The Kalashnikovan 2nd - An Imperial Guard Blog

Introduction:

Hi all, this is my blog for a made-up Imperial Guard regiment, the Kalashnikovan 2nd. I've been out of the hobby for nearly 8 years now, but I've recently decided to start collecting again. I've always fancied having an Imperial Guard army, but I hate the Catachan models (baby Ogryns) and everyone collects Cadians. I'm not hugely keen on the Vostroyans or Elysians, and collecting Death Korps, Steel Legion, Tallarn or Valhallan would probably be too expensive for me (I'm a recently graduated student who has been left unemployed by this recession - money is not in great supply!). I'm funding my army through selling old warhammer I have lying around on ebay, and buying and selling more of it and putting the profits into this force. So that effectively limits me to the Cadians... The problem is that I want it to be a completely unique force, so here goes!

My favourite Guard models always used to be the Valhallans, and I've always liked the idea of an army based in the frozen tundra. I've been lurking around this forum and several others looking for inspiration and parts I could get to convert the Cadians, and I came across the pig iron separate heads system. I loved the Militia in winter headgear pieces - they look like Valhallans crossed with Steel Legion: just the sort of force I want! I also came across the website 'The Assault Group' who have a myriad of 28mm pieces. They're very expensive, but I thought it was worth it - I opted to buy some backpacks, sleeping bag rolls and some AK47's to convert my guardsmen with (the AK's eventually gave my regiment its name).

I decided early on in the process that I'm going to lavish attention on each individual model, with a wealth of conversions and nice paint jobs for every single man. With my lack of practice with painting in particular, this means I'm probably going to have an army consisting of veterans and not infantry platoons, mainly so that I don't have to paint so many. With these things in mind, I began planning out a small, elite regiment based on an ice world that would need gas masks. Below is some fluff I've written for my fictional planet, Kalashnikova, and its human history:

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Fluff:

Kalashnikova – the Planet:

Kalashnikova is the second moon of the Gas Giant planet Pry, located in the Golgenna Reach sub-sector of Calixis, in the Segmentum Obscura. Kalashnikova is a moon roughly the size of Holy Terra, and has a plentiful supply of valuable ores and minerals. It is suspected by scholars that Kalashnikova was once a planet in its own right, but orbital paths caused it to be drawn into the gravitational pull of Pry many millions of years ago. Its environment is very cold, with only the lands around the equator fully inhabitable, though the air is scarce of oxygen, making surviving for sustained periods very taxing. These areas are primarily mountainous tundra and boreal forest areas, while areas further North and South are vast windswept plains of ice. Few animals are hardy enough to survive the Kalashnikovan conditions away from the equator, so the equatorial regions are densely populated with fauna, including the Kalashnikovan Polar Bear, a mighty creature standing over 15 feet tall; the Kalash Wild Dog, a vicious Wolf-like canine that hunts in large packs, attacking almost anything that it encounters; and the Mikhail Osprey, an enormous bird of prey large enough to carry a man off to his death.

Human history of the planet:

It is unknown for how long Kalashnikova had been settled by the nomadic mountain-men that had dwelled there, but the moon quickly came under the command of the Imperium at around the same time as the rest of the Calixis sector. Almost immediately after being liberated by the Imperial might, mining began to extract the rich natural resources buried beneath the planet’s crust. However, the planet’s new inhabitants found the oxygen-scarce atmosphere of Kalashnikova difficult to cope with, and large underground hive-like dwellings quickly became the living arrangement of choice for the citizens. These hives grew and grew, often expanding into the old mining complexes that had been cleared of all resources by the mass-scale extractions that had been occurring, with the planet’s population reaching the 7 billion mark by the start of the 41st millennium.

By the 41st millennium, almost all of the natural resources of Kalashnikova had been extracted, and the planet was in a state of turmoil and massive political unrest after mass job cuts and benefit detractions. This culminated in an enormous, bloody civil war that tore the planet – almost literally – asunder.

The Kalashnikovan Civil War:

In 968.M41 civil unrest against Kalashnikova’s governor, Oleg Puškin, reached boiling point after several protesters outside the seat of government in the hive city of Muscova were killed by local law enforcement. A full-scale riot ensued, with losses estimated in the tens of thousands on both sides, as Muscova’s enforcers struggled to quell the unrest. Oleg Puškin’s strongest political rival and critic – his estranged younger brother Andrei – was quickly gathering support from political seats and the military as he sensed his opportunity to wrest control of the planet by force. Around half the planet sided with Andrei: a few entire regions went over to the rebel side, while in other areas opinion was divided between remaining loyal to Oleg’s legitimate government and defecting to the revolution. Friend fought friend, brother fought brother as the war continued for almost a decade. Vicious city fights were being waged deep below the planet’s surface as soldiers who had once stood alongside one another were forced to kill their former comrades. Massive battles were fought on the planet’s surface up in the mountains where companies like the loyalist Kalashnikovan 2nd made their name; in the tundra; on the great snow plains as enormous armoured companies waged war; and in the dense boreal forests. Exact losses during the conflict at this point are unknown, but estimates put the number at over three quarters of a billion people.

The Imperium’s unwillingness to intervene in the planet’s issues was symptomatic of its fall from grace due to its now largely worthless status as a spent mining planet. However, the war was taking a horrific toll on the people themselves, and all of Kalashnikova’s citizens were crying out for an end to the conflict: Rebellion leader Andrei Puškin had managed to gain control of the city’s primary planetary defence stations located in the port of Leningrava, and he contemplated the unthinkable: use a massively powerful nuclear salvo on his own planet.

Either Andrei was woefully ignorant of the dire consequences his actions would cause for Kalashnikova, or he had fallen to the dark lure of the Gods of Chaos: he decided, at great length and against the wishes of his advisers, to use the missiles in an attack on Oleg’s main military base, Zakova. The missiles obliterated a huge section of the underground hive regions on the Western side of the planet, killing billions. Worst of all though, the missiles unleashed a reserve of toxic gas that had remained trapped within the planet’s core. This toxin caused the slow and painful death of millions more Kalashnikovans who were on the planet’s surface, slowly suffocating them as it poisoned their lungs (which is why the planet’s soldiers now have their trademark gas masks as part of their standard uniform). Strangely, the gas did not seem to affect non-human life in any way, and it is whispered amongst scholars that the ancient and enigmatic Eldar may have left it there many millennia ago to punish humans if such an atrocity as using nuclear-level warheads on your own planet ever did occur on Kalashnikova.

Andrei had won the war, but at what cost? He installed his government in the ravaged hive of Muscova and began rebuilding the once great world that he now ruled through an iron fist. It has been debated at great length as to whether Andrei was indeed touched by the Gods of Chaos, but a full-scale Imperial Inquisition is as yet unforthcoming. Former governor Oleg Puškin had survived the missile attack, and was locked in the highest tower of Durmstrad – the highest security prison on Kalashnikova, located deep in the mountains on the planet’s surface – and left to rot by his own brother…

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So that fluff gave me some wiggle room for my individual regiment: would I have a possibly chaos-corrupted force fighting for Andrei Puskas' newly installed government, or would I have a small, battle-hardened group still loyal to the legitimate governor, perhaps living in secret on the surface of the planet, conducting daring raids on the Rebellion forces, and trying to muster support to otherthrow the chaotic regime on Kalashnikova... No choice really, I went for the second one!

I'll present some fluff for the 2nd company themselves in the next post I make, and for now I'll tease you all with my proposed paint job and a shot of the first veteran squad I have built!

Proposed Paintjob:

So here is the paintjob I am going for for my army. I resprayed an old plastic cadian I had lying around and painted him up, so ignore the unfiled flush bits please . The bases will obviously be done in snow for the proper army, but I couldn't be chuffed to mix up a batch for one miniature.



The model was basecoated black (error?) and then I built up to white from shadow grey, with about 7 or so highlight layers. He's not perfect, he is the first mini I've painted in 8 years afterall, but I think the colour scheme works well. I tried a lot of combinations for camo, but winter camouflage looks pretty rubbish on 40k miniatures IMO. I was keen on the cityfight camo scheme (remember those cadians GW used to use in WD for the eye of terror campaign, the shadow grey, white and black camo ones?), but it didn't look wintery enough. I searched on google for real winter camo, and a lot of forces use just white, so thats what I went for. I think the black armour offsets it nicely, and the blue works well with the white as a tertiary colour since I built up to white from the 'blue side' (as opposed to building up with highlights from brown or grey). I reckon it will look coherent and impressive over a whole force.

What do you guys think of the paint job? Any suggestions?

A teaser for what's forthcoming...



Thats the veteran squad I've already built. I'll be unveiling each model over the coming posts (I'll do one per day) along with some fluff for each man! As you can see, they're all heavily converted (I'm particularly proud of my use of the injured guardsman model!), and highly individualised.

Whats in the next post?

I'll give you some fluff on the Kalashnikovan 2nd themselves, including their combat doctrine, beliefs and notable conflicts and characters, and I'll unveil the first veteran: Sergeant Boris 'The Bear' Varenkov!

Keep watching this blog!

I'll be watching...

I also like the paintjob, if the prototype minature is anything to go by.

Keep posting and we' ll keep watching...
Nice Fluff BTW

I really like that guy especially the cold steel on his bayonet was that blue effect deliberate?

Lovely, crisp colourscheme. Very striking.

The scheme looks really atm, and im sure it will work when used on a whole army. The individuality of each trooper and the conversions look set to make this
a truly unique force.

Nice work!

Cheers for the feedback guys, appreciate your comments .

Llamahead wrote:I really like that guy especially the cold steel on his bayonet was that blue effect deliberate?

I drybrushed BG metal, and then I mixed a little blue ink into the black ink when I did a wash. Lastly I highlighted with a thin layer of chainmail.

The Kalashnikovan 2nd - An Imperial Guard Blog

Extra fluff:


Thought I'd do a quick fluff update as its going to be rather fluff heavy if I post it all up tomorrow. So without further ado, here is some background on the Imperial Guard regiments of Kalashnikova. The stuff on the Kalash 2nd and Sergeant Boris will be posted up tomorrow.

The Kalashnikovan Imperial Guard Regiments:

With its large population and an assortment of factories and engineering foundries, Kalashnikova was more than able to provide Guard regiments for the Imperium’s cause. The Kalashnikovan regiments followed a similar doctrine to the Tallarn Desert Raider forces, but specialised in winter warfare thanks to their planet’s frozen surface where the military bases were located. No Kalashnikovan women are permitted in their regiments, due to the planet’s rather conservative attitude towards women’s rights. ‘Kalash’ (as they became known throughout the galaxy) regiments were dispatched to many war zones that required a blend of sneak attack mentality and winter warfare specialisation. Kalashnikovan companies fought against Chaos in almost all of Abaddon the Despoilers black crusades, and became well known amongst both allies and enemies alike for their daring assaults – most of which were conducted under the cover of darkness, or better yet under the cover of a raging snow storm.

Kalashnikovan regiments utilise a myriad of weaponry and vehicles constructed in the foundries of their home world. Most notable, perhaps, are the KA47 (Kalash Alpha 47) pattern Lasguns, easily identifiable by their shorter and thicker stocks, and larger power packs. These weapons are especially designed to be even more robust and reliable than normal Lasguns, due to the cold weather in which they are normally used by the Kalashnikovan troops. The shorter, lighter design makes moving and climbing with the weapons much easier than would normally be expected. Kalashnikovans take great pride in the customisation and improvement of their own personal weaponry, and many of their companies relish opportunities to serve on Hive or Factorum Worlds where they might encounter a chance to get the latest gizmo to attach to their weapon.


A typical Kalash trooper. Note the absence of the non-Imperium approved KA47 Lasgun.

Kalashnikovan troops often partake in operations that require them to be out in the wild for as long as months on end, and often in war zones that are too inhospitable or remote for armoured support. As such, most Kalashnikovan troopers carry a large supply bag with them everywhere they go, containing ice climbing equipment; shovels and pickaxes for building shelters in the snow; food; ammo; and other extra survival equipment they might need in conflict. A Kalashnikovan receives his distinctive winter headgear (known as a Kalash Cap) upon his induction into the regiment, and keeps this hat until he retires, is killed or is promoted to the rank of Sergeant or Officer (where he receives a winter officer-cap-style headpiece). Many proud soldiering families on Kalashnikova have passed their Kalash Caps down from father to son through the generations; and losing your Cap is considered a massive dishonour amongst the Kalashnikovan regiment.

Kalashnikovan youths who want to join the armed forces usually join up to youth army groups that begin to teach them many of the winter survival and rapid assault skills that make their full-grown peers so effective as soldiers. Forays out onto the surface of the planet to spend a weekend camping in the ice are common. Once a Kalashnikovan reaches the legal age of 16, he can join up to the Whiteshield (or Moloyozhev) companies. During this time, the recruit undergoes intense training (sometimes in the field of battle itself), before being forced to do a brutal induction: The Kalashnikovan youngster is presented with the task of being dropped in the tundra wilderness of his home world’s surface, and told to find his way back to the nearest military base as quickly as possible. Recruits have no proper equipment with them when they do this, and are forced to use their survival instinct and skills to complete the induction. Most recruits take around a week to arrive back, skilled ones may take as little as 2 days and it has been known for some to take as long as 2 months. There is the added danger of the wildlife on Kalashnikova to deal with too, and there are plenty of cases of recruits being eaten by packs of Kalash Wild Dogs. Once a recruit completes his induction, he is welcomed with open arms into his new company squad, often with a large celebratory party where all the recruits family and friends attend his ‘coming of age’. Kalashnikovan regiments tend to promote Moloyozhev graduates into existing squads rather than combine ones that have sustained losses, owing to the fact that veterans can train up their less experienced comrades.


The Kalashnikovan 58th prepare to leave their home planet to fight for the Imperium against Abaddon.

Kalashnikovan regiments move at remarkable speeds through snowy terrain, often taking death-defying short cuts over and down sheer rock faces. Every Kalashnikovan trooper is trained to abseil, rock climb and ice climb: a speedy, problem-free ascent or descent of a cliff can often mean the difference between success and failure – life and death – on the specialist missions Kalashnikovans undertake. Some companies also make use of Snow Mobiles – these Kalash Rough Riders are renowned for being brave to the point of recklessness, riding their supercharged skidoos into the heart of the enemy’s forces, breaking whole lines of enemy infantry and performing daredevil attacks on enemy armour using melta-bombs.

Kalash regiments also make extensive use of explosives, utilising all types of grenades, claymore-style mines and large anti-armour devices. Most Kalashnikovan squads have at least one demolitions expert in their midst to allow them to perform Commando-style sabotage missions and surprise attacks on the enemy.

The sight of a Kalashnikovan armoured company is a remarkable one: very often these tanks have been specialised to the point of being unrecognisable from their standardised Imperial Guard counterparts. These tanks are often centuries old, due to many of the armoured companies having only seen conflict sporadically when they were dispatched to other war zones (though Kalashnikova’s reputation as a provider of winter warfare specialists meant that most conflicts had little need for the planet’s armoured might).


The Kalashnikovan 1st Armoured Company waging war against the forces of chaos

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Well, hope you enjoy that little fluff article - there'll be more stuff up tomorrow (some miniatures I should add!).

I have to say that I am enjoying the fluff behind your army. Looking good so far too

Fluff is great and the paintjob has potential. I can't wait to see some of those models painted up.

The Kalashnikovan 2nd - An Imperial Guard Blog

Fluff:

The Kalashnikovan 2nd:

The Kalashnikovan 2nd are possibly the most renowned company within the Kalash Imperial Guard. Prior to the Kalashnikovan civil war, the company was based in the region of Bratasiva, to the North of the equator and West of the planet capital, Muscova. The region is a microcosm of the planet’s variation in terrain, with a large mountain range, a thick boreal forest, some dense tundra and a sprawling ice plain all on display. The 2nd company were equipped with an ideal training ground for winter warfare, and their recruits were always taken from the Bratasiva region to ensure that they would already have winter survival skills that were more rounded than recruits from other areas. The company’s broad skill in winter warfare meant that they were one of the most sought after forces when Kalashnikova was required to send armies to aid the Imperium in warfare.

Urgalla, 145.M41:

One such time was during Abaddon the Despoiler’s 12th Crusade, when the Chaos Warlord came forth from the Eye of Terror and attempted to take control of the Blackstone Fortresses in the Gothic Sector. One particularly hard-fought battle between the Imperium and Abaddon was for the planet of Urgalla, in 145.M41. Abaddon had sent the Alpha Legion to wrest control of the planet on the surface, but the world was trapped in the midst of one of the worst winters in its history. Traitor Space Marine and Urgallan Imperial Guardsmen alike were perishing in the hellish snowstorms and bitter winds that blew through the mountains and cities of the planet’s Northern regions like barbed whips. Urgallas’ Governor sent a desperate plea for help to the Imperium, asking for some winter specialist troops who could disrupt the Alpha Legion while they sheltered from the harsh winter. The Governor knew that his world would not last long once the winter had passed and the Chaos Marines could bring their superior firepower, skill and equipment to bear, and that time was therefore of the essence for his planet’s survival.

The Governor had been expecting a chapter of the Adeptus Astartes, perhaps the Space Wolves, to come to his aid, and was most displeased when a single company of Kalashnikovan Imperial Guardsmen touched down on Urgalla. Without even a word of what they were doing, the Kalashnikovans immediately set off into the winter wilderness, towards where the Alpha Legion were taking stock of their position and waiting out the winter at the base of an enormous mountain range.

Little is known of exactly what happened out in the frozen tundra of Urgalla, but one thing is for certain: the entire armoured support and bombardment guns of the Alpha Legion’s occupying force on Urgalla was simultaneously destroyed by a deliberate sabotage attack, and the Traitor Space Marines were forced to abandon their attempts to take control of the planet. The Kalashnikovan 2nd refused to tell Urgalla’s Governor of how they had achieved this remarkable victory, not wanting to jeopardise future missions if word of how they operated got out. The Governor ordered further investigations into the Kalashnikova 2nd’s operation, but the only conclusion Urgallan military analysts could come to was that they had somehow avoided detection long enough to loop round behind the Alpha Legion, navigate the treacherous mountain range behind where the Traitors had made their base, and then descend down an enormous cliff face right into the heart of the Alpha Legion’s forces, before escaping again undetected. Still mystified as to how mere men could manage such a treacherous mission, the Governor decided that there was little point in him knowing the full facts anyway: the only way a company could be trained to fulfil a mission such as that one, and in conditions like that terrible winter on Urgalla, was if each and every soldier had been used to living in those circumstances his entire life. The Kalashnikovan 2nd are still held in the highest esteem on the planet of Urgalla, where an enormous statue was erected in the planet’s capital city to acknowledge their contribution to the World’s history.


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Veteran Squad Alpha: Sergeant Boris 'The Bear' Varenkov:

Here is the Sergeant of my first veterans squad, and a little backstory about him. He is made from the following parts:

Legs: Colonel Shaefer
Torso: Tank commander
Left arm: Cadian Sergeant
Right arm: Heavy weapons squad set
Head: Pig iron kolony militia officers
Backpack: Assault group US vietnam light backpack, and Vietnamese camping roll
Accesories: Space marines pistol holster, forgeworld veterans knife

I'm really happy with how this guy came out. I was aiming to give him a real sense of motion, which is why I chose Schaefers legs. I wanted it to look like he was willing his squad forward into the fray, and the pointing arm adds to this. The torso was a bit of a nightmare to use because it was very short once cut from the tank commander legs, so I had to use greenstuff. I think I used a little too much though, because this combined with Schaefer's abnormally long legs means that Boris is nearly a head taller than most guardsmen. Still, that fact lends itself nicely to a bit of backstory, and IMO its good to have a few interesting physicalilities in the force. My next sergeant is going to be a huge fat bloke with his arms crossed and a lackey possibly carrying his bags .



Sergeant Boris 'The Bear' Varenkov:

Boris Varenkov was born in the Bratasiva region of Kalashnikova to a family of farmers. Raised on the farm, Boris stood out from an early age due to his abnormal size and strength for such a young boy. Indeed, by the age of 11 he was already the strongest man in the small town in which he grew up. He was extremely well-liked amongst all of the local populace, due to his gentle and generous nature. 'Big Boris', as he was known in those days, was always willing to lend a hand to other farmers and townspeople, and was something of a local celebrity due to his immense height. As a teenager Boris had little time for school, preferring to spend time on the farm and doing physical labour. Though certainly not unintelligent, academia never appealed to the young Varenkov.

Boris' mother was concerned that he spent too much time helping his father on the farm and not enough time socialising with other boys of his age, and felt that he should partake in some sort of sport or youth group activities to broaden his horizons. Reluctantly at first, Boris joined the Kalashnikovan military youth group in the area. Though at first he was shy and unassertive, Boris' strength of physicality and strength of spirit quickly endeared him to not only his comrades, but the youth leaders as well. He was promoted to squadron leader and began to grow into his new leadership role. The Kalashnikovan 2nd were keen for Boris to sign up to the Moloyozhev (Whiteshield) companies when he reached the required age, but Boris wished to return to his family farm and follow in his father's footsteps.

It was not long after Boris' 16th birthday that disaster struck: Boris' father had travelled to Muscova to partake in the peaceful protests against the job cuts and benefit retractions that Governor Oleg Puskas had brought in, due to the planet's economic downturn. However, Boris' father had lost heart that what he was doing was right when the protesters started to become violent. Eventually, the Governor's Arbitrators intervened, and the situation escalated to the point where violent confrontations were taking place throughout Muscova between the Arbites and the protesters. Boris' father was trying to stop the protesters from fighting back, attempting to prevent further violence, when he was punched in the back of the head by one particularly fiercesome protester. Boris' father crashed to the concrete ground and was trampled by protesters as the throng marched through the streets, looting and burning as they went.

