Helsreach Walker

Hello and Welcome back, 

Ever since I was a spotty kid, I have admired the slaver walkers in the Helsreach art in the first edition 40K rule book. 

Fast forward to 2014 and Mr Papafakis's awesome Helsreach Walker kit bash inspired me to build one for myself. After a good while scouring the Internet I ccouldn't find a suitable toy to cut up but I discovered a Ban Dai Destroid Spartan kit which I acquired. Work started on this during the late covid lockdowns here.

These kits are well detailed, each part of the leg and foot are fully mobile making posing it interesting. I only needed the bottom half so the rest of the model now lurks in the bits box. 

Things stalled as I waited to find a suitable item to make the platform, in this case a plastic individual dessert tub. I tried several glues before I found UHU managed to bond the two different plastics. Learning from that the tub was lined inside & out with standard ink jet paper and PVA glue. This not only reinforced the tub but allowed all the various gubbins to be added. 

The tub was a little deep for my 28mm figures to peep over so a piece of foam board was added to lift the deck. Granny grating/embroidery mesh was laid on top of it. The machinegun coupla was made from a kinder egg pod added to the side. Lots of milliput filled the gaps around the bottom. Card was wrapped around the outside to disguise the shape of the pods. The floor was then added. The gun rail is a bit of plastic rod warmed up (by holding against a mug of tea) and formed around the coupla shape. The gun was salvaged from the bits box, the handles came from a mantic vehicle heavy weapon and the ammo box is a 1/35 scale WW2 item. 

The metal posts for the ropes are made from plastic rod. The ropes are made with twisted wire from the inside of a electrical cable.

Various bits make up the controls and gubbins. The exhausts are from the Bandi walker kit and the water tank is a Ramshackle Games resin item. The light array posed a problem. It was eventually made from a small electronics component box lid (found in the bits box) and a bunch of stick on googly eyes. The ladders are 3d printed items which were cut up to look like they are retractable. A chain was added so the crew could pull it up or drop it as needed (it doesn't work on the model!). A spotlamp from a 40K Imperial Guard tank was added. 

Paint was reasonably quick once the front "toes" were painted with industrial hazard stripes. Lots of washes followed the base colours to make it look worn and weathered. The model was based on a CD. It's taken me 3 years to finish but I have learnt a lot. Who knows, I might make more walkers in future if suitable donor bits are found. 

The Walker will see use with my Orks on Maddans world when they come a raiding. On Mattblackgod’s World the Walker will get used by my Slaver gang "Tox's Blackhearts". 

Thanks for looking and stay safe out there.

The Crew of the SS Star Wanderer

Hello and Welcome back, 

Here is a new crew for Wild Galaxy that I have been working on for a while (real life has kept me busy this year). This is the crew of the Exploration Ship SS Star Wanderer. Exploration involves long boring missions beyond the edge of Human Space, scanning stuff. Unless you find something interesting out there which can bring great fortunes to the crew. Crews are often paid bonuses that are a percentage of the royalties or profits from the finds. Things can get really interesting (often terminally) if you stray into GELF space or some secret corporate deep space facility. It's surprising just how often that seems to happen. There are other perks for those making big finds, with explorers gaining fame or having worlds, phenomenons or systems named after them.

Captain Berk was a Naval ship captain in the Nu Terra Empire. As retirement approached Berk decided to apply to become the Captain of an exploration ship. Not only was the pay better but he gets royalties from any of the worlds he claims. Berk fancies himself as a fearless, cunning and charismatic swashbuckler with a crew that loves him. The crew regard Berk as delusional narcissist who is probably going to get them killed. Berk wears a red coat and has gold shoulder pads on his armour which he feels will impress any Alien civilisations the crew may encounter. In addition to this Berk fancies his chances of seducing the Alien ladies...yup Captian Berk is one of those Captains! 

Commander Milla Samberg is the SS Star Wanderer's Exploration mission's second in command. Commander Samberg is a very competent no nonsese kind of officer. She had the misfortune of serving under Captain Berk in the Nu Terra Navy. No, not that kind of under. He should be so lucky. There is a unspoken of incident were Berk once tried his luck and it nearly cost him dearly. The details are very sketchy and its best not to ask about it, but it doesn't take too much imagination as to what happened. Still despite the unpleasant incident Berk trusts and relies on the Commander. Samberg on the other hand has the unpleasant duty of tidying up or fixing Captain Berk's messes. She half expects to have to take command of the ship when Berk gets himself killed pulling some stupid planetside stunt.

