vehicles), and they still have some issue explaining how they fight in close combat, but in those cases, it's a matter of using the most appropriate rules. In this case, sentinel rules doesn't seem like the most appropriate rules IMO.

Not trying to rain on your parade, just giving some input of my opinions, since the Marder IMO would be much better represented as one of the artillery-pieces. If you have realistic sized weapons on all other tanks, the marder would not look out of place as a basilisk.


Anyways, cool army this far, loving all the vehicle conversions, and the infantry looks very nice. If I were you, I would think about changing the lasgun for some alternative guns (preferably some realistic-size ones) just to take it to the next level

I'm liking the fluff for this army, was a better read than the crap I've been leafing through lately
I also love how you've converted all your infantry models, really makes them individual and stand out from the normal stuff
Keep up the good work

Mommy, look what I drew!


Heavy Stubber Diagram/Scale Reference

I'm SO gonna make this baby in real life..

Finally, an update!

I've been doing some more tank work, and I just might have finished two more!

First up, the Lion III Light Tank 1023, part of the 130th Armoured's Reconnaissance company:



Turret detail.



I love the way the wing on the skull looks frayed. I took it from a SM Scout's boltgun.

And on the infantry front, I've finished adding the details to the Commissar's half-track.



I added a pintle-mounted autogun on the back, for personal defence. See the bullet hole in the document pack?

I think that's it, really. I'm trying to get my hands on an Earthshaker, I feel like building some artillery pieces ..

Tell me what you think, I'm getting tired of talking to myself in this thread!

Automatically Appended Next Post:
Some couple of hours' more work:

Colonel Karl von Lindendorf {WIP}


And a quick view of what he has to command up till now:


As well as the mechanised infantry:


And an army shot of the 143rd:


Tell me what you think, I'm getting tired of talking to myself in this thread!

looks good love the halftrack!

Thanks, and, hehe, me too!

Been working on the Devilcat:
I finished off the engine and maintenance items details, the tarp is still WIP. I decided that all (squadron) command tanks will have (besides the obvious stowage) pintle-mounted autoguns, for personal defence. This will of course have no in-game effect.

I like your pintle-mounted StG, and everything else from your army However, I'd like to ask where did you get that Volksgewehr which was in this picture?

Glad you like the StG, I had expected people to make a fuss of it. My original idea was to mount 1/35 MG34's and MG42's on the Devilcats, but I need those guns for my Grenadiers/Stormtroopers..
Gimme a sec..

The VG1-5 is from a Dragon 1/35 weapons set, called "WWII German Infantry Weapons Part I". I'll have to get my hands on Part II as well, I guess.

Thanks really appreciate it! I´m planning to give my Penal Legionnaires german guns (my army has soviet theme, so it is fitting that they use captured enemy guns, kinda like Savlar Chem-dogs.)

This thread looks cool, I love the gas mask

Thanks, you're the first who seems to have noticed it! And for the record, I usually don't go out wearing a gas mask. Just so you don't get the wrong idea of me, you know..

Right, got another big update for you guys (and girls, if any) on the tank front. Namely, I saw these 1/48 crew figures lying around, left-over from my tank-building. So I figured, why not use them as well?
Here are the results.

The good ol' Colonel has been given a junior staff officer:


Standard bearer Oberst and a tanker have posed for a pictograph:


And corporal Haubits has finally decided to show his face:


Since the beginning of this army I've had comments about the mixing of 1/48 scale models with 40k, things such as 'it doesn't go together' and things like that. I want to change that, build a bridge between the two in a manner of speaking. I also want my models to ooze character. I think both are fulfilled by the pics below:





It's a praying Guardsman! Well, tanker actually, but a soldier of the Imperium nonetheless. In the fluff you read about the indoctrination of the Imperial Cult, yet in the models only the Commissars and fanatical priests show this. So I built this guy. In this back you can also see that I still need to GS his back to bulk him up. This because the 1/48 guys are tall and slender, while most 40k minis are short and bulky. Making the 1/48 shorter (by cutting a part from their upper legs) and bulkier (by building up their backs with GS), the two go together surprisingly well. A pic to illustrate:



What do you think?
(I personally think they're pure win, but that's just me..)

Winrar.

Didn't know what winrar meant until I looked it up, but thanks anyway!
Right, did some more work on the plucky tankers:

Their backs have been bulked up a bit..


... and we have a new guy! I wanted a fluff model representing the sole survivor of a tank crew, now bogged down in a hard-as-nails infantry battle. Baptisms of fire are always the quickest..

Here he is, posing with a trooper from the mechanised infantry squad.


And from the back, nothing too fancy there..


I hope to start painting SOMETHING in the near future, been way too long since I've touched a brush and I want to know whether I've still got it. Any tips on painting are therefore very welcome!

Love the posing troopers, cool to see someone investing so much character in his guard!