Author: Felix

Forge World Grot Mega Tank

I picked up the Grot Mega Tank at GamesDay 2010. It was available in limited numbers, but I was lucky enough to pick one up, before they sold out.

Designed by Stuart Williamson, the Grot Mega Tank represents the pinnacle of Gretchin-built Heavy Tank technology; an overpowering war machine that drives all before it in a storm of scrap and destruction. This full resin kit is festooned with unique details as you can in the images, and Stuart has designed each turret to be fully cross-compatible with Daren Parrwood’s Grot Tanks.
Hammered together out of junk, spare Mekboy know-wotz and unbridled Grot enthusiasm, the Grot Mega Tank adds even more firepower to the battlefield madness that has come to be known as a Grotzkrieg, terrifying Imperial Tacticians, Eldar Farseers and Chaos Warlords alike.

I really do like this model alongside the Grot Tanks. The model is very ship like with battleship style turrets and a prow shaped bow. It is a very ramshackle vehicle and looks like (as it should) if the grots have just thrown it together from parts lying around the battlefield and stuff stolen from a Mek workshop. The turrets are interchangeable with those of the plastic Ork vehicles and the Grot Tanks allowing you an opportunity to convert the Mega Tank into a different looking model. Useful if you were to get two.

Before making it up I had a good look at the pictures on the Forge World website.

You do get one big bag of resin.

Before I got started, I washed all the resin pieces.

I then cleaned the flash and removed the pieces from the sprues. You should always take care doing this as it is possible to break the parts as resin is much more brittle than plastic. The “sprues” for many of the pieces were huge and in some cases quite challenging to remove from the model. pieces. I was wary about breaking the parts when removing them.

See the full workbench feature on my Grot Mega Tank.

Flames of War Russian Armoured Train


Really enjoyed reading the article on a Russian Armoured Train on the Flames of War website.

The article has the historical background on how one of the Polish Armoured Trains was captured by the Soviet Union, re-painted and pressed into service. The article also shows how to paint the model.

I do like the look of the model and the green train with red stars is very effective, and as a model I much prefer it over the three colour camouflage of the Polish version.

Interestingly the train in question was later captured by the Germans and they used it.

Flames of War German Panzergrenadier Headquarters

I purchased a Flames of War box of the German Panzergrenadier Headquarters.

In the box you get a bunch of resin, plastic and metal.

I like the fact that you get three different half tracks.

It’s a challenge though to see what goes where and on which bases which models go. I do think that there needs to be either better instructions in the box, or at least a good and explanatory guide on the Flames of War website. This is not the first or last model from Flames of War that has left me confused about what is what and where it goes on the model. It’s not even entirely clear about which infantry go together or clear instructions on how to base them.

See the workbench feature on this boxed set.

Ork Stompa Gantry

I have been thinking about more Ork scenery for some time. When recently my son broke his toy crane I was inspired to take the broken section and use it as part of a Stompa Gantry. I have also used parts from an Ork Trukk, an Ork Battlewagon and Imperial Accessories. I have used foamcard for the base and the majority of the model was stuck together with a hot glue gun.

Since my previous post on the gantry I have added some more bits and pieces and some stones to the base.

There are some grab rails from the Ork Trukk kit, as well as an engine on the base. I have also used some of the brass from the Warhammer 40000 basing kit.

Elysian Tauro Venator

A Forge World Elysian Drop Tauro Venator entered into the GamesDay 2010 Golden Demon Awards.

Elysian Drop Tauro Venator entered into the GamesDay 2010 Golden Demon Awards.
Elysian Drop Tauro Venator entered into the GamesDay 2010 Golden Demon Awards.

It has a nice trailer, however I am less sure about the presentation of the model. The sand dune it is jumping off doesn’t look much like a natural sand dune and needed a little more work to make it more realistic and convincing. I am also less sure about the posing and placement of the model. This is a pity as the painting is quite good and done well.

Flames of War Challenger A30

The Tank, Cruiser, Challenger (A30) was a British tank of World War 2. It mounted the 17 Pounder gun on the Cromwell chassis to add heavier anti-tank firepower to the cruiser tank units.

This is the Flames of War blister of the British Challenger A30 Tank.

Within the blister, as with a lot of FoW models, you get a resin hull and turret and metal tracks and accessories.

See the full workbench feature on my Challenger A30.

Who’s back? He’s back…

Well I enjoyed the first episode of Doctor Who. Very epic and ambitious and setting it in American appeared to work. The result was really what they should have done when they tried to re-make Doctor Who in 1996 and Paul McGann took on the role. I am sure that if the American version was like last night’s opening episode then it may have been a success.

However back to the new episode, as I said, the American setting worked well and though I was expecting it to be a little cheesy, I didn’t think it was in the end. Reminded me slightly of an episode of the X-Files, but with a little more humour.

Nixon and the Oval Office was done well and seeing Confidential showed how much work was done in creating that infamous room in the White House. I did like the fact that it wasn’t modern America, but was 1960s America. This is why I think it worked over the modern setting of the 1996 American remake.

I was touched and enjoyed the tribute to Elizabeth Sladen that followed the opening episode. Wonderful tributes and clips about her life in Doctor Who.

I am looking forward to the next episode of Doctor Who and the series as a whole, slightly disappointed we have a split season, as I hate gaps, but I can see how it spreads the Doctor more over the year.