Project: Bane Wolf squadron Part 1  

Posted by CommissarHarris in , , ,

Part 1: Planning
I'm gonna make me a squadron of three Bane Wolfs. These babies rock! Get them outflanking with Lord Creed, and as a fast vehicle they can move 12" and fire all their weapons! Also, armed will hull mounted Multi meltas, they are fearsome Anti Tank units.

Lets start with the What?
What is a Bane Wolf, what do we know about the Bane wolf? very little directly. There is a lot more written about the Hell hound, so a lot of this discussion will be based on the Hell hound. The Hell hound and by extension the Bane Wolf are infantry support tanks. A weapons platform designed to work in close tandem with infantry during assaults, providing self propelled, armoured heavy weapon support.
The Hell hound is a flame-thrower tank and the Bane Wolf is a chemical/bio weapons tank. Given their specialist nature they are rarely deployed in company formations, but rather spread across infantry units as independent vehicles of squadrons.

There are three known patterns of Hell hound:
Mars Pattern:

Artemia Pattern:

Graia Pattern:
And one other, the new unknown pattern:
This unknown pattern most resembles the Graia pattern in body and turret design it . So I will be basing this discussion on the specifications given for the Graia.
So from the specifications given in Imperial Armor Vol IV, there is a crew of 3: Commander; Driver; and Gunner.
As far as I can see the vehicle has two crew hatches, one on the turret for the commander; and one at the front of the vehicle for the driver, although this may really only be a vision hatch that can be opened when not in combat; there does not appear to be a third hatch, meaning the gunner must enter and exit the tank from the tank commanders hatch (Sux to be him in a firefight!). There is a possible hatch to the left of the turret. This hatch is however, blocked by the turret almost throughout the traverse, leaving it at best an escape hatch and not an entry point. Why am I banging on about the crew? this will play a big part when it comes to weathering the tank. Paint work on vehicles tends to get most damaged where the crew comes into contact with the vehicle. So knowing where they get in and out is important. Also, knowing the number of crew may affect the volumes of stowage a tank may carry.

Then we have the Why?
Why would the Death Korps use a Bane wolf? It seemed simple to me when I read the description. Its a chemical weapons thrower! What could be more perfect for the Death Korps to use! Given the Krieg preference for infantry assault, coupled with the gas masks they never take off it seemed the perfect weapon for them!

Lastly the When?
291st Death Korps of Krieg arrived on Praxedes IV in the middle of the Imperial year 745.M41. At this time the regiment had 33 Bane Wolfs on the manifest in various states of repair. With three of the functioning vehicles attached to the 17th company of the regiment.
The regiment arrived with many of its vehicles still painted in the city fight livery of the Ixus V campaign. Many remained in this colour scheme, although some vehicles were repainted in a yellow tan colour for the summer campaigns in the sulphur rich environment.

More to follow....

This entry was posted on Wednesday, September 02, 2009 at Wednesday, September 02, 2009 and is filed under , , , . You can follow any responses to this entry through the comments feed .

0 comments

Post a Comment