Astra Militarum Hydra - Royal Kaylan Lancers

Finally finished my Hydra for the Lancers Regiment, quad autocannons are cool no matter how indifferent the rules are!

It's a nice kit, although definitely needs painting in sub assemblies, no matter how tempting it is to go ahead and glue it all together, my only complaint is the general laziness of its design In regards to the Wyvern, the mortar tank that can be built instead. In my opinion changing the ammo boxes and lopping off the barrels does not make for a convincing light artillery piece. However there have been some interesting conversions popping up on the net recently that have have piqued my interest in getting another one of these kits at some point.

You can't really see it on the close up photo, but I tried to do a bit of freehand on the targeting display with slightly disappointing results, it's definitely something I need to practice more. 

After work and parenting I'm only left with a couple of hours hobby time every week so getting the hydra done has taken me a lot longer than I would have liked! Hopefully not such a big gap till the next post!

The Tactical Auto Reliquary of Lord Tiberius

Having hit a bit of a hobby wall in terms of motivation with regards to my various projects over the holiday period I went back to basics and just decided to make something out of my bits box,

I love Servo skulls, plain and simple, they're also a great little thing to knock up if you just fancy five minutes with the superglue, and if you've got a skull in your bits box, you're pretty much there...

I came up with the idea of making a skull to represent one of the relics (heirlooms of conquest) in the new codex 'the Tactical auto reliquary of Lord Tiberius'. A servo skull containing the memory and personality of a foul tempered, patronising old general who floats along behind the senior officer blaring a endless succession of tactical 'suggestions' from its speakers and cutting into the vox net and countermanding anything it deems a mistake! 

Very 40k in my book, but to be honest any excuse to have a servo skull in my company command squad will do, it's also interesting to think that prehaps this particular relic was created to give a use to the nice servo skull that comes in the Cadian command box...

My 'Tiberius' was made from an undead skull with space marine backpack vents for the engine pods and vox grille, space marine decorative bits and bobs like a banner top, and some technical doodads shaved from a Cadian helmet - simples really - but better than Turning up with a list and saying 'oh he's got this' I suppose. Here he is WIP, pre painting, and lacking a few little details.

A group shot of all my servo skulls...

I haven't been completely idle otherwise, I have sub assembled a hydra for the Kaylan Lancers - just need a paint restock now and I can get cracking on that one.

I had been using two old metal 'vehicle crew on foot' miniatures as bodyguards in my company command squad but that option has been axed from the latest codex, wanting to put a use to two great sculpts I envisaged making up a remnant unit.

" As squads take casualties and are merged to bring them up to strength, inevitably there are leftover troopers forming an under strength section. In the lancers these are bolstered by the surviving crew of knocked out vehicles and formed into squads tasked with providing a protection detail to the more vulnerable support vehicles such as the griffons, wyverns and hydra. Thus allowing the 'regular' units to concentrate on archiving their objectives." 

I dug out the third miniature in the 'vehicle crew on foot' set, which I had never painted as he had 'the wrong type of lasgun' for the lancers, and converted up another crewman from a frateris miliaman I had tried and failed to use as a starting point for an Inq28 character. Add in a couple of spare guardsmen and I'm halfway there allready!

Lastly I also finished up a heavy Bolter team to add a bit more firepower to the veterans, here they are with the company command squad, but they'll probably end up in the remnants squad, with the company command squad getting the missile launcher team from one of my veteran squads and said squad getting an Autocannon as replacement.

"Mount Up!" 1000pts complete - 31st Royal Kaylan Lancers

Here is the core 1000pts of my Kaylan Lancers.
Mechanised company command squad, two mechanised infantry squads, stormtrooper squad and a leman russ exterminator.

Company command squad- 200pts
Stormtrooper squad- 195pts
Veteran squad (assault) - 187pts
Veteran squad (FireSupport) - 175pts
Exterminator - 180pts
Total - 937 points.

Theres still pleanty of wiggle room for me to add a scout sentinel or salamander and still be under a thousand points. 1250pts is the 'end goal' for this force.

Veteran Squad Two - Fire support team. 31st Royal Kaylan Lancers

Troops choice no2 for the lancers, a mechanised infantry squad equipped for fire support with a missile launcher, plasma gun and grenade launcher.