Mr Varenkov was left in a coma by the events and it was as he lay in his vegetative state that his son came to visit him. The sight of his father lying in a coma in the hospital seemed to bring about a strange and slightly frightening change in Boris' nature. Where he was once kind-natured and shy, he became aggressive and assertive - a thoroughly intimidating character when his enormous size (which was now approaching 7 feet) was taken into account.

Despite his mother's desperate pleas for him to stay at home, Boris joined up to the Moloyozhev afterall, and earned a name for himself through feats of immense bravery in the early years of the Kalashnikovan civil war. When it came time to do his induction to the main Kalasnikovan regiment, it took Boris just a day and a half to hike his way back to base camp - a new record. What was even more remarkable was that he had encountered a Kalashnikovan Polar Bear, and slain the mighty beast with his bare hands. This is how Boris earned his nickname, 'The Bear', a monicker he carries to this day.

As a guardsman in the Kalashnikovan 2nd throughout the remaining years of the civil war, Boris excelled in every aspect of soldiering life - and was duly promoted to Sergeant at the end of the conflict. He has held the position of Sergeant ever since, despite offers to promote to the rank of Leftenant. He is fiercely loyal to his men, and would gladly lay down his own life to save one of theirs. His troops know this, and he commands their unswerving loyalty and respect as a result. Though not a great tactition, Sergeant Varenkov is adept at calling orders on the battle field and knowing how his own squad's actions could help the army as a whole.

Whats in the next post?

I'll give a bit more fluff on the 2nd company, them fighting in the civil war, and I'll introduce the next veteran, Vox specialist Corporal Feliks Chubai.

This shows promise dude. I'm looking forward to seeing more.

Big up to old metal guard models too.

These are looking good, it's nice to see truly unique guard regiments; especially ones with detailed backgrounds

How do the rifles match up in terms of scale? I've been tempted to use the SA80s, LAWs and entrenching tools on my guys

Thanks, I'm a big fan of your work too . Yeah, the guns just about work. I cut off the lasguns from the arms, but leave the stock (and then alter the AK's accordingly). It takes a bit of fiddling around to get the positions right, and obviously need the left arms with the hands still attached (got 80 of those on order from apocabitz now in the US). On one of the models I've made so far, the gun is a little bit wonky at the join between the lasgun stock and the AK, but its not too noticeable. The other ones are find though. Obviously I can't speak for other weapons, but I'd imagine they would work ok.

If you have a pin vice you can separate the left hands from lasguns pretty easily. As you're chopping the things up anyway a bit more damage shouldn't matter.

If you chop the lasgun just in front of and behind the hand you can drill down in between the thumb and other fingers. You can then easily slice the rest of the lasgun away leaving an open hand.

If you use a couple of sizes of bit you end up with a nice curved surface that you can trim to suit your needs. It is a bit fiddly, but its certainly a lot cheaper then ordering a whole bunch of extra arms.

Lol I've already ordered the extra hands . They were 10 cents per piece though, so its not a huge outlay - tbh I think the money I spent on them is worth less than the time it would take to drill them away.

I hope all your characters get as interesting a back story and conversion as "The Bear".

Looking forward to seeing him painted.

I think there are times when it's easier to just stump up some cash rather than spending hours carefully converting millions of the same thing. This seems like one of those times

I'm loving these right now. Rarely see guard armies themed like this.



This guy is just reeking of awesome body odour!

Have you seen the Russian heads from West Wind? Might be something to look at for ideas.

I looked at the west wind heads, but they didn't have pics of the russian ones so I didn't bother with them. Do you have links to any examples of them used?

Bad news on the arms with hands front though - apocabitz got in touch with me last night and apparently they only have 7 in stock (TBH I though 80 might be pushing it a bit...). I'm doing the order anyway and they'll contact me when they have more in.

Does anyone know of any more bitz sites, preferably uk based (though I'd settle for US based if they have the parts I need)? Bitzbarn or bitzbox have naff all in stock, before anyone suggests them.

I've just had an order through from bitsandkits.co.uk; the order came through very quickly and actually had everything in it that I ordered, unlike bitzbox. Never did get the crows I ordered from them, despite many emails...

The Kalashnikovan 2nd - An Imperial Guard Blog

Hey guys, another update for you. First up is some fluff that follows on directly from the last lot about the Kalashnikovan 2nd. This bit is them in the Kalash civil war.

Fluff:

The 2nd company in the Kalashnikovan Civil War:

As civil war erupted on the planet of Kalashnikova, the 2nd company were among those who pledged their allegiance to the legitimate Governor, Oleg Puškin. Though many historical accounts of the planet’s history chose to ignore some details of Oleg’s reign and present him as a fool instead, he had actually worked nothing less than a minor miracle keeping Kalashnikova’s economy stable for so long prior to the Civil War starting. The 2nd company’s commanders recognised this, particularly as Oleg Puškin himself had briefly served as an Officer in the 2nd before moving into politics. The 2nd company was almost unique amongst Kalashnikovan companies, in that all of its troops chose to side with just one cause: most other companies had divisions right the way through them, as ambitious young officers saw a chance to make a name for themselves fighting for Andrei Puškin’s Rebellion.

As the war began in earnest, the 2nd quickly abandoned their base on the surface in Bratasiva and retreated deep into the mountains. Company Commander, Colonel Grigor Blodniek, had predicted that overcoming the 2nd before they could get into the wilderness would be one of the major military priorities for the Rebellion. And sure enough, Rebel forces descended on the newly deserted military base almost immediately after open conflict began. Upon finding out that the 2nd company had gone to ground in the wilderness they knew so well, Andrei Puškas was said to be in a towering rage: he knew that military operations in and around the Bratasiva region were likely to be severely compromised by the threat of sudden attacks from the 2nd, their deadly soldiers setting traps and explosives, or streaming down from the mountain tops to attack unwary Rebels during snowstorms.

Colonel Blodniek’s Vox Specialist had rigged up a coder and radio unit that allowed the 2nd company to communicate with the Loyalist military high command in Muscova, and take orders for specialist missions to help disrupt the rebellion. One such mission occurred in the autumn of 973.M41, when information reached the Loyalist high command that a Rebel supply line was moving eastwards through the Bratasiva Mountains to provide support to Andre’s troops fighting in siege of Muscova. A large contingent of the 2nd company was camped up in the mountains, lying low in caves to avoid detection from the skies, and they were desperate for some action. The 2nd company knew that the supply line was likely to be well protected, but that their window to strike was very small: it wouldn’t take long for the supply line – in the knowledge that they might come under attack from the 2nd company, who were long rumoured to be in the area – to pass through the mountain range and into relative safety.

Dispatched to protect the supply line was the Rebel Kalashnikovan 1st Company, troops that were based in Muscova itself and usually limited themselves to fighting in boreal forest areas. The 1st company had always been jealous of the military exploits of the more renowned 2nd, and felt that, as the first company, they should have been getting more of these ‘juicy’ mission assignments around the galaxy rather than being stuck defending Muscova. It was with relish then, that the 1st were guarding the supply line through the Bratasivan Mountains, many impetuous young troops among their ranks hoping and praying that their archrivals from the 2nd company might launch an attack.

Colonel Blodniek knew that the 1st were the ones guarding the supply train, and devised his strategy accordingly. He knew that he didn’t have the man-power to take the 1st on in a straight fight, and he knew that blowing up the supply line would not only be an expected move, but would take away valuable supplies that his own troops sorely needed after years camped in the mountains, living off the land and drinking nothing but home-brewed vodka. One specialist troop type that Blodniek had available to him were a unit of Kalash Rough Riders, crazed skidoo riders that would like nothing better than to zoom headlong into a fight. When the 2nd abandoned their military base, the snowmobiles had been broken down into their constituent parts and taken in packs up into the mountains, just in case they were ever needed. Now seemed like as good a time as any to reassemble the machines…


... And you'll have to wait until tomorrow for the next part of this particular story .

---------------------------

Veteran Squad Alpha: Corporal Feliks Chubai:

Vox specialist from my first vets squad.

Legs: Cadian heavy weapons team
Torso: Standard Cadian torso
Left arm: Heavy weapons 'binoculars' arm, hand repositioned
Right arm: Cadian arm with laspistol, pistol cut off, hand repositioned
Head: Pig iron kolony militia in winter headgear
Backpack: Standard Cadian vox backpack
Accesories: SM devastators parchment, SM pistol holster, SM scanner cut down to make phone piece

I like the pose of this guy, but I'm not 100% happy with how I executed it. I would have liked him to be holding the map a little bit neater (my greenstuffing skills really are terrible, though I am improving a bit now), and in retrospect it might have been nice to make his phone piece a little large and more visible. There'll be a wire between the phone piece and the packpack when the mini is painted up, btw. I think he does look quite dynamic though, so quite satisfied overall. Your verdict?



Corporal Feliks Chubai:

Corporal Feliks Chubai is the vox specialist for the Kalashnikovan 2nd company, veteran squad alpha. Corporal Chubai was born in the Kalash capital of Muscova to a wealthy stock broker father and his model wife. Chubai was given the best education money could buy, but his own inbuilt thirst for knowledge was what truly made him such an exceptional student. He won prizes in almost every subject at his prep school before attending St. Padasburg University, studying for a batchelors degree in engineering and physics.

Chubai's somewhat bookish demeanor had meant that he had not really participated in youth activities to do with the Kalashnikovan military, instead choosing to fraternise with his fellow nerds in places like the regicide club. This was not to say that Chubai was athletically challenged though: he was an excellent middle distance runner and participated in competition regularly for his university.

After graduating from St. Padasburg 1st in class, Chubai's lecturers expected him to continue his education and earn a doctorate, or go into his father's stockbroking consortium where great things were expected of the intellectually gifted young man. However, Feliks suprised them all by opting to travel the wider Calixis sector for a year to broaden his cultural horizons. Feliks asked a space trader for a quick bit of work, and he boarded his ship bound for the hive world Merov.

The labour was intense - not quite what Feliks had been expecting - and by the time the ship had docked at Merov he was glad to bid the trader farewell and make his own way around the planet. He decided to visit all the popular destinations, from the great trade market of Barsa to the Golgorothan palace, deep towards the core of the hive world. It was as he was contemplating leaving the planet and going to another destination - possibly Scintilla, the sector's capital - that he ran afoul of a group of hive gangers in a sleazy bar he had wandered into. Feliks had shuffled over to the bar - it was almost empty except for four large men sat grouped in a corner, deep in conversation, and one man who was hidden partially in the shadows, looking like he had passed out from over indulgence. No sooner had he sat at the bar and started to order a drink than one of the enormous, thuggish men sidled up to him:
---"Are you Stubby's new girlfriend? You look like Stubby's new girlfriend! Don't he look like Stubby's new girlfriend, lads?". Three more of the brutes came over, grunting with vindictive mirth:
---"What's Stubby's girlfriend doing in a place like this? We better take her home, keep her safe, ya know!".

Chubai was surrounded by the gangers, their broad shoulders side by side as they closed in around him. Fighting to maintain his composure, Feliks tried to politely explain that he wasn't 'Stubby's new girlfriend', and that he did in fact had an appointment he was late for, and needed to get to it thank-you-very-much. It was as Feliks stood up and made to move out of the enclosing circle that he felt the mood change subtley: where it had been one of vindictive bullying, it became one of life-threatening danger. The first ganger who had spoken to Feliks drew out a blade 6 inches in length, and held it to Chubai's throat.
---"We know who you are, young 'un!" said one, "Your daddy would give plenty of ransom money to keep his prescious little boy from losing any body parts, wouldn't you agree? Or do you think we should send him an arm over to Kalashnikova to let him know we mean business?" The Thugs laughed evilly.

Unseen by the gangers, the man in the corner had stirred from his alcohol induced slumber at the mention of the word 'Kalashnikova', and was squinting over at the group, a wary expression on his pasty face. The thugs were now herding Feliks out of the bar into the busy street outside: the mysterious man slid off his chair, swayed uneasily for a second or two, and followed the throng outside. The group rounded a corner into an alley, and went through a back door into a delapidated old building. The mystery man followed: Reaching the alleyway, he scratched his stubbly beard for a while as he looked around at the buildings: above him was a metal staircase leading up to an emergency exit. The man belched richly, patted his paunch stomach, and climbed up the stairs to the door above.

Creaking open the door to peer inside the building, the man could see that he would come out on a metal walkway above a run-down, dimly lit warehouse-like complex with a number of partially-rusted barrels scattered around. He couldn't see where the gangers had taken the Kalashnikovan boy, but knew he must be nearby. He pulled a bottle of vodka out of his grubby jacket's pocket and took a swig - he would need some serious courage for what he was about to attempt: stuffing the neck of the vodka bottle with an old handkerchief, he got his lighter out and put it next to it, ready. Casting around him for something to throw and draw the gangers into the open area below, he spied another old glass bottle. The man picked it up and threw it hard at the floor below.

The sound of shattering glass had caused a ruckus in a room off to the side, and sure enough, the four thugs came running out into the open, bellowing for any intruders to show themselves. The mystery man, moving with suprising agility for someone so inebriated, picked up his home-made petrol bomb and lit the handkerchief with his lighter. He stood up, looked down to where the gangers were still stood amongst a few of the old barrels, and hurled the projectile straight towards them. The result was better than he could possibly have planned: the vodka bomb ignited immediately as it smashed amid the gangers, and the flames quickly spread towards one of the old barrels. With an almighty explosion, the ancient cannister sent burning fluid in all directions, setting off more of the old barrels in turn. The thugs were screaming and writhing in agony as the white-hot liquid covered them, burning them alive.

Shocked by the damage he had caused, the mystery man supposed that he had better go and get the kid now... He had only intended to wind up the gangers a bit, maybe cause a flesh wound or three - now he was faced with the prospect of having murdered four possibly high-ranking hive gang members in one of their secret hideouts. That thought seemed to jar the man into action, and he sprinted down the walkways until he reached the warehouse floor, the flames growing ever higher and hotter with each passing second. The young man must be in one of these office rooms on the side... But which one?!

Feliks could feel himself almost passing out as the acrid smoke billowed into the office where he was tied to a chair. He had no idea what was going on outside, or why the fire had started, but he knew that he had no way of saving himself. He was doomed. He cried out at the top of his lungs for someone to save him, in the vain hope that somebody might hear from the street outside. A few seconds later, a man came bursting through the door and hurried towards him, a pocket knife brandished menacingly. Feliks braced himself: was this a rival gang member come to claim him for his own ends, to earn himself a bit of money through the ransom Feliks would surely command?
---"Hold still, kid!" grunted the man, his breath reaking of booze. "Let me untie you!"
---Feliks couldn't believe it - he was being saved by what appeared to be a tramp. The pair of them sprinted out through the office door again, and looked for an exit. The flames had blocked off all means of escape on this floor, so they were left with no choice but to run back up to the walkway and try and use that exit. As they sprinted the warehouse was collapsing behind them. They had only just made it out, slamming the door behind them, as the walkway on which they had stood barely seconds before crashed down to the ground floor of the warehouse. Panting, they hurried down to the alleyway and lay there for a few minutes ghasping for fresh air: the exertion looked like it might have finished the poor tramp off:
---"Thank you so much... Are you ok, Sir?" asked Feliks, prodding the man cautiously. The man coughed and turned his soot-blackened face towards Chubai:
---"Never better, kid. Dunno what you were doing though, walking into a dingy bar like that on a planet like this! What did you expect would happen?!"
---"You were in the bar?" asked Feliks, surprised. "Oh, you must have been the man in the shadowy corner. Why did you rescue me, if you don't mind me asking?"
---"Overheard you were from Kalashnikova. I'm from there me'self, actually. Used to serve in the 2nd company Guard regiment before I got kicked off the planet." The man stared ruefully into the distance for a few seconds. "My name's Ivan, by the way. Ivan Safin".

.... Aaaand, you'll have to wait until the next veteran's blurb to find out how this one ends too. I keep you all on tenterhooks don't I?

Whats in the next post?

Continuation on the 2nd company fluff, and I'll introduce the squads flamer specialist, Private Ivan Safin.

Argh, the hooks dig into my flesh and keep me in this thread! How cruel!

Haha, thats my intention .

Had some cyber dogs I ordered off ebay come through in the post this morning, they look awesome. Two of them fit my description of Kalash wild dogs, and I'll have my army commander with them in his squad, and two are mastiffs that look like they could belong to a policeman or something. Maybe I'll make use of them in a penal squad at some point.

Here's what they look like anyway, but god knows what game system they're from (the man is there for size comparison):

Not going to use them as explosives dogs for taking out tanks are you?

Or rescue dogs for the snowy mountain passes?

I think your arny has a lot of character, which is fantastic. There is so much scope of customisation. I am thinking or redoing some of my IG fluff after seeing your army (and the large sections of background you have for your troops), as mine is quite sterile and boring.

So you kept me busy all yesterday while I was sick writing some new and updated fluff for my IG for when I get round to redoing the army to bring it up to date

Nice project and some great conversions. That sarge is really dynamic and looks brilliant. Can't wait to see some paint on him!

Will you have any armour in this force?

Oh and top marks for the Arnie inspired name, "Get to the CHOPPER!!!"

Haha, you're the first one to realise the Arnie reference.

Yeah, I'm having some heavily converted armour in the force - a Wolverine Scout vehicle, a Ragnorok and a 'super' Leman Russ, all scratchbuilt. I'd love to take the credit for building them, but I bought them on ebay, they're on their way to me now hopefully. I wouldn't be surprised if the guy who made them posted on this forum actually, they look like very expertly done jobs. I doubt you'd get that good at scratchbuilding if you didn't use internet sites and blogs to hone your skills.

The Kalashnikovan 2nd - An Imperial Guard Blog

Here is another up date for you all. The first part of fluff follows on from yesterday's update, and the veteran blurb bit also follows on from yesterdays. Basically, if you're reading the fluff in these posts you need to read all the fluff from the beginning for it to make sense!

Fluff:

The Battle of Staringlav Pass, 973.M41:

As night descended over the mountaintops and some gentle snow began to fall, the Rebel supply train continued moving steadily along a highway at the bottom of a deep, sheer valley, known to the locals as Staringlav Pass. The Rebel Company assigned to defend the supply train, the Kalashnikovan 1st, had divided its forces, with around half of the troops at the front of the supply train, and half at the back. This was done with the knowledge that if any attack was to come from the 2nd company, then they could effectively perform a pincer movement on them. Private Lev Zhirkov was one of the troops stationed at the rear of the supply line:
---‘I don’t like this, Ustin, the second are going to have to attack soon. Something doesn’t feel right tonight.’
---‘Something doesn’t feel right tonight?’ said the trooper named Ustin, ‘You’re acting like you don’t want to fight! Personally, I’d love the chance to get one over on the 2nd company! Don’t you remember all those youth camps when we were kids, when those little inbred runts from Bratasiva were acting all superior just because they would get to join the 2nd when they came of age?’
---Ustin grimaced, as if this memory would give him strength to fight the 2nd company if they did come out of the mountains tonight. Lev, though, looked straight ahead, his eyes focusing on the Kalash Cap of the man in front, rather than contemplating a battle in this spooky valley.
---‘There’s definitely something not right in the air tonight’ thought Lev, ‘Whatever Ustin says, I don’t fancy fighting the 2nd company in their own backyard’.

No sooner had those thoughts crossed Lev’s mind, than he heard shouting from ahead: Men were charging around, orders being bellowed by Sergeants to their squads. Lev could see his own Sergeant, Valeri Yankov, hurtling towards them.
---‘Sergeant, what’s happening’ asked Ustin.
---Puffing and panting as he slid to a halt on the icy road, Sergeant Yankov looked around him to see if his whole squad were still nearby:
---‘2nd company, on Skidoos! Up at the front of the supply train!’ Said Yankov, breathing heavily and looking harassed.
---‘Orders haven’t come through from Platoon command, so HOLD YOUR POSITIONS!’ He shouted the last words, as at the mention of first company a few members of the squad had made as if to run to the front and join the fracas.
---‘Yankov, what’s the word from Platoon command? What’s happening?’ shouted another sergeant, further back in the formation. Yankov hurried off to tell him the bad news.
---‘Second Company! Here! Now!’ exclaimed Ustin, a look of manic glee on his face.
---‘Sergeant Yankov said to hold our pos-’
---‘I say we should fight! Fight the Loyalist scum!’ Shouted Ustin, to general approval.
---‘Lets go! Lets go to the front! Lets fight! We might not get another chance!’ With these words several guardsmen around Ustin cheered.
---‘With me!’
---And just like that, Ustin charged off towards the front of the supply train. As he ran forward, more and more guardsmen fell in line behind him, and before long half the army stationed at the rear of the supply train was racing off towards the front to fight the 2nd company Kalash Rough Riders.

Lev stood frozen to the spot, looking wildly around him. Everywhere he turned, he was being jostled and bumped into by 1st company guardsmen who were running to the front. Sergeant Yankov was roaring at the troopers to hold their positions, but he was fighting a losing battle. Before long, even officers were joining the race to the front of the supply line. The Sergeant who had shouted to Yankov earlier fell foul of a Commissar, and received a bullet to the face for disobeying direct orders. Not even this could stop the flood of troops to the front though.

