093 Leman Russ Camouflage

Strange things are afoot at the Circle K.

Blogger keeps doing strange things recently - forgetting who I am and displaying outdated updates to my blogroll after displaying more recent ones, for example. Ach! Who cares? Drax is on Work Avoidance duty. It's either this or marking 20,000-odd words' worth of A-Level coursework drafts.

For tomorrow.

No chance: I'm knackered.

Anyway, here as promised are some quick thoughts on my Leman Russ camouflage. Please note, this is for info only - I'm by no means suggesting it as a scheme!

Camouflage.

As far as I'm concerned, vehicle camouflage is used for two main reasons: (1) to make the vehicle less obtrusive, (I wince at the phrase 'blend in'), and (2) to disrupt outlines of the superstructure, equipment and armament, in order to render positive identification more difficult. I know there are others, but that'll do for my reasoning.

To this end, and because I liked it, I got inspiration from the style of temperate camo used by the British Army on their light vehicles, such as landrovers. It's brutally simple and 'rough-and-ready'. Look at any of the old Landrover 'Defender' models and I'm afraid you'll find that over the years most of their fine detail has been obscured by paint...very much like my Russes, so it seemed to fit!

You'll hopefully note from the pics on this post that the camo on my Leman Russes - whilst not inspired - does at least generally follow the principles outlined above. The picture of all of them together illustrates this particularly well, in my view - note that it's a little tricky to tell at a glance what vehicles they are; certainly their variants are unclear:

Naturally, the Imperial Guard's penchant for identification flashes (see the previous post) negates some of camouflage's more traditional 'hiding in bushes' role!

Talking of hiding, I love this picture (below), which I had in a book as a kid and I'm pleased to say I found online. It's an Me109 in the desert, and it's a beautiful example of aircrat camo - something I've always thought Der Luftwaffe in WWII got off to a really fine art. If you're unfamiliar, there are doubtless other interesting examples online.

There you go then: vehicle cam, Drax-style. I'm tired now and I need bed. Corgi's drowsy too.

Station.

- Drax

092 The Sign of IV: Leman Russes Galore

Stop! Apply safety catches.

Before you lot get too excited over the new 'Codex: IG' rumours, I'm posting about my existing Leman Russes, from the IVth Cadian Armoured Regiment.

In my last post, I introduced you to my original 2nd Edition Leman Russ MBT, Quietus, and here she is with three of her six sister tanks (details below):

Firstly we have Quietus - an MBT with a history. Note that, like two of the other old ones, she has a chin-mounted heavy flamer. No rules, per se - I just liked the look of this as a no-brainer defensive weapon. More pics of her can be found on the last post:

Next, my other MBT, Purple Haze. I'm not very happy with the name, but I'm a little more loose with the naming of my Russes than with my other vehicles - they're all more individual - and the crew (originally GW Exterminator crew) reminded me of the film Apocalypse Now, appropriately enough. Kate painted them, and the other guy's knocking around somewhere or other:

The older of my two Exterminators is named Resurgam, after the beautiful line in Bronte's Jane Eyre. The name is because this one (in its original MBT state) was my brother's counterpart to my original Leman Russ. He's responsible for the original yellow and red details and the lack of driver's window(!), but I have to take responsibility for the bright yellow trim on the turret flash; the iron crosses too. The hull is the model's own; turret from Forge World:

When I rescued and painted this tank she was intended to be a commissar's vehicle (as per FW armoured company rules) - the idea being that the increased BS (4) would be of more benefit with the Exterminator's armament. Besides, I can't really imagine a commissar enjoying the prospect of sharing a turret with a sweaty grunt lugging whopping great battle cannon shells around. She has a P-M heavy stubber too, but I forgot it for the photos.

The last one here is another Exterminator, Sirius. The canine link actually belongs to Resurgam, as when I rescued her from my brother's old junk she had apparently been used as a teething toy by my dad's (then) puppy, Kitty. However, I couldn't let a great name like 'Sirius' go to waste, and as I'd already named my hellhounds I figured it'd be good for this Exterminator which was also designated the command tank (again, after the FW rules) - hence the chevrons (look in the fourth group shot above) and ill-advised clutter on the turret flash. Hey - I'm learning. I quite like the half-aquila on the hull bolter though...:

I only finished Sirius yesterday, so that's another 20 painting points - hooray! Sadly, we're trying to sort out a belated honeymoon at the moment, so it looks like my accumulated pounds from painting points will remain...err...theoretical. Bugger.

My next post will be a brief discussion of the camo patterns on my Russes. Exciting, huh? Oh, and if you were wondering, the other two of my current Russes are converted Annihilators. I love those tanks.

Thanks for swinging by,

- Drax.

091 The First of the IVth

Ladies and Gentlemen,

Please allow me to introduce you to the oldest, and most venerable of all my original models: my Leman Russ MBT, Quietus.

Dating all the way back to my sprawling teenage 2nd Edition Space Wolves army (and its many, many allies), Quietus has been with me since the Leman Russ was a new model. Given all the recent excitement over the old lady's re-release, I thought I'd finally get around to starting to document mine. More photos of the other five will follow soon.

No prizes (or painting points!) for me for painting her up - Quietus has been in this finished state for about five years or so. I don't think she's varnished either, unlike my more recent models: she's protected by her age!

I'll talk more about the paint job and camo scheme in future posts. I was going to photograph all three of my finished Russes this afternoon to show them off better, but alas our house guest arrived just after I took these pics.

Quietus is from the IVth Cadian Armoured Regiment, and to my shame this is their first proper mention, after 90 blog entries. I should point out that (a) these Leman Russes of mine are not beautifully painted, and if I were to start over I'd probably choose a different colour scheme; (b) they're old, and I can't be bothered to repaint them; and (c) the drab green colour is a mix: bless her soul, my wife - Kate - mixes it for me (and did a big pot of it last week) because I really do have simply no eye for colour.

More to follow,

- Drax.