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We are running a paint and play league in my neck of the woods. The premise is to start with a fully painted 500pts. Every month you add 250pts of painted mini's till you reach 2000pts. There is a paint judging competion every month. You can only win 3 times. If you win the month you get bonus victory points. The FOC is changed slightly so you cant go overboard on any one type of slot right away.

Points are as follows.

Win - 3pts
Draw - 2pts
Loss - 1pts
Monthly paint award- 3pts (3 win limit)

Two games are played each month vs different opponents each time. In theory you can only play any given opponent once in the league. Seven month schedule for a total of 14 games.

I thought this would be a great opportunity to get a Guard army finished before the nex dex comes out. However as it is not known exactly what to expect with the new dex I felt i had to go for variety over power. So no doctrines for me. That way I can have the widest range of mini's done for the new dex. This also means that I will be fielding units that are lets just say not very good.

However I love a challenge so I'm giving it a shot. I will just say that I am a very very slow painter and choosing the guard was and is a bit daunting for me. So I started this lil blog in the hopes that my fellow Dakkites will give me some encouragement to keep going till the bitter end. Just so you know we have completed the 1000pts check point already. I will follow up with further updates as the months pass.

MONTH 1: First 500pts



Closer shot of a infantry squad.



Shot of the Ratlings



The Chimera



So the first month pretty much went as follows.

1st game. Played a chaos player in a kill points mission. (Ughh) Highlights: He had 2 squads and a expensive hq. I somehow managed to wittle down one squad and charged the other squad with my sentinel. I had to run away pretty much the entire game and it didn't look very brave at all. Tie 1 to 1

2nd game. Played a Tau player. This guy is very skilled and I have met him in various tournaments. He is always in the top 5 if not top 3. Game started out a chess match. Then the leadership became a factor. Most of his army ran off the board. His dice were decent unless it was a leadership test. Shoulda been closer. Guard win.

I managed to get the painting award the first month but a guy with sisters was late and showed up after judgeing. His stuff is beautiful. Gonna be hard to beat him in later months. Quite a few armies look good and some talented painters and skilled players are in this league should be fun.

MONTH 2: 250pts (750pts total)



The command squad. (I wanted something different so I went for a war council. From right to left. Baneblade adviser, Infantry adviser, JO (Creed), Russ adviser and Navy adviser or Steve as he has come to be know.)



Sentinel



The second month went like this.

1st Game. VS sisters. The game was great and his models were suburb. It was a kill point mission (Uggghhh) It was a tight game that had quite a few units wiped off the table on both sides. It was an honor playing against such a fantastic looking army and a great guy. We almost spent more time talking about painting then playing. Result: Tie

2nd Game. VS Space Sharks (Marines) Now this guy is a great player with great looking models. He had terminatiors and I soon realized that they are rock hard vs the list I have. I managed to kill most of his units but the termies kept beating me down. Last turn my Chimera shoots forward and the troops claims an objective. Stupid close. Stupid fun. Result: Win

I managed yet again to snag the paint award this month. However it was very close and the sisters player told me is is fielding sisters repentia and penitent engions next month. My prediction: He will win painting next month.

MONTH 3: 250pts (1000pts total)



My converted Demolisher cannon.



Karskin



My 3rd month went pretty much like this.

1st Game: VS Black Templars. I decided to challenge the league organizer for fun. I kinda forgot that templars run at you if you kill them. So needless to say he was knocking on my doorstep pretty fast. I got some lucky pie plate hits and killed almost everything he had. Turn 6 he had two models left and one was on my objective and the other was on his. So as it looked I had lost but fate was on my side and we rolled and got one last turn. I killed the two marines and got a massacre. Too close for comfort. One of the most fun games I had played so far. Result: Win

2nd Game: VS Necrons. This game was brutal and a chess match. Damned monolith deep struck right on top of my entire army and proceeded to whittle me down all game as I continued to ignore it. At the end the Chimera rushed forward and snagged a objective (again). I held 3 of the 5 objectives with 5 guardsmen. He really shaved those 3 squads down. This months game so far were my favorite. Close and bloody. Result: Win

Sisters player won the painting award this month hands down with his repentia and penetint engions. I hope I can take him in a few months. As my next months stuff is more of the same. I hope my ogren will give me a helping hand when I get around to them. There are some other good painters that will be putting the pressure on with their good stuff here soon as well.

