My FLGS just got the Wargames Factory Zulus in. I like the company and its ethos and decided to purchase some for this project, a Tribal African Theme Imperial Guard Army (although currently I'm considering having them from a Hive World). The price helped a lot £15 for 30 compared to GW's £36 for 30. I've got a couple of boxes and currently have enough Lasguns for at least 1 squad probably 2 and can almost certainly beg, borrow, steal and scrounge enough for the rest. The army will be equipped and act like a normal guard army it will just be formed by Tribesmen. I'm planning to finish this army in time for the UK Student Nationals in April next year. This blog will also probably feature some stuff on the stripping and repainting of my old guard tanks and attached units. I have no idea what list I'm planning and it will probably be decided based on what I fancy and what fits the theme. But without much further ado heres the first model........
Lasgun-packing-Zulus from a hive world? I probably couldn't handle that, and you'll have some explaining for the Fluff-Gods to do, but I think this could be very, vert interesting.
Lasgun-packing-Zulus from a hive world? I probably couldn't handle that, and you'll have some explaining for the Fluff-Gods to do, but I think this could be very, vert interesting.
sA
It could be a mud-brick and thatched roof hive world
Not with me here SilverMK2 their true scale as compared to the heroic scale of GW models which means there smaller and in proportion unlike GW. The fact is they're closer to scale I mean a Catachan is the same height as a Marine or more. If anybody whinges I'll just say either A)their pygmies B) the Low Gravity on their world done it
To be honest loincloth clad warriors make sense to me in a hive world after all the problem with a hive won't be cold, in fact the enclosed space with no wind would probably be hideously hot. Also the fact is Hive Worlds would probably lack the resources to make clothes for the bulk of their population. Its currently a vague idea as I started this project out of pure impulse and I need to think about that stuff some more. Although to be honest the combination between Low and High tech of 40k has always appealed to me. The urban bases however will stay regardless.
Even then there's plenty of open land on most Hive worlds. You can always say that they lived in plains villages on a savannah-like Hiveworld and they were called to help recapture a hive that turned from the Imperium if you're getting second thoughts
Wouldn't it be high gravity that makes them short? (Although a poor availability of food would probably be the most likely reason for a shorter population.)
I think having a Praetorian guard as a sergeant and possibly HQ would add to the effect. The guard would use them as auxiliaries and would need the Praetorian to keep them in line like commissars.
And if he did name one !Xobile, then he'd have to shout the name just like Peters did.
Orkeosaurus your probably right although I'm basing my comment on David Weber's idea that high gravity requires the muscles and strength to offset it (or that matter GW's Ogryns). I don't really consider these models short so much as more petite and delicate than GW models which would imply a low gravity as they do not need to develope the musculature to deal with it.
Metallifan you've definitely got a point although I haven't developed the background at all really yet. I tend to try and set up a feedback loop models I decide I must have feed the background and it gradually grows. Currently I'm looking at using War Elephants as Sentinels which doesn't fit with a Hive World (need to research this a lot before this aspect gets of the ground). An example of this is my Beastman which have developed more and more of a Witches Minions theme as the projects gone on. Indeed as I've acquired models their moving more towards pure beastmen and away from the vague almost resurrected dead idea I had at the beginning of the project.
Burbledwar I'm not going to do this although I might acquire some as allied troops originally I was planning to used Tallarns for the more civilised and weapon literate units. Then I realised this was the 41st millenium when noone understands how their weapon works and felt I could just use more tribesmen for them. I'm going for a full tribal army not an Imperialist force altohugh I may change my mind for the Advisors later on. Sergeants will definitely remain Zulus as the Wargames Factory set includes some great feathery headdresses which will work perfectly for Sergeants and Officers.
Automatically Appended Next Post: Oh and Deff Dred Red Edition love the music! Great for inspiration thanks a lot.
and I'm not just saying that because I have recently devised a very similar scheme involving WF Zulus as Daemonettes in a Fantasy army
I've built the first 30 and even managed to slap some paint on a few recently. I must say, even a very simple paint scheme turns out looking pretty good on these models.
Good luck and remember Colour Sergeant Bourne's advice: "Look to your front. Mark your target."
Get some shaman type zulu's also and use them for priests.
Using warpaint to denote elite units would bring a lot of character to the army.
I can't wait to see how you paint them up.
The shaman priest concept is a great idea Burbledwar it definitely allows me to tie the Zulu models into the 41st millenium. Incidentally you probably don't want to see my painting I'm at a low gaming standard and it shows I'm better at and far enjoy the modelling more than the painting. You know you were talking about Praetorian advisors well for this project I'm looking at war in Africa in the late 19th early 20th century and the most interesting aspect to me is definitely the East African campaign so some Krieg may make it in at some stage....I also may have to add some bee hives.
Thanks a lot everybody else for the kind words.
Now for the main update some people seem interested in scale comparison shots so heres a couple. The first features Scale Dude a 2nd Ed marine that I've put to compare to a bunch of manufacturers figures before this and an Ork.
While I don't have any IG figures with me at the minute I've got an Empire Militiaman to compare the Zulu as well.
Here however is my main accomplishment my first full squads been completed.
I'm really happy with how fast I've done these. Especially with the scenic cityfight bases which were uch more simple to do than I thought. However unfortunately a lack of spare Imperial Weapons means the modelling will stop with this squad for now. I will however start painting them fairly soon. Unfortunately I'm not quite sure how theres two vague ideas I have. A purely traditional warrior and a camo warpaint idea. The Camo Warpaint would cover the entire model including the skin and shield in an urban war camo pattern of greys. The traditional warrior would be just that does anybody have any feelings abd advice about this?
Automatically Appended Next Post: Incidentally another question I've got is this any advice on making them look like science fiction warriors rather than historical figures I've slapped a Lasgun on?
Very interesting idea for an imperial guard regiment, the first things I thought of would be a regiment off of the planet of Davin from the Horus Heresy.
Wow! I was just completely absorbed in thinking about this exact project for several days. I was almost to the point of ordering despite a half completed more ordinary imperial guard army. I really like the idea of imperial guard as a sort of homage to great warriors of history, and of more than 40,000 years of war and white guys. I have to say though ,seeing one, the lasgun is just too big - at least how it looks on the first figure. They don't look so bad on the squad from a greater distance. I will be watching your project with interest to see how they wind up looking. Will determine if I every do my own. Some of my ideas:
- the line troops would carry lasguns, ammo pouches, lots of grenades, knives etc - as you say, to look more futuristic. The sarge in each squad would be armed traditionally with shield. The different styles of heads on the sprues would be a great way to create your different platoons (the zulus were grouped by age and identified by hairstyle (among other things) I beleive. I was going to invest in commissars (a primative regiment would need alot, and they are a key to the infantry horde) to great a good counterpoint. I was also thinking 3 psycher battle squads using varioius african shaman figures (perry brothers have some nice ones).
Zulus are in many ways classic imperial guard infantry horde - disciplined, with small vulnerable command groups, regimented, motivated.
I don't think the cammo warpaint would work personally. Traditional warriors would probably look best but as Kestral says, go crazy with grenades and ammo pouches to emphasise the 40K nature of your guys.
Foundry do some nice packs of Zulus which would be pretty cool to add some flavour. In particular I'm thinking of the Command pack guys in Ceremonial dress and the fellows in captured jackets.
These will be making their way into my own plans at some point for unit champions and standard bearers. But I can pay for them in GBP and don't get gouged on both the postage and the exchange rate
Empress miniatures also do some Zulus, but I haven't had a chance to look at their sculpts in the flesh so have no idea of quality or relative size.
Granesh- thats a cool idea. Is Davin the one I think of where Horus is inducted into a warrior lodge and falls to Chaos the short story of that in Space Marine was great!
Kestral-I've got to agree with you about the Caucasian dominance of 40K thats one of the reasons for the project. The problem with sorting the squads by head type is that their just won't be enough variety for my tastes in a squad that way although the feathered headdresses have been earmarked for Sergeants and Officers. At the moment I want to give quite a few of the figures shields as their great for covering up awkward joints and with all the slight limb twists in the squads thats useful. Also I reckon they make the squad look more like it has a 5+ save! The gear idea is well worth bearing in mind. I'm planning to add a few Commissars myself although Psyker Battle Squads are currently unpopular in my gaming group it's certainly worth bearing in mind although I personally like the idea of using them as priests. (we have a gentleman's agreement not to use them). Games Workshops huge weapons aren't Wargames Factories fault although I quite like the large guns on them as it makes the weapons look like poorly thought out standard issue! Do you know of any better smaller plastic science fiction weapons? Also go on join the Zulu horde at Wargames Factories prices it won't exactly break the bank.....
Xhequimunqui- I'm leaning towards the traditional look myself now . I'm actually UK based myself although it doesn't show on my location I just haven't bothered to change it! The Foundry models are nice although currently the plastics will just be much easier on the wallet and for the modelling! Thanks a lot for the links through the Masai in masks could be good for something in the army. I'm more than willing to mix and match what I like regardless of where its from!
The good news is that I've found some more Lasguns enough for another squad the bad news is RL will be getting in the way of actually continuing this project. This might be a good thing as I need to stop and consider it a bit before I carry on brashly ahead!
Well I've spent awhile considering it and I'm definitely going with the traditional look on the urban bases. I'm probably going to move back from the Hive World and return to a more traditional setting for them. Probably a verdant plain world with nomadic herders, although I've got much more research for this yet. This projects inspiration is probably going to owe a lot to the Empre of Man series by David Weber the adaptable intelligent Mardukans are definitely close to what I want the Zulus to be! Great read as well. Another source of inspration may well be the Kingdom of Manticore and the Winton dynasty from David Webers Honor Harrington series as well as Mdebele and Nfecane.
My cornerstone theme however is WRENCHING DISTORTION the idea of recruiting brave tribesmen from a world and throwing then in a nightmare meat grinder of urban warfare is part of this (A historical example of this would be elements of the Soviet army in Stalingrad). Also the combination of tribesmen and rayguns is another element. These are however never going to be mindless fodder I want them to be intelligent resourceful, skilled, warriors who have adapted well to this environment. I therefore don't plan to use more technically sophisticated support troops I want Zulu Tanks!
Still at the planning stage with these guys although I've just acquired bases for all 60 of them and a gubbins raid at the local DIY store has produced all matter of interesting bits and bobs for the bases. Its also much cheaper using sprue and ducting than plasticard and official modelling parts. I've also acquired a selection of pastels with which I am going to attempt a weathering powder technique ala Gundam Mecha on these. This is as my own experience of working on demolition and building sites is that dust is a defining characteristic!
Well I've got the powders prepared anyway its a simple satisfying technique.
1) Get pastels of the colour you want.
2) Place into a reasonable quality sealable plastic bag.
3) Seal it
4) Take Hammer.
5) Crush the pastels with the hammer!
The first squads undercoated as well but finding Lasguns is going to be more difficult than I hoped. I've put some bids on bitz on E Bay and I have a trading post up on Dakka. Eh well.
Automatically Appended Next Post: Good news is the bits are due in next week so the project should be back on line with painting beginning tomorrow.
Automatically Appended Next Post: I've also looked at the article on Zulus on Wargames Factories website I'll probably go with black shields with a stylised Aquila in White along with brown loinclothes. The bases will be heavily weathered urban wastes bases. The Lasguns hmm I'm not sure I'm inclined to go with Black again. The bayonets will be pure silver.
Changed my mind on the Aquila its simply too complicated instead I'm going to use the Ultramarines chapter symbol. I'll also use the standard symbols for squads and the like a HS symbol for the Heavy Weapons Squads, Tactical Symbols for Regular Squads and so on and so forth. This is to provide an element of totemism as well as to tie the regiment into the part of the galaxy I've decided their from. I've decided their from the fringes of the Octarian Empire and currently stationed on the forge world of Ladysmith which is being constantly raided by splinter forces of both factions.
Automatically Appended Next Post: Sorry about the lack of substance to these updates I'm currently mainly using this blog as a record of my ideas and concepts as well as for a reference for later on.
Automatically Appended Next Post: Feel free to comment of course!!!
This will be the last update before the first painted models arrive. I should also have "First Contact" a piece of fluff explaining how the relationship between Islandlwanda and the Ultramarines came about.
I've decided to go far more into the totemism and mimicry of the Ultramarines down to making the regiment almost a codex chapter. This means I will have the following Regimental Structure
1st Veteran Company
2nd Battle Company
3rd Battle Company
4th Battle Company
5th Battle Company
6th Reserve Company (Tactical)
7th Reserve Company (Tactical)
8th Reserve Company (Assault)
9th Reserve Company (Devestator)
10th Scout Company.
The first problem is I'm not sure whether to break these companies down into 10 platoons or 10 squads?
The second problem is that while Tactical Squads=Regular Squads and Devastator Squads= 2 Heavy Weapon Squads I'm not sure how to represent Assault Squads. Currently I'm leaning to Commissar led squads but Penal Legionnaires and Rough Riders are possible. If I want to represent speedy assault units the most obvious answer is to mount them up in Chimeras. Another possibility is that if I want units optimised for Close Assault I should use Special Weapon Squads for them instead. Any ideas advice?
Thirdly there is a problem with the Scout Platoon. This could be two things either Veteran Scouts or Conscripts representing young initiates. The conscripts possibly fit the Zulu scheme quite well actually although currently I'm leaning towards veteran hunters? Any opinions.
I'm now wondering about going for blue shields. This would make the Ultramarine link much more apparent. However currently I want to leave the shields black as it seems slightly more camouflaged. The Ultramarine Blue shields however would remind me of the wonderful Polynesian shields in the British Museum. My favourite was the one remembering the cause of the conflict the shield was used in. That was the killing of a drunk so the shield bore a beer brand logo. Fosters if I remember correctly!
I'd have thought if you're going with a Zulu theme, the scouts would be the veteran hunters as they would be the most skilled trackers. Ratlings would fit in here too.
I've got more done than I expected to this weekend.
Firstly using some old broken bases I discovered using trial and error that Hairspray does not seal pastels while PVA glue watered down and applied with a syringe not a brush works perfectly well. Its just mildly messy and needs time to dry! Any advice on other methods to do this would still be greatly appreciated.
Secondly a large job lot of Cadian spares arrived from E Bay this means I have more than enough Lasguns and plenty of Heavy Weapons for the project. I may need to order some special weapons still but apart from that I would be set. Except I'm having problems sourcing 60mm bases anybody know where I can buy them?
Thirdly this meant I got to do more modelling than I had planned heres the products.
These include a Flamer Conversion I'm verry happy with the hose between the tank and flamer which simply involved pinning the florists wire into holes drilled into plasticard tub and glued to the appropriate places on the model! I also cut down the tank to a single canister to make it look less bulky. Also because I've got far less canisters than flamers!
These two Zulus were an experiment in posing to see whether I could pull off crouching and kneeling Zulus with some limb twists. Interestingly enough the more delicate Wargames Factory limbs are probably best bent into shape using a pair of pliers something I haven't tried with GWs bulkier more expensive offerings.
Also with all my new Cadian spares at hand I decided to turn my hand to a Master of Ordnance using the obvious Cadian components.
As several people have already asked me for scaling shots I took a couple. This one is a direct scaling shot.
The Zulu looks far too small with the Cadian this surprised me as it looked fine among the Empire Militia. I then took another comparison shot against the Militia with the Cadian and realised that the Cadian was still out of scale with the Militia! As you can see it looks fare bulkier than the Milita.
As far as these questions of scale go however I've decided that instead of the current true scale Marines fad I'll do true scale guardsmen instead. As you can see the Marine looks far closer to 8ft tall when compared to one of the Zulus instead. Whereas the Cadian is the same height and slightly less bulky!
Finally something else has happened. I've got the first fire team painted and while I haven't finished the bases I thought you'd like to see them!
This is the first guy I assembled and amonng the first batch painted.
The shield shows the Ultramarine imagery i've mentioned.
Theres this bloke blazing away from the top of a pipe.
There are also two other regulars one jumping a broken pipe.
While this guy runs forward
and to show you his shield
Finally we have a Grenade Launcher trooper.
I'm happy with how these look with a nice simple basic paint job yes I know its not the best but their painted as a horde to a basic standard and their not meant to be looked at this closely. I'm a 3ft (OK 10ft) painter if it looks good at that distance its fine!
Any comments and advice?
Yes I know I need to improve my eyes!
The trick to eyes is to use as little paint as possible. You really don't need much, and what'll often appear as not enough will be more than plenty. Don't forget, if just putting the eyes on clean is too difficult, you can always just clean -around- the eye instead, then apply the pupil.
When doing them though, just avoid 'blobs' on the brush. If you get blobs on your brushtip, you're going to end up with messy eyes all the time. just dip the yip of the brush, and then give it a little wipe to get rid of blobs and excess paint. I paint my eyes by doing a horizontal line across the eye, then clean up any excess white on the skin. Then I'll use either a vertical line or a dab for the pupil. Eyes are very easy, you just have to keep trying and use minimal paint on the brush as you can when panting them.
