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This SdKfz 234/3 was on display at Bovington.
The Sd Kfz 234 family was made up of four vehicles, each with different armament. They were built late in the war and had better armour and mobility than previous armoured cars, however, only 478 were built in total.
The Sd Kfz 234/3 variant was used to give fire support to more lightly armed scout vehicles.
This one was captured at the end of the war in full working order and later used in mobility tests against more modern vehicles.
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.
The Varsity was a versatile twin piston-engined aircraft brought into RAF service in 1951 for crew training as a replacement for the Wellington T10. This Vickers Varsity T Mk I was on display at RAF Cosford.
The aircraft had been designed three years earlier in response to an Air Ministry specification and had been put into production once proving trials and operational tests had been completed. To adapt the successful Valetta design for a general purpose crew trainer, the Varsity was given a nose-wheel undercarriage and an under fuselage pannier bomb-aimer’s station. The Museum also has an example of the Valetta which is awaiting major restoration.
The most outstanding quality of the Varsity was that it could provide excellent training for pilots, flight engineers, radio operators, navigators and bomb aimers simultaneously. The latter were seated in a very large ventral gondola which contained bomb aiming equipment and a small quantity of training bombs.
The prototype Varsity T MkI made its maiden flight on 17 July 1949. The RAF took its first deliveries in October 1951 which went to No.201 Squadron, Advanced Flying School at Swinderby, Lincolnshire. Production of the Varsity T MkI for the RAF ceased on 28 February 1954 after a total of 163 had been built.
WL679 was built by Vickers Armstrong at Bournemouth and released from their factory on 25 September 1953. This was the last Varsity to fly with Royal Air Force Insignia, but in the very distinctive livery of the Royal Aircraft Establishment. It landed at RAF Cosford on 27 July 1992 and signalled the end of an era spanning over 43 years.
In 2023 I published 271, whilst not as many as the 319 I did in 2022, it was more than I did in 2021, when I posted 162 times. In 2020 I posted 436 blog posts, in 2019 I did 143 blog posts. Compare that to 2018 when I wrote just 21 blog posts.
Here are my top ten blog posts in reverse order.
The blog post at number ten was about the huge Tau Manta at Warhammer World.
The ninth most popular post was a discussion piece from July of this year asking It’s the end of Aeronautica Imperialis as we know it… as Xenos races were dropped from the game.
The post at eight was about how I was Landscaping the Titan bases for my Adeptus Titanicus titans.
The seventh top post was about Reflecting on the MkIIB Land Raider having had it on the workbench for a fair few years, I decided to finish it off as an Imperial Fists model..
The post at six asked the question on if we would get a Sokar pattern Stormbird for Aeronautica Imperialis.
The fifth most popular post was from 2007, and was about the upcoming Warhammer Fantasy Plastic Buildings that were going to be released for Warhammer.
I wonder if these will be re-released for Warhammer Old World, or if we will see new versions of the buildings.
Jumping one place to number four was Building and undercoating the Inquisitorial Achilles Ridgerunner.
It was ninth most popular post in 2022, this year it is number three. The post was That time when the Imperial Guard used the Rhino a reminder that when the Rhino model first came out it could also be used by the Imperial Guard as well as Space Marines.
The second popular post in 2023 on the blog was Constructing the Haemotrope Reactor a model that I got with a copy of Warhammer Imperium.. It was third most popular last year.
Staying at number one was the post of photographs of Astra Militarum Super Heavy Tanks taken on a visit to Warhammer World.
Overall I was pleased with the amount of blogging that I did in 2023 and impressed with the amount of painting I have done this year. I have done a regular top ten blog posts article every year now for a fair few years, but going through the stats this time I noticed that there were a lot of popular pages as well. The most popular page in 2023 was the workbench on my Ork Kill Bursta.
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 Legio Custodes Orion Assault Dropship was on display ay Warhammer World.
Over on the Warhammer Community site they have announced how Warhammer Old World will be released.
They won’t be doing a huge launch boxed set, instead, in the first instance they will be releasing two army boxes, Tomb Kings of Khemri, and The Kingdom of Bretonnia. These each contain a 1250 point army.
