Kodiak Destroyer Conversion

Here's the final grizzly family member in RAFM scale.. my Kodiak Destroyer um... chaplain... or duelist... or army commander... not sure which (or what combo of those) yet! 

I changed up the rocket pod just like with my previous gears (although using a smaller bit to signify the lack of dual pods in the current rules).  Due to the relative size of the protrusions like the engine cylinders and the bazooka, I frankly didn't have much posing options.  The arms pretty much could only be elevated as much as they arm due to bumping up against the engine and the torso couldn't really be swiveled much either.  In the end, I decided to go with a more on purpose looking static pose trying to make lemonade out of lemons.  I took off the pack gun from the left arm  (as well as the circular rocket pod) and drilled out the hand.  I converted my last 40k grey knight halberd into a duelist weapon/melee staff similar to the one used by the gearstrider Scimitar.  I then added a few cloth bits (also from 40k) to make the character model a bit more similar to the cover art of the original northern Blitz book (and the art on the current Northern chapter page in the living rulebook).  I considered adding back a folded pack gun like I did to the Crossbow grizzly but ultimately decided against it (as well as the APGL) as I thought the model would look too busy. 

Here's a group shot of all four together.

I was relatively surprised by the similarity in size (minus the missile launcher) of the Kodiak to the other grizzly models.  This matches the RPG fluff on which these old models were based but I suppose I just got used to the injected size differences between classes in current blitz.  I had hoped to use the Kodiak as a Gear Strider in current scale Blitz but it's a bit smaller than I had hoped.  The Scimitar (according to the original DP9 press release) is 68mm tall but they didn't state to which part of the model (it has a humpback tower/turret behind and above the head).  I assume that it is to the literal top of the model; in the case of the Kodiak, it's about 62mm to the top of the missile launcher and about 52mm to the top of the head.  I'll have to actually see (and hopefully compare) it to a real Scimitar both in height and bulk to see if it's a worthwhile substitute.  It's not too much of a problem in the current living rules as the LOS by default is substituted by a rectangular profile regardless of the actual model dimensions. 

Finally, I can deny it no longer... my new cell phone camera sucks at taking model pictures.  Part of the issue is the time and location of the pics (in the evening when I can work on the models and in the not so bright basement where I do the hobby work) but the camera app doesn't have great features as well (like no dedicated macro function).  I tried retaking some pics last night with my old dedicated digital camera (a simple consumer model.. nothing fancy) and it was a little better but still not much.  Today, in between clouds, I tried taking some natural lighting pics and will be replacing the previous blog entries with the better pics where possible.  Without further whining about my lack of photography prowess, here are the new better but still not great duo pics!