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Hi all,

So I've been asked to show off some of my painfully slow process on my IG regiment... I haven't written the fluff yet, but the Myrmidian 407 is styled after WWI, but is going to be all female. I'm using bits from a lot of different companies plus a lot of custom conversion work. I've been collecting bits for literally years and just now started getting some stuff assembled... so here it goes:


This is the paint scheme test figure I did... I know that khaki and green are kind of standard but I don't think she'll be mistaken for a Cadian, and it just looks good. I used Army Painter Dark Tone for the shading.


This is what I have so far of my first veteran squad. I plan on using some guitar wire to connect the vox-operator's phone to her pack.


Ditto for the second veteran squad. I'm particularly happy with the Sergeant's spyglass... I sourced it from the WFB Empire Steam Tank sprue

Hope everyone likes - I love comments. The only thing I was considering changing about the paint scheme so far is I was thinking of darkening the metals on the lasguns and making them more a gunmetal like on the shotguns... I'm really undecided on that though.

Hopefully I'll update this semi-regularly, but it isn't often I have hobby time to work on my own stuff, so it could take a while

- Jacqualine

Looking good so far! Welcome to the world of the PLOG.

Awesome! Those female torsos look great painted up! I like the gasmask heads too!

A bit darker on the las guns might look good, I'd just do a test and see how you like it though.

And I can't wait to see more!!

Thanks!

The plan is for all my veterans to be wearing the gasmask heads (actually "Neo-Brit Trencher Heads" from MaxMini)
My regular troops will be showing their pretty faces... I made a press mold so that I can put the WWI helmets on whatever heads I use

Can't wait to see this progress further!!

Ok, one more quick little post before I start doing something constructive...


I'm working on gap-filling and wet sanding this bad girl - the first tank of the Myrmidian 408th Armoured Division. Since she will be Pask's tank, I'm magnetizing everything. I've sourced some nice OOP pewter Predator sponsons for her, since I think those look so much better than the standard Russ sponsons. The predator turret won't go to waste and will be used on a chimera
I'm getting pretty excited about my russes... I have boxes and boxes of forgeworld stuff I collected and need to assemble... I loves me some Forgeworld, so anytime I get an overtime check it goes to them LOL.

I'm thinking that I'm going to have a few regiments in my army in keeping with IG fluff... so it should be something like:

407th: Infantry: Athena's Hammer
408th: Armoured: Athena's Wrath
409th: Artillery: Athena's Fury

Since Valkyries don't really fit the theme, my valks and valk vets will be from another planet's regiment.

If I may make a suggestion? Valks are typically from the Imperial Navy. A great way to "fluff" them in is to create an Imperial Navy vessel that "transports" your regiments around, and have the Valks come from that ship.

--B.

wow... now i am intrigued.... the minis look very good... now these open up to some demanding questions tho...

what pieces dd you use for this conversion builds? the guns look very good... i know you probably hacked the barrels of IG lasguns... but the rest is from...?
the slim looking torsos? there was once a producer that made a female conversion kit? are they from them?...
and the legs look a bit like sanded down versions of the elysian troops?

also... i am fluffwise interested to hear why it is an all female army...? and where does the name Myrmidian come from? related to this: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Myrmidons ?

just asking....

i really like the look and the feel of the army....so good luck and have fun with your hobby work!

cheers, vik...(and i have subbed to your thread imidiatly...so i am hopeing for more...^^)

If you're going for a WW1 feel I would recomend two man flamer teams...they are iconic of the trenches and look really cool!

for me the potatomasher granades are the iconic look of the WWI... even tho recall that only germany had them back in the days?

Viktor von Domm wrote:wow... now i am intrigued.... the minis look very good... now these open up to some demanding questions tho...

what pieces dd you use for this conversion builds? the guns look very good... i know you probably hacked the barrels of IG lasguns... but the rest is from...?
the slim looking torsos? there was once a producer that made a female conversion kit? are they from them?...
and the legs look a bit like sanded down versions of the elysian troops?

also... i am fluffwise interested to hear why it is an all female army...? and where does the name Myrmidian come from? related to this: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Myrmidons ?

just asking....

i really like the look and the feel of the army....so good luck and have fun with your hobby work!

cheers, vik...(and i have subbed to your thread imidiatly...so i am hopeing for more...^^)

Wow, lots of questions
The guns are from Victoria Lamb's shop - she makes some very good parts The heads are from MaxMini, the map is from the Cadian Command Squad, the Vox-Caster is from the Catachan Troops box, the phone is from a Dragon 1/35 Military kit, and the bases are from Dragon Forge.

