Another Epic Scratchbuild – Imperial Guard Vindicator Company

Presenting just the CUTEST scratchbuild ever!

I always had a thing for the Imperial Guard as a wee youngling, and it often occurred to me that it was very wrong the way they were portrayed as almost a “fringe” army in 40k – after all, it was the teeming trillions of plain old GI Joes and Janes that held the line against the countless horrors of the 41st millenium, amirite?

But it was always the Space Marines who got included in the boxes…

I always fancied having a Guard army for Epic- the idea of massed tank and infantry suited the Guard absolutely perfectly! But then the cost – GW ain’t, never has been, and most likely never will be, cheap.

So, if I was going to make this idea happen, I was clearly going to have to MAKE it happen, if you catch my drift.

Yup, scratchbuild time again.

Normally I’d go in all all guns blazing and try and build something like a company of Stormhammer super heavy tanks out of cardboard, Blu-Tack and straws with nothing but blind faith in the God Emperor guiding my hand, but we’ve done that sort of thing before and this time I had an idea I wanted to try. I started with the idea of a Vindicator company – back in the early 90s, the Guard could take them, and Predators – and although the model itself got a bit of stick for looking blocky and cartoonish,  it was those very properties that appealed to me for ease of building. If the original model looked like it had been carved out of foamboard and cardboard by a cretin, it should be easy for a cretin to build one out of foamboard and cardboard!

Let us begin:

We begin two blacks of foamboard – I measured an old Epic Rhino to get the dimensions right and came up with 24mm by 11mm

Next, trim these to form a parallelogram – 6mm back from the front and back to create the slopes, again copied from the Epic Rhino I used as my template.

Now we turn to cardboard – or chipboard, for our friends across the pond (looking at you, Wyloch!)

Note the measurements in millimetres – these would form the first layer of the sides and track units.

Another shot of the side units, cut out and showing their shape

Next layer of side armour – again, note measurements in millimetres

Rear hatch cut from cardboard – 12mm wide by 10mm tall rectangle

12mm by 12mm square for front glacis plate

Front glacis plate with edges trimmed

And installed – that 2+ save doesn’t come out of nowhere!

Measuring out the side and top panels on thin modelling cardstock

And applied, bulking out the classic Rhino silhouette into something more intimidating..

 

Ain’t no Vindicator without the unfeasibly big gun! Drinking straw filled with tacky glue…

Glued in place on the front glacis plate. Hatches punched from chipboard with hole punch.

Final detailing! cylinders cut from granny grating to represent the side exhausts

And DONE! ready for priming….

Next up, painting – and that’s still a WIP so right now you’ll have to make do with this for now 🙂 Stay thrifty out there, we’ll see you soon!