Colonel Grigor Blodniek of the Kalashnikovan 2nd company watched with satisfaction as the chaos unfolded in the valley below: his plan had worked perfectly. He had observed through his binoculars as his Kalash Rough Riders had sped down the steep sides of the valley at the Rebels stationed at the front of the column. Not expecting skidoo riders to be involved in any attack, the Rebels had been taken completely by surprise by the speed of the assault. The snowmobiles had come crashing into the lines of infantry before they could even open fire, scattering them as they attempted to muster any form of defence. Rather than fighting against massive numbers of guardsmen in close combat though, the Rough Riders instead retreated out to the opposite side of the valley and prepared to charge down once more. The snowmobile riders wheeled round on the valley face, revved their supercharged engines, and rocketed back down towards the assembled first company soldiers. This time though, they had lost the element of surprise, and almost half of the Rough Riders were killed by Lasgun fire before they got to the lines of troops. Again though, the infantry line folded under the speedy assault, and the Skidoo-men zoomed back to the sheltered woodland they had attacked from originally.

Blodniek was saddened that so many Kalash Rough Riders had been lost on the second assault, but was satisfied to see that their sacrifice was not in vain: Eager to enter the fray, a huge swathe of troops from the back had rushed forward to fight the snowmobiles. Now it was time for part B of Colonel Blodniek’s plan…

... Tune in tomorrow for the final part!

---------------------------

Veteran Squad Alpha: Private Ivan Safin:

Guardsman armed with a (heavy?) Flamer.

Legs: Standard Cadian
Torso: Standard Cadian
Left arm: Standard Troops flamer
Right arm: Standard Troops flamer
Weapon: Nose cut off and replaced with parts from a Tau heavy weapon, and a Tau aerial type bit.
Head: Pig iron kolony militia in winter headgear
Backpack: Normal flamer backpack with top cut off for the bottom half. The top half is a SM devastators pack, not sure which one, think it might be plasma cannon. The cable is a plasma cannon one, attached at the top with the weird wires grouping it has on it (can't really see that in the pics unfortunately). The bulbous bit on the cable is a SM melta bomb. Another bit from the SM devastators back pack is glued on the side, with various accessories I had in my box on top as aerials. The little handle bits will be painted as if they are glowing, like they are providing resistance to create electric heat or something. The nipple bit you can see on the front is part of what I cut off the flamer pack. The flamer pack is greenstuffed in to make it transition better to the SM backpack.
Accesories: Cadian knife and ammo pack.

Did I go over the top with the flamer backpack? Sometimes I love it, other times I just think it looks silly that big. I'm counting him as having a heavy flamer now that vets seem to be allowed them in the codex (thank god for the codex having vets at troops too, means I don't have to paint so many guardsmen to get my two troops choices filled out!). Still not allowed real snipers though, you have to have pissing ratlings . The vets have 3 people armed with them I think, but you need ten men in a squad, so it doesn't do you much good really.



Private Ivan Safin:

Ivan Safin was born into a family of soldiers, in Bratasiva on Kalashnikova. His father had been a soldier, his grandfather had been a soldier - in fact, every man in his family, right the way back thousands of years, had served in the Kalash Imperial Guard regiments. Safin's father had been a highly decorated Leftenant in the Kalashnikovan 2nd company, and having retired, expected his son and only child, Ivan, to follow in his footsteps. Ivan looked destined for a military career every bit as successful as his dad's, showing an uncanny knack for maintaining and upgrading weaponry in particular. When he came of age and inherited his father's Kalash Cap, Ivan immediately became a soldier in the 2nd company. He was a popular and effective member of the squad, generally using his assault weapon of choice, the flamer. It was as the second company was dispatched on tour to the Cadian Gate to guard against a possible Chaos attack that Safin's whole life began to unravel...

During a routine exercise in a Wolverine Scout Vehicle, Safin's transport was hit by a missile from a rogue Chaos Cultist that had been lurking in a nearby outcrop. The vehicle was flipped upside down, its gunner killed almost immediately. Safin was in the passenger seat and miraculously emerged completely unscathed. The sight of the driver's fate, however, would haunt Ivan for the rest of his days: The driver's hands had somehow become coated in highly flammable fuel, perhaps when he was carrying out some running repairs on the Wolverine earlier in the day, and when the missile hit the truck they had burst into flame. The driver was screaming in agony as his hands burnt off, Ivan watching in sheer horror at the sight. The most disturbing thing for Ivan though was not the burning itself, but how the driver acted afterwards:
---"He was just sat there, laughing... Saying things like 'Look mum, no hands!'", Ivan confided to a psychiatric therapist many years later. Those images and words haunted Ivan's dreams for years, as did a survivor's guilt complex. After returning from Tour in Cadia, he began to drink heavily. Every night, Ivan would be the first man in the bar, not leaving until he had drunken himself into a stupor. His behaviour was garnering attention from his senior officers who were concerned by his behaviour.

The real turning point came during an excercise when Ivan's squad were showing some Moloyozhev (Whiteshield) lads some combat formations, and then shooting targets with them afterwards. Ivan, still a little drunk from the night before, had swaggered over with his Flame gun, and had planned to burn down all the targets to show off for the youngsters. However, in his inebriated state he had not performed vital checks on his flamer backpack equipment: the gun was set to full power, and there was an enormous backlog of built-up pressure in the unit's pipes. As he pulled the trigger to fire off a burst of flame, the pipework burst between his gun and his backpack and flames shot back up the pipe, spewing flames at all angles as the tubing whipped around like a cartoon hose. Two Moloyozhev boys and a member of Ivan's squad were severely injured in the incident, and another lad had to tragically have his legs amputated as a result of his wounds.

Ivan was courtmarshalled, and once it had emerged that he was drunk at the time, the military authorities threw the book at him. He was thrown unceremoniously from the Imperial Guard, and ordered to do 90 hours of community service to boot. This was nothing, though, compared to the reaction of Ivan's father: The proud ex-soldier had been disgraced by his own son - and he renounced him. In his shame, Ivan fled to the nearby hive world of Merov where he earned a meagre living doing odd-jobs, predominantly fixing up and maintaining weaponry. He kept up this existence for almost a decade, getting drunk out of his skull most nights to forget his shame, until a chance led him to come into contact with a Kalashnikovan youth by the name Feliks Chubai...

"Ivan, my father will reward you for what you did to save me. He's a fair man, and I'll bet he can probably use some of his political muscle to get you out of whatever it was you aren't allowed on Kalashnikova for!"
---"I doubt that, kid." said Ivan quietly.
---"I can at least try! I'll contact him now!"
---"No!" said Ivan, suddenly angry, "I will never return to Kalashnikova... I bid you farewell, Feliks Chubai, good luck". And like that Ivan turned to leave Feliks, barely hours after he had saved him from the thuggish hive gangers on Merov.
---"Where are you going?" shouted Feliks after him, pretty sure he knew the answer to that question already.

After Ivan had left, most likely for the nearest bar, Feliks did indeed contact his father. After he left his father with the man's name and the fact he used to serve in the second, Mr Chubai got back to his son nearly an hour later with all the information about what had become of Ivan on Kalashnikova.
---"Wow, sounds like he's had a pretty tough life in the army." said Feliks sadly. "Still, there's got to be something you can do, father? The man saved my life afterall... Perhaps you could talk to Ivan's dad, try and reconcile them or something?"
---"Didn't I tell you you shouldn't have gone on this foolish travelling escapade, Feliks" said Mr Chubai irratably, "The danger of it. The amount of trouble you have got yourself into... I am thankful, though, that this man saved you, whatever his history. I will repay our family's debt to him - I will contact his father. Good bye son."

Feliks hung around on the hive world Merov for the next day or two, making sure to keep a low profile and avoiding dingy bars and backstreets. Eventually his father contacted him again, but the news was not good:
---"I called him several times, but at the mention of his son he just kept saying 'I have no son! I have no son!'. Eventually he got pretty angry."
---"Oh no..."
---"Maybe if I could meet this Ivan character, and take him to see his father they could work things out?"
---"I doubt Ivan would want to, father. It'd be no use. Is there nothing we can do?
---"Well, he needs to come to Kalash to collect his bronze heart for bravery and services to Kalashnikova. He'll have to come to Muscova to do that"
---"He has a bronze heart?! Just for saving me?" said Feliks, surprised.
---"Yes, well, I-um, had to use my connections to wangle that one a bit, but I think the man deserves something for his troubles."
---"Yes, I guess so" said Feliks, "I'll let him know. Goodbye father".

After Feliks had told him the news (Ivan had been passed out in a local tavern, naturally), Ivan had been shocked that he was to receive the special award for bravery, and was also surprisingly receptive to the idea of travelling to Kalashnikova to receive it.
---"It'll be nice to see the snow and the forests again, even if it is just for a day or two" he had said.

Feliks and his dad had put in motion a plan to get Ivan's father to attend the bronze heart ceremony. The old man agreed, but he was unaware that it had anything to do with his son, thinking instead that he was invited merely as a military veteran - he attended a lot of these sorts of events. On the day of the ceremony, the recount of Ivan's heroics on Merov was retold before he was unveiled to the guests, and before his name was even mentioned. Mr Safin could be seen clapping loudly in the audience, raving about what a true Kalashnikovan this man must have been to defeat four hive gangers single handedly with no weapons immediately to hand. He was still loudly applauding when his son's name was mentioned, and Ivan shuffled awkwardly out onto the stage.
---"But... No... Surely not" Mr Safin uttered disbelievingly, and he stood up to walk out. Ivan was just about to start his acceptance speech when he noticed his father leaving. He turned to Feliks and Mr Chubai, who were both sat to the side of the stage,
---"You brought him here?! How did you get him to come?! What- Whats he doing?!" Ivan blustered.
---"Mr Safin, I'm afraid I can't allow you to leave" said a security man, blocking Ivan's father's exit.

The two men, father and son, were locked in a room together for what seemed like hours. Eventually they emerged, still looking moody. But then they hugged, like only a father and son could. Cheers erupted. Feliks and Mr Chubai ran over to congratulate the newly reunited Safin's.
---"How can I ever repay you? You have brought my son back to me!" said Mr Safin to Feliks' dad, tears welling in his eyes.
---"You can consider us even now I think, after what your brave son did to save mine".

For years afterwards, Feliks and Ivan remained great friends, Ivan working as a trader specialising in weaponry upgrades - and doing a roaring trade in his premises in Muscova, Bratasiva City and St Padasburg due to the Kalashnikovan military's fondness for weapon maintenance - and Feliks earning a living as a stock broker in his father's company. Ivan's father, a 2nd company old boy like the Governor himself, was very pro-Oleg Puskin - and, naturally, disgusted by the political pressure he was coming under. Feliks' family too were very pro-Oleg, mainly because Feliks' father stood to lose his entire business stock broking empire should Oleg's government fall. It came as no surprise, then, that both the Chubai's and the Safin's sided against the rebellion. Ivan had built up a network of military contacts thanks to his successful weapons business, and since he had been pardoned already on receipt of his bronze heart, was welcomed with open arms back into the second company once the Kalashnikovan Civil War began. Feliks Chubai also joined the second company - a rarity due to him not hailing from Bratasiva. The 2nd's brass recognised his abilities as a technical expert and negotiator though, and Feliks was pressed into service as a diplomat/comms expert in the background of the fighting.

However, eventually Feliks was forced to take a more active role in the conflict as the second company's numbers dwindled through losses in battle, and Feliks grew into his role as a soldier brilliantly. Under the tutelage of his best friend Ivan, he became one of the most effective Guardsmen in his squad. After the Civil War, Sergeant Boris 'The Bear' Varenkov promoted Feliks to be his Corporal after recognising the excellent work he had done in the conflict. Ivan had served throughout the conflict as an assault weapon specialist, using his preferred flamer. Ivan had upgraded the weapon to the point where it was unrecognisable from a standard issue flame thrower, and had the power and range of most heavy flamers. The two of them continue to fight side by side in the Veteran Squad Alpha, each having saved the other's life more times than they care to remember. Ivan maintains that he is winning 14 times to 13, but Feliks is convinced it is level. Feliks' status as the squad's Vox expert makes his job on the battlefield a very important one, and The Bear often deligates tactical decisions to Feliks. Ivan's expertise with his heavy flamer is well known, and he can always be counted on to take a few enemies down with a healthy blast of noxious fire.



Whats in the next post?

The second part of the Battle of Staringlav Pass, and I'll introduce three (yes THREE!) more veterans: The Rascalov brothers!

The brothers grim?

Can't wait

RE the flamer - the weapon itself looks good, but the back pack is far too big.

If it were slimmer it could stand to be that tall (like a scuba tank - some early flamers used that design). Or if it were that wide and shorter.

I would advise a smaller thank in all directions, though keep the technical look.

I like the flamer tube, though the melta bit does not look like it is centred properly on the tube from the flamer in the top right hand pic... that may just be the picture though.

Keep the machine thing on the left hand side of the pack (the right as you look at the model, the left from the model's POV), that looks good. Keep the tube and melta bit and the gun.

Just cut down the backpack as a whole.

My thoughts on the matter anyway

SilverMK2 wrote:The brothers grim?

Can't wait

RE the flamer - the weapon itself looks good, but the back pack is far too big.

If it were slimmer it could stand to be that tall (like a scuba tank - some early flamers used that design). Or if it were that wide and shorter.

I would advise a smaller thank in all directions, though keep the technical look.

I've left it a little late now, he's almost fully painted . Maybe I'll replace him when I have time with a guy with a more sensibly proportioned pack.

SilverMK2 wrote:I like the flamer tube, though the melta bit does not look like it is centred properly on the tube from the flamer in the top right hand pic... that may just be the picture though.

It wasn't quite when I took those pics, but I corrected it afterwards - the front half of tubing was a bit too curved, so I just cut a chunk out the middle and glued it back together.

Cheers for the feedback .

get to the chopper! wrote:---‘There’s definitely something not right in the air tonight’ thought Lev, ‘Whatever Ustin says, I don’t fancy fighting the 1st company in their own backyard’.

No sooner had those thoughts crossed Lev’s mind, than he heard shouting from ahead: Men were charging around, orders being bellowed by Sergeants to their squads. Lev could see his own Sergeant, Valeri Yankov, hurtling towards them.
---‘Sergeant, what’s happening’ asked Ustin.
---Puffing and panting as he slid to a halt on the icy road, Sergeant Yankov looked around him to see if his whole squad were still nearby:
---‘1st company, on Skidoos! Up at the front of the supply train!’ Said Yankov, breathing heavily and looking harassed.

I think you mixed up the 1st and 2nd company in the first part of the fluff.

Loving the fluff and figurines so far. They are amazing. A real inspiration to someone who has just started collecting such as myself.

get to the chopper! wrote:...Heavy Flamer...

No freakin' s**t!!!!

I personally really like the over-proportioned backpack. It would be a bit big irl but this is a game and it looks awesome!

Really nice fluff and loving the conversions so far. Good work!

Theratin wrote:I think you mixed up the 1st and 2nd company in the first part of the fluff.

I did wonder when I read it, but did not want to say in case it was just me being stupid

Theratin wrote:

get to the chopper! wrote:---‘There’s definitely something not right in the air tonight’ thought Lev, ‘Whatever Ustin says, I don’t fancy fighting the 1st company in their own backyard’.

No sooner had those thoughts crossed Lev’s mind, than he heard shouting from ahead: Men were charging around, orders being bellowed by Sergeants to their squads. Lev could see his own Sergeant, Valeri Yankov, hurtling towards them.
---‘Sergeant, what’s happening’ asked Ustin.
---Puffing and panting as he slid to a halt on the icy road, Sergeant Yankov looked around him to see if his whole squad were still nearby:
---‘1st company, on Skidoos! Up at the front of the supply train!’ Said Yankov, breathing heavily and looking harassed.

I think you mixed up the 1st and 2nd company in the first part of the fluff.

Loving the fluff and figurines so far. They are amazing. A real inspiration to someone who has just started collecting such as myself.

Lol cheers, I edited it now . Glad to see people are paying enough attention to my fluff to notice things like that! Thanks for the kind words too - effectively, I've just started collecting as well - its been around 8 years since I last played, and back then I was only like 13 or 14. I was always decent at painting and modelling, but now I have the means to get miniatures and tools to fulfill all the crazed conversion thoughts that enter my mind.

infilTRAITOR wrote:

get to the chopper! wrote:...Heavy Flamer...

No freakin' s**t!!!!

Heh, you know how it is, once you start converting you just can't stop adding to it . I'd be 100% happy with it if I could just scale it down a bit. In terms of how it looks I'm really happy, but its just the size that makes it look a bit... I dunno, unrealistic for mountain ambush type troops. Thought I'd show you what my standardised troopers look like with the next post, since the ones so far have been massive conversion jobs. Well, I say standardised, but they still have different guns, heads and accesories .

Vitruvian XVII wrote:I personally really like the over-proportioned backpack. It would be a bit big irl but this is a game and it looks awesome!

Really nice fluff and loving the conversions so far. Good work!

Cheers, appreciate your feedback. Thats what I figured too - its the same reason that I went for a colour scheme that isn't overly realistic camouflage for winter warfare: I'm more concerned about aesthetics than realism, because this is WH40k afterall, and not a historical wargame.

Maybe I should have made Pvt Safin a really big, strong bloke in my fluff though, to show that he could carry off that flamer backpack. I was seriously considering using Catachan arms for him, but I left it a little late in the process before I thought of it, and it would have been a nightmare to change them. Maybe I will do that if I do give him a revamp sometime in the future.

------------------

Got some more minis through in the post today from ebay, got 3 old-style sentinals (the metal ones that look like they're out of star wars) and some additional heads and junk from pig iron. The old style sentinals I won't use the legs on, only the cabin-type parts. A bloke on WIP suggested I should make sentinals like these mental contraptions the Russians used in WW2:

http://www.answers.com/topic/aerosan

This is a fun story you're creating for your characters and the regiment.


Just a small nitpick though, in 40K chess is still around but called regicide (you mention Felik was in the chess club)

Lol cheers, didn't know that .

That pack is... a big big. I can't help but wonder what would happen if he slipped over. Would he ever be able to get back up again? Would he be crushed to death?

Does he need someone to help him put the pack on? You could always say it's got some suspensors on the bottom to make it lighter; though adjusting his fluff a bit to say he's really strong may help somewhat too.

I'm ashamed to say I'm too busy at work to read the fluff at the moment; but I fully intend to come back next week when the project is over and read it all in one sitting

Lol, the project won't be over for a good while yet, this is just the first squad . Theres going to be a book's worth of fluff by the end of this . Might put it up for download as a pdf or something - basically, a Codex: Kalashnikovans.

I ordered a heavy flamer from the Catachan Command squad today, so I think I will remake him with that instead of this weapon once I get round to it. You can all rejudge once he's painted up though.

New update will up within the hour btw .

very cool modelling right there
the flamer guy looks soooooooo cool
I will get round to reading the fluff too but im currently too tired and cazn just about keep my eyes open as it is

The Kalashnikovan 2nd - An Imperial Guard Blog

Another day, another update. Fluff from the second half of the battle of Staringlav Pass, and introducing three more veterans, the Rascalov brothers. These guys are 'standard' troopers - thought you might like to see what the normal guys look like after a few days of heavily converted blokes.

Fluff:

The Battle of Staringlav Pass, 973.M41 – Part Two:

Colonel Blodniek knew that he had succeeded in drawing a huge portion of the 1st company’s rear guard to the front of the supply train with his Skidoo Riders’ hit and run attacks. Now he could bring the rest of his army to bear on the rebel troops who hadn’t run forward in search of glory and vengeance. On either side of the valley at the back of the rebel supply train were 2nd company troops, ready to attack as soon as he gave the orders. Blodniek spoke into his Vox Caster, and almost immediately he could see massed KA47 pattern Lasgun fire downing 1st company guardsmen at the rear of the line. Those Rebels who were left at the back of the supply train were in total disarray, and they were sitting ducks to the keen-eyed marksmen of the 2nd company. Almost before the Rebels knew what was happening, they had all been cut down in a withering hail of laser fire.

By now, around one third to a half of the 1st company rebel guardsmen were dead or had fled the battle field completely, with only a dozen or so losses taken by the 2nd company. Blodniek knew that if the rebels did the sensible thing and moved their supply train with as much haste as possible towards its destination that the supplies would reach their destination, with not too many more losses sustained by the Rebels. However, Blodniek also knew that the pride of the 1st company was too great to back down from a battle with the 2nd, and he would use that to his advantage. He ordered is troops to maintain their positions, take cover if possible, and wait for the Rebels to come to them.

Sure enough, the 1st company at the front of the supply line organised themselves and began moving towards where the 2nd company guardsmen were. Lasgun fire was flying all around in the deep valley as the former allies fought each other. Blodniek knew that his side no chance of winning a straight-out firefight though – they were still massively outnumbered. However, that was exactly what he wanted to happen: the Rebels needed to think they had won this battle. He gave the order for the 2nd company troops to fall back, and to his satisfaction he could hear the rebels yelling and cheering – they thought this was a broken army fleeing, not a tactical move. Now… he just needed them to try and chase down the 2nd company troops…

---“Yes!!!” yelled Private Ustin Pavlyuchenko of the Rebel Kalash Imperial Guard 1st company, “Yes!!! We’ve beaten them! They think they can come down here and take our supply train?! Take our lives?! Ha!!!” Ustin shook his lasgun in the air as he and his fellow rebel guardsmen celebrated.
---“Lev, this is a great day! Did you see how many I killed?! I swear I took down 5 of those skidoo riders myself!”
---Private Lev Zhirkov was nursing some wounds though, and didn’t look in any mood to celebrate: “Argh… My arm…” he grunted as he rolled up his sleeve, revealing a gaping flesh wound he had sustained in the fight.
---Another voice, a loud authoritative one belonging to the 1st company Colonel, boomed over the cheering Rebels: “Men! We must hunt down the Loyalist scum as they flee back into the mountains! For every 2nd company trooper killed, Andrei Puskin himself will reward he who killed him with 10,000 rubles! Just bring back his Kalash Cap for proof!”
---“10,000 rubles for each 2nd company trooper we kill?!” shouted Ustin in disbelief, “10,000 rubles?! Well what are we waiting for lads? Lets chase them down! Hunt down the Loyalist scum!”

