Praetorian Thudd Gun update

Greetings all

A brief update on the thudd guns that will (hopefully) be making their debut at the upcoming Vidar's fate campaign weekend up at warhammer world!



So Thudd guns (or quad guns as they are now know) are 50pts of fun with 4 st 5 ap 5 shots per turn (with the missing turns out part having been removed in the latest faq). So this little battery will consist of 9 guys and 3 guns which are all separate models. They take up a heavy support slot (so face competition from leman russ, medusa, colosus, thunderbolt, hydra, deathstrike... to name but a few) but that is no great problem as these days I can either take an allied guard detachment or a second primary detachment.



I decided to get a bit creative with the crew and have a mix of lascannon gunners, mortar firers and finally a missile team. The missile loader now has a spade and the gunner has had an arm swap and is the lead gunner (a close up of him at the end). I've done a fair bit of work on the bases too mixing some of the GW basing kit resin pieces, sandbags, a servo skull and a tripod with a view finder mounted. I'm pretty pleased with how they all look and think they really add something to the guns as models.



So I started off with carriages and have painted them the same way I paint my tanks. I toyed with alternatives but this seemed easiest and I thought would look pretty cool.



The weathering I go for seems to get more elaborate each time. On this one we have sponged rhinox brown (is that what its called? I dont remember or have it to hand). Then the three stage process of ushabti bone, black followed by boltgun metal for the more serious scratches and marks. When it all gets mounted to the base proper I may well do some drybrushing for dust etc.



The carriages are really great models in themselves and come complete with a little display and interface behind where the guns sit. I've got to say I'm really impressed with the models.



Here we have the three finished carriages with preliminary drybrushing on the bases and undercoated guns. The guns will be black and metal and will be painted separately before I stick them in (as will the base).



Another photos of the carriages.



In this photo you can see the viewfinder on the tripod.





Here we have the gunnery sergeant with a pointing arm from the Cadian command sprue, a hand with a bandage (which will now be a map! Praetorians like to do things the old fashioned way). and a vic lamb epaulette and goggles (which are great!).

I'm hoping to have the guns done in the next few days or so with any luck and then it will be a mad dash to paint the guardsmen when I have some more free time after April 5th. I'm not sure if I will get anything else done for Vidar's fate but here's hoping. I'd love to take more guardsmen and leave some of the mech for once but we will have to see what I can manage!

Thanks for reading!