Rather than constantly clogging up the modelling forum I thought I would start a new P&M blog for my armoured recon Guard force.

The Battlegroup is made up of elements of the Dunedin Guards (Mechanized Infantry), Dunedin 2nd Rifles (Greenjackets) and the Dunedin 43rd Armoured Regiment (Deadly Nightshades). As an aside, in case anyone is actually interested, the naming conventions are vaguely based on UK units, i.e. 51st Highland Division, Rifle regiments being referred to as Greenjackets and the use of the vehicle recognition flash of an Edinburgh regiment. Scottish and English flags will be applied as appropriate to the vehicles, and potentially the units.

TO&E as follows (updated to meet 2000 points):

Mechanised (Guards) Company Command, with medic, missile launcher, Vox and Master of Ordnance, Astropath (Carapace armour) - Callsign Ambush

Mechanised (Guards) Veteran squad with 2 flamers and heavy flamer (Grenadiers) - Callsign Bravo
Mechanised (Guards) Veteran squad with 2 meltas and plasma gun (Grenadiers) - Callsign Cordon

Mechanised (Rifles) Platoon command with medic, 2x flamers and heavy flamer - Callsign Deluge
2x Rifle squads with sniper, heavy bolter

Penal contingent - Callsign Ethic

Stalker squadron (rough riders) - Callsign Foxtrot

Sentinel (Guards) squadron with 2x autocannon and 1x missile launcher - Callsigns Stalker, Tango and Uncouth

Vendetta (Guards) - Callsign Vengeance
Stormtrooper squad with 2x Melta (Attached to Guards)

2x Russes (43rd) with various sponson and hull weaponry - Callsigns Quarrel and Resolve

KC Pask

2x Hydras (43rd) - Callsigns Highlight and Illume

The force is partially constructed and painted as revealed below. The Rifle infantry is based on Cadian bodies with Pig Iron Heavy Infantry heads and Hasslefree bullpup rifles.

Russes and Chimeras are both based on Chimera chassis combined with Predator turrets.

Hydras, when I get around to finishing them, will be Rhino chassis with Old Crow AA turrets.

no pics are showing up.

Company command is yet to emerge, although I've just finished whomping up the Master of Ordinance (and my does he have a lot of gear).

lord marcus wrote:no pics are showing up.

I'm working on it

Platoon command is almost finished, just awaiting a medic (sniper is for one of the rifle squads).

Transport and heavy support are build and undergoing painting

Very impressive Im liking these.

Mechanised Recon is also pretty much constructed and awaiting painting... I think I still have a pilot left to do for one of the AC Sentinels.

The concept for the sentinels is based on Tachikomas from the Ghost in the Shell anime series and Manga. The missile sentinel harks back to the Forgeworld Support Sentinels armed with MLRS and indirect frag missiles, hence the weapon mount. I rather like it though (and it took a while to put together) so I will be bringing it into the new Codex as a standard Missile Launcher armed sentinel.

The Guards Mechanized Grenadier squads will be Kasrkin based. I have one squad painted up already, but I'm not tooooo sure if I like the camo scheme any more, and may well replace it with an updated one to bring the squad into line with the rest of the force. Probably be similar to the painted Russ, but the colours swapped about a bit, i.e. green base with brown and black contrast.

Also the models are a little chipped these days, so we shall see.

The final set I've got constructed is the mortar squad. Using these guys as test models for the camo scheme... definately WIP

awesome army, going to go for something like this myself only with a ton of mechs

Flinty wrote:Mechanised Recon is also pretty much constructed and awaiting painting... I think I still have a pilot left to do for one of the AC Sentinels.

The concept for the sentinels is based on Tachikomas from the Ghost in the Shell anime series and Manga. The missile sentinel harks back to the Forgeworld Support Sentinels armed with MLRS and indirect frag missiles, hence the weapon mount. I rather like it though (and it took a while to put together) so I will be bringing it into the new Codex as a standard Missile Launcher armed sentinel.

woot! another ghost in the shell lover! *e-high five*

also, nice models, how did you make the MOO's backpack, and what heads are you using?

lord marcus wrote:

woot! another ghost in the shell lover! *e-high five*

also, nice models, how did you make the MOO's backpack, and what heads are you using?

The heads are Pig Iron Heavy Infantry heads. If you get the multi-pack there are visored heads and a whole bunch of other heads with and without helmets. I'm not using the unhelmeted heads but I like the helmet with the additional optics attached. These are being used for my officers, MOO and snipers. I have this well held belief that bettlefields are dangerous places and that helmets should be worn... call me Captain Health and Safety

MOO backpack is a standard vox set with the speaker removed and replaced by the targetting optics from a Marine HK missile. The main antenna has also be cut down and topped with part of a Tau flamer barrel (I've got millions of the things, and I don't use any of them). I started doing this on my tanks as some kind of laser/microwave/EM transceiver and liked the look of it so rolled it out to my whole force.

Excellent log Flinty!!! I especially like your tanks... good mixing of the Pred turrets and sponsoons, kinda modernises them.

This is an excellent log with excellent conversions. I've always really liked you tanks and stuff.

Also, I made a Master of the Ordinance model which is inspired by (read: completely rips off) your model. Because it's a really good idea.

thank you so much for that rundown of parts...that is going to help with my =I= storm troopers immensly.

p.s. If your needing to relocate a mound of tau flamers, give em here. i'm making a few kamikaze crisis squads for when i face bugs or orks.

thanks to all... responses below

Ebsolom Dhaark wrote:Excellent log Flinty!!! I especially like your tanks... good mixing of the Pred turrets and sponsons, kinda modernises them.

Yeah, I find that the Russ model looks too high, while using the chimera chassis makes a lower looking tank. Not ahving any actual Russ models I'm not entirely sure if there is a real difference in height. Regardless I was rather pleased with the way my tanks look low, squat and mean

lalabox wrote:This is an excellent log with excellent conversions. I've always really liked you tanks and stuff.

Also, I made a Master of the Ordinance model which is inspired by (read: completely rips off) your model. Because it's a really good idea.

Heh, I'd remembered an old UK Army recruitment advert, kind of a "what would you do?" thing where some poor PBI is hiding in a ditch from a couple of trucks of bad guys. The preferred response, apparently, was to continue hiding in the ditch, while using your hand held comms laptop thingy to call in support fire and banjo the blighters

Therefore my forward observer was born, and then immediately loaded with lots of kit!

lord marcus wrote:thank you so much for that rundown of parts...that is going to help with my =I= storm troopers immensly.

p.s. If your needing to relocate a mound of tau flamers, give em here. i'm making a few kamikaze crisis squads for when i face bugs or orks.

I think postage to the US would make this an expensive solution You must be able to find someonea little more local. Anyone with a reasonable amount of 'suits must be drowning in the things.

Almost forgot one!

This was supposed to be a dedicated transport for an Enginseer. However, even before I'd played a game it was obvious that it was a collosal points sink for no real gain. What remains is an engineery chimera that I may well tear the work arms and dozer blade off and give to the Platoon Command squad. Its different enough to the rest of the transports that it looks like it should be part of a separate formation.

And so the command squads are almost complete!

Company Command, currently including Major, Vox operator, Medic and Master of Ordnance. Still have to whomp up a missile launcher team for this squad, but its too late and I'm too tired just now :(

Platoon Command is now complete, model wise. I still have some filling to do in both squads, however I will wait until I have more GSing to do at one time. I will also be adding some GS straps to weapons at some point, rather than have them hang mysteriously in mid-air

Flinty wrote:I have this well held belief that bettlefields are dangerous places and that helmets should be worn... call me Captain Health and Safety

Well they need all of that 5+ save they can get ;p

Excellent work, the tanks look fantastic, I agree totally about the Leman Russ model being too tall. Can't wait to see further models and stuff getting painted. Will probably steal ideas for an upcoming Dh/guard list I have in mind. Thats after my orks tho ;p, might take the camo stuff for the snikrot I'm painting on the side too.

An easy Sunday work rate has given me the basic models for my Company Command Squad missile team. More scenery will be provded around them to make the base a bit more interesting, but the models are done (just in time for an evening FLGC visit). Some filling still required but I will wait a bit and do a whole lot of GSing at once.

Anyway, for your delectation, the CCS Missile Team! (take a bow boys)

Cool.

Flinty wrote:thanks to all... responses below

Ebsolom Dhaark wrote:Excellent log Flinty!!! I especially like your tanks... good mixing of the Pred turrets and sponsons, kinda modernises them.

Yeah, I find that the Russ model looks too high, while using the chimera chassis makes a lower looking tank. Not ahving any actual Russ models I'm not entirely sure if there is a real difference in height. Regardless I was rather pleased with the way my tanks look low, squat and mean

lalabox wrote:This is an excellent log with excellent conversions. I've always really liked you tanks and stuff.

Also, I made a Master of the Ordinance model which is inspired by (read: completely rips off) your model. Because it's a really good idea.

