Will the real Stegatank please stand up?

Well, here we are again. Offering up more stuff for you to gawk at. Enjoy :)


Here is a subject that I think has been a little confusing right from the get go of RT. Now, let me preface this blog post by first stating that this may be old hat to some, blatantly obvious to others, but for me (with my diminished intellectual facilities due to.....old age, alcohol & marriage.) it's never been adequately explained. Well, I think it warrants clarification.....so here's my take on it;

In Rogue Trader, page 112, there is a single page dedicated to Walker's & Stegetank's. It describes them both "ok", but fails to include a picture of a Stegatank. "But there is one you ninny! Look under the heading of Stegatank, it's right there! A whole gang of them!!", I hear you cry. "But it's not, you fool!" I rebuke in anger. Take a closer look at an expert from Rogue Trader and you'll see what I mean.

Looks ok at a cursory glance yeah? Let's look a little closer in the next
picture shall we...

The plot thickens.....and clarity eludes us. Should we continue on down the rabbit hole?

After reading the descriptions it basically differentiates them into bipedal & quadrupedal categories.

Now, following on from my "study" of the information in Rogue Trader, my own interpretation of what GW had in mind when they envisaged what a Stegatank looked like, pretty much looks like they were loosely based on a series of model kits released in the mid 80's by Revell. They were called Robotech Defenders, I've included the examples from that range that look like Stegatank's below:

Their pretty funky looking model kits if you ask me. I remember seeing these in a brochure back in the day, but even then they were way outside of my meagre pocket money range. Oh ,but I really wanted them! The diorama for the last one is bloody fantastic too!

And here's a modern example of a Stegatank that I came across a few months back. Suitably pimped for some RT action. What do you think?

Now, as some of you may already well know (and I think I may have talked about this subject before in an earlier post, but my memory has decided to let me down again.), during the editing process for Rogue Trader they had originally planned to use a bunch of the staff's kitbashed creations to accompany each of the vehicle descriptions. After all, these were what the vehicles descriptions were based off of in the first place!

But, at some stage during the selection process for the pictures required for RT they had a think about the legal implications of using copyrighted material. And they came upon the realisation that they would have to pay licensing fees to each and every one of the manufacturers of these model kits if they wanted include them in the book. So, unfortunately for us, they had a rethink and decided the best (and cheapest) solution was to use illustrations instead of photography to accompany each of the vehicle descriptions instead.....more's the pity I say.

Alright, so now that I've finished my ramble/conclusion here's my point,

I reckon the above model kits were what GW had in mind for what a Stegatank looked like. 

What do you all think? If you have any differing ideas I'd be really keen to read them.

Now, go in pieces :P

Tada!!!!!

Good morning/afternoon/evening, take your pick.

I put the finishing touches on the walker last night. It was quite a lot harder to know when I should call this build "done". But I'm mostly happy with the outcome.

Here be pic's;

Proudly standing beside his captured walker.

I think I painted that sign about five different colours before I finally settled on black.

I did the rust & oil stains with pigments, oil paint & acrylics.

The dreaded headlights, I think they turned out ok.

Good old Mutie, plying his honest trade on the outskirts of Helsreach.

I made the gun detachable, as I knew it would be the first
 thing to get broken off otherwise.

This was the first time I tried using oil paints, I'm now a convert, they were
relatively easy to use and I think the effect looks pretty convincing.

Must be quite terrifying for the slaves looking up at that from ground level.

The slave that tried to get away.

The ladder was originally going to be hydraulically operated, but I thought that
was a little too "high tech", so I made up a simple chain operated thingy instead.

It was a little difficult to know where the rust & oil stains should meet, but I
thought that there should be some rust running off of the platform
onto its legs.

The chipped paint ended up looking quite alright after some extensive
weathering was applied to it.

I made the ladder from bits of sprue, plastic spoons, necklace & a model kit.

Seats five to six scum bags (28mm minis) in relative comfort.

Rust prevention system (oil leaks), desert style.

Coolant leaks & a space marine head on a spike.

A few things worth mentioning about the build;

The headlights? 

This was a pure fluke, the day before I finished it I was at the supermarket and came across these "feet stickers"....the kind you stick on the feet of chairs & speaker's to stop them scratching the floor. They were clear and the right size, but when I stuck them on they looked a little strange. I painted a couple of thin stripes on the front of them to replicate a headlight. I think they look ok.

The sign?

I wanted to write the same wording that was in the illustration, but no matter how hard I looked, I couldn't make out the middle word. I thought it must be "the", but it didn't look like it!  

