The plastic Vindicator is a fun model to work on and to field in games of Warhammer 40,000. I had more than a little painting and converting fun with three of them for my Chaos Space Marines.
Painting tank squadrons so that they appear to belong together is a great way to make them look like a cohesive unit on display and on the tabletop battlefield.
I worked on all three of the models shown here simultaneously so that I could plan out how they go together aesthetically.
One thing I did to convert these models to Chaos was modify the armor plate directly over the demolisher cannons with fiendish looking plates from Games Workshop's Chaos Vehicle Accessory sprue.
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| The armor on top of the cannons is converted with Chaos parts. |
After this bit of cutting and converting I set about painting the Chaos Vindicators. My concept was to tie the models together visually by painting a unifying design across all three siege shields. No design seemed better than the eight-pointed Chaos star!
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| Three Vindicators is a formidable sight coming at you! |
All Imperium related iconography like aquilas on the side armor and siege shields has been removed and replaced with Chaos stars. Chisel point modeling knife blades are best for removing small details without damaging the surrounding area.
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| All symbols of the Imperium have been replaced with Chaos. |
Notice that the central command tank has a special array on top and ventilation fans on the rear vents. These distinguishing features make it easy to spot the squadron command vehicle.
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| The command tank has features unique from the other two tanks. |
Games Workshop featured my Chaos Vindicator Linebreaker models in their December 2, 2010
What's New Today article at this link along with some other 40K Apocalypse related modeling projects. A week or so after that article appeared on the GW website I saw someone had copied the idea in new photos posted on a 40K forum. This one fellow had borrowed the idea for the Emperor by spreading the Imperial Aquila across the siege shields of
four Space Marine Vindicators splitting the eagle evenly down the middle. When I asked him about it he said that my Chaos Linebreaker had given him the idea after he saw it on the GW website. Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery. It's also a huge part of our fantasy modeling hobby. You never know when some project you've done will inspire projects by other hobbyists!
If you'd like to see other models from this army I featured my Chaos Shadowsword in
a previous Spikey Bits article you can see here and my Chaos Stormblade in
a Spikey Bits article here. My Chaos Marine collection goes all the way back to 40K Rogue Trader when the models were made of lead, yet it continues to grow with the latest plastic models like my
Heldrake which you can see on Spikey Bits here.
Painting 40K tanks is always fun to me, they are big chunky models and make a good palette for trying out fun ideas on a larger scale than the comparatively tiny infantry models. I have Vindicator Linebreakers for my custom Space Marine chapter and for my Dark Angels army collections as well. If you'd like to see those in a future article or have any hobby questions about the models shown here please ask in the comments area below.