Heh, I'd remembered an old UK Army recruitment advert, kind of a "what would you do?" thing where some poor PBI is hiding in a ditch from a couple of trucks of bad guys. The preferred response, apparently, was to continue hiding in the ditch, while using your hand held comms laptop thingy to call in support fire and banjo the blighters

Therefore my forward observer was born, and then immediately loaded with lots of kit!

lord marcus wrote:thank you so much for that rundown of parts...that is going to help with my =I= storm troopers immensly.

p.s. If your needing to relocate a mound of tau flamers, give em here. i'm making a few kamikaze crisis squads for when i face bugs or orks.

I think postage to the US would make this an expensive solution You must be able to find someonea little more local. Anyone with a reasonable amount of 'suits must be drowning in the things.

not true. a small bubble mailer cost like 3 bucks to send to me.

Why not use the Engineering Chimera for a squad of Sappers as one of your Veteran Squads as it'd be a shame to damage such a lovely model. Or simply have your Enginseer loan it to another squad they just have to board on the first turn rather than start inside it.

Well the Engineering Chimera has had its arms removed now. It was a nice concept, but I just don't think Enginseers are worth taking

The 51st Dunedin had its first outing Sunday night against Orks. By Turn 2 it was looking pretty good, but then too many power klaws got into my line and minced my vehicles :(

Wazdakka is a bit good, really. Turn 1 he turbo-boosted directly in front of my Hydra squadron with a bike mob, and then the squadron was just shaken enough by firing so they couldn't shoot :( In the end the Hydras did nothing all game. Similarly KC Pask did nothing due to shaken results.

On the other hand I was very pleased with my MOO, who consistently dropped heavy ordnance on Ork mobs for large damage

After a shocking week at work, including a 14 hour Saturday (when I should have been tucked up with glue and plastic), the 51st progresses slowly

Finally found some peace to work on one of the last substantial construction of reserves. Vendetta ahoy!

I am following a scheme I've seen in numerous places on Dakka by providing a TL lascannon in the mountings either side of the cockpit. The 3rd set of cannon will be set in a nose mount that has yet to arrive from Old Crow (along with my Hydra turrets)... damn these 21 day delivery times

The fuselage is obviously shaping up, and I think its one of the best models I've ever build. Solid and sturdy. The side cannon mounts are constructed using the angled weapon baseplates included for the LC and ML mounts. Cannon are scavenged from Predator turret LCs, of which I have quite a few left over from my tank building project.

Thanks for the play by play, this is some interesting stuff.

Thanks, Napalm. Probably no updates until later this week due to obscene amounts of work pending. One interesting tip I got from some of the other Valkyrie owners on these boards is that you should paint the engines before fully assembling the kit. Otherwise there are serious access problems to the undersides of the engines.

Now I have obviously glued the engines down to the fuselage, so I think I might have to paint them before attaching the tail assemblies. Oh well, a good excuse to get the paint brushes out, rather than ignoring them for more construction goodness

Some really characterful conversions in there! The spider Sentinels are a great touch and I like what you've done with the tanks also.

Its good to see the pig iron heads and accessories used also as I often wondered about those particular helmets and scale.

I've got a resin pig iron APC myself, it was a fantastic kit and really well produced.

Flinty wrote:Thanks, Napalm. Probably no updates until later this week due to obscene amounts of work pending. One interesting tip I got from some of the other Valkyrie owners on these boards is that you should paint the engines before fully assembling the kit. Otherwise there are serious access problems to the undersides of the engines.

Now I have obviously glued the engines down to the fuselage, so I think I might have to paint them before attaching the tail assemblies. Oh well, a good excuse to get the paint brushes out, rather than ignoring them for more construction goodness

Thanks for the heads up on the engines, I've got a Valk still in box that I'll be making in a few weeks. It looks like I'll have to prime & spray it in sections to get the interior done and stuff like the engines.

While I await sufficient time and motivation to paint up the vendetta that is currently lying in bits I have been playing about with concepts for my infantry platoon HB support.

I have decided to nab the Valkyrie door guns and do them up as SAW style HBs for the infantry squads. The bipod might get a bit of GS work to give it feet, and the composition on the base might get switched up a bit, but otherwise I'm rather pleased with the effect. The infantry platoon is designed to garrison my own objectives, and hence I think a defensive style is appropriate for the HBs.

Anyway, on with the pictures

Consider that stolen for my lascannons

That made me just crap my pants. This thread has acheived the status of AWESOMIUS MAXIMUS.

Golden Eyed Scout wrote:That made me just crap my pants. This thread has acheived the status of AWESOMIUS MAXIMUS.

seriously??? eww.....

i like the use of a tau drone.

Golden Eyed Scout wrote:That made me just crap my pants. This thread has acheived the status of AWESOMIUS MAXIMUS.

Umm.. thanks... I think...

lord marcus wrote:

Golden Eyed Scout wrote:That made me just crap my pants. This thread has acheived the status of AWESOMIUS MAXIMUS.

seriously??? eww.....

i like the use of a tau drone.

Heh, I have a pile of the things from my Tau force, and I never seem to use them that much. I thought it was time to sacrifice one for the Greater (Guard) Good

great stuff indeed, you really get the feel of airbourne troopers being surrounded...

some ideas will be converted into my upcoming DKoK army

What heads are those?

niceguyteddy wrote:What heads are those?

Those are visored helmet from Pig Iron Productions.

And thats all my heavy weapons modelled up and ready to deny the enemies of the Emperor!

While having to put your heavy weapons teams on large bases can be a pain when trying to place them on the board, it does give you the chance to do fun things

This particular team has maanged to set up a nice little fire point in the vicinity of an industrial doohickey, providing vital cover and a comfier firing position.

Looking great Flinty! Love the MOO and your command squad. If I may, what are you using for the replacement weapons? They make a nice variation.

IAmTheWalrus wrote:Looking great Flinty! Love the MOO and your command squad. If I may, what are you using for the replacement weapons? They make a nice variation.

Thanks The weapons are Hasslefree Miniatures' CAD guns. I'm using the Type 2 variant as replacement lasgun and the shorter Type 1 variant as a carbine/laspistol for officer types. I really liked the bullpuplines of the weapons, even if they get hidden when attached to the models. I am working hard to find appropriate poses where the whole weapon can be left on show

It requires a bit of work to liberate appropriate hands from lasguns, but I've found that you can use a pin vice to ease that job considerably.

I'm dying to know how you did those M1 Abrams style barrels on those chimeras. I also love your TL lascannon conversion. Simple yet effective.

I prefer to think of them as Challenger 2 style barrels

Semantic differences aside, the barrel is an old pen shaft. The ring around the middle is a section of the pen lid that was trimmed to size and jammed on to the pen shaft. The targetter at the end is a trimmed down Tau Crisis suit target thingy.

It was sheer accident that I found I had 2 of the same type of pens when I was thinking about doing a differnt style of Russ

I think the Challenger and the M1 use the same gun...

Utterly brilliant conversion... so simple... now I need to head to my local stationary store and look at pens...

Kasrkinlegion wrote:I think the Challenger and the M1 use the same gun...

Utterly brilliant conversion... so simple... now I need to head to my local stationary store and look at pens...

Actually, no. The Abrahms uses a smoothbore gun, while the Challenger2 has a rifled barrel for additional accuracy, although I suppose increased maintenance issues.

Not had a huge amount of time for doing stuff recently, but updates will occur when I get 1st squad, 3rd platoon of the Dunedin 2nd Rifles modelled up (maybe tomorrow, maybe not).

And so 1st Squad, 3rd Platoon of the 2nd Regiment of the Dunedin Rifles are ready to stand fast, if not yet ready to raise the colours!

Just over half a squad of infantry left to assemble before I have no other choice but to paint

Looking good so far I dig the helmets kinda reminds me of the soldiers from doom , also a little halo like .

lookin goooooooooooooooood !

Agreed they look very nice,keep up the good work.

Love it Flinty. The head and weapon swaps make for some striking conversions.

Thanks guys. A lot of folks seem to go for head swaps, but I have seen few Guard armies with weapons swaps as well... and then I accidentally saw the Hasslefree weapons range and started drooling.. just a little bit

Well the construction phase of the army is almost over. Just the Vendetta to finish putting together and my Hydra turrets to finish (and I am awaiting parts to be able to do that).

Damn.. that means I might actually have to lift a paint brush...

I know how you feel Flinty im always drooling over the stuff at forge world like the reaver titan i'll never be able to afford.

just saw this. Why is there a burst cannon on one of your tanks?

Hi Tech

AWESOME! ^0^

deadly chicken wrote:just saw this. Why is there a burst cannon on one of your tanks?

Because the tank was originally a fun project I put together as a Tau Auxiliary light tank. Once I decided to go all Guardy I didn't want to have to carve the thing off and replace it. Hence this marque of Russ has a rotary chain-gun style heavy bolter on the hull

lol

Looking very very nice. I too am using Hasslefree heads but am using the visorless ones and Hasslefree pulse rifles for my storm troopers. Keep it uo, looking forward to seeing some paint!

I like your army. The head swaps add unique high tech feel to your army.

your army is made of awesomeness

Heh, thanks guys. I actually managed to win a game with it last night as well!

Managed to try out tactics I have been meaning to use for ages. Previously I would stretch my forces out over the table edge, and then get pounded as none of the groups would be able to deal with their zone. This time I stuck everything in one small corner of the board, with a Penal legion squad running along the board edge providing flank cover.

