Forum adverts like this one are shown to any user who is not logged in. Join us by filling out a tiny 3 field form and you will get your own, free, dakka user account which gives a good range of benefits to you: No adverts like this in the forums anymore. Times and dates in your local timezone. Full tracking of what you have read so you can skip to your first unread post, easily see what has changed since you last logged in, and easily see what is new at a glance. Email notifications for threads you want to watch closely. Being a part of the oldest wargaming community on the net. If you are already a member then feel free to login now.

Howdy all.
I've been orbiting on the fringes of 40K for quite some time, and decided to finally build a force. However, I'm on a shoestring budget due to having a youngin' (She'll be 1 next month), and being in school. I also have a non-40K model habit to support as well as my BattleTech addiction.

Anyways, I got sucked in by the Gaunt books, and I'm a big treadhead, so I had to go with the Guard. Though I would like to maybe get some SM back-up (definitely not Grey Knights, I don't want to have to start over after every battle ).

Being on a budget means I'll have to bulk the majority of my force out via second hand models, and I'm ok with that. Not everything will be second hand, but I'd like to save my pennies for the 'cool' stuff. It also means a bit of sweat equity, but that's fine. So I spent a long time on Feebay researching prices, comparing them to new and figuring out what my budget would support. With that info in hand, I began to search.

My first purchase was 30 Cadians for 47.19, or 1.57 a pop. Not too shabby.
Though most of the models needed the arms redone to the torso as they didn't line up, and I needed to do mold lines. The force was all lasgun and flamer and vox caster. Seriously, I think every other model had a vox caster. I'm kind of surprised there weren't voxs glued to flamer tanks. Some of the head choices were wonky too.

My next purchase was a lot deal on the local craigslist. 3 Leman Russes (1 standard, 2 Vanquishers) and 35 Cadians (including a command squad) for 120 plus fuel to get there. So call it 130. That puts the Russes at $22.66 a pop and the Cadians at $1.86 a pop (a bit more than I'd like to pay, but the Russes were worth it)

And today I won a Chimera for $25 shipped.

All in all not too shabby. I can't quite build a force out of it yet, but I'm getting close. I need to get some heavy weapon units to really flesh things out. That being said, I want to hold of squad/platoon load outs until the new codex comes out.

Anyways, Pictures!


Not to bad. Surely table-top quality, but the mold lines/part seams were screaming at me, and while I don't have an army color chose yet, I do know that this brown isn't going to be it.


Those seams in the exhaust... Also not sure why the exhausts are placed like that. No matter, They're all coming off!


At first I was going to leave the stowage boxes on and putty the floor/hull seam, but decided to just pull them off. You can see how the plastic cement really ate into the hull from the exhaust stacks.


Sanded the exhaust stacks and applied some Mr. Surfacer 1200 to seam.


The seam on the cannon barrel was a bit much for Mr. Surfacer, so I pulled out the Tamiya putty for that.

I've currently got the hulls and turrets in a Simple Green Bath (thankfully they paint wasn't sealed) and the paint it coming right off.

Thoughts, criticisms, questions? I'd love to hear them.

I like what you're doing so far, and I can empathize with wanting to do an army on a budget. I've come to some interesting conclustions on this myself, though.

The little 10 buck 5-man Guard pack. It's gold. If you think about the stuff that you get in a 10-man squad, you can actually double how many troops you get in the regular box.

In a regular squad of Guardsmen, you have:
1 Sergeant with cc weapon and pistol
1 special weapon guy
1 vox
2 guys in a heavy weapon team (if you choose that)

So, the other 5 guys in the squad are just lasgun-wielding nubs. Guess how many guys you can get for 10 bucks?

So, those thirty guys? Get 3 ten dollar boxes. You now have three full squads of guardsmen, with 15 guys left over. That is enough for 4 squads of guardsmen, and a Command squad.

So, you just got an entire platoon for like, 80 bucks (The first 50 you spent, plus the 30 on extra dudes), which would have normally costed you around 105 dollars. It isn't a lot, but it's something.

