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Hi all,
coming back to 40K after a bit of a break and thought I'd start a blog to chart my efforts to put together two opposing armies and some scenery to play 40K. Since I last played 40K I've gained another child and a bigger house so the hobby budget isn't what it once was (and that's not even taking into account GW prices have erm... gone up a bit sinced I lasted played) so the whole project is on a pretty tight budget. I suppose I should be up front about a few things at the start of this blog

* I don't play tournments or at my local GW just at home with my kids or mates.
* Becuase of the above I'm quite happy to use miniatures from anywhere as proxies for GW miniatures.
* I'm still playing 4th edition 40k I still have the rulebook and the codexs from last time I played 40K and it just doesn't seem worth spending money on upgrading to the latest edition just for larking about at home.
* I'm pretty old school on miniature painting OSL and NMM just don't do it for me (though I can certainaly appreciate the talent it takes to do right)
* My painting is probably best described as tabletop standard...I try to turn out decent looking armies rather than Golden Deamon winners.
* I'm more about story telling and fluff than designing killer armies.

So first up my first army the IG drop troops. Now IG have gone up in price a bit since last time I was playing so GW miniatures where out. However I came across Northstar miniatures in the UK selling Defiance Games plastic USMC miniatures at half price (£12.00 for 24 miniatures) I bought 3 boxes giving me 72 infantry for £36.



Now the Defiance games marines are...ok the bodies are good the guns are nice the heads, however, are awful and the legs a bit soft in detail. In the end I decided to swap the heads for these ones from Anvil industry



and these from crooked dice games



This increased the cost of the project somewhat but I felt it was worth it and the miniatures where still only around £1.00 each. Luckily I still have a huge bitz boxs which furnished me with lots of spare heavy and special weapons and lasguns as well as extra heads.

So I started putting the Defiance figures together swapping out heads and converting the guns slightly to make them look more 40K here are some pictures of the first few test pieces.













Hopefully more updates soon

edit wow didn't mean for those pictures to be that big

Welcome back to the hobby! Great looking stuff so far, you have really captured a desert feel with these guys. Base details are a nice touch as well. Any ideas for what to use as tank proxies presuming you are staying away from GW ones?

Edit: Oh, if you want to make the pics smaller, you can upload your next batch to the dakka gallery and it gives you a range of sizes to show them with!

Ahh ok thanks for the picture tip.

I'm not planning on using any tanks as these guys are going to be drop troopers I'm thinking of using one of these as a sentinal proxy though

http://www.antenocitisworkshop.com/viper-armoured-reconnaissance-vehicle.html

I figure they look small enough to be air dropped.

Looking pretty cool mate.i like too see proxy models.i bought a few mantic corporation minis to use as elysians.



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The antenocitis vehicles are great.check out my warthog in my sons of horus blog.

Thanks Shingouki.

Just checked out your Sons of Horus very nice. The Antenocitis vehicle looks great I think it will work quitely nicely as a sentinal proxy.

I looked at the Manatic guys as possible IG but I have some of their Forge Fathers and wasn't overly taken with the plastic-resin stuff they used which I found harder to convert than good old plastic.

is it just me or do them ladz look their their wearing undies ...
but seriously sweet stuff you got here. i too know the pains of making a poor mans army, but honestly those armies if done right look way better than normal ones anyday im all good right
keep it up

 Novelist47 wrote:
is it just me or do them ladz look their their wearing undies ...

ermmm yeah...... those are drop troop armoured crotch protectors designed to protect their valuables from ground fire during an air drop

Good idea for the Antenocitis vehicles! I am more fond of the FW elysian ones myself but they are more that double in price. (though a bit bigger as well I believe)

Apparently Antenocitis are going to do a dropship of their own in the future, the concepts looked very high tech sci fi as a pose to the Gothic stuff you see in 40k but you might still be interested in it!


