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So guys, hello. some of you may already know me from my frankly out of control blog on this same sub-forum. The out of control-ness is due to me being a terrible hobby butterfly, flitting around between projects....as such the only logical thing to do is to start a large ambitious project like a from the ground up armies on parade board!

Now despite what many of you may be thinking this is not just a wild whim, I have had this idea at the back of my mind for a good 5 years now but have always been too terrified to even consider how to begin such a mammoth task. This is where you guys come in, I need you to help me stop obsessing forever on tiny details and tell me to just get on with it, or this thread will become another sprawling monster full of half-baked miniature monstrosities who sit accusingly on my hobby shelf.

Enough blabbing I hear you say, what is the plan here? Well there are two pictures from the 4th edition imperial guard codex which to me have always exemplified everything I love about 40k, in fact they are printed back to back in the codex, probably just so no one would be foolish enough to look at them next to each other and think.....'you know what, I want to make a combination of those pictures a modelling reality, yeah I think I can do that'.

....THAT is actually what this thread will try (and possibly fail) to do.

The pictures in question: (not entirely sure if I am allowed to do this, I'm sure I'll find out soon enough.)



Now the general idea would be on the surface layer I would have the troops advancing along a built up imperial street/pardade gorund/hall and underneath I plan to have the high command looking at their hololith projection surrounded by banks and banks of hardwired menials/departmento munitorum officers working on the logistical side of things.


As for my actual ability to model this, well I'm just as sceptical as you. Here are a couple of pieces I have done before in a similar theme so you know that even though I may not succeed I will have a damn good try! Here, I'll even do it as a mini- portfolio from the first pictures i see in my galelry

Past valhallans:

Faces:

Evidence for excessive conversions:

Bit of scenery:

Evidence of a very basic ability to use greenstuff!

And if things get out of hand and into tank territory

And to show we might be able to inject a spot of levity:

Good, with all that prior practice with ewoks, squigs and father christmas a whole magnificent diorama should be a breeze

Now I think the major obstacle to this project is going to be just having enough troopers on the top layer to make it look convincingly crowded, so I think I will have to sculpt a basic trooper and them cast him up hundreds of times to try and avoid issues with recasting GW stuff.

....Yes, well, I invite you on this journey with me, I promise greenstuff, illogical expenditure and much paint, above that only time will tell.

Look forward to seeing what happens

Subbed in expectation of awesomeness, this should be good.

I like the idea of casting the same sculpt; are you going to make it modular so you can get a little variation or are you just going for clones?

@ Silver - Me too.

@Paradigm - So I think I will make a combined body and legs then try and do arms and head separately. I think as well as allowing for variation casting the arms with the body will get fiddly from the casting side of things. I have done a few casting tests before, but keeping the shapes simple is the best way to get good results, especially if I need to consistently get lots of perfect casts.

Awesome stuff, please do keep us posted!

Separate arms and heads sounds good, as there's only so much you can do with marching legs anyway. Looking forward to seeing how this works out.

So fantastic start guys, thought I would make the first baby steps to start this project off, looking at getting a couple of realm of battle boards, one for each level, but especially considering I intend to totally cover over them £60 from games workshop seems a bit steep.

So then, I need some suggestions for an alternative, my instant thought was either just simple 2 by 2 squares of either MDF or plywood, but not being a massive wood buff that is about as far as I got. So my question really is what sort of wood would make a good study base that would not warp excessively but could take a reasonable amount of weight?

Then again if anyone knows of a source of rigid plastic 2 by 2 tiles that would also be worth investigating.

On a slightly more exciting note, anyone liking the look of these to make some of the high statues that line the sides of the buildings?

http://hoardobits.com/warhammer/empire/EM-WARALTAR-GRIFFON.jpg

Heys guys, so I have bitten the bullet and bought some plywood, big chunky plywood which I will probably regret if i ever have to move this thing!

So I have just sketched out a very rough plan on the top layer of what I was thinking, it looks veeeerrrryy dull like this so I added a few place-holder models to give you a (admittedly very rough) idea of what I am going for, of course I actually ran out of stand in models way before I filled all the space, but you get the idea, chock-a-block infantry led by a tank.

What do we think concept wise or do we think I need to re-evaluate?




The next question is what do I do about the bottom layer, keep it as a fairly open area or more like a small deep dark underground cave that only takes up a fraction of the layer?

I have begun work on the infantry sculpt by the way, using one of hasslefree's armatures, they are a godsend.

Looks like a solid setup, not in danger of being overcrowded but still looking full. I think for the lower layer, going for a fairly claustrophobic feel might work well, and also give you a chance to play with some cool lighting effects and the like in the small space.

Are you planning to sink the bases into the floor or just have them standing on top?

I figured since its at such an early stage I could sink them in without too much fuss at all, that said, they would be so close together it might be easier to not bother with the bases at all, just magnetise their feet, I'm not sure if they have to be on appropriate base for the competition rules, the actual rules and guidelines seem quite hard to track down, anyone have a copy from last year?

AS for the underground layer I'm in the same mind as you, would be a good chance to try and model an almost organic cave like structure which might contrast quite nicely with the manmade right angles and hard edges on top?

