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Having modelled and played Mordheim for several years in my youth, I've semi-recently picked up the trade again with my eyes on a 40K army. WH40K was the game that initially drew me to Games Workshop games, but the shine of RPG elements, the setting and primarily the small armies (warbands) of Mordheim was appealing to me in my highschool days. Still a great game, one I haven't been able to enjoy since I began college.

So, two or three years ago (with very large inactivity gaps), I began collecting and painting an Imperial Guard army. Dakka Dakka has provided alot of inspiration for me, and I wanted to exhibit my labours of joy for all you gentle readers and perviewers of small metallic or plastic men and aliens that kill each other in vicious and horrific ways.

Thus, I present to you, without further addo; Attican 13th, 7th Company!

Looks great bud! But I must ask, where did you get that Commander with the great coat? I have never seen that model before.

First you have a normal Guardsman, fairly recently painted. Just as a preview of the colour-scheme I've used. I was inspired by reading about the Fall of Medusa campaign, and the desert-urban enviorment occationally portrayed there. I've imagined them as a sort of Afrika Korp style army, mashed with the Starship Trooper-ness of the Cadians.

Second is the illustrious Colonel Raines. As many of you can no doubt spot immidietly, he's mostly a Krieg Commander, but with his head exchanged. I didn't want a completely unconverted commander (nor did the gasmasks fit my vision), so off the head went. I swapped it for a Space Marine sergeant head I found on some SM-sprue. I had to do some whittling to get the base of that head down in size to fit the body. With some greenstuff, I masked the bionics on one side into a form of respirator. The hair is also greenstuff, combed over his bionic scalp in a touch of vanity. I figure if you've given the Emperor your face, a vice or two is permitted It also allows me to cover up the rather ugly work I did in the back of the head to make it fit.

Following is the rest of my command platoon. Colour-Sergeant Garland as a standard-bearer, the vox-caster with a GPS-ish thingamajing, the combat medic and the final trooper.

The whole command platoon was painted over a year ago when Flesh Wash was available to us. The first Guardsman is a fairly new addition and uses the Devlan Mud wash instead.


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Manstein wrote:Looks great bud! But I must ask, where did you get that Commander with the great coat? I have never seen that model before.

That's the Forge World Death Corps of Krieg Commander they have. I think Ursarkar Creed looks awesome, and when I found another model with a coat over it's shoulders, I just had to have it and convert it

Love this. Very clean but strong colors you have on these guys. All the characters seem to have a lot of emotion too. Are these the only ones done or can we see more?

Maj.Winters wrote:Love this. Very clean but strong colors you have on these guys. All the characters seem to have a lot of emotion too. Are these the only ones done or can we see more?

Haha! I have quite a few more, like my Veteran Sergeant, unpainted Veterans, a few Penals, two painted Infantry Squads, a Stormtrooper for scheme analysis... yeah, a few others. but I'm pacing myself At this bat, I'm mainly concerned with what you guys think of the colour scheme and setup.

Adendum: I am kinda unhappy with the photo qualities. The picture is just a tad too sharp, and I had to take like 10 shots of each model to get the right lighting. I have more pics taken, but for the rest of this, I'll try to play around a bit with the resolution. It's an old digital camera (althoughbeit a quite good one back in the day).

This reminds me alot of my color scheme. I also wanted to go with urban style but on the cuffs of them i used a red dull accent which turned out great.

Allright, a closer look at the Colonel. (Name and rank still under advisement. Feel free to add input on what or who you think he looks like)

Also, it bears to note, that as late as last night, I did some additions to his coat highlights to enhance the drybrush he's been content with for like... two years. The bionic side of his face is wider than his collar, which was a problem. I extended it a bit downwards to make it into a respirator. The idea is that the larger metallic box is kindof an audio device, while the blue tube either supplies oxygen or power to his mechanized face. He is NOT a terminator, as it may appear, but rather severely grafted with bionics after an otherwise fatal wound. I'd think that underneath his armor and coat is more augmentations. A fun fact about the green-stuff hair; You can see that the roots are only attached to the organic part of his head. The story-idea is that he's kind of self-conscious about his deformity and combs his hair over the metal skull to try and mitigate it. The story isn't far from the truth, since I needed the hair to cover the ugly chipping and whittling I had to do at the back of his head to make it fit.

Next up will be the Colonels closest. His bodyguards. I was aiming for something that stod apart from the regular army, was closely linked with the Colonel (as if these guys were from his aristocratic house rather than the army) but didn't stand out like an eye-sore either. Then it hit me; I had quite a few Kriegers left from Forge World Krieg Command Squad! Time for another set of head-swaps, and replacing their lasguns with chainswords/laspistols. No biggie.

