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These beautifully painted Battlefleet Gothic models were in the display cabinets at Warhammer World.
I never got into Battlefleet Gothic as I much preferred using the GZG Full Thrust rules for spaceship battles. I also used MicroMachines Star Trek ship models.
There were some nice models for Battlefleet Gothic and as with many games that Games Workshop have produced over the years it’s a pity that it got retired.
The Renault FT or Automitrailleuse à chenilles Renault FT modèle 1917, inexactly known as the FT-17 or FT17, was a French light tank; it is among the most revolutionary and influential tank designs in history.
The FT was the first operational tank with an armament in a fully rotating turret, and its configuration with the turret on top, engine in the back and the driver in front became the conventional one, repeated in most tanks until today; at the time it was a revolutionary innovation.
Copies and derivative designs were manufactured in the United States (M1917 light tank), in Italy (Fiat 3000), and in the Soviet Union (T-18 tank).
France still had several thousand First World War Renault FT tanks in 1940. Over 500 of them were still in service in independent bataillons de chars de combat (BCC) tank battalions in the front lines. Although adequate for infantry support, they were totally outclassed by German tanks in a mobile battle.
It is one of my favourite tanks, I have always had a fondness for this little tank, probably as a result of making that Matchbox plastic kit of the Renault and the Char B1 when I was young.
There was a nice looking Renault FT-17 at the Bovington Tank Museum.
The tank appears to have been part of the Imperial War Museum collection after the First World War and arrived at the Tank Museum as part of an exchange of exhibits in 1965. The tail skid turned up about 20 years later, having been discovered in a store at IWM Duxford.
More photographs of the Renault FT-17 at Bovington.
As I am creating an Early War French army I got some of these little tanks for Flames of War.
The Aurox Armoured Transport is an armoured troop transport tank primarily used by various arms of the Imperial Army to carry veteran grenadier units to battle or to protect their commanders while dictating the course of battle.
A further variant of the Aurox is used by the Solar Auxilia, re-fitted for extreme environmental conditions.
This Liche Priest on Necrolith Bone Dragon was in the display cabinets at Warhammer World.
Only the most prestigious priests can harness the undying will of a fearsome Necrolith Bone Dragon, much less ride such a behemoth into battle. These reanimated wyrms descend upon the living, given unnatural flight by skeletal wings, before lashing out with wicked claws and jagged fangs. Those who survive must contend with clouds of seething dust and desiccating smog, for a dragon’s breath is lethal even in death.
This Carden Loyd Carrier Mark VI MT9909 E61 was on display at the Tank Museum at Bovington.
The Carden Loyd tankettes were a series of British tankettes of the period between the World Wars, the most successful of which was the Mark VI, the only version built in significant numbers.
It became a classic tankette design worldwide, was licence-built by several countries and became the basis of several designs produced in various countries.
A tankette is a tracked armoured fighting vehicle that resembles a small tank, roughly the size of a car. It is mainly intended for light infantry support and scouting. Colloquially it may also simply mean a small tank. Several countries built tankettes between the 1920s and 1940s, and some saw limited combat in the early phases of World War II. The vulnerability of their light armour, however, eventually led armies to abandon the concept
Italy bought a number of Carden Loyd Mark VIs, built a few licence copies designated CV-29, and then developed this design further into the L3/35 tankette.
This Imperial Fists Mastodon Heavy Assault Transport was in the displays at Warhammer World.
The Mastodon was one of the heaviest assault transports in the arsenal of the Legiones Astartes during the Great Crusade, and is still found in the armouries of the Space Marine Chapters of the 41st Millenium. Its cavernous assault bay, capable of housing almost half a Company, is protected both by thick layers of ceramite armour as well as crackling void shields. It also mounts a fearsome siege melta array, allowing it to breach even the most formidable defences with ease, as well as an array of secondary weaponry intended to defend the vehicle as it approaches its target. Unleashed only against the most fearsome of enemy redoubts, there are few obstacles that can stay the wrath of this relic of the Imperium’s bloody birth.
This Imperialis Militia Carnodon Battle Tank was on display at Warhammer World.
