Armies on Parade - Wrecked Goliath (And How!)

As mentioned in previous blog entries, I'm really trying to put together a great Armies on Parade entry this year. To that end I've been planning out the uprising of my Genestealer Cult and how to turn that into a fun and dynamic board. I'm not ready to go into the full details at this point, but I do have one of my set pieces finished. As part of the board is going to be set in a mining area (complete with tectonic fragdrill), I wanted to include at least one Goliath. I'm still finishing up a Goliath transport for my cult, which will likely make its appearance on that level - but to add some drama to the board (and as I needed a few Goliath wheels for another project - keep watching this space), I decided to build up a wrecked Goliath on a disused heavy equipment lift platform. However, just having a derelict vehicle on the platform didn't seem to be quite enough... so I took it one step further.

So first a little about the vehicle and base. I scratch built the base from six Sector Mechanicus floor panels and a whole lot of scratch-built components. The fence is scratch built from styrene tube and metal mesh. I added some barbed wire across the top as well in order to make it look like a defensive position was set up atop the lift. I also included a couple of the Mechanicus gubbins (a terminal and what I guess is a vent?) to balance out the look and make it at least look like this is a functional piece of machinery. I scratch built the base from styrene sheet, strip, and some "L" shaped strips. The aquila come from the vehicle update sprue and the rivets are all punched out of styrene sheet with the Waldron Punch and Die set.

The Goliath was modified during assembly - at this point the tires have burned away (I may go back and add some white residue now that the rest of it is together) and only the rims remain. I also opened up the top of the vehicle to have smoke pouring out as well as the fuel tank. I even used some styrene strip to replicate the peeled back metal straps holding the fuel tank in place.

Painting started as always for these, using the black and white method and protective green. However as I was going for a burned out vehicle, I added a lot of additional oxidation on the vehicle itself as well as soot stains anywhere the fire would have burned uncontrolled.

For the smoke, I used polyfill that I airbrushed with a mix of grays and black paints to get the overall effect of a burning vehicle. I'd seen a couple of videos on you-tube and the technique looked approachable with at least plausible results. From this you can see the smoke billowing out of the top hatches and the fuel tank. Of course... what is smoke without...

FIRE!!! I decided to go all out on this project (and my board as a whole and start electrifying the whole thing with LED lighting. I included a couple of red flashing warning lights on the base, but there are three separate 3-LED sets creating the fire effects in the cabin and the fuel tank (the fuel tank LEDs are tiny! I'm still working to get a reasonable video of the burning wreck, but for once, the photos actually do the project justice!

One again, a big thanks and shout out to Scumb4g Kustoms for the decals. While there's only one on the vehicle itself, there are several of the large ones tagged on the lift itself. The piece now works as a standalone piece of terrain. On the board the one side without barbed wire will be close to another driving path so it is better integrated into the mining area of the board. As I get more of this crazy project done, I'll post more details! Also, when I get the video going, I'll get that posted as well!