No. 1 (less' call him that for now) is the one I like the most. Catachan head with a greenstuff mechanized infantry cap, like the one on the standard bearer Colour-Sergeant Garland. It wasn't nearly as tricky as I first thought. The actual cap could be thinner though. And closer to his eyes. I also added a scar (two cents to the fella who can figure out to whom that is an homage to) to further make it seem like he's been with his Colonel a while. Or maybe just looked up to the Colonel enough to try and mimic his face

No. 2 (only in the group shot) is alot more standard. He was originally another Command squad member with a head from the Forge World Cadian conversion kit.

Concerning both: The chainswords are from the same SM-sprue as the Colonel's head. I wanted a spiffier kind of chainsword for them, and with some greenstuff on the sleeve, the SM-gauntlet worked well to simulate carapace armor (which is all over the command squad in small tweeks). It also gave them nicer chainswords to kinda-signify their WS4 and higher status than ordinary guardsmen. Not to mention the sash or the officers-plate on their chests.


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PS: I've left the squad insignia clear on the bodyguards' shoulders. the command squad is refered to as "700", but I didn't want them associated with the squad, per say. I'm toying with giving them a heraldic motif with Raine's initials or something in that line to tie them more to their commander than with the army. Any ideas or tips?

And now the shots of my single Stormtrooper are in. I originally made the scheme from the last codex (4th? The one before the current) where Stormtroopers have infiltration by default. I figured they were using some sort of stealth tech (considering the models aren't very sneaky) so I drew alot of inspiration from the Tau Stealth-suits. In the current codex, as drop-troops, the design might not be as indicative, but I think it still works.

holy wow... that is awsome stuff really love the commander

I love the stormtrooper!!!

wow cool stuff but if you dont mind me asking what did you do with the death korps gas mask heads from the command squad?
Also everything looks great I like the commander and the stormtrooper is pretty cool too.

Vlad Von Carstien wrote:wow cool stuff but if you dont mind me asking what did you do with the death korps gas mask heads from the command squad?
Also everything looks great I like the commander and the stormtrooper is pretty cool too.

Oh, of course! Ask, ask, ask. I need every bit of feedback I can get to push me. I just took your average GW-clippers to them. The masks were surprisingly easy to clip off if you were just careful not to damage the collars. I kept the helmets around, even if I couldn't save the masks themselves, for a rainy day. I still have the vox-caster and standard bearer along with a regular trooper from that pack that I haven't found a use for. Yet

awesome stuff...
your painting and color scheme makes for some really nice lookjing models...
definitely a striking color scheme, i approve

Wow, great attention to detail, very clean highlighting. Terrific stuff!

Your Army is great. I love the Colonel but in my opion he should be a General.
Where did you get the heads, mainly the 1 for the bodyguard on the left of the Commander.
Nice paint scheme ist's different, i like different

Commissar Agro wrote:Your Army is great. I love the Colonel but in my opion he should be a General.
Where did you get the heads, mainly the 1 for the bodyguard on the left of the Commander.
Nice paint scheme ist's different, i like different

Oh, Raines would love to hear you say that Truth be told, giving him a General rank might not be off the table. I played around with the title "Marshal" or "Field-Marshal" with Rommel in mind. But I wasn't quite sure how high that'd put him in the Imperial command. Tell you what, right now it'd be silly for a General to only have a few squads of infantry under him, but when I start getting a few thousand points under him, I might give him a promotion

The on the bodyguard to the left of Raines is from a Forge World "Cadian conversion" kit or possibly the "Cadian Vets with shotguns" kit. I ordered both at about the same time, so I'm unsure which specifically. But you can easily find them by browsing their products gallery.

And thanks for all the input, guys! I've never had anywhere to have my models appraised by hobbyists (only people that aren't part of the hobby) so this is just great!

PS. As late as last night I made some quick fixes on Raines (and my vet sergeant that you'll get pics of soon[tm]), on the leather straps. I noticed that the leather on him glared something fierce in the camera flash. It was just snakebite with flesh wash over before, but now I upgraded it to what I use as standard now; Snakebite with Devlan Mud over, adding a few highlights of snakebite again. The result is a duller tone that doesn't take away from all the brass and gold on him, which I'm very happy with. I'll get new pics of him later. First I'll try to sort out a better camera which can handle pictures without the flash.

I love that Colonel.

Looks like an absolute badass.

They are really nice, and the SM head looks really different with hair! I didn't recognise it Nice stuff!