I have never concentrated so many vehicles into so small a space before. Damn glad Chaos don't get Deathstrikes...

LOVE THE

Great looking bases on heavy teams!

The walker-thing looks great!
I've just been inspired to build a new toy for my AdMech army....

Thanks

No updates recently due to stupid amounts of work... maybe this weekend.

Nice stuff here. The TL Lascannons are nice, I'd been considering doing the exact same thing. Where would you put the last TL Lascannon? I'm thinking nose-mounted?

Tema69 wrote:Nice stuff here. The TL Lascannons are nice, I'd been considering doing the exact same thing. Where would you put the last TL Lascannon? I'm thinking nose-mounted?

Exactly my plan

I was delayed a while waiting for parts, but I'm hoping I can use this weekend to rectify that. I should post some WIP painting shots as well to show that I do occasionally pick up a brush

And speaking of TL lascannon, here are they on my WIP Vendetta (Callsign: Vengeance)

And my WIP kitbash hydra (Callsign: Highlight), soon to be joined by a second of the same type (Callsign: Illume). Lucky I randomly had 2 Rhino chassis

Still have to upgun the upper autocannon and add some more substantial ammo storage on the outside. Quite happy with how its proceeding so far though. Turret and barrels are from Old Crow.

ooooo nice. never seen one of those before.

Came back to the Hydra this morning and decided that I didn't like the combination of heavy AC mount below and light AC mount above. Hence I have now used up all 4 of my remaining Predator sponson mounts on one model. Much prefer the look of this, however it does mean I need to find more sponson LCs from somewhere... Ebay ahoy!

That's a very, very nice Hydra, Flinty! I may have to try it on a Chimera chassis (yeah, it's vanilla but I play my Cadian mech vets straight up) . It will probably depend on whether GW releases their kit before I decide I must have a Hydra.

What did you use for the add-on ammo drums? Is that solid plastic rod with a 1/4 round cut out?

Edit: What length are those Old Crow gun barrels?

JB wrote:That's a very, very nice Hydra, Flinty! I may have to try it on a Chimera chassis (yeah, it's vanilla but I play my Cadian mech vets straight up) . It will probably depend on whether GW releases their kit before I decide I must have a Hydra.

What did you use for the add-on ammo drums? Is that solid plastic rod with a 1/4 round cut out?

Thanks

The main reason I used the rhino chassis was because I happened to have a couple lying about, rather than any fundamental problem with the normal chassis

The turret I bought was a tactical support missile job from Old Crow. This came with 4 large missiles that I had no other use for, and I reckoned that the central portion was about the right size. A bit of hacking and slicing later and voila, ammo drums. You could definately do the same thing with plasticard tubing.

All these vehicle conversions look pretty seamless, have you considered doing a couple tutorials on things like converting predator turrets, making your own gun barrels, etc?

Also, very much like the grunts. Calls to mind the Orbital Drop Shock Troopers from Halo.

I'm guessing that you used the 50 mm gun barrels by Old Crow.

Mercurial wrote:All these vehicle conversions look pretty seamless, have you considered doing a couple tutorials on things like converting predator turrets, making your own gun barrels, etc?

Also, very much like the grunts. Calls to mind the Orbital Drop Shock Troopers from Halo.

The vehicle conversions are rpetty simple to be honest. The hardest part is carving off the Chimera turret ring to allow the Predator turret to sit more centrally. The weapon swaps are all based on the AC turret, with the multilaser being a direct chop and swap. The Russ turrets have an extended sleeve over the original AC barrel to represent the battlecannon. The russ barrels are made from a couple of old pens I happened to have lying about, but you could do the same thing with appropriately sized plasticard tubes.

Others have also made the Halo comparison. It wasn't a deliberate choice, more of a happy accident

JB wrote:I'm guessing that you used the 50 mm gun barrels by Old Crow.

You guess correct, sir

They are certainly long enough for the job and I prefer the slimmed down aesthetic, rather than the macro-calibre that GW usually goes for. For a start it means you can put on a reasonably sized ammo drum with half a chance of it looking like it might hold a decent amount of ammo, but it's not to all tastes.

I promised myself that I would do no more, however I found a spare Predator turret that I had no previous memory of... And so I've modularized up a turret that will be able to share Executioner and Punisher main armament. Here follows the Executioner version, as I am still awaiting parts for the punisher.

I am planning on filling the gap in the middle with GS, hence the bit of sprue used as filler. Cupola details are also waiting to be added, but I need to go to bed now :(

loving all you work looks very well done, only nit pick is the caliber of yout tank barrel. The turret looks to small for such large ordinance, where would the gun recoil too?? i tell being an ex tanky in real tanks theres barely enough room for a 105mm/120mm to recoil and that thing would be like 150/200mm in a turret qtr the size

But its a plasma cannon, is there any recoil? I'd think not!

No im talking about the first leman russ. Not sure of the mechanics behind plasma cannons but i would say there would be a bit of recoil.

In the grim dark future of Warhammer 40,000 there are giant superhuman warriors running around in powered armor and you can't suspend your belief for a little bit of recoil?


As usual everything looks great Flinty. One thing I'm not too sure about is how the Rhino chassis will fit in with your entirely Chimera chassied army. Regardless, it's a swanky conversion.

hey physics are physics, as for super human warriors steroids and hgh are a marvelous albeit expensive thing

Well I would guess a weapon that shoots a firey ball of energy hotter than the sun or beam of burning energy depicted in the art and books would not have much in the way of recoil. Interesting conversion, be interesting to see once its complete.

Lextheimpaler wrote:loving all you work looks very well done, only nit pick is the caliber of yout tank barrel. The turret looks to small for such large ordinance, where would the gun recoil too?? i tell being an ex tanky in real tanks theres barely enough room for a 105mm/120mm to recoil and that thing would be like 150/200mm in a turret qtr the size

Hmm... its a fair point. I did try to slim down the calibre compared to GWs efforts, but I didn't really consider the recoil issue. I guess I will just have to go for the standard sci-fi catchall option and say that the turret is fitted with inertia nulling technology that is now very rare in the Imperium due to Forgeworld Fancypantus being over-run by girls with short skirts and no sense of decency

IAmTheWalrus wrote:
As usual everything looks great Flinty. One thing I'm not too sure about is how the Rhino chassis will fit in with your entirely Chimera chassied army. Regardless, it's a swanky conversion.

Heh... My army is something of a series of accidents. Originally I wasn't intending to do Russes at all, but then I played a few games without them and found I got trashed regularly. As I already had one jsut about ready to go I re-converted it to being a full Russ along the same lines as my Chimeras. The only reason I did the Hydras was because I had a couple of spare Rhino hulls and I wanted 2 Hydras. I also think that as Hydras are different to MBTs and IFVs that a different hull pattern will work OK in the grand scheme of things. Similarly, the only reason I'm doing the Executioner/Punisher is because I found a spare turret

Severed79 wrote:Well I would guess a weapon that shoots a firey ball of energy hotter than the sun or beam of burning energy depicted in the art and books would not have much in the way of recoil. Interesting conversion, be interesting to see once its complete.

I too feel that an energy weapon would have little recoil as its largely powered by magnetics and gravitics. Our current plasma technology (i.e. plasma torches and satellite engines) seems to be pretty low on reaction.

cool if not weird conversion flinty! lex did you used to drive a tank?

Catching up with my shameless self promotion on the P&M forum

Punisher! To be swapped out with the Executioner main armament whenever I can be bothered fielding it.

Lol i've seen that already

Where do plastic plasma cannons like that come from? Do the marine devastators have plastic plasma cannons now?

Yes 2 plasma cannons 2 las cannons 2 heavy bolters 1 multimelta 1 missile launcher

As noted they are Marine plasma cannons trimmed down. I bought mine from a bits seller on e-bay, rather than getting landed with a whole bunch of other bits I have no use for.

wow those rilfes look really cool as well as thier heads

Looks great, as always Flinty. I really like the unique look your army has with all the Chimera hulls.

As a small aside, where did you get your green work mat?

Great work Flinty! I love the use of marine bits for your conversions.

IAmTheWalrus wrote:Looks great, as always Flinty. I really like the unique look your army has with all the Chimera hulls.

As a small aside, where did you get your green work mat?

Thanks guys! Inspiration strikes from weird places sometimes Next jobs are to whomp up a couple of Plasma cannon sponsons to go with the Executioner main armament... oh, and finish painting my god damn Vendetta!

I actually have a Saturday off for the first time in about 2 months, so I need to make the most of it. Maybe further pics on Sunday?

I got my work mat from a local £1 store. I should probably replace it soon as its taken a hell of a beating recently... I know you can get similar/better mats from speciality art and craft stores as well as model shops, but even though it was cheap its been more than effective.

Cross posted from the P&M forum, here are my Plasma Cannon sponsons for my Executioner. Plasma cannons are from the new Sentinel model, while the sponson body is the Predator HB sponson. Everything is modularised up the wazoo, so I can now field a range of tanks (Vanilla Russ, Executioner, Punisher with HB or PC sponsons and HB or LC hull weapon), as long as its 2 or less

This afternoon I will finish painting my Vendetta... I will, honestly!