Your paints are also looking very thick, and you should try painting them in thinner coats. It looks lik you're just slapping one quick, thick coat on them. Always take it slow and apply multiple thin coats so thta you don't end up losing detail. Try nabbing some Simple Green Cleaner or some dot4 Brake Fluid and test it on a piece of sprue. If the plastic keeps it's shape (Because this company may use a different recipe than that of GW) then just drop these guys in a jar of some and let them sit for about a day or two. Then, hit them with a toothbrush and brush off the old paint and try again. I really suggest redoing the painting on these guys because it's a really cool army idea, and they'd look great with a good careful paintjob on them
Thanks a lot you two I'll bear your advice in mind. I'll certainly take your advice on the thinner coats and the eyes Metallifan although I don't think I'll strip them myself. Thanks for the advice on how to paint them Arbitor Ian I'll bear it in mind.
I've managed to paint up a couple of mine recently but unfortunately I don't have any pictures available yet. I went with a really simple option of Calthan brown basecoat, a bit of vallejo Buff for loincloths, black hair and a liberal dipping in Army Painter Strong Tone. I was really pleasantly surprised by the outcome. There's actually no need to paint in the eyes if your going for a 3-foot look and dipping. I'll try and get a few pictures together tomorrow.
Looking forward to them Xhequimunqui! I no technically theres no need but feel that the eyes provide a focal point to the face. I also had a "Don't shoot till you see the whites of their eyes" moment!
Automatically Appended Next Post: I've ordered some bits and bobs from the Assault group for Special Weapon conversions and Power Weapons. They should get here soon enough and I'm currently attempting to create the first battle platoon. This will consist of;
Platoon Command Squad
Tactical Squad 1 (Regular Guard Squad)
Tactical Squad 2 (Regular Guard Squad)
Tactical Squad 3 (Regular Guard Squad)
Assault Squad 1 (Regular Guard Squad with Commissar or Imperial Shaman)
Devastator Fire Team 1 (Lascannon Heavy Weapon Squad)
Devastator Fire Team 2 (Meltagun Squad)
Fair enough I'm considering them but thinking about it probably wont if I need to consider whether I like something I usually just won't pay for it and instead buy the next must have something for another project!
I realised with the painting I made an elementary simple area rather than shading with a darker wash I used a lighter wash by switching to a darker wash I should be able to massively improve these easily!
Cheers Get to the Chopper! Currently I'm moving away from it as it was a spur of the moment idea. While I agree that normal Commissars will work fine and I'll be using them in Platoon Command Sections, I have a problem with the Assault Squads. This is as each Battle company has 2 Assault Squads and 2 Platoons for 4 Commissars, thats fine 4 in the regiment thats 16. 2 Each for the 1st Veteran Company, the Tactical (6th & 7th) and Devestator (9th) Reserve Companies as well as the 10th Scout Company giving another 10. Then we come to the Assault Company with 2 Command Sections and 10 Assault Squads giving 12 Commissars. I can't quite justify a highly loyal well trusted standard line regiment having a total of 38 Commissars. But more to the point I can't imagine the Schola Progenium providing or the Departmento Munitorium allowing a Commissar for each squad in the Assault Company. I therefore need an alternative and Burbledwar's suggested Shamans work well!
Automatically Appended Next Post: Sorry for the lack of a true update this weekend. Next weekend should be a good one however. I can promise Heavy Weapons Teams at the very least!
OK this is last weeks progress update! Thats as I have to head off to where I'm staying for my current job early on sunday evening......For general stuff I've worked out precisely what I need for the Tactical Platoon. I've also decided that for the next batch I'll use an experimental black wash and maybe consider the Army painter strong tone.
For the far more exciting update I've got my first two heavy weapons.
A Missile Launcher team who's pose I'm really happy with. The two Guardsmen cautiously advancing among the rubble. The Wrenching Distortion between the traditional tribesmen, their high technology weapons and the futuristic derelict cityscape really appeals. I'm happy with the basing as it adds the Sci-Fi element these models require!
The next model is a Lascannon. The base on this one was a pain as originally I figured the Gunner could stand unfortunately after assembling I realised that the gunner must kneel. This naturally lengthened the model and mean't I had to remove the pipe and place it beside the gun. Which is a shame as I was really happy with the original gun nest! I'm really happy with the clambering spotter which was one of those surrendipitous coincidences which happened after assembly I realised he looked as if he was clambering about. One of the bizarre factors of combining the Wargames Factory and GW bits meant there is no way the binoculars will look right if their actually held to his eyes the spacing between the lens and his eyes are far too wide! This is one of the odd things which happens when your combining heroic and true scale!
Cheers Kung Fu Jim as a mate of mine plays Praetorians this will probably happen sooner rather than later!
Automatically Appended Next Post: Just been on Wargames Factories website and they've mentioned my Laser Cannon team in some of their blurb for a new product! That is if you know of any other Far Future Laser Cannon Wielding Zulus! Heres a link http://wargamesfactory.com/AnnouncementRetrieve.aspx?ID=27065. Yes I know a company encouraging you to combine components from several firms!
Thanks a lot for peoples advice on painting. I've stopped painting the eyes and changed to a darker brown wash using Privateer Presses Brown Ink I've finished painting the next 3 who along with the ML team will make up a squad with those already done.
I've also got the 2nd squad assembled except for the heavy weapons. This is as I need my FLGS to get in the 60mm bases I've ordered through them from Gale Force 9. I've also actually successfully completed the order form on the The Assault Group website originally I'd missed the second confirmation button like the idiot I am. Tomorrow will have images of the painted models as I want them to dry fully and get based tonight!
To be honest Owain that ideas been around for years I took it from a White Dwarf about 10 years ago so feel free . I wouldn't say my styles improving significantly what however has improved is my choice of shade and the decision to take the advice of others in particular Xhemunqui and abandon the eyes . Rather than use a Vallejo Flat Earth wash instead I used diluted Privateer Press Brown Ink. This is as my orginal models show a stupid error I attempted to shade and wash a model with a LIGHTER colour . I stupidly forgot that you highlight LIGHTER and shade DARKER therefore when I applied my wash all the parts which should be darker became lighter making them look much worse !
Heres the pictures any advice and comments much appreciated......This time I only painted 3 as I wanted to combine them with a heavy weapon team which I'm considering as a batch and the 5 I've already done to make a squad. Although I have to admit it looks like I'll be taking Metallifan's advice about stripping the originals
Yes the idea is that their mimicing a Space Marine Chapter in composition and organisation. They venerate the Ultramarine chapter who rediscovered them and who have a huge importance for their cultural and religious life. Its based on the Pacific Cargo Cults and is carried on into the markings this allows me to tie them into the 41st millenium obviously and blatantly. Its also partly inspired by Polynesian Shield designs. I'm working on and off on a short story that describes this meeting although its nowhere near release worthy yet!
Automatically Appended Next Post: Is the paint scheme any better by the way?
Which bits did you order? Were you as impressed with their service as I have been, btw? Usually its about a two day turnaround when I've ordered from them, and they even threw in some free stuff last time.
Yes they are good they were far faster than I expected once I remembered to submit the order again after doing the paypal bit. I ordered several odd bits. Officer Laspistols (SOCOM Pistols), Durgenov Sniper Rifles, Maquahuitl (Aztex CCW the Obsidian Blade thingies), Mines, M60E1 Machine Guns (Plasma Guns) and PTRD Anti-Tank Rifles for Melta Guns.Originally I was planning to bits order the special weapons from a spares site but I refuse to pay a tenner for 10 tiny bits of plastic! With a bit of bodging together I'm quite happy with my first pair of models.
Heres the Melta Gunner using a PTRD and some styrene pieces;
Heres Lieutenant Ezana getting his men into position to face the enemy;
If anybodies interested I'm more than willing to describe the process of the PTRD conversion in greater detail.
Huh. Looks like a cool army so far. Kudos for trying something new and making it look good.
The heavy weapons teams are my favorite especially the missle. Well done.
Automatically Appended Next Post: Oh Brilliant -sorry hadn't realised I'd got to 3 pages
Thanks Nate TG2 The Heavy Weapons were great fun especially adding the cityfighting scenery to them. I'm glad you think I'm pulling this of!
Cheers Scrazza
and your very welcome Hans_posthumus
This weeks new model needs some explaining. He's a Shaman of the New Faith called Kanye. The model is a Copplestone Castings Ngoni Witchdoctor with a Bolt Pistol and a The Assault Group Maquahitl for his power weapon. He'll count as a Commissar for my Assault Squad. The New Faith is the Orthodox Imperial Cult with a particular reverence for Roboute Gulliman that the Ulttramarines introduced upon the rediscovery of Islandlwanda. The Old Faith still venerates the Emperor but is a far darker faith involving sacrifices and psykers..........The Maquahitl is not a Power Weapon per-se its actually a club made with the teeth of a Sail-Croc one of the largest, most dangerous and highly poisonous creatures of Islandlwanda. It kills using its venom and to those who haven't built up their immunity by taking the antidote a merest scratch is swiftly fatal. Hopefully he'll be nice and easy to pick out from the rest of the platoon. How'd he look?
I like this, it is an excellent idea. Always good to see a new take on the guard instead of the usual. I am actually trying to convert some of the Wargames Factory Brits myself.
I also going to be trying to convert some of the plastic Ancient Celts or Germans as Kaledon Hunters for my Guard army.
Good luck mate and I look forward to seeing them up on Dakka-Dakka. The most problems I've had doing this have been sourcing Lasguns and 60mm bases! Its really been utterly straight forward.......
Unfortunately I'm still waiting for the 60mm bases to turn up at my FLGS other than that things are going relatively well with Lt Ezana's Command Section finished. Except for the Commissar which I haven't yet sourced. I'll probably look for several on E Bay. The Squad includes a Lt with a Power Fist, a Meltagun and 3 LP & CCW guys this is to provide a break during painting the Lasgun models and also to provide a reasonable assault unit for my army. I figured combatant leaders made far more sense for the theme. I apologise for the poor quality of the picture and will try and take some better ones eventually!
I've got a fairly beefy update for you this week. While unfortunately my FLGS is still having problems with the distributor getting them the 60mm bases I need I have finished the Missile Launcher team which means the first Tactical Squad is finished!
Heres the first completed squad
Automatically Appended Next Post: Oh and of course the Sci-Fi Greatcoats are coming along nicely!
I'd really recommend following the link the GS work on his Space Marine commander is utterly awesome. Thanks a lot for the offer of allegiance- When your facing the enemies of Mankind wearing only a loincloth you need all the help you can get!
Ok apologies for the lack of photographs this week I've finished the Assault Squad this week but I've decided to crack on and get them undercoated rather than photograph them (taking advantage of the weather today and the fact I've got a day off!). Currently I'm considering whether to go ahead and buy the tanks for this army or to wait and strip my old ones.... I'm also still waiting for Gale Force 9 to ship my bases to my FLGS........
Yet again no update paintings going slowly and I've got no more finished squads for you to look at. Currently I'm working on a Special Weapons Squad with Ladysmith pattern Meltaguns and I've decided to order the bases directly from GF9 apparently they should be there by Friday when I get to find out if I still have work or not. If I do the armies getting vehicles if I don't I finish acquiring the Infantry and I start making a lot more progress!
Well I still have work so I may as well think about the vehicles (Incidentally work was utterly awesome this week, I'm an Archaeologist and in one of the other areas an Iron Age square barrow turned up, containing a central burial with a spear and sword. Amazingly enough the sword is a type I have a model of from the Wargames Factory chariots I got for my Beastmen. Personally I'm working on what was probably a spring and a loci for Late Neolithic Early Bronze Age activity). Unfortunately I seem to have some sort of block about ordering online and managed to screw up the payment so the bases will probably arrive next week at the earliest. C'est La Vie. At the moment the Lascannons getting painted and the Special Weapons team is being assembled, but not much else is happening.
I'm actually English (Yeah been regularly posting for over a year but still haven't got round to changing the flag, ah well) Your right it is a Power Fist just a Space Marine hand but the proportions look right! The theme itself was mainly based around the availability of historical multi-part plastics they've been coming out in spades and I decided to make use of it. It's the only way to make an army of this size look this effective. I also decided the theme to look totally different and having something other than white anglo-europeans in the future. I'm guessing as Wargames Factory, Perry Twins and Warlord Games plastics become more widely available we'll see far more of this type of stuff. An American Civil War or English Civil War Guard army would also be cool!
OK this'll be something more in depth than usual from me. Today i'll give you a basic tutorial on how to convert a Ladysmith Pattern Meltagun. ThisTutorial produces a good looking Meltagun for about 50p.
To start with you have a basic PTRD. I selected it because of its bizarre shape and feel. Heres what the original gun looks like;
To make it look like a Meltagun I thought about what I felt were the key components of a normal Meltagun these were a Fuel Tank and the elongated round muzzle.
However to start with I shortened the muzzle and removed a weird sticky out bit at the back which I believe is a mould line.
I began with the fuel tank. I cut a short section of the Hexagonal tube and measured the length by eye, cut a length to fit. It go's between the weird bit between the trigger and the thing dangling from the barrel. (As you may have guessed I'm not an expert on technical terms for Soviet Anti-Tank Rifles!) I made sure I overcut slightly becuse its easier to file it down than to try and get it precisely right first time. I then glued it in with Super Glue.
To create the muzzle I first of all took the Round Rod and drilled two small holes into one end within a 5mm length. I then cut off the 5mm length. Doing it this way round makes it fire easier to hold and drill the holes.
I then glued it to the end of the barrel.
This is the finished gun.
After a bit of modelling this was the current final result
If your interested in more about the PTRD click here. Looking at some pictures of people actually using the gun made it far easier to grasp what went were and how they were carried.
OK good news the bases are here so I can finally go ahead with the heavy weapons. Gale Force 9's service was great and their shipping was swift. The problems I had was with the distributor not them.
I've had an idea that I can use some of my large store of Confrontation miniatures for an Inquisitorial warband for the army as well. I'll do more on that later on.
Unfortunately however I've decided to enter for Warhammer at the Nationals with the new Beastmen so they'll be getting far more of my hobby time for the foreseeable future however i'll continue adding bits and bobs to this project as well. I find having several projects on the go at once might delay completion on them all but means I enjoy it more!
After finally getting the bases my work asks me to work weekends and being a 100 miles away from my models means that any modelling will take a while! So don't expect any real updates till the New Year!
Heres the meat of the update my newly finished Lascannon Team. I should be adding a lot more Heavy weapons fairly soon however unfortunately most of my painting time must go on the Beastmen for the Nationals in April.
One bright side is with all the overtime at work I've been able to add 90 more Zulus to the force! Equally that only cost £45 compared to £108 for Cadians or Catachans.......
Another advantage has been I've able to spend a lot of time thinking on and planning this project. Eventually this will lead to an Imperial Battle Group the Liberators of Ladysmith Sector 7G who will almost certainly eventually consist of several regiments as well as the Zulus I'm planning a British Napoleonic Force with a Scots Guard Air Cavalry force. I will also probably add some Skitarii and local PDF levy. Some stripped down Earthshakers suitable for manhandling over mountains will also have to be considered.....One element I have decided on however is to convert a Knight Commander Oddball based on Kelly's Heroes from an old tank commander model I have at my parents. I'll also be hunting up a lot of my old guard models for this army.......
OK this is a quick question. I've been seriously considering getting some of the Old Crow vehicles to count as IG vehicles being able to get 2 or 3 times the number of tanks for my money appeals. Do you reckon they'd fit with the Infantry? They're more Sci-Fi than the GW vehicles byt they scale well and I like how they look I'm just not absolutely convinced of them for this project......Any Opinions?
I've noticed that your painting's improved HUGELY since you started. Well done. As for vehicles, I think Old Crow is WAY too clean-looking for this army. I'd give Ramshackle Games a try.
Thanks a lot Owain. Ramshackle Games aren't militarised enough. I've always seen the Islandlwanda as a disciplined competent military force with a skilled grasp of tactics. The Old Crow models mainly seem to be far superior to GW in terms of value and I actually like them more. Although I can understand your point. To be honest I see these as less of an African 20th century militia as more of the 19th century organised feudal army. This means that vehicles and equipment should look less ragtag than the current stuff.
Whats improved not my paintings so much as my colour choice and my knowledge of how I should go about it. As you go through a project and practice a technique you get better. The first few practice models for a colour scheme are always the worst! I also made a rooky error and tried to shade with a lighter colour.....All of the difference has been made by gnoring the eyes and getting theshading right!
OK this'll be a far better update than most. I was at my parents for Christmas and picked up a few old models to reuse in this army. This Commissar is my favourite paint job and model from when I painted it 7 years ago.......It still holds up and the conversion with a Attilan Rough Riders Arm and a SM Plasma Pistol looks good. The pinky reddish burn on his face is from his Plasma Pistol overheating. I'm planning to just rebase and add him to the force. If you think my paintings improved since I started this force you should see the rest of what I've picked up!
Their will also be Stormtroopers, Ogryns and Ratlings as well as another 2 Commissars
As well as this I've got images of my assembled Special Weapons Squad with their Ladysmith Pattern Meltaguns.
