Thursday, June 3, 2010

KABOOM!!

I received in the mail today my Imperial Guard Manticore/Deathstrike kit and got it glued together this evening. This is the first of the new style of Guard tank kits that I've worked on and I am very impressed with the improvements made to the old chimera chassis. I'm especially happy with the redesigned track assemblies as I used to always end up with a little too much tread on my tanks. Kudos to GW for the excellent plastic, well done indeed. Also the giant missile looks much better in person than I had initially expected and I've already had lots of fun making rocket noises as it pretend launches. : )

So, what's up with the Deathstrike? Although I'm not actively doing anything with Guard right now, I just really love this tank and couldn't resist ordering one once I saw pictures of it on the web. I understand the Manticore is probably the more popular of the two artillery systems but the Deathstrike offers so very much potential for narrative based games. I mean, it's a freaking doomsday weapon! To me that's inarguably cool and therefore of course I'm going to want one of those in my collection. But after putting this one together tonight, I am now considering purchasing another box so that I can write scenarios involving a pair of the brutes for even more fun.

Weather allowing, I'll prime it tomorrow in anticipation of getting some hobby time this weekend for painting.

7 comments:

  1. That is pretty funky dude. How easy was it to assemble? It looks like it could be either easy or difficult.

    I look forward to seeing it painted.

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  2. Thanks! I was surprised by just how easily this kit was to assemble. For the main part of the tank everything went together really well without any problems encountered along the way. Same for the launch mechanism and the big missile, too. It's a very nicely designed kit and I've now got a number of Manticore bits left over that look like they would be good for conversion work, especially for orks.

    Even with all the predictions for rain that I'm seeing, I am optimistic about painting this weekend. Woo!

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  3. Yeah, I can imagine pretty much any plastic kit available will have some use for the orks. -__^

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  4. Haha! Very true... you could probably pour a bottle of glue into almost any bits-box and out would emerge an ork tank! Gotta love that Orky versatility.

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  5. Looks awesome! I hope to pick up one of the kits sometime soon for a Manticore. The new Chimera chassis is so very nice... the old ones were certainly a PIA. Now, lets see you take out the oil paints and weathering pigments!

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  6. Lucky...

    Good to know it's an easy kit. Looks fan-friggin- tastic.

    Hey, if you got Imperial Guard on your blog you should get in on The Parade Ground to give your cool azz blog some more exposure. I have the link on my page under the HQ section.

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  7. Thanks, guys. I'm definitely interested in trying out some of those weathering techniques on this tank, but I still haven't gotten my oil paints yet. Everything I do is usually so clean looking that I think any attempt at dirtying up the model will be going in the right direction.

    I appreciate the suggestion, 25mm Warrior. I've been interested in The Parade Ground and the FTW group, I just wasn't sure how it works if you want to post something off topic. I mostly do 40k stuff, with some Imperial Guard, but I will occasionally stray into other game systems. I just didn't know if that was okay with those blogger groups. Thank you very much for encouraging met to join, I'm grateful for the help. I'll have to take another look into what is asked of their members.

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