I hope so

Okay those sponsons are just insanely good...

wow, your army is so good you've got me collecting guard!

traitor guard but still guard!!!

Vendetta is getting there finally...

Still need to run some kind of highlight over the black and some more details (like the pilots, divisional markings and stuff), but its mostly there. It even finally has had its main armament glued in!

The Vendetta looks awesome. Here's my critique, the orange turbine centers look way too bright and out of place amongst the insanely well done camo scheme. I think you're better off making your lascannon muzzles yellow or orange and painting the centers of the turbines a dull silvery color.

This is a small quibble though, the model looks insanely good. That is a really well done camo scheme and the lascannons look like they're part of the kit out of the box. I also love the wreckage on the base. Might have to steal that idea...

I agree with kasrkin. Otherwise that rocks!

I've always been inspired by WW2 military history, hence the red turbine centres are something of a nod to schemes like this:



With all the other drabness of the scheme I felt a bit of cheering up was necesary There are a few more targetters that need detailing so that should also help add interest. I am fond of the camo scheme, but dear god it takes ages to do anything on a model that large! (Still contemplating D-Day recognition stripes).

The wreckage will probably be stuck down slightly differently to the pose there, and then I was thinking of putting a large pool fire in between the disparate chunks and placing lots of smoke to obscure the flying stand. What can I say, WIP?

First off, brilliant stuff so far!! I love the PI heads mixed with those weapons. I've always wanted to see how those weapons work on guard. They both go well together.

And your armour is brilliant! I love the Hydra kitbash! Itworks well.

Nice base

Werdes wrote:Nice base

word. That may very well be the best Vendetta base to date.

Flinty wrote:I've always been inspired by WW2 military history, hence the red turbine centres are something of a nod to schemes like this:

Red nose cones and yellow-tipped propellers were intended to stand out to prevent the ground crew from walking into them. It wouldn't be as much of a concern on these top-mounted turbines.

But that's neither her nor there. Great job on the valkyrie!

I think it looks great
well done


ABH

with an iron fist wrote:

Werdes wrote:Nice base

word. That may very well be the best Vendetta base to date.

Heh, thanks. Still needs some work, obviously. The size of the base lends itself well to small dioramas. I've seen a few really nice ones with craters trench lines and random Guardsmen, but I thought that a Vendetta should have some indication of its primary purpose prominently displayed

Now I just need to find my soldering iron to damage up the hulk properly

Mastiff wrote:

Flinty wrote:I've always been inspired by WW2 military history, hence the red turbine centres are something of a nod to schemes like this:

Red nose cones and yellow-tipped propellers were intended to stand out to prevent the ground crew from walking into them. It wouldn't be as much of a concern on these top-mounted turbines.

But that's neither her nor there. Great job on the valkyrie!

Less of a concern, certainly, but who knows what kind of warnings would be needed in a technophobic society

As always thanks for the comments, guys Might be able to steal some holidays soon to finish the thing off properly and start on the next of my vows from June :(

I'm all for a random splash of color. It's a conversation starter, and lord knows that could be helpful considering the social skills some gamers possess.

Something about a Rhino chassis for a hydra just feels... right. Maybe it's the boxy, defensible, bunker-like structure?

Anyways, props on the Vendetta. Simple, efficient, and clean conversions as always.

Hey Flinty, where do you get cheap Predator turrets? The ones I've seen on eBay go for like $12 each which is off the walls expensive.

Mercurial wrote:I'm all for a random splash of color. It's a conversation starter, and lord knows that could be helpful considering the social skills some gamers possess.

Something about a Rhino chassis for a hydra just feels... right. Maybe it's the boxy, defensible, bunker-like structure?

Anyways, props on the Vendetta. Simple, efficient, and clean conversions as always.

Heh.. I hadn't thought of the conversational gambits that a paint scheme could lead to Regarding the Hydas (Hydrae?) I hadn't thought of that, but it does help. I wonder if I can wedge hydraulic stabilizing legs in there comfortably...

Kasrkinlegion wrote:Hey Flinty, where do you get cheap Predator turrets? The ones I've seen on eBay go for like $12 each which is off the walls expensive.

Alas I got my cheap predator turrets from GW back in the day when they actually sold bits separately. They sat in a box until I got time, space and enthusiasm to continue the project :(

As I am officially ill today I have actually been able to make some time for modelling! The epic story of the Vendetta is continuing (dear god that thing takes ages to paint). I also went back to an older project, i.e. my firing sniper. Based on previous comments that my GS muzzle flashes weren't quite cutting the mustard I tried a slightly different tack. Shamelessly stealing this idea for smoke I superglued model railway foliage to the underlying GS (and almost set fire to it in the process... note to self, when lots of superglue starts to cure it gets really rather hot!). So now that the fumes have cleared what does it look like?

Before


After

well hidden.

Too musket-like methinks.

oggers wrote:Too musket-like methinks.

Not sure how futuristic looking sniper rifles with magazines and scopes look like muskets... you need to explain that one.

I think it looks pretty awesome btw. Those aftermarket guns work perfectly with Cadians...

Kasrkinlegion wrote:

oggers wrote:Too musket-like methinks.

Not sure how futuristic looking sniper rifles with magazines and scopes look like muskets... you need to explain that one.

I think it looks pretty awesome btw. Those aftermarket guns work perfectly with Cadians...

QFT on both points (aside from the scope and technologically advanced design, Muskets were muzzle loaded not Mag fed, Oggers)

AAAand finally the Vendetta is finished! The only details left I can think of is to put on the pilot and navigator names on the cockpit (to be done after I finish them, and I'm not sure my freehanding is quite up to that). Ooh.. and maybe kill markings. Before being painted the cute little thing put paid to a number of obliterators and a vindicator or 2

Nice!

Flinty wrote:

Reminds me of the movie Wanted.

Stuff is looking great! I can't wait to see some paint on those troops and heavy squads. Did you brush or air brush the vendetta?(looks awesome btw)

looks awesome keep it up !

Stretch wrote:Stuff is looking great! I can't wait to see some paint on those troops and heavy squads. Did you brush or air brush the vendetta?(looks awesome btw)

Heh. The vendetta was brushed, hence it took an absolute age to finish (and the pilots are still awaiting some love). My command chimera is still sitting half finished due to the Vendetta getting in the way, so I think that is next before the infantry get some attention. I just need my work to sto being so irritatingly time consuming (still haven't finished my June vows!)

AAaaaaand I'm back and running

Work is now less stupid and I'm off for the rest of this week. First up are 2 of my 3 mortar teams. The 3rd one is still awaiting the painty love as I havea rather short attention span for such things

Almost a before-and-after job, but both are used on the field

Now on to finish my Vendetta base and some line infantry from the Rifles.

Thats alot of mortars.

Here comes the rain!

Hmm... as the mortars only seem to excite the chosen few here are a couple of update pics on my armoured units. Leman Russ 112 (Callsign Resolve) and Company Command Chimera 206 (Callsign Ambush) can now join attached Vendetta 701 (Callsign Vengeance) in the land of the fully detailed

Vehicle numbering follows Company, Squadron, Unit. Command units are always designated "6" based on some half remembered militaria. Company command squadrons are always designated 0. Hence Ambush is 2nd company (Dunedin Guards) command chimera for 2nd Actual, while Resolve is 1st coy (43rd Armoured "Deadly Nightshades"), 1st sqn, tank 2. Resolve will soon be paired with Pask's personal tank Quarrel (116)

Fluffwise the Dunedin Guards are the core of the force, with all other elements attached. Guards and directly attached armoured elements have a scottish flag as divisional marking. The 2nd Rifles will be done with English flags. All vehicle units will have the blue/yellow recognition flash somewhere observable, generally on the right track guard along with unit number and callsign.

The only thing I might go on to do is some battle damage or weathering, but I think I will get more of my other stuff up to gaming standard before embarking on that journey

Looks great.

Love the markings.

Yay for markings

hey, they make the world go round

Quite happy with the vehicle names, but the rear seat on the Vendetta is a bit scrappy due to the lascannon getting in the way Might fix it at some point.

you mister, ( captain 'flinty' flint ) are a great painter.

Dunedin 2nd Infantry, 2nd company, 3rd platoon, 1st squad now has its first members almost done!

Divisional markings left to do (and the bases, obviously), but otherwise the little blighters are ready to rock and roll

Now on to the rest of the squad

I just love that you're another IG player who's painting up in full camo.

Full camo and pig iron stuff gives it a not so far away future look. Which is awesome.

Paint is looking lovely. Very nicely sticks to the reconnaissance theme, as it feels like an army more at home in the brush than out in an open engagement.

Still feeling vaguely Halo, though as stated before that's not a bad thing haha.

Thanks guys. I really do like the way the Pig Iron heads have come out. I was a little worried they would be too small, however with paint on I think they are fine.

I've always had a thing for camo on 40k models. My Tau stuff has a more simple scheme that I think works quite well. I almost put Marines in camo but I never accumulated the enthusiasm for collecting marines that I've got for my Guard

And now, fresh from being stolen from Get To The Chopper's Kalashnikovan blog, Mr PCS Heavy Flamer Dude! (what can I say, he had an odd set of parents )

Muzzle is a Tau flamer tank, fuel tank is a collection of Guard flamer tanks with some regulators and hose from the Sentinel Plasma Cannon (currently adorning my Executioner).

