Vastarian: Ironcrawler at Adepticon!

Last week we revealed a duo of Adeptus Arbites from a specialized unit for performing covert missions. We created this pair, Hypatia Etranzi and Cygnus Poward from Special Operations Unit Mitsukurina, to use for a Vastarian scenario at Adepticon later this week! The premise of the scenario:

Special Operations Unit Mitsukurina and a group of Adeptus Arbites are attempting to transport a group of psykers, across the blasted wastes of a former Vastarian sea, to a secure holding location before they can be conveyed to the Black Ships. Although this transport is being done in an unmarked Chronos-pattern Ironcrawler, retrofitted with psychic dampeners, various religious cults have learned of its purpose and are intent on raiding the convoy to obtain these powerful psykers for their own fanatical ends.

With this idea in mind, we needed to get a Chronos-pattern Ironcrawler! I was a little apprehensive about getting the model, knowing that it is a resin-plastic hybrid model kit, based on the plastic Necromunda Cargo-8 Ridgehauler. My past experience with working with Games Workshop/Forge World resin has been poor, with many pieces badly warped and ill-fitting. Despite this, I decided it was worth giving Games Workshop another chance with resin, since the Ironcrawler looks so much better than the Ridgehauler, due to the tracks and closed hull. I am happy to say that it appears that Games Workshop has gotten a lot better with their resin models. The majority of the pieces were without bubbles and had very little warping. Therefore, most of the resin pieces fit onto the plastic components without issue. I did need to use a heatgun to straighten some of the pieces and help ensure the largest pieces fit together properly, but it is a far cry from my experience assembling one of their Arvus Lighters. I decided to paint the model similar to the Arvus lighter, relying primarily on various scale modeling techniques.

The Ironcrawler was primed with a layer of Pro Acryl Dark Neutral Grey primer, followed by a light coat of Pro Acryl Black Brown primer. I then used an airbrush to apply a layer of Vallejo Chipping medium before applying a basecoat of USAF Medium Gray (Vallejo 71.275), and then spraying it from above with USAF Light Gray (Vallejo 71.276). I then used an old brush and water to chip the grey paint off the edges. I then picked out these chips with white paint.

I used a variety of decals to add some additional interest to the model, taken from Gundam kits.

To make the tracks and undercarriage of the Ironcrawler look as though it is covered in dust from a desiccated wasteland, I applied a paste made of Light Sienna and Burnt sienna Vallejo pigments mixed with a small amount of Vallejo airbrush thinner.

To help pick out some of the details and panel lines, I applied Paneliner for Grey and Blue by AK interactive.. The product is easily drawn into panel lines and other details via capillary action. After letting it dry for a few minutes, I went back with a brush with odorless thinner and cleaned up any areas I got too much enamel. I did this stage in small sections at a time, ensuring the product never got too dry, making removing excess enamel difficult.

To modulate the color of the model a little further, I did an oil dot filter with a series of Ammo of Mig Oilbrushers and some Abteilung oil paints. The technique is really simple, involving adding a large number of small, different color dots all over the model, and then using a brush, wet with odorless thinner, to brush most of the paint off, blending in the remaining paint.

The model is a resin-plastic hybrid kit, and to my surprise went together pretty easily.

The Ironcrawler next to an Arvus Lighter I painted years back, using a similar style.

Convoy raid in the red wastes.

The opening of the Cicatrix Maledictum spurred on an unprecedented psychic awakening that brought about the planetary collapse of the governing bodies and fractured the religious tolerance of Vastarian. It also ensured there was no shortage of psychic threats to be neutralized, particularly the transport and acquisition of psykers designated for the Black Ships. One such convoy is making its way across the blasted wastes of a evaporated sea, under guard of the Adeptus Arbites. But it has attracted the eyes of enterprising cultists…

As suggested earlier, we want to use this idea of a convoy raid to liberate a series of restrained psykers with people at Adepticon! The particulars of the scenarios will ultimately shift depending on the ruleset used for the games, although we will likely use a streamline version of Necromunda for the games. With this in mind, we foresee using a modified version of the Necromudna Core rulebook scenario Cargo Run (pg 214), set on the wonderful modular board Totally Not Panicking created for us (seen at Under the Dice Fest earlier this year!). Ultimately we are not particularly concerned with the rules, however, and just want to have a good time and roll some dice with people and see what narrative emerges!

- Eric Wier