Dust Tactics: My painted Axis Platoon

Of course the Axis miniatures got painted too, here is the German platoon :)  The Heavy Laser Grenadier dark camo was inspired by the black and white camo from German night fighter planes and bombers. The depicted unit is the fictional 117th NKG Nachtkampfgruppe Meyer (night combat group) used to engage allied tanks and walkers in night raids. The Sturmpioniers carry Eichenlaub (oak leaf) camoflage while the other Heavy Grenadiers have an urban adapted version of the Plantane-camoflage. Hope you like them!

Sturmpioniere  (not Sturmpionieren... ;) )

Heavy Flak Grenadiers

Lara & Heavy Recon Grenadiers

 

Heavy Laser Grenadiers

Dust Tactics: My painted Allied Platoon

Since I put quite some time and effort into basing and painting the entire Dust tactics Revised Core Box miniatures plus 2 further boxes of Infantry in little more than one week, I thought I should show you some pics of the results. I am very happy with the olive/khaki uniforms of the Hell Boys and the Death Dealers. All troups have a winter/spring camoflage theme on their armor plates or armor suit. Without further introduction here is the Allied platoon so far:

Hell Boys

Death Dealers

Tank Busters

Rhino & The Hammers

Dust Tactics: "Fireball" S.A.F.S. - Super infantry

Dust tactics finally gave me an opportunity to recycle some old but well loved minis, in this case it´s the S.A.F.S. Fireball (Super Armored Fighting Suit). Please note that the entire design of the S.A.F.S. Fireball and Maschinenkrieger is the brainchild of Kow Yokoyama and all copyrights of the design belong to him.

 

This is my adaption of using the S.A.F.S. in game of Dust tactics as I think it fits the design style of this game very well. I own a set of prepainted 1/35 scale S.A.F.S., which I based on 40mm bases, slightly repainted and weathered them. 

In Dust tactics they represent Infantry type 4 in our little gaming group, they are the next step in weapon and armour evolution and are operated by a single pilot encased in the body. 

Gamewise the S.A.F.S. is not as powerfull or point expensive as FFGs Infantry 4, but rather meant to be in between infantry 3 and walkers 3/4 on the power level. It is designed as an Infantry type 1 to 3 hunter and it can prove a tough nut for infantry that has no anti armour weapons. Although it can engage walkers too it´s main focus is hunting and terrifying infantry.

Here are pics of my two S.A.F.S. Fireball suits as well as a custom dust tactics stat card to use them in game.

Hope you like it :)

Cheers invivos

Dust Tactics: finished "Archer" Medium Combat Walker!

Here are the pics of my finished and painted Archer medium combat walker.

Meanwhile it has seen quite some real combat action in games of Dust Tactics serving as proxy for the Pounder walker. It was painted with a winter/spring camoflage theme in mind. I will create a special game card and some story fluff for it too, so stay tuned and enjoy the pics! :)

Cheers invivos

            

Dust tactics: "Archer" Medium combat walker - WIP

Today I am showing you some work in progress pictures that I took a few weeks ago of my scratchbuild allied medium combat walker for Dust tactics, the "Archer" walker.

Since I have a big stock of leftover At-43 walkers I intend to recycle them entirely for Dust Tactics. The Archer uses the legs and hip from a Red Blok Sierp walker. The chassis was scratchbuild using parts from a Revell LVT-(A)1 Amtank 1/35 scale, the turret is also from the same kit. Since I own two of these kits, I intend to build a second Archer walker in the very near future. 

The Archer was build with a modular layout in mind, hence the gun can be easily exchanged. Main part of the gun is plastic rod and a GW flying stand rod. Hope you like it! Stay tuned for more!

Dust Tactics: Sturmkröte & Königskröte heavy axis walkers

A few days ago I had my first Dust tactics game with two of my mates and we had a lot of fun playing several scenarios from the 2nd edition core box. I decided to scratchbuild several of the walkers from Dust tactics using bits and left over AT-43 Red Block walkers.

Today I am showing you some WIP pics of my Sturmkröte & Königskröte  heavy axis walkers , which we will use as count as Könisluther and Sturmkönig axis walkers. These walkers are inspired by Kow Yokoyamas Maschinenkrieger work which I am huge fan of and thus I tried to generate round and ball shaped areas, using simple parts like clear plastic spheres, drops and eggs. The basic walker bodies are now done and all seams will be filled with milly putt in the next step. Then the body and legs will be  given a rough coating to mimic the effect of cast metall, simelar to my Imperial Guard Karl heavy mortar. Then the walkers will be assembled and I need to build the guns. So stay tuned! :)

Fluff:   Following the introduction of the new Königsluther and Sturmkönig heavy walkers by the Germans in late 1948, the first front line battle reports of the new units combat capabilities became available in December 1948.  

Both walkers shared the same basic quadroped design, but in comparison to the newly encountered allied Fireball & Punisher walkers, the rather edgy outline of the German walkers proved inferior to the rounded armoured body of the allied walkers in close up fire urban fights. Also the block and weld-technique of the angular shaped german armour plates was very time consuming and thus the monthly production output was rather very limited. 

Thus in January 1949 the German Oberkommando ordered a group of team of German researchers to develop a version of both walkers that was much quicker to produce using cast hull and body parts, but maintained the basic weaponry of the Königsluther and Sturmkönig heavy walkers. 

Already in late February 1949 the first prototpyes were shown to the German Oberkommando and were called Rundpanzer I and II, due to the rounded cast iron armour. However as General Max von Steiner remarked during his inspection those cast round bodies of the new Rundpanzers looked like ugly fat toads (toad = Kröte), hence that nick name stuck with the new designs ever since that day. Thus the Sturmkröte & Königskröte heavy axis walkers were born. 

Mass production began in March 1949 and the first walkers were transferred to the front lines in April 1949 to participate in the spring offensive Operation Schneewitchen (snowwhite) on the western front. 

Quickly the Sturmkröte & Königskröte were able to prove their combat powers, both walkers benefitting from better all-around protection especially in close urban environment battles and also better camoflage due to the round shapes which blended much better with the soft hills of the Ardennes, making detection for allied spotters very difficult.