Felix, Author at Felix's Gaming Pages

Daimler Armoured Car

The Daimler Armoured Car was a successful British armoured car design of the Second World War that continued in service into the 1950s. It was designed for armed reconnaissance and liaison purposes. During the postwar era, it doubled as an internal security vehicle in a number of countries.

When the British Daimler Company took over BSA in 1939 they inherited two superb armoured vehicle designs. One was the famous Dingo scout car, which was already in production, the other an armoured car, which was still in the design stage.

The Tank Museum’s example is a Mark II. It is painted in the markings of a unit that served in the successful counter insurgency operations against communist terrorists in Malaya in the late 1940s and early 1950s. The multi-barrel smoke grenade launchers fitted to the turret were a post-war modification.

Imperial Guard Baneblade

This Imperial Guard Baneblade super heavy tank was on display at Warhammer World. It was from Damien Pedley’s collection.

The Baneblade super heavy tank is the standard super heavy for the Imperial Guard. It’s huge and the design is one of the oldest in service with the armed forces of the Imperium. It is one of the Standard Template Construct (STC) designs that ensures that Forge Worlds across the galaxy are able to easily manufacture the tanks to a consistent design. The size means a large crew, ten in all. They are often used as command vehicles by Imperial Guard commanders.

With a range of armaments, a Baneblade is less of a tank and more of a tracked fortress. An unmistakable icon of the Imperium’s armoured supremacy, a single one of these super-heavy war engines can serve as the mailed fist of an Imperial Guard offensive, or as the unassailable lynchpin of even the most desperate of defences.

This Tallarn Desert Raiders Baneblade, from the ‘Eavy Metal team, was also on display at Warhammer World.

Another Baneblade painted by the Games Workshop team, was also at Warhammer World.

The Baneblade was originally an Epic design, but was then available as a modelling project in White Dwarf. Forge World produced a resin version for many years. In 2007 a plastic version of the tank was made available. We shouldn’t forget the 1/6th scale version that Forge World showcased at Games Day 2006.

Initially I wasn’t a fan, I thought it was too big, but over the years I have come to like the concept. Will I buy the model? Well I might.

Macharius Vulcan Heavy Tank

An Imperial Macharius Vulcan Heavy Tank armed with a Vulcan Mega Bolter, Twin-Linked Heavy Stubber and two weapon sponsons.

The Vulcan variant of the Macharius Heavy Tank sacrifices much of the anti-armour capabilities of the Vanquisher variant for the ferocious anti-infantry firepower of the Vulcan Mega-Bolter, normally carried by Warhound-class Titans and commonly fielded to provide cover for other super-heavy tanks and suppress enemy heavy weapon positions with a devastating storm of shot and shell.

From Damien Pedley’s collection on display at Warhammer World.

My original thoughts on the model when it was released back in 2007. This is one of my favourite models, and is probably at the top of the list of wanted models. As I write this, it is temporarily out of stock. I think on my next visit to Warhammer World I might treat myself to the kit.

Solar Auxilia Shadowsword Super Heavy Tank

This is a Solar Auxilia Shadowsword Super Heavy Tank on display at Warhammer World.

The Shadowsword is armed with a fearsome array of weapons – none more so than the mighty volcano cannon on its turret. It can also be equipped with a pair of sponsons sporting a twin heavy bolter or twin heavy flamer, each capped by a lascannon turret! The Shadowsword is the sister tank to the Baneblade, a super-heavy vehicle employed by Solar Auxilia cohorts to engage and destroy enemy macro-engines with its volcano cannon.

A single super-heavy tank is a dominant presence in the Solar Auxilia battle line. As it ploughs inexorably forward it lays down a wide path of destruction. Enemy ranks shatter long before it reaches their position, and those unlucky few who are able to maintain their defensive formations are ground to paste under the slab-like plates of its tracks. The Shadowsword is equipped with one of the most fearsome primary weapons – the dreaded volcano cannon – and is capable of taking down Titans at extreme ranges. Nothing short of the most powerful energy fields can hope to stop a direct hit from its blasts.

The same chassis has also been adapted to mount different primary weapons suited to their own modes of destruction, like the bunker-busting Stormsword siege cannon or the versatile plasma blastgun of the Stormblade.