Also, if you're ever going to buy an apoc formation (I'm not sure what your budget is like), Don't get the Imperial Shield Infantry Company. It costs you less if you buy 3 Battleforces and a Command squad by, again, about 15 bucks.

I know those are small savings, but they're there.

Also, I like the way you're changing the tank, it looks good so far.

Thanks Brotheralexos! I don't know how I overlooked those 5 man packs!

Since the OP I've bought a used Chimera (it's purple!) for 25 shipped! It's got a dozer blade that I broke the cross-member of the mount while getting it off, but it shouldn't be too hard to fix.

I'll get some pics up later.

I made a trip to the FLGS to poke around and visit their miniatures night. Looked like a bunch of SM and 'nid players, I'll introduce myself when I have something closer to an army to play. While there I picked up a new Chimera and ordered that 5 man pack.

Obviously a bit more than I normally want to spend of vehicles—especially something as vanilla as a Chimera—but I want to support the FLGS

Well, I *may* have a problem.
I've spent quite a bit on Ebay these past few days. Ordered a bits to swap out the hull mounted laser cannons on my second-hand Lemans. I also ordered A couple of turrets to swap to swap out, a Demolisher set-up and the bits to make an Executioner. I also ordered sponsons to add on to make a plasma boat Executioner.

I also, uh, accidentally bought a Valkyrie on ebay with some heavy weapons teams. So, yea.

My wife is going to kill me.

 Mak_the_Knife wrote:
Well, I *may* have a problem.
I've spent quite a bit on Ebay these past few days. Ordered a bits to swap out the hull mounted laser cannons on my second-hand Lemans. I also ordered A couple of turrets to swap to swap out, a Demolisher set-up and the bits to make an Executioner. I also ordered sponsons to add on to make a plasma boat Executioner.

I also, uh, accidentally bought a Valkyrie on ebay with some heavy weapons teams. So, yea.

My wife is going to kill me.

Know the first thing that's gonna die to lascannons? A big, bad plasma tank
Good luck trying to get a shot off with that thing

 BrotherOfBone wrote:

 Mak_the_Knife wrote:
Well, I *may* have a problem.
I've spent quite a bit on Ebay these past few days. Ordered a bits to swap out the hull mounted laser cannons on my second-hand Lemans. I also ordered A couple of turrets to swap to swap out, a Demolisher set-up and the bits to make an Executioner. I also ordered sponsons to add on to make a plasma boat Executioner.

I also, uh, accidentally bought a Valkyrie on ebay with some heavy weapons teams. So, yea.

My wife is going to kill me.

Know the first thing that's gonna die to lascannons? A big, bad plasma tank
Good luck trying to get a shot off with that thing

Eh, I'm in it for the model building/converting more than the game. Heck, I've not even played a game yet, but I'm reading the rules and awaiting the new 'dex.

Well I have just about everything I need for a basic army.
Ordered a new LRBT so I can get all the extra guns and stuff, and will bring me up to 4, a box of special weapons teams with will give me 6 HWTs and bits to make an additional Leman Russ with all the extra parts I already have (5, now). More bits to work on making a Thunderer/Destroyer.
I'm really looking forward to that project. I found a pic of the Forge World parts, so that will help immensely as I plan everything out.

Well, depending on your view, Adepticon was either very good to me or very bad.
I managed to expand my forces quite a bit: Picked up (all used) a Chimera, Armored Sentinel, Kasrkin Squad and another Heavy Weapon Team.
Now to wait for the new Codex to see how many points I have.

I also picked up enough stuff to make my Dark Vengeance Dark Angels a legal force with another Tac Marine Squad, Rhino, Dreadnought and landspeeder.

I've more pictures to post as I've re-primered the Lemans and one of the Chimeras. I also finished modding my Reaper Bones Chronoscope lady to be a female Commissar. I'm just too tired for the weekend to upload the pics.

Arise, ARISE!

So I realize it's been 9 months or so since I've added anything, but I've been somewhat productive in that time. And I hope to use this PM blog to keep me going.
I've settled on a mostly mechanized force (oh, still haven't played a game, but getting there) with a NATO 3-color scheme for the vehicles and a green-on-green scheme for the grunts.

