Having modelled and played Mordheim for several years in my youth, I've semi-recently picked up the trade again with my eyes on a 40K army. WH40K was the game that initially drew me to Games Workshop games, but the shine of RPG elements, the setting and primarily the small armies (warbands) of Mordheim was appealing to me in my highschool days. Still a great game, one I haven't been able to enjoy since I began college.

So, two or three years ago (with very large inactivity gaps), I began collecting and painting an Imperial Guard army. Dakka Dakka has provided alot of inspiration for me, and I wanted to exhibit my labours of joy for all you gentle readers and perviewers of small metallic or plastic men and aliens that kill each other in vicious and horrific ways.

Thus, I present to you, without further addo; Attican 13th, 7th Company!

Looks great bud! But I must ask, where did you get that Commander with the great coat? I have never seen that model before.

First you have a normal Guardsman, fairly recently painted. Just as a preview of the colour-scheme I've used. I was inspired by reading about the Fall of Medusa campaign, and the desert-urban enviorment occationally portrayed there. I've imagined them as a sort of Afrika Korp style army, mashed with the Starship Trooper-ness of the Cadians.

Second is the illustrious Colonel Raines. As many of you can no doubt spot immidietly, he's mostly a Krieg Commander, but with his head exchanged. I didn't want a completely unconverted commander (nor did the gasmasks fit my vision), so off the head went. I swapped it for a Space Marine sergeant head I found on some SM-sprue. I had to do some whittling to get the base of that head down in size to fit the body. With some greenstuff, I masked the bionics on one side into a form of respirator. The hair is also greenstuff, combed over his bionic scalp in a touch of vanity. I figure if you've given the Emperor your face, a vice or two is permitted It also allows me to cover up the rather ugly work I did in the back of the head to make it fit.

Following is the rest of my command platoon. Colour-Sergeant Garland as a standard-bearer, the vox-caster with a GPS-ish thingamajing, the combat medic and the final trooper.

The whole command platoon was painted over a year ago when Flesh Wash was available to us. The first Guardsman is a fairly new addition and uses the Devlan Mud wash instead.


Automatically Appended Next Post:

Manstein wrote:Looks great bud! But I must ask, where did you get that Commander with the great coat? I have never seen that model before.

That's the Forge World Death Corps of Krieg Commander they have. I think Ursarkar Creed looks awesome, and when I found another model with a coat over it's shoulders, I just had to have it and convert it

Love this. Very clean but strong colors you have on these guys. All the characters seem to have a lot of emotion too. Are these the only ones done or can we see more?

Maj.Winters wrote:Love this. Very clean but strong colors you have on these guys. All the characters seem to have a lot of emotion too. Are these the only ones done or can we see more?

Haha! I have quite a few more, like my Veteran Sergeant, unpainted Veterans, a few Penals, two painted Infantry Squads, a Stormtrooper for scheme analysis... yeah, a few others. but I'm pacing myself At this bat, I'm mainly concerned with what you guys think of the colour scheme and setup.

Adendum: I am kinda unhappy with the photo qualities. The picture is just a tad too sharp, and I had to take like 10 shots of each model to get the right lighting. I have more pics taken, but for the rest of this, I'll try to play around a bit with the resolution. It's an old digital camera (althoughbeit a quite good one back in the day).

This reminds me alot of my color scheme. I also wanted to go with urban style but on the cuffs of them i used a red dull accent which turned out great.

Allright, a closer look at the Colonel. (Name and rank still under advisement. Feel free to add input on what or who you think he looks like)

Also, it bears to note, that as late as last night, I did some additions to his coat highlights to enhance the drybrush he's been content with for like... two years. The bionic side of his face is wider than his collar, which was a problem. I extended it a bit downwards to make it into a respirator. The idea is that the larger metallic box is kindof an audio device, while the blue tube either supplies oxygen or power to his mechanized face. He is NOT a terminator, as it may appear, but rather severely grafted with bionics after an otherwise fatal wound. I'd think that underneath his armor and coat is more augmentations. A fun fact about the green-stuff hair; You can see that the roots are only attached to the organic part of his head. The story-idea is that he's kind of self-conscious about his deformity and combs his hair over the metal skull to try and mitigate it. The story isn't far from the truth, since I needed the hair to cover the ugly chipping and whittling I had to do at the back of his head to make it fit.

Next up will be the Colonels closest. His bodyguards. I was aiming for something that stod apart from the regular army, was closely linked with the Colonel (as if these guys were from his aristocratic house rather than the army) but didn't stand out like an eye-sore either. Then it hit me; I had quite a few Kriegers left from Forge World Krieg Command Squad! Time for another set of head-swaps, and replacing their lasguns with chainswords/laspistols. No biggie.

