workbench Archives - Page 12 of 157

Constructing the Werewolves

On the cover of a recent Miniature Wargames was a sprue of Wargames Atlantic Werewolves.

I constructed the models, you get a number of choices of arms and heads, so if you had the box, all twenty of your werewolves would be different. They were simple to put together, however I did find the placing of the tails a little challenging.

I based mine on twopence coins. There were no bases provided on the cover of the magazine. As these are plastic miniatures the coins add weight to the models.

The next stage will be landscaping the bases with sand and then a white undercoat. I will probably use a contrast paint as the main basecoat.

Militia Group and Pickup Trucks

After thinking about it for a while I have ordered the Battlefront Militia Group and Pickup Trucks for Team Yankee. Back in 2022 I was intrigued and pleased to see the announcement of the release of Team Yankee: Red Dawn.

With the war in Europe hitting a standstill, the Soviet Union has taken a bold decision to invade North America. Utilising their elite airborne forces they strike into the heart of America in a two-pronged attack. First through the Canadian province of British Columbia and into Alberta and then from the Gulf of Mexico into Texas. Using elite Air Assault Battalions they make surgical strikes on key infrastructure and secure their route inland. With them comes their staunch ally, Cuba. Though they have older equipment, the Cubans are well-trained and determined. Facing them are the US and Canadian home forces, as well as the various militia groups that have sprung up to fight against the invasion!

Of course Red Dawn was the name of the 1984 film starring Patrick Swayze. The film depicts a fictional World War III centered on a land invasion of the continental United States by an alliance of Soviet, Warsaw Pact and Latin American states.

The story follows a group of teenaged guerillas, known as the Wolverines, in Soviet-occupied Colorado.

The Team Yankee version of Red Dawn is very similar, but is part of the Team Yankee setting, so there is a war in Europe whereas in the film the war was focused on the North American continent.

I like the concept of armed militia and pick up trucks with HMGs on board, they had been on my wants list for a while. They could also be used for games in Wessex: The Second English Civil War for insurgent and militia forces.

You get four pickup trucks, each armed with an HMG.

In the militia group, you get twenty six miniatures. It contains:

5x Assault Rifle Teams
2x RPG-7 Anti-tank Teams
1x M224 60mm Mortar Team

Necromunda Sentry Guns

This was one of those models that I liked the idea of. If you have ever seen the special edition of ALIENS, you will remember that the Colonial Marines used automated sentry guns to defend the colony from the aliens. I am pretty confident that these models are inspired by that film.

I also liked the Tarantula sentry guns that were once available from Forge World.

In the pack you get two turrets mounted with twin grenade launchers, and two with twin heavy stubbers. It also includes ammo crates and control consoles.

Trazior Pattern Sentry Guns are illegal within the underhive, and with good reason – they will indiscriminately fire at anything that moves within its sights. However, gangs caught in desperate firefights still find uses for these deadly sentry weapons, just as long as they can keep out of the crossfire.

I don’t play Necromunda, and I don’t have any gang models, however I do like some of the terrain and scenery items.

In the box are two identical sprues.

So the first stage will be construction of the models.

Provisionally Prepared on the workbench

A few weeks back I wrote about Provisionally Prepared, a Warhammer Commemorative Series miniature, or limited edition as we use to call them. When it sells out, they won’t make any more. It’s a lovely little diorama and it features two halflings, sorry abhuman Ratlings, hiding behind some ruins. One is a sniper and preparing to shoot, the other is preparing lunch.

I liked it, so pre-ordered it from my FLGS. What I had forgotten about, or more likely I hadn’t pre-ordered anything in a while, is that Games Workshop have moved to a two week pre-order window. I thought it was a week, so I went to my FLGS last week to pick it up. Of course they didn’t have it, so I picked something else up instead.

This week I went back and picked up Provisionally Prepared. It’s a little box with a single sprue. When (and if) I paint this up, I will be painting the two Ratlings separately to the scenic base.

Dwarf Miners

Having bought some metal models recently from Warhammer World, I have been thinking about how I could build my Old World Dwarf army. There are plenty of plastics now available, as well as some metal models.

This was very much an impulse buy. I was in my FLGS looking at the shelves across The Old World range and decided I would get some dwarf miniatures.

I went for the Dwarf Miner box, which gives you twenty miners and four miner’s carts.

Dwarf Miners often join their brethren when they march to war. As a point of pride, they wield the same heavy, two-handed mining picks and mattocks they use to carve out tunnels, rather than the axes and hammers typically favoured by other Dwarfs. They are accompanied into battle by sturdy wooden carts drawn by rugged draft ponies to ensure they are properly equipped to face the trials that await them.

I like the candles on the helmets, but in reality how long would they stay alight on the battlefield? You get four large sprues and a bundle of bases in the box.