Looks good so far. I look forward to seeing what's next.

This'll be good

You better not disappoint us... *nudge nudge*

Love those Vahallans

The concept is a great one, but in order to work effectivly you'll need to ensure that your exection of it doesn't end up feeling flat or lifeless - one of the armies at last years Games day was literally rammed full of models and while they were all reasonably painted the board was dull as there was no 'direction' to it. Given the reference picture, will you be adding buildings to the sides of the boards? If so, need to think carfully about the height of them etc so as not to 'crowd out' the infantry..

Anyway, a good start, shall look forward to seeing how it progresses!

I'm truly sure this will be a wonderful project! Look forward to see it finished As for the rules for basing, I don't know in england, but in Italy every minis must have its base. Last year I tried a very similar project for Armies oin Parade (Imperial Cathedral with BA), If you want I can share some shots

Keep up the good work

Mate, very excited to see what you can do with this. Not just the board but the modelling as well.

I think they layout is a Good one , I especially like the idea of a leading tank.

one of the things that strikes me about the top image is the sense of height. The buildings seem to tower over the lowly troopers. Likely this is your plan but I think it might be useful to sketch in buildings on the side, to make sure your model spacing is giving you the sense you want.

Definitely subbed mate.

This is going to be great, looking forwards to many more updates.

This seems an exciting project, and you certainly look to have the skills to accomplish your dreams.
If I were undertaking this, and this is just an idea, I would get a couple of imperial Bastions, and use the four pieces from each to form the basis of the buildings.
There's definitely cheaper ways of doing it, there are some really nice non GW building models you could use, but it would keep the Imperial theme nicely.

This has the potential to be awesome. Looking forward to seeing how this turns out.

Love this concept. Good luck

This looks like a great concept so far, I would probaly have gone with MDF as a base,
as I find it a lot easier to work with, but Im sure plyboard will do the job.
Look forward to seeing this evolve .

You could have it as the "Final march of company X" and have the buildings at the sides be rubble, with handfuls of citizens standing at the sides amongst the rubble. Perhaps one flying a flag. The reason that their would be relatively few guardsmen being that the company was decimated in previous conflict.

I say the mention of bases earlier, I'm not sure as to what the rules are, but I've been looking at the clear acrylic bases for a while now, that might be a way to go as you could paint the surface however you please and these guys would fit in wherever you set them.

Thanks guys, some good ideas, sorry that I havn't updated in what seems like literally ages, but I have been very very very slowly making progress with this project between work and other things.

Judging by my current pace it seems i'll be finished some time in late 2040, and combined with the fact that the board seemed impossibly wide I have taken an executive decision to scrap the whole armies on parade element and its associated restrictions, which means I can have the board any shape I like!

Basically we now have exactly the same idea but half as wide, which fits the image in my head alot better!

So having made the basic framework out of wood and plasticard I begun adding the sides, which will be a cutaway into the underground scene, to do this i used a complicated medley of insulation foam, filler and PVA, and the end result looked something like this:





Which I then enjoyed painting using my airbrush, I have to say this was the first time I've done such a wide area of rock and the airbrush not only made it a breeze but also made it surprisingly fun! The was done using a basecoat of grey matt car spray followed by shading with black and patches of browns, greens and other greys. Im fairly happy with it at the moment but it could probably benefit from some light washes and bits of lichen etc stuck on too? thoughts?






Anyway, you get the idea! its a load of dull looking rock! So I then moved on to the more fun bit, making a trooper who I can cast up hundreds and hundreds of times to be my faceless parade of troopers, this has proved difficult and time consuming, and i'm still nowhere near finished, but I thought I would share where I am so far, the general premise is to keep it simple so it will cast without too many tricky areas, at the moment the body and head will be cast together and the arms separately, at least that's the plan: Note that the head looks a little blockily positioned, but thats just because both it and both the arms are held on by blue tack alone!





But again I hear you cry, that's dull too, hes still all green! give us something else! Well the only other thing I have is the many cathedral kits I have bought to make the above ground scene, here they are very very roughly laid out so you get an idea of the height, that figure (sorry, terrible blurry picture) is the valhallan WIP from above, you think its suitably towering in scale? Also ignore the tyranids lurking in the underground part, they have infested and taken over because I've been absent so long, I'll get some bugspray and do some pest control soon.


I promise I will keep you updated guys and not keeping running on ahead without you! There will be no 3 month wait before the next update!

Thoughts are very welcome, in fact, violent threats would probably be better to try and get me to try and squeeze more out of my limited modelling time, I need relentless prodding I fear.

Coming along nicely, the cave looks great and the green is promising.

Good work so far. Keep it up.

Welcome back J!

The rocks look awesome. Love the colour variations.Trooper looking great too, the modelling on the coat is fantastic.

I like the idea. The boots on the ground up top, and the head sheds underneath, undoubtedly messing everything up. ;-)

Just wanted to chime in and say very impressive so far, the Valhallan looks suitably grim faced; as I am sure you will be if you do indeed cast up a few hundred of them!!

Great stuff, keep at it!

EDIT: Some lichen on the rocks would definitely look great, maybe even some streams/pools of water?