Stormsword

This Imperial Guard Stormsword super heavy tank was on display at Warhammer World.

The Stormsword is a super-heavy tank of the Astra Militarum that is the result of an ad hoc field conversion of a wrecked Shadowsword tank. The Shadowsword’s original Volcano Cannon and all of its internal components have been replaced with a massive Hellhammer Siege Cannon, called a “Stormsword Siege Cannon” when deployed on this tank, and internal storage for its huge shells. The Stormsword has proven very reliable during urban combat, and is equipped to fight in close-quarters and against garrisoned infantry.

The Stormsword fills the role of a close-combat super-heavy tank, whereas the Shadowsword fills the long-range role, the Stormblade fills the medium-range role, and the Baneblade fills the “all-around” role, capable of fighting equally well in close, medium, and long-range battles.

Adeptus Titanicus at Warhammer World

At Warhammer World there was an Adeptus Titanicus diorama. Across an Imperial city Titans of various sizes were strolling into battle.

Warmaster Heavy Battle Titan walking into battle.

Reaver Titan striding through the Imperial City.

Massive Warlord Battle Titan.

The midst of battle.

A traitor Warbringer Nemesis Titan moves into battle.

Huge Warmaster Heavy Battle Titan marching into battle.

Warlord Battle Titan.

This was a Warlord Battle Titan.

This traitor Warmaster Heavy Battle Titan was facing down the Warlord.

Alongside was the Warbringer Nemesis Titan.

The loyalist forces included a Reaver Battle Titan.

Warhound Scout Titan

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.

More photographs of the Kharon Pattern Acquisitor.

German Leopard I Main Battle Tank

This Leopard 1 was on display at the Tank Museum at Bovington.

The Leopard 1 is a main battle tank designed and produced by Porsche in West Germany that first entered service in 1965. Developed in an era when HEAT warheads were thought to make conventional heavy armour of limited value, the Leopard focused on firepower in the form of the German-built version of the British L7 105-mm gun, and improved cross-country performance that was unmatched by other designs of the era.

This is a Standardpanzer Series-0, one of two pre-production Leopards supplied to Great Britain in exchange for two Chieftains.

Gorkanaut and Morkanaut

These Gorkanaut and Morkanaut models were on display at Warhammer World.

The Gorkanaut possesses all the unsubtle brutality of Gork along with a blocky silhouette that looms menacingly over friend and foe alike. Piloted by an Ork Nob, this hulking orkoid armoured war suit is the epitome of everything an Ork aspires to be: Massive, tough, loud and destructive. The Gorkanaut’s main weapons are the deafening and deadly Deffstorm mega-shoota and the massive armoured Klaw of Gork (or possibly Mork). It is also armed with two twin-linked big shootas, two rokkit launchas and a skorcha.

The Morkanaut’s main weapon is a profusion of worky gubbinz and zappy bits known as the kustom mega-kannon. It is also armed with two twin-linked big shootas, two rokkit launchas, a kustom mega-blasta and the Klaw of Gork (or possibly Mork).

Still not entirely confident about the differences between the two, but I think that’s the point.

I have considered buying one of these for my Ork forces, but it has so far remained on that long shopping list of wants.

Ordinatus Ulator

A rare and truly arcane weapon system of staggering power, the Mechanicum Ordinatus Ulator is of the smaller classes of Ordinatus, but nevertheless is one of the most potent war machines at the Imperium’s disposal.

The Ordinatus Ulator carries a trio of Volkite Culverins as its secondary armaments, but its primary weapon is the Ulator class Sonic Destructor. A terrifying weapon whose origins lie in the shadows of the Age of Strife, the Sonic Destructor generates a wave of annihilation that wreaks havoc across the battlefield.

In the time of the Great Crusade the Ordinatus macro engines were rarer than even the Battle Titans of the Legio Titanica, and only a handful of Forge Worlds had the resources or indeed the doctrinal blessing and religious authority to produce or maintain such embodiments of the Omnissiah’s divine wrath. Such was the sacredness of these machines above all others, that an entire subcult of the Mechanicum was devoted to their worship and propitiation.