Genestealer Cult Su-76 Salamander - Done With Only Two Caveats!

I just put the finishing touches on my Chimera Su-76 conversion and I'm extremely happy with how it turned out. The only thing missing at this point is the crew and the radio antenna. I wasn't able to finish up the crew because I'm missing a couple of arms that I need, and I wasn't able to finish up the radio antenna because I can't find my piano wire (and I'm not sacrificing any guitar strings at this point!). So without further ado, on to the photos!

So you'll immediately notice something a little different about the photos, I'm using a white background. I'm hoping to get a Games Workshop to pick up one of my photos one of these days, and they seem to be very partial to the white backgrounds. It took a little more work in Photoshop to clean them up, but the end result looks pretty dang good.

I've gone, no surprise, with a World War II 4BO Soviet Green paint scheme. I ended up using the Ammo of Mig 4BO modulation set rather than going with the black and white technique. It took a little adjustment as I'm use to setting contrast with modulation, not color.

As with all of my other vehicles, I wanted to go for a "worn" look, so I made liberal use of chipping and oil streak washes. After all of the streaking was complete, I went back and finished with a black pin wash.

I did something a little different this time with the vision ports and periscopes. Generally I've done these in red, but as this particular vehicle also has tail lights, I decided to go with a modern military green for the front vision port and periscopes. I used Alclad transparent green for the vision ports and transparent red for the tail lights.

I wanted the interior of the fighting compartment to look a bit rough, so I decided what looks rougher than bare primer for most of the lower portions? The conceit here being this is a vehicle that received an exterior coat of paint, and only what would be readily visible from the outside at ground level was painted body color on the interior. I've used this concept to good effect in the past - namely on my Armageddon Pattern Basilisk from a couple of years ago.

The markings this time around are a very mixed bag. The white tactical markings on the side are from an old Archer Fine Transfers set for the T-34/76. There is also a set for the Su-76, but as all of these were in 1/35th scale, some of them were a bit big for this particular miniature. The tactical markings aren't actually decals, they're dry transfers. This was an era where decal film was still quite thick and difficult to get to nestle in properly - even with setting solution and softening agents. Back in the day I helped the owner research several sets, and I still had a few lying about from the mid-1990s.

The Genestealer Cult symbol is, of course, from Scumb4g Kustoms. I blame (or credit?) him for much of this army. He truly set me on the visual path I've carried through this entire army with his overspray cult insignia!

The yellow tactical marking at the back is an even older Verlinden Productions sheet that's also been kicking around since the mid-1990s. Honestly I'm surprised these still worked as old as they were - and given the fact that they've been sitting around my garage for years!

Yes - I took some photos with my traditional background as well (though I didn't spend as much time cleaning them up, so I think the other ones actually look a bit better... hurm...).

As is normal for all of my Chimera variants, I've added the Russian text for "helix" or "spiral" to the scrollwork underneath the winged skull insignia on the sides. I basically printed up a huge sheet of these on decal paper using my laser printer. I haven't run out yet... yet...

One of the things I love most about this project is how seamlessly integrated the final product looks. I know I literally cobbled this together from so many different kits, and so much of it was literally built out of styrene sheet and punched rivets. Yet looking at the final product, it looks like it was a pre-designed kit.

So there you have it! One Salamander scout vehicle paying a very strong homage to the Second World War Soviet Su-76 self-propelled gun. Yes, I know it's a legend. Yes, I know it's not terribly effective on the table. That's not... the... point. In terms of "rule of cool," it's going to win every single time!