Raid on Port Corinth (WH40K)

[Klaus not Santa]

Hi guys,
some of you may have seen my previous dioramas of "The Victors" and "Orkalypse Now".
My newest dio is loosely based on the Raid on St. Nazzaire in WWII and has the following "fluff":

Operation BLACKOUT
When Port Corinth was captured by the Orks of the Stachelnschweinz Clan over one-and-a-half Centuries ago it wasn't of great concern to the High Council of Dencara. At that time Port Corinth was an already aged underground mining facility located at one of the major lava streams that traversed most of Dencara. The power plant, utilizing the heat of the lava was never really state of the art, but sufficient to power the entire underground facility.
The ores and precious earths mined at Corinth were precious, however the loss of the facility was more of a mercantile nature.
Over the last decade Imperial forces on Dencara encountered more and more Ork vehicles and aircraft that used new and very effective alloys as well as new armor piercing ammunition's.
The Dencaran intelligence service has identified Port Corinth as point of origin for these new ammunition's and alloys, where the new Mek of the Stachelnschweinz seems to make very good use of the power plant and the mining and processing facilities.
To remedy this situation Operation BLACKOUT will target the power plant as well as most of the mining and processing facilities of Port Corinth. Participating forces in this operation will be the 1st Fast Attack Craft Flotilla, 272nd Combat Engineer Battalion and the 11th Infantry Battalion.
The attack will be delivered via the 10 special THALASSA attack boats that will travel up the Xantha Prime lava stream to the northern entrance shipping docks of Corinth. There the forces will split up and each boat will deliver a team of sappers from the 272nd that will position demolition charges at their assigned targets while the boats and troopers from the 11th will provide covering fire.
Once all demo charges are positioned all teams will retreat to their assigned boats and move to a safety perimeter awaiting the explosion of the charges. While in the safety perimeter the boats will provide covering fire with their heavy stubbers and MEDUSA gun turrets to ensure no Ork will be able to disarm the charges.
After the successful raid the flotilla will head back to Xanthium.

So much for the fluff
The diorama itself will show a team of sappers carrying a heavy charge, while the THALASSA attack boat and troopers provide covering fire.
As mentioned above I used a German S-100 Schnellboat as reference.

So I scratch built the boat with plastic card


Leaving the sections detachable for the ease of painting


Then I used my HirstArts mold to cast a lot of stones and built the dock


I modified the standard Games Workshop Imperial Guards models to the proper poses


And added some GW Water Effects to simulate the lava


Also many weapons received "muzzle flashes" to simulate the firing action


And then I started painting


slowly building up the lava effect


To where it is today



Next I will start painting the boat
I hope you like it and look forward to your comments and feedback.
Cheers
Klaus

 

[stretch]

Well, I saw this over on your website, and let me be the first to say, WOW.
This certainly floats my boat...

 

[Quaralane]

That lava looks really convincing

 

[Klaus not Santa]

Thanks guys,
starting with Atreides127 on my blog and others in the forums, many raised concern about the planned paint scheme.
Thanks for this very important and valuable input!
So I spent several hours yesterday afternoon (lazy day at work, but PSSST don't tell my boss) google'ing and researching camo and paint options, like these historical Schnellboot patterns.


But I have to admit, nothing was really convincing. Even a suggested (by SDKFZ) Space Shuttle black and white or some urban camo, didn't fit the situation.
After all, these 10 boats are specially crafted for this operation, built to navigate the lava and strike at the underground port facility.
But, also I wasn't really sure if the Tiger Flash would work either. So I gave it a first try by positioning the PONOS,


and the HERCULES on the lava board.


Not too bad.
The idea is to paint the forward heat tiles in Boltgun Metal, have the entire lower part of the hull be dark and blackened from the burns and soot, plus some heavy weaterhing, and add some reflected shine from the lava in the lower area.
IF I can pull this off, together with the relative darkness of the scene (it is underground), the light effects from the gun fire and the shine from the lava, THEN I think this will work.

If not, this will be one of my many uncompleted and abandoned projects

So I started with the hull in Terracotta - So far so good.
Bridge and superstructure were next.

(some of you may realize I forgot the turret - I didn't)

Next were the wide tiger stripes with Ocre


and the inner stripes with Mahagony.



I finally realized that I forgot the turret, so I did that one too.....


When looking at this last picture, imagine now the Boltgun heat tiles, the soot and burn marks, plus the shine from the lava....

What do you think now?

Well, while cleaning the airbrush I broke the nozzle, so I have to see if I can fix it, or if I have to continue with my older, cheap model
Again, thanks for your feedback and suggestions!
This helps me to get better.
Cheers
Klaus

 

[ModelMakerMike]

It's looking pretty kewl to me so far.

 

[Klaus not Santa]

Thanks guys!
To keep the project moving I started painting the heat tiles with Boltgun Metal last night.



Still very plain and simple, but with the proper weathering and highlighting this should look good


The parts that represent "interior" spaces received a coat of Astronomican Grey,


and the railing received paint - Scorched Brown for the supports and Boltgun Metal for the cables.


Its nice to see how the lava reflects on the heat tiles


As usual I will continue with all the base colors, then start the first weatehring and damage effects and give it some coats of Devlan Mud and Badab Black (or whatever the names of the new washes are).
Cheers
Klaus

 

[ModelMakerMike]

Those heat tiles really do look smashing!!!!!
;D ;D ;D ;D

 

[fubar]

Have to say that your dio's are some of the best i have seen in a long time.....even better is that they are WH40K based! Sweet. ;D

TTFN

 

[myhobbyroom]

Beautiful scratch build and paint.