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Oh and if you are after that style of vehicle you might want to check out Old Crow's line of models. They are not operating atm (something about making a film or whatnot) but they should be back soon!

http://web.archive.org/web/20081020181329/http://www.oldcrowmodels.co.uk/index.htm

Hey commander Cain yes Old Crow are good I used some for a sci-fi project a few years back can't remember what these ones are called but they would make good Chimera proxies...though they are smaller than GW vehicles




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I was looking around for some 40k scenery to go with my new IG army. I had look at GWs offerings which are very nice but quite pricey. Looking around I came across a company called Amera http://www.amera.co.uk/ that supply vac form scenery. Now being Vac form it's not super detailed but for less than £40 I managed to order enough terrain to cover a table (compared to a couple of pieces of GW terrain for the same cost).

Last Friday a big box of stuff turned up from Amera.



Now you could just paint the Amera stuff but I thought I would add a bit of extra detail. First off I decided to use my home made textured paint (made from floor tile grout, grey emulsion and PVA glue) to make the scenery look less plastic and then I went to the bits box and added a variety of junk and bitz to match the bases on my new IG models. I then painted they scenery (I use Wickes household paint tester pots as cheap paint for scenery) and added brown and gold grass tufts to finish off. Below are a few pictures of the first few pieces of terrain I've painted so far. I'm very impressed with the Amera products which I think is great budget terrain.

Having got distracted by scenery building I have now painted up most of my Amera terrain (just a couple of buildings and a large hill to go) and I have knocked up a couple of 2x4 ft boards to make a small gaming table for 40K games. The Amera terrain got it's first outing on Saturday when myself and eldest son had a couple of combat patrol games using assorted proxy miniatures as IG and Lost and the damned chaos forces. Below are a few pictures of the new board with my Amera scenery (apart from the crashed truck which is a resin piece I got of ebay).

Really excellent pictures you make the secnery look great, thanks so much for letting us share wider on our facebook page much appreciated

Thanks Amera.

Still in the throws of scenery making for my wasteland board I have knocked out this ruined imperial chapel. This is another Amera piece but unlike the others there was a little bit of construction work to do on this piece. I decided not to cut out all the windows but paint them up to try and represent stained glass windows (not sure how well that has worked TBH) I also added in a ruined staircase (made from pink foam and balsa wood) to allow troops to access the ruined second floor of the chapel.

Terrain is kicking ass.I love the pick up and the chapel.

Defiinitely think the stained glass works, great inspiration for others. Staircase very clever thought too! Jane from www,.amera.co.uk. Have shared on a seaprat e album on our fb page really impressed https://www.facebook.com/pages/Amera-Plastic-Mouldings/339773496075836

Thanks guys.

As is my way I got slighty distracted from my IG and knocked up some WIP models for the second army in my project Chaos. I wanted some cultists but not the the new GW ones (though I might use those as a base model for some mutants) I picked up some cheap GW flagellants on ebay and have done some conversions with bits from my bits box and an attempt at some green stuff sculpting to give them the pointy hooded robe look I wanted.

Managed to splash some paint on the first three trial chaos cultists and they came out pretty well (I think) so much so I started building some more from WFB flaggelant bodies, random stuff from my bits box and green stuff which is really fun. I've also order some bits from Victoria miniatures so I can build some cultists with lasguns as well as close combat types.

I have been on holiday the last week ,which wierdly, seems to give me less hobby time (family days out and DIY mostly) still I have managed to finish a unit of 10 Chaos cultists. As before WFB flagellant bodies with bits from my spares box and greenstuff hoods.

















I've now started on the next unit of cultists again using flagellant bodies but this time using Victoria Miniatures metal arm sets to give them Lasguns instead of pistols and close combat weapons. WIP picture below

Dude those cultists are looking sweet.Those victoria miniatures parts look like they will be a great addition.Give me a shout when you have more pics etc.

Thanks Shingouki.

The Victoria miniatures arms are pretty much a perfect fit which was a nice surprie as I was expecting to have to do a bit of cutting/GS as they are made to fit IG not flagellants.