Farewell to Empire (Brothers of Law, pg 45)

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**Kid_Kyoto**

So my ever-growing Arbites IG army has just about every 'normal' arbites unit except two.

Well that's getting fixed soon when these very good boys get painted up to join the Kappa IX corps.

**BobtheInquisitor**

Is that a CD with a base glued over the hole? Stop stealing my ideas!

**Kid_Kyoto**

And onward to base coating!

**Kid_Kyoto**

The Sky Shark is an STC pattern for a 3 engine aircraft that can be easily adapted for a multitude of purposes such as reconnaissance, anti-vermin toxin delivery, weather forcasting, courier duties and of course combat.

Like the venerable Rhino and Chimera templates it is a flexible and adaptable frame, over engineered and easy to build or maintain on any world with C20 or C21 industry. Robust and filled with redundancy a Sky Shark will often land safely after taking a half dozen hits from ground fire. A skilled Enginseer can patch one up and have it back in the air within hours. Over the years any two Sky Sharks may well have significant differences due to field repairs that are little more than quickly riveted patches.

It is particularly beloved by Imperial planners for the simple reason that it is not and cannot be adapted to void flight. Thus Imperial governors, local lords, even private concerns can be allowed to build airfleets to protect their domains while Imperial authorities are assured they cannot project power beyond them. In any long term engagement the Sky Sharks' dependence on airfields for refueling and rearming will leave them at the mercy of a foe who commands orbital superiority.

A Sky Shark-H is a common heavy fighter variant with four autocannons, a pair of tank busting lascannons and racks of bombs and rockets, making it a match for the Imperial Thunderbolt in weapons if not in flight capability.

The Sky Shark-R is a two-seater with improved communication and auspex equipment while still boasting the same armament.

While the Condor, or Sky Shark-A sacrifices speed and maneuverability for an armoed nose, heavy bolter cannon, payload of bombs and a defensive turret.

Sky Sharks remain a mainstay of PDF and even Imperial Guard garissons but efforts have been made to phase them out due to extensive looking by Orkish raiders.

**BobtheInquisitor**

I love the fluff. The models look great, too. I’m more tempted than ever to pick up the Aeronautica Imperialis box so I can have Thunderbolts and Sky Sharks.

**Kid_Kyoto**

So my big Black Friday purchase was a dozen or so Heroforge downloads to be printed later. It's more of an experiment to see if I can create a whole army out of a few downloads.

I did Arbites because I'm stupid

And some civilians if I ever want a mess of them.

Their selection of outfits and weapons is good but not great and the poses for an army (vs a single hero) also need work. But overall happy with what I could accomplish, certainly easier than learning Blender.

**BobtheInquisitor**

Do they let you select torsos and then make a set of a dozen arms as a separate item?

**Kid_Kyoto**

BobtheInquisitor wrote:
Do they let you select torsos and then make a set of a dozen arms as a separate item?

Short answer no.

Longer answer, based on my one foray into 3D printing you could design a model with the arms out and then clip those arms before you print (or print and clip them the old fashioned way) and then use the million spare arms you should have in your bitz box.

**Viktor von Domm**

hero forge is a massive fun site... brought my kids to them and now they make new designs every hour^^... what 3D printer do you have and what costs did it involve all around?

**Meer_Cat**

The HeroForge Arbites you've designed are terrific- I particularly like the Judge Cycle Rider- although all are good.

That company has come a long way since its founding- especially with adding the ability to get your own .stl or .obj file.

**Kid_Kyoto**

Viktor von Domm wrote:
hero forge is a massive fun site... brought my kids to them and now they make new designs every hour^^... what 3D printer do you have and what costs did it involve all around?

none so far but the library has one

**Viktor von Domm**

a library with a 3D printer...what for?... cool...but somehow sounds weird^^

**Kid_Kyoto**

My main worry now is supports, is it possible to slice these so that they can print or will I have a mountain of supports to trim, in which case I will finally understand why no one else is doing instant cut and paste armies.

Anyway some late adds

And here's what I SHOULD have done...

Spoiler:

Or this

Spoiler:

**Viktor von Domm**

endless opportunities...

**Kid_Kyoto**

Who's a good boy? Who's a good cybernetically modified attack dog whose head has been replaced with a heavy bolter? You are! Yes you are!

**Viterbi**

Now that‘s what I call grimdark

Those 3d files you got are awesome. Excited to see them printed and painted!

**Kid_Kyoto**

And so the Autumn of Fliers closes and we enter into...

THE WINTER OF FLIERS!

Got 2 more Dakkajets to finish out this flying circus.

This puppy will be a Lightning

And the King Condor another Avenger. Somehow I lost the front part of the canopy and had to jerry rig something hence the green stuff in the cockpit. And I just noticed I gave it autocannons instead of lascannons so have to fix that. But overall happy.

**Meer_Cat**

"What did you do during the war Daddy?"

"I was a tailgunner on a Lightning, Son, also known as 'bait'."

Progress looking very good so far!

**Kid_Kyoto**

Meer_Cat wrote:
"What did you do during the war Daddy?"

"I was a tailgunner on a Lightning, Son, also known as 'bait'."

Progress looking very good so far!

Funny you should mention that, I wanted the command plane to be a 3 seater but the tail gun is meant for grots, totally impossible for a human gunner. So I was thinking...

