Warzone Resurrection: Imperial Hurricane Walkers (2nd Entry, 5th AHPC)

So as promised last week, I am finally going to keep up with new entries for the AHPC competition.

And continuing with my Imperial forces for Warzone Resurrection, here are two of their light walkers known as Hurricane Walkers. Now the Walkers themselves (minus the Gun Nests) were done the previous weekend, but the bases and Gun Nests (and the Minotaurus from yesterdays theme round) took another week. The main time drain was the water on the one base which took ages to cast, followed by the gun nests. The later essentially contain three full models, but cast as one, which makes the details somewhat hard and time-consuming to paint. But here are the models.

Now I bought myself two models of these. That is… I did so even though I knew that in all likelihood I would only ever get to play one at any time. Under the OOB my group seems to prefer I am allowed only one light vehicle slot and these walkers always operate in units of one. But I wanted to see where I could actually take these models so I bought two. Usually those models come with a huge biohazard symbol on they right shoulder, but I felt this was over the top (even though they are fitted with poison gas cannons) and scratched that off. At first I had wanted to paint some freehand there, but I had to find that my skills with freehand have not gotten any better, so they will probably receive some custom decals in the future. But right now I still wanted to paint those areas and with something that could serve as a background for the decals later so I went with Tartan patterns. Since my unit is modeled on a SciFi version of the Black Watch, I picked wo patterns that can be associated with the unit. One got a Government pattern (the official unit pattern) and the other got a Stuart pattern (like is was worn by the pipers during for example the Napoleonic Wars).

Hurricane Walker “Stuart” with Radioactive Dome

So up first is “Stuart” which is being depicted at a full charge towards the enemy lines, dragging some barbed wire defenses through the mud. As one might see, the standard armament is a huge rotary HMG in one arm and a gas cannon in the other. On the back here you see the Radioactive Dome.

Hurricane Walker “Stuart” with Radioactive Dome

Personally I find the Radioactive quite redundant in game terms. It has a huge range (large enough to effect virtually the whole table in most games) and it does not distinguish between friend or foe. To make matters worse, the Hurricane Walker is not allowed to do anything else the turn it uses the dome, wasting all those other nice weapons. But the model comes with the Dome as the standard load out, so I had them and wanted to paint them. I decided not to do them in a camo pattern to match the rest of the walker, but rather in metal tones instead. I envisioned them to be large primitive reactors and therefore painted them up like you often see reactors in emerging cultures on TV shows like Star Trek or Stargate (yes I am a big nerd 😉 ).

Hurricane Walker “Stuart” with Radioactive Dome

Is there another option? Yes, there is! The Gun Nest. Essentially it is a place for the infantry to ride on the Walkers back, adding their own firepower to its arsenal. And while the range is not as good as that of the main gun, they add a hefty amount of firepower. But seeing it on the model in full charge… I would not want to be up there!

Hurricane Walker “Stuart” with Gun Nest

Hurricane Walker “Stuart” with Gun Nest

I magnetized both the Domes and Nests, so they can be switched around. The parts are actually a good fit, sone I could have done without, but I did not want anything to go flying, if I ever forgot. So better safe than sorry!

Hurricane Walker “Stuart” with Gun Nest

And before we move on… here is a detail shot of it dragging the barbed wire along.

Hurricane Walker “Stuart” (base detail)

Up next is “Government”. I wanted him to stand in a huge shell crater with one foot, which was supposed to be somewhat submerged in muddy waters. This gave me some problems, since this was the largest body of water I ever did with Vallejos Still Water. I wanted to lowest layers to look a bit milky, but overdid it a bit, so one can not see through them anymore (which also hides a Bauhaus helmet in the water). The other problems were, that the water somehow drew the masking tape I used as a boundary in, creating a somewhat wavy boundary. And last but not least, the lower layers had crept up the masking tape preventing the viewer from looking into the water from the side. So I eventually painted the edge over in black. So not quite the effect I wanted, but it can not be helped now.

Hurricane Walker “Government” with Radioactive Dome

Hurricane Walker “Government” with Radioactive Dome

Otherwise he features the same load out as “Stuart” with both optional Radioactive Dome and Guns Nest.

Hurricane Walker “Government” with Gun Nest

Hurricane Walker “Government” with Gun Nest

A word on the paint job here. I wanted these to have a WWI feel and look slightly worn. My first idea was to paint them in a dark brown or dark green, but that would have prevented me from doing chipped paint. So I looked further or rather to WWII. There is a Grant tank at Bovington which features a sand base with green camo edged in white. That is what I went for in the end. Although I went for a lighter green, to make the camo sublime. After the chipping, they both got two coats of filters to bend it all together. All in all I am very happy with the final looks.

Hurricane Walker “Government” (base detail)

So now I am going to leave you with two group shots in either load out.

Hurricane Walkers (group shot with Radioactive Domes)

Hurricane Walkers (group shot with Gun Nests)