I've also finally got to make some use of my Gale Force 9 60mm bases! The 2 missile launchers for the tactical squad are completed as well as the 2nd Lascannon for the Heavy Weapons Squad. In fact I'm only 5 models from finishing assembling the first 58 man platoon.
Here are the Missile Launchers
This Lascannon Team is mean't to be in the act of reattaching the main power coupling to the Cannon.
While I was at home I picked up this guy. He's the Cadian Griffon Mortar Spotter and based up he'll make a great Master of Ordnance unfortunately I've already got one. I'm considering painting 1 of these 2 up as a Master of the Fleet although I was planning to use a Early 20th century airman model for this instead.
I just keep picturing a bunch of them wandering to an abandoned armory and pressing buttons, turning handles, just blowing stuff up, then raiding the village next to theirs.
This isn't really an Islandlwandan update this is more about the associated scenery of Ladysmith Forge World and Sector 7G. The plan is to build models for several locations including Rourkes Drip Water Extraction Facility, a Mine, a Manufactoria, a Container Yard and a Hab Zone. I'm currently off work at the moment so I've spent a lot of time mooching around the internet looking for cardstock templates to make terrain from. Heres the first example.
This is the Free Watchtower Sample from Finger and Toe models http://www.rpgnow.com/product_info.php?products_id=28531&it=1. I quite like the look of these sets and might eventually get some however I'll wait until I've exhausted the interesting free projects first! It's simple and easy and does make the follow on packs look tempting. Has anybody downloaded any of these or other similiar products if so I'd like to know?
I've also found this website. The Chickenhawk in particular looks tempting!
http://www.toposolitario.es/workshop/index.html To be honest I'm thinking the Container Yard is a good place to start as I've got about 30 or so Container Designs downloaded already!
Before I go on to the Chickenhawk dropship I decided to start with this kit from the same guy it's a free kit for a Walrus Hovercraft. It's a nice kit and before I started creating it I thought these would make interesting Sentinel replacements however on finishing it I ended up with a fairly large substantial Hovercraft. It might do for a Chimera and would certainly be fine for a Stormtrooper Rhino. I made this in about 2 hours and it almost certainly cost less than 50p. These cardstock models are a new move for me but one I'm palnning to continue. If anybody knows of other good sources for these downloads please tell me (I've already checked RPG Now). The great advantage of this cardstock stuff is no Scenery painting. I'd also be interested if anybody has advice on finishing these models more neatly.....
I also know I need to finish of the base on the Commissar!
Automatically Appended Next Post: I forgot to mention. This is the APC version the kit also has a Truck and a Pick Up version.
I've just signed up to the Yahoo Groups BWC Archive and they have a lot of nice templates for cardstock 40K vehicles. I'm planning to eventually try a lot of these.
Out of interest does anybody have any suggestions for painting Zulu Armour? Currently I'm considering a cowhide Black and White pattern. Another option would be a cityfight scheme still mainly black but using grays......
Well fortunately the people on the Wargames Factory forums gave me some more ideas. Eilif's suggestion of Kente Cloth patterns was particularly good and I used the randome geometric patterns to give the Chimera some unique ID markings. The model itself is a cardstock shell using GW plastic weapons (the Heavy Flamers from a Sentinel while the Heavy Bolter's from the Heavy Weapon Sprue, I also decided to use a spare hatch rather than bash one. Overall I really enjoyed making it and I definitely want to do more (current vague plan is another 2 Chimera's at least and a couple of leman Russes.. Economic's wise its only worthwhile if you enjoy doing it as assembly was most of a day. The actually painting I'm undecided on the Kente patterning worked well and the Cowhide Pattern looks distinctive, The bronze lettering is more distinct in RL. However the brown ink may have been to strong so what do people think. Actually the photographs are far worse than the model as the cameras done odd stuff due to the white paint so I'm going to try again.
Still haven't got an image I like I'll try again another day however turning the flash off has improved the image by a fair margin as you can see.
Bad Shot
Better Shot
I'm still not really happy with any of these any ideas whats causing the graininess I'll try yet again without Macro and see if that helps. I think it's the Black & White with it's harsh contrast causing the Camera problems myself.
Automatically Appended Next Post: Meh this shot isn't great but it'll do any idea of whats causing the problem?
"That would be true if they were Orcs not a disciplined Regiment of his Imperial Majesties Servants......... " hmm ironicaly i see these shululu guys more barbaric than orcs and heretics to the imperium. Your name is in the book of grimores and i will not stop hunting your shululu guys until they burn heretic... (sry but the inquisitor in me is talking)
Rose_Mountainz wrote:"That would be true if they were Orcs not a disciplined Regiment of his Imperial Majesties Servants......... " hmm ironicaly i see these shululu guys more barbaric than orcs and heretics to the imperium. Your name is in the book of grimores and i will not stop hunting your shululu guys until they burn heretic... (sry but the inquisitor in me is talking)
Yes heretic maybe but if they're willing to die for the emperor they're an asset. Let chaos destroy itself, it's entropic.
Actually the Zulu army was historically well organised and led it was the British who were shambolic and chaotic during the war (Ignore the flag I'm English and I can be as insulting as I want about the aristocratic idiots who probably got several of my ancestors killed ). The whole idea is that while their barbaric in appearance they are actually professional soldiers modelled both on the traditional Zulu regiments and the Ultramarines. The only part of them that might get the Ecclesiarchy's backs up is that they follow the Ultramarine/Marine beliefs rather than the Orthodox religion. The fact is most Imperial regiments would be hugely varied and in the background it is common to hear about barbarian warriors, high-tech super troopers and Normal Joe Bloggs regiments serving together. It's a huge society with every size and type of human culture represented in it. I'm just trying to demonstrate that!
Well this project has recently got a bit of work as I've almost finished cranking out Centigor and Ungor. I've done some work on painting the 2nd squad and the full platoon has been assembled. I've also acquired an Astropath this model is the D&D Doomdreamer given a TAG Socom pistol and an Imperial staff. I got the model at random with the Beholder I brought for my Beastmen.
Thanks a lot for Eilif for telling me that Superglue did work on these for gluing. I'm planning to spray him up fairly soon as a test piece before I do the Beholder.
I've also began on the long promised Inquisimunda/Inquisitor Retinue I've been fiddling with in my head although in my case it's more of an excuse to paint up and use my lovely old Rackham models.........
This is the first a basic headswap and rebasing of Orhain the Erudite. I quite like the idea of a relatively young healthy archivist so I decided to use the bare sergeant head. I may setup a seperate blog for these although for now they can stay in here as operatives working in sector 7G. I also reckon theres something extraordinarily 40K about the commlink feather quill combination!
I've just completed the Penal Legionnaires I decided to make them as scouts and to make them stand out as a unit I've given them all a Machete style blade made from the Assegai spear head. I also decided they wouldn't have spears. Here they are.
The 2nd squad is currently getting painted up and may be done for Sunday although theres no guarantee. I've also got some bits and bobs to start scratchbuilding a few more tanks. What do people think of the Chimera's scheme be honest I won't get offended.....
Well here they are 2nd Squad of the 1st Platoon of 3rd Company 24th Islandlwanda. Fairly normal Tactical Squad with Missile Launcher and Grenade Launcher. It's nothing special but it's painted. I've began working on the Command Section which should give me a vaguely playable gaming force. Heres the picture.
I love the imagination you've thrown into this army. Great poses !
Please take the advice of everyone who has commented on how to improve the painting of this unique army.
These guys deserve your patience.
That aside, I would say this is one of the coolest ideas I've seen in a while.
Thanks a lot Worldwarme its the part of the hobby I enjoy most the modelling. I have actually taken the advice of people here, the most important step was changing the shading and getting it right. The first 5 models were basically test jobs and I definitely feel the later models look far better thanks to the advice. Its why I've taken to doing these blogs it helps me focus and think about what I'm doing and gives me feedback.
This is going to be a fairly pic heavy post. First of all Worldwarme's comments made me think that I should say thank you to everybody who's given me advice on this project in particular Metallifan, Arbitor Ian and especially Xhequimunqui. If your hesitating about posting a blog because of harsh criticism look at this picture-
As you can see I've improved the look exponentially without any increase in my skill level by listening......
Now for something much more exciting I've painted Lt Ezana's Command Section
Here's the Squad shot
This bloke's Lt Ezana. I've gone for a dyied decorated look on the Lioncloth to make him stand out, using the Ultramarine imagery to tie him with the regiment. The Power Fist (A Space Marine hand sometimes scale difference works in your favour!) is picked out in Bronze and Gold. This is designed to make it look like a honoured ancient relic.
This man's Kenobi. He's fairly regularly equipped with a Spear and Pistol (LP&CCW obviously) He doesn't have the headdress to clearly mark him as a regular soldier not a Sergeant
This chappy here is Mdala he's throwing a Grenade as the squad prepares to attack the enemy (in my army the officer's will lead from the front......who cares about tactics when it opposes narrative coolness anyway)
Next to come is Mpatshana the Meltagunner. As you can see he's got one of the TAG group PTRD Meltagun's I showed earlier. As you can see it's in gold and bronze this is as I see these and Plasma Guns as almost holy weapons to the Imperium rather than bog standard gear like Grenade Launchers or Flamers. Out of interest would you object to me using this as a Meltagun?
Last and probably least is Soloman Lt Ezana's Batman Aide and General Dog's Body as you can see he's carrying the rest of the squad's gear by himself the poor sod......If Commlinks are really necessary in game terms I might give him one but currently I hate the fact there limited to a 12" range still.....
Hope you like them and thanks a lot to everybody who's commented and contributed!
Automatically Appended Next Post: Heres my Master of the Fleet he's made from Sentinel Pilot and Cadian components the whole idea is he's a ground level air traffic controller like Wonkobaggins version. Mine however uses a searchlight rather than a carrot! He also holds a Mic. These were made from Sentinel Control Levers and were fiddly to wire into the commlink power pack thing on his back. The whole idea is to have somebody who's vaguely reminiscent of an early 20th century pilot. What do people think?
Signalling Light side
Mic Side
Been working on a Leman Russ Exterminator Scratch Build. These are fun but I'm still along way from being good at them. It's the main reason I chose the Exterminator I have lots of spare Autocannons and Heavy Bolters from E-Bay and this gave me more practise. Currently I'm looking at a Demolisher, Executioner and 2 more Chimeras as well I'd like some Hellhounds but don't currently own the weapons! Any Advice and tips would be helpful.
Problem is I'm currently utterly skint so it's impractical I actually quite enjoy making them, its a skill set I need more practise with. The tanks for this army would also end up at roughly £100-£150, the parts,glue and paper for these two vehicles came to roughly £2 for the pair. I won't be able to afford this for a while. I probably need to be far more precise and less wibbly with cutting taking more time over placing them. Reference photos would have helped a lot for the Russ so I'd know where the Engine block went and the angles. I also really find the challenge of making them satisfying. To be honest I may well use these for a while to practice painting and get the colour scheme right and then buy a load of Old Crow models as I reckon they look better and are cheaper.
Well I've finished of painting the Assault Squad this consists of a regular Guard Squad with a Power Weapon equipped leader represented with a Maguahuitl with poisonous tooth blades, a Flamer and a Commissar with Power Weapon. At times these can act as a lone Assault Squad and in other games they can act as the leading element for a platoon blob. I now need to paint a Lascannon team, a regular Commissar and a regular squad to have completed my first platoon. I've also looked at the Kill Team scenario in the 40k Battle Missions and I reckon I've got to give that a go soon!
Looking good; I especially like the power fist from a regular marine hand. As long as all your meltaguns look the same, I doubt most people would object toy uors; they're clearly a special weapon, so it's ok in my book.
if you want cabling like on the fleet offcier, consider cutting up broken headphones. the wires are flexible, easy to cut, and it would've been thrown away anyway!
As for the tanks: if you insist on using cardboard instead of plasticard (which is still cheap and can be combined with cardboard/paper), consider making a basic structure that's reinforced, and reinforce the track sections as well. It'll make them a lot less wonky. That and patience in getting things straight, obviously
This army is really growing on me; I wasn't 100% convinced at first, but I'm liking it more and more; guess you're doing a good job then!
I say if you're going to go to the trouble of making plasticard tanks, invest a little more, sculpt your own tank design and then cast it in resin. For about $50 you can get supplies to make 6 tanks. Its a lot of work, but you're already doing that with cardboard, and you can make your tanks really unique and very sturdy.
Thanks a lot Commissar Khaine. I'm delighted to hear the project is growing on you. The reinforcing's worth bearing in mind definitely shouldn't be to hard to make a stronger internal core. I guess something like Insulation foam would be ideal. Kestral I'm nowhere near that good although it would be worth bearing in mind. I'm actually using card templates previously made and they don't take that long maybe an afternoon's work.
Llamahead wrote:Problem is I'm currently utterly skint so it's impractical I actually quite enjoy making them, its a skill set I need more practise with. The tanks for this army would also end up at roughly £100-£150, the parts,glue and paper for these two vehicles came to roughly £2 for the pair. I won't be able to afford this for a while. I probably need to be far more precise and less wibbly with cutting taking more time over placing them. Reference photos would have helped a lot for the Russ so I'd know where the Engine block went and the angles. I also really find the challenge of making them satisfying. To be honest I may well use these for a while to practice painting and get the colour scheme right and then buy a load of Old Crow models as I reckon they look better and are cheaper.
Man if I still had my three Russ's I would have given you those two normal and one converted Vanquisher plus a tank destroyer I was working on.
Heres my second fireteam of 1st Platoon 3rd Companys Devestator Squad it's a Lascannon armed Heavy Weapons Squad
I featured the first team months ago but heres the other two.
This ones a fairly normal firing pose.
While this one is a bit more complex it's meant to show a team reloading the Lascannon
Hope you like them!
Looking good, the reloading guy looks very life-like - though he's bound to get shot in the rear like this . The chemical waste effect is looking great.
Some simple suggestions when using sprue: 1) remove the GW text, t really sticks out and 2) it's very easy to change the appearance of the sprue: if you whittle it down you make it look like a sharpened stake (fitting the theme), or, buy adding rivets, you make it look like construction material; you can even glue it togethet at 90° angles to reinforce that feel. If you want it to look like bricks, cut off small portions with a modelling knife.
You've got some kind of imagination there Llamahead, it would be amazing to see what you could do if you had some money behind you for parts. My only comment would be if you do head swaps try and find a head that is in the same scale as the body so it's not so jarring. Otherwise I love the ideas and theme to your army it's looking great!
Thanks a lot to the people who are watching
Commissar Khaine-. Yep I probably should have removed the text and adding rivets is worth bearing in mind. Sometimes I like the text mainly as if you look at structural iron bars and concrete in real life they often have text moulded in although I have to agree I should have removed the GW.
Blackhand-. Thanks a lot fortunately I have a large collection of parts having kept most of my spares in a bitz box for several years and Ebay can have some very good deals if your willing to buy large lots of random stuff and check carefully that it's a good deal. Theirs also a huge difference in having money to buy parts and having the money to buy the 6 or 7 tanks I want for the project. I was also spoiled with scale having recently done Beastmen which is one when you want jarring differences. I'm going to have to bear it far more in mind with this project and the Conclave of Hrin.
Rose_Mountainz-. If people like you spent more time fighting the true threats to the Imperium rather than choosing to attack other factions who serve him as well the Imperium would be far more secure.
Cool in character though....
Actually in the Holy Imperators True Tome the Codecii Imperial Guard it states that nomenclature is different throughout the worlds of the Imperium and it's not worth arguing about. Too much or too often or when theirs actually enemies too kill or when they out number you ten to one with misnamed Lascannon Squads.......
The Leman Russ Exterminator is painted and I managed to get a far better shot than those of the Chimera I'll improve on these eventually but this scratch building is far too much fun to give up anytime soon. Another advantage is these have allowed me to look at and consider the painting far more. It also gives me a nifty avatar!
The camouflage is based on the idea of Dazzle Battleship Camo and I've kept with the irregular Kente patterns on the ID panels. The shields and stowage were added to cover the worst of the joins.
I've also painted an old Commissar model I've had for years from my Catatchans to tie him in with the current codex I gave him a Bolt Pistol and a Powr Fist. It's the standard one from the old Space Wolf Sprue.
Looking good, especially the tank commander, he has a real 'commander' look to him. As for the commissar, I'd consider a light drybrush on the purple, a bit of a highlight would really make thoose details pop!
Thanks a lot its worth considering but I always feel "pop" is another way to draw incoming fire. I also was trying for a fairly subdued menacing look. Worth considering for some other stuff though.
I like your tenacity in building an army on a minimal budget. The lascannon team looks really good and is my favorite of your work so far - I imagine valiant little guys working the gun in sweltering heat and incoming fire. The only thing I would do is "zuluize" the lasgun a bit - as though it was a sacred item or the like.
Lasguns are standard issue weapons and don't get much detailing in painting all the power weapons, melta guns and plasma guns however will be treated as sacred items the heavy weapons also don't get that treatment it's mainly based on basic background. The reloading Lascannon is one of my favourite pieces as well it was made to inject life and variety in the team and I feeel has succeeded it was heavily inspired by Trench_1's Urban Scout Army which features lots of none firing poses and is well worth a look.
