Cheers to 10,000 Years of Human Erosion: Heretical Basilisk Conversions
This trio of Basilisk Artillery Tanks was purchased a long time ago. In fact, they were purchased as a set when the very first edition of Apocalypse was released. Compared to modern pricing they were a steal; set price, from a US online retailer. Those were the days.
The Basilisk is very much a love, hate model for me. I love them because a Basilisk was one of the first models vehicles I painted as a teenager. Although it was a terrible paint job there was still a level of satisfaction upon completion. The hate stems from its open-topped firing platform. I find that ghastly. This level of hate was increased upon discovery of the Forge World variant that is fully enclosed; the Armageddon Pattern Basilisk. That model is beautiful, but the result was my trio of Basilisks remained assembled, yet unpainted for years.
That was until I decided to divide my ever growing collection of Imperial Guard between those loyal to the Imperium of Man, and those opposed to it. I blame the Imperial Armour books involving the Siege of Vraks for showing an alternative to the conventional Imperial Guard. These tainted, rusty, bloodied, cultist versions of typically loyal vehicles offered a huge level of customization ideas to the fray.
As such my oft ignored Basilisks found new life, their open firing platforms now fitting perfectly with the heretical forces. These became as a result, my first attempt to convert vanilla models to servants of the Dark Gods.
This conversion is fairly basic. As these vehicles would have once upon a time served loyal forces, I wanted their initial imperial motifs to be somewhat present as if lazily removed. As such a dremel was taken to the Imperial eagles found on the sides of the vehicle and on the top of the gun shield. I wanted to ensure the remainders of the winged eagles were still somewhat visible to ensure the look of a haphazard modification conducted by those more interested in fighting then presenting a tidy vehicle.
Additional additions came by way of visiting my Bitz boxes. Banners were added to the tops of the gun shields, partially covering the original Imperial winged skulls. These were banners representing Chaos Undivided found in the Chaos Space Marine boxed set. The dozer blades, spikes and hull-mounted heavy bolter gargoyle came from the Chaos Rhino set.
As it stands, this represents the painted yet not weathered level. I attempted for the first time, to use the hairspray method. I believe it worked, but I also believe it would have worked better had I not allowed the hairspray to cure over such a long period of time.
It was airbrushed with a three-tone camouflage; the two beiges from the Afrika Korps set by Ammo, Vallejo Air White and Vallejo Air Gunmetal. The subsequent brushing involved both Vallejo and Citadel products.
This was my first of Ammo by Mig Jimenez and I was very happy with the paint. In fact Ammo will now form the Troika of go-to paints that normally consist of Vallejo and Citadel.
With the exception of the aforementioned hairspray technique on the barrel and locations where the Imperial livery was removed, the only other weathering was from some gunmetal sponging.
After this, I intend to add some very heavy weathering care again of Ammo products. I have never used these weathering products nor have I ever used enamels so this will be an interesting experiment.
Up next will be the remainder of the Chaos vehicles in progress; the Basilisks’ Forward Observers. This will consist of a trio of Chaos Sentinels, again kit-bashed from a variety of sources.
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