Hekaton Land Fortress revealed

Hekaton Land Fortress

So this beast of a armoured vehicle was revealed at the NOVA Open.

The Hekaton Land Fortress is the Kin’s signature combat vehicle. This chunky Heavy Support tank packs overwhelming firepower onto a rugged frame, and can lug around a hefty 12 models.

I really liked the Sagitaur ATV which was announced in July. Back then I said

We’ve also been told that the Sagitaur isn’t the only vehicle in the Leagues of Votann’s garage. I wonder what else is in that garage?

Well, now we know there was something else in that garage and it is bigger and meaner, the Hekaton Land Fortress.

This is the kind of styling and look that I was hoping we would see with the Cargo-8 Ridgehauler, alas we didn’t.

Now though I would be happy to use these as a Squat, sorry Leagues of Votann, vehicle, I wonder how it compares to human sized models to be used slightly differently. Always difficult to gauge the size of a model from a photograph and no comparative models next to it.

So yes I am interested in the Hekaton Land Fortress as well as the Sagitaur ATV, however I want to see them in the “flesh” before making that purchase.

De Havilland Vampire F3

The de Havilland Vampire is a British jet fighter which was developed and manufactured by the de Havilland Aircraft Company.

It was the second jet fighter to be operated by the RAF, after the Gloster Meteor, and the first to be powered by a single jet engine.

Development of the Vampire as an experimental aircraft began in 1941. In 1946 the Vampire entered operational service with the RAF, only months after the war had ended.

The Vampire quickly proved to be effective and was adopted as a replacement of wartime piston-engined fighter aircraft. During its early service it accomplished several aviation firsts and achieved various records, such as being the first jet aircraft to cross the Atlantic Ocean. The Vampire remained in front-line RAF service until 1953 when its transfer began to secondary roles such as ground attack and pilot training, for which specialist variants were produced. The RAF retired the Vampire in 1966 when its final role of advanced trainer was filled by the Folland Gnat. The Royal Navy had also adapted the type as the Sea Vampire, a navalised variant suitable for operations from aircraft carriers. It was the service’s first jet fighter.

The Vampire was exported to many nations and was operated worldwide in numerous theatres and climates. Several countries used the type in combat including the Suez Crisis, the Malayan Emergency and the Rhodesian Bush War.

There was a de Havilland Vampire was on display at Duxford.

Painting the Grot Bomb Launcha Mk II

The Forgeworld Grot Bomb Launcha is probably one of my all time favourite models. I already have a workbench feature on that Grot Bomb Launcha however I did get another model of one at GamesDay 2005.

I found the chassis of this one in of the boxes with my Land Raiders. Having painted the chassis with a spray of Citadel Zandri Dust, I used some other brown paints to paint the boxes on the chassis. I painted the exhausts and the rear deck with Leadbelcher.

I then gave the model a wash using Citadel Shade Agrax Earthshade.

The next stage will be a drybrush.

Basecoating and shading the other Ruined Factorum

Having picked up the Ruined Factorum sprue that came with Warhammer 40000 Imperium 31 a couple of weeks back, I also purchased issue 34 for the second sprue .

The ruins are from the The Battlezone: Manufactorum – Sub-cloister and Storage Fane kit which did cost £37.50 at Games Workshop and contains two similar sprues. So at £8.99 you would be making a saving of £9.76.

You get two corner ruins, all coming on a single sprue. They go together really easily. There are two corners, whereas with the other sprue you got a large corner and a smaller corner. This one is similar, but the smaller ruined corner is larger and the larger corner is smaller (if that makes sense).

I used Humbrol Tank Grey 67 spray to give the underfloor a darker feel before giving the model a coat of  Mechanicus Standard Grey Spray.

I gave the models a wash of Nuln Oil Shade.

Hawker Tempest

This Hawker Tempest was on display at RAF London.

The Hawker Tempest is a British fighter aircraft that was primarily used by the Royal Air Force (RAF) in the Second World War. The Tempest, originally known as the Typhoon II, was an improved derivative of the Hawker Typhoon, intended to address the Typhoon’s unexpected deterioration in performance at high altitude by replacing its wing with a thinner laminar flow design. Since it had diverged considerably from the Typhoon, it was renamed Tempest. The Tempest emerged as one of the most powerful fighters of World War II and was the fastest single-engine propeller-driven aircraft of the war at low altitude.

Upon entering service in 1944, the Tempest performed low-level interception, particularly against the V-1 flying bomb threat, and ground attack supporting major invasions like Operation Market Garden. Later, it successfully targeted the rail infrastructure in Germany and Luftwaffe aircraft on the ground, as well as countering similar attacks by German fighters. The Tempest was effective in the low-level interception role, including against newly developed jet-propelled aircraft like the Messerschmitt Me 262.

Land Raider Iconography

I have on my workbench a standard Land Raider. For the basecoat I used Tausept Ochre. I lost interest in the model, so, it got put into storage. However having liked the paint scheme I was using on my Deimos-pattern Rhino, I decided that I would find the model and paint this Land Raider in the same scheme. The first thing I did was spray the underneath of the model with Citadel Zandri Dust. I gave the model a couple of light sprays of Army Painter Daemonic Yellow. I also painted the weapon sub-assemblies.

I started detailing and painting the iconography.

For the skull and the paper on the purity seals I used Ushabti Bone. For the wax seals I used Mephiston Red.

Fairey Battle

Fairey Battle

The Fairey Battle is a British single-engine light bomber that was designed and manufactured by the Fairey Aviation Company. It was developed during the mid-1930s for the Royal Air Force (RAF) as a monoplane successor to the Hawker Hart and Hind biplanes. The Battle was powered by the same high-performance Rolls-Royce Merlin piston engine that powered various contemporary British fighters like the Hawker Hurricane and Supermarine Spitfire. The Battle was much heavier, with its three-man crew and bomb load.

Shading the corner

I got a couple of Ruined Factorum sprues that came with Warhammer 40000 Imperium 34. The ruins are from the The Battlezone: Manufactorum – Sub-cloister and Storage Fane kit. One I decided I was going to paint in the same manner as the first Ruined Factorum, for the second I chose to follow the (white and red) paint scheme as outlined in Warhammer 40000 Imperium.

Having shaded the larger ruined corner, I had used Nuln Oil for the main shade then I went about using  some Agrax Earthshade Shade and Seraphim Sepia Shade.

Airspeed Oxford

The Airspeed Oxford was a military development of the same company’s Envoy airliner. The prototype first flew on 19 June 1937 and when it entered service with the Central Flying School in November of that year it became the Royal Air Force’s first twin-engine monoplane advanced trainer.

As a consequence of the outbreak of war, many thousands of Oxfords were ordered by Britain and its allies, including Australia, Canada, France, New Zealand, Poland, and the United States. Following the end of the conflict, the Oxford continued to achieve export sales for some time, equipping the newly formed air forces of Egypt, India, Israel, and Yugoslavia. It was considered to be a capable trainer aircraft throughout the conflict, as well as being used as a general-purpose type. A large number of Oxfords have been preserved on static display.