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Hey guys, thanks for stopping by! So I have caught IG fever big time! I've had my Vostroyans for a quite a while now, and although I'm satisfied with how they look, I can't channel any hobby energy into anything but guard, because I'm so overwhelmingly excited for the new guard book.

So I decided that I would just retouch my models, a unit at a time. I painted the infantry long before GW had released the citadel washes. Those washes are such a fantastic tool to have in my paint box, that I was eager to use them to soften up my blends and to overhaul the gold and silver. Also, I was quite inspired by Bigred from BoLS's snow basing tutorial

Here's a pic of the models I am starting with. The distance and the quality is lacking (snapped these with my iphone), but I just wanted to give you all an idea of what I'm starting with. It is basically 3 minimum sized infantry platoons and a command platoon with lots of heavy weapons.



I love me some tanks. I have way more points in armor than infantry. Even though those Vostroyan models are so gorgeous. I won't need to do as much work on the tanks but I plan to update them as well, with snow packed on the roof (in the right spots). I'm also inspired to do some more weathering to them, using techniques like crushed pastels.

Here is a picture of my armor. If you can't tell from a glance, it is a tank company, a baneblade, three basilisks, three chimeras, three hellhounds and a trio of multi-laser sentinels. Can you tell I like apocalypse?



I plan to work feverishly up until May 2nd. I'll primarily be updating these models but I will also be painting some new units, especially when more rules rumors come in. I'll be taking some kind of guard army to the Vegas GT, so hopefully I'll keep this blog alive until around September '09

I hope this blog keeps my excitement and productivity high. I'm also hoping to get all sorts of great ideas from all of you guys. I may be updating my table to a realm of battle gameboard, and I'll need a plan to make it snow covered and remain storable. I also have no idea where snow would gather on a tank. I'm not a lifelong tread-head so my book collection about WWII tanks is pretty limited. So if anyone would like to tell me about some resources or link me pictures that would rule.

Oh and I've been busy already. I have pictures to share that I will post very shortly.

Thanks again for participating!

Here is my first shot. I re-coated all of the gold and used gryphonne sepia and little bit of devlan mud on shining gold with burnished gold highlights, rather than the old fashioned chestnut ink. I like how much softer and more brushed rather than polished the washes make metals. Makes them look antique. I decided to bring my burgundy up to red. I like the color burgundy better in real life, but table top distances of tiny models just require a little more pop. Subtlety doesn't often get as enjoyed as it could be at a tourney or at a table for a friendly game. So I opted for more 'zazz. Other than that it is the same as it was before, oh and I can't rave enough about the snow technique I learned. I know its probably an old classic, but somehow it had eluded my bag of tricks. The fact that you can add the texture to any part of the model is just so fun. Getting some of the snow on his boots, and on his hat (i love how his hat is sagging like that, why couldn't it be the weight of the snow pulling it down like that?)

I like the infantry dude and the tanks but the photo's a bit blurry so i dunno wat the basilisks or what i think are sentinel look like.

There is a three-way tie for my favorite vostroyan model. It is between the senior officer with the "hidden power fist" and bird-like bionic leg, the sniper model standing on ruined city terrain and this one...



I basically did the same upgrade that i did for the test model, and had fun tucking some snow into the nook at the top of the flagpole.

A side note, i don't really understand why this guy has a half jacket. If you haven't seen the models rear yet, the other half of his jacket is not hanging behind him. It's literally a 'one-sleeve' jacket. Still love this sculpt! The 'archangel michael' knock-off gives them a very russian orthodox feel.

I thought I'd add a chevek to the ranks. Even though he's an outsider this commissar has proven that he can hold his rahzvod




He's not quite finished yet. although I'm not sure what he needs other than his bolt pistol getting highlighted a bit. Please feel free to suggest some things I can do to him.

At first I thought that having snow gathered on his hat and epaulets would just be outlandish. But a good friend and gaming groupmate insisted I at least try it. I think its really characterful.

If you haven't put this character model next to other models then you might not know that the bolt pistol is head high. He looks great slid next to an officer, with the muzzle nestled behind his ear. I can envision this guy just standing like that for long minutes in order to 'dissuade' any hasty retreat orders being issued.

In order to compete with the attention that pack of space marine casualties is getting I thought I'd include my own casualties. Plus I got to have way more fun with snow than i would have with a regular model.

I'll be using these as objectives for tourneys.





These were FUN!!!

The blood didn't look right until i stole a technique from a gaming groupmate. The trick is to splash some very watered down Iyanden Darksun around the blood pool. Makes it look pretty disgusting.

