The Rig Wars

Greetings Hivers!

First things first, this post should have been posted up 22 weeks ago. I thought I'd posted them (yes I had written three!) but I've only just realised that they've been sat in my drafts section waiting to be posted, so I've joined them all together to make one post....apologies for that 😳

With the release of the Ash Wastes rule set both Rob and I were eager to explore outside of the Hive. I mentioned to Rob that I had an idea about creating Landships to explore the Deep Wastes and just like that the Rig Wars was born!

We wanted to try and make our Landships similar in size to the Cargo-8 Ridgehauler which (at the time of writing this) was the largest land rig available. 

As luck would have it the Sector Mechanicus sections shown above would be the perfect size.

I showed Rob what I had in mind and with a little bit of help from Ebay I managed to grab hold of the required parts to build the hulls for two landships. 

It didn't take long to get the basic structure built but then while I was rooting through my bits boxes I stumbled across a floor tile from the Sanctum Administratus building and thought it would be ideal as a lattice hatch or grating used for loading cargo, so I ripped it apart (bloody immovable hot glue!) and rebuilt it.

The overall size of my Landship is slightly larger than the Cargo-8 Ridgehauler but it's close enough for me and I've found that the advantages of a larger model are often outweighed by the disadvantages.

As can be seen I added some railings from my terrain stash using ladders and barricades from the old Shadow War Armageddon box to give me the basic shape.

I then started work on the details, adding a Ram made from the part of the Ferratonic Furnace that I had removed from the hull and 3 Drukhari Raider rams.

With the bow starting to take shape I turned my attention to the stern...

...Another search through my bits box unearthed some engine exhausts from various Drukhari kits. The middle section was from the Sector Mechanicus piece that I had cut up to form the deck on the prow of the ship.

I felt like the stern was missing something and then realised that there are several things that hammer home the image of a ship. One of these was an anchor...

...also known as an Emergency Brake in Necromunda.

Another was the ship's Helm. You can't have a ship without a wheel to steer her with!

The wheel was taken from the Dark Elves Cauldron of Blood kit. This is a great box for kit-bashing and I've used just about all of the components and the one thing I haven't would show up later. The handles are the ends of the dangly things that hang down from the Skitarii back packs.

It was at this point that I realised I needed to get some paint on this thing before I added more details making her a git to paint.

Before I slapped some paint on I wanted to add one more thing before I did. A figurehead. 

I had just the model in mind to use so I set about converting it...hello Cauldron of Blood kit!

It was while I was dry fitting this figure that I realised the beaten up panelling above looked wrong. So I ripped them off and fitted some railings instead and then blocked in the colours.

Once the colours were down I added the final 'must-have', a Crow's Nest.

I couldn't resist painting up a skull & crossbones flag for her. My Landship is called the Red Zephyr in homage to WarbossKurgan's Tor Megiddo series and the Red Wind that signifies the end of every campaign, hence the swirly bits coming from the skull.

So that's where I'm at with the Red Zephyr.

Sorry if the post seems a bit disjointed but like I said at the beginning, this was initially three posts that should have been posted over the last 5 months (I blame it on the meds I'm on 😁) so I've joined them together and I hope they make sense....Until next time...May the Hive Spirits watch over you 😉