Bolt Action – M26 Pershing and T26E4 Super Pershing
A while ago I started converting a M26 Pershing resin tank kit by Warlord Games into a T26E4 Super Pershing.
There are a few articles on the T26E4, among others on Tank Encyclopedia or Wikipedia, explaining what this Super Pershing is. Because it is not a paper tank like many E-series German tanks, but a real (field) conversion to further up-armour the M26 Pershing. The M26 was deployed rather late in January 1945 to Europa via the Port of Antwerp, and these 20 tanks would be the only Pershings to see combat in World War too, with the famous duel taking place later in March in Cologne. And while this heavy tank was a much-needed upgrade to the American armoured units, it made fighting Panthers and Tigers easier - compared to the Shermans, but it would still struggle against the Tiger II, while the units moved further into Germany. For that reason the M26 was uparmoured with a more powerful cannon, the T15E1. Yet a small batch of tanks were produced and further upgraded with a T15E2 gun, but only a single one of these made it to Germany in the very last moments of world war 2. I am huge fan of these rarities and field conversions, so I began building it, by using plastic card to recreate the salvaged Panther front plate on the chassis and added the "ears" and additional armour for the gun mount.
HarrowHyrst – Treeman and Griffin
Today for something special. It has been a while, since I've been gifted miniatures by my parents (actually, the very first Warhammer box I owned, was the Blood Bowl set for Christmas in the 90s), so I was very happy and surprised, when I received these for my 38th birthday back in September. Heartwood, the Treeman Elder, and Mockmoon, the Griffin, by HarrowHyrst Miniatures.
But why am I so excited about these miniatures by HarrowHyrst? Well, HarrowHyrst is not just any miniature company capturing the vibe of Middlehammer, because the person behind HarrowHyrst coined that era - Trish Carden (Morrison). She sculpted a lot of the larger creatures, monsters and mounts of many heroes of the Old World, not just in the era of Middlehammer but in the early 00s and for Forge World's Warhammer Forge as well. And "before" that, Trish, together with Aly Morrison, founded Marauder Miniatures in 1988, whose range were sold and later integrated by Citadel Miniatures.
GrimDarkTerrain – Hermes Class Light Salvage Titan
Returning with my attention to Adeptus Titanicus, I am happy about the size of my maniples (so far) and the "only" thing, that I want to add to is the terrain. I have a subscription of GrimDarkTerrain for a while now, but my Anycubic Mono 4K is not the ideal hardware for printing terrain - at least not larger items and larger batches. This is one of the reasons, why I am happy that there are printing service with a merchant license for GrimDarkTerrain like Winterdyne (UK), MegaSonicPunch (Germany/EU) or Hangar81 (US).
Luckily, not every set Bronco designs is that large, and in February 2022 the Hermes Ripley was released as a monthly package.
Troublemaker Games – 6-8mm Terrain
We revisit the range of Troublemaker Games after covering their building and ruins range, it received an elaborated update with a couple new plastic sprues, stls and even printed items. As I'm heading into 6-8mm with my Epic 30k project (and the adjacent topics of Adeptus Titanicus and Aeronautica Imperialis) this was good reason, to give these new additions another look.
The Troublemaker range is sold via Vanguard Miniatures and shipped from the UK. Currently the don't offer IOSS for EU customers, but they offer a shipping cost cap of maximum 10 GBP.
Necromunda – Ash Waste Nomads Dustbacks and Wy’tari Stormcaller
We're closing the Ash Waste reviews series after the Cargo 8 Ridgehauler last month and Ironhead Prospectors earlier this week (breaking the 300 review barrier by the way! Yay!). And today we're looking at the Ash Waste Nomads, primarely the Wy'tari Stormcaller.
Games Workshop sent the the Stormcaller kit by Forge World and I traded one of the Prospector sprue against one of the Dustback Helamites to add a bit of more content to this review. That's why I'm only showing the sprue and not the box set or instructions, but it should work either way.
Adeptus Titanicus – Dire Wolf Heavy Scout Titan
In January Games Workshop announced a new titan for Adeptus Titanicus - the Dire Wolf Heavy Scout Titan. After about 4 months the kit is available via Forge World and today, we have the chance to see it in our review.
The Dire Wolf is a variation of the Warhound Titan and available in two variants, one with a Neutron-Laser and one with a Volcano Cannon.
Adeptus Titanicus – Warmaster Iconoclast
The variant of the Warmaster Titan, the Iconoclast with different weaponry was released in Winter '21, and actually the first of the Adeptus Titanicus plastic kits, that I didn't cover as a review - until now!
The Warmaster keeps it very similar to the Warlord Titan, where only a single sprue is swapped to cover the alternative variant of the titan. And for that reason, this is more of an add-on along with some further add-ons, to the initial review of the Warmaster variant with the plasma destructors. As well as making use of my newly access to 3d printing.
The kit wasn't supplied by the manufacturer this time, but more of a casual chance at a trade, and I added a few bits that I found online (more in detail below). The RRP of the Warmaster is now 130 EUR since April '22 (compared to 125 EUR when it was released last year) and it covers four large sprues, an oval base, decals, a rather unflattering black and white assembly instruction, along with the cards and terminals made from card board, covering the rules and information for gameplay.
First Experience with the 3d printer
I have the Anycubic Mono 4K for about 1,5 months now and went through the first litres of resin. Therefore, I'd like to share my first experience with owning a 3d printer.
First of all, the choice of the printer and technology. I don't have the need to print whole armies in 28mm or larger things, it was always about bits and small-scale items. And with that need, FDM was out of the picture, because it wouldn't provide the level of detail that I wanted for those. Resin print was the option I was left with, but the challenges of where to run it and the initial costs.
I estimated roughly for the costs, that as long as my invested in 3d printing services wouldn't be higher than 500 EURs, investing in a printer of my own wouldn't pay off. And 500 EUR is a high threshold just for bits, but with 3 or 4 mid-sized army projects I would rapidly get there. From that point of view, going for two Epic armies and a few bits, I might just be below that. But we all know, once you have access to such a device, you're going to use it. So, that decision was made, that it would be cheaper and more flexible for me to own a printer for what I have in mind (but more on that later) - at least that was my assumption at that point.