3/27/14: Tutorial: Making Zone Mortalis Fire Wasps

Howdy folks!

Sorry to keep you all without any major updates for a bit! Hawaii was incredible, it was nice to get out and sit on the beach for a while! A couple of the waterfall hikes on Oahu kicked my butt though! I'm a painter, not a mountain man!

But I digress! I've got a fun little project for all of you this time, something I've wanted to do for a while, and am just now getting around to! For those of you who haven't played Zone Mortalis yet: WHATS WRONG WITH YOU?! Its incredibly fun, and you can obtain the rules for free on Forge World's site (LINK). The games play incredibly quick, allow you to run units you'd never run in a normal game of 40k, and you can create a Zone Mortalis board with some wooden blocks, pink foam, or even draw it out on a big whiteboard!

After playing a couple games, though, I wanted to check out the stratagems, which no one ever seems to run! I was immediately hooked by the Fire Wasp entry; A T5, W2 Flamer with Scout on a 40mm base is AMAZING for the game. It can shut down corridors, block hallways, prevent charges, and throw wounds on both hordes and elite units alike! I'm sure Forge World will make a model for them eventually, but I saw a couple bits off Puppets War's website and just knew I had to make these bad boys!

Tutorial: Making Fire Wasps, the Easy Way!

Materials

Puppets War Flamethrower Left Palm: HERE

Puppets War Rotor Type Wing-Pack: HERE

40mm Base and Flying Stand (any height will work)

Spare bits (Tau Heads, IG Binoculars, Chaos Spikes, etc.)

Step 1: Wash the pieces and clean up any mold lines, flashing, sprue, etc. (Do I even need to say this?)

Step 2: Remove the hand from the Flamethrower Left Palm

Step 3: Flip the Flamer upside down, and glue it to the Rotor Wing Pack. The flamer pack (the part with the little "X" should meet up just about where the magnet hole is on the Wing Pack.

Step 4: Carefully drill a little hole in the underside of the flamer to mount the flight stand. Use a hobby knife to widen the hole if need be.

Step 5: Prep your base. Mine is a 40mm with textured plasticard and an old pair of FW IG binoculars to add variety to the base. Paint as desired (I prefer rust and industrial-looking numbers). 

Step 6: Customize your Fire Wasp to match your army! For the Imperial one, I simply added a set of purity seals to the side and the IG binoculars to the top to create a vision port/searchlights. For the Nurgle one, I moved the eyes to both sides, rather than on top. Chaos spikes adorn the wings, a skull with a chain adds a flesh-hook look, and the drill is from the finecast Warpsmith (his little servo-arms break too easily!)

Step 7: Prime and paint to your heart's content! For the Imperial one, I opted for a military grey with splashes of color. I get a feel of the Terran from Starcraft looking at the flash of colors on it, which is what I wanted! The Nurgle one was rusted out and sponged like the other one. Purple was used to compliment the orangish hue, and the green slime trail was made using hotglue, gloss varnish, and Moot Green. 

I added a little marking to the front of this Wasp to continue the military feel.

Not the pus spray! Anything but the pus spray!

These would be very easy to make for any other army as well. A winged Ripper with a bio-acid spray, a Tau drone with lights and antennae, and even a group of gretchin goading each other around corners and corridors with a comically large flamer, the possibilities are endless! 

40k's theme is Forge the Narrative, so why not build some fun, characterful models to match your army for that one off game of Zone Mortalis? You could even get ambitious and build a sentry gun or even your own Space Hulk for your army to defend from boarding parties!

I hope this tutorial inspired some of you to get out there and make your own Fire Wasps! I'm planning on making a couple more and sending them to some good friends, especially Carl at The Independent Characters, since I know he's got a Zone Mortalis board these would fit beautifully into! 

Alrighty folks! I'm about a month out from moving, and I'll be moving again in July, but that doesn't mean we don't have some awesome projects coming down the pipeline! Be ready for 3 tables worth of terrain! More C'tan than you can shake a Staff of Light at! An army consisting of 3 Knights and a Warhound! I might be able to sneak some Alpha Legion in there too....

Stay tuned!

Granesh