Considering all of the new stuff that I got for Christmas, why am I painting on this second hand Devilfish? I don't even have anything else for that army ('yet' as Murl would say). However its cool looking and...
...we now interrupt our regularly scheduled programming to show you my latest toy...
So having been drooling over the CAD concepts, as soon as this went on pre-order I ordered the new Rapid Response Vehicle from Secret Weapon Miniatures. Yesterday, it arrived, behold:
Here it is, straight out of the box, no gates/mold lines trimmed or anything.
Yup, that's really cool looking! It vaguely reminds me of the South African Rooikat. Of all of its weapon options (and as you can see there are several), the hull mounted flamer & high velocity cannon above look the best I think. However that cannon doesn't really have a 40k analog (i.e.: its a realistic size for a modern day cannon, unlike say, a battlecannon). The multi-laser & support cannon (the two in the low-center) are a toss up for the next best looking options. I was thinking of painting this up to go with my Infinity-turned-VOR models, but that would be consigning this to a life on the shelf. So I think I'll opt for the multi-laser option, using this as Inquisitor Coteaz' personal Chimera equivalent.
Its roughly the size of a Chimera, though just where that size comparison photo went to I'm...not quite sure. Here it is with the hull of my new Predator tank. It could work as a Razorback, however it lacks side doors. Besides, having the wheels kind of fits better with the Chimera's 12/10/10 armor. It does have two small exit ramps in back. I wouldn't want to have to crawl out of those under combat conditions though. It also has two rear gun ports per side, though I may limit the number of those firing out to 2 rather than the normal 5 as there is no roof troop compartment hatch.
Of course, this being a resin kit, and a new one at that, it has some issues. Odds are you've already spotted the huge air bubble on the one tire, and the mold apparently slipped on the other side. To render that invisible would require GS skills far beyond what I can manage. However as this is a $45 kit (shipping included) , I popped off an email with attached photos saying as much to see if they would send me replacements. I figured I'd get a response in 24-48 hours, as per the usual for online inqueries.About 45 minutes later when I came in from taking down my Christmas lights, there was already an email in my mailbox from Mister Justin himself, apologizing for the defects & letting me know that replacements will be shipped out ASAP! For a small online sales gaming company, with whom I've never dealt with before, that's as good as it gets from a customer service point of view!
...and now back to our regularly scheduled Tau nonsense...
...here is the color scheme that I came up with. Chaos black with Hawk Turquoise & codex Grey trim. Looks pretty good so far I think. Neverness gave me the Spearhead vehicle upgrade sprue for Christmas, and while I don't care for the look of the 'saddlebag like' sensors, it does have some interesting looking sensor array-things to go on the front. I had no idea as to what they were till I googled the Tau spearhead upgrade images and found a pic waaaaay down the list that had them. First & only time I've ever seen them used, so liking the uniqueness of that, I'll add those in after finishing up with the chin turret.
13 comments:
That's a nice color scheme so far on that Devilfish. Glad you found a use for that Spearhead sprue, I'll probably use the marine on my 2nd LRC...
Very cool - I'm greatly tempted to pick up one of those rapid response vehicles, glad to hear that they're so responsive to your issue. Liking the color scheme on the Tau skimmer. Looking forward to seeing more!
Cool stuff. Justin is a cool cat, for sure. Can't wait to see this painted up!
That is such a cool machine! Ever since I saw it I've been wanting to make it into some kind of rapid response vehicle for an Ariadna force. And with the release of the new Sarissa terrain I just might have to do it! :)
And that devilfish colour scheme looks great!
@Neveness: SECOND LANDRAIDER?!?!?! lol!
@Mordian & Mad Robot: Thanks & Yeah I got another email saying that the replacements wheels are shipping today & that they're paying closer attention to the resin to make sure this happens to no one else.
@Martin: Ironically, I had intended this to go with my few Infinity minis which are Ariadna models. Don't know anything about that game though, do they have vehicles in Infinity?
Okay, time to put some more paint on the D-fish.
I love the concept of the vehicle, but those weapons are metal and I know how the metal gun barrels bend on the Flames of War tanks...
Great miniature to see coming out of an independent tho!
The High velocity cannon could have that issue as would the twin autocannons, and I suppose warpage over time would flake the paint off as well. However the multi-laser barrels is rather thick, so I doubt that'll be a problem for me.
Haha! I guess I'm not the only one to catch the Arianda vibe. :)
There are no rules for using vehicles as playing pieces in Infinity, although there are some player made scenarios that feature them. Personally I think vehicles would take the game too far from its skirmish foundation. However, they make for awesome scenery and/or objectives!
Wow, thanks for the great review!
This is the first I've found (thank you FTW!) and of course it has to be one of the few that went out with bad wheels :)
We've corrected the slippage issue since and will replace any that made it out.
Gun wise I did figure 40k players would use the HVC as a Battle Cannon - we just couldn't bring ourselves to design a gun to obviously out of scale.
I'm glad you're happy with the kit -- and those replacement wheels should be to you shortly. They were shipped not long after I emailed you.
lol, hey no problem & thanks!
I've ordered one too. I'm planning to use it as a Hellhound for my newly reincarnated guard army. It's a great design.
It has a huge flamer for the turret & is the perfect size for it. I dunno, I may just stick with the cannon above & call it an autocannon equipped Chimera.
First review of this kit I've actually seen. Its nice to have a size comparison.
I had considered it a Chimera Alt, but I think a Hellhound variant would probably work better with some minor adjustments.
Now to dive intoyour blog, as this is the first post i've seen :P
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