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This The Emperor versus Warmaster Horus diorama was on display at Warhammer World.
It was created and painted by Mike McVey over twenty years ago in 1993.
Based on artist Adrian Smith and writer Bill King’s illustration and description of this pivotal moment in the Horus Heresy.
The Rhino is the most widely used armoured personnel carrier in the Imperium. Based on 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.
This is my Deimos Pattern Rhino in the desert.
Rhino getting in the way of the Typhon Heavy Siege Tank.
My other Deimos Pattern Rhino (note the two cupola bolters).
See the workbench feature on the first Deimos Pattern Rhino.
See the workbench feature on the second Deimos Pattern Rhino.
This Matilda II was on display at the Tank Museum at Bovington.
The Infantry Tank Mark II, better known as the Matilda, was a British infantry tank that served in World War II. It had a crew of four, was powered by two Leyland 6-cylinder diesel engines, and was armed with a 2-pounder gun and a machine gun.
The Matilda was designed in 1936 as a gun-armed counterpart to the first British infantry tank, the machine gun-armed A11 Infantry Tank Mark I. The Mark I was also known as the Matilda, and the larger A12 was initially known as the Matilda II, Matilda senior, or Waltzing Matilda. The Mark I was abandoned in 1940, and from then on the A12 was almost always known simply as “the Matilda.”
The Matilda was an excellent infantry support tank, thanks to its heavy armor. It was impervious to most German anti-tank guns at the time, and it could withstand heavy fire from enemy tanks. However, the Matilda was slow, with a top speed of only 14 mph. It was also not very well-armed, and its main gun, the 2-pounder, was effective against other tanks, but it had limited anti-personnel capabilities.
Despite its limitations, the Matilda was a valuable asset to the British Army during World War II. It was a reliable and well-liked tank by its crews, and it played a significant role in the North Africa Campaign. It was eventually replaced in front-line service by the lighter and less costly Infantry Tank Mk III Valentine beginning in late 1941, but the Matilda continued to serve in other roles until the end of the war.
Overall, the Matilda was a versatile and effective tank that served the British Army well during World War II. Its heavy armor made it a formidable opponent on the battlefield, and its reliability and popularity with its crews made it a valuable asset to the British war effort.
A Matilda II infantry tank is at the Imperial War Museum North in Manchester.
The Hawker Siddeley Kestrel FGA.1 along with the Hawker P.1127 are the experimental and development aircraft that led to the Hawker Siddeley Harrier, the first vertical and/or short take-off and landing (V/STOL) jet fighter-bomber.
The Hawker Siddeley Kestrel F(GA).1 was on display at RAF Cosford.
Development began in 1957, taking advantage of the Bristol Engine Company’s choice to invest in the creation of the Pegasus vectored-thrust engine. Testing began in July 1960 and by the end of the year the aircraft had achieved both vertical take-off and horizontal flight. The test program also explored the possibility of use upon aircraft carriers, landing on HMS Ark Royal in 1963. The first three aircraft crashed during testing, one at the 1963 Paris Air Show.
Improvements to future development aircraft, such as swept wings and more powerful Pegasus engines, led to the development of the Kestrel. The Kestrel was evaluated by the Tri-partite Evaluation Squadron, made up of military pilots from the United Kingdom, the United States, and West Germany. Later flights were conducted by the U.S. military and NASA.
Another view of the Hawker Siddeley Kestrel F(GA).1 from an earlier visit to RAF Cosford.
My latest model for my Imperial Fists Horus Heresy force is the Typhon Heavy Siege Tank.
The Typhon Heavy Siege Tank was released as a plastic kit for The Horus Heresy. I’ve always liked the Forge World resin model and so was pleased to get one of the new plastic kits for my Imperial Fists force.
Having started constructing the model, I finished putting it together. The next stage was a white undercoat. I then gave the model a partial base coat of Army Painter Desert Yellow. I then gave the model a base coat of Army Painter Daemonic Yellow. I painted the bolter and the exhausts using Citadel Leadbelcher. It was then onto shading the model and then shading it some more. I also painted the tracks. The Typhon was then drybrushed. I glued in the Dreadhammer Siege Cannon and added the frontal armour and after painting the sponson weapons, these were added to the Typhon.
The next stage was to add the tracks to the Typhon. I had painted the tracks on the sprue. These were removed from the sprue and using superglue I attached the tracks to the Typhon.
Unlike the Rhino tracks, the tracks for the left and right hand sides are identical. As the Typhon is longer than the Proteus Land Raider, there are four extra track sections that need to be added.
There were a couple of places where I found it challenging to affix them.
I am not too happy with the engine area, so might look at that part of the model again.
The Whirlwind is an Imperial artillery support vehicle based upon the Standard Template Construct (STC) Rhino armoured personnel carrier (APC) chassis that is now primarily used by the Space Marine Chapters of the Adeptus Astartes.
This is the kit version of the original Whirlwind artillery vehicle, based on the original Rhino kit. It was on display at Warhammer World.