A pretty standard squad, the vox operator is the mortar gunner mini, the trooper with a grenade launcher is the old griffon mortar gunner with added command sprue plastic bits.



I didnt have any 60mm bases spare, my local flgs doesnt stock them, theyre direct only from gw and seem to be quite expensive on the well known auction site that ive banned myself from for now. So I took the opportunity to use up one of the 40mm bases I had over from my astral claws project for the missile team.
I thought they might look a bit squashed but I think it turned out ok ( I dont think you'd fit one of the old wheeled autocannon and loader on one though) not strictly legal. But if anyone was feeling pedantic I could always mount it on a 60mil card template.



The squads apc is also equipped for stand-off fire support, forgoing the point defense of a pintle mount for anti-armour capacity in the form of a Hunter-Killer missile system.

Veteran squad -70pts
Vox caster -5pts
Missile launcher -15pts
Plasma gun -15pts
Grenade launcher -5pts
Chimera -55pts
HK missile -10pts
Total -175pts

When I get some time over the weekend I'll try and get a decent group photo of the lancers so far.

Stormtrooper Squad - 31st Royal Kaylan Lancers.

Looking at all the squads of half finished guardsmen I have shamed me into finishing off the last couple of members of my stormtrooper unit for my Lancers. Again I seem to be making life hard for myself by picking models with alot of fiddly details. Nice models though I definitely prefer the updated versions with masks over the original line with exposed faces. I have a second squad, five strong with the other sarge mini, a flamer and a melta that need painting up at some point.

The 31st Kaylan lancers stormtroops are not the schola prognium recruits of dedicated stormtrooper regiments, they are all kaylan veterans who undergo specialist training. In theatre, the stormtrooper units range ahead of the mechanised infantry alongside the regiments sentinels and salamander scouts. Acting as a forward reconnaissance and strike force to locate enemy positions, sieze bridges and destroy targets such as anti tank guns, command posts etc.

A ten man squad with plasma pistol, plasma gun and grenade launcher comes in at 195points.

Veteran Squad 1, Assault team, 31st Royal Kaylan Lancers.

Troops choice no1 for the Lancers.
A Mechanised infantry squad geared for close assault with a flamer and meltagun.
The only minor conversion is the demolition specialist, formerly a lascannon gunner with a forgeworld demo charge added, I thought his little remote control and glareglasses suited the role perfectly.

The chimera was built pretty much built out of the box. I've never liked the side lasguns on the chimera kits. They never look like they could traverse low enough to shoot at anything except flyers. Instead with my chimera I used a simple office hole punch to make some card discs which I could model open or closed; keeping the function of useable firing ports.

Veteran squad - 70pts basic. NCO w/ Bolt pistol +2pts. Vox caster +5pts. Meltagun +10pts. Flamer +5pts .Demolition specialists +30pts. Chimera w/ stormbolter +65pts. Total - 187pts.

...p.s in the background you can just about make out my WIP hive milita veteran squad, using the old last chancers ox as a sergeant Harker stand-in.

E Company Command Squad, 31st Royal Kaylan Lancers.

Here is the company command squad for my Lancers regiment

the officer is the old Colonel Schaeffer mini.
The master of ordinance is the old spotter model from the griffon mortor carrier with an added laspistol, and the two vehicle crewmen count as bodyguards... in fluff terms they are the major's armour liaisons / adjutants.

Their chimera is the new model with the old metal crew member...to try and tie it in a bit with the rest of the squad.

Company command squad - 50pts basic. Officer w/ plasma pistol & power sword +20pts. Vox caster +5pts. Master of ordnance +30pts. x2 bodyguards +30pts. Chimera w/ stormbolter +65pts. Total - 200points.

31st Royal Kaylan Lancers. Leman Russ Exterminator no7.

An old Leman Russ Exterminator, which I picked up on eBay for about a fiver inc postage. I gave it a quick repaint and am quite pleased with the result.

Normally Leman russe's wouldn't be present in a lancer regiment, but an exterminator can be classed as a scout tank according to imperial armour (although probably without the sponsons)

The 31st Royal Kaylan Lancers use their exterminator's as a force multiplier. Bringing them to bear at the largest concentrations of enemy troops as a shock weapon.

Leman Russ Exterminator - 150pts basic. Heavy Bolter sponsons.+20pts Pintle storm bolter +10pts...Total 180pts.