A walk on the "Weird" side

Warm Acre body SoTR head - an experiment!

Recently I have been taking something of a pause from the grim realities of the historical Eastern Front - I have been thinking about the whole Weird War II genre.

For my more "serious" readers, this wargaming niche revolves around various Occult or Alien intervention during the 1939-45 war.  It can be a pretty dark and Satanic place full of Vampires and zombies or a mech-packed sci-fi battlefield - often a mixture of both.  Now I am the first to say it is all nonsense but nevertheless it can be entertaining to let the mind wander...

I decided to create a small skirmish force for "Projekt Ostara" (more of which at a later date)  Without delving too much into the background story, Ostara is guided by suitably mad scientists under the patronage of some shady figures.  Viral contamination, alien tech and the obligatory walkers are all present - but I wish to maintain a distinctly 1940s feel.

So with this in mind I have been searching for walkers that look "right" - this has been no easy task.  The Dust Tactics and AT-43 miniatures often look quite splendid - especially the former as the designers have taken care to equip the vehicles with "period" weapons.  Although good, all still appear a little "high tech" for me - especially when it comes to the Manga-style feet and legs.  The SoTR offerings from Westwind Productions are attractive but prompt similar concerns about being "too modern" looking.

I had reached the end of my tether and decided to abandon the whole idea but then chanced upon Games Workshop's "Imperial Guard Sentinel".  This bipedal beast is small and rickety looking - just up my alley.  In addition it is a plastic kit - thus making conversion simple.  Most importantly the feet look spot-on!

The Sentinel undergoing back-dating.

After braving the local store (full of sweating teenagers with an over-worked and over-enthusiastic staffer trying to cope) I set to work on removing the GW feel.  At the moment it is in the very early stages of conversion but I think it has promise.  Once the styrene cement has set I will get to work removing rivets and adding some epoxy putty weld seams.  In addition the hatch needs to be worked on so that a commander can be added.


The vehicle is armed with an auto-loading 7.5cm L/24 cannon and is intended to be a recon support vehicle - somewhat akin to the Sdkfz 234/3.  The crew will be (a cramped) two men with a medium range wireless set

I am very interested to learn if others have used these models as a base for "Weird" walkers.