Anyway back to tanks. I don't have a firm list in mind just yet, as I wanted to see what was out there for little money, and it has to be chaos. More Vraks thank Eye of Terror, so the tanks will have a mothballed, press-ganged look. I estimate I could find between 5-7 Leman Russ-hulled tanks, giving me enough for 1 HQ and a few other options to fill a basic formation. Having flicked through the Imperial Armour books, a support tank seems a good addition too, so it's likely one of the russ hulls would become an Atlas (or a Trojan if a cheap Chimera is about). The Malcador is one of my favourite tanks so one would eventually join in, but for now it's out of budget unless a VERY cheap one pops up...
The first tank I've secured is a classic Demolisher with metal turret plates. At around £15 before post it's less than half the cost of a new one. Another bonus is the turret style, I prefer the chunkier look to older turrets; whist it does raise the profile of the tank I feel it's more scaled to the big gun on the front.
I've only made a few subtle additions to the tank after stripping loose and damaged parts. The first change was to upgrade the lascannon. The hull is basically identical to the current line-up of Russes, but the main gun definitely looked dated. A modern plastic barrel was grafted onto the turret piece.
The sponsons I've ummed and ahhed about for a few days. I was unsure if I wanted to slim down the tank making for a cheap anti-tank unit, or keep them to help with Terminators. The logical conclusion, as always, is magnets. A small plastic panel housing the magnet allows me to run with or without, points and preference depending. I'll try to magnetise all the tanks to give me the most flexibility for battles and points levels.
Colour-wise I'm aiming for the Vraksian angled desert yellow/grey camo look. To break up the colours I'll also paint some parts of the tanks in a red primer, similar to late-war German tanks. I wanted these renegades to look like the traitors have collected a bunch of tanks together, some old relics found at the back of a storage unit, cobbled together with spare parts and unpainted panels hastily bolted on.
The next chapter will see a new tank hopefully join the ranks and further progress on my colour scheme.
Current progress:
- Tanks 1 (2nd pending)
- Budget spent: £31/£100