Ustin and Lev joined their squad and sprinted to where the 2nd company had disappeared up the steep valley sides. The Rebels were all following their tracks in the snow, but the 2nd had evidently split up into individual squads or battle groups not far from the valley.
---“Sergeant!” said Lev, trying to get the attention of his squad leader, “I think the 2nd company might be trying to lure as all into a trap!”
---“Nonsense!” shouted Ustin, and several guardsmen around him nodded and shouted in agreement, “We just beat them fair and square in a battle, and they’re running for it! Lets hunt them down like the dogs they are!”
---Lev shook his head, but followed with the rest of his squad up a set of tracks leading into a thick boreal forest area. Rebel squads were all doing the same, following different sets of tracks.

Lev and Ustin’s squad had followed the tracks for what felt like hours, moving at maximum pace through the deep snowdrifts, and still they could see no sight of the 2nd company they were pursuing. Gasping for breath, the squad emerged into a forest clearing. The tracks continued to the centre of the clearing, but then abruptly stopped. The comprehension of this seemed to take several seconds to dawn on the squad – this could very well be a trap! Without word, the rebel squad set up in position to cover an attack from all angles. For 10 minutes they knelt, every fibre of their beings straining to hear the slightest noise, the slightest sign that the attack was about to come. But still it didn’t happen. Ustin, predictably, was the first to speak again:
---“Sarge, I think it might be time to move on. The 2nd must have just thought this clearing looked like a likely ambush spot and started covering their tracks when they got to here to slow us up”.
---“I think you’re right Private Pavlyuchenko. Men, let’s move on, but with caution until we are out of this clearing”.

Slowly, the rebel squad shuffled out of the clearing, to the patch entrance on the opposite to which they had entered it. Lev heard it first: “What’s that whirring and buzzing sound? Where’s it coming from?”
---Tentatively, they moved towards the noise. “It’s a vox piece!” said Ustin, crouching down to pick up a small receiver piece.
---“STOP!” yelled the Sergeant, pulling Ustin’s hand away at the last moment. “You fool, this could be an explosive device - this might be the trigger… Hang on, I’ll try and find out whether it is or not…”
---The Sergeant set his pack on the floor and took out a small spade, and began carefully digging around the device looking for a mine. The entire squad of rebels was crouching round, looking intently at what was going on. They never even noticed three 2nd company guardsmen emerge from the trees either side of the path a little from where they were, and begin advancing quietly towards them:
---“NOW!” screamed one of the Rascalov brothers, as he and his two brothers from 2nd company veteran squad alpha charged up the path. The Rascalovs opened fire on the group of rebels.

In the middle of the clearing where the 2nd company tracks had disappeared, a hulking figure rose up from the snow like an enormous ghost. The bear-like man had been hiding in the snow for nigh on half an hour while the Rebels came into the clearing and sat around him, a few even walking over the top of him. Drawing his chainsword and pistol, Boris Varenkov let out a guttural roar as he charged towards the assembled group of Rebels, just as the Rascalovs opened fire. A few of the rebels at the back of the group turned to face him as he roared, charging like an enraged Bull at the group. They barely had time to react before he was upon them, swinging his motorised blade up and down in large arcs, carving the 1st company rebels limb from limb; sending vicious kicks to the face of Rebels that he missed with his chainsword; firing off point-blank laspistol shots into the bodies of anyone that got too close for comfort; and punching, biting and tearing every inch of Rebel guardsman he could reach. The Rascalovs ceased firing and joined the fray, using the butts of their KA47 Lasguns and their knives. It wasn’t long before the entire squad of rebels had been cut down, lying in the blood-red snow.

His breath rattling, Varenkov spoke: “Rascalov, you and me will head this direction…” The three soldiers looked a little confused:
---“Me, Bear?”
---“No, the other Rascalov.”
---“Who? Me?”
---No! The other one!” said Varenkov, becoming irritated by the brothers. “Me and you will go through here and try and meet up with Chubai and the others in case they need support. You two-”, he said gesturing at the remaining Rascalovs, “You head that way and try and meet up with Squad Beta in case they have got themselves into trouble with that bloody Sergeant of theirs messing things up!”.

All around the surrounding area, Rebels trying to hunt down 2nd company troopers were meeting similar fates to Lev and Ustin’s squad. Some ran headlong through trip-wires, setting off deadly mines that killed them all instantly. Others ran into dead-end caves and found themselves face-to-face with packs of Kalash Wild Dogs. One squad of 1st company had become so spread out that the 2nd company troops that they were supposed to be chasing were able to loop back around behind them and slit their throats one by one, moving up the line until only the Sergeant was left. The Rebel had a nasty shock when he got a tap on the shoulder, turned around and realised he was surrounded by 2nd company and the rest of his squad was nowhere to be seen.

Colonel Blodniek’s plan had worked to perfection, and the 2nd company came back to the supply train and took everything they could carry and use for themselves, destroying the rest in an enormous fire. The brave mountain troops hiked off back into the mountains, knowing that they had played a vital role in stopping the city of Muscova coming under rebel command.

Don't think there's going to be any 2nd company fluff tomorrow, it takes too long to write as well as the veteran back stories. I'll probably do some more fairly soon though, but for a while you'll have to make do with the vets stuff .

---------------------------

Veteran Squad Alpha: Private Dimitri Rascalov, Private Nico Rascalov and Private Roman Rascalov:

Guardsmen all armed with KA47 pattern Lasguns.

Legs: Standard Cadian
Torso: Standard Cadian
Left arm: Standard Cadian - used the hands still attached ones
Right arm: Standard Cadian with the lasgun cut away apart from its stock
Weapon: Assault Group AK47, with the stock and handle cut off.
Head: Pig iron kolony militia in winter headgear
Backpack: Assault Group US vietnam light pack and Vietnamese bedroll.
Accesories: Cadian knife and ammo pack.

How are these for standard troops then? I'm quite happy with how they came out tbh. One of them (the first guy I made) is a little wonky at the point where the AK joins the Lasgun stock, but other than that the Assault Group pieces work like a dream. I'd really recommend them if you want to customise IG models - they are fairly expensive, but they don't charge postage, deliver insanely quickly, offer friendly service and even give you free gifts if you use them regularly (they sent me a few vietnam models last time, which are being put to good use in this army - watch this space!). Everyone knows about the pigiron heads, they can't be beaten for quality and price really, and the customisation they afford to an army makes them a great option.



The Rascalov Brothers:

Dimitri, Nico and Roman Rascalov are triplets that were born in the Bratasiva region of the Kalashnikova. The three youngsters and their brother, Mikhail, who was a year older than the triplets, were big trouble makers at school. The Rascalovs were always breaking the rules, going out of bounds and ending up in detention. Their despairing mother demanded that they join up with the youth army to teach them some discipline and make them stop misbehaving. The Rascalovs' humourous ways made them very popular in the youth group, but this often detracted from their burgeoning skills as young winter warfare soldiers, particularly their abilities in guerilla warfare: The Rascalovs were all exceptional at lying in ambush, leading enemies astray and all general battlefield spy-type missions. The military were very keen for the Rascalov triplets in particular to join up to the espionage unit of the Kalashnikovan Guard, where their identical features could cause untold confusion amongst the enemies of the Imperium if they conducted covert operations.

And so it was then, at the age of 16, Dimitri, Nico and Roman left Bratasiva to undergo intensive training in the Muscova military espionage school. Their older brother Mikhail was left, having not quite met expectations for getting to become a spy (something to do with his propensity to sweat uncontrollably when lying). Mikhail was distraught that his brothers were leaving, and not a little jealous of them too. "Why should they get to go?" he had pleaded with his mother. "I'm just as good a soldier as they are! Its not fair!!!". Mikhail became increasingly distant from his family, as his parents heaped praise upon the triplets as they achieved top of the class marks in nearly all areas. The eldest Rascalov child would lock himself in his room for hours on end when his brothers were around, jealously brooding about how unfair his life was.

The triplets themselves didn't really understand why it was that Mikhail was so jealous and moody with them - all four of the brothers had for so long been the best of friends as they terrorised the janitors at school with their silly pranks. Things came to a head when the Rascalov parents decided to reward the triplets for their good grades at spy school by buying them each a brand new, top of the range Kalash Cap for when they joined the military. Furious with anger at how unfair it was, Mikhail had packed his things and ran away from home - cursing his parents for ignoring him and not trying to nurture his talents, and cursing his brothers also for being lucky enough to be identical - the only reason they had been admitted to the spy school in the first place, as far as Mikhail was concerned.

For almost two years, the Rascalovs saw neither hide nor hair of Mikhail, despite several attempts to track him down and speak with him. By now, their parents were wracked with guilt about ignoring their eldest son for so long, and were desperate to reconcile with the boy. It was later that spring that the Rascalov family were all gathered around watching the news reports on TV about the rioting in Muscova, when they saw Mikhail: He was being shown on live TV fighting against the protestors, throwing bottles and bricks at them, trying to help the police quell the riot in his own way. The Rascalovs rushed to Muscova to try and find Mikhail, but he was nowhere to be found. The area was becoming increasingly dangerous by this point with all the fighting between Oleg Puskin's supporters and the protesters, so Mrs Rascalov hurriedly asked at the local Arbites holding facility if anyone had heard or seen their son. Nobody had.

As the Civil War got into full swing, the triplets remained loyal to the legitimate governor and ran away to join the 2nd company where their soldiering skills could be used well. The Rascalov parents kept a low profile, going about their daily lives hoping to not draw attention to themselves, all the while hoping and praying that the four of their children were ok and alive. There was still no word of Mikhail's fate until one day, while reading the paper, Mr Rascalov spotted a list of Loyalists who had been captured by the Rebels and thrown into the prison they had managed to take over, Durmstrad. Mikhail's name was one of the first on the list: presumably he must have been taken by the Rebels almost on the day they saw him on TV, and subjected to God-knows-what horrors before being thrown into Durmstrad once the Rebels took it over.

Dimitri, Nico and Roman had been informed by their parents of Mikhail's fate, and set about designing a plan to free him from Durmstrad. With the blessing of their commanders, the Rascalovs set off for Durmstrad, and over the course of several months gathered information on the location of Mikhail's cell (apparently he was in solitary confinement after he had started inciting riots within the prison), and who exactly was allowed to visit him. Worryingly, one of the only people who Mikhail had regular contact with was a Rebel priest by the name of Stanislav Kosic - a renowned sadist and general stirrer-of-trouble. Dimitri managed to obtain a job as Kosic's assisstant, and he and his two identical brothers would alternate who attended the job until they had built Kosic's trust up enough to let them accompany him into the prison:
---"Master?" said Nico, pretending to be Dimitri, "May we- I mean I- accompany you into the prison? I think it would expand my horizons and bring on my training very effectively".
---The old man studied 'Dimitri' for a while, staring so deep into his eyes that Nico was sure he would see that he was not, in fact, who he said he was. "Very well Dimitri, I think you have earned this right. You can come with me next time I go up to the prison. I will need to clear it with the security though - they will have to take a photographic ID signature of you".
---"That is fine master, I look forward to accompanying you".

Nico had gone to the hideout the triplets were using and told the others. Now was the time to put their plan to save their estranged brother into action...


And that one will continue tomorrow. I expect you can probably all guess who the next veteran is then?

Whats in the next post?

No second company fluff, but there will be a new veteran, complete with the second part of that blurb. I think you can guess the name of the next guy now .

Hey I am a new guy but the fluff is cool!!!
Fun to read!!!

Naming Guardsmen after GTA IV Characters (Or would it technically be GTA VIII... Hmm...) is Epic Win

Loving the feel of the army. Methinks the Aquilias on their chests should have a Red Star around them

Yeah, blatent GTA character naming there. Dimitri Rascalov is a character on GTAIV, Mikhail Faustin is his best mate and Nico and Roman Belic are his enemies .

I like that idea about the stars around the aquilas - I've left it a bit late on these guys, but I think I might have a go at it on my officers at least. I'm hoping I can include a bit more Soviet iconography in my future minis.

Buy some printable transfer sheets, find a laser printer, and make some old Red Star transfers for your Guardsmen

I like your fluff, but the names are so cheesy, they kinda destroy it. Kalashnikovans? Hive city of Muscova? The port of Leningrava? KA-47 pattern lasguns?

Metallifan: Where abouts can you get printable transfer sheets from? And why exactly does it have to be a laser printer - I'm pretty ignorant about things like this .

fryxharry wrote:I like your fluff, but the names are so cheesy, they kinda destroy it. Kalashnikovans? Hive city of Muscova? The port of Leningrava? KA-47 pattern lasguns?

I don't think they're cheesy personally (well, ok, maybe the GTA reference ones). My regiment are based in/around Russian history and culture, so the names are kind of tipping the hat to the Soviet stuff. I called them Kalashnikovans because of the guns they use, Muscova is obviously in reference to Moscow and Leningrava to Leningrad. I feel they actually add something because of the real life references.

I've been using Russian baby naming websites to make sure the names of my people are authentic though, but I doubt somehow that there's a Russian place-naming website for me to reference.

Plus its bloody hard to keep thinking of Russian names for stuff, particularly as I've forgotten how to read the Cyrillic alphabet since I learned basic Russian last year .

Well in North America they're easy to come by, as CAN/US/MEX all have Staples, Office Depot, etc... though I know a lot of those stores don't expand overseas into Europe. So I'm not sure where you'd look unfortunately. Just go to an Office Supply store I guess.

And it has to be a Laser Printer because transfer sheets are made of clear plastic. So Ink printers will just make a sloppy, runny mess.


Fryx, how can you say this is cheesy and yet not say something about worlds like "Vahalla", Heroes like "Marbo", and the Black Templars "Orb of Antioch"?

Cheesy Fluff is everywhere in GW's own productions. You just need to look for it.

Though yea the GTA names are pretty cheesy. And I just can't give Guardsman Roman a serious thought after playing that game. I just picture this fat womanizing goofball that drove a cab before he got inducted into the guard

Ah ok, cheers. Just googled and I found some inkjet printable stuff - do you know if its as good? It looks like you need the acrylic spray as well.

Nice fluff and models, but in the first bit of fluff, you say they will get 10,000rb'cap, but in the next line, you say it is 2,000.

It is difficult to really see the detailing in the models, and I think they will be a lot better looking when painted(possible hint ,)).

Though there isnot much in the models to suggest their spy-like nature. Perhaps some better camo or something, not really sure what you could add to be honest.

get to the chopper! wrote:Ah ok, cheers. Just googled and I found some inkjet printable stuff - do you know if its as good? It looks like you need the acrylic spray as well.

can't say I know, no. I would still go with Laser though. The images will print off a lot sharper. Won't fade as fast as ink will either.

I have to applaud the spirit of this blog! Looking forward to more painted things too - bigger ics too, so we can comment better.

Great start!

SilverMK2 wrote:Nice fluff and models, but in the first bit of fluff, you say they will get 10,000rb'cap, but in the next line, you say it is 2,000.

It is difficult to really see the detailing in the models, and I think they will be a lot better looking when painted(possible hint ,)).

Though there isnot much in the models to suggest their spy-like nature. Perhaps some better camo or something, not really sure what you could add to be honest.

Ha, cheers, I thought 2000 rubles was a bit low when I read it through, so I changed it on the first one but must have missed the second .

Nah, there isn't anything to suggest they're trained spies, but I just worked that bit into the fluff really rather than basing the models around it. I want them to be standard troopers, since they're not fulfilling any sort of spy role on the battlefield anyway.

Migsula: Sorry, what's ICS? If thats about image quality, there's not a lot I can do really - those images are the size they are when they come out my camera (when you click on them to get to the gallery anyway).

Thanks for the feedback guys .

Great looking plog so far, been enjoying reading the fluff on the men immensly

You can have special weapon squads which have 6 men with 3 sniper rifles in them in the normal platoon structure to get human snipers.

Or just use human snipers and have them as counts as ratlings. Thats what im doing

get to the chopper! wrote:Ha, cheers, I thought 2000 rubles was a bit low when I read it through, so I changed it on the first one but must have missed the second .

You missed the 3rd as well

Nah, there isn't anything to suggest they're trained spies, but I just worked that bit into the fluff really rather than basing the models around it. I want them to be standard troopers, since they're not fulfilling any sort of spy role on the battlefield anyway.

Ah, fair enough.

Though if they are pranksters, you could could put a "shoot me" sign on one of their backs, some cards spilling out of one of their shirt sleves, or a set of dice on their baces or something.

From the fluff it suggested they were very skilled soldiers too, which could suggest that they would be good at hiding in the tundra/snow, so they may carry some extra kit to help them hide, such as some netting or something. They may also need to have extra impressive hats, as you said they got top of the range ones from their parents

I admire your work. You support my point I made in another post. You are demonstrating your love of fluff and how it comes from your head. Not rules. Even after an 8 year absence you can come up with this. Most admirable. If only chaos players could learn from you.

My hats off to you good sir.

get to the chopper! wrote:Lol, the project won't be over for a good while yet, this is just the first squad . Theres going to be a book's worth of fluff by the end of this . Might put it up for download as a pdf or something - basically, a Codex: Kalashnikovans.

I hope to do the same for my lot; though I'm not so good with the story telling... so we shall see how well that goes

Zoring wrote:Great looking plog so far, been enjoying reading the fluff on the men immensly

You can have special weapon squads which have 6 men with 3 sniper rifles in them in the normal platoon structure to get human snipers.

Or just use human snipers and have them as counts as ratlings. Thats what im doing

Cheers . Yeah, I'm thinking it'll have to be a Ratling squad, but as humans. Not sure how I'm going to justify the reduced toughness etc, maybe they could just be lightly armed and travelling light or something in the fluff.

SilverMK2 wrote:

get to the chopper! wrote:Ha, cheers, I thought 2000 rubles was a bit low when I read it through, so I changed it on the first one but must have missed the second .

You missed the 3rd as well

Ah Jesus, I can write this stuff but I can't proof-read it for gak .

SilverMK2 wrote:

Nah, there isn't anything to suggest they're trained spies, but I just worked that bit into the fluff really rather than basing the models around it. I want them to be standard troopers, since they're not fulfilling any sort of spy role on the battlefield anyway.

Ah, fair enough.

Though if they are pranksters, you could could put a "shoot me" sign on one of their backs, some cards spilling out of one of their shirt sleves, or a set of dice on their baces or something.

From the fluff it suggested they were very skilled soldiers too, which could suggest that they would be good at hiding in the tundra/snow, so they may carry some extra kit to help them hide, such as some netting or something. They may also need to have extra impressive hats, as you said they got top of the range ones from their parents

I dunno about the impressive hats. The way I imagine them is that they're fairly standard designs, but very well made - they're often seen as family heirlooms.

I might fix some entrenching tools to them, but I am quite keen for them to just be normal troopers - I think sometimes armies can have too much going on at once within squads, and it can detract from things a little. Impressive conversions for the sake of impressive conversions aren't what I'm after, I want them to look like a real 40k army - just a very cool one . I dunno if that makes any sense, but there's a ton of heavily converted guys coming for the rest of the squad for you to feast your eyes on, don't worry .

smart_alex wrote:I admire your work. You support my point I made in another post. You are demonstrating your love of fluff and how it comes from your head. Not rules. Even after an 8 year absence you can come up with this. Most admirable. If only chaos players could learn from you.

My hats off to you good sir.

Thanks . I try and make the fluff compatible with the rules as much as I can, but my 8 year, two editions of 40k absence from the hobby makes it pretty difficult. I've used the lexicanum for reference quite a bit to get the location of my planet right (Pry is an actual planet [its the one Kalashnikova orbits], and the sectors are right etc).

endtransmission wrote:

get to the chopper! wrote:Lol, the project won't be over for a good while yet, this is just the first squad . Theres going to be a book's worth of fluff by the end of this . Might put it up for download as a pdf or something - basically, a Codex: Kalashnikovans.

I hope to do the same for my lot; though I'm not so good with the story telling... so we shall see how well that goes

Personally I don't think the fluff side of things has to be a mini-novel like I'm doing, just really basic back stories add a lot to things. What Slann has done for his veterans, for example, isn't an enormous work of literature, its just a paragraph on each guy. It still really adds something to the blog though.


Automatically Appended Next Post:
There not going to be an update tonight sorry people, going out. I'll post it up first thing tomorrow, depending on how hungover I am .

metallifan wrote:
Though yea the GTA names are pretty cheesy. And I just can't give Guardsman Roman a serious thought after playing that game. I just picture this fat womanizing goofball that drove a cab before he got inducted into the guard

Kind of sounds like some of the guys I've served with, just substitute 'drove a cab' with 'smoked a lot of pot'.

The flamer is great, and this is 40k... no need to worry about weapons that are a little... exaggerated

The nose of the weapon is actually the Tau flamer tank with the ammo canisters off a Tau plasma rifle

I am now about to go and steal this idea for my PCS

*edit* - I have now stolen this idea

Looking good, have you thought of using wire for the comms, the plastic looks out of place. And make them Whippy.

Which bit of plastic sorry? On the comms backpack itself, or linking the backpack to the phone piece? If its the latter I don't think it would work too well, but if its the former, that could be a good idea.

