Yep you guessed it - no Zoat army pictorial this week either. Im sure I look like a complete tool at this point but im going to try to explain. My wife and I are expecting our first child and are about 6 months along at this point. Lisa is getting tired more often, has greater amounts of leg pain etc. and the baby is kicking like a mule. As such, I am spending more time helping out, preparing the nursery and spending time with my hand on her belly feeling the baby move.
Feeling those kicks really pushes the Zoat pictorial to the backburner. Sorry y'all. It is a big undertaking to set up all the camera, tripod, lighting etc. to make nice pictures and I really just havent had the time I need to do it. So I am going to say this - I promise it will happen in 2007 (likely during my Christmas holidays but it could be earlier). Ill stop saying things along the lines of "hopefully next week"(no more teasing).
That all being said, I havent missed a weekly update yet and dont intend to any time soon. In the spirit of bringing you cool stuff on a regular basis - here is one of the other articles I had alluded to in the recent past. This weeks post is about a guy who I am proud to have counted among my friends for many years now. He has hauled my sorry falls-asleep-at-the-wheel arse to many events, was the guy who taught me what being an Outrider was really all about (first in/ last out/ leave em smiling). Aside from that Dave Cane - "Frosty" to most - has been an important and influential fixture on the Canadian gaming circuit for many years and it is my pleasure to showcase a few of his pieces here. I am starting a gallery for his pieces HERE in my friends section. These are just a couple of cool conversion concepts from his HUGE Imperial guard army. I very much look forward to having a game with him sometime in the near future so he can blow my troops to kingdom come with these. In the meantime, Im going to let the man himself explain a bit about what you are looking at
I started with this idea a few years ago and finished my first true conversion about a year ago. I started with my two Adeptus Arbite chimeras as it would only be 2 vehicles if it did not work out. Essentially it uses a chimera kit with the addition of 8 wheels and a bit of plastic card. I also converted autocannons for the turret weapon witha built in stormbolter to provide some higher strength weaponry for the police. I decided to add an armoured hub cap for the wheels for added protection in a city. In the third, and most successful version I now use the bogie wheels from the spruse to support the wheels on the chassis. It allows for faster conversion of the side plates as it is now a smooth cut instead of cutting out supports for each wheel. I also added a driver hatch back on the deck by using a washer and an finishing cap for screws on furniture. A simple piece of wire is added for the hinges on the hatch cover. I also started to standardize the placement of the wheels to ensure a more even spacing.
With these conversions they still resemble the basic vehcile they are intended to imitate. [I agree with Frosty's choice here I think it is always awesome to see varient vehicles rather than reinventing the entire thing - though I am more guilty than most for doing just that, I always take efforts to maintain conceptual connections to the original models - like the necron strewn bases on my zoats - J]
To keep with the wheeled vehcile family, I also wanted to make a Hellhound to go with them. I used the same basic principle of the chimera's. The main stumbling block was that I also chose to use a forgeworld hellhound. The massive resin back deck led to some obstacles to overcome. I had to efectively custom fit the side plates to fit with the resin main piece. The front deck portion is identicle to the rest of the chimera's. I am also considering adding a stubber to also increase the dice in the shooting phase.
[This idea is so cool I have thought on many occasions that I may have to make one myself.... Dave's army is really something special to see! - J]
After completing the hellhound I knew I could not resist converting a basilisk. The idea of wheeled artillery is starting to catch on in the real world as it is fast moving and cheaper to maintain then tracked vehicles. I started with the same idea as the hellhound conersion. The Basilisk deck platform sits inthe exact same spot as the crew compartment on a chimera. I added a slightly larger crew compartment for the gunnery crew when the vehicle is in motion and retractable foot pads under the back deck to help support the recoil from the gun firing. As with most mobile gun platforms I also made a cradle to help support the gun barrel while in transit. I Really like how the finished model looks. It gives the impression that the gun deck is open topped but it is still on an armoured vehicle. Noticibly absent is the large gun shield, I have never liked the look of the large shield so I left it off.
After seeing the forgeworld pictures of the heavy mortar i new i wanted to have them in my army. They can be taken ibn bateries for increased fire power. I used a griffon heavy mortar as th base gun. The rest of the model is made from a pair of wheels i used on all my vehicles and left over bits from the vehickle sprue. The platform is the support structure for a dozer blade and a piece of of track guard.
The centaur is where I went a little over board.[Just a little? - J] The Imperium's reliance on tracked models has never made much sence to me, so I decided to make a gun tractor along the lines of a british quad carrier from world war 2. I started with an orc truck model and the ubiquitous wheels I use. I decided to add a second set to make it look similar to a deuce and a half from modern times. By repositioning some of the orc truck plates, it looks like there is armour plating on the front. For the hood I used a the extra plate from a chimera that is noramlly used only on a basilisk or griffon. The ends that are trimed off became the doors, I used pieces of sprue to make the roll bars on the back and the long pieces of track guard make some additional plates. The crew are the guys from the vehcile sprue and the paint was an easy choice as this matches my imperial guard scheme and my urban terrain.
More pictures of all of these models as well as Frosty's Valkyrie can be seen in the Friends section of my gallery in the folder marked "Frosty". I would like to take this opportunity to thank him for letting me post pics of his super cool models and I would very much like to assure my readers that this is not the last you will se of Frosty on this page as he is a prolific modeller and I really look forward to sharing more of his madness with you in the future.
CYA next week! - J
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