Author: Felix

Desert Storm 1959

Today saw the announcement of the 2023 Airfix range. I generally don’t do model kits, well I haven’t made an Airfix style model kit since the 1980s… though I have built a fair few wargaming kits since then.

I still have a nostalgic fondness for some of the older Airfix kits so was pleased to see that Airfix have announced the re-release of the Fairey Rotodyne.

Airfix Fairey Rotodyne

The Fairey Rotodyne was a 1950s British compound gyroplane designed and built by Fairey Aviation and intended for commercial and military uses. The Rotodyne featured a tip-jet-powered rotor that burned a mixture of fuel and compressed air bled from two wing-mounted turboprops. The rotor was driven for vertical takeoffs, landings and hovering, as well as low-speed translational flight, but autorotated during cruise flight with all engine power applied to two propellers.

Fairey Rotodyne
Johannes Thinesen, CC BY-SA 2.5, via Wikimedia Commons

Due to army and Royal Air Force (RAF) interest, development of the Rotodyne had been funded out of the defence budget for a time. The RAF also placed an order for 12 military transport versions. According to rumours, the U.S. Army was also interested in buying around 200 Rotodynes.

One prototype was built. Although the Rotodyne was promising in concept and successful in trials, the programme was eventually cancelled. The termination has been attributed to the type failing to attract any commercial orders; this was in part due to concerns over the high levels of rotor tip jet noise generated in flight. 

The re-release of the Fairey Rotodyne reminded me of an idea I had for an alternative history background for gaming. The basic premise was a Desert Storm background but with 1950s tanks, aircraft, helicopters and VTOL craft like the Fairey Rotodyne.

The British forces alongside Westland Whirlwinds and Westland Wessex helicopters would also have access to the Fairey Rotodyne for transport and troop insertion. I even thought about including the Bristol Belvedere, which though entered service in 1961, had its first flight in 1958.

Airfix have also announced they are re-releasing the Bristol Bloodhound SAM missile.

Bristol Bloodhound

It was developed in the 1950s and was used for air defence until 1991 in the UK.

Alongside the aircraft and missiles I would have also added some Centurion tanks and other armoured vehicles.

I would have painted the models in a desert camouflage similar to the US Desert Battle Dress Uniform (DBDU).

Desert Battle Dress Uniform
The original uploader was Pretzelpaws at English Wikipedia., CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Two shades of brown with those clusters of black and white spots.

As for opponents? Well that would have been Soviet aircraft and vehicles, also in a desert camouflage.

Airfix have said they will release these new models in the Autumn of 2023, so it may be a possibility, just maybe.

Also painting it yellow

The Predator is perhaps the best known and most widespread variant of the basic Rhino chassis. Augmented with superior armour and firepower, it entirely sacrifices the Rhino’s troop transport capacity in favour of ammunition and generators for its formidable weapon systems. 

Having got this kit for Christmas, I started putting the model together. For painting I kept the sponsons separate and I can easily remove the turret as well. I gave the model an undercoat of Citadel White Scar.

As with my first Deimos Pattern Rhino I am painting it yellow. I had intended to spray the underneath of the model with Citadel Zandri Dust in preparation for painting the the whole model yellow. However I ran out of paint…

So this model was just given a coat of yellow paint. Games Workshop don’t do a yellow spray and I don’t have an airbrush. I did use a paint comparison site to find a close alternative to Yriel Yellow. The Daemonic Yellow spray from Army Painter seemed like a good choice, and my local FLGS had one in stock, which I bought in the summer.

I gave the model a couple of light coats of Daemonic Yellow.

The sponsons I kept seperate and sprayed them with Citadel Leadbelcher.

I did the same for the Deimos Pattern Rhino and then that can of paint gave up the ghost.  Luckily there was enough to paint the Predator and the Rhino.

For the tracks, still on the sprue, I gave them a spray of Citadel Mechanicus Standard Grey.

The next stage will doing the detailing, the exhausts and the weapons.

See the workbench feature on the Deimos Pattern Predator Battle Tank.

Painting it yellow

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.

