Here be Salamanders...

As an update to my Salamander conversion, here's a quick update on some of my recent vehicle projects. You may remember I set about converting an old haulage vehicle into a Salamander with the FW kit recently; the post is available here.

 Just to jog your memory, this is the old 'hauler, which I've made to use as a terrain piece.  I'm planning to make an artillery command post, with tables, maps and radios etc and this might be a nice addition.  However, a Salamander would not go amiss in the 400pt patrol clash games I'm about to play, so I bought the FW conversion kit and shoehorned it into the Hauler.  Crucially, I made it entirely without glue so that the Salamander deck can be lifted out to make two models in one.  Mod-ability is the way forward, comrades!



Anyway, there are the results.  The main problem (which you can see in the Salamander Conversion post was the unsightly gap between hull and Chimera.  This was solved with Green Stuff sandbags, very easy to make.  Just roll out a sausage of Green Stuff (about 5mm wide), press it ever so slightly, so it becomes roughly half as high, then press a wet scalpel from the top to make the sandbags, each about 6-7mm long.  As the blade presses into the wet Green Stuff, before it cuts it squashes the ends flat, tapering them together and making them look realistic.  These were then heaped around the gun shield, so that in 'Salamander mode' it covers the gap.  My original plan was to make a toilet-paper camo net, rolled up and placed over the gap but this was hard to do with the auto cannon in the way.

Top view.  Doesn't look like a mod-tank, the most important thing

Rear view.  The black plate just above the hooks was a last-minute addition to cover up an unsightly gap.

Close up of the sandbags.  This was my first attempt and to be honest, they look a bit rubbish but from a distance they're fine.

Also, some may remember my tinkering to create an 'Ostwind' flak tank, a la Hydra.  This was about a month ago and I've only just got round to painting the poor guy up.  The turret was done here, and the hull and conversion here.  No great changes, just putting the two together for the first time and it's looking scary!  No explanation needed here, let the pictures do the talking.

Hordes of infantry, look out, here I come!