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Painting the Comet (A34)

The Comet (A34) was a British cruiser tank that first saw use near the end of World War II. It was designed to provide greater anti-tank capability to Cromwell tank squadrons. It was armed with a 77mm HV, a derivative of the 17 pounder, with the result it was one of the few British tanks with the firepower to challenge late war German designs.

I have the Operation Unthinkable boxed set containing the British and German tanks. The GF9 Operation Unthinkable boxed set, the British versus German, contains 17 tanks, three of which are the A34 Comet Cruiser Tank.

With three models I decided I would vary construction. I then gave all three models a white undercoat. The next stage was to paint the underneath of the model with Army Painter Colour Primer: Angel Green to add shadow and depth.

Then the models were sprayed with Army Painter Army Green Spray.

The next stage will be painting the tracks and stowage.

Mark IX Tank at the Tank Museum

The Mark IX tank was a British armoured fighting vehicle from the First World War. It was the world’s first specialised armoured personnel carrier (APC).

During the first actions with tanks, it became clear that infantry often could not keep up with the tanks, It wasn’t that the soldiers were too slow, the early tanks themselves could only move at a walking pace, but because soldiers on foot remained vulnerable to enemy machine gun fire. In many actions, positions gained at great cost were immediately lost for lack of infantry to consolidate.

At the end of the Great War only three had been finished, out of a total ultimate production run of thirty-four, following an order for two hundred.

If there had been, as I discussed in an earlier blog post, an alternate timeline in which there was a revolution in Great Britain in 1919.

In Great Britain the government feared a bolshevik uprising and was quick to oppress any potential threat to the established order. One of the biggest areas for concern were the labour movements and trade unions. One strike in Glasgow in 1919 eventually resulted in a street battle between strikers and police, which was so bad, the army was called in. The “Battle of George Square”, also known as “Bloody Friday” and “Black Friday”, was one of the most intense riots in the history of Glasgow; it took place on Friday, 31 January 1919. Clashes between the City of Glasgow Police and protesters broke out, prompting the War Cabinet to make soldiers available to the civil power, to prevent the violence from escalating.

If there has been such a conflict the Mark IX Tank, or APC I suspect would have been widely used to move troops around, and to protect them from attack

These metal monsters designed in an era when they didn’t really know what they were doing and there was a lot of trial and error. The Mark IX reminds us that the APC is as old as the tank.

More photographs of the Mark IX Tank.

Arvus Lighter at Warhammer World

There were quite a few models of the Arvus Lighter at Warhammer World.

Serving as an essential workhorse for void-ships and planetary logistics across the Imperium of Man, the Arvus Lighter is a compact, unarmored cargo shuttle designed for raw utility.

Commonly deployed aboard Imperial Navy warships, merchant vessels, and Rogue Trader fleets, this reliable shuttle handles routine short-range transport between orbital platforms and planetary surfaces.

Piloted by a single crewman, the Arvus lacks any standard weapon systems and relies on only the most rudimentary navigational gear, external sensors, and proximity alarms.

What it lacks in combat capability or advanced technology, however, it makes up for in pure hauling power: equipped with exceptionally potent thrusters, the Arvus easily carries heavy payloads, supplies, and personnel through dense atmospheres, ensuring the vital flow of material across the Emperor’s domain.

I do have an Arvus Lighter on the workbench, initially I thought of doing quiet a quick paint job, but then later I considered undertaking a more thorough job, and do a detailed inside.

Ordered some Orlock Ogryn Minders

I mentioned before that I was thinking of getting the Orlock Ogryn Minders to use as Ogryns for my Tallarn forces.

I do think these models would be ideal for my Tallarn forces, and I much prefer these models over the existing Imperial Guard Ogryns that are available. I think they also fit in with the slightly anarchic look I am going for with the Tallarns.

Speaking of muscle, the violent and physical nature of convoy protection makes it an ideal vocation for listless Ogryns, who Orlock gangs are only too happy to hire for their natural head-breaking talents and tendency to follow orders without question.

This weekend they went on pre-order, so after a little thinking, I went and pre-ordered them from my FLGS.

As I said last time, I am going to paint them in desert uniforms, and I used AI to work out what they could look like.

Vickers Mk VIB Light Tank at the Tank Museum

The Vickers Mk VIB Light Tank was a British WW2 light tank, crew of 3, powered by Meadows 6-cylinder petrol engine, armed with two machine guns.

This is the one at the Tank Museum in Bovington.