Extreme respect to Get for the inspiration

This army looks awesome!!!!

Loving all the conversions and the camo. Nice work on the flamer as well.

Very nice work. Really like the creativity and improvised way in which u've gone about constructing the army. Thanks for posting.

Those tanks are great and unique and thanks for the idea for the Master of Ordnance I knew I'd stolen it from somewhere!

Love the flamer conversion...

Flinty where did you get those Halo looking rifles? I asked you once, but I lost the site...

Hasslefree theirs a link to it here but just type it into Google.

By the way Flinty how well does the Old Crow stuff scale with 40K I've been considering acquiring a few bits and bobs from them for a while. Do they look about right by 28mm foot?

Thanks

Thanks guys. Always rewarding to get good feedback

@Llamahead - The Old Crow tactical turret I used for the Hydras was a little larger than I expected to be honest. The smaller turret I used for the Valkyrie nose fitted just fine in that case but would only work as an automated turret (as its designed to be really). I think the vehicles match the 40k scale just fine. The weapon calibres aren't anything like the crazy 40k heroic scale, however I kinda prefer that

Thats great I'm not a huge fan of heroic scale myself. Good to know!

That flamer looks awesome, great stuff! And cheers for the shout out too .

I really like the little valve bits at the bottom of the pack - are they from the sentinal as well? I think I might have to get myself a sentinal kit if they are. That pipe looks great as well.

Yeah, the gauges at the bottom of the pack are off the Sentinel Plasma Cannon worky bits. The plasma cannon comes in 2 bits, the cannon and the connection into the Sentinel systems. I didn't have any use for the worky bits on my Russ so now is their chance to shine

The pipe is from the same bit, so efficient use of materials is maintained

I picked up a couple of individual cannon off e-bay, but Bits and Kits seems to have some in stock for £3.

Here are some staged group shots. Not much painting being done, but I'm definately working on it

Full group shot (Click for more zoomable image)


Iso group shot (Click for more zoomable image)


A suitably pointy sergeant


My painted russ getting ready for some supporting fire


Some arty shorts with an accidentally backlit Vendetta






A somewhat congested dropzone


And some shots of my favourite models awaiting painty love, including my advisors (astropath and MOO), Hydras, flame heavy PCS and a direct comparison of my 2 heavy flamer guys (one a grenadier based on a plasma gun Kasrkin and the other a PCS member).

You know, I generally don't like the look of the old-style heavy flamer, but the nozzles added on to the plasma gun Kasrkin look frickin' sweet!

Great work so far!

Who makes the assault rifle looking weapons some of your Guardsmen are carrying? I really like them

Flinty wrote:Here are some staged group shots. Not much painting being done, but I'm definately working on it

Nice. It warms my heart to see these parade shots, tho from your pics, I had the impression that more stuff would have been painted.

Not that I'm really one to talk.

Tho, how do you stand to have those goofy Lasguns on the Chimeras? They make me crazy sticking out like that.

All the the stuff you've shown so far is good but I really like the mortar teams.

Nice sized force and some nice conversions - like the vampiress.

So... epic.

JohnHwangDD wrote:

Flinty wrote:Here are some staged group shots. Not much painting being done, but I'm definately working on it

Nice. It warms my heart to see these parade shots, tho from your pics, I had the impression that more stuff would have been painted.

Not that I'm really one to talk.

Tho, how do you stand to have those goofy Lasguns on the Chimeras? They make me crazy sticking out like that.

Heh... I'm quite a slow painter at the best of times, and life recently hasn't left me much time for anything :(

However I am now happy with the various schemes to be used, hence should hopefully just be able to crank stuff out in batch mode.

I'm so used to seeing the lasguns on the chimera that I didn't even think about not having them on mine... I guess I might trim them off and replace them with viewports like some other folks have done.

@Caffran9 - The rifles are Hasslefree Miniatures CAD gun type 2. They are a rather nice sci-fi bullpup design. Even though its hard to tell on guys with shouldered arms, I tried to get as many guys as possible dragging a full rifle about for show.

AAaaand finally found some time and enthusiasm to move the Dunedin boys a wee bit further.

4th coy, 1st ptn, 1st squad of the 2nd Dunedin Rifles is now virtually fully painted. Some basing left to do and the HB teams have yet to have their divisional marking done, as my hands are pretty shaky after all the base painting

I also did up the HB team for Squad 2 at the same time, although I may well move onto the CSS next, rather than starting on the rest of that squad.

I'm extremely happy with how the HB team bases came out in the end. Tried some new things, like using sponge to add weathering to the industrial doohickey. I also tried doing a really rusty finish to the tracks on that base that I think has pretty much worked out ok. If I may say so myself I also think that magnetising the HB assistants to use as wound markers is pretty slick

Anyway... onto the piccies!

Wow that water bottle cap looks ace. I must admit when I saw wip pics of them, I thought it would look a bit silly, but its come out really well. Might knick that idea actually!

I love how the terrain on your bases compliments the secondary colours of your army (was this deliberate?). The visors and the terrain look similar and it keeps a really neat, crisp, effective theme that looks fantastic as a whole force. Great job, I really like this army.

Awesome, the bottle cap turned out unexpectedly well.

Love how mobile the HBs look.

I like it, where did those smaller looking Heavy Bolters come from?

Thanks guys

I always had a vague idea of how the bottle cap would turn out, but the hazard stripes were a bit last-minute

When you've got a woodland camo scheme, then normal grass and mud seems to make sense for the basing.

@Napalm - The HBs are the Valkyrie door guns. They are just short enough to make decent SAWs.

That is some good lookin' progress, all your heavy weapons teams look awesome! Keep up the good work.

I recently came across your army and Imust say it's rather incredible.
I have just started an IG army with a basis on the modern German Heer, and seeing your army has given me a load of inspiration.
not to mention a possible army list to start off with. Though I'll probably put more emphasis on Heavy equipment.

Just picked up the thread and have to say love the conversions and what nots. My only grip is the static grass bassing. I think you got a solid paint job with great conversions,but the static grass sadly takes away from it all. Just doesnt fit well with them my take only on this.

Thanks guys.

@Empchild - what about the static grass don't you like? My application skills may be lacking as I just stick PVA glue on the base and jam it in the grass-bag

I don't mind the effect as grass is usually pretty chaotic, but I'm more than appy to learn better ways

I wish I could give you a straight answer, but sadly it just seems soo mmmm out of place might be the best way to say it.

I think the grass looks fine, but be sure to mix it up on other bases. What i mean is don't have the same grass coverage on each base.

Also, have you thought about painting your base rims brown rather than green?

Vitruvian

Holy crap... actual painting done!

The larger half of my CCS is now largely painted. Still awaiting basing and the Medics arm needs something done to it (still not sure what) but in general they are done!

Regimental markings have been added since the weekend and my Astropath is on her way (need a new pit of white, damnit) and may even be done by the weekend.









And finally a half-assed attempt at image modification. It just about works

Some fantastic stuff here that I'm definitely going to look at for my own up and coming IG army. Love the way you've done the sponson weapons. Quick question, where is the laptop on your Master of Ordnance from?

Thanks. The comms tablet thingy is 2 parts. The keyboard/touchpad bit is the central portion of the Guard heavy weapon firing handles with the handles trimmed off. This leaves you with a slightly contoured, rounded "thing" that seemed appropriate at the time

The screen is simply a bit of blank plastic sheet I had lying around. I think it came from a Chimera rear floor plate that I have been using as source of plasticard.

I think I had to sand down the arm a little bit to get a flattish surface to attach to, but otherwise it ws pretty easy.

Cheers for that, shows how good your modelling skills are that I thought it was an actual scale laptop.

Looking solid and cool job with the image thing their. Also huge fan of the scottish flag_ Have family there so always a fan really.

That is epic!

I love it!

Keep it up....

DC

I like the vox machines, they are really cool and inventive...more interesting than the normal ones. Do the snub nosed guns they all have counting as shotguns or as lasguns??

Fascinating army and it's been a pleasure to look through this thread at it growing, just linkying it to a friend who's mad for modern looking armies.

I've heard about the chimera LR conversions before, I am highly impressed to see yours and the officers in your force are really brimming with individuality, despite having helms on, kudos!

Thanks guys. Always encouraging to get good feedback

@Empchild - Its an easy way of getting divisional markings by stealing existing symbols from your home country

@Imperial Monkey - They are bullpup assault rifles with underslung grenade launchers from Hasslefree. I am counting them as lasguns. The officers have smaller carbine/SMG types that are counts-as laspistols. Never been keen on shotguns in any game. Far too messy and not elegant enough

@MeanGreen - Battlefields are dangerous places. It would be foolish to wander around without your helmet on

i really like what you have done here! all of the heavy weapons teams are amazing... but everything is amazing... so... yeah... great job!

Some great stuff here I LIKE the traditional grass bases myself and the HB teams really are great painted up.

Really loving these guys, Scottish Imperial Guard,C'mon!

MoO's computer pad is awesome!

i love the MoO's 'puter, but that medic is way awesome!
truely marvelous work!