Well I've finished the first platoon giving me roughly a 1000pts of painted Guardsmen and a 57 man platoon of Zulus.
Heres the Special Weapon Squad (the 2nd Devestator Fire Team)
These are all using the PTRD conversions I showcased earlier. It's a good thing I posted them up here as I can't quite remember how I did them.
I also finished a third tactical squad.
This is the fully complete platoon as Sternguard_Rocks asked for.
Currently I'm already painting a Penal Squad and I'm half way through assembling the 2nd Platoon with the Assault Squad and 2 Tactical Squads done. I'm also going to do 1 possibly 2 Veteran Squads and a Command HQ. I need to add another pair of Chimeras and would like a couple of Russes. Currently however I've got templates for Centaurs and might focus on them for a bit instead.
Thanks a lot you 2. Blackhand it hasn't been that much work actually just thinking when assembling a figure will always produce a better result. Cheers Commissar Khaine the praise from you means a lot as I admire your Rebel Grots. This update isn't going to be about the Islandlwanda it's going to look at something slightly different. I've been making terrain for the Club I game at it's mostly simple rubble patches and building corners But I've made a couple of more interesting structures. These are course simple gaming structures which will hopefully get a lot of use. Both of these use pizza base styrene which is a cheap source of foamboard and various pieces of sprue and tubing. It takes Acrylic paint reasonably well although you have to be careful with glue, I use Bostik which works ok although other forms of glue melt it rather badly. This can of course be used to represent hideous Tyranid bioplasma attacks.
The The first I'll show you is a fuel tank. It's simply a beer can with a ground structure made from the pizza base stuff and various sprue bases the hatches are the central circular bit in Wargames Factory sprues with a doohickey I got from a DIY shop in apack of 50 in the middle.
The 2nd is a distillation/furnace unit of somekind. The shell is made from pizza base stuff (I like pizza and have also been saving the stuff for a while......The tubing is straws and the hatch is another middle bit (their great for hatches and stuff. The command bit uses random spares and painted plastic rod. The big red button is actually the Emergency Stop and will be on all control panels......
At most these probably came into a £1 each and even better it gives us an excuse to buy beer from club funds! I'll admit their cheap and cheerful and would be far better if I'd measured them but meh......
Heres the Scout Squad. They'll use the Penal Legion Rules as they both Scout (funny that). I'm happy with them as the Assegai knifes combine with the Camo Warpaint to give a visually obvious unit without looking to different. Their not actually convicts so I avoided painting stuff like that on. The Camo War Paint works rather nicely on these guys I'm glad I went for the traditional scheme overall but on a unit like this it made a lot of sense.
Apart from the army being absolutely MEGA, the best thing I like is the way you have the skin tone spot on.
The tanks make me laugh. Pleae don't take that the wrong way. I think they show ingenuity on your part for finding a solution to a problem. If you need any Leman Russ parts (Hulls,tracks,turrets etc) drop me a PM and I'll send them your way. I don't want anything for them as they'll be sat there waiting to be turned into 'Munda terrain
Hats off to you sir, you've shown alot of heart in this army.
Throwing Knives I like a lot if I decide I want another squad that might happen.....Even if they didn't use them historically they could quite easily get them it'slike the Maquahitl their Aztec but sometimes Rule of Cool must prevail!
Llamahead wrote:Even if they didn't use them historically they could quite easily get them it'slike the Maquahitl their Aztec but sometimes Rule of Cool must prevail!
Because an army of Spayse Ethiopians fighting for the Spayse Emprah in Spayse with Laz0rgunz isn't cool enough?
Cheers Metallifan thanks a lot glad to see the project is growing on you! Thanks a lot for the help earlier on.
Notprop I'm glad I inspired you thanks a lot for the image!
Llamahead wrote:Cheers Metallifan thanks a lot glad to see the project is growing on you! Thanks a lot for the help earlier on. Notprop I'm glad I inspired you thanks a lot for the image!
Yea, the washes definately helped a bunch. I can still see areas where the paint is a bit thick (solved by simply slowing down a bit and taking your time - using less paint and giving it more time to dry so you get an even coat) but I'm willing to look by on account of how much you've put into this. And for your first scratchbuilt tanks, those aren't bad. Even from an edge-of-the-table distance they could definately fool someone into thinking they're GW.
Definitely theres something hugely satisfying about scratchbuilding the tanks. There not perfect but I expect to gradually improve as I get more and more practice with them.
What thickness of Plasticard are you using? I see some bending in areas of the hull. You can solve that by just using thicker card or reinforcing the inside of the tanks with either filler material or framework (for the truly ambitious )
Hmm I'm always inclined to keep armies relatively dull although I might apply a brighter Kente cloth pattern to the Veterans.....It is far more regular in tone than I thought (Black Brown Bronze dominating) so using more blue for contrast would probably help....
Ok this is a quick modelling post I've got the 2nd Command Section glued up (three of the basic squads have been assembled already) Here they are;
The Commander has been modelled in mid Power Fist punch.
I've also done a plastic kit Commissar made from a Plastic Tank Commander and a pair of Cadian Legs. I need to reattach the torso to get the folds aligned right.
I've also got these guys they are Hasslefree's Kindred models and as soon as I saw them at Triples I decided I had to have them (they even gave Convention customers sweets and a freebie model how cool is that!) The Officer and Sergeant have been earmarked for another use.....
The PF comment is well worth bearing in mind. I don't have the freehand skills for the writing and I'm inclined to see these Power Fists as holy relics so it's unlikely to get Graffitied. The Kindred will be used as Ratling Snipers it's thesimplest and most effective way to use them.
Go for a smaller fist on the commander. That one looks too bulky IMO. You could swap that arm out for a marine PF arm and paint it metallic as if it were an armoured augmetic limb. I did that on my Colonel and one of my Guard Sergeants. That or there's always the Cadian Command box, which I totally recommend
Problem is I'm skint so new models that I won't use the bodies off are a no-no (I'd have 5 or 6 tanks to buy first as well). I'll consider a smaller fist and take another look at the guy. The fist is a Terminator one and does look a bit oversized
If you have spare termintaors, consider their regular armoured fist instead of the powerfist; the size should be more appropriate. If they're relics, pimping them might not be a good idea, that's true
I was planning to go down that route for the commander. I may have a few spare hands my Terminators became Meganobz as I was doing a Dethskull army anyway I'll have to consider it.
Just a few quick shots of Team Wraith consisting of Commander Frank Bane and Operative Stan Wise. Heavily inspired by Migsula's twins these 2 Ratlings are going to be based like this to be used as Sly Marbo.....The models are the Hasslefree Kindred Lieutenant Freddy Bagshot and Sergeant Stan Gammage. Hope you enjoy the humour!
General Shot
Shot focused on Commander Frank Bane
Shot focused on Operative Stan Wise
The Base contains a sign made of all things of the brush from within a Glue Pot lid some plasticard and 2 Imperial Vehicle Decorations. I reckon its some kind of roadside shrine like those you get in the Med where theres been a road crash or something similiar.
Ok I'm currently based at my parents for a while as I'm working for Cambridge Archaeology Unit this means that I'll be painting less and focussing more on individual models than squads. This job should last a while and so updates will be far more sporadic. I've recently acquired some of the old IG commissars and am looking forward to getting them started. I'm currently beginning working on the Kindred going for a British Khaki look for them. I've also found a blog which may help those of you who like me have bills to pay and need to makje your hobby bucks work http://thegrimcheapness.blogspot.com/. Theres some good tips here for the gamer on a budget like myself.
While being apart from the army has made the project progress far slower than I'd like here is the first of my Hasslefree Kindred. I decided to stick with the "Tommy" theme in the painting colours going for a World War British army look. He was lovely to paint and I'm happy with the simplicity of the scheme. Hope you like him.
On more weighty matters I've been rereading the classic Index Astartes series of articles (back when the type was half the size and therefore there was twice the content and fluff articles with substance). One of the things which have caught my eye was the mentioning of the world of Masali (sounds African to me) with a arid climate (makes sense with the Zulus). This would make sense of the heraldry of the Ultramarines being a theme, as well as the attempts to follow codex doctrine and the realm of Ultramar produces hundreds of regiments for the Imperial army.....However I do feel they mgiht be too primitive for citizens of civilised Ultramar and this would also mean I'd have to totally rejig my thinking about the background. Does anybody have any opinions about this at all?
Just wanted to chime in that I absolutely love this idea, and I'm really impressed with how well you pulled off combining the Zulu kits with Imperial Guard components.
Thanks a lot Skaerkrow sorry to be so late replying.
This project has been on the backburner as I work away from home but should start again in the new year. Still with scratch built tanks as I recently lost my job and spent a lot of money acquiring a driving license. Unfortunately I still need a car to go with it........Fortunately I've got lots of stuff to be getting on with. I've still had time for a bit of painting however and heres the Ratling squad.
The scheme works well and I might eventually acquire some of Warlord Games WW2 British and do another Guard Army in this style. What do you think?
I've finished the 2nd Assault Squad this week. It's got another Copplestone Witch Doctor as a Commissar and both him and the Sergeant have TAG Maquahuitl as power weapons.
For this army I want to get it up to 1500 points to do that I have a Special Weapons Squad, Command HQ, 2 Veteran Squads and 2 Chimeras to build as well as 2 Lascannons 2 Regular Squads and a Command Section to paint. The Chimeras will both be scratch built using cardstock. I'd like to get this done by the Student Nationals in April. I'm also planning to get a lot of terrain made for that day. After that I'm unsure whether to continue adding more to these guys or pick another set of Historicals to convert to IG.....
Well the Special Weapons Squads assembled and I'm focusing on the Command HQ which is fun this means I should soon have the 3rd company fully assembled and I'll begin work on the veteran squads. The tanks are going on the back burner as I've found some nice Kan kits and a possible Battlewagon based on the Star Wars Sand Crawler which will give me some practice before going back to the Imperial Designs. I'm also plannign to redo them in a more formall dazzle camouflage scheme (see this article for what I mean the Edward Wardsworth painting in particular showcases the desired effect http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dazzle_camouflage http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/c/c9/Dazzle-ships_in_Drydock_at_Liverpool.jpg I've also finished Team Wraith my count as Sly Marbo currently I'm planning to use him, my 5 ratlings and the Scout Squad as a cheating kill, team because it seems right, what do people think about this?
Heres the model which I'm rather happy with. This shot gives an idea of the pose
While this shows Officer Frank Bane
and this Sergeant Stan Wise
The Hasslefree Kindred come highly recommended as they're lovely characterful sculpts and when I brought the model from them at Triples they gave me free sweets......
Thanks for the interest Commissar Khaine. Of the army not soon I've got to find another arm for the Commander I had a left Terminator arm when I needed a right one. School boy error and because of the models pose I can't just change the arms around to fit. I might get one done after the commanders done depends when I get the arm if it's before I do the next big batch of spray painting sure after I've sprayed them however it won't be worthwhile until I've painted them up, we'll see. Of the Kindred sure heres one;
After annoying myself with the Commanders arms I gave myself a treat and made one of the Rogue Trader Commissars up. What happened to his right arm I don't know but I gave him the SM hand Power Fist again only this one has knuckles they don't show well in the photograph which is a shame and neither does his stern expression which is great.
Thats good yeah it's going to be awhile as I couldn't find the right arm or a cheap enough doner figure at the FLGS today however I'll probably be able to scrounge one through the club soon enough. If worst comes to the worst I'll bitz site it although Ebaying a Terminator Squad works out about the same. This means however I'll be getting the rest of the 2nd platoon undercoated tomorrow. Bright side is only another 21 figures and their assembled......
You've got some great positions on here, and some neat ideas. Consider the space marine hand/power fist nabbed.
Great to see the scale of the Wargames stuff...as I ordered 3 packs of the British line...if they ever arrive. And I am highly jealous of your Hasslefree (right?) halflings/kindred! They are on my list as Commisars for my ratlings.
Anyway. Just out of interest how long do you spend painting each model?
I never actually however sit down to a long sustained painting session so its impossible to say.They sit on my desk till they get done I generally have 4 batches (each is a tank, 4/5 basic infantry, monstrous creature, scenery, cavalryman or character) on my desk and paint a colour on each batch, usually different colours when ever I feel like it. This makes it impossible to tell how long I spend painting a figure. I'd guess ignoring drying time 2 hours a batch or so at most. This system means I have stuff at different stages all the time so I have the motivation of finishing a model regularly! Of course this is only practical because I can leave my paints out.
Automatically Appended Next Post: Oh and feel free to nick the fist idea I probably nicked it of someone here earlier can't remember who though. Good luck with the Wargames Factory order I know there going through trouble at the minute. The Hasslefree/Kindred are lovely some of the niftiest models I've seen.
Sorted out my commanders Power Fist. A mate kindly provided me with the part just after I won a sprue with the bit on Ebay. Ah well c'est la vie more bits for later. So here's the Command HQ.
I've also painted another rank and file squad. This also shows of some of the cheap basic terrain I've been mass producing for the club. Guess theres less than a quids worth of terrain here! Cheap Pizzas are a wonderful source of foam board ideal for terrain you just have to undercoat it by hand.
I'm looking forward to getting these guys painted and working out lists with the codex once i've got these and the 2nd platoon done I've got more than enough for a 1500pt list. With the extra veteran squads, penal squads and auxilia the army should chime into about 2000pts. Once I've got this done I'm not going to add any more Zulus instead I'm going to go with one of several options. I'd appreciate peoples advice on which;
Empire from Warlord Games/Perry Twins Figures (Simple and an army I've been promising myself since they started doing historical plastics)
Adeptus Mechanicus Witch Hunters (Unfortunately these need the Guard Allies rules to work, planning to use Wargames Factory Great Coats as Skitarii tie in well with this lot.)
WW2 British guard (Warlord Games plastics IG weapons similiar to this actually)
Napoleonic British Guard (Perry Twins and Victrix models lots of Rough Riders and Highlander veteran squads)
Currently
I've finished the Special Weapon Squad armed with Meltaguns. The Lascannon squad is almost there as well. I've continued using the TAG Meltaguns as I like the look and I reckon their recognisable enough. The fact I brought these before I found out about the Meltagun part pack didn't help matters either!
I'm almost there which feels odd.
Ah it'll probably be more a case of which first my current vague plan is to work out a rgeiment structure for each like I did with the Islandlwanda and then do a regular line company with supporting elements.
Ok I'm going to bung these up here although I'm not sure where they should go. Possibly in their own blog we'll see.
Recently Dave Graffam who makes some nice simple cardstock scenery released his first game, Solid State Interception. I wasn't that interested at first but then he released a free pack which I downloaded. I had some vague idea of using them as Ork ships for BFG or maybe Ork Fighta Bommas for Aeronautica Imperialis. This morning I assembled my first and while the weapons aren't to my taste a bit of plasticard bodging soon made some agressive Kannons. I then had a look at the price for the rest and at £1.80 for a full game and another fighter design I decided to treat myself. This is brilliant as while I really enjoy Aeronautica Imperialis the fact its Forge World has always put me off. I don't want to invest that much into a game I'll only play a few times a year. Fortunately I have mates to borrow the bases from. So have a look at this http://www.rpgnow.com/product_info.php?products_id=87187&filters=0_0_0_0&manufacturers_id=2985 Heres the first attempt before painting.
Heres my monthly post I've got the Astropath painted up and he's been frustrating. The Wizards of the Coast prepaints face is a poor sculpt and my painting hasn't improved it after finishing the model I realised it would do better as a mask. The model got dropped several times leading to a lot of regluing causing havoc. Originally I was going to paint the clothes white but realised it would look far to much like a Klansman and went for Blue. This model has made me appreciate the harder material of GW plastics far more than I thought as it gives far crisper detail.
Automatically Appended Next Post: It however served its main purpose which was to give e more confidence when I tackle the Beholder for my Beastmen. So I guess its not bad for something I acquired free.
This is the last of my regular guard squards. I have the platoon command squad and commissar to do and thats it for the platoon.
For the army I have the platoon command squad, Command hq & 2 Veteran Squads to do as well as at least 2 scratch built chimeras. In the future, probably autumn time, as I've just finished a short term contract and moneys tight, I'll probably start another regiment on this type of base and use them together in apocalypse games. Looks wise I'm currently planning either to use Warlord Games WW2 British or Wargames Factorys Persians as Tallarns. However I'll put this off until I've played several games with the Zulus and maybe even until after I take them to the 2012 Student Nationals. This year I ran Uncharted Seas for the Geek of Steel which gave me far more respect for the simplicity of Spartan Games mechanic, within half an hour I could explain the rules and people could start gaming. OK, I wasn't utterly stringent with them getting the rules perfectly correct, just so long as both players played by the same rules and were having fun I wasn't going to change anything in the middle of a game. But everybody enjoyed it and that was the main thing. I'm fairly certain you couldn't do that with many games.
Now for something slightly unusual a piece of fluff the beginning of an overriding narrative which will hopefully dominate my 40k for a while. The planet is Ladysmith the place is the mountains above Rourke's Drip. Enjoy!
