'Splodey time

It's popular in shoot 'em up video games to have explosive red barrels dotted around the place to help you clear rooms full of bad guys. You know the kind of thing, you're out of grenades and an entire column of enemy troops is advancing towards you in a tightly packed formation, right past that bright red barrel of high explosives that someone just happened to leave lying about.

So I thought this might be an interesting idea to port to tabletop wargaming. In Inquisimunda or Kill Team style games, red barrels could add a bit of pyrotechnic flare. They could be strategically placed near an enemy HQ, so that underdogs, if they can get a character to a specified location, can shoot at them in an attempt to set off a big bang and level the playing field. (Literally level it and everything in it, for, say, a 6 inch radius.)

And in larger games, like WH40K, it could  – as per any of my other civilian vehicles – just be left hanging around the place for a little extra texture. Like a piece of scenery. Except it might be one you wouldn't want to hide behind in a firefight.

The model I've just finished painting is a tracked variant – a fuel trailer, based mainly on some interesting bits 'n' bobs I had left over from an old wartrakk skorcha I converted a few years ago (more on that in a later post). This means I have a third possibility for the use of this thing. I can add it to my Ork armoured brigade. This makes sense for two reasons:

1) Like many Ork armies, mine uses red as a major part of their livery.

2) Orks are exactly the kind of idiots who would leave a highly explosive red barrel in their frontline.

I plan to get back to my Orks at some point in the near future. I'll share them all here when I do. I just need to finish my vehicle project first. And the city itself. And my Arbites. And the servitor/denizens. And those gunslingers, and, and, and...