A few weeks ago, I hit upon the idea of taking my HQ salamander Opilio - itself converted from an ebayed (for which read: 'in rag state') griffon - and converting it back into use as a griffon mortar. Here's two pics as she is now, followed by one of her as she was (more pics below):
Wow - in that one above you can really see how thick the old ebay paint job was. I repainted Opilio before I discovered stripping paint. This, then, is her as she was:
Now of course, many of my loyal readers rightly bemoaned the loss of a more 'characterful' unit...so I've kept the mortar removable so that the heavy bolter can be replaced:
Naturally, I've had to adjust the vehicle's identification and transfers. I was tempted to make it look like a field conversion, but I don't really have the necessary painting skill, and the crappy old ebay paint job mixed with the my ubiquitous glossy varnish would've looked a little incongruous. More pics:
Luckily, she's still attached to the 1/24th, so keeping the blue-white-blue flash on the starboard side wasn't a problem, though I did paint out the large '24' on each flank.
Your roots are showing, dear...
If you're wondering why she has so many garish colours, let me explain. If I convert or repaint a vehicle which already has an ID flash, I try to retain some of the colours in the scheme - as something of a tribute, I suppose, to the vehicle's history. Therefore Opilio has her current 144th red-blue-red flash and has retained the blue-white-blue on her mantle and the winged skulls, but also has her original (ebay) flash colours of red-yellow-red on her nameplate scrollwork. These colours are actually still visible if you look at her from beneath.
Details you might like include the legend 'THE CORGI' written by the crew on the port flank (this is why the '144' transfer is shifted rearwards a little - the name's a long story, but obviously relates to our old favourite, After The War) and the fact that - for reasons forgotten now - I gave the port-side winged skull an eyepatch:
Hopefully I'll soon have posts of all three griffons together and then a completed brace of infantry platoons!
Cheers,
- Drax.
An eyepatch for reasons unknown, haha! Love it. I really dig the amount of thought and effort you put into this vehicle's heraldry and history. Taking the effort to show some homage to the original regiment of origin really breathes life into the vehicle, and thus your army. Love the fluffy touches. :)
ReplyDeleteGotta agree with Master Darksol there, instead of just making up a history for the vehicle, it's actually all visible on there, nice work.
ReplyDeleteLooks good Drax! I too like the fact that you're including homages to past versions of the vehicle. Fluff above all!
ReplyDeleteI just made up a proxy Griffon for the Mordian 7th, based heavily on what I'd learned from making the Wyvern. Yet another model that owes its existence to your models. Keep up the great work!
I'm glad you decided to keep the mortar handy for a quick weapons swap as that was the tank I have come to love. I especially like how you have kept in with the vehicles origins, after all a good tank will go from unit to unit before being hit by a lucky Ork missile.
ReplyDeleteVery nice work my friend!
Pretty cool. I had never considered retaining a tank's previous colors to preserve some of the history. It's a great idea and comes off damn cool on the model. Nice!
ReplyDeleteThanks, chaps!
ReplyDeleteBy the way, if you look carefully, there's actually dust on the vehicle in a number of the shots. Shows how often I get to play, eh?!
Nice work. I like the markings as well.
ReplyDelete