The Sentinel Construction Company

... or construction of the company sentinels, whichever you like.

Yes!  After a brief look at my next plan for Imperial Guard fluff, I've been back to modelling as I finish the building of my new-look, dynamic Sentinel Squadron!  As I said last time, they were really fun to make and I'm glad I did that post, as it stimulated some quite interesting discussion about open-topped, fully detailed Sentinels vs. enclosed, better tabletop Sentinels.  I have to admit, although the interior detail is cool, I'm very much a fan of the proper Steel Legion-style closed crew compartment.  Sixgun45LC also suggested having one with an open hatch as a balance, which I did using a leftover crewman from when I bought the Imperial Guard tank commanders blister to make a spare officer.  Let's have a look at some lovely piccys, shall we?

(By the way, pictures are back up to good quality as I located my camera.  You know the pockets on the back of the driver's seat that you're supposed to put road maps and things in?  It was there.  I didn't put it there; I didn't even know that pocket existed.  What a stupid place for a pocket, anyway!  How are you supposed to reach it from the driver's seat?  Anyway the camera was there.)

All three Sentinels, complete with stowage and scenic bases.  I was going to use some Secret Weapon bases, but
since I hadn't used any in the rest of the army I thought it would look out of place.

First Sentinel, poking out from behind a pillar.  You can see the extensive use of Liquid Green Stuff to hide the joins between the hatch and the cab which are otherwise very obvious.  Really useful for this. 

Originally intended to look like boxes for carrying missiles, these matchsticks look too
rough so now they're just poles of wood ... for ... something.

The base, made with slate, sand and etched chain-link fence from the 40K basing kit.  This was still taken while the sand's PVA was still wet, so it 'flattens' a bit more when it dries.

Next one.  Think this is the one from the last update.  I decided to keep all the weapons the same in the end, since rocket launchers are versatile enough weapons anyway.

You can see (along with the half-dried glue) the climbing-over-the-wall effect.

My attempts at Green Stuff straps - they look okay from a distance.
The wire is the stuff you get off posh wine bottles.

My favourite one - including the commander popping out the hatch for a
look around.  Credit to Sixgun45LC for that idea!

Oh, the stowage is from a very old 1:56 kit - I unfortunately don't remember the name. 

Another shot of the scenic base.  Whoops - forgot to clean that leg!

A lovely model - glad I found a place to use him in a conversion!

And there we have it.  Quite pleased with them - although they were very fiddly to do, so I'll be waiting a bit before I get my next set to make a start on a reconnaissance company!  Anyway, that's yer lot for today folks!  Back to work now - hopefully the first bits of the fluff should come out this week, I've got more WW2 stuff in the next few weeks and also of course, the painting!  Thanks for reading.

The Colonel