The bodies and legs are a bit more complicated... Many a moon ago I managed to acquire a recast sprue of the old Phoenix Gaming Club female IG kit. It was sadly in terrible condition - full of bubbles, mold misalignments, bodged details etc. I was only able to save three legs and one torso - and even this involved sawing them in half along the mold line with a jeweler's saw, fixing the misalignment, and resculpting a lot of them. So I spent a really long time saving them, and then I learned how to resin cast so that I could reproduce my work (before anyone asks, no, these casts are not for sale - they are a derivative work based on the work of another sculptor - if the original sculptor ever shows up and gives permission then sure, but for now I'm just making them for personal use). Once I got better at things, I replaced/resculpted the bodged details and made new leg variants.

Fluff-wise I haven't solidly written anything yet. The name Myrmidian comes from the WFB goddess Myrmidia (which herself has a name rooted in the Myrmidons you linked to) - a goddess of strategy and tactical acuity - the WFB version of Athena. I thought it sounded cool and would be a nice name for a planet keeping with the theme I wanted without resorting to a cliche like "Neo-Athens" or some other such drek.

Them being an all-female army - I've got a few ideas, but if you read the Ciaphas Cain novels its clear that it isn't uncommon for IG regiments to be segregated by gender. However, since they will often be taking the field with my Sisters of Battle (pics of them whenever I get around to them... I have about 3000 points waiting to be stripped of paint, put on bases, assembled, and painted...) - The Order of the Azure Blade - and my as yet unnamed female Space Marines, I've been toying with the idea of a radical feminist Ordo Malleus inquisitor whom believes that men are innately violent/greedy and therefore easier to lure to chaos than women. I figure that would be GrimDark enough with a hint of satire (I poke fun at anyone with extreme views on stuff).

Anyway, I'm really looking forward to getting more done on this army - its very gratifying to see something I've been doing prep-work for for so long finally starting to come to fruition


Oh, about the two-girl flamer teams... those sound neat, but it may be a bit awkward trying to fit two people on one 25mm base... I am planning on making use of a lot of flamers though - so I'll play around with the idea and see what happens


Automatically Appended Next Post:

Viktor von Domm wrote:for me the potatomasher granades are the iconic look of the WWI... even tho recall that only germany had them back in the days?

Yeah, I really like the aesthetic of the potatomasher grenades... I tried and failed to sculpt one in IG scale sadly... if anyone knows where I can find some that look good (IE: not a cylinder glued to a smaller cylinder with no details) in 28mm heroic or otherwise close enough to Imperial Guardsman scale then that'd be awesome. Otherwise, I'm going to be hitting the bitz bin at some point and trying to cobble one together.

- Jacqualine

the easiest way to get a hold of the old potato masher grenade would be to look into the bitz box of an ork player... the panzaknacka (dunno the english name of them) use them quite often... and i bet some you could even get on bitz sites too... and making your own... maybe ask dave to make you some... i bet he could do a good version of those... he has done quiet a lot really small selfbuilds...

actually i never read (yet) a 40k novel...tho the cain novvels are high up on my to read list... tho i need to get them in english which is no small deed here in germany... mind you...

the greek background i think always works quite well with 40k...and i can see athena as a twisted background fulffwise might be a good idea... better than an overused amazone or something lese scheme/theme...

of course the victoria lamb stuff... yes... her stuff is very good... have you tried to use her kilted legs? maybe they could give your dames of distress a bit of a female swagger in their step^^ flying skirts are not to be sneezed at^^


as for the idea of a two based flametrooper... well you could let them run like seperate minis but try to move them in teams and thus build them in temas... like the old HW teams of IG which where too made of two minis on seperate bases... or rather a based loader and a gunner...

Cool stuff!

i thought i reconigzed those bodies from somewhere! ive seen the Az club models elsewhere too and they are really nice! Your combination you did here is really well done!

how hard did you find to use the Victoria arms on the models? Im making a Tanith 1st army (in my Plog / sig) and working on few of the female characters with my battleforce. The problem is finding arms that arent GW that have no shoulder pads or armour on them so i can keep the light infantry look. Ive been using a file to file them off but doing 130+ models is tiring.

Overall its a nice start and im looking forward to this project. consider me subscribed

I wouldn't try to fit them onto one base, just have one with the flamer nozzle and the other with the tanks and a lasgun with a pipe connecting them (this could be magnetized for transportation ease).

swampyturtle wrote:i thought i reconigzed those bodies from somewhere! ive seen the Az club models elsewhere too and they are really nice! Your combination you did here is really well done!

how hard did you find to use the Victoria arms on the models? Im making a Tanith 1st army (in my Plog / sig) and working on few of the female characters with my battleforce. The problem is finding arms that arent GW that have no shoulder pads or armour on them so i can keep the light infantry look. Ive been using a file to file them off but doing 130+ models is tiring.

