Brood Brothers Second Squad Transport has Arrived!

In August of last year I posted an entry detailing some of the first vehicles I'd gotten together for my Genestealer Cult army. Included in it was a Chimera numbered "21" that served as transport for my first infantry squad. A few weeks ago I finished up my second squad of infantry, and I figured that they needed a transport of their own. Ultimately I'd like to have dedicated transport for all of my Astra Militarum / Brood Brothers squads, and I'm planning at least two more squads so far, though if I'm honest the final tally will likely go higher than that, because the Four Armed Emperor loves the poor bloody infantry!

This particular one is a little different. In what is a recurring theme with this project, "I managed to pick up an old" Imperial Armour (now Forgeworld) Gryphonne Pattern Chimera turret I had lying around and decided to mate it to one of my old Chimera hulls. This particular hull is another one from the abortive Steel Legion army from 20 years ago. So remember kids - recycle those old projects! I decided to go with an "all bolter" armament on this one from the hull mounted heavy bolter, the twin heavy bolters in the turret, and even an old school storm bolter for the hatch mount. Of course, with all of this dakka at his control, the commander wants to be driven closer, so he may smite the enemy with his chainsword!

Appropriately numbered "22" (those good at patterns will see a theme emerging), I painted this one with the Ammo of Mig Russian 4BO Modulation Set (AMIG7004) rather than using the black and white method I've used on some other recent vehicles. The oil washes afterward are the same, but it gives the vehicle a slightly different tone than its siblings further contributing to the "rag tag" appearance of the overall force.

Though it may not be completely clear from the photos, on this particular Chimera, I'd removed slat from the air vents on the side of the vehicle and replaced it with screen. I've done this on a few more Chimera variants (both from the original set from 20 years ago, and one or two new ones that are still in progress). I just liked the look of it.

Most of the markings are once again from Scumb4g Kustoms. If you're not considering his decals, you really should be! The turret number is from The Mighty Brush, and is from the same set I used on my Forgeworld rapier. I've also included some unit markings from the actual transfer sheet that comes with Astra Militarum kits - no really! To make the spray painted cult symbols on the side work properly I did something which in retrospect seems obvious, but honestly had never occurred to me before. As getting decals to go on over rivets is difficult, I used my sub-miniature punch set to punch a hole in the clear film in the middle of the decal. The decal then dropped on perfectly and didn't have to navigate the rivets. As a finishing touch I printed up a sheet of decals that read "Helix" or "Spiral" in Russian on the banner along the side. They're just laser printed, so I had to be careful with them until they were sealed.

So now there are two of what will be at least four (and likely more). I've got "an idea" for the next two as they'll be current iterations of the Chimera kit rather than the vintage plastic I've been painting up until now. I likely won't get them finished until I have another squad or two of infantry, but that shouldn't be too terribly long at this rate!