Felix, Author at Felix's Gaming Pages

Marmon-Herrington Mark VI Armoured Car

This Marmon-Herrington Mark VI Armoured Car was on display at Bovington Tank Museum.

The Marmon-Herrington Armoured Car was a series of armoured vehicles that were produced in South Africa and adopted by the British Army during the Second World War. RAF Armoured Car companies possessed them, but seem never to have used them in action.

The Mark VI was a return to the 8-wheeled design. Powered by two Mercury V8 engines with an eight-wheel drive steered on the front and rear wheels. Two prototypes were built, one with a 2 pounder and other with a 6 pounder gun in an open-topped three-man turret with electric powered traverse and protected by 10 to 30 mm of sloped armour. Additional armament consisted of 2 or 3 machine guns. The two-pounder equipped version was sent to the UK for assessment, the transmission proved unreliable suffering several axle failures. The 2-pdr is now in the Bovington Tank Museum, the other in South Africa.

Legio Custodes Orion Assault Dropship

This Legio Custodes Orion Assault Dropship was on display ay Warhammer World.

Created as a dedicated assault dropship for the Legio Custodes, the Orion can carry a full task force of the Emperor’s Talons into combat. Protected by frontal armour superior to that of the Legiones Astartes Thunderhawk Gunship, its Arachnus heavy blaze cannon and Lastrum bolt cannon can swiftly clear a landing zone of hostile infantry and armour with brutal efficiency, allowing the units within to deploy before it soars back into the sky to unleash death upon any foe who dares approach.

This multi-part resin kit contains the components necessary to assemble a Legio Custodes Orion Assault Dropship, a Lord of War choice for your Talons of the Emperor army. This is an especially dense example of a flyer – it’s not covered head to toe in bells and whistles, but certainly features enough weaponry to make it an incredibly efficient part of your arsenal. It features 2 Lastrum bolt cannon, turret-mounted on either side of the cockpit, 2 Spiculus bolt launchers with vent systems and 2 Arachnus heavy blaze cannon – the latter is complete with cooling systems, mounts, power supplies and fuel cells visible. Appropriate to its ability to carry units into the fray, it can be modelled with the rear open – within, walls and benches are visible, with a ramp attached to the rear for the troops within to descend.

Light Tank Mk II

This, hidden in the darkness of the Tank Museum is the Light Tank Mk II.

Here is a photograph of the same tank, taken ten years earlier, painted in a brown camouflage pattern.

Only sixty vehicles were produced.

Legio Custodes Caladius Grav-Tank Annihilator

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

Based upon the technology of the Coronus Grav-carrier, the smaller Caladius grav-tank is designed to utilise the firepower afforded by the heaviest elements of the Legio Custodes’ arsenal on a highly mobile, protected platform. Given the fusion of advanced systems and weapons, the Caladius is perhaps the most powerful battleline armoured unit of its size in the Imperium’s forces, utilising technologies and materials 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.

A particularly powerful variant was the ‘Caladius-Annihilator’ which featured an enhanced capacitor-fed Arachnus blaze cannon potent that is enough to pose a threat even to super-heavy armour.

Loyd Carrier MkII

The Loyd Carrier was one of a number of small tracked vehicles used by the British and Commonwealth forces in the Second World War to transport equipment and men about the battlefield. Alongside the Bren, Scout and Machine Gun Carriers, they also moved infantry support weapons.

This Loyd Carrier MkII was part of the Land Warfare Exhibit at Duxford.

British World War Two tracked armoured universal carrier, unarmed, crew of 1 with capacity for up to 8 personnel or similar load, powered by Ford 8-cylinder Vee petrol engine.

Star Wars Legion Boxed Set

Something I have been thinking about getting for a while now was the Fantasy Flight Games Star Wars Legion boxed core set. So I was well pleased to get it for Christmas.

Epic warfare is an inescapable part of the Star Wars™ universe, and you can lead your troops to victory with Star Wars: Legion™, a two-player miniatures game of thrilling infantry battles in the Star Wars universe!

As a miniatures game, Star Wars: Legion invites you to enter the ground battles of the Galactic Civil War as the commander of a unique army filled with troopers, powerful vehicles, and iconic characters. While innovative mechanics for command and control simulate the fog of war and the chaos of battle, the game’s unpainted, easily assembled figures give you a canvas to create any Star Wars army you can imagine.

This set contains thirty-three beautifully sculpted, easily assembled figures (including Luke Skywalker, Darth Vader, Rebel Troopers, Stormtroopers, an AT-RT, and 74-Z Speeder Bikes) which invite you to play as the Galactic Empire or the Rebel Alliance.

