Building a Ragnarok  

Posted by CommissarHarris in , ,

A while ago, when rumours of the Death korps of Krieg first started circulating, I thought I'd get ready for the release by building Krieg's own tank: The Ragnarok.

The Ragnarok tank was developed by Krieg loyalists during the Civil war. The loyalists needed a cheaply made, easy to mass produce tank capable of replacing the horrendous losses inflicted in the civil war. Anything simpler than a Leman Russ must be very simple indeed!!

When the Death Korps range started to be released it soon became clear that this quintessentially Krieg tank would not be included in the range
I initially planned to build a squadron of three, Constructed from a mix of kits including the Leman Russ and Chimera along with a few sheets of Plasticard. The basic hull is a chimera, lengthened with an extra panel.<span class=Photobucket" border="0">

The turret ring on the hull and the base of the turret are a Leman Russ, as is the engine bay. The tracks are double linked and all based on a double wheel set. I bought quite a few Chimera road wheels sets for the Hunting Russ. That tank used only the large Chimera road wheels, which left me a large number of small road wheels left over!
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The central span of the hull and the turret itself are entirely plasticard. the back of the turret is modelled on the Russian KV-1 , which IMHO is the inspiration for the Ragnarok in the first place.

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All of the rivets on the tank were cut from plasticard rod. All of this is much simpler construction than Ultrawerk's master piece, but I remain quite proud of it none-the-less.
shortly after I finished construction of the prototype shown here was completed, the tread head phase I was in fated away, and the tank languished at the back of my painting table for a very long time with only the black undercoat you see it in above.
Eventually I vandalised it with a rush paint job to get it on the table for a tournament at SELWIG. With the release last year of Games-Workshop's spray gun I got inspired to paint it properly, When I get back to the UK I'll have a go at getting some photo's up.
I'd still like to have a squadron but that might take a lot longer.

Gaming in NZ GW  

Posted by CommissarHarris in ,

I'm over in New Zealand on holiday and had occasion to drop in to the Games Workshop in St Lukes shopping mall with my Son for a one-on-one game. Very different from the UK stores which are my princial experience of these things. They had a single table other than the 4x4 demo table. This was set up for an Apocalypse game of Orks vs Imperial guard using the shop armies, they would then invite people to use these in varying numbers to play an Apocalypse. We played two games one as Orks and One as Guard. The gurard won both games. This was my first and second ever Apocalypse games. Playing guard I had control of both of the Super heavy tanks: A Baneblade and a Shadowsword. It was interesting using the super heavies. The sheer weight of fire they generate is scary enough, but it was the independent targeting that made them truly impressive units. Being able to Hammer the Ork Stompa while the twin linked heavy heavy bolters reaped a terrible harvest of Ork boys. The Stompa was also quite scary, but appeared to be a bit squishy at the end of the day. That might have been because it was one super Heavy vs two tho.

I didn't enjoy playing as Orks. That probably had more to do with the fact I have no experience of playing with them and no idea of their rules.

Hello old friend  

Posted by CommissarHarris in ,

Came across an old web site I used to frequent, Dr Faustus Painting clinic. I used to follow this like a zealot, the getting started guidelines are brilliant, clearly written and detailed with good instruction on all the basic techniques. I thought the website had died a long time ago, so imagine my delight when I came across it again.

Raising a Regiment: 5th Edition Style  

Posted by CommissarHarris in ,

We have been travelling a lot in the last few weeks so it's taken me a while to get hold of the new 5th Edition Guard Codex. Yesterday I got the chance to make it into the Sylvia Park mall in south Auckland to pick up a copy. A short version of my impressions thus far is: Lots of fluff; well organised rules section; almost no hobby section.
This last point is a bit of a downer from my point of view, I have always looked forward to the hobby tips and views of gorgeous conversions to emulate. Still you can't have everything, and I am more than happy for the good folks at games workshop to use the room to Stuff the codes with new units and codex creep the old ones!

Fourth Edition 291st
I always start with the theme of an army before ever picking any army list. sometimes this Starts as fascination with a particular model around which I build the army Sometimes with a range of models and sometimes with a theme from the real world.
The 291st is a blend of two of these Ideas:
Firstly: I once saw a player in 3.2 Edition play an entirely motorised Imperial Guard army, which he used to great effect, wiping the floor with my Adepts Sororitas.
Secondly: I love the Death Korps of Krieg Ever since I saw the first picture of them in the now defunct Armageddon campaign website.
When the Forge World models came out I knew I would end up with a unit of them. I was initially Disappointed with the idea this were infantry horde army specialists, however after reading Imperial Armour Volume Five - Siege of Vraks it became clear that Krieg produced a wide variety of units, it was just that they were best known for the Siege regiments.

With this the 291st Panzer Grenadiers were born. The regiment would be raised as a Motorised Infantry Grenadiers formation. Fast moving, able to concentrate or disperse quickly anywhere on the board. Having a Large number of transports the Chimeras would Supply the heavy weapons and the infantry inside would carry all of the antitank weaponry. Supported by Leman Russ for long range anti tank work.
In Fourth Ed. this failed horribly, there wasn't nearly enough variety to give targeting dilemmas created in the opponents mind. My principal opponents Quickly figured out a formula for annihilating my forces:

  1. Pop the transports;
  2. clean up the troops at range; then
  3. worry about the tanks Last.
Games became a monotonous round of losses and I was unable to figure out a way around it. I will need to find a way to fix this in the fifth Edition list.