No. 1 (less' call him that for now) is the one I like the most. Catachan head with a greenstuff mechanized infantry cap, like the one on the standard bearer Colour-Sergeant Garland. It wasn't nearly as tricky as I first thought. The actual cap could be thinner though. And closer to his eyes. I also added a scar (two cents to the fella who can figure out to whom that is an homage to) to further make it seem like he's been with his Colonel a while. Or maybe just looked up to the Colonel enough to try and mimic his face

No. 2 (only in the group shot) is alot more standard. He was originally another Command squad member with a head from the Forge World Cadian conversion kit.

Concerning both: The chainswords are from the same SM-sprue as the Colonel's head. I wanted a spiffier kind of chainsword for them, and with some greenstuff on the sleeve, the SM-gauntlet worked well to simulate carapace armor (which is all over the command squad in small tweeks). It also gave them nicer chainswords to kinda-signify their WS4 and higher status than ordinary guardsmen. Not to mention the sash or the officers-plate on their chests.


Automatically Appended Next Post:
PS: I've left the squad insignia clear on the bodyguards' shoulders. the command squad is refered to as "700", but I didn't want them associated with the squad, per say. I'm toying with giving them a heraldic motif with Raine's initials or something in that line to tie them more to their commander than with the army. Any ideas or tips?

And now the shots of my single Stormtrooper are in. I originally made the scheme from the last codex (4th? The one before the current) where Stormtroopers have infiltration by default. I figured they were using some sort of stealth tech (considering the models aren't very sneaky) so I drew alot of inspiration from the Tau Stealth-suits. In the current codex, as drop-troops, the design might not be as indicative, but I think it still works.

holy wow... that is awsome stuff really love the commander

I love the stormtrooper!!!

wow cool stuff but if you dont mind me asking what did you do with the death korps gas mask heads from the command squad?
Also everything looks great I like the commander and the stormtrooper is pretty cool too.

Vlad Von Carstien wrote:wow cool stuff but if you dont mind me asking what did you do with the death korps gas mask heads from the command squad?
Also everything looks great I like the commander and the stormtrooper is pretty cool too.

Oh, of course! Ask, ask, ask. I need every bit of feedback I can get to push me. I just took your average GW-clippers to them. The masks were surprisingly easy to clip off if you were just careful not to damage the collars. I kept the helmets around, even if I couldn't save the masks themselves, for a rainy day. I still have the vox-caster and standard bearer along with a regular trooper from that pack that I haven't found a use for. Yet

awesome stuff...
your painting and color scheme makes for some really nice lookjing models...
definitely a striking color scheme, i approve

Wow, great attention to detail, very clean highlighting. Terrific stuff!

Your Army is great. I love the Colonel but in my opion he should be a General.
Where did you get the heads, mainly the 1 for the bodyguard on the left of the Commander.
Nice paint scheme ist's different, i like different

Commissar Agro wrote:Your Army is great. I love the Colonel but in my opion he should be a General.
Where did you get the heads, mainly the 1 for the bodyguard on the left of the Commander.
Nice paint scheme ist's different, i like different

Oh, Raines would love to hear you say that Truth be told, giving him a General rank might not be off the table. I played around with the title "Marshal" or "Field-Marshal" with Rommel in mind. But I wasn't quite sure how high that'd put him in the Imperial command. Tell you what, right now it'd be silly for a General to only have a few squads of infantry under him, but when I start getting a few thousand points under him, I might give him a promotion

The on the bodyguard to the left of Raines is from a Forge World "Cadian conversion" kit or possibly the "Cadian Vets with shotguns" kit. I ordered both at about the same time, so I'm unsure which specifically. But you can easily find them by browsing their products gallery.

And thanks for all the input, guys! I've never had anywhere to have my models appraised by hobbyists (only people that aren't part of the hobby) so this is just great!

PS. As late as last night I made some quick fixes on Raines (and my vet sergeant that you'll get pics of soon[tm]), on the leather straps. I noticed that the leather on him glared something fierce in the camera flash. It was just snakebite with flesh wash over before, but now I upgraded it to what I use as standard now; Snakebite with Devlan Mud over, adding a few highlights of snakebite again. The result is a duller tone that doesn't take away from all the brass and gold on him, which I'm very happy with. I'll get new pics of him later. First I'll try to sort out a better camera which can handle pictures without the flash.

I love that Colonel.

Looks like an absolute badass.

They are really nice, and the SM head looks really different with hair! I didn't recognise it Nice stuff!

Wow! love your army man it certenly is pure awesome! keep this blog going I am already subscribed and will follow your work for sure! About the the paint scheme I must say you truly captured the look that you were going for with the urban dessert style i think it looks just great! So keep it up and lets make this colonel of yours a general PS: hej!

//Avach

Thanks! It's worth more than anything short of a golden Daemon to hear your appriciation of the work, guys!