34th Tekla Well X Rourke’s Drip 25 Kilometres North of Alpha Complex
It was a dark smoggy day even within the mountains. These grey dead ashy wastes were utterly different to the green verdant plains of home. The gritty ashy gravels felt completely alien as well. Mondli shuddered as he lent within the trenches around the well house. The trenches made a 4 pointed star around the tall bronze machinery of the pumping house. Within it dwelt thirty of the strangest creatures Mondli had ever seen. For all his elders had tried to convince him otherwise at the core of his soul Mondli doubted their humanity. He frowned their regiment was stretched thin. There was no way his squad could hold if they were seriously attacked and they were isolated in this desolate mountain range. Nobody knew quite where the ‘Nids from the spore had ended up and he’d heard legends about the Hungry Ones and worse the veteran’s tales about their encounters on Cobris.
He’d never quite realise what happened. He’d been alert and paying a hunters attention to his surroundings. For ages all that could be heard was the quiet wheezing of the Derrick going up and down, and then suddenly, behind him, was screaming and the most horrific fleshy tearing sound. He swiftly turned around beating the alarm signal on his shield. Then he saw it and screamed as his friend Lindelani drooped sliding down from the claws of the monster. The thing was twice his size tall and lithe like a giant Praying Mantis. Its mouth was ringed with tentacles which seemed to sniff the air hunting for him. But by far the worst thing was the giant blood stained claws dripping with Lindelani’s remains. They were at least the size of him and as he watched the skin began to shift changing colour. He couldn’t grasp how it had snuck so close to them. Then fortunately his mind shut down and his training took over as he brought his Lasgun to his shoulder and began to fire. Placed shots. Hunter’s shots. It worked the beast began to head towards him away from the well house. He carried on firing; it carried on advancing, slowly and surely. Obviously in some pain but not enough to stop it.
Mondli was relieved to see the rest of his squad begin to come out onto the roof of the Well house. Mandla and Kwanele began to set up the squads’ missile launcher as Sifiso shot a Krak grenade into the monstrosity. It screamed badly hurt its ichor mixing with Lindelani’s gore. Mondli began to relax with the rest of the squad in a good position the monster was dead. It might kill him but it would fail.
He never understood what happened next. Where once there was a single monstrosity suddenly there was three. How had he failed his comrades so? How had he missed them clamber up onto the roof and hide behind where the squad had appeared? With the monsters so close and among them in a flash his friends never had a chance. The monsters made short brutal work of them. With their screams in his ears, seeing his failure he charged the beast shooting as he came. He never saw the claw that killed him.
Well I've finished the Command Squad for 2nd Platoon. Here's Lt Wahsi painted up.
For some reason he always looks slightly out of focus compared to his men.
The Commissar Heinrich Gruben came out rather well. I especially like the idea of the power knuckles.
The Squad as a whole including the Meltagunner and Batman
I've also finished the Veteran Squad.
The 3 Plasma Gunners use the TAG M60 E1 Machine Gun and Cadian Commlinks. The Sergeant received a TAG Socom Pistol and a Dirz Sword for his Power Weapon. Last but not least they are joined by Mister T. I just couldn't resist adding one of the Goliath gangers to the squad.....
The Lascannons on the painting desk although the focus at the moment is getting the Bestigor done for my Beastmen.
Got bored today and couldn't resist assembling another Rogue Trader era Commissar the arm went before I got it so he got an old favourite of mine the Atilian Chain Sabre.
Oh and on my other 40k blog the Conclave of Hrin theirs a Techpriest retinue that will often join this army. Check them out here
http://www.dakkadakka.com/dakkaforum/posts/list/279068.page
34th Tekla Rourke’s Drip Defence Command HQ. Communications Room. Alpha Complex “Emperor’s Balls”, swore Coms Sergeant Sithembile within the command bunker at Rourke’s Drip, he turned around to the private beside him, “Fetch the Colonel and tell him its bad news”. The private rushed to obey.
Within five minutes Colonel Eon entered the room, “What’s the matter Sithembile?”
“A message from the supply convoy they’ve reached Well Ten and found nobody there, there are signs of weapons discharges but no bodies, Neither the civvies or the garrison.”
“gak”, Eon ran through what the supply convoy consisted of 10 Armed 8x8’s and two squads from seventh company and winced.
“Right first of all dispatch two squads from First and a squad from Tenth in the Valkyries and order the convoy to remain where it is. We’ll send Lieutenant Jovan and the rest of Second platoon of First in Chimera’s to back up the convoy and cover it for the rest of the route.”
“Yes Sir, I’ve already contacted the rest of the major garrisons and I’ve contacted all the minor garrisons in the area and I’m just about to start on the others, Do you want me to contact the Commissar and the Magos? None of the others are out of the loop and all are reporting situation normal”.
“The Commissar certainly, the Magos hmmph we should but not quite yet, let’s work out the response within the regiment before we start dealing with the locals”.
“They’ve lost men to”
“Until we’ve checked out the site fully we can’t be certain of it”.
“What do you thinks happening?”
“Given that Bio-ship dropped pods last week and we still haven’t isolated where in the mountains they fell I’m hoping its Tyranid activity.”
“Hoping to face the Hungry One’s!” Sithembile gave his commander a look as if he was going insane he remembered Cobris it was there he’d taken the injuries which forced him to work in this rear echelon position. In some regiments the look would have qualified him for execution for disrespect of a senior officer it was that blatant. Eon shuddered, “Better them that an embedded Genestealer cult”. It was too horrible to contemplate that. Ladysmith was the Imperial Guard coordination base for this sector, almost a hundred guard regiments ran through it in a year and that was ignoring the civilian trade. It was a linchpin in the astrological map of the region having at least a dozen warp currents running through it. Sithembile looked confused at him, then shuddered and concentrated on the task in hand. Both remembered the cull after the campaign on Cobris when a quarter of the entire Army Group had been slaughtered due to the taint.
I've also got the final Lascannon Team done.
Here he is with the rest of the Squad
This means I've got 2nd Platoon complete and I'll fairly soon have the 3rd Company finished. Only 1 more veteran squad to assemble and then the armies done.
More fluff, tomorrow some substance I'm waiting for the Bodyguard to dry enough to photo him...
34th Tekla Well X Rourke’s Drip 25 Kilometres North of Alpha Complex
It was with great relief that Sergeant Bongani heard the powerful roar of the Valkyrie engines as they began to approach. With a deft touch they began to land outside the perimeter of the Well house. The problem was now for somebody else to deal with. It had been an unpleasant hour’s wait for the reinforcements but he’d used the time to do a complete sweep of the facility and then placed his heavy weapons on the roof of the building while his men took up positions in the trenches. The 8x8’s were crowded within the perimeter. The local crew looking terrified, however they had not objected about the plan either and had shown admirable discipline for a bunch of PDF cog botherers. To be honest his regulars weren’t looking much better. As he watched the three squads quickly disembarked and as soon as they were done the Valkyries returned to hovering. The two Veteran squads of First Company and the Scouts of Tenth quickly advanced in a good fast lope up the scree slope to the Well House. Swiftly they clambered through the trench line and then the Veterans began to split up into fire teams and reinforce his forces positions. The Scouts began to split up into hunting pairs looking for tracks. He frowned they wouldn’t be happy about him calling the 8x8’s within the perimeter as it would have obliterated most of the tracks however frankly he was more concerned with keeping his force a coherent whole. He only had ten more men than Seventh of Sixth which obviously hadn’t been enough to hold the same position against the foe long enough for a Vox call. He’d therefore decided to make sure that the Heavy Stubbers of the 8x8’s were concentrated in the hope they could stem the tide. Grimacing he looked at the stern worried faces of his fellow Sergeants Katlego and Nkosana from the First and Tau from the Tenth as they headed towards him. Bongani saluted the veteran Sergeants and they saluted back.
“Anything else to report since your last call?” said Katlego the senior of the three.
“No, still no sign of them I’ve swept the Wellhouse fairly well but as my responsibility was for the convoy I’ve not looked outside of the complex”
“Is the sign any good?”
“No there seems to be the heaviest signs of combat on the Wellhouse roof. Although there are scattered blood patches throughout the complex. Only two out here which seems to imply it happened last night or early this morning”.
“I’ll have a look about” said Tau.
“Good job, by the way”, you didn’t panic and held your force together. Your defensive position looks sound. What we will do next is consolidate the squads back together, although your heavy weapons should remain up on the roof top. While we each hold a trench line Tenth will conduct a thorough sweep. Hopefully they’ll be done by the time Jovan gets here with the Chimera’s and you can finish the run, wouldn’t want the men to run out of grub now would we. We’ll bug out in the Valkyries no point in holding a damaged facility.”
“Sounds fine to me, the Mechanicus should be aware it seems to be still working”
“We’ll still leave it I think the Colonel is planning to concentrate are strength more.”
“Do you reckon it was the Hungry Ones?”
“Almost certainly this smells of them to me, I can remember on Cobris we kept on loosing isolated forces like this for a few weeks before their attacks. Chances are it was a Mantis Stalker pack. Nasty monsters they’ve got a chameleon effect like the Karma lizards back home. Now get started and I want the convoy to be ready to go as soon as the LT gets here”.
Here he is the Bodyguard Dumasani
He's one of 2 bodyguards I've made using the Copplestone castings Ngoni Chieftains. These both receive the longer shields and chainswords to make them distinct. The blue died hair is due to their respect for the Ultramarines. The Veterans and Comand HQ will all have blue on the cloth and shields. This should make them recognisable during games. Been doing some thoughts about the next project currently had the oddball idea of doing a Fallen Dark Angel army. Several of my regular opponents play DA or at least Green Marines so thats fun. Any ideas on which Codex? I'd also want to play up the enigmatism of the Fallen.......
Heres my latest guy the Company Standard Bearer
I'm happy with him he's nice and eye catching but the banner looks practical to carry around the battlefield. It's the Roman style one from the Wargames Factory Ancient Germans. I've currently got most of the rest of the Command HQ at various stages on my desk. Then 2 veteran squads (1's assembled the other isn't) and some scratchbuilds and this project is finished. However thats not the end of the Ladysmith projet as I've decided after spending some time looking at Baiyuan's force on my next major 40k project (Hrin dosn't count as it's a distraction from painting rank and file not an army). He made a random mention of Ash Waste Nomads. I really like the idea of these. The current plan is to use Wargames Factory Persians and Nubians and a combination of Pig Iron Feral Heads and Ramshackle Games Turban and Gas masked heads. I'd like to get some 8x8's in the list and might well use Ramshackle Games vehicles. It would use the Guard Codex. What do people think of the idea?
Automatically Appended Next Post: 34th Tekla Rourke’s Drip Defence Command HQ. Secure Briefing Room. Alpha Complex The conference centre contained five men, it was comfortable without the frippery most Imperial institutions would have lavished on it and they sat around the desk with their dataslates out. Colonel Eon nodded to Captain Kaleb, the commander of the First, was his second in command and tactical deputy. Commissar Valentinian was there stern and worried a fellow veteran of Cobris he’d served by Eon since he was a Lieutenant in Ninth Company.They trusted and respected each other. He didn’t know the other two men as well. Magos Haggard commanded the facility he was in many ways the chief of the local community as well as a Tech-Priest. Valentinian had worked with him closely and they got on. Magos Haggard treated people as tools, Valentinian had said, but as he’d continued the Cogboys at least value their tools unlike some. The last was Administrator Doyle who would record the minutes.
Eon began the meeting, “As you all know at 1100hrs this morning the supply convoy had found Well X abandoned. No trace of anybody leaving the compound has been found. Reinforcements were sent as well as investigators. The convoy has completed the run without incident and the rest of the outposts have reported clear. They are now all on a high alert. We know believe the outpost was destroyed by Lictor’s from the Drone Ship which escaped interception last week. We know some spores must have reached the ground and we believe Well X’s personnel were wiped out by them. As you know I have military command for this region and have therefore issued orders effective tomorrow for all personnel to abandon the outer Wells and concentrate our forces. This will include shrine staff under the recently declared state of emergency. We cannot allow are forces to be isolated and picked off like this as it will only feed the swarm”.
Eon expected an outburst from the two civilians. To his surprise Haggard responded in his deep raspy heavily breathing voice, “That computes, starving the hive fleet of Biomass is a widely recognised methodology for defence against the abomination. It will also prevent battle damage to facilities and conserve valuable resources. I concur how may we facilitate an efficient solution?
Eon smiled a deep sincere smile at the Priest. “The Captain, Commissar and I have a plan for this. Your assistance will be gratefully accepted.”
Command HQ painted up only got 2 Veteran squads to do and the force is done! I'll get full company shots of the 2nd tomorrow. Heres the Captain, Captain Garmat observing where to order his men next. He's the Copplestone Castings chieftain. I used Commissar Khaines excellent Power Fist idea on him
His 2nd bodyguard Jackson.
The master of the fleet Signals Officer Harris.
Heres the complete squad.
I'm finding the scenery background really helps the photograph and I'm considering doing 2 one for fantasy and one for 40k soon. Nothing fancy probably just a suitable pair of scenes printed out.
Ok it's later than promised but heres the group shot.
My current roster consists of
Company Command HQ with all the trimmings
3 Commissars
Ratling Special Forces Trooper
Ratling Squad
2 Platoons each consisting of a Command Section (PFJO, MG)
3 Tactical Squads (ML, GL)
1 Assault Squad (Sergeant PW, Priest (Commissar) PW, Flamer
1 Devestator Squad 2 Fireteams 1 3xLC's 1 3x MG's
I've got the first two games in already using the CCS without the Astropath, the 2 Platoons, a Ratling Squad and the Scouts. I lost both games closely. First was against Grey Knights multiple objectives (4-2;1 1 contested). I left my squads seperate unfortunately I didn't crack the Land Raider although I wiped out the Terminatrs in the counter assault. The best moment fr me was the asassination of the Grey Knight Company Champion by a Ratling Sniper.......The 2nd game was against Daemons. Cut & Run battle mission. I blobbed up but lost 6,8 on the kill points. I was unlucky with shooting although the blob squad eventually banished the Lord of Change, Commander Garmat exorcised the Daemon Prince and I learnt just how complex blob squads are to work.......I really enjoyed these games and they provide a very different army to the rest of the guard lists. I want more anti-tank and need to read the codex again. Veteran squads are still to come and with the Warlord Games Zulus unleashed the models to make a battle, assault and devestator company army have become tempting. This is especially as somebodys produced African Sci-Fi heads which would add some neat variety to Sergeants and Veterans. A Librarian is another obvious addition. The list seems solid if rather defensive I'll try and get in alot of games with it before adding much else. With my financial state that wn't be much of a problem!
35th Tekla Rourke’s Drip Defence Command HQ. Secure Briefing Room. Alpha Complex
“Colonel it’s a message from the Strategos.” Colonel Eon glowered at Sitthembile, He hated Strategos Falwarth with a passion, an inherited position, the Strategos had titular command of the military resources of Sector 7G. Somehow the imbecile had reached that position without ever seeing line combat and during the fifteen years of raids from the Octavian Warzone had never fought in the battle line. The man devoted more care to the cleaning of his superiors’ backside than his actual responsibilities. He’d stuck the Twenty Fourth on a limb and refused to secure the line of supply. He’d ordered the dispersal of the regiment into penny packets which had already wasted forty lives. Indeed the strength he’d assigned to Rourke’s Drip was catastrophically small as a Cat-1 site it should have had a PDF battle group of at least two regiments, an Armour and Artillery Company with the Guard providing an emergency reserve instead everything had been dug in around Florisbad Kop to defend the Governor’s palace and coincidently the Strategos office. This had led to the abandonment of ninety percent of the civilian population and economic resources the military assets had been assigned to protect. He looked at the message and disgust grew, “You should not change orders of those with greater tactical knowledge that have optimised the deployment protocols at a far greater level than your organic mind can compute” he read. Eon winced and instructed his aide the quiet, efficient and deadly Neo to gather the command group for another conference. Reinforcements weren’t on the way, all intelligence was apparently to high level for him to see and he shuddered. The Imperium’s fear of panic was biting it on its arse again. He remembered Cobris where the lack of information about the Genestealer’s had caused the purges if they’d understood then they would not have lost entire regiments to the infestation. Now he wasn’t allowed to know key data about the spore sites and landing areas which might allow a counterattack before the swarm reached critical mass or harrying air strikes with his three gunships. He wasn’t even allowed to receive the incident reports from other areas allowing him some knowledge of the severity of the situation. The idiocy reminded him of Cobris before General Ousanas had finally taken over. He was lost for a few moments in the old nightmare the destruction of the 11th and the killing of his cousin. He remembered the taste of Masozi’s blood after it spattered into his mouth after his spear thrust had taken him through the throat. He couldn’t control the shakes and just collapsed for the moment taking advantage of the privacy. Then he heard Neo come back through the outer office he straightened himself out with the ease of practise and put on his public face. Nobody else knew he’d killed his kin during the purge.
“Hello gentlemen we have news from the Strategos” said Eon to Haggard, Doyle and Valentinian. After he’d presented the information dispassionately, Valentinian turned to Haggard and asked, “How vital are the Wells exactly?”