I decided I'd try the direct approach. I had a look on the net and found that Carl Critchlow (the illustrator of Helsreach in Rogue Trader) had his own website. I emailed him my strange question & he was kind enough to tell me what the word was..... thanks a bunch Carl :)

The chipped/flaking paint?

This was another first fit me. I'd never tried painting this much worn out paint before, but I did have a couple of saved images of other people's work that looked the goods. My first attempt turned out looking like fluffy green clouds. After getting some constructive criticism from my pal, I went back to the drawing board. After I had gone back over the entire howdah and sharpened up all the edges it looked a whole lot better.

So, all in all it's been quite a cool little project. It's the biggest & most complex build I've ever attempted so far. It required a lot more planning than painting a single mini that's for sure!

I learnt a fair bit and I'm pretty happy with the final result. 

Cheers.

Helsreach walker getting close.

I've got exactly one week to get this thing done (as well as three dreads), that is painted, varnished & dried for it's long journey back home with me.

Here's my solution to painting headlights, Google images, print, & glue on.

It always seems strange to me that if you don't paint wire to look like wire,
then it ends up looking out of place, but that's miniature painting for you.

I'm trying a chipped & flaked paint effect, but i still have to add rust effects before it will/should look convincing.

I'm going to write something on this sign, still not sure what it will be yet.

Here's the arse end of the beast.

This is definitely the biggest wargaming model I've ever attempted. I'm pretty happy with my progress so far, but a little worried that I won't have it finished in time.

Better stop blogging & get back to work then hey!

Cheers big ears :)

Helsreach walker progress.

I'm getting close to finishing off the walker. I've got to get a riggle on too, as this things gotta be ready to game with in under a month!

Here's the progress so far;

I've done the motor, control panel, ladder and headlight brackets.

Here's a close up of the ladder. It's a folding type that will be hoisted/lowered by chain.

Here you can see the headlight brackets with bolt heads (cut-off plastic sprue).

The innards of the beast. I put down some plastic mesh for the flooring & wire for
cable's. I decided to go a bit silly with the "control panel", deciding that a steering
wheel with pedals would make an amusing way of moving it about. I can picture
the driver mashing the accelerator to the floor, forcing the walker to running
across the desert landscape :D

All that's left is to do is add some hand railing, a heavy machine gun to the side turret & tiddy up a few things and she'll be ready for paint.

Groovy.

Helsreach walker.

Bonjour,

Made a little more progress on the walker;

It's always hard to know how these scratch built constructions will turn out in the beginning.

The basic howdah is completed, made from a couple of plastic bowls & cups. The black rim was made from an old cut up DVD case. I couldn't, for the life of me, find an appropriately sized "light box" that's pictured in the illustration. So I got a couple of plastic jewellery cases & stuck them on..... it'll be fun trying my hand at painting headlights freehand :)

The transparent bowl I chose for the lower section was a little flimsy.

Because of the problem mentioned in the above picture I had to come up with a way of increasing its rigidity without adding too much weight. I was going to inject "expand a foam" into the cavity, but I didn't have any at hand & couldn't be arsed going to the hardware store to get some, so I improvised. I cut up some scrap polystyrene into small chunks, mixed it up in some latex glue & pushed the concoction into the space, homemade "expand a foam".....win!

The next step is going to be constructing a winch ladder, railing & chequer plate for the flooring.

So until next time chums, Aduer :)

Logan's world, Helsreach.

Helsreach, the largest settlement on Logan's world. Here, "you will never find a more wretched hive of scum and villainy"........well, that's what it says in the brochure anyway.

I've always loved the illustrations within RT, and among them, some of the most inspiring to my mind were the one's devoted to Logan's World. Specifically the one showing the slavers striding across the barren landscape in their giant Mech walkers.

 Based on a Battletech, come Robotech, come Mechwarrior.....ahhh forget it!   It's just a generic robot thing ok!

Amongst the many and varied ideas I've had for creating vehicles to game with, this one has remained relatively easy to accomplish (It just took me over twenty years to get around to starting it, that's all). It's based off a Macross 1/72 scale Destroid kit from Ban Dai.

I've put the lower half of him together already, now I've just gotta figure out how I'm gunna go about constructing the howdah. Plus, adding all the accoutrements that a "well to do" slaver would need to ply his nasty trade with.

Mounted on a DVD that shocked me with its mediocrity.

So as you can see, there's still quite a lot to be done.

Onwards and upwards chaps!