Update coming later on - was a little bit hungover today, so haven't been in any fit state to do any work on the army until now .

on the back pack.

The Kalashnikovan 2nd - An Imperial Guard Blog

Apologies for the lack of an update yesterday, I went out last night (and was rather hungover most of today, as it happens ). I also lied about you being able to guess who the next guardsman is . The fluff background has taken some weird twists, and I've given you a new guy instead. His actual background will be worked into subsequent ones - there isn't much info in this piece about how he ended up in the Kalashnikovan 2nd or what he did before. I'll let you read anyway...

---------------------------

Veteran Squad Alpha: Private Adrastos Palamara:

Guardsman armed with a KA47 pattern Lasgun.

Legs: Wounded Cadian soldier from the old command set
Torso: Standard Cadian
Left arm: Heavy weapons one, repositioned hand
Right arm: Standard Cadian grenade throwing arm
Weapon: Assault Group AK47
Head: Pig iron kolony militia in winter headgear
Backpack: Assault Group US vietnam light pack and Vietnamese bedroll.
Accesories: Already on the wounded cadian legs I used.

Very, very happy with this guy. What do you guys think? IMO he looks like hes just slid into that bit of cover, and is going to lob a grenade at his enemies. He was a nightmare to convert, but I'm extatic with the result. Very proud of this model.

The wounded guardsman was very difficult to separate from his torso and I had to use a lot of greenstuff. Initially, I wasn't sure what to do with his left arm or what to do in terms of him having a weapon, but then I thought he could be propping it up against himself instead. I think it looks very dynamic, personally.

Verdict?



Private Adrastos Palamara:

Continued from the Rascalov Brothers fluff...

Mikhail Rascalov had been taken hostage by a mean-looking group of protesters after that day in Muscova. Along with a dozen or so other prisoners, he had been taken out into the wilderness and made to slave away in the salt mines of Subaria. For years Mikhail worked in the mines, unsure if he would ever be free again. Things took another turn for the worse when the notorious prison, Durmstrad, was taken over by Andrei Puskin’s rebellion. Mikhail was moved to the freezing towers and left to rot. After inciting several riots in the prison as he encouraged his fellow prisoners to try and overthrow the guards, Mikhail was locked in solitary confinement in a distant tower. Once per day some food and water was pushed through a flap in the door to him, and the only human contact he had had for months was the strange old priest called Stanislav Kosic. Mikhail didn’t like the priest, but was glad of his fortnightly visits none-the-less. The old man would brag about how well the rebellion was going for Andrei, and would constantly make passive aggressive remarks about Mikhail and his family. Mikhail didn’t know what the old man’s purpose was in visiting him – he clearly wasn’t doing it out of pity or good will. Mikhail had come to assume that Kosic was trying to turn him to the rebel cause.

Mikhail was sat shivering in his freezing cell waiting for the old priest to join him. Eventually, the heavy bolts on the door slid open and the guard let Kosic in, and this time he was accompanied by someone... Mikhail's mouth hung open stupidly for a second, until he caught the wide-eyed look that his brother shot him. Stammering slightly, he welcomed the odd pair into his cell, and the Priest introduced his brother (who Mikhail could tell was Roman) as Dimitri Ruscovan. Mikhail shot his brother a look while the priest busied himself in a bag he brought in, and Roman looked back as if to tell him to act as if everything was normal. Kosic found what he was looking for in his bag and held in his hands a small amulet.
---“Now, Dimitri, what you are about to witness may shock you.” said the old man to Roman, with a hint of triumph in his voice. He forced the amulet into Mikhail’s hand. “Hold onto this boy, nice and tight. Mikhail obeyed hesitantly, looking nonplussed. The priest began to mutter incantations quietly:
“In servitum abducto… I bind thee forever to this willing host”. Roman stood frozen and perplexed. Mikhail actually looked slightly amused. The old priest stood up and back away from Mikhail, a twisted grin on his face. For a while nothing happened. Roman was about to ask Kosic what was going on, when something appalling started to take place: Mikhail’s jaw suddenly clenched mid smile, and he collapsed over sideways. The young man started to convulse and fit, his eyes wide and staring in utmost terror at his younger brother.
---What have you done?!” Roman bellowed at Kosic. But Kosic was laughing maniacally, staring fixated at Mikhail writhing on the floor. The priest raised his hands to the air, and muttered more incantations:
---“Come forth from the void… Abductus totalus… Servitum hostus… Binding forever in chains of mortality…”

It was at this moment that the cell door burst open, and the other two triplets, identically dressed to Roman, exploded into the room – into the abysmal scene that was occurring in this remote prison. For several moments nobody moved or spoke, even Mikhail seemed to stop writhing for a second. Then Kosic shrieked with joy:
---“Yes! Oh yes! This couldn’t have gone any better! Honestly,” he said, turning to Roman who stood aghast, unable to do anything for his brother on the floor, “Did you think I wouldn’t have checked the background on my chosen host? I know he has three triplet brothers – and I know one is called Dimitri. The stupidity of it! Why would you not change your first name, you foolish boy! Hahaha!!!” The triplets all looked at each other, horrified. Had they unwittingly been part of this crazed, evil old priest’s plan all along?
---“And now! And now,” said the old man in ecstasy, “My host’s soul will be corrupted and tainted forever. When his transformation is complete, he will tear apart his own brothers!” The priest made to sprint, with remarkable speed given his age, out of the cell. Nico, though, was too quick for him, and slammed the door shut in the old man’s face.
---“You’re staying here as well, you old maniac” shouted Nico, drawing a laspistol from inside his coat, “You’ll reverse this process or I’ll kill you myself”.
---“Foolish boy! This process cannot be stopped: it is irreversible! Ha! And I do not fear death anyway – I welcome it in fact!”
---Nico’s face contorted into an uncharacteristically ugly grimace. Without another word he shot the priest in the head, the old man’s manic laughter dying in his throat.
---“What are we going to do now??!” screamed (the real) Dimitri.
---“I don’t know…” muttered Nico, clearly a little shaken by what he had just done. Mikhail was still writhing on the floor at the triplets’ feet.
---“We need to get some ropes or chains or something, to keep him still so we can try and get him out of here to someone who could help... or something…” said Roman. The triplets began taking chains down off the prison walls and tying Mikhail up in them. Dimitri pulled a length of thick rope out of his bag and wrapped it around Mikhail.
---“That should keep him still enough to get him out of here undetected, at least.” Said Nico, panting.

The triplets covered the body of the priest in a blanket and moved him to a corner, as if he was Mikhail and merely sleeping. They did the same to Mikhail himself, and they could feel him convulsing in his chains and ropes as they did so.
---“Ok, so the story is that the old maniac came down a bit funny and we’re taking him to a hospital… Mikhail never gets much attention from the guards, so until Kosic’s body starts smelling we should be ok from that end… Its just if people pay to much attention to Mikhail under this blanket that we’re in trouble…” Roman went back over the plan almost to himself.
---“Alright, Nico and I will follow behind you,” said Dimitri, “We’ll be keeping out of sight for as long as possible. If things take a turn for the worse we’ll come out all guns blazing, and we can make a run for it”.
---“Ok…” said Nico and Roman, bracing themselves for the daring escape yet to come.

Roman had Mikhail slung over his shoulders, his older brother still twitching slightly under his blanket. He shuffled slowly out of the cell, glanced left and right – no guards – and moved off down a dimly lit corridor towards a staircase. Dimitri and Nico snuck out, shutting the cell door behind them and locking it, and moved off quietly down the corridor after Roman. Roman had reached the bottom of the stairs now, and the other two glanced at each other and followed. But then they heard voices that made their hearts stop:
---“What on earth is going on here?” asked an unfamiliar voice.
---“Its Mr Kosic – he had a funny turn as he was talking to the prisoner a few minutes ago. He must not have taken his medication today, I’m going to take him home” said Roman very convincingly. The guard still sounded a little sceptical though:
---“Ok, very well.” He said, looking back over his shoulder at the odd pairing as he moved towards…
---“The staircase! Dimitri and Nico!” thought Roman frantically.
---“Um… Actually Sir, Mr Kosic is fairly heavy. You wouldn’t mind giving me a hand with him to the exit would you? I’d be most grateful.”
---The guard, frowning slightly, reluctantly agreed. Nico let out a low, barely audible whistle as he glanced at Dimitri – that was a narrow escape. Thank the Emperor for Roman’s quick thinking. The only problem was that they now had a Rebel prison guard accompanying them as they tried to escape.

Roman and the guard moved on in silence, down a corridor, down another set of stairs, down another corridor and yet another set of steps – they were near the exit now, surely... Roman had initially been impressed that his brothers had made their way through this prison to find their way to Mikhail’s cell, but now he wasn’t quite as amazed: wherever all the guards were, they sure as hell weren’t in the corridors. It was at this moment that Mikhail chose to make a particularly violent convulsion and a bizarre strangled noise. The guard stopped walking alongside Roman.
---“I think he’s in pain, Ruscovan.” Said the guard to Roman. “Lets take a look at him-”
---“No!” said Roman, a little too quickly. The guard’s brow furrowed with suspicion. “I mean- um- its ok, really. He’s had one of these attacks before; I know how to handle it. Well thank you for your help, I think I can handle him from here.” But the guard didn’t move. He knelt down next to where Mikhail lay under his blanket on the floor, vibrating slightly. Without taking his eyes off Roman, he pulled the blanket back to reveal… At that precise moment another two guards came around the corner, and walked in on the bizarre sight. They fell silent immediately:
---“Well, well, well. What do we have here, Karenkov?” one of them said to the guard who had accompanied Roman.
---“Looks like an attempted prison escape, Officer Druskov” said Karenkov. “On the floor in some sort of medicated state appears to be Mikhail Rascalov, a prisoner here, and this is the priest’s assistant Dimitri Ruscovan who has tried to free him.”
---“But where is the Priest?” asked the Prison Officer Druskov.
---“I assume the old man must be in Rascalov’s cell.” Said Karenkov. The scene fell silent again for a few seconds. Druskov looked from Roman, to Mikhail and back to Roman again.
---“Well…” said Druskov, “Aren’t we in trouble?”
---“Not quite as much trouble as you are, I should think”. Dimitri and Nico had somehow looped around the front of Roman as he shuffled out, and had now appeared behind the officers. The other two triplets stood with their pistols against the backs of the heads of the two Prison Officers. Karenkov looked stunned, and merely stood on the spot looking foolish. The other officer who had not yet spoken looked unmoved.
---“Roman, use some of the rope from Mikhail and tie these fools up.” said Dimitri. “Unfortunately, we can’t just kill them. It would make too much noise”.
---Roman knelt to relieve some of the rope holding Mikhail in place. As he was untying it though, whatever was happening to Mikhail seemed to increase in intensity. Roman’s older brother was writhing, kicking, gnashing and groaning. He gave a particularly violent convulsion and a bit of rope pinged off. And then another. And another. Mikhail was almost free now, and was vibrating around on the floor making rasping noises like a cat being strangled. The noise was terrific, and it was surely only a matter of time before more guards descended on the scene. Dimitri and Nico were shouting for Roman to tie him up again while they kept their guns on the three prison guards, but it was no good; Mikhail was too strong. And then they heard footsteps rapidly approaching from the staircase leading up to the next floor. Two more guards rounded the corner, lasguns at the ready. The Rascalov triplets had no choice but to surrender. Karenkov, Druskov and the other officer pointed their own weapons at the Rascalov’s, looking thankful to the other two prison guards.
---“Somebody kill that thing” said Druskov off-handedly, gesturing to Mikhail’s writhing form. One of the guards who had just arrived raised his lasgun.

At that moment, three things happened in very quick succession: Just before the prison guard executed him, Mikhail had suddenly let out a roar, leapt to his feet and charged headfirst at the two guards, his arms still tied to his sides. He had moved with such inhuman speed that the guards had no time to react, and in less than a second he was upon them shrieking and biting. Druskov screamed at his men to kill Mikhail and took out his own pistol, aiming it at Roman while the other officer pointed his gun at Nico and Karenkov pointing his at Dimitri. The other officer turned his head towards Druskov and their eyes met. Druskov smiled nastily back and turned back to Roman, quite clearly about to execute him to simplify matters for himself. The other officer still had his head turned towards Druskov though, a strange look in his eyes. He stopped pointing his pistol towards Nico and Dimitri, and pointed it instead at Druskov.
---“What the hell are you-” The other officer shot Druskov in the face before he could finish his sentence, and then turned to Karenkov. Without a moment’s hesitation, he executed him too. The triplets were stunned:
---“Wha-”
---“Now is not the time for questions.” The officer strode confidently towards the brawl going on between the two guards and Mikhail, and calmly shot both guards in the head as if he did that sort of thing every day. Mikhail made as if to leap at the officer, but seemed to decide, on reflection, that he would rather carry on biting the two dead guards.
---“You three, help me tie the host back up”
---“The what?” said Nico.
---“The host! Ropes! Chains! Now!”

After a massive struggle that saw everyone sustain a few nasty bits, Mikhail was restrained again.
---“Its only a matter of time before more of these goons come down from the other prison wings. We need to move now!” said the officer, showing the first signs that he wasn't 100% calm about the situation. The odd group moved as hastily as they could down the long corridor, came to the deserted entrance room, went through a series of steel gates and security checkers (which the officer was able to override due to his security clearances) and finally moved out into the open. It was dark now, and they hurried over the grounds, finally stopping to catch their breath in a small forest about half a mile from the prison building.
---“Who the hell are you” asked Dimitri after he caught his breath.
---“I am Adrastos Palamara. I am assistant of the Inquisitor Lord Klaas van Stijm.”
---“You’re an Inquisitor’s assistant? What are you doing on Kalashnikova?!” asked Nico, stunned.
---“My master has been keeping an eye on that maniac Kosic for some time. He had a feeling he might try something like this. He’ll be most pleased that I have found a host though.”
---“What is a host? What are we going to do now?” stammered Roman.
---“A daemonhost, you fool. This man is halfway through being possessed by a daemon. He must be very strong willed, mind you, to keep some semblance of his normal self this far gone in the process.” Palamara studied the triplets for a while: “What is this unfortunate man’s relationship to you three?” he asked.
---“He is our older brother.”
---Palamara appeared to be thinking deeply for a while: “I suppose you had better come with me then. There is a small possibility your brother will not have totally lost his mind once the daemon is through with him, and he can return to you.”
---The triplets looked distraught, but Palamara was unmoved. “We need to carry on moving. My Master is undercover in Muscova – very few people know he is on the planet. I have arranged transport for us to get there”.

The group carried on moving for a while, and climbed a small hillock. On top of the hill was a Valkyrie Gunship painted in the Kalashnikovan Guard colours. The triplets, Mikhail and Palamara all embarked on the aircraft, and it took off, flying them to Muscova to see Palamara’s Master…


I think you can probably tell that Mikhail was initially going to be todays veteran, but then my crazed mind took over and I thought I'd involve inquisitors in things and have a daemonhost . Tune in next time to see where this one goes!

Whats in the next post?

You know the score now, another veteran and another part to this story.

That sliding guardsman is an amazing conversion! I can't wait to see some paint on him!

Thanks .

What does everyone think of the size of the wall? Is it a little too high?

Very neat! The wall is fine. He is supposed to be taking cover, after all. Don't really need to see where the grenade lands

I love all the fluff your puting into this !

Cheers. It takes a while to write thats for sure .

any women?

Miss Dee wrote:any women?

I bet thats what all the Guardsmen say

Miss Dee wrote:any women?

Not sure. I wrote into the fluff early on that my regiment was from a very male oriented society that didn't allow women in the guard. That was mainly to avoid having to try and convert dozens of female troops. Since then though I bought a box of Last Chancers, and they have a couple of girls in them. I might try and use them though.

get to the chopper! wrote:
What does everyone think of the size of the wall? Is it a little too high?

A wall can never be too high when its between you and incoming fire! For this sort of range if you do want women the warmachine Khador range might be a good place to start looking. Also the War Dog might be useful for the Kalashnikovan hounds now I think about it!

I am astounded by how fantastic these models are. Congratulations, sir.

sA

The Kalashnikovan 2nd - An Imperial Guard Blog

Another update: the conclusion of the story of the Rascalovs and a new veteran.

---------------------------

Veteran Squad Alpha: Private Mikhail Rascalov:

Guardsman armed with a KA47 pattern Lasgun.

Legs: Standard Cadian
Torso: Standard Cadian
Left arm: FW Cadian upgrade arm with ammo pack
Right arm: Cadian Pistol arm, pistol cut off.
Weapon: Assault Group AK47
Head: Pig iron kolony militia in winter headgear
Backpack: Assault Group US vietnam light pack and Vietnamese bedroll.
Accesories: FW Cadian upgrade grenades, standard Cadian bits.

I'm quite happy with this guy turned out. I wanted to make him look as if he's sort of advancing through a forest or something, not necessarily in battle but on a mission of some kind. He looks quite casual with his gun over his shoulder, and I'm really pleased with how I posed him.

Verdict?



Private Mikhail Rascalov:

Continued from the Rascalov Brothers fluff, and the Adrastos Palamara fluff...

The Rascalov triplets, their brother Mikhail and Adrastos Palamara had landed and were now making their way to where the Inquisitor Lord van Stijm was operating undercover in Muscova. The Inquisitor, as his assistant Palamara had informed the Rascalovs, was working in the employ of the legitimate Governor Oleg Puskin, and was using his position as a trusted adviser to keep an eye on Rebellion leader Andrei Puskin - who it was rumoured was suspected of involvement with chaos.

Van Stijm had arranged to meet the group in a safe house he had acquired and it was here that they now were: Palamara knocked three times on the door and it was opened by a stooping old man in a long cloak who appeared to recognise his fellow retinue member. In silence, they followed into the dingy house until they entered a large, richly furnished room. Sat in an armchair by the fire was what could only be the Inquisitor. He wore a long, grey trench coat, had dark skin and bright, clever eyes. Adorning his person were various Inquisition symbols and gadgets, as well as pieces of parchment and seals. He gestured for his guests to take seats, and Palamara pulled the blanket off the still-twitching Mikhail, the chains and ropes still binding him in place.
---“Interesting…” the Inquisitor said in a deep voice. “Good work Adrastos – I have been hoping for a daemonhost for some time. Very unusual though that he is still not fully transformed – either the incantation was done very poorly, or this man is possessed of immense willpower”.
---“His brothers have told me all the heretic priest Kosic said, my Lord” said Palamara, speaking up. “It appears the old lunatic did everything correctly. I can only assume that this man has been able to fight off possession so far, though he has shown some daemonic tendencies: he attacked two of my former 'colleagues' at that prison”.
---Inquisitor Van Stijm sat in silence for a while, apparently deep in thought: “I think all we can do is wait this out – eventually the daemon will possess this man’s opened mind, I think.”

For the next few days, the Rascalovs and the Inquisition retinue waited for Mikhail to be fully possessed by the daemon. Dimitri, Nico and Roman began to gain the trust and friendship of Adrastos Palamara, who seemed to be grateful for some normal company for a change. Palamara had told them about his past, how he had been a soldier with the Brontian Longknives Imperial Guard regiment and fought chaos regularly. Van Stijm had recruited him after he saved the Inquisitor’s life from a Bloodletter daemon when he was accompanying the Longknives on a mission. He did not say it, but the Rascalovs could tell that he seemed to regret his decision to run away and join the Inquisition slightly: he had left his girlfriend on Brontia, and apparently she had given up on him and married another man.

Finally, after around 4 days, Mikhail’s features began to change and he started speaking in evil tones rather than making pained noises. Van Stijm had taken Mikhail into a room alone and interrogated the daemon that had possessed him at great length. As it turned out, Andrei Puskin was in the league with chaos, though largely unwittingly – as most who go down that dark path are at the beginning. The Inquisitor had then banished the daemon, and had left Mikhail shivering, wide-eyed on the floor. Van Stijm was confident that Mikhail’s mental state was such that he could carry on and lead a relatively normal life, and the resilience he had shown to possession meant that, although his mind had been opened to the warp, he was now no more likely to be possessed than a normal man. Palamara was surprised that his master had not executed Mikhail - and privately he thought that van Stijm must have some sort of hidden agenda in this.

Van Stijm resumed his undercover work on Kalashnikova, and the Rascalov’s returned home. The triplets went back into the Kalashnikovan 2nd, and Mikhail was left in the care of their parents. Eventually, Mikhail was well enough to function again, and, after his brothers pulled some strings, he was allowed to join the 2nd company. Adrastos Palamara had carried on in Inquisitor van Stijm’s service for a few months before requesting to leave his retinue. Rather than returning home, he remained on Kalashnikova and joined the Imperial Guard. By sheer coincidence, he ended up in the same squad in the 2nd company as the Rascalov brothers, owing to the company’s desperation for soldiers with proven combat credentials.

While Palamara is not the most adept guerrilla warfare soldier, he excels in other aspects of warfare, such as reading the lay of the land and finding cover where there appears to be none. He is also a dab hand at throwing grenades. Mikhail has never quite been the same since he was possessed, but is still an effective soldier after his extensive training in his youth. Mikhail is largely silent, and fulfils the role of ammo carrier in his squad.


Ok, ok, I know, that was a pretty lame ending to the epic story :(. I'm having some severe writer's block though, and these fluff bits take hours to do. I'm spending way more time on these articles than I am on actually building the army . The Inquisitor may be worked in again at some point, left it quite open.

Whats in the next post?

You know the score now, another veteran. Probably a shorter fluff article though .

