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I have started a guard army and am trying to figure out how to paint them. Making up my own regiment. Quick bit off fluff, they are the second regiment from an agri world, there founding having only been a couple months ago. The planet was only recently liberated and has only had three foundings, so no combat veterans yet. The officers are made up of sons of liberator officers who retired on the planet or high ranking pdf. Any ways its a foot slogging army and undoubtedly going to take ridiculous casualtys before overwhelming the enemy with numbers and inexperience. Enough with fluff, what to do about painting? I have bought a tin of grey model primer and am planning on painting the clothing grey and the armor brown. They are cadian models btw. For painting I was thinking of washing the clothing black and painting the boots black. The armor is the main problem. I was thinking Calthan brown drybushed dessert yellow or something to give it textures. Any ways, what your guys thoughts/suggestions. Also, any tips for painting a lot of models relatively fast without wanting to pull my hear out. I do like painting, but honestly, my enemys wont be the only ones getting headaches from numbers.

If they're from an agri-world, they'd probably be wearing very earthy tones, like browns, tans, and greens. I wouldn't jump up from Calthan Brown to Desert Yellow though; there has to be a shade somewhere inbetween, because that's kind of a stark contrast. I also find that drybrushing doesn't look too good on Cadian armor, since it's smooth generally. If you wanted to paint the armor Calthan Brown and either layer it (if you're a good enough painter) or simply wash it with Devlan Mud/Agrax Earthshade, you'd get good looking armor.

Alright. Instead of dessert yellow what would you suggest? I could use snake bite, scorched, bleached? Also what do you mean by layering it?

 andtheyshallknownofear wrote:
Also, any tips for painting a lot of models relatively fast without wanting to pull my hear out. I do like painting, but honestly, my enemys wont be the only ones getting headaches from numbers.

Get an airbrush ; ) If you do, it makes a mockery of lots of models by letting you quickly prime and basecoat at least. It also gives a better finish improving the overall look.

Another quick painting technique is to start light - your grey is a good idea, and then shade darker with washes. It saves a lot of layering and highlighting. For example, this makes decent looking minis:

1. Spray prime Grey.
2. Spray basecoat bleached bone.
3. Paint armour xx - pick your colour
4. Detailing - skin, aquillas, belts.
5. Wash black/brown/mix.

At this stage you have a decent looking force. After that you can add some more highlights with thinned lighter versions of the colour you're highlighting - ie. add a bit of white to the same brown you did your leathers.

Edit: I'd suggest trying a few colour schemes to see which you like the most - after you research paint stripping in this forum, to make sure you can do it ; )

If you wanted to emphasise the raw recruit status of your troops, you could get some head swaps that look more youthful. Also keep the aquilas bright - vets know to dull them down to reduce visibility. Don't have cigar smokers, maybe load them up with more packs, canteens etc (I tend to think of vets as being bare-bones in what they carry. Glossy leather to represent trying to keep their stuff clean and so on.

Edit 2: This is a head swap example. Anzac heads might fit with your more rustic agri world scheme.

Ya those are some good points on recruits. I avoided the scars/cigars/anything that looked bad ass in the sprues. I would prefer not airburshing 1) because it costs money and that's something that I have very little of. Trying to get a job at the moment to I can pay for my army. Brushes and paints here and there are one thing but I would prefer not to buy and airbursh. 2) I have a friend that has an airbursh and neither he, or his dad who is extremely experienced in miniatures gaming couldn't figure out how the damn thing worked. As an alternative do you think that a light dry brush would suffice over the dark gray of the primer? While we're on the topic of raw recruits any suggestions on converting/modelling. I have absolutely no experience in the matter other then parts swapping (which I'll tell you even that I wasn't too happy). Suggestion on what I could add and how to model are welcome. And actually I have done some very light research into head swaps. Shoot me now; it was female guardsmen (which unfortunately I did not have much luck in). So if you have any female guardsmen/youths that would be great. Those heads you sent were nice, but too hard assed. I think you just meant it as an example though so thank you.

 andtheyshallknownofear wrote:
So if you have any female guardsmen/youths that would be great. Those heads you sent were nice, but too hard assed. I think you just meant it as an example though so thank you.

You're not the only one ; ) There are some great threads on dakka about female guards(wo)men, iirc there was one that linked to a lot of different female infantry models, head swaps and so on. Yeah those heads were just the closest I could think of off hand that might fit. Actually, I don't like metal bits too much but these (and others from the arthurian range) might be fitting.

Shame about the airbrush, you actually use less paint by airbrushing since you apply thinner coats and waste less. But yeah the initial cost is pretty steep, was $100 for the small air compressor and $40 for the (cheap) air brush for me. If you want to try to get your mates airbrush working, might pay to check youtube for some air compressor or air brush (wherever the problem is) tutorials. Could just be that something is broken though I guess hehe.

Working on first guarsman now. Hopefully will be up by tonight if I get off my sick ass and snap a few pictures. @Yonan is the thread recent? If not do you think you could send me a few links?

This is the most recent and seems to have a lot of pics.

Here's the finished product. Not happy with skin and I don't have chaos black (undercoat black). That means that my black is kinda glossy. But I do plan on getting chaos black eventually.