The miniatures are lovely, but I was expecting them to be a slightly harder plastic than they were, the light sabres were a little bendy for my liking… I was slightly disappointed that they weren’t ready painted (as the X-Wing models are), but not too surprised. They are. nice scale as well, not too tall.

Doing some Google searching I have found some lovely terrain, alas in the US, but also a Revell AT-AT Walker at 1/53rd scale is probably just about right for the game.

I was thinking of more for scenery than an actual fighting machine.

There are plenty of options open for playing games in terms of terrain, from the snow of Hoth, to the forest moon of Endor. As I really like the Rogue One film, I am thinking of doing in the first instance the tropical beaches of Scarif.

I have been reading the rules, but only really skimming them for the moment. I really like the X-Wing rules from FFG so am expecting something along those lines. I might though adapt something like Dead Man’s Hand or even my own skirmish rules, which I wrote for a couple of magazine articles back in the 1990s.

Albion CX22S Heavy Artillery Tractor

This is the Albion CX22 Heavy Artillery Tractor in the Land Warfare Exhibit at Duxford.

British WW2 6×4 heavy artillery tractor, crew of 1 and capacity for 6 gun crew with stowage for ammunition, powered by Albion EN244 6-cylinder diesel engine.

The Albion CX22S was designed and built by Albion Motors in late 1943 to supplement the Scammell Pioneer heavy artillery tractor, which was not available in sufficient numbers. In service the CX22S was used by the British Army to tow the 155mm Long Tom and the BL 7.2-inch howitzer.

Merry Christmas

M14/41 Medium Tank

The M 14/41 was a four-crew medium tank that served from 1941 in the Royal Italian Army.

This M14/41 Medium Tank was on display at the Tank Museum in Bovington.

Captured versions of the M14/41 Medium Tank were used by British and Australian troops in the desert.

I do like the Italian tanks for World War Two and have thought about building a 15mm force using them, along with the P40 Heavy Tank Mid-War Monster.

Space Marine Flyers

One of the huge dioramas at Warhammer World was a Space Marine space port or airfield. There were plenty of Forge World aircraft on display.

This is the Space Marine Storm Eagle

A formidable gunship, the Storm Eagle mounts fearsome firepower for a vehicle of its size and is capable of transporting twenty Space Marines directly into the thick of an assault. The exact provenance of the Storm Eagle is unknown, but it bears clear similarities to the Stormravens employed by the Blood Angels and Grey Knights. Certain sources place the principal manufacture of the Storm Eagle upon Tigrus and Anvilus IX, both primary-grade Forge Worlds that suffered catastrophic damage during the Horus Heresy. In recent decades the number of Storm Eagles in active service has begun to increase, especially amongst those Chapters known to have favourable relations with the Adeptus Mechanicus. This has lead some observers to believe that production has been restored at an as yet unknown location.

Thunderhawk Transport complete with load.

The Thunderhawk Transporter is a logistical variant of the standard Thunderhawk gunship used by the Adeptus Astartes to carry Space Marine vehicles into combat zones. The Thunderhawk Transporter, while lacking the firepower of the standard Thunderhawk, is no less important to an Astartes Chapter. The Thunderhawk Transporter can quickly load up to two Rhino sized vehicles of any type, or a single Land Raider sized vehicle.

The Thunderhawk transporter is no longer available from Forge World.

This is the Sokar pattern Stormbird.

The Sokar pattern Stormbird is a dedicated attack lander. It has served as a high-durability orbital assault craft, a mobile bastion and firebase which could land a Space Marine strike force and withstand heavy ground fire while its cargo or troops and war machines disembarked to press the attack. One of the later patterns developed, the Sokar was the design precursor to the smaller Thunderhawk Gunship. The Stormbird’s standard armament is four turret-mounted twin linked lascannon, three twin-linked heavy bolters, and a complement of six dreadstrike missiles. It is also equipped with particularly dense composite armour plating, and is further protected by a series of void shield generators which it can extend to protect disembarking troops and war machines. Its cavernous transport bays can hold 50 fully armed Space Marines. Alternatively it can carry up to 5 Dreadnoughts, including the mighty Leviathan; Jump-pack equipped infantry; Rapier batteries; bikes; jetbikes; a Rhino armoured transport; or a mixed force of all of the above.

I’ve always preferred the original concept of the Stormbird.

Providing fuel and supplies for all the aircraft was this tanker. I think this model was a conversion as I don’t recollect seeing it before and it’s not mentioned on the Forge World website.

The aircraft colour scheme did remind me of the old BOAC livery used in the 1960s and 1970s.