Well I have been able to put together some of my Salute 50 haul, and on the whole I am fairly pleased with them.
A good mix of models which made the build fun, this time I will be searching through all my old decals to try and find numbering and letters etc. to add to the models after painting, this will make them easier to identify and tell apart when they are on the table top.
The tanks are not as heavy looking as I first thought but I can live with them as they do look nice, the gun looks big but the body is a little smaller than I thought it would be.
But they have some nice details and should paint up well, I will put some stowage ( as well as on some of my old models ) as I think the vehicles look so much better if they boxes and tarps etc. on them and looking like they are carrying all the crews items, this I think makes them more realistic and interesting rather than just having the basic model.
Next I did the two Armoured Personnel Carriers, these again are rally simple and nice models, big chunky wheels so will look good with my old vehicles, and again I will add a few bits of stowage to them.
Next are the two Self Propelled Gun’s… well I am a little disappointed with these for a couple of reasons, first as these are open backed vehicles you can see the seats where the crew would presumably sit, but the packs didn’t come with crew!! Now these kits were not overly expensive so I wouldn’t have minded paying a little bit more to get two very simple crew to put onto the seats, you will only be able to see part of the backs and heads so I can cut some figures to fit in there, but it would have been nice to have some supplied.
The tanks and the APC’s didn’t come with crew either but that’s not a problem as they had hatches to close off the tops, but the SPG’s are open at the back.
The second issue is one of the packs had the two stupid bars on the back that hold the etched brass netting missing from the kit!!
Why didn’t the bars fit into slots rather than just push into non-existent holes, the one I finally managed to fix together looks really nice with the netting ( not glued yet as I need to paint under it and inside the seating area ) oh it did tested my modelling skills and honestly I almost gave up!!
So now that I have the two bars missing from one vehicle, I am not sure what to do, I have the netting so I could try and make new bars to put it across although I am not sure I have the patience to do this, the other option would be to fill the back area with stowage or possibly even add a figure or two to the back area with binoculars or kneeling down behind the gun… 🤔
Next up is one of the three VTOL’s I got from my friend at the show, I eventually found this flier on the Ground Zero Games site so I had pictures to look at to help put it together, and well it was easy and I think looks really good.
It is a heavy lump of metal so it will need a good sturdy flight stand, but it should look really good in my games.
Now the other two are still in their bags as I found that they both had the bottom of the cargo / troop hold missing, this should be easy to replace with some plastic card but the two rear legs are attached to it so that may cause a few problems, although I may just raise the wheels / landing gear up out of the way for flying… I think that would look ok.
And last but not least and not part of the Salute haul I have started painting a few wacky robot figures, these figures with their odd little round heads look really funny but cool in a weird sort of way! 🤔
I don’t have any rules for these yet, but I do want to add them at some point.
I loved it when robots were used back in the early days of 40k ( Rogue Trader and 40k 2nd Edition I think ) and you had to design a simple program for them with each command costing a number of points… something like “move towards the enemy” “is the enemy within charge range, is it green if yes kill the Orks!!!!” “if no, are the enemy within weapons range if yes then shoot” although this would be fun, I think it is probably too complicated for my rules, maybe something to add to an expansion.
Well a fun evening putting those vehicles together now it is on to adding stowage and painting, oh and looking online to try and find a good big armoured walker / mech!
Hi Mac
I like all the models apart from the self propelled gun an open back doesn’t say sci-fi to me.
The flyers are my favorite’s they are so cool and screem out sci-fi.
The apc’s are very cool too.
Your idea for programming could be card driven, you could sub devide it into actions and reactions, that would make things simpler.
Each type of robot could have a set number of command’s which could be reprogrammed by tech’s in the field.
You could also introduce hacking if a robot is successfully hacked you could just hand over the card’s.
Sounds fun no?
Just some idea’s
Hi Zac,
I am on the fence with the SPG’s at the moment, not too fussed by the open back, but will decide when I get around to adding the crew and stowage on the back.
The Robot stuff is on the back burner for a while, certainly until I get the main rules finished, but I will note any suggestions people give me.
Mac
Hi Mac!
I recognize modt of your haul – I too like those Brigade Models Bizon tanks & I plan to get a company of 10 of them eventually (got 3 plus 2 hulls without turrets… ). If its bigger tanks you’re after, take a look at the Neo-Soviet Bars tank (also by Brigade) & BM APC & Terminator MICV … plus the Volk assault gun/tank hunter & the Schtorm MLRS in Brigades Hammers Slammers 15mm range – they’re all based off the same Bars tank hull and look good together.
There’s always the Mammont super heavy – that’s big.
Those Buffel (??) wheeled APC look better than I imagined (not got any … yet) and are also part of a nice range from Brigades SAC stuff. Some big n beefy looking tanks there too …
I don’t mind those open topped tank hunters! Cheapo tank killing will always win out over paying more to protect your (expendable) crews … I suppose, like the German Marder & Nashorn tank hunters the idea is you don’t get so close to the enemy that his foot sloggers can chuck a bag of grenades over the top!
Those ‘robots’ are Kaamados Dominion troops if I’m not mistaken – ex-Critical Mass Games & now by Ral Partha. They had some very strange & weird walker type resin vehicle miniatures as part of the range, but I dunno if RP have re-released them yet.
And I too remember those old ‘write your own robot program’ rules from the pages of White Dwarf from the late 80’s/early 90’s … I had a lot of fun writing complex programs that never seemed to work quite the way I expected them too!
Cor blimey! Must be nearly 35 years since I even thought about them! Don’t think I’ve played 40K for 30 years (back when I could afford to play it!) … but I do miss my old Harlequin Masque. I had a lot of fun with them …
Hi Vic,
I have a few small Hammer’s stuff ( all still in a bag! ) when I get around to putting them together I will put some pictures up on here.
The Kaamados robots are nice looking models, very strange but nice 😉
The old robot rules were great and like you my programs never seemed to work the way I imagined they would.
Something for a future supplement I guess.
Mac