As it stands now, I'm working on getting my hands on a camera that might not be as sensitive as mine is without flash, so I can upload smoother pictures with ambient lighting instead. Then I'll put up some fresh pictures.

Untill then, I've got another hero of the 7th Company; My Veteran Sergeant. I'm not sure what to call him yet. Been playing with names like "Kostler", "Stark", "Stranski", "Yeager" and even "de Sade". Ideas are mucho appriciated

great work I like the seargent, call him Veteran Sergeant Krieger or Hauser.

I say that sgt Sark would be very perfect for him go with it.

//Avach


Automatically Appended Next Post:
sorry misspelling it should be *Stark.



Automatically Appended Next Post:
Love the converted powerfist! Is it the one from the CSM sprue right? And a really cool Barret for him. did you make it out of grennstuff?

//Avach

Avach wrote:Love the converted powerfist! Is it the one from the CSM sprue right? And a really cool Barret for him. did you make it out of grennstuff?

Actually, it's from a normal SM-sprue I had a'lying around. The same sprue I got the head for the Colonel and the chainswords for the bodyguards. And yes, the beret is a home-made concoction outta greenstuff. I don't have any WIP pictures of him though, I'm afraid. The rolled up sleeve on his left arm is also greenstuff, which I'm quite happy with the effect of

Ok! yeah sorry I forgot about the sleeve. But good work on that one aswell cause it looks very natural and the highligt of the color truly makes it standout. So keep up the good work! And if it is not a to personal question. Where in sweden do you live? Cause it would be fun to play a game sometime?

//Avach

In the Gothenburg area. And I'm afraid I'm still far away from a working army I have no armor whatsoever except for a sole Chimera. Figured I'd get a steady base of infantry before bringing out the big guns

Gothenburg thats not to far away perhaps a game then one day. But sure make sure you get some tanks first. And when you do take pictures of them so all of us on dakka can see them. Yes infantry is A and O to imperial guard, I should know I have painted about a hundred or so of them. And still they are in short supply on the battlefield. Cause they die like flies.

//Avach

Allright fellas. I'm gonna need your input on this. I managed to get a fair shot of my one Chimera with ambient lighting. However, this is like... virtually my first tank ever (except for a Land Raider like... 10 years ago which is abhorrent for me to look at nowadays) and I need feedback on how to go along with it. Concider this a WIP for now.

what I need is input on what and/or if I should add those... y'know, stripes that most any tank in any IG army recieve. On the sides at the front, just over the suspension. The tank looks sort of naked as it stands. Up by the turret I imagine I should put the squad insignia number that'll be riding in it (which will in the future be squad 721) but even there, I need input if I should paint a coloured background for the insignia? In short, what do you guys think is missing?

Personally the ID stripes should fit the fluff or style of the army. I'd personally be tempted to go for some heraldric design or as you've got the talent for it nose art style markings. I'd also put something on top of it to act as aerial recognition markings. It should include regimental and company markings. Having it echo the markings on the banner makes sense as well. Usually I'd rrecommend weathering but the rest of the army is so spick and span that it doesn't make sense.


Automatically Appended Next Post:
Beautiful stuff by the way and wonderful green stuffing work I love the Para' (the Sergeant model) he looks like a Collins to me!

Aw, you're making me blush. But in a good way

Aerial markings I hadn't thought of, but that'd make sense. I plan on having at least one Valkyrie and Deep Striking stormtroopers, so there'd be aerial support for this company. And a large XIII over the top hatch could look kinda cool. But if I'm gonna go into heraldic pictures and nose art, I'm going to have to start thinking more about the fluff of the army. Background and culture. And I haven't even dared to touch the battle-standard that Colour-Sergeant Garland carries around. It's so awfully folded that I find the prospect of painting it's heraldic a nightmare. I've put it off since I decided to use that model... I mean, free-handing a flat surface can be daunting too, and those folds just makes it a nightmare.

And let's blame the cleanliness of the army on their natural enviorment and not my laziness, shall we?

So, given this, any ideas on heraldry? Desert, city-fighters. My spontaneous thought was lion-motifs. A pride of desert lions would prolly fit into their iconography well. Even if it's just the mascot of this company. It'd also fit well with what I've imagined'd be their standard tactic. A firing base with an armored fist platoon escorted by a hellhound squad going around the flank to disrupt the enemy lines. Sorta similar to how a pride of lions hunt. The regal stature of lions'd also fit with that... almost Prussian arrogance that at least the commander exhumes.

Beautiful work, especially fond of the commander and colour sergeant. It's the little details that bring out the models.

Wow your work is truley stunning

The Lion definitely makes an awful lot of sense a Fox is far to obvious as is a Rat.....I'd also be inclined to suggest a fun alien creature based on what you feel you can paint. A serpent would be pretty simple and a Scorpion rather cool. For a Prussian style the Aquila makes a lot of sense to me!....Weathered or not isn't a matter of laziness its a matter of personal preferrence. You actually put a lot more of time into your models than I do even though mine are weathered.

