The Achilles Ridgerunner is an Imperial light exploratory vehicle often used to scout out new ore seams by mining guild prospectors and newly discovered terrain on Frontier Worlds by geological surveyors.
Because of its speed, range and sheer durability, the Achilles Ridgerunner also has proven to be very popular for use with the outriders and scouts of the Genestealer Cults.
Achilles Ridgerunners range into deadly frontier environments, their pilots scanning for promising resource deposits and communicating their location back to base. Though well equipped to engage enemy scouts and outriders, the Achilles Ridgerunner’s true qualities lie in its ability to rove ahead of the cult’s main forces, scouting out potential ambush sites and routes of ingress into the foe’s territory.
I really do like this model, and as it is an Imperial light exploratory vehicle, I decided that I could use this to support my Daemonhunters force of Inquisitorial Stormtroopers, some of whom are Cadian Kasrkin and some are Tallarn Imperial Guard.
It comes in an A5 sized box with two sprues. One consist of the main body and chassis.
The other sprue is the wheels, crew and weaponry.
As some of my forces are inducted Tallarn Imperial Guard, I am going to see if there are any models I could use, otherwise I will build it as locked down. I won’t use the included crew as they are Genestealer Cults troops and they have Genestealer traits…
I started to build the model.
You get a fair few options for weapons for the Achilles Ridgerunner, but in the end I went with the missile launcher. I wanted to a”locked down” version of the Ridgerunner so that I didn’t need to use the included Genestealer Cults crew.
Having finished construction I decided that I would leave the missile launcher off as it would be challenging to pain in situ.
The underneath of the Ridgerunner was given a spray of black primer.
I wasn’t intending to get full coverage of the tyres with this spray.
I then masked the model ready for the top white primer spray.
The model was then given a white undercoat.
The masking tape was then removed.
I would like to have used a Foundation paint, Tausept Ochre, which I have used on my other Inquisitorial vehicles, however Citadel have not made that for a few years. Checking a paint conversion chart, I bought some Balor Brown.
To be honest Balor Brown, though similar in colour is no Tausept Ochre!
It certainly didn’t cover the model in the same way, so much so that in some areas I had to apply a second coat. However the shade looks right, so I was happy with that.
Using Abaddon Black I painted up the underneath where the white spray had “leaked” onto the black, or where the black spray hadn’t covered.
The model was then given various washes of mainly Citadel Shades, Seraphim Sepia, though for some parts of the model, basically the rear decks, I used Agrax Earthshade.
I wanted more depth to the model so the model was then given various extra washes of mainly Citadel Shades, Seraphim Sepia, and Agrax Earthshade.
This I felt would make the drybrushing work better.
