The CHAS has a very neutral static pose once assembled, so to give it a little movement I angled the head to one side and repositioned the arms slightly so they weren’t pointing quite so straight forward. I wanted the CHAS to look very heavily weathered both from the desert environment and the amount of combat they have been involved in, so I painted them using the same layering technique I have been using recently on the second batch of Marauders. I began with a dry brush of boltgun metal and chainmail silver over the entire model, which I followed with a block colour of flat earth and graveyard earth 50/50 mix. To layer up the weathered paint over the battle-scarred chassis, I mixed increasing amounts of desert yellow and finally bleached bone into the base mix keeping the paint very thin. By gradually building up the layers over the base colour you eventually get the heavily weathered paint effect seen in the photo.

To give the model some contrast I picked out the upper arms and shoulders in red rather than desert yellow. This started as a 50/50 base mix of terracotta red and scar red, to which I added a drop of red gore then finally blood red for the two stages of highlights.

For the head of 'Hotel-Two' I wanted to make the model stand out a little character wise, hence the skull. Although the CHAS are modelled as faceless robots, I wanted to give one of them some character based on how the MI platoon it was assigned to may have adopted the CHAS as a kind of mascot. Just the same way that pilots often painted icons, names, slogans or teeth on their aircraft during WWII, I wanted to show the CHAS having been given a few extra paint markings by the MI that probably weren’t there when it left the workshop.

Using exactly the same weathered layering as the rest of the model I used cold grey as the base colour for the skull marking, followed by wolf grey and finally white for the two stages of highlights. The final task was to pick out the weapons in silver and black ink and highlight the weather worn edges of the chassis in chainmail silver as well as add the markings and unit designation. The base was the same sand gravel mix I used on all my Mobile Infantry models to date and was dry brushed flat earth, desert yellow and beige in that order.

The second CHAS I modified slightly again, opting for the the chest open variant. I also removed the manipulator claws on the right arm and replaced them with the front half of the SW-226-f Hel Infantry flamer as I felt this looked more appropriate for the models load out and better matched the photograph in the rulebook taken from the Roughnecks CGI series. I also noticed that the Trip Hammer Mortar appeared to fit onto the model in two different positions; both on the shoulder (raised) and retracted, so for variety showed it in the retracted position.

Similar to Hotel-Two I angled the head so it followed the line of the raised weapon and additionally angled the arm out even further. This was done by simply filing away a small section of the elbow socket on either side enough that the arm could be positioned further to the right. I still have to finish off the final detailing with a few markings such as the squad designation and serial numbers on the shoulder armour, but other than that both models are pretty much ready to be gamed with.

From assembly to completion both models took less than an evening, which made them a simple choice to add to my army list, as well as give my MI some extra firepower on the ground.

At some stage I will also add the Platoon NCO and Tac Nuke trooper to the army once I have finished converting him, but for now its back to painting female CAP Troopers so I can reinforce my predominately all-male MI squads.

Next: Female Cap Troopers and NCO. Do you want to know more?