Hm, I probably would have tried some weathering allready if I didn't miss my fave colour of all time. The backdrop is that I hadn't picked up the brush for over a year since... oh, a month or so ago. When I got the painting-groove back and looked over what needed to be done and what I had waiting to be painted, I noticed with little surprised that my whole assortment of paints were dried out. Like, completely. They looked like dry-cracked mud flats. Rather depressing really So what I gone and had to do was start buying all new paints. All of them. I'm pacing myself, and I still haven't had need for a yellow spectrum (Garland was painted before my hiatus) or my favorite colour; Bubonic Brown. With that one, I think I'm gonna try and make some dust-ish weathering.

Anyway, gonna get those paints and then start working on the tank heraldic. I found a few lion profiles on the net that I'm basing the heraldry on and which I've been practising on paper before I commit them to the tank. The company standard flag still intimidates me however, with it's folds. Anyone have any tips on putting freehand imagery on such a difficult surface?

I'm going to be moving this week, so it's unlikely I'll have much time getting you fellas updates. But bear with me, after the move I got approximately three weeks free to model and paint. Then I'll offer you up a whole lot more stuff[tm]. If not before, I'll start working on above projects concerning the tank and standard. I also have my whole squad of vets to prime and paint once I've moved. And I'm working on modelling my Penal Legionaires which'll be badass Catachan's with shaved heads and explosive collars.

Oh, wait. I do have something new to post. The only thing I've had primed recently was a heavy weapons squad. So, to keep up my momentum, I have gotten to painting them. I finished the first Heavy Bolter yesterday. What follows now is an Autocannon and another Heavy Bolter.

All your work looks great!

Wolfed wrote:
So, given this, any ideas on heraldry? Desert, city-fighters. My spontaneous thought was lion-motifs. A pride of desert lions would prolly fit into their iconography well. Even if it's just the mascot of this company. It'd also fit well with what I've imagined'd be their standard tactic. A firing base with an armored fist platoon escorted by a hellhound squad going around the flank to disrupt the enemy lines. Sorta similar to how a pride of lions hunt. The regal stature of lions'd also fit with that... almost Prussian arrogance that at least the commander exhumes.

If you want a nice way of filling in those blank spots (in addition to unit heraldry) you could also add in vehicle name, divisional/campaign markings and tactical insignia.

I came up with some half-assed background for my regiment that lets me steal modern UK unit markings (Example, Russ Resolve and chums)

St Andrew's cross is regimental (other parts of the division use St George's cross), Number is unit marking and the blue and yellow thing is the tactical flash of an Edinburgh armoured regiment.

Okay... so, I've been working on my Chimera some more to try and give it a bit more life. And I really need your help with a few items.

First off, my biggest concern: I added yellow to the tank, which will be this company's... flag colour so to speak. Garland's banner is yellow, and I think it serves the colour-scheme well to stand out but not clash. But when I had painted the tank without any heraldry, just with the base of yellow, it struck me how similar the colour-scheme became the Space Wolves Chapter. I'm still convinced yellow is the way to go with my Company, and I took a few small meassures to distinguish my Chimera from the SW-scheme. But I need to know what you think, or if you have any ideas of what more I can do. Mainly, what I did was to add just a few stripes of white and red on the turret to break it apart from the two-colour monotomy.

Second; the heraldry. Painted on the right side of the tank on the yellow field is a design I've played with this weekend after Llamahead's suggestion. I like how it turned out on the tank ,but again. With the yellow and grey, it's very similar to the SW Chapter's symbol of a wolf. Ideas, thoughts?

I'm not sure I want to change anything fundamental like the flag-colour or the heraldry itself... but rather ways to offset the tank from SW. Or am I largly imagining things? Is it not as big a deal as I concider it? I know, the most important thing is for me to be comfortable with my minis, but please, some feedback on my concerns.

PS. I'm gonna add some weathering and scrapes too, but not too much. Just a bit of dusting along the tracks and some chips to make the hull look like actual metal.


Automatically Appended Next Post:
PSS: Should I try and replicate the heraldry on the left side aswell? Should it be mirrored (facing forward) or the same profile? Should I put something on the yellow right above the suspension?

I don't think it links into the Wolves that much. They use quite a muted palette for thier yellows, the vibrancy of yours is a nice contrast. If you're not happy though, maybe a little extra deep (scab/etc) red on some little raised details? Maybe the sides of the track guards?