I bought the plastic Deimos Pattern Rhino when it came out in the summer, you can see the workbench for that Rhino here.  I was lucky enough to get a second Rhino for a Christmas present. The model has many more parts and is a more detailed kit than the original plastic Rhino kit that came out in the 1980s. I constructed the model to the instructions, though I left the tracks off to paint separately. I gave the model an undercoat of Citadel White Scar.

As with my first Deimos-pattern Rhino I am painting it yellow.

I had intended to spray the underneath of the model with Citadel Zandri Dust in preparation for painting the the whole model yellow. However I ran out of paint…

So this model was just given a coat of yellow paint. Games Workshop don’t do a yellow spray and I don’t have an airbrush. I did use a paint comparison site to find a close alternative to Yriel Yellow. The Daemonic Yellow spray from Army Painter seemed like a good choice, and my local FLGS had one in stock, which I bought in the summer.

I gave the model a couple of light coats of Daemonic Yellow.

I did the same for the Deimos Pattern Predator and then that can of paint gave up the ghost.  Luckily there was enough to paint the Rhino.

For the tracks, still on the sprue, I gave them a spray of Citadel Mechanicus Standard Grey.

The next stage will doing the detailing, the exhausts and the hatch bolter.

See the workbench feature on the Deimos Pattern Rhino II.

 

Undercoating another Plastic Deimos Pattern Rhino

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.

I bought the plastic Deimos Pattern Rhino when it came out in the summer, you can see the workbench for that Rhino here.  I was lucky enough to get a second Rhino for a Christmas present. The model has many more parts and is a more detailed kit than the original plastic Rhino kit that came out in the 1980s. I constructed the model to the instructions, though I left the tracks off to paint separately.

I gave the model an undercoat of Citadel White Scar.

I think if I was to get a third model, I might get the Forge World doors to go with it. I also like the idea of making it campaign weary with stowage and some battle damage. Another idea I had was to do an ACAV version similar to the M113 ACAV which was used in Vietnam.

See the workbench feature on the Deimos-pattern Rhino II.

Undercoating the Deimos Pattern Predator Battle Tank

The Predator is perhaps the best known and most widespread variant of the basic Rhino chassis. Augmented with superior armour and firepower, it entirely sacrifices the Rhino’s troop transport capacity in favour of ammunition and generators for its formidable weapon systems. 

Having got this kit for Christmas, I started putting the model together. For painting I kept the sponsons separate and I can easily remove the turret as well.

I gave the model an undercoat of Citadel White Scar.

I had removed the turret and sponsons to do the undercoat.

See the workbench feature on the Deimos Pattern Predator Battle Tank.

iFelix Top Ten Blog Posts 2022

In 2022 I published 321 almost twice the posts I did in 2021. In 2021 I published 162 blog posts. 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 tenth most popular post was Dwarf City under attack some photographs from a demonstration game at an old GamesDay.

The post at number nine 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 Matines.

The post at number eight was a post from 2019 about Making the Ork Megatrakk Scrapjet which I had got for Christmas, alas it is still on the workbench. 

The seventh post was on the announcement on the Plastic Deimos-pattern Rhino, I was pleased to see that one of the new Horus Heresy releases announced at Warhammer Fest was the Plastic Deimos-pattern Rhino.

The post at number six was another announcement post, this one was when the Hekaton Land Fortress was revealed.

Post at number five was on Building and undercoating the Inquisitorial Achilles Ridgerunner.

Fourth most popular post was Marneus Calgar of the Ultramarines’ Land Raider some photographs of this model at Warhammer World.

The post at number three was Constructing the Haemotrope Reactor a model that I got with a copy of Warhammer Imperium.

The second most popular blog post was wondering if we would get a Plastic Land Raider Proteus perhaps? In the end we did.

The most popular post in 2022 was photographs of Astra Militarum Super Heavy Tanks taken on my most last visit to Warhammer World.

Overall I was pleased with the amount of blogging that I did in 2022 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.

Remembering the Scout Titans of times gone past

Back in the 1990s, White Dwarf featured some amazing Scout Titans.