Flinty! You've painted your MOO! Totally looks tons better than my cheap rip-off of your idea...

Was wondering where you got all the predator turrets at? Sorry if you posted information earlier I may have missed it. Awesome job.

I bought them ages ago when GW sold individual tank sprues. I got them for about 5GPB each, back in the day. Ah... those were the days

Amen to that!

Aww I know what you mean. I only bought 2 at the time I kick myself for not buying all I needed then. Still love the Chimera/Russ. Think my Space Wolves and Dark Angels will have alot of Rhinos coming.

You can still buy Predator turret sprues from The WarStore.

http://www.thewarstore.com/

Look in the GW 40K section for Battlewagon Bits.

Drill down to SM Predator bits. The turret sprue is $14.99.

I use the WarStore for quite a few orders and Neal has never screwed up any of them. I just got two Predator sponson sprues so it looks like I'll finally steal Flinty's Hydra idea. I think I'll nickname the first one, "Flinty's Gem".

JB wrote:You can still buy Predator turret sprues from The WarStore.

http://www.thewarstore.com/

Look in the GW 40K section for Battlewagon Bits.

Drill down to SM Predator bits. The turret sprue is $14.99.

I use the WarStore for quite a few orders and Neal has never screwed up any of them. I just got two Predator sponson sprues so it looks like I'll finally steal Flinty's Hydra idea. I think I'll nickname the first one, "Flinty's Gem".

This totally owns. You're awesome JB.

I know what I like, and I truely like this army.
Well done!

Hope you don't mind me asking, but waaaaaay back when on page 1, what was the bit you used to make the computer on your MoO's arm?

Thanks, and great work!

Cross-linked from the P&M forum, but here to be a more permanent record.

After far too many months of slacking I finally managed to get around to finishing my Astropath.

The little lady is based on a Lahmian vampire with minimal conversion. Clothing design was basically stolen from someone's online avatar for a game I can't quite recall. Reference picture at the bottom of the post (edit - I have now been reliably informed its a Mesmer from Guildwars).

I'm rather happy with the freehanding stuff. I have definately seen better, but I'm not sure if I personally could do better The vine on the pointing arm is a little cramped, perhaps, but I'm still happy with it.

Basing is yet to occur as I am waiting to do the whole group at the same time. Probably some kind of rock/sand/static grass approach to match my other based models.

Anyway, on with the show!













And a bit of a group shot with her advisees






Automatically Appended Next Post:
Hmm.. feedback I missed! Apologies for the delay.

@JB - You humble me, sir Just remember to post pics!

@Worldwarme - Thanks

@Scarper - No probs. The MOO data pad thingy is made up of 2 parts. The lower "keyboard" bit is trimmed down from the Cadian HW HB trigger handles. Its the curved bit in betwen the hands that is supposed to fit into the very rear of the HB. The screen part is a random bit of plasticard I had kicking about. I had to file the arm down a little to get a flush fit, but nothing too dramatic.

Looks great.

Really "stands out" compared to the other guys.

Huzzah! Flinty lives!

Nice work on the Astropath. I like the figure better as an Astropath than I do as a vampire. I really like your color choices and painting scheme as well.

My Hydra/Manticores will have to wait a bit. I have to get a few things ready for a two-man team tournament next Saturday.

WOW Flinty this is a great army. i like the weapon swaps and pig iron heads
great army.

I love this blog, it has a realistic look with the colour scheme that is quite hard to achieve with the guard uniforms
They're really simple but clever conversions that stand out too!
Really inspiring.

Imp. Monkey

Awesome looking regiment. The TRFs give it a bit of history even without any fluff. I'm gonna get off my arse and start squaring away my IG regt....it's been too long. Anyway nice work pal.

Nice! That is the hottest, not to mention most unique, Astropath conversion I've seen anyone do. Kudos to you!

im so copying that astropath, i know what model it is too ^^

As always, thanks for the encouragement

@JB - I've only just managed to undercoat one of my own Hydras so you have some time

Life in general is interfering with the Dunedin 51st, but I'm slowly getting there... roll on massive lottery jackpot and retirement

Flinty wrote:As always, thanks for the encouragement

@JB - I've only just managed to undercoat one of my own Hydras so you have some time

Life in general is interfering with the Dunedin 51st, but I'm slowly getting there... roll on massive lottery jackpot and retirement

Flinty,
I'm starting one Hydra this weekend. I finally managed to get one of the new Chimera kits. I have to completely finish it before 1 May since I need it for another tournament. I also need a better DH inquisitor and two mystics so I'm either going to conversion heaven for the next three weeks or I'm going to be beating my head against a wall.

Good luck with the lottery thing!

Great Astropath conversion and not one that I would of thought of!

Lahmia Vampires can be used for other things then recreation and.. uh.. never mind.. Great conversion.

The astropath is exquisite. Very impressive work indeed.

A bit of a bulk update this time. All of this stuff has been cross posted from the P&M board.

Finally got around to painting up one of my Rhino based Hydras. Quite pleased with how it came out (especially my only slightly wobbly freehanding ), but the black may yet be a little flat. Perhaps more footling may occur.

Hydra 964, Callsign Illume




I've also been caught by the modelling bug recently. My forces are missing a certain amount of CC ability but I'm not fond of the Ogryn and Rough Rider models. Hence a bit of random footling to find replacement models.

For the Ogryns my favourites so far are Pig Iron War Droids with infantry heads and shoulder mounted assault launchers (frag grenades):


They are supposed to be robots, rather than infantry in big suits though so I think I will ahve to paint the helmets up substantially different to separate them from the rest of the infantry.

Also on the chopping board are my Stalker class go-faster suits for counts-as rough riders. I have 2 guys done so far and am currently fighting with leg-assist mechanisms I can do on the cheap

I've hacked up some special weapons for them as well so the assault troopers can be tooled up with meltas, GLs or flamers

Troop leader with power weapon


Special weapon trooper (currently my favourite model evar! but probably containing more pin than plastic )

You still have yet to disappoint! absolutely love the RR, even if your Avatar is Still trying to shoot me!

Flinty wrote:
Troop leader with power weapon

This is so DARPA... love it!

Looking mighty fine.

Flinty's avatar is trying to shoot you, mine's ready to shoot him...and then steal his minis...

Great work as always, man. And now I gotta steal your astropath conversion just like I did with your MOO

ALL looks good, Flinty

seriously nice job, Honestly I thought your freehand work was custom printed off decals. Im impressed man.

Heya, Flinty - loving the "Stalker" suits, though I think they probably do better as Sentinels - just have the guy cradle an Autocannon or Lascannon.

I dig the landing Stalker suit guy... the special weapons trooper. He could make a good drop(ped) trooper too.

Thanks all for the encouragement.

@Rick - My avatar likes shooting people

@TrooperPX - I did check out some DARPA exosuits as part of the background research They tend to go for additional strength rather than speed though. Having said that my Stalker suits looks like a bit of a death trap anyway (probably have all kinds of fancy suspensor and stabilization gyro systems... or something)

@Crash - Heh. As long as you post some pics its fine by me

@JohnHwangDD - They are bigger than stadard Guardsmen but they aren't quite big enough to be sentinels. Anyway that would make my Tachikominals redundant and they are far too cute for that

i know your heads are from pig iron but what are your rifles from?

The rifles are Hasslefree CAD weapons. I use the longer #2 type for lasguns and shorter, more carbiney/SMG-ey #1 for laspistols.

@Flinty: Thanks.

Tho your spider walkers make better RR cav bases than Sentinels.

As I have been clogging up the P&M forum again I thought it was time to update the tracker blog.

More work has been done on the Stalkers with their feet being shown some love... but not in that way, you filthy minded lot

I've now got 6 of them largely done as indicated below:







I've also been working on getting a workable leg-assist unit attached to the backpacks, starting with the Sergeant:


Hydraulics comprise of pinning rod threaded through a Tau Vehicle Burst Cannon barrel (fiddly to drill). Leg supports are a hacked up set of Guard smoke launchers. The biggest problem with them is that the backpack and leg assist units will need to form one part while the actual Guardsman forms a second, otherwise I'll never be able to paint the damn things This leads to copious pinning, fiddling and swearing but I think it'll be worth it in the end

I've also been working a bit more on the feet to give an armoured ski-binding type look:




I've still got to fill in the gaps formed by repositioning the feet but getting there. The other gaps have all been filled with GS so patience is required until the GS stages harden properly.

Also working on a basket hilt for my Sergeant's power weapon, updates to follow.

Nice well done better than mine!

And so I broke ranks and actually painted something before finishing the modelling on all of the rest of the Stalkers:









Also I've tried to muck about with some Object Source Lighting, with mixed results



As well as the Stalker I got attacked by inspiration on how I could bring Storm Troopers into my force. I'm thinking that they should all have the additional optics helmets as indicated below. The concept model uses Tau legs with chopped up boots. I will definately need to GS up the legs around the shins.

There is a bit of a mix-match between the Tau legs and the Cadian torso. The Tau are obviously a bit less fat than humans

I'm thinking that I can hide the difference using some GS to bulk up the crotch and leg armour.











All comments and criticism gratefully received as always

Great idea!

