Terrain - Citadel Scenery Chimera Bunker

A while back I picked up the old school Chimera Bunker at a local swap meet. The piece is made from hard foam and comes primed and flocked with static grass. I finally got around to painting it this last week and I have to say that I'm quite pleased. I can't wait to get it out on the table.

I used a variety of craft, Tamiya, and Army Painter paints. I used the sponge method to apply chipping to the paint of the chimera. For shading I used a wash of Army Painter Dark Tone, water, and black craft paint. Secret Weapon Miniatures weathering powders were used for rust tones and ground charcoal was used for smoke stains. A gloss coat was applied, followed by an oil paint wash to all the rivets, which was allowed to dry slightly and then dragged down with a dry brush. Finally everything was sealed with dull coat.

Pardus 8th Armoured Regiment

In the book Honour Guard, by Dan Abnett, the light infantry of Gaunt's Ghosts are partnered with the heavy weaponry of the Pardus 8th Armoured Regiment in defence of the Shrine World of Hagia. As I begin to build my Gaunt's Ghosts army I am building all of my armour in keeping with this theme. The Pardus 8th is mostly comprised of Leman Russ Conquerors, Destroyers, Hydras, and various support vehicles. The following are my completed Chimera, Manticore, and scratch built Salamander. To follow will be 3 Conquerors, 2 Hydras, at least one Destroyer and some yet-to-be-determined Baneblade variant.

I used the same process for all my vehicles:

1. Primer grey
2. Airbrush basecoat
3. Mask off and airbrush secondary camo
4. Paint all details
5. Sponge chipping effect
6. Gloss coat
7. Apply decals using MicroSol
8. Oil paint/mineral spirits wash
9. Dull coat
10. Weathering Powders
11. Dull Coat
12. Gloss details (lenses, grime)

Salamander Scout/Command Vehicle You can find WIP photos of the Salamander here.

Chimera "Death's Chariot"

Manticore "Emperor's Vengeance"

I just noticed that this is misspelled, oh well I suppose Guardsmen make mistakes too.

Comments and critiques welcome!

Inquisitorial Chimera with Chapter House & Forge World

Back in February of this year I set about making a one of a kind Inquisitorial Chimera using the Chapter House Studios six wheel kit with iconography and a rear door from Forge World. At that time I completed a review of the Chapter House Studios kit so I won't go into great detail about it in this post but you can check that out by clicking here.

The Chapter House kit required some modifications to fit. I was very happy with the Forge World kit. It was very detailed and I knew it would add a load of detail to my Chimera. 

I was disappointed however (this was my first Chimera) that there were no interior details in the crew compartment. So I made some.

I created a rear entrance and command module for the interior using styrene, sprue, guitar wire and green stuff. I also created some details for the side walls but I didn't get any pictures of them before they were painted.

The hull of the Chimera had to be modified itself. I filled in the driver's hatch and gun ports with apoxie sculpt and sanded them all smooth. I think the gun ports on the sides of the Chimera look stupid with the lasgun array sticking out so I wanted to cover the ports.

Using hatch pieces from multiple kits as well as some styrene rod I created the above gun port covers. I think they look a lot better than the standard lasgun array.

Adding the Chapter House Kit to the Chimera hull was a giant pain in the ass and required a lot of apoxie sculpt, putty, and a razor saw.  I also had to replace all the rivets on the front and sides of the hull using a small diameter styrene rod, but in the end it was worth it. 

I wanted the Chimera to appear to have been requisitioned from an existing Imperial Army so I searched for some obscure Imperial regiments and settled on using the Jouran 29th and an urban camo scheme. You can also see below the magnet in the turret.  All turret mounted weapons are magnetized.

 Initial weathering was completed by sponging to create a chipping effect.

 Decals were added using Microset & Microsol to get a nice painted on look.

After setting, the decals were worn down using a tooth pick.

Additional weathering was created using an oil paint wash.

I also used Secret Weapon Miniatures weathering powders.

 Purity seals were added on various parts of the Chimera to give it an added Inquisitor feel.

 Some bed rolls and other packs were added to give a lived in feel.

The name Jouran and number 29 were added using rub on transfers. I like these because they can be worn down easily with a toothpick.

 And the finished product...