And once again I got stuck up late, finishing some paintjob. But this tuesday night it wasn't just any paintjob. I overtook my dreaded project of painting the Company Standard so that Garland won't have to lug around a single-coloured rag anymore. I ran with a lion-motif I found on the net and coloured it a bit. I'm very pleased with the result myself, but I'm not sure the flag is quite finished. I'm concidering throwing in some red and gold in there to give it some... legitimacy, y'know. The two options I'm currently concidering is either 1; Painting a red cross behind the lion with golden border or 2; Painting a red rim around the flag with a golden inner border. I'm kinda leaning towards the diagonal cross. Thoughts?

That's some great motif work right there.
Personally, I like the idea of a bordered flag, but up to you good sir.

Disjointed Entity wrote:That's some great motif work right there.
Personally, I like the idea of a bordered flag, but up to you good sir.

Thanks man! Yeah, I don't know what but I want something more on there. Red and gold I think would work... maybe if I do borders try to make some inscribing work like on the Vet Sergeant's knife holster on the red? I don't know, but something to make the banner more... regal.

It looks brilliant and I'm delighted to give you encouragement and impetus I'd trust your instincts and go with the diagonal cross if thats what you reckon would look best.

Llamahead wrote:It looks brilliant and I'm delighted to give you encouragement and impetus I'd trust your instincts and go with the diagonal cross if thats what you reckon would look best.

I'm real happy to get all the feedback from actual hobbyists. Thanks!

Yeah, as said, leaning towards diagonal cross with golden trim. I'm no fan of walling off the white completely from the yellow. And making it a straight cross like my nations flag for example makes it look too much like a regional flag here abouts that I don't want to associate my army to

I hear what you're saying. Desiging flag schemes is a pain. Maybe quater it but diagonally? Like :

_
|X|

Kinda. If I could draw on this thing it would help.

I like the banner bearer, is the model based on the grizmund model that forgeworld does?

Young_Logan wrote:I like the banner bearer, is the model based on the grizmund model that forgeworld does?

Yeah, that's his name. As said, I saw in some... feature army in a White Dwarf or... something and really liked him. Then I spottred him on Forge World while browsing for ways to make my army characters stand out, and I just got hooked on him. Of course, it wasn't untill I had painted most of him that I came to the realisation that the banner itself was a bitch to get a picture on


Automatically Appended Next Post:
Oh, Logan, you as a Space Wolf:er, whatcha think about my concerns about the tank (that it might look a bit too Space Wolfy)?

Allright, beside moving and aclimatizing myself to my new abode, I've been working on Garland's standard. It's been a ride of experimentations, do-overs, paint-overs and cursing. But I think I've managed to get into a moderately finished state. 'Lo and behold. Also, trying out a new camera that can-ish take pics without the flash to give you a better look at how the colours naturally look.

Looking nice!

Looking extremely nice the red gives it that contrast and really draws the eye!

Okay, finally something new. Between moving and... erm... well, Red Dead Redemption, I haven't done AS MUCH as I have done previously in April. But I've now finally painted my platoon command and have my first platoon at my command. Once I have a sturdy amount of infantry, this platoon (the 71st) will get reinforcements with another squad and some specialists like snipers, but for now it's done. I've also done some work on my Chimera (again ) for another try. I kinda like it, even though I'm sure I'll add some more markings as I go. I've wanted to add kill markings, but I'd rather do that after a few games and actual kills. Gives it more life than simply racking up any number I wish

Here's another detail of my the 71st platoon command with it's hip-firing bolter captain and his psycho, plasma totting madmen. The platoon is designed to be a firing line. A sturdy, objective capping stronghold with heavy weapons and firepower. Well, as much firepower as Guardsmen can bring to bear. I'll also add a sniper squad, another infantry squad and at least one more heavy weapon squad in due time. Thus, I wanted the command to reflect this and forgo the standard close combat weapons setup. The Catachan Captain in the Codex inspired me to make a bolter-wielding captain, and with some greenstuff and a chopped up flamer arm, the captain got his bolter.

Nice army you got there, I especially like the commander, though I think a desert-color chimera fits the theme better, but gray's fine too.

Loving it

Bolter captian looks great, I so want to do that now!

I know it's been a while since you post pictures of him, but did you convert the commander or is he just a beautifully painted model?
btw i LOVE your guard

Oh, his head is from an SM-sprue (a bit whittled down to fit) and his hair is greenstuff (mostly to cover up said whittling) But yes, I am rather proud of him.

I got the desire to have a commander with one of those coats since I saw the current Creed-model. But I didn't want that exact model... partly due to it being so standard fair, partly due to his wargear not being very convertable. So when I spotted the FW Krieg commander, I knew I had a good base for conversion.