Haggard turned and said “The pure water of perfectly neutral pH is vital in the production of 89% of the Elixirs used for export to our Brothers in the Church. However your orders had negligible effect on production as our work crews are only there to maintain the machines. The wells are of the exquisite design of Arch- Magos Medes and do not require permanent supervision. It is for that reason I agreed to abandon my beloved pumps for awhile after the appropriate benediction was carried out”. “Right Colonel by the power vested in me by the Commissariat and Departmento Munitorium I am countermanding this order I will give the full sealed countermand after this meeting”.
After the civilians had left and Neo had headed off to fetch Caf Valentinian winced “Don’t think I’ll make a habit of this Eon but in this case the imbecile has left us so under strength we simply can’t hold the outer wells. Depending on the size of the swarm we might hold the main stations but even then we can’t be sure as the cretin has denied us that intelligence”.
“What you can’t get that using your override”
“It has to be on the net for me to receive it, Colonel”
“He hasn’t even broadcast it to Central Command? I mean he should have at least made a request for Satellite Intel”
“I know he hasn’t and that freaks me out”
“What’s to bet he hasn’t reported the attack on Well X?”
“He has Eon, don’t shoot the messenger and don’t take it out on Haggard and his crew but he’s blamed it on desertion and has closed any further investigation”.
“That Vandire of a bitch, even if it was desertion it should be fully investigated!”
“Yes the lack’s raising my hackles”.
“He doesn’t have the sign of the Hybrid”
“The most dangerous don’t Eon, the most dangerous don’t.”
Just finished the Veteran Squad.
The Plasma guns are M60-E1's from Tag bodged together with sprue, plasticard and a chopped down cadian comm-link. The Sergeant received a silenced Tag Socom pistol and a Dirz Clone Cutlass because I liked it. Their jined by a Goliath ganger painted up as Mister Tee as it amused me. If I ever feel a need to justify it other than that I'll claim he was recruited from the A-Team a Special Forces squad in the Cobris PDF who decided to hang around after being blamed for a crime he did commit (the Commissar shouldn't have said that about his Mom......).
Been thinking about the future after the 2nd Veteran squad is done (they're gradually getting assembled). While I want to start another big project finances say no and looking in my Bits box I thought of found a mob of 20 ladz, a Mounted Squires Regiment, most of an Island of Blood Skaven force, a Steam Tank for a Screaming Bell scheme and a regiment of Grail Knights not including bits & bobs for Hrin and my Beastmen. Therefore I think starting anything big and new this year isn't really necessary. For this project I have just printed of 3 more cardstock Chimera kits and I've also got some old Ogryns and Stormtroopers as well as the Kindred to keep me going. Also with the Warlord Games Zulu's on the horizon's it might be interesting to build a Tac, Dev, Assault and Veteran platoon.......
Hope you enjoy it Neil 101 I'll warn you though it's very much a serial and probably won't make sense unless you read the rest and thanks Rayvon glad to see you went hrough the lot. I take it sloth has badly deformed eyes as well!
I got these Ogryns for my birthday about ten years ago as part of my Catachan army and I've only just painted the first one...Bad I know. These original sculpts aren't as god as the newer ones but their still fun and characterful. I went for the urban camo I'd used on the Master of Ordnance. Part of the idea is that if I keep my basing the same across all my planned IG forces i can use these guys and the Kindred with any of them.
Also the Perry's have got some Sudan warriors in the pipeline which might fit with these guys quite well oh and here's a bit more story for you guys.
35th Tekla Observation Post near Northern Pipe Line Supply Station Three 25 Kilometres North of Alpha Complex
“Emperor’s Balls sound the alarm, the Hungry Ones are here”, Sergeant Refilwe yelled. Their worst fears were confirmed. The swarm was headed towards them and it was bigger than expected. He could see easily a hundred Gaunts led by a half dozen Warriors. They were several miles away at the bottom of the valley making no effort to conceal themselves. He guessed they were about an hour from the observation post on the summit of a nearby hill and about three hours from the plant. Of course in this desolate wasteland it was hard for anything to remain hidden especially from a trained hunter. It could be worse with the Emperor on their side the platoon could probably hold out. The Station was surrounded with a trench line unfortunately to long for the platoon to hold but they’d laid out a minefield since the attack on Well X and added several smaller trenches around the entrance. It was in the centre of a narrow valley the easiest place to build the pipe which provided a bottleneck if the enemy took the obvious route which this band seemed to have done. The sound blasted out as Thulani hit the button of the work klaxon the platoon had acquired. Refilwe followed the next step of his orders and began to head back. It was a judgement call but he believed they could reach the position before the swarm got there. If they’d been in company strength they’d have stayed where they were providing intel to the main body of the force. Sadly they were stretched far too thin for this
love to see the inquisitors face when he sees hes got these guys :L nah but really intresting idea though nice to have a totally diffrent take on guard
More fluff sorry no models been on a bit of a downer the past few weeks.
35th Tekla Northern Pipeline Filtration Unit B 19 Kilometres N of Alpha Complex It was a warm muggy day on the roof of the Filtration unit but that didn’t stop the shiver going up Bheka’s back . Hungry Ones he’d heard the tales of the destruction they’d wrought on Cobris from the Veterans, he’d seen the weary horror on their faces and the grief in their eyes as they’d reminisced. He’d also seen the same men fight against an Ork raid and seen their bravery. Apparently this landing was a tiny part compared to the horrors of the Hive Fleet even now feasting upon the forces of Octavia. He wished them a long and bloody relationship although he was terrified of the idea of facing the winner. He kept his gaze on the horizon searching the ridges of the mountains and frowning at their exposed position in the centre of the valley along the pipeline scanning the hills with the magnoculars. He still found it somewhat disturbing that all this industry was to extract something as simple as pure water. It didn’t make sense to him although he wouldn’t have trusted the water of the great river they’d travelled on from the Space Port. Vusumuzi had explained that the purity was necessary for particular benedictions and to make certain elixirs it didn’t make much sense to him. He noted a large vulture above one of the peaks and smiled continuing to scan. Suddenly he realised that there were no vultures on this planet. He frowned and focussed it closer it was too far to be sure but it was an odd grey colour which didn’t look right. It seemed chitinous and bat like. He frowned he wasn’t sure as he watched but it looked like something he’d seen in his Imperial Primer. He winced and tried to remember what it was, nothing good anyway, he lowered his magnoculars and realised a flock of them was entering sight, “Sergeant take a look at that bird flock over by that peak “.
Sergeant Manelesi frowned with the regiment at alert everybody was on tenterhooks and false alarms were likely. He thought it was a waste of time and a distraction but raised his magnoculars to check the sighting. If it was just birds he could bollock Bheka later. Carefully he focussed them and then he winced Gargoyles.....bugger. He suddenly wished with all his heart Bheka had made a false alarm. They were a precursor of the Hungry Ones attacks and he did not look forward to facing the swarm.
“Bheka sound the alarm we have about fifteen minutes to ready the defences”. As the alarm bells range Manelesi began to pray. “Beloved Emperor allow us to do our duty in your holy name” , he murmured.
Had a very good day yesterday a lot of stuff has began to fall into place. Recently I've been having problems getting on with modelling as I've been having real life issues. Lack of work mainly, however over the past 2 weeks I've seen the numbers of job adverts in my profession go up with several of them being local (although I have worked lined up for August It's barely in time to make rent I will however make it). I'm an Archaeologist and frankly not working in the Summer is worrying, this is the first July in 10 years (since I was 16) I haven't spent at least some time on site digging and frankly I miss it a lot as this is the best time of year for it. Digging through ground frost is hard and through snow worse. Rains colder though. Equally yesterday I discovered Rackham was restarting and this pushed me to get on with stuff. Entering into the Pimp my Wizard competition has also acted as a reason to move on.
So what did I do then? Well I finished a nice bit of scenery, finished another Ogryn fully and also completed the last Veteran Squad making the infantry modelling part of this project complete. I'll start with the scenery piece.
I' a great believer in rubbish scenery or recycling. This piece is intended to be a durable club piece and was a minimum time, minimum cost, minimum effort piece. It consists of a plastic cherry punnet, a plastic shot glass (£1 for 40 great for mixing pots storing bits and scratchbuilding like this) and some straws. I painted it in heavily weathered yellow to give it that worn out rusty plant feel. Total cost uh £1.50 at most with free cherries.......I painted it with cheap Wilkinson's acrylics for the main part which are perfect for painting undercoats on things you don't want to spray, i.e. anything like polystyrene which melts or cardstock. this type of punnet comes in lots of sizes and I've done a larger garage and I've got plenty more and now I know how to glue and paint it it's easy to mass produce and perfect for gaming club scenery where it's going to be packed away quickly and used fairly carelessly and fairly hard.
The Ogryn is another of the squad and is fairly simple however while painting it I hit on an idea that amused me greatly.
Yep that says Mum. I'm painting these with generic stereotypical tattoos and that one just works and I think humanises him quite nicely.
This is the final squad of the 150ish Zulus I've modelled up. It's now the only Zulu squad requiring paint. I was making these fairly generically and got bored with them and frankly getting the florists wire to line up right on the Plasma Guns is tricky and awkward however yesterday I blitzed them. It helped that I was finishing models and felt like it. More importantly however while making the Demo Expert on a whim (a whim which involved a fiddly attempt at making bionics with sprue and spear shaft) I decided to make the last few into archetypes i.e. Demo, observer, brawler etc.... The plan was to make an observer using the Magnoculars from my Bits box when i found a shovel and I couldn't resist mainly because I remembered reading how they were used as the main close combat weapon in WW1 and it felt right. So I ended up instead making them as Combat Engineers with the Demo guy, the shovel wielder and a man with a pick axe. As I'd done these in this style the Sergeant had to have a hammer and another fiddly bionic eye and I've got a nice characterful little squad.
Vusumuzi Demolitions Expert (inspired by Gordo and Shep)
Sakhile Veteran Sergeant
So where next for the project? I have to paint these guys obviously along with the Ogryns and Kindred. I also have 3 card-stoch Chimera's to build up and then paint. I'd really like to make an 8x8 (I consider this a heavy duty lorry or possibly an armoured car leaning towards either a Stryker or a BTR80 kit or possibly something more truck like). Armour is the most obvious thing to add however I'm considering on making it part of another regiment. I'd like some alternative weapons mixes maybe more Autocannons and Mortars along with Sniper and Flamer Special Weapn teams. This blog will be kept going more by fluff and battle reports for a while however. This is partly financial but more due to the fact I want to get a feel for where the weaknesses lie in my current collection. I also want to see what Warlord Games Zulus look like. I don't think I'll be doing much 40k for a while as all the 40k projects I'm really enthused by involve more Guard Armies.......I think that it's going to be a bit more focus on the Conclave of Hrin and also making Warrior elements to complement my Beastmen. The next full scale army is probably going to be a none GW Empire force, I'm also going to be scratchbuilding a BFG fleet over the next year to go with my Scratchbuilt Aeronautica Imperialis. That should keep me busy enough.....
Got the fourth Ogryn done
I've also painted the Ogryn's Handler Lieutenant Friedrich van Klomp.
I imagine him as a member of the Ogryns homeworld native aristocracy assigned the nasty and dangerous job of herding his brutish charges through a dozen war zones. Naturally he'd end up a skilled combatant but he's only survived due to the loyalty of his charges a loyalty he's earnt by taking good care of them and showing them respect. Not sure how to represent him in game terms as yet. Commissar Lord makes most sense but is arguably too good any suggestions?
Here's the next piece of fluff as well.
35th Tekla Northern Pipeline Filtration Unit A 5 Kilometres N of Alpha Complex
There was a tense air of watchfulness over First Platoon Second Company’s position. The reports of contact had come in from the more northerly positions. Neither was under serious attack yet but it was the calm before the storm. Lieutenant Ezana had decided to take the precaution to order them into their battle positions crouched into the trench lines around the central complex. He’d alerted the cog boys as well and they were busying themselves in a variety of arcane rituals and benedictions.
Sheshile looked up. He’d always enjoyed the sky and this world’s acrid smog was a dark fascination for him. He hadn’t really seen the sun and stars for too many days nw. There were too many moons above his head as well it was unnatural. He missed the constellations of home. Virgil the Librarian, Gitu the herald, Ndongele the Shaman, Augustus the Sky Giant and Shaka the King he guessed he might be on one of those stars now. He allowed his mind to drift to memories of home and family, Of fresh food and red meat. It was then he spotted the blobs drifting with the winds. They were heading towards his post with the Lascannons of the Devastator fire team on top of the main pump house. He didn’t recognise them as a local creature and realised they were also drifting down. They were drifting fast and as they came closer, he saw their gooey tentacular form, tendrils drifting in the breeze.
“Oh frak their heading right at us everybody have you seen them”, he pointed at the jellyfish coming from the south.
The rest of the squad turned around and gawked for a moment. Ukhoziso the Corporal then shrugged,
“Can’t tell if their hostile but frak it we’ve got plenty of ammo, loaders take them with your Lasguns”. The three Lasguns began an accurate crossfire as the shots hit the first one it exploded taking the others with it. There was a brief shower of chitin and gore. The fire team’s relief was short lived as screams and swearing came up from the lines below. Third squad had been caught within the fringes of the blast and at least one of them was down. The battle had begun.
I can't agree with that A Black Ram there's a lot who's far better at it than me. Migsula and Commissar Khaine come immediately to ind as do Neil 101 and lots of others. But thanks a lot for your appreciation of my work.
A Black Ram wrote:You have one of the most creative minds here on dakka. Very nice work here, looking forward to more.
Sorry Llamahead, I agree w/ A Black Ram 100%. I can point to models where you've taken 3 random bits from 3 different sets and w/ a small bit of putty and glue turned it into an awesome model. I've seen you take things that no one else would even consider as being remotely related and tie them together as a cohesive unit.
You are a visionary when it comes to conversions. Just accept it.
Cheers Skalk yur praise means a lot to me although the technique there is a limited palette and making sure the bits are so thoroughly mixed in my bitz box I can't remember where there from. It's nothing anybody else can't do. I mean your excellent at it as well.
Got my best result yet with the 24th a bloody heroic draw. I was playing Dawn of War, Multiple Objectives against Nids. This led to them being in my face extremely early and by deploying seperate squads in bubbles I got 4 squads massacared in the irst round. Ater that I was on the back foot. Fortunately Mike concentrated more on the massacre than the objectives. Heroics included a Junior Oficer and his Commissar hacking through a number of Gaunts to contest an obective (they also stood right in front of a squad of Devourer Gaunts) and the Penal Legion sneaking around the Nids to steal an objective well behind their lines. Dragging the Hive Tyrant away from the bulk of my forces. The game ending on turn 5 led to a draw I frankly didn't deserve. Key lessons include deploying in lines to prevent multiple assaults and I'm considering going for the 4 flamer command sections.
Okay first an amazingly simple building. One fruit punnet based painted and with doors and windows added.
I like the feel of it to my mind it looks like the more modern temporary buildings they put up on construction sites. I'll admit it's been done for awhile I just felt like putting it up tonight.
I've also painted the last Ogryn the Bone-Ead
Heres the squad and handler posing together
The building is a quick basic job.
Quick fluff piece to combine with my fluff competition piece
35th Tekla Rourke’s Drip Defence Command HQ. Communications Room. Alpha Complex
Communications Sergeant Sithembile winced he’d taken in reports of attacks from all three of the northern platoon posts. He’d forwarded the reports onto high command as well. Currently a counter attack for the northern positions was being planned and contingency plans for evacuation to the Alpha Complex. It wasn’t looking particularly good however. This response from the Strategos was a brilliant piece of rhetorical bollocks. He was glad Eon hadn’t got into the habit of shooting the messenger. Apparently the regiment obviously had sufficient resources to hold and counter attack quite how the Strategos knew this and where precisely the target was to counter attack he hadn’t divulged. He certainly hadn’t dispatched any reinforcements. Valentinian had made the decision to dispatch his findings to the Commissariat command post at Landing Citadel and had requested a full debrief from them. They were prepared to respond to and supply intelligence as it came in. He’d also had a vox conference with his fellow Commissars within the Sector none of which had seen contact and none of which had received a briefing through channels. They’d decided to brief their officers on what was occurring and had supported Valentinian and Eon’s orders. This was fortunate but wouldn’t gain them aid. However the Munitorium was beginning to investigate the Stratego’s conduct. Where that would lead to who knew, although almost certainly it wouldn’t lead to reinforcements any time soon.
Just finished the first of the second group of Kindred.
The 2nd Veteran Squad is undercoated and I'll probably start painting it soon. Mainly I'm currently focused on Susarro of Davin my Pimp my Sorceror entry.
Sorry my camera has suddenly started to refuse to speak to my computer. I've replaced the cord but don't know whats causing the problem. Do's anybody know of a good place to get advice on an old Fuji Finepix A204? This means the blog is probably on hiaitus until I can get the problem fixed at least October and more likely Christmas unless somebody knows where I can find out how to fix the problem.