Sky Captain 'Ace' Anders stepped from the shuttle to the dusty airbase. His new home. Promotion had its merits but its drawbacks as well, in this case a transfer and reassignment to a battered squadron of ground attack planes charged with pounding the enemy lines day in and day out. Thankless, dangerous work for a flier. No glory, no recognition, more like driving a bus, only with the ever present chance of painful death. Morale was low, and it showed in their performance. Anders was there to clean it up. A show of confidence? Or was he being dumped with the garbage? Anders wasn't sure yet.
"Sir! Sir! Over here!" An eager young cadet called to him from a nearby quonset hut, apparently unwilling to dirty his uniform in the dust of the shuttle's backwash. A misplaced set of priorities he'd have to work on mending.
"Glad to have you here sir! Sky Master Reven's been holding the fort since the last captain... you know, but it's great to have a real captain again. What can I take you to first sir, your quarters, the officer's club, the-"
"The hanger, my plane."
The hanger was a maze of parts, derelict planes and unfathomable machines but with precious little work being done. Anders made another note in his mental list.
"Here it is sir, newly refurbished and ready to fly!"
Anders rounded a pile of bullet-ridden metal to see it.

A heavily patched three-seater 'King Condor' attack plane. It still smelled of fresh paint and was the only clean thing in the building, at least this unit had some priorities.
Anders walked around it. The six-barrel cannon was well-worn and engines dated from the last century. A sign of proven performance, or worn out equipment. He'd have to try it in the air to see. The canopy was mismatched and he could see the fresh patches around the cockpit.
"This was the old captain's plane!" The cadet proclaimed. "It has a lot of special modifications."
Behind the pilot there was a seat for a vox/auspex/bombardier, someone to feed information while the captain flew the plane. Another new factor to get used to. And behind that, Anders looked up the rear turret. "I assume this is just for show." He tapped it with his rider's crop.
"Sir? No sir, fully functional, placed for optimum defensive coverage."
"It's right above the engine, it would run over 200 degrees in there even with shielding. And it's the size of a canid hut. Who exactly is supposed to man this gun?"
"Well sir... the thing is... maybe the Sky Master should explain."
The eagerness had disappeared.
"Why don't you explain. Now."
"Well sir, you see sir, the old captain sir, she brought the bird home, she had almost as many holes in her as the plane did but she brought it home. The medicae, sir, they couldn't believe she was still alive, they couldn't so anything."
"If there is a point, please make it."
"Well sir, you see sir, she was always close to the Engineseer, and I guess for a cog boy he was always keen on her too and she was the most experienced pilot and gunner in the squad and..."
"The point cadet."
"And... well... her gun-servitor was dead, so the Engineseer and the medicae, they um..."
"Are you saying that turret has Sky Captain Gale in it?"
Static crackled from a speaker outside the turret... ++Even in [crackle] I still serve++
Sky Captain Anders stepped back in horror.

So I kind of see it as a buddy comedy, with the veteran captain giving unwanted advice to the new guy. Sort of Dam Busters meets My Mother the Car.

**Meer_Cat**

Perfect combination of movie and TV show!

"You're coming in too low, the bomb won't skip, it'll sink like a stone!"

"Mother, this is exactly the way we practiced it in Scotland- trust the physicists...."

"Humpphh- physicists- what do they know? In my day, we calculated the drop point by feel, not some mumbo-jumbo from the classroom. Keep the nose up, you're getting too much drag on the control surfaces!

"If you don't quiet down RIGHT NOW I'm turning this bomber right around and we're going home!"

etc.

**Kid_Kyoto**

Winter of fliers shapping up nicely.

**Kid_Kyoto**

So I ordered some security walls for the Fortress Precinct but realized I don't have any guard towers! What is the good of security walls without some guy standing in a guard tower with a searchlight and rifle waiting to have his throat slit by some passing commando?

Experimenting with Troublemaker Games terrain sets, it sort of works. The jar lit up top is a place holder, unless of course I decide I like it.

**Meer_Cat**

Me likee; if you use a slightly larger diameter jar lid, you can cut a hatchway through it at the top of the ladder molded onto the side of the tower walls.

And agreed: A precinct house is useless without the odd NPC to get gakked as part of the 'breaking and entering' process!

**Kid_Kyoto**

The Mark II guard towers.

Servitor/Machine Spirit automated guns.

I feel like they need another level, guess I have to put in an order with Vanguard.

**Kid_Kyoto**

Well with this the Winter of Fliers has now made counts as models for all but one of the normal (non-super heavy) Imperial Fliers.

The Centennial Hawk is a heavily modified Aquilla Lander originally used as a smuggler's ship. Its agility and speed were perfectly suited for evading or outrunning Navy patrols. Today it serves as Inquisitor Kuroda's personal transport, the skills of the original smuggler were honored when he was successfully entombed as its servitor-pilot. His abhuman companion was granted the Emperor's Mercy.

Now just one more to go...

And a super heavy

**Pomander Cask**

The Centennial Hawk looks fabulous! True high sci-fi!

**Kid_Kyoto**

I'm fairly happy with it, esp for a bits box raid.

The original Aquila Lander is a fantastic looking model but the combination of OOP and resin kill any interest I might have in trying to get one.

**Briancj**

As someone who owns an Aquila Lander, yeah it is hella cool, but your scratchbuilds are just as cool or better, because they're YOURS.

--B.

**Kid_Kyoto**

Some progress on the Penal Legion tonight

including some Ratling Sniper (front row)

And on the Centennial Hawk

**Camkierhi**

So much fantastic work, so much inspiration, taken me bloody ages to go through and ogle.

Love all of it. Don't suppose you have a pic of an Aquila lander thingy kicking about. Just interested. Your concept looks very 40k. ie flying brick.