Felix's Gaming Pages

FV101 Scorpion CVRT

The Scorpion Combat Vehicle Reconnaissance (tracked) FV101 was at Bovington. Though most people would call it a light tank.

The FV101 Scorpion is a British armoured reconnaissance vehicle. It was the lead vehicle and the fire support type in the Combat Vehicle Reconnaissance (Tracked), CVR(T), family of seven armoured vehicles. Manufactured by Alvis, it was introduced into service with the British Army in 1973 and served until 1994.

Scorpion became the first of a whole family of fighting vehicles including Scimitar, Striker and Samaritan. It served in the Falklands and the Gulf as well as being a success on the export market. Changes in British policy, and the international situation meant that surviving Scorpions were fitted with a new weapon, the 30mm Rarden Cannon, and renamed Sabre.

It has been supplied to Belgium, the Irish Republic, Malaya, New Zealand, Nigeria, Oman and Venezuela.

I have some Team Yankee Scorpions, they are currently in the process of being painted as BAOR versions.

Some thoughts on the RAF Regiment Scorpion I saw at RAF Cosford.

Voss Pattern Lightning Strike Fighter

This Voss Pattern Lightning Strike Fighter was on display at Warhammer World.

Following the Saint-Saen Crusade’s liberation of twelve worlds in the Segmentum Obscurus, STC patterns were recovered for an air superiority fighter, smaller and more agile than the iconic Thunderbolt. The Lightning has since been disseminated to other worlds with strong ties to the Imperial Navy, notably Bakka and Hydraphur, and production has recently begun within the Segmentum Solar, resulting in the Voss Pattern Lightning Strike Fighter.

The ‘Strike’ variant of the Lightning is equipped with a potent armament of six Hellstrike missiles as well as its twin-linked lascannon, fulfilling a dedicated ground attack role.

Sons of Horus Sicaran Battle Tank

This Sons of Horus Sicaran Battle Tank was in the displays at Warhammer World.

The Sicaran is one of the most advanced armoured units in the arsenal of the Legiones Astartes, a fast-moving destroyer tank designed to outflank enemy formations before unleashing an overwhelming onslaught of mid-range firepower.

Though its chassis supports a number of variants fielded throughout the Legions, the core Sicaran battle tank remains a versatile favourite. Armed with Herakles-pattern accelerator autocannons, it provides high-volume, high-velocity fire support that can rip through infantry and vehicles alike – its sophisticated sensors tracking swift-moving targets and pinpointing vulnerabilities in enemy armour.

Iron Hands Fellblade

This Iron Hands Fellblade was on display at Warhammer World.

The Iron Hands Fellblade was based upon the same STC data as the Baneblade and Deathhammer super-heavy tanks, which are a mainstay of the vast brigades of the Imperial Army, the Fellblade is a more advanced variant that first saw widespread service with the Legiones Astartes in the last decades of the Great Crusade.

It is most noted for its use of Mechanicum atomantic arc-reactor technology and a reinforced metaplas alloy chassis superior even to that of the Baneblade, alongside an advanced accelerator cannon as its primary armament. These systems are all fruits of Dark Age technologies rediscovered and restored to humanity shortly before the nightmare of the Great Heresy.

FV4201 Chieftain MBT

The FV4201 Chieftain was the main battle tank of the United Kingdom during the three decades of the 1960s, 1970s and 1980s. This is one on display at the Tank Museum at Bovington. A development of the Centurion, the Chieftain introduced the supine (reclining) driver position to British design allowing a heavily sloped hull with reduced height. A new powerpack and improved transmission gave it higher speed than the Centurion despite being heavier due to major upgrades to armour protection and the armament.

Still in service in the Middle East, the British Army stopped using it in 1995.

I did consider buying some for Team Yankee, but was put off by apparent issues with the smoke dischargers on the side of the turret. Certainly for a 1970s version of Team Yankee you couldn’t use the new Challenger, and would need to use the Chieftain.

More photographs of the FV4201 Chieftain at Bovington.

There was also a Chieftain on display at Duxford.

Ork Battlewagon

These Ork Battlewagons were from the displays at Warhammer World.

A Battlewagon is a catch-all term used for any type of Ork assault tank and heavy armoured troop transport. The term Battlewagon seems to refer overall to a category of large Ork armoured vehicles. A Battlewagon can be wheeled, tracked or a combination of the two and is used in many battlefield roles. It always carries a large complement of weapons.