You could always say that during the civil war, women were drafted in as males were killed and replacements could not be found, or the more "political" women fought regardless of what anyone else thought, and so some of them were taken in by guard units.

Because of the prevalance of the "no women outside the kitchen" attitude, this could be less common, hence there are only a handful of women, meaning you can get away with a few but would not need to convert loads and loads.

I could, but I dunno really. It would still be pretty difficult to convert them. I might give it a go though at some point.

I was just giving an idea so you could fit some last chancers ladies in your army, rather than a reason to mass convert loads of women guard

I've not really seen any of the last chancers stuff, so am not sure how many women there are in the set, but I understand that they are often not exactly in regulation uniform, which would fit with the idea of women just taking up arms and just getting scooped up into a guard unit which was running low on manpower and resources.

It would also fit in with an army and culture where women should not serve... they might not be given the best arms and equipment, even if they are twice as good as then men.

Theres a couple of women in the last chancers box, but one has a skirt and one has a missile launcher . I'm thinking of cutting the upper half off skirty and the lower half off the other one and sculpting some slightly thicker clothes (she's wearing a sleevless crop top currently).

Is it cold, or is she smuggling Krak grenades?

Lol, what nipples have you seen that look like krak grenades?

Apologies for the lack of updating the last couple of days, and there won't be one tomorrow either. Yesterday and today I've been incredibly busy, and tomorrow I have to travel half way across the country for a big job interview.

On the miniatures side of things, I got a cadian command squad and cadian respirators infantry upgrade pack through from FW today, some awesome miniatures there. Can't wait to get those guys built up - already done a head swap on the commander model. Still waiting for FW to send me my vets so I can finish my second squad - I only had 2 shotgun bodies, and when I have 5 more I should be able to have a decent squad of them if I use some special weapons too.

I'm also selling a load of stuff on ebay (I'll post to UK and Europe), including those two mastiff dogs, some forgeworld bits I don't need, a fw vanquisher, and some other IG tanks. Check it!

The nips of someone wearing a crop top in an arctic tundra

Good luck on the interview. Hope you get the job (assuming you want the job anyway ).

Geeze, that's a lot of tanks for sale!
Good luck with the interview!

Best of luck, like everyone else has said. I'm hoping the job lets you use your creativity.

Ha cheers!

No, if I get the job it probably won't involve creativity of any sort, its a sales and commercial role with a multinational alcoholic drinks company. I'd be an account development executive. Unfortunately I did a degree which doesn't encourage any scope for creativity in future careers. In retrospect I should really have done journalism at uni, I'm a huge sports buff and I follow the news a lot, plus I have a way with the written word, so it would probably have been right up my street. It stems back to my 6th form college not doing English language at A level though, I'd have loved to do it if I could.

Was a hellish job interview, had to give two presentations, a group task, and an intense final interview. I was down to the last 3 though, for 2 jobs (out of about 5000 original applicants supposedly) - knowing my luck I'll be the one who misses out though . Been up since half 4 this morning though, and driven about 300 miles today, so I'm not in the mood for doing any warhammer stuff tonight sorry .

I know the feeling.

Thought you'd like to know the female guardsman (or guardswoman if you will) is progressing nicely, she'll be one of my general's bodyguards I think. She has Warrior woman's torso and head, Tau crouching fire warrior legs, an elongated pistol and her left hand altered so that she has two hands on the pistol like she is just about to lean around a pillar (I'm putting one on her base) and take a sly shot. She's looking pretty epic, so cheers for encouraging me to make a female guard .

Your welcome, think I can get away with a female space marine?

Yes, because its an infinite universe.

Miss Dee wrote:Your welcome, think I can get away with a female space marine?

No .

get to the chopper! wrote:

Miss Dee wrote:Your welcome, think I can get away with a female space marine?

No .

Not true! It's possible, they'd just all die. So you'd be playing an army of corpses. Those that weren't killed by the operations would just be horribly mutated and disfigured according to fluff. But it would work. Just with very unsuccessful, undesirable results

What about women with the XXY sex chromosome? Or other genetic mutations?

SilverMK2 wrote:What about women with the XXY sex chromosome? Or other genetic mutations?

Like a wang and a an adam's apple?

Napalm wrote:Like a wang and a an adam's apple?

There are all sorts of weird sex chromosome mutations that leave no external (or even internal) stigmata. For example, I believe women with the XXX mutation look perfectly normal but are infertile.

Sorry I took over, minis looking fantastic .

Lol no worries, its good to keep the interest going in this blog while there's no new updates. Speaking of which, I'll give you another vet today, but no background story. They just take so long and I really haven't got the time to write them at the moment.


Automatically Appended Next Post:
Just thought I'd give you a bit of WIP on the command squad bodyguards. What do you think so far?





I know the girl's pistol is wonky, I'll fix that once my latest greenstuffing on her is cured . The bloke's pose I'm very pleased with, thats the wounded Cadian soldier's torso with a greenstuffed arm and the Cadian at ease's legs. The only thing I'm not happy with is his right shoulder pad - I hollowed out a normal one, but it still looks a bit weird compared to his left one. I'm thinking I might greenstuff it instead.

I like the smaller, more lady-like boots on the bodyguard (I assume this is one of the girl IG that you have going on). The boots give it a bit of feminiminiminimty (however that word is supposed to end ) without having huge boobs.

From what I can see of the face, she looks quite pretty too. Love how the hair works.

Need some less blury pictures though

Commander chap looks very imposing. His torso might be a bit too short though... might want to add some extra height around the stomach/waist level.

SilverMK2 wrote:Need some less blury pictures though

Commander chap looks very imposing. His torso might be a bit too short though... might want to add some extra height around the stomach/waist level.

Seconded. Otherwise absolutely lovely models. Now all they need is some paint.

His torso isn't too out of proportion in all honesty, its just that the cadian at ease model has a high waist and he has quite large arms.

I wanted the female guard to be immediately obvious it was a woman - the tau legs work well because they give her wider, more feminine hips compared to the slim torso. I didn't make her boobs huge, I just sculpted around them so that it didn't look like she was wearing a skimpy crop top like the original model. The pretty face will be covered with a gas mask fairly soon, unfortunately .

With regards to paint, that could be some way away. I am quite possibly the slowest painter in the history of warhammer .

I cant see the boobs, so to me thats fine

get to the chopper! wrote:His torso isn't too out of proportion in all honesty, its just that the cadian at ease model has a high waist and he has quite large arms.

I don't know... he just looks too short in the middle. Even if he is actually in proportion, I think an extra couple of mm will really fix him so that he does not look so short in the torso.

Plus it will make him a bit bigger than his men, meaning he can be more inspiring

The Kalashnikovan 2nd - An Imperial Guard Blog

Another update: No story (I will at some point, but they take so fakin long to write!), but another veteran for you all to look at.

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Veteran Squad Alpha: Private Slavik Moltov:

Guardsman armed with a KA47 pattern Lasgun.

Legs: Catachan heavy weapons
Torso: Standard Cadian
Left arm: Cadian HW
Right arm: Cadian Pistol arm, pistol cut off.
Weapon: FW mine in hands, will have an assault group AK47 on his base
Head: Pig iron kolony militia in winter headgear
Backpack: Assault Group US vietnam light pack and Vietnamese bedroll.
Accesories: FW Cadian upgrade, standard Cadian bits.

Quite a cool pose this one, I think. It kind of looks like he's just getting the mine out ready to place it. The Catachan legs worked well because I had to cut off part of the torso to give him the right hunched over look, and the cadian hw legs looked a bit funny when combined with a wonky torso.

What do you all think?



Whats in the next post?

The last of Veteran Squad Alpha . Then I'll start work on my command squad (still waiting for my batch of FW shotguns to arrive so I can complete my second vet squad). Painting is still ongoing on Squad alpha, and I should warn you we could be talking months rather than days and weeks with the speed I paint at .

Looking good. The pose is very good.

get to the chopper! wrote:His torso isn't too out of proportion in all honesty, its just that the cadian at ease model has a high waist and he has quite large arms.

I wanted the female guard to be immediately obvious it was a woman - the tau legs work well because they give her wider, more feminine hips compared to the slim torso. I didn't make her boobs huge, I just sculpted around them so that it didn't look like she was wearing a skimpy crop top like the original model. The pretty face will be covered with a gas mask fairly soon, unfortunately .

With regards to paint, that could be some way away. I am quite possibly the slowest painter in the history of warhammer .

Have you considered just hanging the mask around her neck or having it up over the helmet?

Napalm wrote:
Have you considered just hanging the mask around her neck or having it up over the helmet?

I'm with Napalm on this. The most obvious way to show gender at this scale is the face, it would seem a shame to cover that up.

Getting a convincing body shape is tough but also not that obvious even if done well as the armour and war gear would ineviatbly "bulk" the figure out anyway.

It would ruin all my fluff if I didn't give her a gas mask though... What I might do is just cover her mouth with a basic rebreather but leave the rest.

You can always hang the mask from her belt or pack.

The face of that model looks really good, as does the hair and helmet. I would try and preserve as much of it as I could, hence my suggestion of hanging the mask from the belt/backpack.

Edit: Typos.

Hang the mask.

BRAVO!!!!!!!

The Kalashnikovan 2nd - An Imperial Guard Blog

This is the last of vet squad A then, again no story yet for this bloke.

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Veteran Squad Alpha: Private Tamryn Reshetnikova:

Guardsman armed with a KA47 pattern Lasgun.

Legs: Cadian
Torso: Cadian
Left arm: Cadian HW, with FW binoculars in hand. Hand was repositioned
Right arm: FW Cadian arm, with the weapon altered
Weapon: Assault group AK47
Head: Pig iron kolony militia in winter headgear
Backpack: Assault Group US vietnam light pack and Vietnamese bedroll.
Accesories: FW Cadian upgrade, standard Cadian bits.

Pretty pleased with this pose too (are there any I haven't been pleased with lol?). He was one of the first blokes I built and I really wanted to make him seem like an infantry man rather than a heavy weapons reloader. I think having the gun in one arm achieved this quite nicely, as well as the fact he's standing and not crouched down. I wanted him to look like his squad was on a sort of scouting mission or something, and he was just quickly checking the horizons to make sure they weren't being watched. Verdict?



Whats in the next post?

I'll give you some pics of squad A in their semi-painted state, or I might have the command squad ready by then - it'll probably be a few days away though.

Looking good. Enough differences from a regular trooper to make him stand out, but not so much alteration that you have no idea what it is supposed to be

Is there anything you can put on the front of the model which will make him more vet-like? A knife holster on the chest armour or in the boot for example?

Just from the front he looks a bit too much like cannon fodder... sorry, regular IG

On reviewing some of the other models, just a thought that you might want to put a gun on the base of Slavik Molotov, as if he has put his gun down for a second to place the bomb.

Ok, never mind, I have just read that you will be doing that in the blurb at the top. Don't even know why I am still typing this. Or why I have not just deleted it before I posted this reply.

Guess I am just a bit gone in the head...

There's not a lot else I can do without making him look cluttered IMO - the backpacks separate them from normal troopers though. But anyway, there won't be any cannon fodder in this army, they're all vets.

I really like him. He is fairly similar to a veteran guardsman I am most of the way through painting now and looks great as per your foward scout of the unit idea. Keep up the good work.

i like the theme, But. i have one question..How do you come up with these names hehe.

I look on a russian baby boy names website and on a Russian surnames website .

Very interesting theme you've got going here. It's nice to see some winterized guard that don't look as out of place next to the current models. Also, the dossiers keep your updates interesting.

Subscribed.

Cheers .

I didn't even realise it was possible to subscribe to threads . Got a few I need to subscribe to.

Anything that you post in is automatically added to your subscribed list (which can be seen by clicking "my subscribed threads".

Alternately, you can click the "subscribe" button at the bottom of the page to add it to the list without posting... good for old P&M tutorials etc

Been playing around with my bodyguard models, and I've changed them a bit. I've decided that fluff-wise they'll be a husband and wife team drafted in from a different planet, so the bloke has a FW cadian respirator head rather than a pig iron officers one. I'm also crafting a bit of carapace armour for him on his legs, and he has a backpack with a big blade on the side. The woman IS going to have a respirator - it would just be stupid to have her as the only model in the entire army wihout one. Hopefully the result will be quite subtle though.

The main bulk of today has been taken up by me creating a medic and wounded guardsman model (I'll count it as one mini, on a 40mm base). I'm pretty pleased with this one, and I'll give you some WIP shots of the command squad either later today or tomorrow some time.

sweet guardsmen!

The Kalashnikovan 2nd - An Imperial Guard Blog

A big ol' WIP post for you to see what I've been up to with this army recently. There's a few from Vet Squad B who will have shotguns, and a few from the command squad. These are all WIP, so I'd like plenty of opinions on all of the models if possible! Note that the girl bodyguard is keeping her gasmask, and I won't hear anything to the contrary! And also the bloke bodyguard's torso is 100% in proportion with a normal cadian model, he just has wide shoulders which makes it look like he has a short torso. He's a muscled up nutcase anyway though .

The model I especially want opinions on is the vaulting vet, who is pictured first:

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WIP Veteran Squad Beta guardsman vaulting down wall (or possibly cliff...).

I'm quite fond of the concept for this pose, but I'm not sure how it will look executed. As you can see, he is very, very WIP (the head is just for show, that won't be his actual head), and only his left arm is done really - forgot to stick his hand on there for the pics though. Eventually, I hope to have him holding a shotgun and mounted on a 40 or 60 mil base, with it built up behind him and him vaulting off the edge of it. In the top bit, there'll be an insert for another vet on a 25mm base, and he might be limbering up for a death-defying leap! Sound cool?









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WIP Command Squad Bodyguard Bloke

Changed his head since the last WIP and given him some carapace on his legs. Also made his rather large right shoulder pad into some weird check pattern armour that I might paint in a black and white flag scheme (too Ork?), which I think makes it look more natural in its large size. Gave him a backpack with a big ass sword attached to it as well. Just need to glue a pistol on his belt now really. I didn't give him a Kalash head, or the normal backpack as I want to make him look like an outsider - he's a renowned vet who has been brought in by the colonel for his protection.










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WIP Command Squad Bodyguard Girl

She's almost done now in all honesty. Added more details to the gas mask since this pic was taken, it looks pretty good now without looking too eldar. Just need to glue her torso to her legs, neaten up the join between her foot and the legs and give her a backpack, and probably sculpt the bottom half of her sword which got sliced when I removed her from her original legs.









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Next post?

Got a load more wip shots, including the company commander, my wounded guardsman and a couple of standard shotgun blokes. They're already uploaded if you want to be cheeky and check out my gallery homepages. Which reminds me, get some votes on these badboys! Though if you're going to vote them as crap, don't bother .

Looking good. The one jumping over the wall has an excellent dynamic pose.

I love the cross armed guy. I like the idea of him being brought in from outside too. Certainly a good touch.

The ninja wall jumping guy... not so sure of. I will wait for him to be done a bit more but I am always wary of putting large chunks of terrain on model bases.

The lady is looking good, the mask is not too huge, which is good, and you can still kind of see some femininity in her eye area etc. I know it is against ze fluff, but I would still have gone for having her mask tied to her belt or something. But you have done a good job of making it relatively small and to keep some of the grace of the face intact. So well done

Again though, the terrain on the base... At least it is relatively slimline on her base

I know they are from different squads, but I would try and combine any terrain modeled guys into a single piece, so the leaping guy from beta squad could be leaping over a wall joined to the section the woman is crouching behind. It gives things more solidity rather than having bits of terrain randomly around the board (also means that if you are playing on a completely differently themed board, there is at least some cohesion ).

But this is just me. And I am strange.

Yeah I see where you're coming from. Like I said on the vaulting guy, I want to have him leaping off the edge of a large base which will have another guy on the top on an insert 25mm base.

On the girl's base I plan on cutting down the pillar anyway, so it shouldn't stand out too much.

Certainly does help to have each squad kindof on the same purpose. I've always have a thing against a squad eith some guys standing still and firing with others advancing without notice. Just more fun to have a solidly advancing line or a line behind a wall or sandbags firing at range. So, on using terrained bases, i'd just suggest to indeed keep them unified. You know, like a mortar squad firing in ruins or something like that

PS: the girl with the high terrain looks fine, but it'll work best with that high ruin being incorporated throughout the squad, or some general urban environment debris

Yeah, my plan is to have the whole shotgun squad advancing. The command squad will all be at ease I think. I agree that having a squad not in similar poses necessarily, but in similar contexts is a good thing to do.

In terms of heavy weapons, I am going with all mortars I think. I don't play 40k, just model it, so I'm not bothered that I wouldn't stand a chance against an opponent with tanks - I just don't like the look of the standard HW platforms.

Keep the feedback coming though guys!

PS I appreciate people responding in this thread, it keeps me motivated. I have a parrallel plog on work in progress, but its had about 2 people other than me post in it. If it was the same here I'd have given up tbh!

I really like the concept of the 'wall leaper'. Its really dynamic and looks good with the idea of 'take cover!'.

Being a little nit-picky for some, I can see a few mould lines here and there, on the wall that the female bodyguard is crouching behind and on the sword in sheath on the other bodyguard (who is well proportioned, you are right, his big muscled arms threw me off!). I also really like his cross thatched shoulder pad (fur? or something else?).

Keep up the good work sir!

There are other things you can do with heavy weapon teams

Nice, those look pretty cool . I do picture my army as being a highly mobile force of guerilla fighters though, and emplacements like that don't really conjure those images to me. I prefer the look of mortars myself.

Oshunai: Yeah I haven't filed down those two particular bits yet - I usually file down after I've completely built them.

I always took those two heavy bolter teams to be very mobile/guerilla like as they are simply using existing terrain and detritus as cover

@Flinty: Cut the knife outta those sandbags, who stabs sandbags?! And get some paint on your MOO, I've almost got mine done! ha

@OP: Models look pretty awesome so far, especially valuting man, I love it!

Fantastic models , awesome fluff , you are a total inspiration.
I am adding an IG platoon to my DH army and am waiting for some Pig Iron heads to arrive so it is great to see some of the things you can achieve with them,

Will be watching this thread closely, keep it up!

I find most of the HW's to be absolutely huge when compared to the IG. Who is going to lug around a HB which is as big as they are?

I try to find smaller "count as" guns for my IG... I have used a couple of old school Ork Trukk big shootas as HB for my IG, as they are smaller and look relatively good. Well, relatively good for the time when I modeled them, which was quite a while ago.

Compared to the HW teams above, and the models in this tread, they look pretty naff, but I am sure I will fix them when I get round to doing up my IG.

@Get - I like mortars too, hence they are my choice for WH squad, however I think they are a bit 2nd line-ish to be stuck in my infantry squads.


@CrashUSAR - Its a handy place to store your knife while improving your cover I am getting around to the MOO. Just finishing off the 2 HB teams actually. Then perhaps onto the CSS.

@SilverMK2 - the GW weaponsa re a bit oversized, its true, however you can always get around this by saying that they are fitted with suspensors (or made out of some super-special material unique to Forgeworld Fancypants)

endtransmission wrote:I always took those two heavy bolter teams to be very mobile/guerilla like as they are simply using existing terrain and detritus as cover

Yeah to be fair those ones are very well done - they look a lot lighter without the big shield bits in front. I still prefer mortars though .

BLACKHAND wrote:Fantastic models , awesome fluff , you are a total inspiration.
I am adding an IG platoon to my DH army and am waiting for some Pig Iron heads to arrive so it is great to see some of the things you can achieve with them,

Will be watching this thread closely, keep it up!

Thanks, really appreciate comments like this!

For mobile guerilla work I'd have said Missile Launchers would be the weapon of choice as they currently are commonly used by them. Although Mortars are also commonly used in that role as well....

Yeah missile launchers would work, might have some of them.

After the command squad is done, I'll do another vets squad with shotties, then I'll do some fast attack and heavy support choices, probably a sentinal squad (or maybe some skidoo rough riders) and a leman russ.

The Kalashnikovan 2nd - An Imperial Guard Blog

Another load of WIP shots for you all to see, got the army commander, Colonel Blodniek plus his trusty hounds, a couple of shotgun vets and a very wip wounded guardsman model for my command squad. Hope you all like them, and as always, comments welcome!

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Army commander: Colonel Blodniek.

He's done except for a bit of neatening up and giving him a chain to keep his dogs under control (it'll be in his power fist hand). He's based on the FW cadian commander with a rather tricky little headswap - the head is from the FW cadian respirators upgrade pack. I'm not sure whether to keep his left arm as it is (since he'd end up with two cables running from him if I connected it to the comms bloke - the other cable being the leash for the dogs), and it might look a bit weird. I'm either going to have a cable-free comms set-up, or reposition that are and have him either holding a pistol or with his hand nonchalently on his hip.










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WIP Command Squad Wounded guardsman

Eventually, he'll have his other leg propped up on a sandbag with his trousers rolled up, and the medic bandaging it. Sound cool? His torso is driver from the last chancers set, for anyone who's interested. For his head, I'm thinking of giving him a FW veteran head with bandages and sculpting an oxygen mask going between him and the medic's backpack. Rather conveniently, the driver torso has a gas mask hanging on it already which would be good as his original one. Then I'll just sculpt a nice Kalash cap on the ammo crate next to him! Him and the medic will count as one model on a 40mm base I think. A mini diarama for my command squad!








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WIP Veteran squad B, shotgun troops

Just a quick photo of what the standard blokes with shotties look like. They don't have accessories on them yet. I'm thinking of making these guys really accessoried up to make it plainly obvious that they are veterans, since at some point down the line I may have enough completed guys for infantry platoons. These guys have shotguns though, which means that they have to remain vets, so I need to separate them from the rank and file somehow. Any suggestions on how to achieve this?

