Mercenary "Mongrel" Heavy Tank

With growing unrest on the planet Forsey mercenary groups have mobilised their forces to take advantage of the situation.

Heavy armoured vehicles are available to very few of the mercenary groups, and those that are tend not to be of the most advanced models.

"Mongrel" tanks have become more commonplace. These heavy tanks are rarely standard production models and most are hybrids using whatever is available to the mercenaries mechanical specialists, hence the Mongrel tag.

This vehicle, even though an old tracked model, is armed with quite a modern missile system, probably stripped from a walker-mech. Able to hit targets at a distance, this vehicle has to rely on it's super heavy armour when it come to fighting up close.

This Mongrel has been ambushed by power-armoured troops from one of Forsey's Nationalist groups and will need infantry support if it is to survive.

Last week I managed to pic up one of my favourite manga films, Venus Wars, on DVD. I had this on video years ago but it disappeared somewhere. Venus Wars doesn't feature Mechs like a lot of the great manga/anime films or series but it does have some great tanks and vehicle designs. This inspired me to put together a heavy tank using a WW2 1/76 scale german tank that had seen better days, some added green stuff, along with a few pieces from the bits box. Here are some of the vehicles that inspired me...

Fyoder Mechanoid Defence Group

Fyoder Industries has supplimented their force of AD001 Security Droids with a new model of heavier combat droid. These Heavy Warbots, designated Wt11's and Wt12's by Fyoder Corporations Mech Division, were designed to suppliment Federal forces, but with increasing attacks on Fyoders facilities the Board decided to allocate the production models to the Security Division.

These Warbots are designated as TomCAT and WildCAT by the Federal Army and are supplied with multiple arm and weapon choices giving a large number of configurations. Fyoder currently has other weapons platforms in development.

A production line has also been set up to produce a middle weight droid to suppliment the Mechanoid Defence Groups.



The smaller droids are from The Scene, the larger are from Rebel Miniatures. I placed an order with Rebel ages ago but weeks later the order still hadn't been delivered. The guys were very helpful, resent my order, and there was a small package waiting on my return from holiday. The Scene also produce larger Battlebots, about 20mm tall, that'll I'll be getting at some point. It the meantime it's time to try and finish a group of figures from Khurasan - some little guys that make up for small size with large numbers.

Fyoder Water Mining Plant

Fyoder Industries hold water mining rights on Forsey - a highly lucrative contract due to the rarity of water as a commodity in the sector. Small processing plants are scattered over large areas of the planet, drawing water from both the atmosphere and the underground reserves that permeate the planet.

Fyoder's monopoly of the water production is a sore point with the general population of the planet, both native and human colonists, who feel agreived that they are forced to pay for a resource that should be rightfully theirs.

Recent attacks on Fyoder facilities has forced the corporation to station security forces at their plants, and as one of Fyoder's other major sections is Robotics most of these senties are cybernetic.

The Security Droids are programmed to defend the bases and have a tendancy to follow their orders to the extreme, making it dangerous to even approach Fyoder facilities. Droid patrols often come into conflict with the locals, causing growing tensions.

The water plant in made from some plastic from the bit's box. The figures are from The Scene (Security Bots), Ground Zero Games (The mini-mule) and worker droid is from the old Traveller range now sold by RAFM.

First attempt at sculpting Part 2 - The Vitrinid

The Vitrinid are a rare species, not often encountered. Their home world in unknown but they have been found throughout the galaxy. This large species, which is believed to live for hundreds of years, is most unusual in that no two are exactly alike. The amount of appendages varies greatly, as does colouration of both skin and carapace - though not all have carapaces - and they can extrude eyes at will from any part of their bodies. They communicate amongst themselves by vibratory contact but are able to communicate with humans through speech.

They are are armed with weapons that fire 6mm calcite darts at extreme velocities. These small darts, which are razor sharp and almost as hard as diamond, also vibrate causing severe damage even after the initial impact.

Vitrinids are almost impervious to most solid round firing weapons as massive tissue has to be inflicted before they are incapacitated.

First attempt at sculpting

Here's my very first attempt at sculpting. I've never used greenstuff before and this is still a work in progress. The recent chat on Dropship Horizon about alien races inspired me to try and create a non-humanoid species. My 4 year old daughter thinks it should be called a Snurtle because it looks like a cross between a snail and a turtle.

This isn't exactly how it was planned but once I'd started the figure kinda grew itself. I hadn't planned on the carapace and the head to look how it does but I hope it looks okay. I still need to work on the weapon but never having worked with greenstuff before I've no idea how to work in small detail.