(Painting) Hultr Half-Track from Mantic

The Gnomish Space Marines project continues to develop, even if individual manpower is a slow process.

Squat support weapons of all sort are known for being bombastic and simply ridiculous, especially when looking at Epic-scale armies.  The GSM surely have some crazy planetary defense force-level equipment, but in smaller, or even day-to-day operations, they need sturdy, reliable vehicles.  

Enter on the workhouses of the GSM, the Hultr Half-Track (GSM re-branding forthcoming).

The Hultr is a support vehicle for the Forge Fathers from Mantic's Warpath Universe.  
 

I managed to acquire my first one with reasonable discount, and in a rare eBay moment nowadays, found three more at dirt cheap prices.  There will be variants forthcoming.  

Straight out of the box, the model is relatively simply to assemble.  Each vehicle comes with the option for a Twin Hailstorm Autocannon (think suppressive fire/anti-personnel) or a Magma Cannon (anti-armor).  While I believe it's meant to be interchangeable, the autocannon is secure, and I have plans for the extra weapons, very retro-nostalgic plans.

There's some initial inspiration from sample Land Raider artwork for the Imperial Guard 7th Regiment "The Lucky Sevens."  I simply like the red tracks and if that allowed me to avoid the hyper-realistic treads I see elsewhere, thank goodness.  

For the main body I used a Vallejo Russian Green,  Americana Honey Brown for the accents, and a mixture of reds for the treads 

The half-track is my second attempt at battle damage using sponge and the results are okay, but it also created some fun fluff.  

The armor plating that's stark white is a regular occurrence in the GSM universe.  Vehicles like this are a dime a dozen, so spare parts are plentiful, as are pieces of armor.  Whether forged on-planet, or delivered in bulk, the armor is simply primed white and put in storage.  With so many paint schemes on vehicles, the pieces are used to replace compromised armor on the vehicles, but there's no guarantee the matching paint job can happen the same day.  I don't picture this resulting into a late-model white Honda with a blue door and black front bumper, but vehicles could have primed plates, freshly-painted plates, as well as plenty of battle damage.

The Hultr with some Battle Valor Space Dwarves (in progress)

With a Space Marine (and Space Dwarf) for scale 

Overall, I'm very satisfied with the Hultr as a model.  It was a easy to assemble, there were no flaws to the pieces outside general prep, and once a good primer and base coat was laid down, a breeze to paint.  I don't know if I'd drop $100 full retail for the four I procured, but I certainly would have picked up a second at online retail rates to bolster my forces (no one local seems to carry Mantic).  I'll give the model 4 out of 5 gnomes.  I'll be on the lookout for the Forge Fathers bigger vehicles, like the Sturmhammer Battle Tank, or the Drakkar APC.