German Steampunk

Today I popped along to the Hammerhead show with some friends. I had the 'Bulldogs' from Wargames Atlantic on my list and managed to pick up a box.

The major find though was a company called  Ironclad miniatures. They had some beautiful  'steampunky' tanks and vehicles on their stall. They were perfect for my idea for the Weird World War. A lot of them were clearly based off tanks from WW1, so they ticked all the boxes. 

They only had one tank left by the time I found them late in the day, however, it's a lovely little thing with loads of character. I had to buy it, it would be rude not too.

The Tank above is one of my favourites and I see it as being very much a British one. Once painted in olive green with markings, it should scream Blighty.

The were loads of great variants, all perfect for my project.

They even had a Martian walker...say no more.

I made up the little chap as soon as I got home and induced her to the men. They were over the moon and had soon given her a name. Hilda, was christened with a bier and was soon chugging along towards the front.

Hilda goes into action straight away, her plate hide shrugging off the incoming small arms fire with ease.

Looking a her I imagine she would be classed as a light tank, maybe for scouting or infantry support. She only has a heavy machine gun as armament, so is limited to laying down surpressive fire in the field. In Xenos Rampant, this gun could be upgraded to armour piercing to give it more of a punch. Hilda could be in trouble though, if she comes up against another armoured fighting machine.

A friend of mine has started to produce some platoon lists for the armies. It's really handy having these and very fun to make up the exact characters needed. One of my squads requires two bombardiers with grenade launchers. I had great fun putting these together. I crammed on as much explosive equipment I could to clearly mark these guys out. I had a WWII sprue laying around and this provided a lovely vehicle mine. I also loaded him with grenades from the WWI German box.

The vehicle mine as well as bags stuffed full of loud bangy things.

This soldier is a corporal with a rifle. Most of my NCO's will have automatic weapons. I thought a nice idea to make him stand out would be to put a magazine on his shoulder pauldron. This could work as quite a nice way to note the NCOs in the squads. It's a nod to the Imperial stormtroopers.

This pack is from a WWII sprue I got free with Wargames Illustrated. 
 

The Zug advances.

The second bombardier with his grenades and mines. The actual weapon is the one that comes with the Grognards box.

I found this resin pack from a seller on eBay. They are meant for Imperial guard but are also perfect for what I need.

Grenade launcher, I guess this makes him a grenadier.

Hilda turnaround. Isn't she lovely.

Maybe it's Martian tech that powering her, so she's not quite as limited as steam power suggests.

I'm really quite taken with the Iron clad company and it has certainly made this project a lot more doable and exciting.

UPDATE: I've just checked the Ironclad miniatures web page and this model is in fact an armoured scout tank. So in Xenos Rampant she would probably have the recon vehicle stats. Interesting.

The Lieutenant screams an order above the din of battle. He ended up being quite loaded up with equipment.