So yea, pictures!

You remember the brown Lemans from a few posts (and months!) up? Well I have one hull done, one hull I'm working on, and another in primer.

This is actully hull 2. He's been weathered with some chipping fluid and here he's getting a AK NATO wash.

The turrets I got already had the guns glued in, and I really didn't want to fight to get them out. But damn, The giant barrel diameter is the one thing I hate about the Leman. Dumb, but true. Anyways, cut off the old barrels and made my own. The first is a Vanquisher. I was able to get the FW Ryza pattern barrel length to match mine up to. Due to having to cut the old barrel off, I had to get creative with the mantlet, so I decided to try a trick from a friend, and make one out of Teflon tape to represent a canvas style one. I also tried my hand at a green stuff banner off the areal. It's...not atrocious.


I like wise made a battlecannon variant. This time I had a bunch of mixed greenstuff left over from something else, so I decided to try making a canvas mantlet with that as well. I guess I won't know until they get further in the painting process till I know which method I like better.


This is Leman Hull #1, in the process of getting some rust and what have you paints put down for a base for chipping. The chipping will be done it two coats. The first (below) was painted in rusty hues and shiney metal, and then had the chipping medium applied.


It will then have a dark mettalic grey base coat done all over, chipping medium removed, clear coat over the areas I like, then another round of chipping medium to get both some rust and some of the dark metallic grey to chip to, and then the NATO 3-color applied.

.


And here is a mini that aside from the base being done, and a coat of dullcoat applied, I'm considering done.

While taking a break from painting (too cold/humidity to low for the airbrush) and weathing (I REALLY need some odorless white spirits...) I've been messing around with my Destroyer Tank...Destroyer (they really need a better name for that). I really had no plan going in to building it, and indeed this is my most extensive scratching project. I had wanted to copy the FW design as closely as possible, especially the gun housing/mantlet, but the hexhsape of the original was going to be a pain to scratch, and while I was thinking of using the Vindicator or one of the Baneblade housings, I really couldn't justify the cost. So I decided to scratch a housing. In hind site, I should have used the front mount from the kit and blocked it off.
Oh well, I've learned quite a bit on this, and the my housing seems to mostly fit the aesthetic, so I'm happy.
It's the basic Leman Hull top with the Chimera hull top grafted on a la the Forgeworld design.

So, uh, I guess it's time for my yearly update!

So my mostly done Vanquisher. The turret and tank as seen above:

I tried to make some decals for it (the red Aquila on the front) but, eh...

And here is an in progress of my Tank Hunter. Just doing rivets now, which is why it hasn't gone anywhere.


One of my plasma sentinals:


And this I'm really proud of, she was an ebay buy that had the platform ripped off and the gun barrel was cut down. I made a new platform from treadplate, replaced the missing barrel portion and then designed the superstructure in FreeCAD, printed it out on paper and the cut the shapes out on sheet styrene.





I'll try to post some more here a bit more regularly

Some nice stuff here. I'll be keeping an eye on this. Keep up the good work!

Finally looking like I'll be getting some more hobby time (and even time to play!)
Decided to buckle down and get some projects started that have been languishing in the "to-do" bin.

One of those projects was to convert some Mantic Steel Warriors that came in an Adepticon swagbag a few years ago into 40K squats that count-as IG.

Here's the proof-of-concept sergeant with bolt pistol and CCW with a lasgunner. I'll run them as carapace vets as they look like they're sporting some platemail. I did want to use only bits I had on hand, but grenade launcher vets seems kind of a waste, so I'll probably have to figure out some plasma for them.

Some non-tank updates...

Project Valkdetta's rebuild is coming along. She was a FW 'detta that had one side of the fuselage longer than the other—not common, but I have read about it happening to others. So after getting it apart, and cutting the longer fuselage down, I've finally got her...oh, 60% assembled. I'll have the other boom added this weekend and maybe the wings too. Just in time for it to be left out of the new Death From the Skies book...