The Carnodon is a versatile medium battle tank which acted as the lynchpin for many of the storied successes of the Imperial Army during the Great Crusade. As a premier mobile fire platform, it was regularly adapted to combat a wide variety of foes and respond to any number of battlefield conditions. During the early years of the Great Crusade, it rapidly became a byword for conquest amongst the Expeditionary fleets, a legacy which led to the production of the dedicated Imperial battle tanks of latter-days. As the Great Crusade moved ever outwards and supply of the Aurox chassis peaked, it is thought that many Carnodon tanks entered a strategic reserve and were distributed to Crusade muster worlds behind the front lines; with over two hundred thousand examples thought to have been stored pending secondary mobilisation in the warrens under the world of Tallarn.
The Lanchester armoured car was a British armoured car built on the chassis of the Lanchester “Sporting Forty”, it saw wide service with the Royal Naval Air Service and British Army during the First World War. The Lanchester was the second most numerous World War I armoured car in British service after the Rolls-Royce armoured car.
Thirty-nine armoured Lanchesters were built, starting in 1928, and they were issued to the newly mechanised cavalry regiments. They spent most of their time in Britain although in 1935 the 12th Lancers took some cars out to the Saarland and a few were tested in the Middle East. The cars were used for training in the early years of the war and one was converted into a secure VIP transport for use in London. A few were still operating in Malaya in 1941 with the Argyll & Sutherland Highlanders; these ultimately fell into Japanese hands.
This got me thinking about possible uses for the Lanchester armoured car in A Very British Civil War scenarios, but also in an Operation Sealion scenario where German paratroopers attempt to kidnap Winston Churchill who is being moved in a convoy including the Lanchester armoured car which was converted into a secure VIP transport for use in London.
This was the Legions Imperialis Diorama at Warhammer World. One of the reasons I wanted to visit Warhammer World was to see what Legions Imperialis models they had on display. I was not to be disappointed.
Ceres City changed hands nine times during the campaign for control of the Delta-Garmon system, and the diorama captures the Blood Angels and the Titans of Legio Solaria waging war against the Iron Warriors and Legio Fureans.
Iron Warriors’ Deimos Pattern Predator tanks move forward down the street.
Overhead view of the Deimos Pattern Predator tanks supporting the advancing Titans.
Overhead view of the Warbringer Nemesis Titan.
Reaver Titans advance past the destroyed remains of fallen titans.
Warhound Scout Titans advance.
There was a lovely display of a ruined Imperial city with vehicles and titans fighting through the ruins.
This Forge World Mark IIb Land Raider was on display at Warhammer World.
It was looking a little dusty.
The Land Raider MkIIb is probably my favourite Land Raider variant. I do have one of them in my collection.
Grey Knights can use Land Raiders! When I first started putting my Grey Knights force together I knew that if I was going to get a Land Raider it would have to be the Forgeworld MkIIB Land Raider. I did get one in the end at GamesDay 2006. Sadly it was recently retired from the range.
I wrote up some reflections on my MkIIB Land Raider, on the current state of the painting and what I needed to do next. In the end I went down a different route.
The standard Land Raider, also known as the Land Raider Phobos, is an Imperial main battle tank and troop transport which serves as the “armoured fist of the Space Marines.” Available to the Space Marines, the Traitor Legions of the Chaos Space Marines and the forces of the Inquisition and Adeptus Mechanicus, it is one of the most resilient and iconic armoured vehicles in the galaxy.
The Land Raider’s heritage predates even the founding of the Imperium of Man, yet it remains the single most destructive weapon in the Adeptus Astartes’ arsenal. Protected by bonded Ceramite and Adamantium armour, the Land Raider is nearly impervious to all save the most destructive weaponry.
The Mark IIb Land Raider Phobos is one of the earliest marks of the standard pattern of Land Raider, and it still bears similarities to both the Land Raider Proteus and the Spartan Assault Tank that served as the models for the design.
The Mark IIb Land Raider Phobos is the only pattern of the standard Land Raider Phobos that uses the older armoured sponsons, as they do not allow the weapons they hold to fully rotate. This pattern of Land Raider is mostly extinct within Space Marine Armouries, having been replaced with newer marks and patterns of the standard Land Raider Phobos. However, some Chapters may still possess one or two as treasured relics of their ancient past.
Of course the Mark IIb reflects the Epic 40000 version of the Land Raider from the late 1990s.