Overall its a nice start and im looking forward to this project. consider me subscribed

Thanks! The Victoria Lamb arms were a dream to work with - the pewter is soft enough to bend the arms to fit the torso, and they start out really close anyway. The casts are great, and the lasgun is chunky enough that i don't have to worry about it getting hurt.

Looking forward to following your blog, looks like you have loads of interesting ideas for us all to see.

So, I'm about to have to cut my hobby day short and go to work... I got called in on my night off :(
Oh well, more overtime for forgeworld goodies

Since I didn't have time to finish what I was working on, I cobbled together a quick bits test on a potato masher grenade. Grenade-Launcher hand plus a grenade from one of the Catachan extra gear bits, and I think it works:


What do you guys think as a proof of concept?

- Jacqualine

I Like, i like....i might have to steal borrow this idea for future models once i finish stripping the rest of my models (bought second hand from a friend with a horrible paint job )

if you could but lenghten the handle you have a winner... in fact the not slick greande body has also been used ...grat conversion mate!

Thanks, glad you like it - especially considering it was just me killing time before I got ready for work

So, no days off this week - I got called into work again tonight... they keep me busy, but its how I afford my hobby addiction so I can't complain. On the bright side, I just ordered a couple of Forgeworld Imperial Enforcer w/Cyber-Mastiff limited edition models off e-bay! My plan is to use the two dogs as counts-as bodyguards for my counts-as Straken. I figure the cybernetically enhanced colonel would look good with a pair of cyber-hounds at her side

I know bodyguards are supposed to have pistols, but they are cyber-dogs! They can have las-pistol eyes, right? LOL Too bad its going to take several weeks to a month for the models to get to me from England.

All I wanted was some frickin' sharks with FRICKIN' LASER BEAMS ON THEIR HEADS!

if you want laser beam emitting sharks... you have to take a look at monkeytroll...that is his niche^^


the mastiff idea sounds quite good...

by the way... you wanted to make the straken char after the jonna hex character... so what gender will it be then?

The Jonah Hex character will be for my Renegades/chaos army actually
I've got a bunch of boxes full of parts for that army too... its funny, I have about five armies, but have yet to have time to get even one assembled to a point of being fieldable LOL

Its the curse of never saying 'no' to overtime or extra security/executive protection gigs... plenty of money for toys, but no time to play with them LOL

But for this army, the Straken character will be female - I haven't named her or come up with her fluff yet, but I've got some of the Anvil Industries bionic arms for her and have determined that she will have mastiffs

The only males in this army are going to be penal legion and ogryn (I just can't bring myself to scar my own psyche with thoughts of female ogryn)...

LOL....

(I just can't bring myself to scar my own psyche with thoughts of female ogryn)...

LOL...

have you seen the EDF thread here? an IG thread... and it features a well... for the lack of a better word...female ogryn... and quite fitting may i add sculpted... based on an WHFB ogre...

its funny, I have about five armies, but have yet to have time to get even one assembled to a point of being fieldable LOL

nope...that is not funny... that is a horders life^^... i have two SM armies... footsloggers aplenty but never finished either of them...
then a catachan army with quite a big amount of minis...plastic and metal...
then all my different cadians...lost count totaklly...

a horde of warzone minis... bauhaus ones that one day will be my traitor guard...

and the crazy bulk of my steampunk army...mixed with so much diversity that even sometimes my eyes get a strain^^...and the odd regiment of goblins... a plethora of orks i probably never do...and some other wild stuff i currently can´t part with...and so much unfinished scratchbuilding projects that i should hire someone to finish them for me as it is probably too much for just one lifetime...

jacqualine47 wrote:So, I'm about to have to cut my hobby day short and go to work... I got called in on my night off :(
:


What do you guys think as a proof of concept?

- Jacqualine

Tried my own hand with your proof of concept today. Tell me what you think? (sorry for the bad cell phone image )




ah, so your the one buying up all the Forgeworld Imperial Enforcer w/Cyber-Mastiff limited edition models. Well played Guess i'll have to keep looking

So I actually got a little bit of time to work on my tank today:



I rivetted the hatch
Those 1mm ball bearings are TINY... had to use a magnet and a sewing needle to get them into place.

well riveting is not for the faint of heart but you did an amazing job there! and you even kept the rivets in a mathcing sclae to the GW ones...

Yep, they look good. If you hadn't pointed them out, I would have thought they came on the model like that, and you maybe put some paint on them to make them shiney!

Great riveting job!!!