I'm also working on a Vindicare. I'm following the tutorial that was published in "White Dwarf" awhile back. It's my first time painting like this, and... I don't hate it, but I feel the edge highlighting is a bit too thick. He's still very much a work in progress.


And finally my bits Priest. I picked up a bag of Fallagnet (sp?) bits at Adepticon for $4 and cobbled this guy together. I removed his bare feet and gave him boots as well as cutting the spikes off the mace. He actually didn't look very 'Priestly"—actually he looked pretty Chaos-y and I really wasn't happy with him. I then stumbled on the idea of gluing one the Aquila emblems from the Leman Russ onto his mace. Really simple, but makes (in my opinion) all the difference. The autogun was made from a spare HWT loose lasrifle, tubing and greenstuff.

Cool plog. Nice priest kit bash.

EDC

 evildrcheese wrote:
Cool plog. Nice priest kit bash.

EDC

Thank you!

Working on a Vindicare Assassin for my guys and following the White Dwarf tutorial. This is actually the first time I really trying to paint this style. I'm alternating between really liking it and criticizing the hell out of it.
I feel the suit highlights are a it thick, but if I'm honest with myself, for a first time they're probably ok

Finally got the major construction done on my rebuild of a old Forge World Vendetta. Had I know the amount of work it was going to be when I bought it last year at Adeptcon, I would have passed. However, It really pushed my modeling skills and I'm probably better off for it. Maybe.

As the built in alignment pins were mostly destroyed in the disassembly process, I had some 'fun' trying to get everything aligned on the re-assembly. Not prefect, but pretty close. I used JB Quick (5-minute epoxy) and pinned the wings.
I managed to somehow warp the left wing (I think I would have noticed if it was that badly bent when I bought it...) and had to boil it back to shape. Mostly.

Like everything else on this build, it's slightly off and beat up, but at this point it's kinda charming.

Or not...

that vendetta rescue looks much better now, my vendetta was bad, but not that bad. well done!

Thank you STG!

It's been a labor of love, that's for sure. And like I said, I've really pushed my skills on it. I'd love to be able to do some custom noseart for her, maybe a cheesecake pinup with a pun-ny name.

I have a whole bunch of stuff I that I've not posted here before, but I'll try to rectify that (and figure out the missing photo links at the first couple of posts).


This is my Project: Bass-ilisk. Another ebay purchase where I didn't look at the picture close enough or know the subject matter enough to know what I was looking for. I ended up purchasing another Basilisk model, and used the firing platform from that one as a template to cut out a replacement from tread-plate styrene. I also tried doing some incredibly basic CAD work and designed a super structure for the gun She's come out pretty well, if I do say so myself.

Good start on the bassie! how do you do rivets?

on another note I couldn't help myself suggesting that you try to convert it to a Armageddon pattern basilisk? some thing like this

just a thought.

Very nice job! Hopefully I will get to blow those up in a game sometime soon

 STG wrote:
Good start on the bassie! how do you do rivets?

on another note I couldn't help myself suggesting that you try to convert it to a Armageddon pattern basilisk? some thing like this

Spoiler:

just a thought.

Thank you!

I thought about doing an enclosed compartment, but at the time, I really didn't think my skills were up to it to be honest.
The rivets are from Tichy trains. Like everyone else I tried everything for convincing rivets, but Tichy's are actual tiny plastic rivets, so you can drill holes in and glue them with plastic glue, or cut the head off and glue them in that way. They are like 3 cents a rivet and for me, that was worth it for the quality and uniformity.

I did a blog post about them just about a year ago here.


Automatically Appended Next Post:

 Ustrello wrote:
Very nice job! Hopefully I will get to blow those up in a game sometime soon

Of that I have no doubt good sir!

Nice work on the Basilisk so far.

EDC

So I saw a conversion on FB awhile ago using a flamer to make an Eviscerator wielding priest Today I decided to copy it, and with some feedback from my local group I decided to make it even more Grimdark.

Well, shy of some Dullcoat. I think this guy is done.

Nice assassin. Also that priest looks boss. Awesome work.

EDC