Tallarn Leman Russ Battle Tank

I haven't managed to finish up the Shadespire minis. Screwy head and lack of focus made working on them a little difficult. Tanks are easy, though, so I finished up this Leman Russ tank that's been haunting the edges of may painting desk for far too long.



I bought it off eBay ages ago already assembled. So the  tracks are a bit messed up at the back and there are a few other things that don't quite match up... In fact when I got it the turret was glued down the the hull. I managed to pry it off and found that the older version of the Leman Russ had a separate ring that was glued to the base of turret - which has the tabs that fit into the slots on the hull the allow the turret to remain attached, but till rotate freely - it was glued on upside down so the tabs were inside the turret!? I actually managed to carve this off and flip it so now I have an operating turret.



Unfortunately the sponson guns were in there a little tight and, while they could move, it would just scrape any paint that was applied to the sides of the gun when they were rotated in and out of the sponson... so I ended up having to glue them in place...



I'd wanted to come up with some unit marking - and probably still will at some point when I get to the others. I was really torn as to how to number things or what other stuff to paint on there. I'd thought of using French WW2 tank identifiers (coloured card suites) but then decided against it...

I think it could have done with a bit more kit hanging off of it..



I though of using Arabic - as the Tallarn seem to culturally similar to Terran Arabs. This tanks name is supposed to be "Sala" or "prayer". I was thinking I might pick up a fifth tank and calling this the "Pillar Platoon" and naming each after the 5 pillars of Islam (Faith, Charity, Prayer, Fasting and Pilgrimage). I figured as new societies overtake others they often co-opt elements of the existing societies religion when converting them to their own. In the Grim Darkness of the 41st Millennium, a planet that had been settled by Muslims at one point, when brought back into the Imperial fold after the Age of Darkness, might simply replace Allah with the Emperor...?

I got a little concerned I might end up on a C.S.I.S. watch list with all the Arabic words I was looking up... "Death", "Kill", "Jihad", etc...

I also looked up words I could use for names on my Scout Sentinets ("Swift", "Watchful", "Vigilant", etc...).

Of course "Tallarn" isn't a real English word so I couldn't translate it. I tried looking for faux Arabic scripts and tried Writing Tallarn with that... I'm not so happy with it. I may have to repaint that.. Maybe just try to spell it phonetically with Arabic script?

I do have three other Leman Rus tanks to assemble and paint, two will be battle tanks and the third will be a Punisher variant - with the Punisher gatling cannon (with the new grinding advance rule, it will spit out forty (40!) dice per turn at Strength 5! It will be named Zakat (almsgiving/Charity). If I add a fifth, it will probably just be another battle tank... maybe a Vanquisher...?


In other news...



Cabinets and lights went into the kitchen this week!

 

Starting to look a bit more like a kitchen every day...



The countertop people came on Thursday to make their templates. Unfortunately it won't be until the 18th that they will be installed... but hopefully the tile guy will be able to come on the 18th/20th, and the plumbers are books for the 21st/22nd and then it will all be done just in time for the holidaze!!