Lieutenant Commander Hugo Crimple is the SS Star Wanderer's third in command and was also recruited from the Nu Terra Navy. This is his first time serving under Captain Berk and he now wishes that he didn't. Crimple also serves as the ship's science officer, although the ship's computer grumbles that it does most of the work.

Berk and Crimple are Alternative Armies Ion Age "Balthizar and Jerome" figures. Samberg is also an Ion Age figure (female retained Knight). These figures are large compaired to the rest of the crew which are largely old 1980's 40K Rouge Trader figures. The cast bases were amputated and figures mounted on slimmer bases. Sadly the Balthizar figure lost a leg in the process which couldn't be saved so I have sculpted another leg. The Jerome figure also lost a foot during the operation but I was able to pin and glue it back on. 

Lt Payne is the SS Star Wanderer's chief Security officer. He is also ex Nu Terra Navy who worked as a Mercenary for a short while. Lt Payne is somewhat bemused at Captain Berk's wild nature but doesn't like the fact it is costing him vital security personnel. 

Lt Payne is a Arty Severn figure by MrBigTong (from Facebook).

This pair is the SS Star Wanderer's pilot and co pilot. Although the SS Star Wanderer's computer does most of the flying both the Pilot and co pilot are needed to plot courses or for finer control such as docking or combat manouvers (despite the ship's computer's protests). One of the advantages of being a pilot or co pilot is that you rarely have to leave the ship to explore. 

Both figures are old 80s GW 40K RT figures which I have had in my collection since back in the day. 

The Security detail. These guys are there as muscle should something hostile be encountered out there and have been recruited from various Space Ports often with chequered pasts. They are regarded by Captain Berk as some what disposable. They have other thoughts about this matter. Berk has never bothered to learn any of their names, usually referring to them as "you". 

These figures are from various sources. There is a (L to R) Void/Metropolis Traid figure, an 40K RT figure (another olde one from my collection), a 40K RT pirate/adventurer (ebay find) and a GW/Citiadel Chainsaw Warrior figure (a late 80's GW bargain bin find).

The Security detail are backed up by Killbot 3000, a warbot kept in the "In case of hordes of nasties" locker. Killbot 3000 is armed with two multi lasers for cutting down large groups of hostiles. The crew only break out Killbot 3000 when things look desperate as they regard it's AI as somewhat psychotic and as potentially dangerous as any hostile horde they might face.

The figure is a AS028 Warbot 2 resin robot I got for free with an order from Alternative Armies. 

Ship's Engineer Lieutenant Crabster and Dr Tato. Lt Crabster isn't too happy that Captain Berk seems to live to try and break his ship, but like the pilots he rarely has to leave the ship. Dr Tato finds that he has his hands full dealing with the injuries the security detail usually return to the ship with and often berates Berk about his reckless attitude towards the crew. 

Both figures are old 40K RT era Adventures/Pirates. The Left one is a ebay find and the right one has been in my collection since I was young and spotty.

Hans Lipper and Lave Dister are the ship's dog's bodies. They tend to do all those jobs the rest of the crew loath and avoid. These guys are the lowest ranks on the SS Star Wanderer, they rank even lower than the service bots (they have a better union). Captain Berk never gets their names right and these guys are often deployed alongside the security detail if extra numbers are needed.

Both figures are old 40K RT adventurers/Pirates. The Left figure (Hans) is another figure from my 80s collection and the Right figure (Lave) I picked up from ebay.

I have tried to group the figures into colour codes for their functions. Blue = Engieering/medical & scientific, Red = Security (what else would they be?), Gold = Command, Orange = Pilots & Navigation and Green = General maintenance/cleaning/dogsbody/drooling alien bug fodder. Although this crew is primarily intended for my Wild Galaxy setting, it can happily be deployed for games of Stargrave (minus a few figures). I could also hand pick a few crew members for games of Alien Zoology. 

There maybe future crew additions if I stumble across suitable figures. One voice is whispering to replace the Ion Age Command figures if something catches my eye. I feel they are still a little large compaired to the rest of the crew.

Thanks for looking, stay safe out there.