Destructo-Dids wrote:I like the infantry dude and the tanks but the photo's a bit blurry so i dunno wat the basilisks or what i think are sentinel look like.

Yeah, sorry about the poor quality of the 'before' pics. I just included them to give everyone an idea of the project's 'scope'.

Thanks for the compliment. I think you'll be seeing the sentinels soon, as I can't wait to get them updated!

Shep wrote:

I feel sorry for this guy.

Nice work, I feel I should redo my guard since I got the washes, but looking at them all kills me.

I love them, its so nice to sell fully painted guard armies! The close up "fresh" ones look fab!

Keep it up

Looks great, Shep! I have to say, the pictures don't do them justice - we'll work on the technique a bit (I have picked up a couple of tricks that will work nicely.)

I love the snow casualties - they look better than I even thought they would. One suggestion (and I haven't seen them in person) would be to use a bit of scab red where the blood would be thickest to add a bit of depth (the warm blood melting away the snow, if you will).

Prepare yourself for the coming of the World Eaters - they are definitely getting the snow treatment to fit on your home table.

Wow! Great job! I especially like the fact that you put extra attention to detail with the placement of snow on models (head, shoulders, boots, coats) They look great

Your casualty model is nicely messy!

Wow, loving the objective markers. And the infantry. and the snoweffect. And the characters.

could we get a sharper picture on the armour, and shots of the squads?

Always nice to see a fully painted guard army, especially when it's done as well as yours.

Could we get some close-ups of the tanks as well?

Ooh! I wouldn't like to cross whatever got hold of the dead guardsman. Anyway those are some nicely painted minis, my favourite is definitely the one with the standard, that's some quality shading you got going on there.

First off... wow thank you guys for all the kind words. I got too many requests to see the armor up close. So I very quickly threw them in my tent, I didn't have my macro on so Somnicide please stuff your picture quality notes in a sack (Som is a RL friend, I'm just teasing him)

I'm not incredibly proud of the paint job on them. As I update them with the new refurbishing I'll probably remove the 'before' batch. I am very happy at the volume of painted tanks I have though.

Ok, I'm not sure exactly what I'm going to do to them other than some crushed pastel concrete dust effects and adding some snow (I'm especially looking forward to add dirty snow into the tracks). I'm seriously considering mixing a slightly lighter color to put over their base color. (Right now it is straight Rotting Flesh with some very light bestial brown drybrushing). I REALLY like the Vostroyan baneblade's color that GW painted. Here is a crappy pic that I hastily located of the tank I'm talking about. If you have the apocalypse book, its the baneblade they used in the first battle report. How should I go about getting to that color? If anyone has any thoughts I'd LOVE to hear them. I'd really like to hit it out of the park with those leman russes. I want to be ready to field 9 of them in my 1750 army!

Here's the team captain "Deathclock"


Here are is the tank company... I'd really like to make these guys awesome. Suggestions ahoy!





Here's my artillery...


My only IG forgeworld models, the Hellhounds. That tank on the back looks like a big target.


My chimeras. I need some more. Maybe if I wait until May, they won't be as necessary. I probably will wait. Got a lot of other things to work on.


And finally, the sentinels. Apparently these sentinels are like the Sasquatch... You can't get a clear picture of them. I'll be retouching them soon, since I like them so much, then I'll set a macro and take a pic one at a time.


Thanks again! Hoping to get the command squad finished by adding the senior officer the master vox and a medic. Hopefully after Sprue Posse's weekly paint night on wednesday I'll have another pic to post!

That banner is quite awesome.

The other day one of the owners of my FLGS casually mentioned that he was painting over 400 Vostroyans. I thought I was hallucinating, but I just confirmed it from someone else. Friggin' nut.

Great Vostroyans, Shep! I can't wait to see them all pop up to the standard of your latest retouch (they looked awesome to begin with, don't get me wrong).
The fact that all of the steps you're doing to get the newly touched-up look are "gravy" steps (the fun ones vs. the dreaded base-coating stages) and that you're working toward a new codex release both seem like excellent sources of inspiration. (And the fact that you're P&M blogging them might just inspire me to stop lurking and do a bit of posting here myself. )

As for the armor... the crushed pastels are going to work great along with the snow effect. Mixing a little bit of powdered pastel into your snow mix in a few spots should be fun too.
That said, I think all of your tanks were painted before the citadel washes came out, so it would probably be worth testing them first as a quick, no-hassle weathering/shading technique.