As a non-pic update; I'll soon be posting my second platoon command squad, and I've started working on my Vets. May upload them later today. I've got one awesome powersword/chainsword combo-weapon, a cigar-smoking firebat and my first shotgunner vet in store in particular

Allright, it's time for some updates. I've still not learnt how to pace text and pics, so here I go with a descript

First off, I finished off my second Command Platoon, the command that will be leading my Armoured Fist platoon. The commander has a powersword/chainsword that I thought was an awesome idea. I cut out a chainsword "blade" from a chainsword hilt to fit a powersword in there. When I just laid the powersword blade over the chainsword to see if the length and thickness was good, the teeth of the chainsword showed in the powersword gap (y'know, the space between the crossguard and the actual blade. The blade was from the catachans, and I had cut away the serated teeth on that). From that visage I imagined a chainsword ending in a powersword edge. Just had to go with it, y'know Otherwise, the captain is pretty much tank commander parts.

Most of the squad members were from my first draft 710 command squad, so not much there to comment on. The flamer is the newest addition there though, that I painted just last week and assembled from the command squad sprue. Awesome cigar-totting flamer. An homage either to Starcraft's Firebat marines, or one other cultural reference that is elsewhere also represented in my army (I've still not heard anyone catching up on it ), but I just call him "the firebat" or quote "Need a light?" every time I refer to him.

And lastly, I've begun with my Vets. They've been assembled and converted for ages, but I've just now gotten the courage to paint them. I still have 8 very individual fellas left of them, and I'm gonna thuroughly enjoy painting the lot. The first up is a pretty standard soldier from the squad with a shotgun. Also he has a sort of HUD-display on his helmet that I was a bit torn about how to paint (if I should add a crosshair or any other blinkies), but I decided just to go with a blue glow-ish thing. It'll hopefully be seperated from the glasses I'll do on a few other Vets. It was also kinda interesting to finally get to paint the FW Cadian shotguns and see what's what on them.

PS: I love Badab Black for metal surfaces. Just an fyi

Nice update! but I think the display on the veterans hemtet should be painted in a diferent colour to stand out more maybe?? It's looking very similar to the colour of the armour as it is now imho.

Good so far keep it up!

Rose_Mountainz wrote:Nice update! but I think the display on the veterans hemtet should be painted in a diferent colour to stand out more maybe?? It's looking very similar to the colour of the armour as it is now imho.

Hm, "the camera doesn't make the colouration credit" is sort of a lame excuse, but I can't come up with a better one The blue displays lights run throughout my whole army, and I aimed for it intentionally. A way for their optical interfaces to stand out in a yellow desert enviorment. I hear what you're saying, but I think that alot of the melded colour is due to my gakky camera fething up both with and without lighting. Thanks for the feedback

Definately a nice looking force. The vehicles are looking much more interesting now you've put on all the randomg bits and bobs such things tend to have painted on them

Also does your heavy flamer guy sell propane or propane accessories?

Flinty wrote:
Also does your heavy flamer guy sell propane or propane accessories?

and more

Nice use of FW shotguns, i like the HF, he is just badass

I am really likeing the FW conversion kit

This will be very nice looking army indeed! Great job, keep it up.

Allright, a small update. I haven't gotten much work done recently. One excuse is the weather, one is school work (I know, summer-school right?) and another's just time. But work has been done after all, and here's the next Vet.

Not much about him, he's the radioman for the squad. I wanted a different look for him with his gear that set him apart from the rest of my radio operators, and 'lo and behold, I found a different styled backpack that worked wonders (I will never be grateful enough that I picked up a Catachan squad for the 'its and bitzes). Head's from that FW Vet sprue. I chopped off the end of the lasgun after seeing a pic here on Dakka (can't recall whose model it was I saw, but cred goes to him neway! ), partly to make the model stand out a bit more and partly because I felt the light-weight, more compact style suited these airborne veterans. The idea is that the shorter barrel makes the gun lighter, less cumbersome and wieldy in the confines of a Valkyrie carrier. Possibly, it might even boost the firing-rate of the lasgun, so I actually played with some "counts-as" rules about it being rules-ways a shotgun, but I discarded it. I know it's generally not a good idea to mix weapon-types in a squad, but I did want a lasgun or two just to tie them together with that Guardsman feel, y'know Can't defend the Emperor without flashlights, now can we?


Automatically Appended Next Post:
PS. No idea why my camera decides to change colouring on the back and front photos. Can it have something to do with what colours are present in the picture, and that the skin tones make the whole picture tinted?

Allright, another Hardened Veteran finished. This time, it's one of the melta-gunners. I had some fun with the Melta itself as I wanted something to make it stand out, but not to be as garish as the Chaos meltas.

Damn dude, you got some painting skills, keep them coming

Okay, so... in my honest defence, I did assemble my Hardneed Veterans from the (I think 3rd?) last edition of the IG Codex, and not the latest. So, witting on the jon, I suddently catch that one of their special weapons can be a Heavy Flamer. Concidering I had allready planned on a simple flamer, it seems perfect. Only problem is I've allready assembled a Flamer, primed it, and have no Heavy Flamers to go. Now, I'd like some feedback from you folks. Do I keep my flamer, and make a heavy flamer at a later time and place when I have the appropriate sprues for it, do I try to mod the current flamer into a spruest up variant that counts as a heavy flamer, or what?