Wow! love your army man it certenly is pure awesome! keep this blog going I am already subscribed and will follow your work for sure! About the the paint scheme I must say you truly captured the look that you were going for with the urban dessert style i think it looks just great! So keep it up and lets make this colonel of yours a general PS: hej!

//Avach

Thanks! It's worth more than anything short of a golden Daemon to hear your appriciation of the work, guys!

As it stands now, I'm working on getting my hands on a camera that might not be as sensitive as mine is without flash, so I can upload smoother pictures with ambient lighting instead. Then I'll put up some fresh pictures.

Untill then, I've got another hero of the 7th Company; My Veteran Sergeant. I'm not sure what to call him yet. Been playing with names like "Kostler", "Stark", "Stranski", "Yeager" and even "de Sade". Ideas are mucho appriciated

great work I like the seargent, call him Veteran Sergeant Krieger or Hauser.

I say that sgt Sark would be very perfect for him go with it.

//Avach


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sorry misspelling it should be *Stark.



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Love the converted powerfist! Is it the one from the CSM sprue right? And a really cool Barret for him. did you make it out of grennstuff?

//Avach

Avach wrote:Love the converted powerfist! Is it the one from the CSM sprue right? And a really cool Barret for him. did you make it out of grennstuff?

Actually, it's from a normal SM-sprue I had a'lying around. The same sprue I got the head for the Colonel and the chainswords for the bodyguards. And yes, the beret is a home-made concoction outta greenstuff. I don't have any WIP pictures of him though, I'm afraid. The rolled up sleeve on his left arm is also greenstuff, which I'm quite happy with the effect of

Ok! yeah sorry I forgot about the sleeve. But good work on that one aswell cause it looks very natural and the highligt of the color truly makes it standout. So keep up the good work! And if it is not a to personal question. Where in sweden do you live? Cause it would be fun to play a game sometime?

//Avach

In the Gothenburg area. And I'm afraid I'm still far away from a working army I have no armor whatsoever except for a sole Chimera. Figured I'd get a steady base of infantry before bringing out the big guns

Gothenburg thats not to far away perhaps a game then one day. But sure make sure you get some tanks first. And when you do take pictures of them so all of us on dakka can see them. Yes infantry is A and O to imperial guard, I should know I have painted about a hundred or so of them. And still they are in short supply on the battlefield. Cause they die like flies.

//Avach

Allright fellas. I'm gonna need your input on this. I managed to get a fair shot of my one Chimera with ambient lighting. However, this is like... virtually my first tank ever (except for a Land Raider like... 10 years ago which is abhorrent for me to look at nowadays) and I need feedback on how to go along with it. Concider this a WIP for now.

what I need is input on what and/or if I should add those... y'know, stripes that most any tank in any IG army recieve. On the sides at the front, just over the suspension. The tank looks sort of naked as it stands. Up by the turret I imagine I should put the squad insignia number that'll be riding in it (which will in the future be squad 721) but even there, I need input if I should paint a coloured background for the insignia? In short, what do you guys think is missing?

Personally the ID stripes should fit the fluff or style of the army. I'd personally be tempted to go for some heraldric design or as you've got the talent for it nose art style markings. I'd also put something on top of it to act as aerial recognition markings. It should include regimental and company markings. Having it echo the markings on the banner makes sense as well. Usually I'd rrecommend weathering but the rest of the army is so spick and span that it doesn't make sense.


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Beautiful stuff by the way and wonderful green stuffing work I love the Para' (the Sergeant model) he looks like a Collins to me!

Aw, you're making me blush. But in a good way

Aerial markings I hadn't thought of, but that'd make sense. I plan on having at least one Valkyrie and Deep Striking stormtroopers, so there'd be aerial support for this company. And a large XIII over the top hatch could look kinda cool. But if I'm gonna go into heraldic pictures and nose art, I'm going to have to start thinking more about the fluff of the army. Background and culture. And I haven't even dared to touch the battle-standard that Colour-Sergeant Garland carries around. It's so awfully folded that I find the prospect of painting it's heraldic a nightmare. I've put it off since I decided to use that model... I mean, free-handing a flat surface can be daunting too, and those folds just makes it a nightmare.

And let's blame the cleanliness of the army on their natural enviorment and not my laziness, shall we?

So, given this, any ideas on heraldry? Desert, city-fighters. My spontaneous thought was lion-motifs. A pride of desert lions would prolly fit into their iconography well. Even if it's just the mascot of this company. It'd also fit well with what I've imagined'd be their standard tactic. A firing base with an armored fist platoon escorted by a hellhound squad going around the flank to disrupt the enemy lines. Sorta similar to how a pride of lions hunt. The regal stature of lions'd also fit with that... almost Prussian arrogance that at least the commander exhumes.