Storm Troopers and Hull Points

Two posts in two days? It's like Christmas!

I have the pictures I promised. First, I have some Storm Troopers painted up in the final scheme, ready to get some flock.

The colors are Chaos Black armor and Astronomicon Grey for the cloth uniforms underneath. Guns are Boltgun Metal, satchels are Snakebite Leather. The uniforms and metallic bits were washed with Badab Black, and the satchels with Delvan Mud. The second picture is a bit blurry, but hopefully the =][= of the Inquisition can be seen.

Now, the Hull Points bit. It's a big change in 6th edition, making glancing hits worth a lot more. Hull Points represent a vehicle being worn down over the course of the battle, taking damage gradually and eventually being reduced to inoperable wreckage. What better way to show this than by magnetizing part of a vehicle so that they can be removed to show damage?

Below are some pictures of the first Vendetta I am trying this idea on. The number of magnetized, removable pieces is equal to the number of Hull Points the vehicle has. Every time a Hull Point is removed, one of the magnetized sections is removed. Once all of the magnetized sections have been removed, the vehicle is a wreck. Once it's done, it will be easy to keep track of visually and make things much more Cinematic (the new theme for 6th).

top section; somehow i don't have the before shot. the bit in the middle is from the plastic sprues the model came on, and will be made to look like a power cable or some such.

wing before

wing after removal of a hull point; inside the depression in the wing underside piece are straightened parts of a chopped up paper clip which will be made to look like cabling. the green stuff is helping keep the magnet in.

To make the removable wing panel, I performed a very risky operation to actually cut out that panel from the solid plastic upper wing piece. The method I used was to repeatedly score the area between the panels with my Exacto knife, cutting deeper each time until I was through the plastic. Once that panel was removed from the upper wing piece, the lower wing piece was glued in place, the magnet holes drilled, and the battle damage applied. It's important to leave the lower plate intact: the point of this is to have obvious visual indication that a Hull Point has been removed. So simply gluing the wing pieces together first, and then cutting through both the top and bottom panels and removing the entire piece, while removing a sizable chunk of the wing, could be mistaken for a modeling choice and not a lost Hull Point. Plus, the point is to be able to model some small-arms damage and exposed internal components.

door before

door after removal of a hull point

I did not, at first, realize that the door was held in place by the tail boom piece, so I had to chop off part of the top of the door to make it able to be removed. But now it simply slides up and out: the top of the door where it's cut can't be seen because of the tail boom, but it's still removable.

I'm going to attempt to make the sections for lost Hull Points different on every vehicle in the army. I will, of course, also be magnetizing all the weapons on the Vendettas so they can be removed to properly show Weapon Destroyed results. I've also magnetized the landing pads on this Vendetta, but I think I may dispense with that since it looks like they're supposed to be permanent. Removing them makes the model look a little sleeker, and I thought it might be a good way to differentiate between Zoom and Hover modes, but it will probably just be disruptive.

More modeling shenanigans with Vendettas, and the rest of the army, to come.