I don't really like the idea of adding more piping to the existing flamer cause that's... partly, alot of work and partly it might not look very nice in the end. So what I'm thinking now is maybe just add something small, like an auxiliary fuel or propellant tank. What do you guys think? Below is a pic of the Vet Flamer assmebled and primed.

Great looking models, nice and clean paint. As for the flamer, i would start again to be honest, then you will end up 100% happy, but if you do want to add something, the tank from a SM flamer should do the trick.

Hits_the_spot wrote:Great looking models, nice and clean paint. As for the flamer, i would start again to be honest, then you will end up 100% happy, but if you do want to add something, the tank from a SM flamer should do the trick.

Yeah, I was looking at that. It'd be quite simple to just file the bottom of the flamer down and add that tank there between the tubes and the fuel hose. Oh well, we'll see. I wager I'd have to get a second Cadian Command Squad box if I want another plastic Heavy Flamer. Though that might not be a bad thing, cause those sprues are awesome.

PS. On the gaming side of things, are those 15pts really worth it to put a heavy flamer there instead? I've allways got a mind to get everything I can outta my miniatures, and that S5 AP4 template would sure be nice against other infantry. but if it's worth the pts to put into a near-standard trooper? I've got very little WH40K gaming experience, so whatcha think?

Personally I play all of my vets with a Chimera and 3 Meltas and that's it.

Get the Chimera to the side/rear armour of an aopponent and fire 3 meltas from the hatch. It works out at around 155 pts I think.

However, if you want your vets to be used as an anti-infantry only unit then specailze them to things likeheavy Flamers, Heavy Bolters etc.

Disjointed Entity wrote:Personally I play all of my vets with a Chimera and 3 Meltas and that's it.

Get the Chimera to the side/rear armour of an aopponent and fire 3 meltas from the hatch. It works out at around 155 pts I think.

However, if you want your vets to be used as an anti-infantry only unit then specailze them to things likeheavy Flamers, Heavy Bolters etc.

I allways make that mistake, I try to make cool gak the Jack of all Trades. Little to no specialization. My vision of my Vets is a sort of strike team that can tackle most gak. Their shotguns are great for staying mobile and clearing out light infantry like Orks or Nids, while their meltabombs, democharge, meltas and that powerfist make them capable of melting tanks too. I kinda like the idea of a flamer with them, partly because I think the modelling opportunity to make a badass is great, and partly because I feel I might need it.

Alas, ideas have allready started cropping up in my head with a Vet with a Heavy Flamer and a pair of those Ork-ish pilot goggles. Likr blasting goggles or sumthin'. I'd however need to find myself a good Heavy Flamer or start converting heavily on a standard flamer to get it. but untill I've got the rest of my Vets painted, I'll let that project be. I still have one more Melta and then four other Vets to paint.

After that, I'll need to do some sculpting with my Penals anyway (seeing as they need some more clothes than the base Catachans and also explosive collars), so I can pitch into another Vet then.

Yeah I do find that unsupported my vets get trashed. But I keep a 30 strong Platoon purely Anti Infantry and let Sentinels and Vets deal with the rest.

Anyway, sorry for thread jacking!

Disjointed Entity wrote:Yeah I do find that unsupported my vets get trashed. But I keep a 30 strong Platoon purely Anti Infantry and let Sentinels and Vets deal with the rest.

Anyway, sorry for thread jacking!

No no, go ahead. I started this partly to talk setups and discuss the IG and what I might do with mine

Also, I finished the second Melta gunner for my Hardened Veterans. I really like how this model and the gun conversion came out.




Automatically Appended Next Post:
PS. Too late for ambient light to do the trick so I positioned my work-lamp a bit infront of him, but I wanted to get him out here ASAP. The PVA holding the basing hasn't even dried yet

Nice I likes it!

Loving your smooth paint scheme! Also really good-looking Command Squad/Veteran guardsmen! I wish I had the cash to buy Forgeworld stuff. Oh well. Keep it up!

HEJA SVERIGE! Had to say it

Looks good, I love the use of the strap for the melta taken from a flamer. Looks good, I did that myself too...to a varying degree of success...

On Space Marines, the Meltagun looks just fine, but on the Guardsmen it just seems horribly... over-weight. Just felt appropriate that they'd strap it. there's a strap outta Greenstuff on the first Melta aswell, although that doesn't show very well in that picture.

That's why I like the addition of a hand grip as well, lord only knows what sort of recoil something like that would kick up!
I always envision the first Dining room scene in Ghostbusters.

