Monday 27 August 2018

Grot Guard Leman Russ Battle Tanks




I've had a lot of fun painting these three tanks for my Grot Guard army, and with the trio completed I am now sitting at 1000 points and ready for the next stage of the project. I saved them for "last" as a reward for painting most of the infantry and characters, while at the same time gathering all the necessary bits and pieces from across the many boxes locked away in storage. One of these tanks I have owned since 2001 (and marks a third and final repaint) while a second I bought in 2009, and the final one was given to me by a former boss who was tidying up his shed! They are all the "old" design, and while I had enough cannons, ne turret and most of the original weapons went missing along the way. I managed to break up the most complete tank and use the sponson guns to make them "official" Astra Militarum vehicles in dimensions and weaponry despite their converted appearance.


Above you can see the difference in colours used, with my Orks receiving the garish Temple Guard blue, while the Grot Guard are pained using Lothern blue. I have also been "speed painting" the Grot Guard with each tank tanking approximately five hours, whereas the Battlewagon above took more than double that over a few weeks. On the tabletop the blue and difference in details doesn't seem to matter and it's been really rewarding painting an army so quickly and yet in a style I know I will enjoy for many years to come. The same can't be said for other quick paint jobs in the past.


The models were always intended to be used as Astra Militarum first, Ork looted vehicles second, so there is a lot of confusion whenever I post them online. I hope that once the army is all done the intent will become apparent! These have been painted using the classic base-coat, wash, highlight method that is so common to Games Workshop models (because it looks so good!) though I take great pains to block in the blue areas and leave the shaded sections in-between. I would say roughly half the paint time is just laying down the blue basecoat, but was made easier by breaking it into sections. One side of a tank could be blocked in in about an hour one evening, for example. The weathering itself was quite quick, just black chips with a quick edge highlight and brown rust streaks. I covered any boring bits with some blood splatter and then a dust of pigment powder.



Here you can see the extent of my bits box raiding, and while the hull was stripped of paint (mostly) the extra bits and pieces were just painted over after a light dusting of undercoat. A few rivets here and there were made from plasticard, and the battlewagon turret cut down to match the Leman Russ size to prevent any grumbling if I were to be accused of modelling for advantage. While it was tempting to go all out converting an Ork vehicle I wanted these to be useable in the future for any Astra Militarum armies based on my Grots.

Thank you for taking the time to drop by! I look forward to sharing my next few conversions soon.