I am planning to paint them in the same way as some (metal) Dwarf Miners I painted a while back, a long while back.

I am thinking I might have to go to the eBay to get some OOP miniatures.

Wargames Atlantic Werewolves

On the cover of this month’s Miniature Wargames was a sprue of Wargames Atlantic Werewolves.

The Blood Cursed…the Fanged Ones…Nightpack…Lost Children of the Forest…whatever you call them the men and women who turn when the full moon shines are a scourge upon the Free Kingdoms. These half-man half-wolf beasts are both cunning and ferocious and once they pick up the scent of prey they are relentless. Villagers pray for the coming of the sun when the moon is full.

This is how the finished and painted versions look on the Wargames Atlantic website.

I like getting these free sprues on magazines as it gives you a chance to get an idea of what the models and quality are like from a manufacturer without initially spending money. Also, as with these werewolves you get a few models that would be ideal for a quick scenario idea.

These would be great for a weird world war scenario. It’s a full moon one night in 1940. A platoon of Home Guard are tasked with exploring strange lights and noises emanating from a deserted farmhouse. They are wondering if these are German spies, or even German paratroopers. However what they will be facing will be much worse, a band of werewolves.

Another idea for a scenario. During the Peninsular War the 95th Rifles are on the move to hunt down a French spy in a Spanish village. However unknown to them, the village is cursed and there is a full moon.

You get the idea.

Revisiting the Kil Krusha Tank

The Ork Kil Krusha Tank from Forge World was released back in 2009. This was of the first Forge World ork models when I went “wow”. It was released a fair few years ago and sadly is no longer available.

Kill Krushas are a heavy Ork tank design, based around the twin Ork loves of speed and extreme violence. These ‘mirakles’ of Orkish mekboy fabrication are alarmingly complex creations, high-sided and heavily armoured, whose internal spaces are filled with a mass of hydraulics, pistons, mechanised loader-gubbins and a very large and extremely temperamental engines. These are all tended by the frantic ministrations of numerous Grots who keep the rattling monster tank going with constant hammer blows, polishing and judicious application of oiler squigs. The tank’s main gun is its Krusha Kannon; a heavy bore, high velocity weapon capable of firing a variety of different shells. As well as standard explosive rounds, the Krusha Kannon can use armour-piecing ‘Tankhammas,’ shrapnel-filled ‘Scrap Kanisters’ able to rip open swathes of enemy infantry and incendiary ‘Blast Burnas’ which can drench fortifications with burning chemicals to roast alive anyone caught inside.

The model is a realisation of the many different concept images that Forge World produced for Ork tanks at the time.

I got one of them back in 2010 or thereabouts. I did construct it and undercoat it. I realised recently that since I undercoated it, it has spent way too long on the workbench… well in storage and I really should start thinking about getting it painted and finished. They key for me is to not only give it a paintjob worthy of the model, but also one that isn’t going to take all my time and forever to get done.

I am thinking if I should deconstruct the model to make it easier to paint the hull and the tracks.

Well better find it, I know it’s in a box somewhere.

Workbench feature on my Kil Krusha.

Opening the box

On a recent visit to Warhammer World I purchased the boxed Orc Warboss on Wyvern for Warhammer: The Old World.

I never had this (originally) metal kit, this version is resin and I did like it. did think about using it for my Feral Ork army. Though I might paint it for an Orc and Goblin army for The Old World.

The model comes in a plain Forge World box.

Within the box are a number of resin pieces, some plastic wings and a large rectangular plastic base.

The original version of this model was metal. This has been re-released as a resin model. The castings were excellent.

They will need to be washed, cleaned up, stuck together and then fitted onto the base.

Unboxing the Dwarf Engineers

On a recent visit to Warhammer World I purchased a blister pack of four metal Dwarf Engineers.

I did baulk slightly at the price of £37.50, nearly ten pounds per miniature. I know it’s been nostalgic when I remember buying a blister pack of five dwarves back in the 1980s for £1.95.

I was pleased though that these were metal models.

These were originally released about twenty years ago. I never bought these, as my original dwarf army comprised miniatures from the 1980s and 1990s.

Within the blister are the four dwarf models, separate weapons and tools, and four 25mm square slottabases.

These will need to be cleaned up, stuck together and then fitted into the bases. I am planning that these will be painted in the same style as my drunken dwarves.

They have snowy bases with light blue uniforms.

Special Operations Team

Free on the cover of the April issue of Wargames Illustrated was a plastic Special Operations Team sprue from Warlord Games.

You get a plastic frame containing parts to build 8 Special Operations Soldiers.

The sculpts are generic enough to be used as regular troops, special forces, SWAT, mercenaries, insurgents or terrorists of many different nationalities.

This is the Warlord Games painted models.