Good news is I sorted out my camera problem. The bad news is that I've finished the Combat Engineers. This means that the Zulu element of the project is totally finished. I've got some Kindred to do and need some armour but the 24th Islandlwanda elements are finished. I'd like to take the opportunity to thank Metallifan, Arbitor Ian and Xhequimunqui for their help with the painting an Commissar Khaine and Skalk Bloodaxe with their help as well. You've helped make this project a far better looking army than it would be without you. Here's the final squad and another Kindred.
What does the future hold? Well I need to play some games and work out what I want to add and I'm currently planning on how to do an 8x8. I've basically decided to leave this project where it is for now and focus far more on my Grey Knights for 40k (Conclave of Hrin) and adding Warriors to my Beastmen for Warhammer. I'll also continue to go ahead with my BFG Ork project.
Been considering the 8X8's a bit more a quick check on http://www.modelhobbies.co.uk/shop/ made it clear to me that these designs were available. Theres 2 real groups
the Chimera Counts as and those which wont. I'll be interested in your opinions
Chimera's Stryker
Boxer
Puma
Lav 25
BTR70
BTR80
Not Chimeras Centauro
M977
Dana
MAZ543
Currently the MAZ 543 seems most like what I've envisaged in the fluff but the Boxer or the BTR70 design would make an interesting substitute for Chimeras (Sie dosn't worry me so much it's both an advantage and a disadvantage depending on the canniness of the opposing player. Which do you reckon is most fitting?
I think I may well be using the BTR 80 design. I've also painted up another Kindred currently I'm umming and ahhing about vehicles for this lot some reinforcements for the Conclave or a chaos Warrior boost to my Nurgle Beastmen. As I' starting a new away job updates may very well be thin on the ground for awhile. I'm looking forward to it though as I need the money and I've been bored out of my skull for the past month or so.
No comments on the vehicle idea?
Good to hear from you again. Regarding the Chimera question, I'm going for the Puma and the BTR70. I think either of those choices would be better suited in "scale" (even though you said that didn't matter) and overall design for visual aesthetics.
Looking forward to seeing more updates when you have a chance. Welcome back.
Good to hear from you too. Have to agree with the BTR 70 idea. I'll be bunging up a few hobbits but the Tanks for this project are going to be cardstock I still only have the money to splurge on one force and I'm in the mood to add more to my Chaos list.
This was up in the fluff competition a while back but I'll bung it up here as well.
Harbingers of Woe
35th Tekla Northern Pipeline Filtration Unit B 19 Kilometres N of Alpha Complex
It was a warm muggy day on the roof of the Filtration unit but that didn’t stop the shiver going up Bheka’s back . Hungry Ones he’d heard the tales of the destruction they’d wrought on Cobris from the Veterans, he’d seen the weary horror on their faces and the grief in their eyes as they’d reminisced. He’d also seen the same men fight against an Ork raid and seen their bravery. Apparently this landing was a tiny part compared to the horrors of the Hive Fleet even now feasting upon the forces of Octavia. He wished them a long and bloody relationship although he was terrified of the idea of facing the winner. He kept his gaze on the horizon searching the ridges of the mountains and frowning at their exposed position in the centre of the valley along the pipeline scanning the hills with the magnoculars. He still found it somewhat disturbing that all this industry was to extract something as simple as pure water. It didn’t make sense to him although he wouldn’t have trusted the water of the great river they’d travelled on from the Space Port. Vusumuzi had explained that the purity was necessary for particular benedictions and to make certain elixirs it didn’t make much sense to him. He noted a large vulture above one of the peaks and smiled continuing to scan. Suddenly he realised that there were no vultures on this planet. He frowned and focussed it closer it was too far to be sure but it was an odd grey colour which didn’t look right. It seemed chitinous and bat like. He frowned he wasn’t sure as he watched but it looked like something he’d seen in his Imperial Primer. He winced and tried to remember what it was, nothing good anyway, he lowered his magnoculars and realised a flock of them was entering sight, “Sergeant take a look at that bird flock over by that peak “.
Sergeant Manelesi frowned with the regiment at alert everybody was on tenterhooks and false alarms were likely. He thought it was a waste of time and a distraction but raised his magnoculars to check the sighting. If it was just birds he could bollock Bheka later. Carefully he focussed them and then he winced Gargoyles.....bugger. He suddenly wished with all his heart Bheka had made a false alarm. They were a precursor of the Hungry Ones attacks and he did not look forward to facing the swarm.
“Bheka sound the alarm we have about fifteen minutes to ready the defences”. As the alarm bells range Manelesi began to pray. “Beloved Emperor allow us to do our duty in your holy name” , he murmured.
35th Tekla Northern Pipeline Filtration Unit B 19 Kilometres N of Alpha Complex
Lieutenant Wahsi had used the time given by his alert sentries wisely he prayed. He quickly reviewed his positions and winced he thought he’d deployed as well as he could. This was his first battle as a Lieutenant and he feared he’d fail his duty. The men of Second Platoon Second Company had formed into battle positions around the Filtration Unit. The Lascannons of the First Devestator Fire Team were emplaced on the roof where they had a line of fire all around the facility. To the North was First Tactical Squad hunkered down in their trenches. On the East lurked Second Tactical Squad hiding behind a low wall. Sheltering behind a lager of construction equipment on the west flank was Third Tactical Squad much to the displeasure of Magos Finchley the commander of the Maintenance crew. The Assault Squad was in a trench on the south flank where the valley was narrower leading to less need for heavy weapons. He had decided to hold his Command Section and the Second Devastator Fire team with their close range meltaguns in reserve in the centre facility. Much to his surprise they had been joined by Magos Finchley and a group of maintenance servitors. Even more useful than the Magos however were the two Heavy Bolter equipped combat Servitors. He also had four 8x8’s attached to the facility providing enough transport capacity to evacuate easily. The supply situation was reasonable with enough to last for two weeks on normal rations. Water would thankfully not be a problem. His main worry was how thin his platoon was stretched especially First and Second Squad who covered far broader arcs of the perimeter than Third or the Assault Squad. Equally both had better positions and greater engagement distance. Another fear he had was how much of the facility was underground making it vulnerable to Ravener or worse still Trygon attack. The problem he had to deal with now however was Gargoyles. He shrugged he may as well see how co-operative the Magos was feeling.
“Ser Magos as you know we are about to be attacked by the first Tyranid wave which we know will consist of a dozen or so Gargoyles. Your Servitors and yourself are the facilities best defence against this menace so I would please ask you to assist my Devastator squad upon the roof.”
Magos Finchley looked quizzically at him and then stayed silent for a moment. Wahsi was just about to ask him again when he said in a monotone mechanical voice, “Affirmative will comply”. Wahsi was surprised Cog boys were notoriously uncooperative but he hadn’t had a problem with any of them today. Hopefully this spirit of cooperation would persist.
35th Tekla Northern Pipeline Filtration Unit B 19 Kilometres N of Alpha Complex
Bheka was comfortably kneeling behind a wall the soft downy ash rather comfortable if oddly warm against his bare skin. He was beside Amukelani and every 10 metres another pair sheltered. They were spread out further than usual sheltering in these old abandoned buildings. Sadly enough they were remains of one storey shacks and flimsy ones at that. It was an hour after he’d spotted the enemy and they still hadn’t attacked. Part of Bheka hoped they would hurry up this calm before the storm always terrified him. Then again it was always actually far better than combat and worse yet the clean up afterwards. It was then he started to hear the wing beats. The dull thud of those giant leathery wings chilled him. At a distance he hadn’t realised how big they were. Nor how many. He was just grateful to the Emperor that they’d been spotted.
It was then the giant winged creature flew over the ridgeline from the West. The great Wyrm let out a hideous shriek which almost physically threw him down and echoed in his ears. It then dove down straight at them. Fortunately such a large target was almost impossible to miss and he and his compatriots began to take their shots. The Lascannons blasted from the roof of the facility one missed passing just in front f the beasts head. The other two blasts hit the target one tearing into its sinuous tale while the next ripped a gouge right through its claw. It let out anther malevolent scream. It was still alive even after the grievous wounds. Manelesi then yelled out “Vusumuzi, Msizi, Mandla continue firing at the Harpy rest of you shoot the Gargoyles.”
Bheka hadn’t even noticed them with the horror of the Wyrm. No Harpy he thought and wondered why he wasn’t concentrating on the foe. Quickly he dragged himself together and started taking pot-shots at the flock following the dreadful beast.
It was then disaster struck. The beast roared for a third team and spat out it’s spore and a cluster of spines. Suddenly a huge volley of explosions tore over the roof of the facility Bheka could hear the screams coming from the Devastator teams as suddenly giant tendrils began chasing them apart. It began to drive them away from the guns seeming to tear them apart as if driven by a malevolent will. Bheka dragged his eyes away from the grisly spectacle and back to the Gargoyles less hideous than what was going on behind. Suddenly a chattering of Heavy Bolter Fire came back from the roof and cheers rang out from all around as the beast was torn apart by the heavy calibre fire.
Bheka concentrated on the task at hand and picked his target. He aimed for the head and quietly prayed “Emperor guardian light guide this light. The shot was clean a perfect head shot. The flock was suffering badly from the disciplined fire but still they came on swiftly. There was still too many of them for the squad to face divided as it was. It was then that yet another hideous sound entered the cacophony the splut-buzzzz-splat of the flesh borers. He heard screaming about him but couldn’t turn around to look. He found his next target and shot again missing by an inch. The flock started to wheel around staying just within range but not charging home. The fire fight continued with the thankful cacophony entering the fray along with the crack of the Lasguns. Suddenly a pair of the beasts exploded fragment ripping into their comrades as Mandla and Vusumuzi both hit home with frag rounds. Then suddenly the fire on the left picked up in intensity a moment later followed by that on the right as the First squad and the Assault Squad entered the fray. The Gargoyles found themselves in the centre of a crossfire and suddenly decided they’d had enough and flitted away heading back over the ridge from which they’d came. A few moments later silence descended and all that was left were the carcasses and the dreadful stench of battle.
35th Tekla Northern Pipeline Filtration Unit B 19 Kilometres N of Alpha Complex
Lieutenant Wahsi grimaced they’d fought of the first raid. It was only the beginning and he had to count up the cost. He was thankful Magos Finchley had ordered his servitors and Initiates to gather the Gargoyles carcasses. They were dragging them over to the remnants of the Harpy for burning. He smiled and thanked the Omnissiah that he’d requested Magos Finchley to head up on the roof. Fortunately the Harpy had only got one round of firing off and it’s hideous weapons had only killed one gun team. The rest of the squad had all taken some minor injuries but would soon be back in action. Fortunately the facility had a medicae room and one of the initiates was qualified in its use. Second Squad had been in good cover and only lost three men one was dead and the other pair was severely injured. It could have been far worse. It would certainly get far worse.
Finally the Compleat Llamahead has come to this the 24th Islandlwanda. This is most certainly my most successful blog and has done the most to push my painting onwards. It has actually been featured on the front page of Dakka Dakka and has forced me to take my first tentative steps in scratch building. Over the last two years I've made an awful lot of progress. Fairly soon I'll be able to do the final shot for the force. I've painted the infantry and now only have a few scratchbuilt tanks to finish off. Today's post is nothing special just a simple Hasslefree Kindred hope you like him.
Naturally I'll also bung up the links to my other stuff
Check out my Orky Scratchbuilds (http://www.dakkadakka.com/dakkaforum/posts/list/0/356363.page), the Conclave of Hrin (http://www.dakkadakka.com/dakkaforum/posts/list/60/279068.page) and the Nurgle Beastmen (http://www.dakkadakka.com/dakkaforum/posts/list/120/231101.page) for more.
Right here's the last of my Kindred. I've got something different for you on Monday.
He's a Kindred with Sniper Rifle and I decided to paint him in a shadow grey/black combo to distinguish him from the regular infantry.
Automatically Appended Next Post: The reason I didn't update yesterday was I was out playing 40k. I lost one drew one (getting close to an objective defended by 150 ish Guardsmen is difficult even for a DE army supported by 3 Void Ravens. I also got wiped out by Nids which endeed up with more bugs than they started out with due to a hyper efficient Tervigon. Lesson learnt was to try a defense in depth using long thin lines to prevent multiple charges. More important however was the fact my Chimera escaped notice from a distance as a scratchbuild which was just the way I wanted it......
Here's your surprise for today
This guy is my Primaris Psyker. He uses a Zulu torso with one of my lovely Black Scorpion Revolvers. The skulls are from 2 Chaos Knight Helmets as I plan on chopping these down heavily for my Chaos force. I'm happy with how he's turned out. Fluffwise he's a priest of the old faith which predates the return of the Imperium, in the form of a shot down Thunderhawk full of Ultramarines to Islandlwanda. Shaman of the old faith are prophets and psykers and now in heavy decline although a few do exist in the depths of the plains.
Thanks a lot its one of those pieces which just work. I like it a lot and might well break the skeletons I've kept for trade and create a Psyker Battle Squad in this style at some point.
This is todays new model. You've seen him before and here he is painted up my old RT style Commissar
Not really an update but I thought you might enjoy this. It's bog standard club scenery easily mass produced and durable. All it is is a beer can and some insulation foam painted and weathered.
Will do soon Albinoork I've played 4 games and haven't done that well. 2vs Nids 1 loss and 1 draw, 1 against Grey Knights loss and a draw with DE. I think the problem is without armour I'm reduced to playing a more defensive reactive game and thats not how you win 40k. However it's a new army and I'm still getting used to it.
I've started with the cardstock Chimera and Leman Russ I've got kits for another 3 Chimera's printed off so probably sometime in December. I'm still not quite sure how I'll paint them the Kente scheme didn't quite gel right. I'll probably stick with Black & White Dazzle Camo though.
Todays a compleat Llamahead meaning I've got something on each blog so check out my Orky Scratchbuilds (http://www.dakkadakka.com/dakkaforum/posts/list/0/356363.page), the Conclave of Hrin (http://www.dakkadakka.com/dakkaforum/posts/list/60/279068.page) and the Nurgle Beastmen (http://www.dakkadakka.com/dakkaforum/posts/list/120/231101.page) for more.
It's not really a painting/modelling update it's more a gaming one. Yesterday I got three games in with this list;
HQ Command HQ Captain Power Fist and Plasma Pistol
MG Master of Ordnance 1 Bodyguard.
T
Platoon
Command Section
Lt Power Fist, Commissar Power Weapon Melta Gun
3 Infantry Squads Missile Launcher, Grenade Launcher
Infanty Squad Commissar Power Weapon, Sergeant Power Weapon, Flamer
Heavy Weapon Squad 3 Lascannons
Special Weapon Squads 3 Melta Guns
T
Platoon
Command Section
Lt Power Fist, Commissar Power Weapon Melta Gun
3 Infantry Squads Missile Launcher, Grenade Launcher
Infanty Squad Commissar Power Weapon, Sergeant Power Weapon, Flamer
Heavy Weapon Squad 3 Lascannons
Special Weapon Squads 3 Melta Guns
T
Veteran Squad Sergeant Power Weapon, 3 Plasma Guns
Chimera Heavy Flamer, Heavy Bolter.
All for 1500pts
First game was against a Russ heavy guard list with 5 of the blighters I basically couldn't get into meltagun range and they gradually blew me to pieces. I lost 1 kill point to 5.
Second Game was against Dark Eldar with 2 objectives. Bright spots for me were killing off the Incubi in CC and also wiping out both units of Harlequins along with thse pesky Razorwing Fighters. But sadly his Razorwings and Venoms blew me to pieces and I was wiped out by turn 6.
Third Game was against Chaos Space Marines and I managed to win it. Two objectives again. Bizarrely enough I captured his and he contested mine. I was lucky in this game with the Rhinos both being stopped one dead one immobilised on his starting line and three fortunate double ones for leadership tests. My meltaguns vapourised his Land Raider and my Assalt Squads (the Commissar PW squads) slew his Daemon Prince in close combat. My veterans eliminated a squad of plague marines in a mutual bloodbath ending when the Sergeant slew the Icon bearer in close combat leaving him the only person anywhere near the objective. This was the first win with the 24th and I was exceedingly lucky. I definitely feel I need to get more Chimeras finished and I need to work out a way to be less passive currently the army surrenders too much initiative to the enemy and I need a way to recapture it. I also need to remember my Master of Ordnance or possibly drop him. The other big thing I need is unit markings i think the only effective way to do this is to go back and paint all the bases with coloured rims I'll lose a bit in appearance but gain a lot in ease of gaming.
Oh and yes Skalk I'll use GW weapons as much as possible on the Russ. The Chimera's successful enough I've had to point out its a scratchbuild it dosn't get noticed during the game so it acomplishes what I want.
Yeah it does I may have neglected to mention the fact I had about 20 men and a Chimera left facing 3 Obliterators and 8 or so CSM contesting my objective it was far closer and I was far luckier than I made it seem.
Got the Primaris done. I'm also going to start rebasing fairly soon (alright probably after Christmas) the current plan is to do all of one platoon with blue shades while the other will get green shades should make my life far easier.
Sorry that the pictures ain't the best.
So as this year draws to a close its time to have a look at all my projects and decide what the future brings.
