Felix, Author at Felix's Gaming Pages

M3A5 General Grant II (Monty’s)

US WW2 medium tank, powered by twin General Motors 6-71 diesel engines, use by General Montgomery during the battle of El Alamein. The 37mm gun was replaced by a wooden dummy gun barrel to create more room in the turret for extra radio equipment.

This Tank was used by General (later Field Marshal) Sir Bernard Law Montgomery in the Desert Campaign in 1942 – 1943, including the Battle of El Alamein in October 1942 in which the 8th Army defeated Rommel. It continued to be used by Monty during the invasion of Sicily in July 1943, and for the remainder of that year as the 8th Army advanced into Italy. It was attached to 8th Army Headquarters and was used by Montgomery and subsequent Commanders for forward observation on the battlefield. It was “Monty’s wish” that the tank should be handed back to his old Regiment, the Royal Warwickshire Regiment, and in 1948 it was brought from Austria to England and became gate guardian at Budbrooke Barracks outside Warwick.

Sisters Of Silence Kharon Pattern Acquisitor

From the displays at Warhammer World.

Built to approach its targets silently and with utmost stealth, the Kharon Pattern Acquisitor is deliberately made to be a thing of mystery and terror when its presence is unveiled. Used primarily in a paramilitary role by the Sisters of Silence, it can suppress civilian resistance with lethal effect, its hellion cannon cutting through rampaging mobs and destroying makeshift barricades. Against greater threats, various payloads of missiles can be deployed, including sophisticated antipsyker warheads.

This is one of the strangest Imperial vehicles from Games Workshop. Almost too futuristic for the Warhammer 40000 Imperium, it would appear that in the Horus Heresy there was a much higher level of technology that was utilised by different forces.

Mars Pattern Reaver Titan

This huge Mars Pattern Reaver Titan was in the display cabinets at Warhammer World.

The Reaver Battle Titan is a frontline combat titan, designed for direct confrontation with the enemy. … Reavers primarily serve as vanguards for the Warlords, there to fan out and prevent the larger and slower Warlords from being flanked, so they can keep the enemy boxed into the Warlord’s field of fire.

Lanchester armoured car

The Lanchester armoured car was a British armoured car built on the chassis of the Lanchester “Sporting Forty”, it saw wide service with the Royal Naval Air Service and British Army during the First World War. The Lanchester was the second most numerous World War I armoured car in British service after the Rolls-Royce armoured car.

Six-wheeled armoured cars were seen as having a better cross-country performance than four-wheelers. In pursuit of quality the War Office ignored offers from various commercial vehicle firms and, since Rolls-Royce was not interested, turned its attention to Lanchester, a famous rival. The Lanchester Company had supplied four-wheeled armoured cars to the Admiralty in 1915 but this six-wheeled chassis was a major departure for them. It was equipped with the standard Lanchester six-cylinder engine and used the War Department patent rear axle system.

Taking advantage of the long chassis, the armoured hull and turret were enormous and contained three machine-guns. Yet the Lanchesters were much too big for reconnaissance duties, being almost impossible to turn around in narrow roads. For this reason a rear steering position was provided and the cars had detachable tracks which fitted over the rear wheels to assist them over rough country. They were also extremely expensive and the War Office was soon looking for something cheaper.

Thirty-nine armoured Lanchesters were built, starting in 1928, and they were issued to the newly mechanised cavalry regiments. They spent most of their time in Britain although in 1935 the 12th Lancers took some cars out to the Saarland and a few were tested in the Middle East. The cars were used for training in the early years of the war and one was converted into a secure VIP transport for use in London. A few were still operating in Malaya in 1941 with the Argyll & Sutherland Highlanders; these ultimately fell into Japanese hands.

This got me thinking about possible uses for the Lanchester armoured car in A Very British Civil War scenarios, but also in an Operation Sealion scenario where German paratroopers attempt to kidnap Winston Churchill who is being moved in a convoy including the Lanchester armoured car which was converted into a secure VIP transport for use in London.

Deredeo Pattern Dreadnought

The Deredeo pattern Dreadnought was in the displays at Warhammer World.

The Deredeo pattern Dreadnought is a dedicated heavy support frame, though it shares many core components and systems with the more general assault-based Contemptor class. Initially deployed in limited numbers to each of the Legions due to difficulties in its manufacture, its durability and firepower saw demand for the Deredeo pattern dramatically increase after the outbreak of the Horus Heresy.

Xiphon Pattern Interceptor

This Xiphon Pattern Interceptor was on display at Warhammer World.

With unparalleled speed and manoeuvrability, the Xiphon pattern Interceptor saw increasing service in the Legiones Astartes during the dark days of the Horus Heresy. Based on ancient designs, the void and atmospheric craft carried heavy armaments into battle, allowing it to destroy both air and ground targets with apparent ease. Its pair of twin-linked lascannon and Xiphon rotary missile launcher combined with the Interceptor’s speed and agility to make it a deadly opponent from which the enemies of Mankind could not hide.

Legio Custodes Caladius Grav-Tank

This Legio Custodes Caladius Grav-Tank was part of the displays at Warhammer World.

Often deployed in situations requiring the heaviest of weapons the Legio Custodes could bring to bear, the Caladius pattern Grav-Tank. Utilising technologies and systems derived not only from the Dark Age of Technology, but from developments made as a result of the Great Crusade’s two centuries of warfare, the Caladius was well-protected and highly manoeuvrable, perhaps the most powerful battleline armoured unit of its size in the Imperium’s forces.

The principal armament of the Caladius is the double-barrelled Iliastus accelerator cannon, an advanced weapon which was to become the precursor to the main weapon of the Legiones Astartes Sicaran Battle Tank. The Grav-Tank is also armed with a twin-linked Lastrum bolt cannon, exemplars of bolt-weapon technology whose bolt shells are customised mass-reactive heliothermic warheads, hand crafted by the artisan weaponsmiths of the Lastrum Core Clan on Terra.

DUKW

DUKW on display at the Imperial War Museum Duxford.

American WW2 6×6 amphibious truck, crew of 1, powered by GMC 6-cylinder inline petrol engine, armed with one machine gun.

This vehicle entered service on the 1st July 1944. After the war it served with 18 Company RASC (Amphibious). It was finally withdrawn from service in 1974.

The DUKW (colloquially known as Duck) is a six-wheel-drive amphibious modification of the 2½-ton CCKW trucks used by the U.S. military and others during World War II and the Korean War.

Epic Manticore

The Manticore, also known as the Manticore Rocket Launcher, is a self-propelled rocket artillery piece used by the Astra Militarum that is based on a variant of the Chimera armoured personnel carrier chassis.

This Manticore was painted many years ago for Epic 40000 (so well before Epic Armageddon as well).

These were quite fiddly models to glue together. I remember getting the rockets stuck on my fingers a few times…

It was a pity that when we finally saw the 40K scale version, it wasn’t anything like this.

Solar Auxilia Dracosan Armoured Transport

The Dracosan Armoured Transport is manufactured to standards only usually required of war machines destined for service with the Legiones Astartes. It is large enough to accommodate a full strength Solar Auxilia Infantry Section of twenty auxiliaries, and heavily armoured enough to protect them from intense enemy fire.