Imperial Guard Hellhammer and Stormlord

Here are the two latest finished Super Heavy tanks of the Walpurgian 3rd. This is a Hellhammer and a Stormlord. They both have red turret markings and this means that hey are the second squad of the 1st Super Heavy Tank Company. 

Fist out is the Hellhammer named The Tormentor, and it is commanded by Captain John McAllister Schofield. He is standing in the turret along with the main gunner. The Hellhammer is built on the Baneblade chassis, but the turret is slightly different and it has another cannon. The cannon is a Hellhammer cannon (genius choice of a name there), and with its explosive shells it can clear away enemies hiding behind cover very effectively. This tank is often used as the spearhead of an urban assault, and in the Walpurgian 3rd that means that the troops of the 27th Infantry Regiment can advance behind it when advancing on hostile cities. 

As with the Baneblade the Hellhammer has been given two side sponsons (one on each side) and they are located at the back of the tank. Each sponson has twin heavy flamers. I chose this because I wanted to make it as fearsome as possible for enemy infantry hiding in ruined cities, the fear of being burned alive is greater than being cut to shreds with heavy bolter rounds that will end your life instantly. 

Here is a shot from the back as well, just to prove I have painted all sides of the tank. For a long time I had not painted the back, as I didn't know how I should paint the shrine to the right. But I found a setup I liked and went with it. The exhaust pipes are painted the same way for all my tanks, both super heavies and Leman Russes (as later blog posts will show). You might think I have forgotten to paint the sculls on the barrels at the back, but that is a decision made by the crews that they will not give their enemies a point to aim at.

The next tank is the Stormlord. It is armed with a Vulcan mega-bolter and this basically spits out a hail of bolter fire to mow down entire platoons of infantry, and shred lightly armed vehicles to pieces. 

This tank is named The Iron Saint, and is commanded by Captain Isaac Ridgeway Trimble. 

The Stormlord also have twin heavy flamers in its side sponsons, but unlike the Baneblades and the Hellhammer, the side sponsons are located at the front. One of the reasons for this is that the Stormlord can carry 40 troopers in to battle and they pile out from the back so you don't want the troopers to get in the way.  

This Stormlord carries troopers from the 27th Infantry Regiment. It carries 15 heavy weapon teams and 1 regular Veteran squad. The idea is that the tank can get the troops safely to high value targets, then the heavy weapon teams and the Veterans can pour out of the tank as close to the target as possible, take out the target and get back in the tank and move to the next. This will make the advance of the rest of the army a little faster (though it is never easy in the 41st millennium) as they should only need to handle "light" resistance while advancing.

The Stormlord carries 3 heavy weapon teams with lascannons, 12 heavy weapon teams with missile launchers and 1 squad of 10 veterans.