The Mk VI Light Tank was the sixth in the line of light tanks built by Vickers-Armstrongs for the British Army during the interwar period. The company had achieved a degree of standardization with their previous five models, and the Mark VI was identical in all but a few respects. The turret, which had been expanded in the Mk V to allow a three-man crew to operate the tank, was further expanded to give room in its rear for a wireless set.

The British Army lost 331 Mark VI light tanks in the Battle of France of 1940.

The Mk VIB was mechanically identical to the Mk VIA but with a few minor differences to make production simpler, including a one-piece armoured louvre over the radiator instead of a two-piece louvre, and a plain circular cupola instead of the faceted type.

The Mk VIB was also used in the North African campaign against the Italians late in 1940 with the 7th Armoured Division.

In A Very British Civil War scenario, you would expect to be using a fair amount of these tanks. When the Battle of France began in May 1940, the majority of the tanks possessed by the British Expeditionary Force were Mark VI variants.

Here are some 15mm Flames of War Light Tank VIs in the Flames of War Miniatures Gallery.

There is also a metal 15mm one of mine, which is badly painted, on my workbench.

There is a Mark VI A on display at the Imperial War Museum Duxford. It was one of 11 sent to Australia in 1941 for training purposes.

Solar Auxilia Dracosan Armoured Transport

The Dracosan Armoured Transport is manufactured to standards only usually required of war machines destined for service with the Legiones Astartes. It is large enough to accommodate a full strength Solar Auxilia Infantry Section of twenty auxiliaries, and heavily armoured enough to protect them from intense enemy fire.

Solar Auxilia Basilisk

Many Solar Auxilia Cohorts maintain their own mobile artillery batteries, favouring a class ideally suited to their particular battle doctrines.

Firing from long distance, the Basilisk can lay down a fearsome barrage ahead of the advancing ranks of the Solar Auxilia. Their hulls, derived from the Solar pattern Leman Russ, offer enhanced protection from enemy weapons and can equip a pintle-mounted weapon such as the ubiquitous multi-laser, adding a close quarters defence capability should enemy infantry advance too near.

Nashorn Tank Destroyer

This Nashorn Tank Destroyer has being a guest armoured vehicle at Tankfest 26, and is now on temporary display at The Tank Museum.

The Nashorn (German for “Rhinoceros”) was a formidable German tank destroyer developed in 1942 as an interim solution to counter heavily armoured Soviet T-34 and KV tanks. Built on the specialised Geschützwagen III/IV hybrid chassis—which combined elements of both the Panzer III and Panzer IV medium tanks—it mated a highly mobile tracked platform with the devastating 8.8 cm Pak 43/1 anti-tank gun.

This weapon was one of the most lethal anti-tank guns of World War II, capable of penetrating the armour of almost any Allied or Soviet vehicle at extreme ranges, often well before the enemy could close the distance to fire back. However, to offset the immense weight of the 8.8 cm gun and maintain mobility, the Nashorn was designed with a tall, open-topped, and lightly armoured superstructure. With only 10 mm of armour protection on its gun shield and sides, the crew was highly vulnerable to artillery fragments, small arms fire, and air bursts. Consequently, the Nashorn had to be operated strictly as a long-range sniper from concealed positions, utilising its exceptional gun optics and ballistics to strike from afar rather than engaging in close-quarters armoured brawls.

This is a privately owned Nashorn with the hull serial number 310163 and was restored to running condition in the Netherlands.

Sicaran Omega Tank Destroyer

Leveraging the blistering speed and manoeuvrability of the core Sicaran chassis, the Sicaran Omega Tank Destroyer is a ruthless predator engineered specifically to hunt down and obliterate heavy enemy armour.

Operating as a fast-attack ambusher, the Omega uses its powerful engines to close the distance rapidly before unleashing the devastating, short-range thermal force of its turret-mounted plasma array. Though the weapon system itself is a crude, retrofitted imitation of the Mechanicum’s more refined plasma technologies, its sheer output is undeniable—capable of burning through heavy hull plating and reducing lumbering siege tanks to smouldering, slagged wrecks in a single volley. For the Legiones Astartes, the Sicaran Omega represents the ultimate synthesis of high-speed tactical insertion and brutal, anti-tank firepower.

Eldar Battlefleet Gothic

These Eldar starships on display at Warhammer World were for Battlefleet Gothic and were released in 1999.

Battlefleet Gothic is a miniature game set in the Warhammer 40,000 universe. It deals with the space combat aspect of the universe, and particularly the events surrounding the Gothic War.

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. It is nice that they do put these kinds of retired models on display.