It will be interesting to see how these are priced, considering each box contains nearly a hundred miniatures, and a huge army centrepiece. You also get the 352-page hardback Warhammer: The Old World rulebook.
As well as the boxed sets the rulebook will be available separately.
The rulebook will also be available separately. This weighty 352-page tome features over 70 pages of background on the World of Legend, plus Core and Advanced rules for the game, an explanation of the Winds of Magic and rules for casting spells, a gallery of armies painted by the ’Eavy Metal studio, and rules for building armies and setting up your battlefields.
I do like how the two army books are called Forces of Fantasy and Ravening Hordes.
Forces of Fantasy is a 192-page book covering five factions: the Dwarfen Mountain Holds, the Empire of Man, the Kingdom of Bretonnia, the Wood Elf Realms, and the High Elf Realms. Ravening Hordes contains all your Evil factions – it’s a 160-page containing similar material for the Orc and Goblin Tribes, the Warriors of Chaos, the Beastmen Brayherds, and the Tomb Kings of Khemri.
Forces of Fantasy was the name of the first Warhammer (1st Edition) supplement. Whilst Ravening Hordes was the army list for second edition. I bought both of those back in the day!
I am tempted by the Tomb Kings of Khemri boxed set, as I always liked the idea of an undead skeleton army. I had some metal skeletons back in the day.
I am also thinking of rebooting my original Dwarf army as well. Then again I always liked Orcs and Goblins.
As for a release date, no idea.
The Tiger II (or as was informally known to the Germans who fought in it, Königstiger), was a 70 tonne heavy tank.
It was first used in combat with s.H.Pz.Abt. 503 during the Normandy campaign on 11 July 1944.
This Tiger II was at Bovington.
The Museum’s Tiger II was built in July 1944 by Henschel and given Fahrgestell Nummer (chassis number) 280093. It was abandoned on the 29th or 30th August, most likely at Aux Marais, a community on the outskirts of Beauvais around 15 miles further North-East. It has also long been believed that this tank was fired on, possibly after it was abandoned, by the Sherman commanded by Sergeant Roberts of 4 Troop, A Squadron, 23rd Hussars. It came to The Tank Museum from the Royal Military College at Shrivenham in 2006.
I have an old 15mm SDD King Tiger on my workbench.
The view of the Königstiger next to the Luchs light tank.
Photographs of the pre-production Tiger II at Bovington.
I have been thinking about getting some miniatures for Legions Imperialis since it was released. So was pleased to get the Legions Imperialis: Rhino Transport boxed set for Christmas.
The Rhino is the most widely used armoured personnel carrier in the Imperium. Based upon ancient STC technology, the fundamental design is robust, reliable, and easy to maintain, with an adaptive power plant that can run off a wide variety of fuels. Within the Space Marine Legions, the Deimos pattern was the most widespread, serving as the basic armoured transport available to the Legiones Astartes and the foundation on which a number of other war machines were based.
In the box you get two sprues that can be used to construct ten models.
This was the first time I had seen these models in the flesh. They are smaller than I thought they were going to be, but are (obviously) bigger than the older original Epic miniatures. However I thought they would be larger than they are.
I like how the box has come with transfers covering the many legions of Legions Imperialis.
When it comes to painting models, I do like to see how others have been painted. These are the images from Games Workshop.
I am thinking I will paint these as Imperial Fists.
The first stage will be constructing the models. Unlike the older Epic models, which were a single casting, these are multi-part kits.
This BOAC de Havilland Comet 1XB was on display at RAF Cosford.
More photographs and information on the BOAC de Havilland Comet at RAF Cosford.
This Sons of Horus Typhon Heavy Siege Tank was on display at Warhammer World.
Named for the ‘Great Beast’ of Ancient Terran myth, the immense Typhon Heavy Siege Tank was developed by the Mechanicum alongside the Spartan, with which it shares a basic chassis design.
I have the plastic kit version of the Typhon Heavy Siege Tank on my workbench.