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---------------------------

Next post?

Some more WIP shots on the command squad, not sure when they'll be up though. Some time this week I'd imagine.

Love the commander. I really look forward to seeing the chains. Will you be using actual chain? I think that will look absolutely fantastic.

The model itself looks great too.

In terms of the phone, can he have a bit of a wippy sat phone wire, rather than a cable?

I think the medic and wounded guardsman will look pretty great. One suggestion I currently have for you is to see if you can get the model's right arm lowered a bit so that it looks like the man is holding the lip of the crate he is sitting on... sort of bracing himself during the medic's administrations.

For the shotgun guys, have you thought of adding bandolires (sp)? Or failing that, add some ammo pouches on their belts (or trousers?) bulging with shells.

Llamahead wrote:For mobile guerilla work I'd have said Missile Launchers would be the weapon of choice as they currently are commonly used by them. Although Mortars are also commonly used in that role as well....

For Guard insurgents the Lascannon actually makes more sense... Its probably easier for them to recharge the lascannon power pack than it is to resupply with rocket ammunition.

Yeah, I'm using the mini chains from forgeworld. Thats a good idea about the phone, it might look good with whippy wires (though I'll have to make sure they're not too long or it will look silly). It'll immediately be obvious he's giving orders down to the troops then - cheers!

The wounded guardsman's arm touches the crate perfectly when he isn't sitting on a blue tac cushion! It was more by luck than design tbh, but it looks pretty cool. That's why I'm keen to be able to show some face on him, to give him some human emotion that is lost with the gasmasks on the pig iron heads.

No problem. Those chains sound great.

Haha, well pointed out on the blu tac, I really didn't notice it

I am not sure which head (for Mr Wounded) you refer to looks like, but looking at the rest of your models, I am sure it will be a great choice.

Its a head with a buzz cut and a bandage over one eye, wrapped around the top of the head. The expression is kind of a gritty, determined one (I'd prefer one with an obvious pained expression, I'll carry on looking for a bit). The only problem is that FW make stuff in true 28mm whereas the torso is very much 28mm heroic (he has an enormous torso). I'm worried he'll look like a pea head if I use the FW head.

Could you add extra bandages?

Or perhaps he is just an extremely unlucky trooper who always gets injured, so has a few cybernetic repairs to his head?

Thats the head I'm on about.

Firstly, loving the commander with dogs. Where are the dogs from? Second that wounded trooper looks great. What are you going to do to model the stump of his other leg?

Lastly the shotgun guard look good, though they are in need of 1. Bandoliers and 2. More gear, and perhaps extending the carapace armour down a little over their cloth areas on their chests, so the armour has greater area of cover. Just some thoughts.

I haven't got a clue where the dogs are from, I just saw them on ebay and bought them. The seller didn't know either. They came as a set of four, two wolf like cyber dogs which I've used and two mastiff ones which I sold again on ebay a few weeks ago. If I remember correctly, they had 1998 sculpted on their base tags, but they weren't proper base tags like GW were doing in that era (they didn't fit properley into GW slottas). I guess they're probably some defunct sci-fi mini's company pieces, or some old OOP models from some obscure company. Whatever they are, they're some really unique models, glad I came across them!

His other leg will be rested on a sandbag and his trousers will be rolled up, with the medic about to bandage that leg. I'm not sure whether to give him a boot or not. Since those pics were taken I've given that leg a wire frame and greenstuffed up to the point of the rolled up trousers.

I like the idea for bandoliers and extending the armour, I'll probably do that. The only problem is it might go the other way and they'll end up looking too different from the lasgun vets for them to count as the same thing! Its a bit of a dilemma really.

Flinty wrote:

Llamahead wrote:For mobile guerilla work I'd have said Missile Launchers would be the weapon of choice as they currently are commonly used by them. Although Mortars are also commonly used in that role as well....

For Guard insurgents the Lascannon actually makes more sense... Its probably easier for them to recharge the lascannon power pack than it is to resupply with rocket ammunition.

Didn't see this post just now .

That's a good point, I'll bear that in mind. I remember from back in the 3rd Edition days when I actually used to play 40k, I used to worship at the lascannon alter - my Iron Warriors were stuffed full of them! If I ever do start playing again then I'll need some anti-armour capabilities too. Yeah, I think I'll go with Mortars and Las' as my only heavy weapons.

Any suggestions on how to make the lascannons look 'light' though?

Make miniature Lascannons that can be carried and rested on sandbags or something?

Hmm, they might not look like Lascannons though... I've always liked the dkok heavy weapons, but I'm not sure if the wheels would look right in a snowy environment.

I like the sound of what you are going to do with the wounded trooper, though if it was me I'd leave his boot off and sculpt his foot (if your skills with the GS are good enough, which I'm sure they are). Maybe he has gotten frostbite in the cold 'Russian' snows? Hehe

In regards to the lascannons, I'd have them cut down, so shorten the barrels, strip of the outer casing and gunshield and replace with just the vital lascannon parts (which are handled in two places). Then the loader gets to carry the power pack and wires. At least thats my idea.

My GS skills are pretty rudimentary - hopefully a human foot will just about be within my capacity .

Loving the peep show quote in your sig btw, I lol'd hard when I heard that bit on the tv .

get to the chopper! wrote:My GS skills are pretty rudimentary - hopefully a human foot will just about be within my capacity .

Loving the peep show quote in your sig btw, I lol'd hard when I heard that bit on the tv .

From what I have seen your GS skills are better than mine. (Mine are under development)

Thanks. It was the best part of the whole episode, though in general it was one of the better episodes of the new series so far. David Mitchell amuses me.

Do you know how you are going to do the bases of your minis yet btw? I'm just curious because if you're going to have snow how are you going to do it?

Oshunai wrote:
In regards to the lascannons, I'd have them cut down, so shorten the barrels, strip of the outer casing and gunshield and replace with just the vital lascannon parts (which are handled in two places). Then the loader gets to carry the power pack and wires. At least thats my idea.

That sounds pretty good. Like an anti-tank rifle approach? That would definately fit in with the WW1-ish Krieg background. Big ass bipod and some unlucky grunt lugging about a small generator

I'm going to use the old bicarbonate of soda trick for making snow I think.

I like the idea of that - I'll model some of them with the cannon and the generators stuck to their backs like they are on the move.

Replace wheels with tracks or skis?

Have you tried looking at some of the SM lascannons?

They are significantly smaller than the IG ones if I recall, so you might be able to convert those.

Though I would imagine that would be expensive.

Another alternative are the Land Raider lascannons... they are fairly slimline and lightweight-looking. Anyone with a Crusader should have 4 spare, so they might be a bit cheaper and common on ebay etc.

get to the chopper! wrote:The Kalashnikovan 2nd - An Imperial Guard Blog
These guys have shotguns though, which means that they have to remain vets, so I need to separate them from the rank and file somehow. Any suggestions on how to achieve this?

Next post?

Kalashnikovan blood stripes on the pants?

Big backpacks always seem to appear on vets models as it's a simple way of differentiating between normal and veteran.

On a different note, yesterday at GD there was a conversion almost identical to your guy jumping over the wall

Arakasi wrote:Replace wheels with tracks or skis?

I've thought about that and I'm not sure whether it would look weird. I have this thought in my head of having a guy pulling a sled along with a broken down HW on it, like an arctic mission or something. Does that sound any good?

SilverMK2 wrote:Have you tried looking at some of the SM lascannons?

They are significantly smaller than the IG ones if I recall, so you might be able to convert those.

Though I would imagine that would be expensive.

Another alternative are the Land Raider lascannons... they are fairly slimline and lightweight-looking. Anyone with a Crusader should have 4 spare, so they might be a bit cheaper and common on ebay etc.

I'll have a look at them - hopefully bits and kits will have them in stock if they are any good.

Napalm wrote:

get to the chopper! wrote:The Kalashnikovan 2nd - An Imperial Guard Blog
These guys have shotguns though, which means that they have to remain vets, so I need to separate them from the rank and file somehow. Any suggestions on how to achieve this?

Next post?

Kalashnikovan blood stripes on the pants?

Not sure what you mean in all honesty...

endtransmission wrote:Big backpacks always seem to appear on vets models as it's a simple way of differentiating between normal and veteran.

On a different note, yesterday at GD there was a conversion almost identical to your guy jumping over the wall

Ah really? How did it look?

In terms of the shotty vets, I think I'll just keep them similar to the lasgun vets in all honesty. I'll cross the bridge of having possible platoons at a later date.

Wow stop visiting the forums for a a week and so much cool work has been going on on so many different blogs.

This is progressing really well and looks awesome! I especially like that Officer conversion, wonderful!

Can't wait to see that bad boy painted!

Cheers, I'm a big fan of your work!

On the subject of painting, I've ordered a set of GW washes (I have the entire vallejo ink range, but I'm not a fan of the shiny gleam they leave on clothing bits - great for metal though). So far I've been painting the white on my models over a black basecoat in about 10-12 highlight layers building up from sombre/shadow grey: it takes fecking ages! I think I'm going to experiment with washes over a white basecoat so I can get things done quicker.

Thanks,I'm glad you like my stuff! I really do have to get some 40K paint work up on these boards though! Problem is most of my citadel stuff is in storage as I havent built a citadel kit for sometime. I keep telling myself that I will finish my Warhound as well!

I've found the Citadel washes to be good, but to be honest I don't use them much. I use Mig washes, filters,and washes mixed from oil paints.

The bonus about the ready mixed Mig washes is that they can be thinned with thinner or turpentine for numerous effects. You can also apply over a varnish coat to get even smoother blending and better pin washes.

If you want to quickly shade white though I would go for a home made wash made from paynes grey artist oil colour. Coat the mini with a gloss or matt varnish, mix up some wash more tinted thinner than thinned paint, and it will give you great pin washes that you can go back to blend, clean up and distress with a clean drybrush.

The trick with blending oil washes is to wait until the thinner evaporates and blend when the oil paint has gone a dry matt. You can also correct heavy applications or stains retrospectively with turpentine.

Alternatively Badab black or devlan mud are good out of the bottle products too. I really like Devlan mud its probably my favorite Citadel wash.

I didn't realise there was such a thing as mig washes - I've seen the pigments and they're meant to be excellent. Wish I'd gone for them now .

What exactly is a pin wash sorry? (showing my ignorance having been out of the hobby for 8 years here)

Is paynes grey the best oil paint to use? Is there a blue/grey version do you know? I'd like to approach white from the blue side (as opposed to the brown side or straight grey side) so that it looks nice next to my blue shoulder pads.

get to the chopper! wrote:I didn't realise there was such a thing as mig washes - I've seen the pigments and they're meant to be excellent. Wish I'd gone for them now .

What exactly is a pin wash sorry? (showing my ignorance having been out of the hobby for 8 years here)

Is paynes grey the best oil paint to use? Is there a blue/grey version do you know? I'd like to approach white from the blue side (as opposed to the brown side or straight grey side) so that it looks nice next to my blue shoulder pads.

To be honest strong greys and blacks tend to be a bit strong for white, most people go for very dark browns or light greys. The mig wash is their own brand ready mixed wash that is usable from the bottle, it also has various shades of browns, greys etc. Comes in a large bottle also, have a look at Mig Productions website.

As for icy blue... you could mix some white with a dot of a strong blue shade to get this kind of effect I guess. Citadel washes have some good light blue shades for this kind of effect (can't remember the name off hand).

A pin wash is basically a very fine wash thats just applied into specific areas that you want shaded. For example in panel lines on vehicle or in creases in clothing. Instead of washing the whole surface equally with a large brush, you concentrate the wash into the desired areas with a fine brush. This gives shading to a specific area without staining the rest of the flat or raised surface that is not shaded.

Ah right, I thought it must be something like that, cheers! Had a look for blue/grey oils, looks like I'll have to mix blue and grey ones for that.

I might experiment with a number of different ways and get you lot to give your verdicts on what looks best.

Please do, it'll be interesting to see what you find.

To be honest for batch painting a ready mixed wash would help and would be much more time effective. I've found Mig's Neutral wash (pictured) to be very good for white and light colours.

get to the chopper! wrote:

Napalm wrote:

get to the chopper! wrote:The Kalashnikovan 2nd - An Imperial Guard Blog
These guys have shotguns though, which means that they have to remain vets, so I need to separate them from the rank and file somehow. Any suggestions on how to achieve this?

Next post?

Kalashnikovan blood stripes on the pants?

Not sure what you mean in all honesty...

Star Wars reference, Han Solo's Corellian blood stripes, are on his pants.
In the real Marine Corps they also get red piping on leg of their dress uniforms when they make Corporal or Sergeant, I forget which. Using a red or maroon stripe, given the Soviet theme of the Kalashnikovians might fit in.

Ah right cheers. Yeah I might do that. Got an update coming later today btw, built a rather cool looking commissar conversion, some progress on the wounded guardsman, the commander has been altered slightly and I've built a sergeant for my shotgun squad.

I also managed to use an entire bottle of vallejo thinner, an entire pot of asurmen blue wash, a pot of badab black wash, most of a bottle of ghost grey, half a bottle of black ink, half a bottle of blue ink and a load of water to make an enormous batch of my custom wash for my white clothing! I made a wash yesterday that looked really good (I'll show you some pics in a bit), and I thought I remembered how to replicate it perfectly and set about making a pot full of it. Turns out I had forgotten and spent most of the afternoon getting the consistency and colour perfect . I have a lifetime supply of the stuff though!

The Kalashnikovan 2nd - An Imperial Guard Blog

Some more WIP shots of models I'm making, including a commissar, an altered version of my commander and the progressed wounded guy. Also, there's a sergeant from my shotgun squad and a look at the results of a custom wash I've created to go over a white undercoat for painting. Comments welcome!

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Commissar.

Pretty heroic pose, I'm sure you'll agree! He's converted from the necromunda Kal Jericho model, with a pigiron head, a cadian command swager stick and some greenstuffed commissariat shoulder pads. Pretty chuffed with how he's turned out to be honest!











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WIP Colonel Blodniek (Army Commander)

I decided to replace his slightly passive left arm with a more dynamic one. I envision that the whole command squad will be at ease, and obviously he'll have his doggies next to him as well (see the previous WIP post on p.5 of this thread). I was going to have his original left arm nonchalently on his hip, but it wasn't the right angle and it would have been a nightmare to repose it. I plan on using it in a different model though, probably a guy giving orders down a comms phone.







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WIP wounded guardsman, 2nd update

In the process of doing his bare leg, and I found a suitable head for him in the form of Kal Jericho's sidekick, Scabbs. Looks appropriately unique I think.








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Veteran Squad B, Sergeant.

Thats the new Iron hand Straken legs with a fw torso. The entire squad B will be charging into the fray, and those are some quite nice legs to use for that purpose. Got big plans for Straken's torso though .









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Quick view of how I'll paint the white.

Got pissed off painting dozens of layers over a black undercoat to highlight my way up to white, so I'm going over a white primer now. I've concocted a wash consisting of GW blue wash, badab black, blue ink, black ink, ghost grey, thinner and water. It looks quite effective IMO.




---------------------------

Next post?

Probably some WIP shots later this week, and... wait for it... some painted guys!!!

First off, the Commissar looks ace! From a couple of angles the head looked like it was bent at too acute an angle, but in the shot of him looking down the sights of his gun it looks just right. Excellent use of what I view as a 'classic' model.

Next, really like what you have done to alter the Commander the wounded trooper is coming along great. Is there some way you can make the bandaged hand to be gripping the box he is sitting on? Otherwise he looks a tad unbalanced perhaps.

Lastly brilliant use of the Straken legs, though I'm assuming his base will have a small pipe/debris the sergeant is leaping over?

Custom wash is looking good too.

I'm really looking foward to the painted guys! Keep up the good work.

Oshunai wrote:First off, the Commissar looks ace! From a couple of angles the head looked like it was bent at too acute an angle, but in the shot of him looking down the sights of his gun it looks just right. Excellent use of what I view as a 'classic' model.

Cheers! Yeah, his head is fine IMO. I had it tilted slightly back so it looks like he is executing someone in disgust .

Oshunai wrote:Next, really like what you have done to alter the Commander the wounded trooper is coming along great. Is there some way you can make the bandaged hand to be gripping the box he is sitting on? Otherwise he looks a tad unbalanced perhaps.

The hand touches the box when he isn't sat on his blue tac cushion (he falls over if I don't have it there), so thats fine.

Oshunai wrote:Lastly brilliant use of the Straken legs, though I'm assuming his base will have a small pipe/debris the sergeant is leaping over?

Custom wash is looking good too.

I'm really looking foward to the painted guys! Keep up the good work.

Yeah I have some nice resin bases I'll use for the models.

Thanks for the feedback, much appreciated!

Just a quick post, as I am getting ready to go to work, but I think that commisar is perhaps the most epic win there can possibly be in a single model. The body is epic win, the cane is perhaps ultimate win, and the "come meet your fate, prick!" tilt to the head made me smile

Pure win.

Will comment on the other stuff later

PS: The wash looks great too.

Nice dramatic commissar, the only way it would be cooler was if the cape billowed more. But's awesome as is.

Lol cheers guys .

I wouldn't have minded the cape billowing more (like that guy made by... hell dorado(??) who is holding a telescope and his cape is billowing out behind him), but it would have been a conversion job of epic difficulty. I thought it looked good as it was and I didn't want to risk ruining the model.

They are all looking good. I would, however, say that Blodniek's head looks a bit odd. I *think* shortening the neck and building up a large collar around it would help make the head actually look like part of the model. Currently it looks like it's sort of... floating?

If you look at the original model (and the rest of the Cadian range) the armour basically covers most of the neck area due to it's bulk. If you take into account the cloak he's wearing as well as the armour, Blodniek shouldn't really have any neck visible. Creed's model is another good example of this

Ok thanks. I think you're right actually - I'm going to give him a collar I think.

Just to frighten you all, I am about to dissect a FW limited edition thunderbolt pilot .

I have one of those. I think as far as I'm going to go is to give him a las pistol (when I find one) as he'll be my Master of the Fleet. Good luck

Its gone pretty well in all honesty. I boiled his left arm and bent it out the way so I could get at his torso, and then cut off his head and arms below the shoulder pads. I'm left with a torso - I'm using him for my medic, he should look pretty cool. Not sure what I'll do with the rest of the bits yet, though I daresay I'll find a use for them .

You can now say he is compleatly armless.

*Badum Tush!*

Miss Dee wrote:You can now say he is compleatly armless.

*facepalm*

Thats some gentle comedy there.

That Commissar just seems to yell to me "I say chaps tally ho!" for some reason I blame the swagger stick!

In a good way or bad way?

Sorry about the bad joke.

Oh a very good way indeed! He definitely looks like an aristocratic noble but thats what Commissars are! He's one of those models which have a character and his is certainly that of a dashing leader!

Haha thats ok then . I'm quite pleased with him, if I do say so myself.

The painting is ongoing on a few models. One thing I'm really not sure about is what colour I should paint the backpacks...

The same wash you used on the clothing in my view. This is because if you painted it brown, or 'leather colours' then it wouldnt be as well camoflaged for the guardsmen. Can't wait to see the models painted (even partially)

Yeah, you're right. I experimented this evening with black, leather, greeny, bluey and dark browny red, but it ends up looking either silly or making the model too busy overall. Definitely going with white.

I love your men the AK-47's are awesome

The white makes most sense to me as well!

The Kalashnikovan 2nd - An Imperial Guard Blog

Here's a small update, I've built the medic to go with my wounded guardsman mini-diarama for my command squad.

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Medic.

The torso is a fw limited edition gamesday special thunderbolt pilot (felt like sacrilege cutting him up, but I think it was worth it!). The legs are FW cadian (I didn't use GW Cadian because they were a little too large for the torso and it would have taken some hefty greenstuffing to make it look right). The arms are cadian command squad medic, the head is catachan command squad medic and the little pack bit is sliced off a cadian grenade launcher. The rest is all greenstuff! I like the catachan medic head, but its a little too 'mad doctor' for my tastes, so I gave him a ponytail haircut. This serves the dual purpose of giving something interesting to look at from the back of the model, because when he's tending to my wounded man's gammy leg it'll predominantly be his back that is being viewed. I positioned his head so that it looks like he is looking up at the wounded guy saying "brace yourself, this might hurt" before he applies the bandages. The expression on the wounded man's face is one of pained resolve, so this works quite well IMO. My overall aim was to give the medic the look of a guy who wasn't necessarily a soldier, but just a guy whos sort of found himself on a battlefield and is coping with it as best he can. His different armour and non-regulation haircut help achieve this look IMO. What do you guys reckon?









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Next post?

Should have some painted guys next time (got a couple very very nearly done, and the commissar is progressing nicely). The little medic and wounded man diarama should be complete and ready for painting too, and I'll give you a few shots of it.

At first, by 'butchering' the forge world pilot I thought it sounded risky... I have been proved wrong, and it looks great. Oh and you are wrong about the quote. It should be 'Brace yourself. This will hurt!'. Perhaps a few small pouches could be added around the medic's belt?

Now paint! Paint as if your life depended on the outcome!

Yeah, I'll probably add some pouches. I didn't fancy trawling through my accessories section of my bits box to find some suitable ones though . I'll do that before painting though.

How about some woodsmen?

That's an interesting idea - I could have them as conscripts. If I can find some suitable models to convert them I'd be up for doing it in the future.

As usual great work and another totally unique model, this army is going to look amazing when finished....speaking of finished can't wait to see a few painted models.

oh and and I agree with a few belt pouches for the medic

Looks great!

