TOEMP #9 - Heavy Metal, part 1

The next Tale of Even More Painters challenge was issued a couple days back, and the option du jour for me this go-around is a minimum of two Heavy Support choices. My intention is to finish a trio of King Russ tanks that have been sitting around in a cleaned-but-not-assembled stage for the better part of 6 months, so I took advantage of the nice weather on Sunday to finish building the tanks and get them primered. Of course, these pictures of black primered models are somewhat grainy-looking since I had to crank up the mid-tones and contrast to even be able to see any of the details, but I figured I'd document the process from start to finish anyway!

First up is my favorite incarnation of the Leman Russ turret options, the Vanquisher. Several of my usual opponents are marine-playing cheese mongers, and facing off against multiple Land Raiders is a common occurrence. The Vanquisher is always handy in those situations for the massive armor penetration, and is the one tank that is guaranteed to instill a sense of dread in my opponents. This particular tank has no side sponsons, giving me a lower-cost hull option for lower-point value games.

Next up is the "Hold on, I don't have enough dice" variant - the King Russ Punisher, with hull mounted and sponson Heavy Bolters (from the Predator kit). It performs admirably against horde armies, but I find that even though the Punisher Cannon is AP-, it is still surprisingly effective vs. MEQ armies just due to the sheer number of saves the opponent is called upon to make. I built this one as an answer to a friend's Baal Predator, adding the Heavy Stubber on a pintle mount just for fun. 32 dice dropping on the table at once is always a fun sound...

Next is the most modular of the three hulls, currently shown armed with the "vanilla" Leman Russ turret. As a test the side sponsons on this tank were taken from the new Leman Russ Demolisher kit (which is also where the Punisher cannon came from). I really like the fact that the model designers gave us the option to do swappable weapon options, and the more I look at it, the more I like the look with the enclosed sponsons (though I don't dislike Predator-style sponsons either). Part of my intention for these three tanks is for them to be usable in the Mordian 7th and the Adeptus Mechanicus armies that I'm working on, so the experimental nature of the tanks load outs can be handwaved away as "Field Expediency Trials"...

 

Lastly, as I had a spare turret left over from an earlier project, I decided to utilize some of the leftover turret bits from the Demolisher kit and make an alternate Executioner turret for the King Russ variants. My intent is to use this one in concert with the insertable Plasma Cannon sponson options for maximum Plasma goodness.

I'm planning on painting all three of these tanks concurrently so that the paint tint and highlights match up exactly and the turrets and hulls can be swapped out interchangeably. Further updates to follow as I get some brush time logged!