Sometimes these armaments are just Big Shootas, while on other vehicles they are large Killkannons. Battlewagons possess thick armour plating, multiple turrets and death rollers or rams. They also carry mobs of Ork Boyz, either internally or clinging onto its many handholds.

See more photographs in the Ork Battlewagon Miniatures Gallery.

I have two Battlewagons on my workbench.

Battlewagon -This plastic battlewagon kit was released by Games Workshop on the 3rd January 2009 and I picked mine up on the 4th January.

Battlewagon with Supa Kannon -I got this model as a Christmas present, it combines the plastic Battlewagon kit with a resin Supa Kannon.

Ork Megatrakk Scrapjet

Various Ork Megatrakk Scrapjet models were on display at Warhammer World.

A favourite amongst Speed Freeks and grounded Flyboyz alike, Megatrakk Scrapjets provide rocket-propelled acceleration, impressive firepower and the hilarity of ramming into enemy lines at the helm of what is effectively a gigantic, thrust-driven drill.

They look like an Ork aircraft fused with wheels and tracks. I’ve always liked the model and the idea behind it. It is such a typical Ork concept.

These vehicles allow former Ork pilots to revel in the dimly-remembered joy of mowing down enemies at point-blank range – a joy which, of course, often caused the Flyboy to crash in the first place.

Explosions blossom amidst the enemy as rokkits and missiles collide with their targets, while Grot tail-gunners blaze away with chattering big shootas – the array of weaponry welded, bolted, riveted and lashed onto a Megatrakk Scrapjet is fearsome.

This Megatrakk Scrapjet was part of the Ork Shanty Town display.

I have a Megatrakk Scrapjet on my workbench. I have struggled to finish it, as it put it altogether before painting it. I think I needed to part-build it and paint it in stages.

Imperial Guard Banehammer

These Imperial Guard Banehammers were on display at Warhammer World.

It is unknown when the Banehammer was first created but it has had much use, especially during the recent Tyrannic Wars.

The vehicle is primarily used by Imperial Guard commanders to halt massed enemy advances.

The Banehammer replaces the Baneblade’s Battle Cannon with a Tremor Cannon, which launches projectiles which bury themselves and detonate only after traveling some distance. On detonation, the shell releases a huge shock wave, liquefying the nearby ground and forcing enemy infantry and vehicles to literally crawl their way through or risk the consequences.

Emperor’s Children Legion Land Raider Proteus

This Emperor’s Children Legion Land Raider Proteus was on display at Warhammer World.

The Land Raider is regarded by many as the finest armoured fighting vehicle of its class in the Imperium’s arsenal, and is the mainstay battle tank of the Space Marine Legions. It is a phenomenally powerful war machine, its multi-layered composite armour and reinforced hull all but impervious to even heavy weapons, being a sealed unit designed to resist enemy attack from any approach. Intended to serve in almost any environment as both war machine and exploration vehicle, it can operate freely in war zones ranging from acid swamps to rad-deserts without any noticeable impediment to its performance, and can even operate in hard vacuum, ensuring there is no open battlefield on which its armoured wrath cannot be unleashed.

Those of us who have been playing Warhammer 40K since it was first released will recognise this model. It is of course a new version of the original Land Raider that was released back in 1987 following the release of the 1st edition of Warhammer 40,000, Rogue Trader. Forge World released a resin version a fair few years ago, and since then, a plastic version of the kit has been released as part of The Horus Heresy range.

Legions Astartes Land Raider Proteus Miniatures Gallery

Space Marine Land Raider Proteus in Warhammer 40K Miniatures Gallery.

East German T-72M Main Battle Tank

After World War 2 Soviet tanks developed along logical traditional lines. In 1960 work began on a new design, the T-64, which incorporated many revolutionary and untried features but it was not a great success and in 1970 the prototype of T-72 appeared, which could be described as a simplified version of T-64. The T-72 is a family of Soviet main battle tanks that first entered production in 1971.

This T72 was on display at Bovington Tank Museum.

The Tank Museum’s vehicle is a T72M1 that was used by the former East German Army, (NVA, Nationale Volks Armee).

About 20,000 T-72 tanks have been built, and refurbishment has enabled many to remain in service for decades.

I have published an article that I wrote, which originally appeared in the January 1994 edition of Miniature Wargames. The article, entitled, It fell off the back of a lorry…. is a skirmish scenario involving gangsters, market traders as well as police and security forces in the former Soviet Union in the early 1990s. Oh it involves a T-90 tank which is an up-armoured version of the T-72.