I might be stealing the "take cover" pose, it's just too good to pass up.

Great work on the conversions, they add a ton of character to the army.

The Catachan medic head is great, innit?

Cheers guys.

Yeah the Catachan medic head is good, but IMO it looks a little bit too mad doctor without any hair. I didn't want him to look like a crazed heretic.

Might be a little bit to bare at the temples. And I am not sure how high the hair looks from his head in real life, but I get the impression from the pictures that the central bit of his hair is washed with volumising shampoo

Otherwise he looks great.

I would put something on his left shoulder though, looks a bit bare.

And lots and lots of bags and pouches for medical supplies.

The left shoulder has a little symbol on it already actually. In terms of his hair, I wanted him to look kind of middle-aged, so I gave him a receding hairline. The volume in the middle seems fine to me (and its a bit late to change it now anyway lol).

I'm debating whether or not to make the wounded guy my army standard bearer. His left arm could have a banner, but it might just make the scene a little bit too busy and might end up hiding the medic from view a bit.

Could have it leaning on the box next to him?

Thats an idea, I'll look at doing that.

I've also decided that my second set of troops won't be armed with shotguns but with lasguns instead. I want the option of having infantry platoons with heavy weapons teams etc in them, and you can't do that with just vet squads.

get to the chopper! wrote:
I've also decided that my second set of troops won't be armed with shotguns but with lasguns instead. I want the option of having infantry platoons with heavy weapons teams etc in them, and you can't do that with just vet squads.

I had that exact same problem. Lasguns I like more now though after a lucky playtest today.

In regards to the banner, I wouldnt have it on the same base as the medic/wounded trooper. This is because you seem to have little separate dioramas for your command squad, like the leader with his dogs, the medic with wounded trooper etc. In this way I would envisage a third mini diorama for the banner carrier, standing dramatically atop a mound of rubble planting the banner of the army into the ground (so basically... cheesy epicness!)

Great idea, I might do that! For my comm link guy, I'd thought I'd have him pouring over a battle plan table, and then have whoever is left perhaps looking through binoculars at the battle.

Perhaps not a table... have him spreading a big map over the ground, perhaps over a small sandbag/rubble wall as well

See if you can include the folds in the map (you might want to fold up some paper to the right size and indeed print a design on it) and then superglue or PVA it (depending on whether you fix the ink from the printer first or not).

For the banner, have you thought of posing him as if he is fending off an attacker with it? Or even modelling an attacker being pierced by the base of the banner, spear-like?

No, I won't have him fending off an attacker - the command squad is at ease afterall. I think I'll have him on a little mound, chilling out and having a sly cigarette. I'm quite taken with the idea of having a little table - I saw in a plog on warseer (don't ask me which one, I've read every single guard plog on warseer over the last two days ) and it looks pretty good. I might have one guy leaning over the table and giving info to his mate, and his mate putting info into the FW scanner.

Haha, fair enough

I think it would be quite fun to have the table propped up with a little folded bit of ration packing or something under one of the legs to make it level

Or a "playgirl" cover poking out from under the map

I like the banner guy idea, I was just putting out some other thoughts.

Playgirl? They're not gay lool . I like the idea though, but it'll be a playboy magazine if anything .

Sorry if it seemed like I jumped down your throat about the banner thing, that wasn't how I intended to come across. I really appreciate people giving ideas .

ooh those white coats are sexy!...

you didnt here nothing... NOTHING!

Sorry, I got a bit confused

*minces off*

Wait... I am not that confused!

And no problem, I know you were not cutting me a new one. I actually prefer your idea... I was just throwing some thoughts out.

Maybe have the banner billowing in the breeze, with the bearer Leaning against it, in a relaxing way?

I just copied everyone else didn't I?

I like it, I'll have him kind of leaning against the banner pole, nonchalently smoking a cigarette. I can see it now!

you could make the doc addicted to morphine.

Glad to be of service boss!

Just made the standard bearer's legs, he's looking good. I used the forgeworld command guy that has a torso and legs together, and boiled his lower half and bent the left leg under him like he has his weight on it. I also repositioned the right foot so its pointing outwards a little. Then I cut the right leg at the hip and knee joints and positioned it so that its bent slightly. The legs look a bit like this:



@Miss Dee: Lol, not sure how I'd represent that even if I hadn't finished the model already .

The Kalashnikovan 2nd - An Imperial Guard Blog

A very small, very WIP update, the work I have done so far on the standard bearer.

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Company standard bearer.

Here's the standard bearer WIP then. As I said yesterday, the legs and torso are from the FW cadian command set, and I boiled him and bent the left leg underneath him like he has his weight on it. Then I sliced the right leg at the hip and knees and repositioned it accordingly. The left arm is from the FW cadian general I had sliced up to make my colonel, and the hand is from the demolisher tank commander. I cut between his two fingers and put a little piece of tube in there to make a cigar. The right arm is obviously from the plastic cadian command squad and the head is a FW veteran. I plan on sculpting him a piece of winter headgear and dangling his mask around his neck. What do you lot think?








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Next post?

Ok, I promise there will be some painted guys next time - I have four very close to being finished now.

The Standard Bearer turned out well, I love the casual pose.

Looking forward to some pics when painted.

Loving how the banner carrier has turned out. He needs a backpack though. Maybe you could hang his winter headgear from that?

Agreed, looks awesome!

Oshunai wrote:Loving how the banner carrier has turned out. He needs a backpack though. Maybe you could hang his winter headgear from that?

He hasn't 'turned out' yet (hence the blue tac holding him together), and yeah he will have a backpack . I'm quite keen on sculpting him some winter headgear - I think he'd look too different to the rest of the force if he didn't have it. If he wasn't holding the banner then I'd have him holding his hat under that arm, but you can't have it all I suppose .

Cheers guys .

The angle of the head is pretty much perfectly nonchelant (sp... god I suck at spelling, especially this early in the morning ).

Can you have hus hat tied to his pack or something? I think the model as is looks just right.

Perhaps have his pack on the ground with his cap on top, for that total "haha, I am standing at the back with the command squad having a rest and not getting shot at" kind of pose.

I dunno, I'm quite taken with giving him a hat . It won't be a floppy eared one, it'll be with the ears up. I think it might look quite cool.

Haha, I am sure he will look good either way, I am sure you can sculpt him a hat that looks good on him.

I have to admit from the original description I thought the banner would be placed into the ground with him propped up casually against it! It however looks really nice and to be honest I probably wouldn't be that cavalier with the banner standing next to the Colonel!

I did think about that, but I figured it wouldn't look quite natural. It would look more like he had a damaged leg and was using the banner pole for support. That might actually be cool though, I'll consider using it for my platoon command. He could have one leg and his trousers tied in a knot over the stump, and using the banner pole as a crutch.

That's not bad... just don't do a Tlanet Terror and graft a lasgun onto the stump as a replacement leg

SilverMK2 wrote:That's not bad... just don't do a Planet Terror and graft a lasgun onto the stump as a replacement leg

It would be better as an autogun strapped to the stump. this is of course assuming he's an ex pole dancer

"Are you pleased to see me or have you got an autocannon down your trousers?"

ooh you could have a bit of a evil dead moment and graft a chainsword to his arm!

I am not grafting weapons to people's limbs thank you guys. This isn't a chaos army.

Where is that head from?

On the standard bearer you mean? Its from the forgeworld Cadian veterans upgrade pack.

That's true. We need to go pester InfilTRAITOR for the Planet Terror/Evil Dead conversions... though to be fair, both characters are the supposed heroes of the films...

We could solve the whole problem by just grafting a single gun onto a single model... a gun which fires chainsaws!

Dakka delievers

Jesus, I appreciate some interest in my thread but could you all please keep it on topic please. I don't want this thread to descend into spam.

Sorry

[serious mode on]

*Waits for next update of goodness*

The Kalashnikovan 2nd - An Imperial Guard Blog

Well, finally there's some guys painted. I'll be unveiling them gradually and repeating/writing new fluff for each one depending on whether I wrote any when I initially built him. First up is Sergeant Boris! Comments and criticisms welcome!


Gallery votes, comments and criticisms please! The Bear wills it!

Platoon A Squad 1: Sergeant Boris 'The Bear' Varenkov:

Sgt Varenkov is made from the following bits and pieces.

Legs: Colonel Shaefer, sliced with bonesaw
Torso: Tank commander
Left arm: Cadian Sergeant
Right arm: Heavy weapons squad set
Head: Pig iron kolony militia officers
Backpack: Assault group US vietnam light backpack, and Vietnamese camping roll
Accesories: Space marines pistol holster, forgeworld veterans knife (on leg)

He is painted the following way:

Clothing: White. Built up in progressive highlights from shadow grey, to space wolves grey, to ghostly grey to skull white with about 10 layers in all.
Armour: Black. Chaos black with shadow grey/black mix edge highlighting.
Shoulder Pads and weapon colouring: Blue. Regal blue with mordian blue edge highlighting.
Metallic parts: Boltgun metal followed by badab black wash, boltgun metal drybrush, chainmail highlights and a watered down blue ink wash. Glazed with satin varnish.
Equipment: Snakebite leather, brown wash, snakebite leather highlights, khaki highlights.
Water bottles: Charred brown, brown wash, charred brown/bleached bone highlights.
Grenades: Goblin green, black wash, goblin green drybrush, goblin green/bleached bone highlights.
Facemask: Khaki, brown wash, khaki highlights, khaki/bleached bone highlights.
Decals on shoulders: Skytex soviet decal on right shoulder, painted on II symbol on left. Weathered with drill bit, scalpel, picking fingers.
Painted on weathering: Humbrol 63 enamel, spread around while still wet with soft brush and thinner (it creates a rust effect, see chainsword ford detail). The metal weathering is boltgun metal which is mapped with a thin line of chaos black below and a thin line of skull white above (creates an illusion of depth). Other metal weathering done by grinding up a bit of graphite stick and mixing it with a little gloss varnish and then pressing it on with my fingers and removing excess with a brush.
Base: Darkson designs resin base (one of the urban ones), painted codex grey, drybrushed stonewall grey and light drybrushed skull white, then washed with badab black. Static grass applied sparingly. Snow made from equal parts PVA and water, a dollop of Gloss varnish and adding bicarbonate of soda until it reaches a slurry consistency. Edge snow done with a more watered down mix. Sealed with a coat of gloss varnish to stop it yellowing over time.





Sergeant Boris 'The Bear' Varenkov:

Boris Varenkov was born in the Bratasiva region of Kalashnikova to a family of farmers. Raised on the farm, Boris stood out from an early age due to his abnormal size and strength for such a young boy. Indeed, by the age of 11 he was already the strongest man in the small town in which he grew up. He was extremely well-liked amongst all of the local populace, due to his gentle and generous nature. 'Big Boris', as he was known in those days, was always willing to lend a hand to other farmers and townspeople, and was something of a local celebrity due to his immense height. As a teenager Boris had little time for school, preferring to spend time on the farm and doing physical labour. Though certainly not unintelligent, academia never appealed to the young Varenkov.

Boris' mother was concerned that he spent too much time helping his father on the farm and not enough time socialising with other boys of his age, and felt that he should partake in some sort of sport or youth group activities to broaden his horizons. Reluctantly at first, Boris joined the Kalashnikovan military youth group in the area. Though at first he was shy and unassertive, Boris' strength of physicality and strength of spirit quickly endeared him to not only his comrades, but the youth leaders as well. He was promoted to squadron leader and began to grow into his new leadership role. The Kalashnikovan 2nd were keen for Boris to sign up to the Moloyozhev (Whiteshield) companies when he reached the required age, but Boris wished to return to his family farm and follow in his father's footsteps.

It was not long after Boris' 16th birthday that disaster struck: Boris' father had travelled to Muscova to partake in the peaceful protests against the job cuts and benefit retractions that Governor Oleg Puskas had brought in, due to the planet's economic downturn. However, Boris' father had lost heart that what he was doing was right when the protesters started to become violent. Eventually, the Governor's Arbitrators intervened, and the situation escalated to the point where violent confrontations were taking place throughout Muscova between the Arbites and the protesters. Boris' father was trying to stop the protesters from fighting back, attempting to prevent further violence, when he was punched in the back of the head by one particularly fiercesome protester. Boris' father crashed to the concrete ground and was trampled by protesters as the throng marched through the streets, looting and burning as they went.

Mr Varenkov was left in a coma by the events and it was as he lay in his vegetative state that his son came to visit him. The sight of his father lying in a coma in the hospital seemed to bring about a strange and slightly frightening change in Boris' nature. Where he was once kind-natured and shy, he became aggressive and assertive - a thoroughly intimidating character when his enormous size (which was now approaching 7 feet) was taken into account.

Despite his mother's desperate pleas for him to stay at home, Boris joined up to the Moloyozhev afterall, and earned a name for himself through feats of immense bravery in the early years of the Kalashnikovan civil war. When it came time to do his induction to the main Kalasnikovan regiment, it took Boris just a day and a half to hike his way back to base camp - a new record. What was even more remarkable was that he had encountered a Kalashnikovan Polar Bear, and slain the mighty beast with his bare hands. This is how Boris earned his nickname, 'The Bear', a monicker he carries to this day.

As a guardsman in the Kalashnikovan 2nd throughout the remaining years of the civil war, Boris excelled in every aspect of soldiering life - and was duly promoted to Sergeant at the end of the conflict. He has held the position of Sergeant ever since, despite offers to promote to the rank of Leftenant. He is fiercely loyal to his men, and would gladly lay down his own life to save one of theirs. His troops know this, and he commands their unswerving loyalty and respect as a result. Though not a great tactition, Sergeant Varenkov is adept at calling orders on the battle field and knowing how his own squad's actions could help the army as a whole.

Whats in the next post?

I'll post another painted guy up in a couple of days: I'm spreading out unveiling them to give me time to paint the rest of the squad. I've only done four so far .

and I thought I was bored at work.... JK good fluff enjoying the read look forward to more.

Nice work on the sergeant there. Those heads look nice painted up.

Looks good painted up and the fluff is, as always, top draw.

I don't know if it is just this screen, but the photos look a little darker than usual, have you changed your lighting?

I took them after night had fallen, which is probably why.

Ah, fair enough

Do you have a bigger scale picture of the shoulder pad design? Or perhaps a concept sketch? Just interested to see it a bit more clearly

Its not a design, its a decal I bought of ebay for 1/72 models. Its a sheet of soviet banners. Cost about £7, but they're so much sturdier and better than the GW transfers that they're worth it.

Ah ok. Thought that you had made them youself, never mind.

Can't wait to see a unit of these guys together. The base looks pretty tundra, which is good. You don't often see them, so your guys will really stand out on the table.

I love the background. Just sat here and read it all. Relaxing stuff.

The model also looks great. The wash really works well to emphasise the white. Keep up the good work here!

These ones are the ones I undercoated black and built up in highlights (took aaaaages to do the white), so they weren't washed at all.

BTW, some mean, mean person has voted these models with a 1 for coolness and a 1 for paintjob in the gallery :(. I know I'm no golden demon winner, but come on .

get to the chopper! wrote:These ones are the ones I undercoated black and built up in highlights (took aaaaages to do the white), so they weren't washed at all.

BTW, some mean, mean person has voted these models with a 1 for coolness and a 1 for paintjob in the gallery :(. I know I'm no golden demon winner, but come on .

Ah my bad. Its still looking good though.

In regards to the vote down: that sucks. Dont worry I'll vote you back up!

The Kalashnikovan 2nd - An Imperial Guard Blog

Another guy to unveil, Private Mikhail Rascalov. Not going to give you his fluff, as I realised it follows on from some guys I haven't fully painted yet . I'll give you a big fluff session for all the interlinking stories some time. I would demand gallery votes, but I'm upset at how poor the ratings my painted guys are getting, so I'll keep quiet about that. C&C appreciated and very welcome though .

Platoon A Squad 1: Private Mikhail Rascalov:

He is made from the following bits and pieces.

Legs: Cadian
Torso: Cadian
Left arm: Forgeworld Cadian upgrade
Right arm: Cadian with the weapon altered to be resting on his shoulder.
Head: Pig iron kolony militia officers
Backpack: Assault group US vietnam light backpack, and Vietnamese camping roll
Accesories: FW grenade and pack, Cadian sheath and pack.

He is painted the following way:

Clothing: White. Built up in progressive highlights from shadow grey, to space wolves grey, to ghostly grey to skull white with about 10 layers in all.
Armour: Black. Chaos black with shadow grey/black mix edge highlighting.
Shoulder Pads and weapon colouring: Blue. Regal blue with mordian blue edge highlighting.
Metallic parts: Boltgun metal followed by badab black wash, boltgun metal drybrush, chainmail highlights and a watered down blue ink wash. Glazed with satin varnish.
Equipment: Snakebite leather, brown wash, snakebite leather highlights, khaki highlights.
Water bottles: Charred brown, brown wash, charred brown/bleached bone highlights.
Grenades: Goblin green, black wash, goblin green drybrush, goblin green/bleached bone highlights.
Facemask: Khaki, brown wash, khaki highlights, khaki/bleached bone highlights.
Decals on shoulders: Skytex soviet decal on right shoulder, painted on II symbol on left. Weathered with drill bit, scalpel, picking fingers.
Painted on weathering: Humbrol 63 enamel, spread around while still wet with soft brush and thinner (it creates a rust effect, see chainsword ford detail). The metal weathering is boltgun metal which is mapped with a thin line of chaos black below and a thin line of skull white above (creates an illusion of depth). Other metal weathering done by grinding up a bit of graphite stick and mixing it with a little gloss varnish and then pressing it on with my fingers and removing excess with a brush.
Base: Darkson designs resin base (one of the urban ones), painted codex grey, drybrushed stonewall grey and light drybrushed skull white, then washed with badab black. Static grass applied sparingly. Snow made from equal parts PVA and water, a dollop of Gloss varnish and adding bicarbonate of soda until it reaches a slurry consistency. Edge snow done with a more watered down mix. Sealed with a coat of gloss varnish to stop it yellowing over time.




Whats in the next post?

Another guy painted, dunno when though, I'm really busy currently. I'll do my best though.

Good stuff.

This is pure awesomesuce marinated in win.

Cheers man . I appreciate comments like that, they keep me motivated to carry on doing stuff even when my enthusiasm is starting to wane a little.

this is really cool work man! trying to find the enthusiasm, to paint and update post my vossies atm, just cant get going again!

Thanks .

The Kalashnikovan 2nd - An Imperial Guard Blog

Apologies for the lack of updates recently, I've just got a new job and its pretty intense at the moment. I've been finding a little bit of time to do some modelling, but no time to do some forumming, so you'll have to excuse me for that. I thought I'd give you a quick update on what I've been up to over the last week or two, with the completed standard bearer and a very work in progress leftenant.

Company command squad: Standard bearer (unpainted)

He is made from the following bits and pieces.

Legs: FW Cadian command squad, boiled and bent to make it look like he is more casual and then greenstuffed on the other leg to twist it out slightly.
Torso: part of legs
Left arm: Taken from the FW cadian commander, hand from a demolisher commander, small piece of resin for cigar.
Right arm: Cadian command squad
Head: FW Cadian veteran, sculpted hat
Backpack: FW upgrade backpack, with marine scouts rope bits and fw grenade
Accesories: Forgeworld ammo packs for webbing, FW pistol, FW grenades. The gasmask hanging from his neck is cut from a Cadian head, with some coiled wire added and greenstuffed to make it look like a mask.

I'm pretty please with how he looks at the moment, what do you all think?














Platoon commander: very WIP

Here is a very WIP look at my leftenant. I know I have a bodyguard model with crossed arms, but I've gone off that model and I don't think I'll use it after all. I figured I could do a better job sculpting some folded arms, and that proved to be true. I wanted him to be a big, fat overbearing gakker of a man, so I got hold of some Bretonnian command bits. The torso is a heavily filed down, chopped up and milliputted chef from there; the legs are from the Catachan command squad and the rest is greenstuff. I plan on having him with a dead rabbit strapped to his webbing and a wine bottle too.

Verdict so far?





Whats in the next post?

I think I'll unveil the painted guys as squads - it takes ages to do those big display pics on photoshop, and I really don't have the time to do them at the moment. Progress has been pretty slow on the painting side (slower than ever, I mean), but hopefully they will be complete in the not too distant future. I've almost finished a vox man for my company command, so he'll probably be the next thing you see from me. The vaulting veteran is nearly done as well (remember him?).

What I like about these is how convincing they are. A lot of guard don't have anything to help them fight for more than five minutes but the amount of kit and the manner in which they are posed exudes competency.

Thanks . I wanted him to look like he's the standard bearer because he is one of the company's best soldiers - I considered having him as an injured guy, but in the end I wanted him to look really heroic like he is this great war veteran who commands the respect of everyone around him. I'm really pleased with how the pose came off - I based it on that American civil war pic (posted it a couple of pages back) and the legs look realistic compared to that.

I expect some pedant will say he's not smoking the cigar in the military way, but I wanted him to look like he didn't give a toss if the enemy saw him. Plus it would be incredibly difficult to sculpt somebody smoking a cigarette in the military way .

The standard bearer is looking just... brilliant. The greenstuff work on the hat is particuarly brilliant.

On the leftenant I shall adopt a 'watch and wait' approach I thing. I'm not really sure about judgement on him at the moment. I can definitely envisage a small crate of wine at his feet though!

As always, excellent work.

Cheers man. That hat was a lot harder to sculpt than I thought it would be. I had to be really patient and do it in about 4 stages because it was so small and fiddly and I hadn't glued it in place (probably would have been easier if I had though ).