Loving the storm trooper, where's his gun from?

Storm trooper is looking pretty damned awesome man. Along with everything else in this blog.

I'm also curious to know where this gun is from ?

The gun is another example of Hasslefree's CAD guns. They do about 12 different versions from pistol up to support weapon. This is one of the larger examples, similar to the sniper rifles I'm using, but more obviously rapid fire beasts.

Looks great, nice paint job.
I like the stormie!

Looks good; adding some more hip armour plates would cover up the difference in thickness quite easily IMO. Nice idea!

Very nice. I wonder how I could adapt them to be longer, to fill a Cav / Bike base...

Thanks guys.

@HwangDD - I did think about trying to make them longer but then they would end up looking a bit centaur-like and I couldn't envisage how to do that. I am planning on filling the rest of the base in with scenery to try and do mini-viginettes with each model. Time will tell how well I can realise this

Quality blog, absolute quality. I've recently ordered Pig Iron heads and scout legs to kit out my cadian based force that I'm working on. I might just have to look at those hasslefree guns to completely set off the look.

Do you have any tips on painting camo on such a small scale (ie infantry)? And for your tanks do you airbrush or paint brush on your camo schemes? (sorry if these have already been answered, just kind of skimmed over the thread for picture updates).

Keep up the good work, loving it all.

Hey dude love your woodland army but we please a infantry army shot? would look great with all the camo soldiers. genius with the stalkers! i gotta think of something for rough riders now too

good luck with the rest

peace

Loving the stalkers, looking forward to seeing more of this lot

@Gavrock - When I was doing the trial scheme I spent a lot of time staring at the UK camo kit I got for airsofting. As well as getting appropriate colous you need to look at how the colours layer over each other. The other thing is not to worry about it looking too messy. Its camo, its not supposed to be perfectly lined My method involves using a green base coat and rather large blocks of tan. For the dark brown and black layers I "jittered" the tip of the brush over in pretty random patterns, trying not to replicate any particuar pattern.

The Hasslefree guns are great to work with. Excellent casting quality, highly recommended. My tanks are brush painted, although I'm sure you could get the same effect with an airbrush iun about 1/4 of the time

@Psycho - I don't actually have that many infantry models painted, I just have lots of different pictures of them There are a few group shots here and on my Gallery though.

Big group


Photoshop shenanipants

Flinty wrote:I don't actually have that many infantry models painted, I just have lots of different pictures of them

Heh, that's the hard part about camo Guard...

A little more footling has been occurring. I've managed to add leg assist mechanisms to about half my Stalkers now and will hopefully finish the rest soon.

Also been fiddling with some basing ideas.

Vendetta doing what it does best. PLanning on trying to fit some smoke around the flying base to disuise it. Rough shape has been added in with foam and I will try sticking tree flock to get a decent smokey appearance. Might need trimming a bit though.




And my ultra-dynamic assault Stalker has something to assault over. I primarily added it to give the model a bit more height, however I also think it looks ace

Its my first trial at a cracked clay type base, so we shall see if it still owrks when the GS has dried. I will also be trying to add in some puffs of weapon impacts on the bank and the sandbags as if he's getting shot at. Time will tell how well that works out

great Start on the base!

Cross posted from the P&M forum. Vendetta base almost finished. Designed to look like a pillar of smoke that has been interrupted by the passage of the Vendetta.

I still need to char up some of the static grass, but I have a game tomorrow and it probably wouldn't be properly dry by the time I need to pack up tonight. Also some space is left for some other twiddles. Someone suggested some charred Tau, but I'm feeling lazy at the moment

W00t! The first proper outing of the Dunedin 51st ends in a moral victory.

A 1500 point game of capture and hold (the one with 2 victory locations). Due to a lucky series of hits on my opponent's Rhinos half of his infantry and all his CC potential was stranded on the other side of the board

There was a sticky moment when his drop pod landed in the middle of my lines, but the Penal Legion boys gave them what for. The other major problem I ran into was when I failed to kill any of his terminators, even after firing 2 squads of Vets and a whole mess of chimeras at them. his return firing toasted most of the vets, but by that time the Valkyrie had turned up and was able to lend support.

The game ended at the end of Turn 5 before my sentinels were able to quite get far enough to contest his flag, however he had 7 marines left over 3 squads while I had most of my vehicles and the remnants of 3 troops units running about in transports that my opponent wasn't really able to touch.

Man of the match would have to be the MOO, after taking out a rhino, a Land Raider and a few marines as well with his accurate fire. There was a rather beautiful moment when the shot scattered off the rhino he could see directly into an infantry squad hiding behind it that he couldn't see. Solid results were also seen from the Vendetta, sentinels and the Hydra. I fully expect that my next game will redress the balance of the universe and see me being totally wiped out

Well done in the match mate and i like the vendetta base too!

Awesome paintjobs! Good work!

A MoO taking out a landraider + rhino + marines?? Sure you're playing him right? You know he scatters even on a hit, right?

Flinty wrote:Cross-linked from the P&M forum, but here to be a more permanent record.

After far too many months of slacking I finally managed to get around to finishing my Astropath.

The little lady is based on a Lahmian vampire with minimal conversion. Clothing design was basically stolen from someone's online avatar for a game I can't quite recall. Reference picture at the bottom of the post (edit - I have now been reliably informed its a Mesmer from Guildwars).

I'm rather happy with the freehanding stuff. I have definately seen better, but I'm not sure if I personally could do better The vine on the pointing arm is a little cramped, perhaps, but I'm still happy with it.

Basing is yet to occur as I am waiting to do the whole group at the same time. Probably some kind of rock/sand/static grass approach to match my other based models.

Anyway, on with the show!













And a bit of a group shot with her advisees






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Hmm.. feedback I missed! Apologies for the delay.

@JB - You humble me, sir Just remember to post pics!

@Worldwarme - Thanks

@Scarper - No probs. The MOO data pad thingy is made up of 2 parts. The lower "keyboard" bit is trimmed down from the Cadian HW HB trigger handles. Its the curved bit in betwen the hands that is supposed to fit into the very rear of the HB. The screen part is a random bit of plasticard I had kicking about. I had to file the arm down a little to get a flush fit, but nothing too dramatic.

Just a point to make, If I were her and I were on a battlefield, I'd sure as hell want to cover my thighs!

War is not the right time for dressing provocatively!

@P4NC4K3-I think the term artistic licence applies here

These are fantastic. Its good for my morale to see that other guard players are in the same atate of unpainted-ness, it just gets to you, all the men

That ven. Base looks fab! Good work, maybe add a tau warrior crawling away at the edge of the base

Imp. Monkey

ps. Do you live/are you scottish?? I ask due to the scottish flag on your assault trooper, or is that just a generic British army mark that I am not in the know about??

Imperial Monkey wrote:@P4NC4K3-I think the term artistic licence applies here

Touché, sir

shes dressed provocatively so no one leaves her behind! after all she can't see with that blinfold on

Loving the valkyrie base and the camo troops. Got an army list?

@Illumini - I was as surprised as you Having said that though, a Land Raider is a big target and you do get to reduce the scatter by 4" if he can see the target. Also the marines were killed due to the blast scattering on to them from a nearby rhino

@Pancake - so she's showing a little flesh... she's psychic, conventionally blind and permanantly linked to the emperor of humanity... I think she gets to wear what she likes

@Imperial Monkey - I am indeed scottish, although currently festering in London. If you look at my gallery though you'll note that the infantry area ll kitted out with St George's crosses. The Stormies will have union flags.

@ Meriadoc - Army contents on Page 1, sir

Some more time has been available for footling with the Stalkers. I have a game against SoB on Tuesday and I think these boys would be more useful than my Penal Legion boys. They won't be painted by then but as long as I can get the bases mostly done I will be able to field them easily.

The first 6 Stalkers are now largely completed and I have been filling in the bases. Its amazing how much space there is on a cavalry base when there is no horse The new thing I'm doing here is trying out modelling cracked mud. We shall see how well it takes the paint!

Yet to do is adding sand/gravel, painting and then probably some patches of static grass.

wow they look amazing and great idea to replace rough riders i may copy you lol.

This week or so I have mostly been working on my Stormtroopers. I now have 6, and considering the price of the things I can't really see myself ever needing a full 10 of them

The basic poses are done, still to do are GSing all over the place (gap filling and additional armour plating all round). Once the GS is done I can festoon them with kit along the lines of the Sergeant (first one below):













Regarding painting I was planning on doing the cloth in the same camo scheme as the rest of my infantry but picking the armour plates out in a different colour. Basic black is the obvious initial choice, but i was wondering if anyone else might have a better suggestion

Very nice, like the guy by the door
As for colour scheme, maybe a very dark green instead of black, just because black is the obvious choice as you said

I say either do them in ERDL or Tiger Stripe Cloth. It would look great

http://gallery.kitmaker.net/data/24189/erdl.jpg

http://www.nexternal.com/armynavy/images/BDU-shorts-tiger-stripe1.gif

Pinstriped suits.

All the way.

Followed your thread for a while now.....gonna be a great looking army when it's done....keep up the good work.....stormtroopers look real good.....

@Metallifan - damnit I knew i forgot to add umbrellas and bowler hats!