On a side note my 2 best friends are in the league and are doing well. The BA player is curb stomping everyone and has not got a loss or a tie yet. My best friends both played a test game vs me. Yeah I got owned so bad by both of them. So pretty sure I will lose those when they come up in the league.

So recap. Having a great time playing with a seriously underpowered army. I think as we get later in the league it will get harder for me to pull wins. Since I am in it primarily for the fun I really won't care when people start stomping me. I will have my revenge when the new dex comes out.


After 3 months

Wins:4
Draws:2
Losses: 0
Paint awards. 2 of 3 possible

Please keep me painting. I'm losing my motivation.

More to follow....

I must say the painting on those are quite superb

Very nice. You win a Morley.

Nice and simple for a great effect.

Awesome stuff so far mate.
Your army is great looking. Very crisp, very clean and Im really liking the camopattern on your vehicles. Also very clean.

Looking forward to seeing more of your work.

Maybe you could even get some of the others guys of the league to post their armies here. Id really like to see some of those as well.

Thx for sharing.

a very awesome army!

I'm amazed the sisters guy beat you, those are ace models! Put my IG to shame . I especially like the camo pattern on on the vehicles; simple but good looking and very well executed. The only thing I would've done differently is removed one section of the demolisher cannon; itl ooks a bit too long for me.

Then again, I have over 100 infantry and very litte painting , so I need to speed paint

Great job, on the stories and the painting! How about some veteran drop troops with meltas? I think you could do a great job modeling them, and they are the best unit IG has.

Yeah, the Sisters models must be pretty a amazing, your paint style is very codex-y, nice and clean.

What are you going to add next?

- Blackbone

Thank you all for your generous responses! It really has helped me on the desire to paint.

I chose Cadian's for their fluff. I have always like the way they look and their background. I also thought they would safely survive the new Dex. So in that capacity they seemed like the best choice for me. So I kept them about as close to the codex feel as I could make them.

On a side note I am colorblind so I wanted a well established color pallet that other people could help me tell what color is what. I have to look at the wet part of the model for shading so if it dries before I'm finished with the highlight I have to start over as I cannot tell what I just did. Make the painting slow going. So the codex really helps me for the reference.

My next 250 points is.

Hellhound

sentinel with multilaser

10 man guard squad with plasma gun and ML.

Time permitting I will upgrade a flamer to meltagun.

I will try to get some pics of another army or two the next time. They will be at the store so I can't guarantee the pics will do them any justice. So hopefully It will help created a better picture of the league.

P.S. Drop Melta's will not be making an appearance in this army. I do use them from time to time with my guard (I have 2500pts of painted used mini's collected over the years.) but I needed the flexibility to run all models so I could not afford the doctrine. If I come up with a good way to do both I will make some. I choose the army piece by piece so I don't get tired of painting the same type of thing. So I don't know what I am adding after this month.

hey if you want you could get a group of terminators or if even grey knight termies to add on to your army they would be a good challenge to paint and also to play with

Well I do love terminators. I already have a pretty large Deathwing army so they will not be used. I am keeping everything pure guard and non doctrines. I am however open for suggestions for 250pt chunks. I have a Inquisitor and his retinue already painted but won't be using him as I want as much guard painted as possible before the Dex comes out.

The models look great.
Especially like the command squad and vehicles.

How did you paint the camo on your vehicles? I've tried to do that style without success several times.

Also think you could get any pics of the SOB army?

For painting the tanks.

Primered black

heavy dry brush DA green , almost a wet brush, over the entire tank. Don't worry about treads and the like they are easy to fix later.

2 or more coats of light catachan green dry brush. lighter dry brush avoids streaks. I use newspaper to get rid of most of the paint then use my arm to remove the last bit of wetness. Do this step till you think the green looks done as the next step is very subtle.

1 coat of cammo green on the raised areas ONLY. Very light.

Paint with bubonic brown your cammo pattern. Slightly watered down. Use multiple coats as opposed to one thick coat. Till it is smooth and one color.