The 24th Islandlwanda have arguably suffered the most of my projects due to financial problems this year. Thats as the main thing to add to this project is armour and I've been procrastinating about doing it for most of the year. The problem is GW original armour is now out of my budget. I'm just not willing to fork out £30 on a Russ or Hellhound. While the new kits are arguably nicer they are not £10/£12 nicer. This project ws also fortunate in that it began in 2009 the last year I was financially comfortable, this mean't I could indulge myself with buying specific bits something I wouldn't currently do. Basically I have to bite the bullet and get started with the Cardstock kits.
Having said that I finished painting and got the Zulus out on the table for their first games this year. They tend to produce nice nailbiting games. I lose a lot of men but if I focus on the objective I can bring out a win. I need to get better at using orders and remembering that phase. My master of ordnance has also suffered from my habit of forgetting him. Especially in my last game against guard where against massed concentrated Russes he cold have really helped. I'd like to get a bit of variety in the force which go's back to finishing the amour.
The chief problem with this army is keeping the squads straight each opponent I've played has had problems and so have I. I'm used to playing a foot ork horde nd keeping organise 100+ models and playing smoothly. However they operate far more individually and have far less units than this list. It could be a very serious problem as I often have survivors from multiple squads around an objective. If my opponent's not been keeping track he'll get rather annoyed when after doing a lot of wounds I only remove one model. This needs a solution and I've decided to paint each base rim of my regular Infantry platoon units in a primary colour. Blue for Blue Platoon, Green for Green Platoon. Nice and simple if not necessarily the prettiest solution. I'd rather drop appearance points than sportsmanship points any day of the week.
So next year what'll it hold. Rebasing the force and armour hopefully finishing by the end of winter. After that this project will end as while I've enjoyed it and the new Warlord Games Zulus and Perry Dervish models look mighty tempting I have no real need for more infantry. Some weapons vaariation would be nice but to be honest I'd rather change tack and start something else. Eventually I'd like to do another style of Guard regiment on the same style bases but we'll see.
Here's the new base style simple isn't it.
Cheers I don't think it's a good idea aesthetically speaking but it'll make gaming an awful lot simpler. At the end of the day these guys are a gaming army so thats got to be the priority. It'll be simple and obvious from about 4 feet which is whats needed.
I understand the budget issue. My budget has been limited due to shifting my available funds in other directions. I still look to eBay for any purchases. It's less expensive for me to fix someone mess to fit my army than to spend X3 that amount for the same item new.
The base idea is a good one, especially since your force is so huge and focused on gaming.
Speaking of "huge force", how about a family photo? It's been a while.
Cheers about the group photo it's on the cards for once the bases are done probably sometime in February as I'm back to my parents for most of the holidays. Got three squads done and I'm doing the repairs as I go along so they should look good for it.
Thanks Zariart. Got the First Platoon based up.
Simple but it'll work.
I've found 2 rather nice papercraft kits here
http://myhobbycraft.blogspot.com/view/magazine An APC with 8 wheels and the M977 Heavy Truck perfect for my 8x8's
Fluff for you rebasings going forward. i've got everything which won't take any repainting done and only three squads left. Here you go
35th Tekla Northern Pipe Line Supply Station Three 25 Kilometres North of Alpha Complex The waiting was getting to Refilwe. They’d made a good pace back to the main camp and got into the defense lines before the swarm arrived. The base camp was thankfully awake and alert. Refilwe was grateful for their lack of clothes as it meant it was easy to prove they hadn’t been taken by the Souleaters after a cursory expectation revealed the lack of fresh scars. Nobody who’d seen them could begrudge the time it took and the caution involved. He’d swiftly and simply related the strength and ETA of the attack force to Lieutenant Ayize. He was worried. The regiment was suffering probing attacks all along the northern pipeline. First Platoon Third Company was the furthest North of the Regiments position. To the North of this Supply Station was the barren inhospitable Drift Mountains and then the desolate Plain of St Land.
35th Tekla Northern Pipe Line Supply Station Three 25 Kilometres North of Alpha Complex It was Dingane who spotted the first sign of the attack. The Lascannon gunner on top of the bridge sounded the alarm; The first force had been spotted to the north. Refilwe relaxed slightly that was good it was the group he’d spotted. They weren’t yet encircled. Refilwe grinned as Madla began his prayers, loudly, he and the rest of the squad joined in. From all around the prayer began the bellowing of the Litany of War heartened him as the fifty nine men of Second Company Third Platoon joined in the chant “Emperor bestow upon us your righteous fury and your furious strength. Let us become the storm that blasts the enemy from your sight”. With that the Lascannons began sounding their crackling shots and the battle began. As the enemy began to lope across the field with their agile ferocity, Refilwe began observing them in closer detail. There were obviously four distinct types. The largest were the Warriors. After that there were three groups of similar monsters. Two of these had some kind of gun growth, one a disgusting cone and the other a bizarre sphincter. Closing even faster however was a group of long clawed beasts running quicker than a horse these were obviously going to hit first. Refilwe made his decision. The big bugs he’d leave to the Lascannons and Missile Launchers of the other squads. His squad would focus fire on these clawed beasts. Quickly he passed the order around. Madla frowned slightly at him presumably as it was against doctrine not to shoot the big ones first but had to concede that the Devastator fire team was better equipped for the task. As the first wave of clawed beasts hit range the Lasguns opened fire the combination of the open terrain and the skill of the Guardsman taking a terrible toll, but still they showed no fear, no emotion at all, swiftly covering the ground. It was then that a hideous spitting sound erupted. He heard the screams of his men around him but braced himself holding his pistol and shield at the ready. He couldn’t help them braced as he was for combat waiting for the beasts to reach the trench line. He had to trust them and pray to the Emperor there was enough left to hold the line. He swiftly rapped the signal for a grenade volley on his shield. Even the dozen or so dead from that didn’t lesson the tide. Sibusiso then fired a gout of fire torching several more then suddenly started screaming as a flying wyrm ripped through his face. Swiftly the scene descended into anarchy as the tide hit them. He began to hack at the horrid bone and sickly purple flesh that surrounded him. His Sail-Croc Club began to tell the deadly venom defeating even these creatures’ alien metabolisms. He could see the rest of his squad using bayonets and spears. It became an orgy of noise bloodshed and destruction the hideous ichors of the beasts causing burns all over his skin. Then as suddenly as the tide hit it began to slack and the pressure began to die down. Suddenly none were left and Refilwe realised that only half a dozen of the beasts had managed to charge even so he could see several of his men lying on the ground wounded or worse. Quickly he began to study the situation. The larger beasts had begun to retreat leaving several carcasses. They had obviously seen what had happened and decided to hold back. The two groups of shooting bugs had begun to follow them as well they’d obviously seen the demise of their fellows and decided to wait presumably for more of their kind. Refilwe grimaced and began to laugh the crazed joyous laugh of somebody who suddenly found himself alive.
35th Tekla Northern Pipe Line Supply Station Three 25 Kilometres North of Alpha Complex Ten minutes after the attack Refilwe was grimacing as well as Sibusiso both Phila and Buyisiwe were dead. He was in the infirmary having taken a shower on the LT’s insistence. Ayize had seen too many brave men overcome by the foul ichors’ burns that the Hungry Ones gave not to take that precaution. Dumusani and Bongai had both been seriously injured and would remain. They’d taken the brunt of the casualties and all the fatalities and still been lucky. The prepared defences had managed to kill at least thirty of the smaller bugs. However this had just been a probe. They also still had the minefields out on the flanks and the Mechanicus’s agreement to lay more on the northern road. It terrified Refilwe that the worst was yet to come. Mandla quietly came up to him “We served gloriously today Sergeant but our work is not yet done. Better we defeat the Hungry Ones here in the Wilderness than they get in amongst the Manufactoria citadels and begin to feast upon the civilians. We shall not let our friends sacrifices be in vain.”
Basing's nearing an end the only model's left are the more extreme touch up's and repair jobs.
35th Tekla Northern Pipeline Filtration Unit A 5 Kilometres N of Alpha Complex It had become almost a game by now, a deadly game of pop the balloon. The Lascannons had been firing randomly for half an hour competing between them to see who could kill it first. None had hit home since the first although a few had drifted into range of the alert squads below. Lieutenant Ezana had made the decision to use the Lascannons to engage the spores at maximum range making them far less of a danger. Sadly it pinpointed the location of the guns to the hive mind but that couldn’t be helped. He didn’t underestimate what the hive mind could do but knew that at the centre of the position the fire team was less vulnerable to infiltrators and frankly would be the main target of the longer range bugs anyway. It was then that he heard the call. One of the Lay Brothers ran towards him holding a laspistol and clutching the vox. He grinned at the young kid and dialled it on. The strong voice of Sithembile beamed through; “We’ve been hit all along the Northern Pipeline. As well as the bombardment you’ve been dealing with the Two-Twos have been hit by aerial assailants and a preliminary attack wave has hit the Third-Firsts. In response we’ll be sending a Valkyrie up to scout and Evac wounded. What direction is the bombardment coming from?”
“It’s from the North seems to be issuing from a crevasse on 37*6.7 I’ve decided not to pin point it further as I want to keep the platoon concentrated”
“Yes the Colonel and Commissar both agree with you. No point in giving the Hungry Ones an easy meal. ETA in 30 minutes, we’ll get the intel to you as soon as possible but priority has to be the Third-Firsts their looking awfully lonely out there”.
“Roger as the Emperor wills over”.
35th Tekla Rourke’s Drip Aerodrome. Briefing Room. Alpha Complex The eleven aircrew were prepared and ready as Wing Commander Corden entered the room. All veteran members of the Cobris PDF who had sworn blood debt to the Twenty Fourth after their defence of their home world they were all keyed up and itching for a small measure of vengeance against the hive fleet. “Defiance, Triumph stand down, Corsair we’re taking this one. “
The other two aircrews relaxed but remained. If Corsair came down with maintenance problems or an accident betrayed it they’d run the mission. The Cobris PDF also had a tradition that it was bad luck not to see a comrade of from the room before a flight.
“Air in fifteen people. This is a two part job first outs a snoop and shoot engaging targets of opportunity. In particular they want us to check out a probable Biovore nest at co-ordinates 37*6.7k from the Shrine of Saint Land’s pinnacle principalis. Apparently it’s bugging the Two Ones.”
A swift groan emitted from the audience. Corden grinned and continued.
“After that they want us to continue do a swift high flight looking for the main swarm around the Three-One’s position, we’ll then be evacuating wounded from both the Three Ones and Two Two’s. Airborne hostiles have been sighted including Harpies as well as Gargoyles and they are known to be lurking around the Two-Twos. Ground pounders have been confirmed in force to the North of the Three-One’s and several Warriors are known to be lurking around the outpost. However the bug battery is the primary target. The Colonel only wants us in the air as he’s decided to reserve two craft for other duties. In particular he wants us to be prepared for combat drops to the North as well as Hot Evacs so keep tight people we’re still on Scarlet Condition.”
The other crews grimaced. Scarlet meant staying in the Briefing Room and no intoxicants, it also meant the ground crews had to keep the planes fuelled and armed at all times. It meant mission orders could literally come in at any time and they would be expected to be in the air within five minutes.
35th Tekla Northern Pipeline Filtration Unit A 5 Kilometres N of Alpha Complex The comforting bellow of the Valkyrie’s Vectored Turbo-Jets called through the air as it headed towards the target co-ordinates. Suddenly it dipped down toward the grounds and shut its speed down. Ezana nodded obviously it was trying to avoid being spotted and wanted to make sure it caught the foe unprepared. Swiftly it went behind the peak. A few moments later a gout of fire burst out followed a second later by a great explosion. The Vox chirped again, “This is Corsair, three hostiles engaged, Biovores, all killed continuing mission”.
Ezana grinned “Thank you Corsair good hunting”.
“No problem Two-One”.
Quickly Ezana sent the victory beat which began echoing back with glee from his men’s shields. The Two Ones triumphant defiant beat called out against the horror of the hungry ones, the sound was of hope it was however desperately lonely in the desolate wilderness.
35th Tekla Mid Air near Northern Pipe Line Supply Station Three 39 Kilometres North of Alpha Complex Wing Commander Corden frowned there was very little sign of Tyranid activity. The valley wasn’t the swarming mass of activity he dreaded seeing. The skies were clear the horrific winged minions of the hive fleet were nowhere to be seen. This did not make him relax. He’d seen too many comrades die on Cobris to ever relax when the Tyranids were near; he also knew that relaxation was a combat pilot’s worst enemy too many things could go wrong without the enemy being involved to let his guard down in the air. Harridans were the worst common airborne menace although the intelligent Shrikes were serious foes. Gargoyles only really worried him when they got behind his craft although he’d seen them almost gleefully FOD themselves to take out a bird. Spore Mines were another menace but were too slow to be a huge peril to an observant and lucky pilot. Sky-Slashers were another threat he’d seen them actually take down an Orbital Lander during the initial guard landings on Cobris. Millions of them had swarmed over the craft until eventually enough had begun penetrating it’s mighty turbo-fans and vector thrusters to fill even that mighty machine with bits of chitin preventing the very air from getting into its mighty lungs. He’d known despair that day. Gradually however he’d seen the might of the Imperator’s glorious legions slowly take back his world liberating a tiny remnant of the once teeming population. After the campaign he’d seen only one option to swear the rest of his life and his men into the service of his world’s saviours.
It was another five minutes before he made contact with the host. They were teeming like insects down the valley. Another hundred of the Tyranids at least with only a few leader beasts within the host which was a good sign. They were spread out in the normal Tyranid manner. Before prey was encountered Gaunts often wandered almost by themselves always within about twenty yards of each other presumably to remain within communication but cover far more ground. Corden grimaced and made his order, “Corsair we continue onwards and continue scouting we’ll head higher to avoid ground fire and cover more ground. Brydon, Gervais you only have permission to engage synapse creatures within 100M with the Heavy Bolters as this is a scout mission people. Pollock be ready to take over if necessary engage only Synapse creatures within 100M as well. We’re aiming to reach 100km out and conserve ammo”.
It was then that he saw it and swore a bellowing mass of tiny creatures like bats had issued out from behind one of the peaks. He recognised the sky-slasher swarm and shuddered. Without missiles their options against the swarm was limited. “Disengage order issued by Wing Commander Jason Corden. Men we’re going home. Record that in the log Pollock and note that I take full responsibility”. He then put the pedal to the metal and accelerated like a fish from a shark.
35th Tekla Rourke’s Drip Aerodrome. Visitor’s Lobby. Alpha Complex Corden was grateful that the Chief Commissar was a veteran he’d failed to achieve his primary objective and only achieved his secondary mission. He knew some Commissars would perceive the disengage order as cowardice but Valentinian was enough of a pragmatist to understand that the decision of an officer to protect his command was in some circumstances the right one. He hoped that would be enough.
“So Wing Commander Corden under your command the Valkyrie Corsair on this the 35th of Tekla failed to complete the assigned primary objective of a short range recon to a point a 150km north down the Northern pipeline?”
“Yes sir under my own personal command against the strenuous objections of my crew.” Valentinian raised his eyebrows at that point and frowned his grizzled scarred features possibly about to break into a look of approval at the obvious attempt to protect the Wing Commander’s men. Most Commissars wouldn’t appreciate those who attempted to shield the men under their command from official disapproval. Valentinian was known to be different. An attempt to shield a trouble maker from him would be met with rigorous censure but an attempt to cover ones subordinates from the consequences of their commander’s decisions was actually respected by the man underneath the cap Corden suspected. Not that it would buy him mercy if Valentinian decided he did not deserve it. “We had not made engagement with the bulk of the swarm when the appearance of a vanguard of Sky-Slashers appeared. Their numbers had reached at least two hundred before my decision was made and at least nine hundred pursued us as the onboard cameras will show.”
“Yet your heavy Bolters and Multi-Lasers did not discharge any shots?”
“No sir but as a veteran pilot I know they are not an effective defence against that many Sky-Slashers if I’d had Hell-Strikes I’d have expended them at range and seen the results. Against two hundred Sky- Slashers we may have stood a chance with our regular armaments and my crack crew but we’d have been badly damaged imperilling the secondary mission. I had already suspected that was just the precursors to the swarm and against the other seven hundred we’d have stood little chance of surviving due to the FOD risk.”
“Hmm that would concur with my assessment to be honest Wing Commander. It’s a shame you couldn’t recover any more useful information. Return to the Squadron for now”.
“Thank you Sir”.
“You and your men are a valuable asset and I’ve seen you operate often enough to know your no coward Corden. Can you prepare a full evacuation for the Three-One’s?”
“No Sir not without them taking significant casualties”
“Prepare for it anyway Corden”.
“Yes Sir”.
Basings finished. I'll be busy for a while with a new job starting in the West Country commute will be a pig but meh the money will be good and I like travel. The real fun is that I get to find out by 2 on Friday if I start on Monday or not. If I don't then I'll try and get a group shot done for you. If I do I'll still try.
I really like this recent tech-priest... he makes me think mystical spiritual, mysterious shaman. You may have said earlier, but what is the base model? I may need to use such a nice midsection for my own designs.
*Hopes someone gets the referance*
. I stupidly forgot that you highlight LIGHTER and shade DARKER therefore when I applied my wash all the parts which should be darker became lighter making them look much worse 
