Mantic Games’ first ever vehicle was the Forge Father Jotunn Heavy Hailstorm Cannon. It’s a chunky multi-part plastiresin kit they asked Golem Painting Studio to bring to life with acrylics.

For Golem, it was a superfun puzzle. There were no instructions or photos of the thing as it should be assembled. And, complicating matters the box of parts Golem received were all prototypes with different toolings to the finished kit – there were extra nubbins that had to be cut off or drilled out. Tommie couldn’t just do the regular trick of seeing which parts slotted into each other.

A Forge Father, in a pose that can best be descirbed as a “Squat”.

The main puzzlement happened over the drumclips (you can see one between the between the gunshield and the driver, and the second stowed on the back). Logic told us that there were four gun barrels, and two of these pairs of clips – so all four go between the shield and the driver. But no! Maybe they were sonic focussers that glued on the end of the barrels? Were they extra wheels that went inside the tracks?

After a lot of head-scratching Tommie got a hold of the concept art for the answers. I regarded this as cheating (like when you have to read the instructions on your Transformers). But aha! This solved nothing as the concept art was different and showed both pairs stowed on the back.

Like the Orx Raptor, the vehicle strikes a balance between a vivid photo-friendly scheme and a modern weathered feel. Speaking of which if you’d like to see another great example of blue weathering check out Carl Woodrow’s WIP Land Raider Proteus.

You can see the Jotunn in the flesh this weekend at Mantic’s Warparth Release Party. You can pick Tommie’s brains about how to paint and ask him how he does his funky weathering at the Orx Painting Seminar too.