Use flesh wash INK over the bubonic brown. Thick or straight out of the bottle with little to no water added. Careful not to overlap with the green.

Using smaller drybrush and bleached bone bring the bone color up slowly. Multiple coats are a must here. Less is more at this stage. Light colors tend to streak so it will take a while before you start to see the desired effect. It takes time and patience but is worth not streaking the model. Do this till you think it is done as the next step is very subtle.

Hit raised areas with white.

Paint the rest of the tank as you see fit.

As you can see it is basically the same steps repeated a few times. It takes time and is slow going to get the effect with out streaks. Both green and bone have a Shadow, primary and highlight color. Just sub out for your colors and you are good to go.

I will try to get some shots of the SOB army. I love his army and would like to share it with you if I can.

The next games are on Jan 11th. So I need to get some stuff painted in time. Its all put together except the sentinel. More pics when I finish this months stuff. Hope other armies after the 11th.

Greta job! One of my favorite parts is the old school Eavy Metal green bases! I thought I was the only old timer who did that still!

Nope we are still around. It is just fitting for me. All my armies but my crons have goblin green bases. Nice looking guardsman by the way. I still see the old green bases from time to time. It does seem to date you however.

Thank you. I need to take some quality pics and post them up. They are the "Vedia Golden Warriors". Tan and red for the uniform with red piping on the jackets and pants. Brown for the boots and guns to kinda tie em in and gold for the helmets. I wanted to do something differant but still with a military structure to them.

Is that the same Sentinel in the top pic as the close ups further down? I love the armored windscreen and open cockpit.....so much I think I'm gonna rip mine open and so some sawing. I love the look.

Oh and I love the Demolisher cannon! Any build pics of that?

NM answered my own question, differant bases....... have put together but not primed and two to build. The un-built primed one is sitting in front of me now about to get the saw taken to it.

I hate the green bases. Other than that everything looks fantastic.

that is definitely the most astonishing gaurd army I have seen from a player, and thats coming form someone who frequents a battle bunker. the fact that your colorblind really makes me surprised, as the highlighiting and shadows are all supreme.

Keep it up. can't wait to see the next 250pt chunk

mDaro- To build that demolisher cannon is easy. It is just the standard demolisher cannon set up and just inserting the Hellhammer turret into it. Take the hellhammer barrel from the baneblade kit. Shouldn't be hard to find as most people don't use that variant. Shave off the hellhammer barrel cap. Then shave the extra nubbins from the demolisher turret cap so it is just round. And glue. Fits well. Ya might wanna shave more or do a touch of greenstuff depending on your level of perfection. If you have the bits just look at the picture and it will all make perfect sense if my wording is confusing.


Sidstyler - I get that allot.

fantastic!
i absolutely love the second sentinel.

I'm impressed! Very sharp and clean, very crisp. I usually can't get at the eyes [ stupid hands ]. I'm more of a fan of the dirty look though, but for the look of a regiment right out of training with fresh gear from the quartermaster, that looks great, if that's what you were going for.

wow, very nice painting sir.
Looking forward to seeing your ogren squad, are there any conversions in there?
Still can't get over the fact your colour-blind, amazing.
GL in the next rounds!

I like your store's league set-up. Where abouts do you play?

Your models are superbly well-painted. I'll second the request for pictures of the SOBs. They must be mind-blowing to have beaten you even once.

We play in bellevue nebraska at the Game Shoppe. Great store and great employees.

So update. I finished my Hellhound today. I am not very happy with it but I need to move on and get the rest of this months stuff started. I have everything but the Sentinel built and primed.

So here it is.

Top View




Will post more as it is finished. Thanks for the support Dakka it is helping. Now I feel like I will be disappointing more than just me if I don't keep painting.

Side view. Color is more accurate on the top view. I will have to retake this pic and update later.

...Yup. That's the top alright. What exactly don't you like about it? The green appears to be a bit duller than your other tanks, but that might just be the photo.
Still looks great from here.

EDIT: Hadn't seen second pic, but the green still looks a bit duller. I really like the hardlined hullmount heavy bolters throughout this army.