It comprised a plastic Rhino kit and metal components.
The original Whirlwind was a conversion using a slottabase and plasticard for the rocket launcher. This was published in the September 1989 issues of White Dwarf, #117.
The Rhino APC is perhaps the most common vehicle in the Imperium. As a basic design in the STC system, it exists in thousands of variants, each of which can be considered a vehicle in its own right. Each different design is much more than a simple conversion of the standard Rhino; every one fulfills a different role, and is impossible to better. The Whirlwind is just one of these designs.
Here are the instructions, just in case you want to build your own. Continue reading ““Original” Space Marine Whirlwind at Warhammer World”
My latest model for my Imperial Fists Horus Heresy force is the Typhon Heavy Siege Tank.
The Typhon Heavy Siege Tank was released as a plastic kit for The Horus Heresy. I’ve always liked the Forge World resin model and so was pleased to get one of the new plastic kits for my Imperial Fists force.
Having started constructing the model, I finished putting it together. The next stage was a white undercoat. I then gave the model a partial base coat of Army Painter Desert Yellow. I then gave the model a base coat of Army Painter Daemonic Yellow. I painted the bolter and the exhausts using Citadel Leadbelcher. It was then onto shading the model and then shading it some more. I also painted the tracks. The Typhon was then drybrushed. I glued in the Dreadhammer Siege Cannon and added the frontal armour.
I had undercoated the sponson weapons and then painted the armour with Army Painter Desert Yellow. I then painted the lascannons with Citadel Leadbelcher. The sensor covering was then painted with Citadel Layer Flash Gitz Yellow.
These were then attached to the Typhon.
It was then onto shading the sponsons. I used some Citadel Reikland Fleshshade Shade on them.
The next stage will be affixing the tracks.
This Guy Armoured Car was on display at the Tank Museum.
The Guy Armoured Car was a British armoured car produced in limited numbers during Second World War. The car saw limited action during the Battle of France.
The manufacturer, Guy Motors, did not have enough capacity to produce the armored car alongside their artillery tractors, so they passed the design and construction techniques to Rootes, who used them to create the Humber Armored Car.
Six Guy Armored Cars were sent to France with the British Expeditionary Force (BEF), but they were lost when France fell to the Germans.
Four cars, two each with the 12th Lancers and 2nd Northamptonshire Yeomanry, had their guns removed and additional seats fitted in 1940 for use in the Coats Mission to evacuate the Royal family in the event of a German invasion of Britain during the Second World War.
The Coats Mission was a special British army unit established in 1940 for the purpose of evacuating King George VI, Queen Elizabeth, and their immediate family in the event of a German invasion of Britain during the Second World War. It was led by Major James Coats, MC, Coldstream Guards, later Lieutenant-Colonel Sir James Coats, Bt.
The force consisted of:
The Coats Mission was never called upon to carry out its mission, as the German invasion of Britain never materialized. However, the unit’s existence was a sign of the British government’s determination to protect the Royal Family, even in the face of the most dire circumstances.
The Coats Mission is a fascinating example of the lengths that the British government was willing to go to in order to protect its monarchy. It is also a reminder of the importance of contingency planning, even in the face of unlikely events.
I have been thinking about creating a game based on the Coats Mission with an assault by German Paratroopers in an attempt to capture the Royal Family.
Another photograph of the Guy Armoured Car.
The Incom T-47 Snowspeeder is a two-person, all-terrain vehicle used by the Rebel Alliance during the Galactic Civil War.
Though you can get an “official” Snowspeeder model for Star Wars Legion, I have been thinking for a while about getting the Revell 1/52nd scale model kit of the Snowspeeder. Mainly as I wanted to use it as scenery (more than as a vehicle in the game) and partly down to cost. The Revell kit was £8 and the “official” Snowspeeder model was over £30 when I last looked on Amazon.
The kit contains 23 parts across four sprues.
I was disappointed with the size of the crew figures, for what is described as 1/52nd scale. They are really tiny.
The nest stage will be painting some components black before constructing the model.
The British Aerospace EAP (Experimental Aircraft Programme) was a British technology demonstrator aircraft developed by aviation company British Aerospace (BAe) as a private venture. It was designed to research technologies to be used for a future European combat aircraft, and eventually formed the basis for the multinational Eurofighter Typhoon.
The EAP first flew on August 8, 1986, and made its public debut at the Farnborough Air Show later that year. It was powered by two Turbo-Union RB199 engines and had a maximum speed of Mach 1.4. The aircraft was made of carbon fiber composites and titanium, and featured a number of innovative technologies, including fly-by-wire controls, relaxed static stability, and an advanced radar system.
The EAP flew for over 200 hours and helped to validate many of the technologies that would later be used on the Eurofighter Typhoon. It was retired in 1991, but its legacy lives on in the Typhoon, which is one of the most advanced combat aircraft in the world.
It is now on display at RAF Cosford, and here are more photographs.