Scout Titan

These were conversions by Forge World’s Tony Cottrell.

Scout Titan

They of course were pre-Forge World. They were conversions made predominantly from two kits, the ZOIDS Scavenger.

And the legs are from a Star Wars AT-ST kit.

I quite like the hard SF look of these compared to the Warhound Scout Titan we ended up with.

Constructing the Deimos Pattern Predator Battle Tank

The Predator is perhaps the best known and most widespread variant of the basic Rhino chassis. Augmented with superior armour and firepower, it entirely sacrifices the Rhino’s troop transport capacity in favour of ammunition and generators for its formidable weapon systems. 

One of my Christmas presents was the Deimos Pattern Predator Battle Tank.

I started putting the model together. It does go together quite easily, though I found some parts challenging, especially the hull roof.

In the end I got some G clamps out to hold the hull roof in place and glued it into place with superglue rather than plastic cement. I think part of the reason was that I had run out of Humbrol Liquid Poly, but my local model shop had run out and the replacement I got was new to me and I am still getting use to it.

I went with the rapid-fire Predator cannon for the main turret weapon and lascannons for the sponsons.

For painting I kept the sponsons separate and I can easily remove the turret as well.

As with my demios-pattern Rhinos I left off the tracks and will paint them separately, before affixing them to the model. It can be challenging to get the track ends under the track guards, but with this deimos-pattern model it is easier than the previous Rhino model.

I did think about adding the prow or dozer blade to the model, but in the end I went with towing hooks as with my other model. The main reason was not so much the look, but more about the challenge in painting it, I am sure I would miss bits.

I am not too happy with the rear of the hull top and how it attaches to the hull.

See the workbench feature on the Deimos Pattern Predator Battle Tank.

3D Talisman Board

I have been playing Talisman ever since it came out in 1983. I own the second edition and this is still played regularly. I also enjoy the digital version on my iPad.

Back in the 1980s I had this idea of building a three dimensional version of the board. In the late 1980s I also managed to purchase all the metal Talisman miniatures in one of Games Workshop’s amazing sales. I had the parts, I had the idea, but like most of my ideas, it stayed an idea. I eventually sold virtually all the miniatures on eBay, keeping a couple I had painted and really liked.

The idea was still there, but I doubted it was ever going to happen…

The other day though I saw this tweet.

Doing some further clicking I discovered that Spare Oom Studio were selling STL files of 3D models for use with Talisman.

Talisman ruins

I really like these, but alas I don’t have a 3D printer. I think if I ever get a 3D printer I might get some, or see if I can get some printed. Need to check how they fit on the second edition board.

Constructing another Plastic Deimos Pattern Rhino

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, making it perfect for the wide-ranging armies of the Great Crusade – and the wars of the Horus Heresy. 

I was pleased to see one of the new Horus Heresy releases announced at Warhammer Fest was the Plastic Deimos Pattern Rhino. So when it was available for pre-order I clicked through and ordered the kit from my local FLGS. You can see the workbench for that Rhino here. I was lucky enough to get a second Rhino for a Christmas present.

The model has many more parts and is a more detailed kit than the original plastic Rhino kit that came out in the 1980s. It does go together quite easily, though I found some parts challenging, especially the hull roof.

In the end I got some G clamps out to hold the hull roof in place and glued it into place with superglue rather than plastic cement. I think part of the reason was that I had run out of Humbrol Liquid Poly, but my local model shop had run out and the replacement I got was new to me and I am still getting use to it.

As with my other Rhino I left off the tracks and will paint them separately, before affixing them to the model. It can be challenging to get the track ends under the track guards, but with this deimos-pattern model it is easier than the previous Rhino model.

I did think about adding a gunner cupola to the model, but in the end went with a simple version of the Rhino and armed with a single bolter.

Another view.

I did think about adding the prow to the model, but in the end I went with towing hooks as with my other model. The main reason was not so much the look, but more about the challenge in painting it, I am sure I would miss bits.

I do like this model. I am thinking about getting another one to convert it into a Looted Ork Rhino.

See the full workbench feature on the second Deimos-pattern Rhino.