I've got several good WWII tread-head books I can loan you to give you some ideas for dirt, grime, snow, damage, etc..
Also, one thing that was really popular in snow environments was to white-wash tanks with whatever white, paint-like substance the tank crew could get its hands on. The original paint was never completely covered, but the wash broke up the silhouette to make the tanks a little less obvious. Your Vossy tanks are already pretty light-colored, so this might not be the trick... but it's just a thought.

And, I don't know how into tank stowage you are... but you might find it fun to add a bit to your tank company.

Now, if only I can get my green-skins done and up to your standard so we can duke it out when your codex is released...

Very cool.

Love the comissar with the snow on his coat.

Works very well.

great looking army, and wow you have a lot of tanks, all painted too!

Just wrapped up another 'paint night' at my place. Pretty full house tonight. Everyone was really productive, a bunch of us are fired up about our projects. I might even get Gitsmack to start a plog. He has some amazing ork stuff in the works. I'd love it if he shared it with you guys.

I was super productive! I finished my command squad and I'm pretty happy with it. Here it is...




I was battling with the senior officer for a while. His sash was many different colors tonight. I settled on him matching the sash color of his banner bearer buddy. The model needed some lighter colors around the center of the model to break up all that gold brown and red. I also ended up kicking his mo' up to skull white. I loved doing both the master vox and the medic. I hope they are playable when the 'dex hits.

Gitsmack gave me so many tips on tank updating. I'll tell you more about it later when I post my test pics of the WIP leman russ. I'm stoked on that as well.

Big thanks to Sprue Posse for making paint night such an awesome source of motivation, inspiration and consternation!

I mentioned that GitSmack had given me some seriously useful tips to sprucing up my tanks for this repaint. Well here are a before and after shot of the side of one tank




Having the tank already painted up to the level it is, is going to make this upgrade seriosuly fast and easy. I started by applying liberal amounts of Devlan Mud over all the areas that were previously covered by chestnut ink. Once that dried I began drybrushing Dheneb Stone in circular motions across the whole tank. After i got it lightened to the point where I thought it was matching that apocalypse baneblade i referenced earlier, I went for some different weathering techniques.

I started with the a sponge full of scorched brown and smashed that on a couple of places. I made that weathering 3D by painting dheneb stone right out of the pot as a highlight to the bottom of the brown spots. Then I took some crushed pastels a chocolate brown and a black, and applied them lightly to all of those gear looking things, into the cracks between panels and as a seperation between the red stripe and the whitewashed tank.

Lastly, I added the snow in the areas i thought it might collect. I'll probably finish this tank up tonight, but I wanted to put this WIP up to see if i could get any comments about it.

How do you guys feel about it? Does it need something else? Have I overdone it with any of the techniques?

Thanks!

I really like what you have going on here. I will be buying a forgeworld hellhound here soon, so don't be surprised if I steal a few ideas from you. Love the flame wash on the front of the tanks. Great work. Keep it up. I am also partial to the casualty.

Sha1emade wrote:I really like what you have going on here. I will be buying a forgeworld hellhound here soon, so don't be surprised if I steal a few ideas from you. Love the flame wash on the front of the tanks. Great work. Keep it up. I am also partial to the casualty.

Thanks I have to give tons of credit for the flame burns on the hellhounds to WolfLordKejl. Whenever i said "Really? THAT dark?" he was there with a maniacal grin and a nod.

Looks great. I can't wait to see the whole thing complete and in action on the table.

Hey man..that new color for the tanks looks AWESOME. Excellent work!

Gotta say it again. Well done, Shep! The tank looks fantastic... in person and in photos.
I can't wait to see what you do with the tracks and other steel bits to tie it in with the richness of the gold, red and deneb, while keeping it oily, sooty and gritty. Used universe? Yes, please.

By next paint-night, I half expect you to be done with your Baneblade.

Kudos.

Almost finished with my first tank repaint. I'd call it finished but in taking a picture of it I saw a few details that I forgot to retouch. Well enough yapping... here it is.





What do you guys think? Too much snow? Not enough? I think I need to get in there and dirty those treads up a bunch.

Since my models are on a black and grey sand base, I was wondering what colors to use to muck up those tracks. Thanks for any ideas.

The whitewash is looking great.

What you can do is to have a couple places where it's worn through / washed off and you can see the original paint underneath.

Maybe have some tanks that got lighter / lesser amounts of whitewash to work with.

Great looking IG! I got my unpainted command squad looking over my shoulder saying, "See! We look great painted! GET TO WORK!"