A-run, run, run, run, runaway

I don't know why, but when I saw the new Veer-myn Tunnel Runner, I can't help but think of Del Shannon's classic 1961 hit Runaway.  I know, it makes me both old AND weird, associating this brand new model with a song that came out before I was born.

Of course the next association has to be with the classic GW Doomwheel - which begs the question of why every rat army has to have a hamster wheel in it?

Not that it isn't cool, so of course now that my second wave of the Warpath kickstarter has arrived with a bunch of vehicles I have to show it off a bunch.  And I haven't seen anything on this or the Hultr Half-Track for the Forge Fathers yet (while there is already a lot out on the Tunneler and Tank (not that it won't stop me from doing my own take on those as well - watch this space boys and girls!))

This isn't a huge nor complicated model - in fact it only has 7 parts.  Of course for the kickstarter it just comes in a baggie - if you buy it retail - well it will probably still be in a baggie just inside of another box :-).  The bases all shipped in wave 1 - which is fine if a little confusing - it only took me a minute to dig out out of that huge box of models (that just got significantly more full with vehicles!)

I find it fairly impressive that they were able to mold the entire body in one piece.

And another comparison that will undoubtedly be made (by someone besides me) is to the classic 'pilot' from Alien.  There is a lot of detail, and this looks like it will be fun to paint up.

The treads and front/back/top/bottom of the contraption are all pretty much the same.  There are two slots to hold the blades, but that is pretty much it.


There is a front and a rear blade the two slots between the treads


There are two guns that fit inside the wheel pointing forward


And lastly there is a right arm and head for the driver.  It may seem a bit odd to not have a left arm, however it is intended for you to use a spare from the many, many you will have left over from  your creeper and stalker sprues.


Assembly is quite easy, there is only one gotcha.  First, glue in the blades.  These fit VERY tightly.


Next, glue on the head.  When I first did this, I glued on the guns initially - and they get in the way of positioning the arms and head - so save them for later.  Pick out a left arm from the creeper/stalker sprue and glue it to the shoulder.  You have to use super-glue for this anyway, so this is not a big deal.  I liked the pointing hand myself.

The other arm takes a little bit of maneuvering, as it is holding a control stick that fits into an indentation next to the seat.  As you can see here, I had already glued the gun in place, making it harder to fit this in (but a pair of tweezers helps).

The guns then go into place - there is only one way they fit - the connector for each side is different.  Then simply glue it to a 60mm base.  There is no specific "bottom" to it - so if you like you can angle it up or down as desired to give each model a little more variety.


I'd like to say more, but there isn't much.  This does look like it will paint up nicely.


As I mentioned above, this will inevitably draw comparisons to the hamster wheel produced by another company - so let me get those out of the way.


The actual wheels are almost the same size.  The death engine has a lot more "stuff" sticking out of it however - warp lightning canons, spikes, and even a second crewman on the back.

The death engine also designed to look as if it were made of wood, while Mantic's wheel is obviously metal and much more futuristic.  (Mantic also doesn't have tiny rats powering their wheel).


Now flag on the death engine comes much taller - however this broke off several times due to the size of my case I was putting this in, so eventually I just removed most of the pole to make it as short as possible.

The mantic wheel should easily fit on a 50mm base, while if you did mount the death engine on a smaller base, you everything would stick out on the front and back.

A bit of texture on the treads, maybe some type of smoking steam engine mounted above the back blade and a steam-punk style paint job that de-emphasis the sci-fi nature, and this could very well make for a decent Mantic Death Engine for your Ratkin army.  I look forward to seeing someone make one.

Because it is all fun and games . . .

Comments

  1. Just snap fitted these together last week and am waiting to paint before the guns go on.

    Lovely mode and the material gorgeous to work with.

    I removed some tiny mold lines on the treads but I don't think I'll bother in future, they look perfectly plausible on a machine like that.

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