@Dotts - Thanks. Now all I need to do is concentrate on some damn painting rather than fiddling away with more modelling... I am running out of things to hack up and footle with though.

Disjointed Entity wrote:I say either do them in ERDL or Tiger Stripe Cloth. It would look great

Tiger stripe looks awesome.

It's hell to paint en masse, tho...

Do em up in the old NATO Khakis

love the sniper and the MoO


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where did those backpacks come from

LOVE the stormtroopers and rough rides! Wish I had the set to take a more adventerous aproach like you did. keep up the work.

@JohnHwangDD - I would tend to agree. I think I will veer away from tigerstripe due to the complexity.

@Metallifan - Hmm... I hadn't thought about heading off to other NATO countries to steal their stuffs... I am trying to keep to a UK theme though. HOwever thinking about it we've recently come up with a new general purpose camo scheme for use in the Big Dust. I might see what I can do there.

@Sageheart - I am particularly happy about my MOO The backpacks on the stormies are from Pig Iron. About £4 for a squads worth of baggage (you get a lot of pouches as well).

@Brother_Zach - There are so many GW plastic kits that you can do almost anything. The limit is imagination. I cheated a bit by copying modern kit, however a lot of the major repositioning was accompanied by me contorting myself and seeing if it felt right. Helps that Guardsmen are human

Yeah true, painting a lot of Tigers would proabably do my nut in!
That's why I'm planning on doing it for 10 vets and that be all!

Flinty wrote:
@Metallifan - Hmm... I hadn't thought about heading off to other NATO countries to steal their stuffs... I am trying to keep to a UK theme though. HOwever thinking about it we've recently come up with a new general purpose camo scheme for use in the Big Dust. I might see what I can do there.

This is what I meant by the NATO Khakis:



The blue helmet is, of course, a UN thing. But otherwise that's what I was referring to - The Khaki uniforms with the black netting on the shoulderguards. Good old 90's 'not-quite-camoflage-but-still-good-enough" BDUs

Holy crap! I thought I was dead! But not so, merely extremely busy at work and (now) married

Things have calmed down a little bit now though and time for the Dunedin to get some reinforcements and colour based lovin'. Current WIPs shown below.

Destroyer bits post-bath. Still some sticky residue left so I think it needs a bit more dettol.




Stalkers in mid-paint. The basic colours and camo are now on there after an epic amount of green over the weekend. About to move on to the details.


The Mnemosyne lurking in a partially primered state.


And finally some work on a pilot for one of my Tachikominals. Need to whomp up another out of the extremely usefully posed Vendetta door gunners


Now to see how long it takes me to get all of this stuff finished

Congratulations!

That pilot looks awesome, a really great pose!

Congratulations for the wedding, and welcome back aboard!

I really like the Storm Troopers and the Stalkers (great idea). Looking forward to seeing then painted.

I have to ask what guns have you used for the hellguns on the Storm Troopers? (and where can I get some? )

Peter

Congrats on getting hitched.....welcome back.......

, great stuff allround in here , great ideas top conversions and top paint job, too talented ny far!!

really like your sci fi theme to your army, not at all grimdark! ( which i also like) the vendetta bas is fantastic,( how did you make the smoke , i saw the prototype, without smoke is it the same foam?) as is your speacial weapon and mortar teams, lots of dynamic movement in the special weapons guys. i like the way you individualised each man. adds tons of character to the army.
great work!

Thanks guys The nice feedback you get on this board always makes it worthwhile!

@PDH - The stormtrooper weapons are Hasslefree Miniatures CAD gun #10. I picked up the #1 and #2 guns for my infantry and crept into using #12 for my snipers, hence it was a natural progression for the Stormtrooper weapons

@neil101 - The grimdark background for 40k is great, but I prefer a rather more clean lined sci-fi force. Thankfully the GW background caters for all comers

For the vendetta smoke I used some random green closed cell foam I had kicking about as a rough formwork before using up a whole tube of multi-purpose glue sticking woodland scenics tree foliage to it. I guess you could use superglue to get the same effect, but you have to be careful. Too much superglue on the woodland scenics stuff sets it on fire. It heats as it dries and I have had some pretty nasty fumes coming off before I got it to the cold tap

Awesome work there. Love the sci fi force. Cant wait to see those Stalkers up and running!

Thanks

Peter

cheers mate , Thought you like to know i used your crashed vendetta base as a reference , when i built a 3d flame thrower template. so thanks for that i found it useful.

Cross posted from the P&M forum.

Another step toward a fully painted army! My Rough Rider concept troopers.

Things I tried on these boys:
- Source lighting. This is really hard to get right, especially when you can't blend to save your life However I think the attempt gets the idea across. Light sources are the plasma power generator and the cooling port (supposed to be glowing red hot).

- Weathering. Mostly around the feet and the top of the backpack. Suppsed to look like heavy wear has been going on as they stomp about and barge their way through woodland, etc. Used a mixture of black and very dark brown as the base colour with boltgun metal where its worn through and lighter green areas where the paint is supposed to have just been scraped.











The melta guns are magnetized and can be replaced by flamers, grenade launchers or the assault launchers I'm using as a hunting lance. I've got enough parts to make a few more of these guys, but the process is painful so I will probably only do that whenI am likely to be consistently able to field more than 6 of them

Awesome work!

they look great

Those guys are looking great with the paint on. The source lighting works for me, maybe a couple of edges need softening, but hey, the last time I tried it all I got was what appeared to be a mini painted with poor brush control
Weathering looks pretty good too, especially on the feet.

Thanks guys. I'm certainly happier with the weathering than with the source lighting, but its done now so I don;t need to worry about it any more

Now I just need time to finish the bases before moving back onto either my stalled destroyer or the Baneblade

The basing of the Stalkers will have to wait until it stops snowing so I can varnish the little blighters...

So until that happens, they get to hang about on the bench as I footle along with my Destroyer mod. Based on a Russ I salvaged from e-bay and tried my hand at paint stripping on. Not sure if I'll ever do that again with a pastic model... Too expensive on dettol and rather stinky!

But anyway I'm actually getting somewhere with the thing now. Some WIPs cross posted from the P&M thread. The main work has been the side skirts and the main weapon. The textured plates are supposed to be removable ablative armour inserts, hence the regular bolt holes in each piece. Varying levels of battle damage have been added to the plates from shiny new to rather decrepit. I'm hoping I can pull off a faded paint effect on the older plates (assuming paint sticks to any of it after all that dettol ).

The barrel I am happy with, although the dimensions do not appear to be to everyone's tastes The cooling fins were an idea I wanted to emphasize and again may be a little larger than strictly necessary. Having said that I like to think of them as being multiply redundant and efficiently oversized

First a few pics of the thing comes together with its various plasticard bits. As I was going to be magnetizing the barrel for easy storage I decided to fiddle about with a Weapon Destroyed marker as well.













And then a couple with a bit of extra cable detailing on the barrel.





And a couple more of the destroyed barrel with the fabric cover around the joint to the hull GSed in. This was my first time to apply vaseline to the GS as I worked it and I rather like the results. Makes it even easier to work with, even with colour shapers as tools

Also added some spent shell casings to the top hull. they are a little big compared to the shells in the heavy stubber ammo box, but I'm hoping no-one notices when the paint is on

Lovely destroyer!

Looks promising!!

I'm not too sold on the weapon cannon, it seems a bit large for a laser destroyer (but I may be wrong), and the fins are too thin to my taste.

The battle damage on the extra armour is awesome!! I just think you could add some more details on the great plasticard sheet (rivets, battle damage, etc...), and it'd be perfect!

Also, don't worry about the stubber spent shells, they usually are that big!

Thanks guys.

@Yggdrasil - I checked out the Forgeworld piece and I think the diameter is about the same, but I think my one is a bit stumpier.

Rivets are a reasonable idea, but I have yet to come up with a favoured solution. I have some GS sausages that could provide rivets, but I don't want to over-rivet A project for after christmas, perchance.

Great destroyer! My only problem with it is that the extra armour seems to rise above the tracks far too much, moving the whole armour plate down a little would help a lot I think.

Keep up the good work!

The armour was deliberately rasied that high. If you check out pictures of WW2 german armour in particular (example) it often had side skirts raised above the track units. This provides more protection than if they stop flush with the top of the tracks.

Looking good, Flinty! I like the alternative positioning of the exhaust mufflers/pipes. The add-on armor looks great though I think I would do it in sections (if I ever got the balls to do the labor intensive work).

Liking that extra armour, the added height does look a little strange at first (maybe because it's the same distance all around - possibly tapering it towards the front would give a different feel), but I reckon it'll be fine with some paint in place And nice touch with the weapon destroyed bit.

Great stuff!

Thanks guys. No more updates until the new year as I will be heading to Germany for the christmas break. Now to see if I go into withdrawl

that's an awesome tank!

I just have to say man, I love your Guard Army.

Looking cool chief, I thought for a wee while that your destroyer had been designed along the same lines as the Archer:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Archer_(tank_destroyer)
since the tracks are the wrong way round - but I think the proportions look great, extra armour included, and GW tanks have never really had much practicality, so the rule of cool applies

Can't wait to see it painted up!