Hahah! Well, actually, considering that Meltaguns don't use rounds for ammunition, but induce directed microwaves to evaporate the target by mixing and heating gases, I don't think it gives off much if any recoil. But it just looks so damned... unwieldy.

Great work I'd agree that building a different trooper with a Heavy Flamer is a good idea or a blatantly different conversion for the state of WYSIWYG just to keep from confusing yourself when the squad gets embroiled in action. Mind this'll be less of a problem if they are all Heavy Flamers.

I did a modded heavy flamer for my PCS. I'm really not fond of the new Guard heavy flamer. It jsut looks too macro.

I figure that a heavy flamer fires the same stuff, just more of it and potentially at a higher rate of fire. Hence I added a heavier feed pipe and an additional fuel tank on the back. I also altered the muzzle in order to keep it different to the other flamers I have in the squad.

Okay, school has kept me busy these past weeks. Alot of crap to get done before the deadline, so I've had little... well, I coulda made time, but little energy to paint. It'll get better soon, but I do have something for you. Another Vet finished. Nothing fantastic about him, sorta the group's scout and tracker. He carries a Catachan-style lasgun for the lesser weight of it. He's also the first Vet with melta-bombs on him. I kinda slimmed them down a bit (dun' wanna have those large cylinders on my models) and ran with the FW grenades they send with, and painted them yellow. 'Cause, y'know... everyone knows that anything melta is yellow. Right?

I've had on my mind to give him a tatoo of some sort on his arm, but I haven't quite figured out exactly what should be on there. A serpent, or the aquila, or the ace of spades... don't know yet.

It'd be quite cool to just have the peace symbol on his arm.

Sort of a statement guy

That, my disjointed friend, is brilliant! "In the cold darkness of the far future there is only war" though... hmm, would be another awesome popculture reference however

Lovely miniatures. All the different heads you have used are great! Nice grey armour as well.

This is great! Keep it up!

Haha, thanks my friend!
It's just something that I like to include every now and then cause, not everyone in the Guard has signed up! Someone must have been drafted!

Maybe a little graffiti on helmets, like this :



A lovely photo of Yours Truely doing my Vietnam Living history!

but this sort of graffiti sprung up all over the place, I tend to put things on my Guard to make them less uniform.

Yeah, it's a good idea! I'd use it directly if it wasn't for concidering the fluff. Troopers are prolly almost allways drafted, and I doubt the Commissars would leave much room for differing points of view on the validity of such practises. But then again, that guy is a Veteran, and is valuable enough to get away with a thing or two.... hmmm

Course it's entirely up to you.
And there isn't much a Commissar could really do about it once it had been written, there are supposed to be shortages of equipment for a lot of guard regiments, so the likelyhood of having spare helmets isn't very high

Okay, I don't have anything new for you YET! I'm working on the Veteran with the Demo charge, but I have alot of gak to do this week (and sadly, possibly next week too), so I can't promise when I'll manage to get him done. But... I'm gonna give you a rerun of an old favorite. I have done some highlight work and leather-work on Colonel Raines since last he was posted. I've also, as you might've noticed, gotten better at taking pictures of the models. I don't have a light-box, but I think that my picture-taking procedure has gotten alot better over the months. So, here's a tidier version with less contrast and more true-to-truth colouring of the commander of my force.

He looks bloody brilliant.

Okay, please don't yell at me for a lack of updates *whimper*

Okay, so school kicking up got me outta the groove I had. Bastards. But I've managed to grind back into it. Went easier than I thought. Just picked up a brush, and suddently a few hours had flown off by painting S'good. I finished, late last night, the Vet I had had half-painted for months but never gotten around to finish. It's the one of my airborne Demolitionmen Vets that'd lug around their demolition charge. I used the same kind of bag that my Command Squad medic used, and was a bit torn over what symbol I was gonna put on it to signify a demolition charge inside. Those contemplations were blown away when I decided to paint his hair blonde (something I never really tried before, but I think came off rather allright). So, without further ado; meet Duke!

Ah the good old nuclear hand grenade. An excellent weapon as long as you can run the 5 miles to safe distance before the 10 second fuse burns out

Looking really good. So how crazy does the hard edging actually make you?

Hard edging? Oh, y'know.... Get out of the Vendetta. Shoot your way to the target. Blow stuff up. No problem

Your clean highlight technique really suits these, along with using lining to highlight the armor. Really eye catching and I bet they look brilliant in units.

Keep up the good work!

Awesome. Love those vets and commands

Thanks so much for the kind words

And with that here's another update. Another Vet. Nothing very shiny about him... just another shotgunner. The glasses however I might need some backup on. I didn't want them to have the same blue shine as the other types of visors I've had on other models, since those have been rather integrated with electronic HUD displays and whatnot. This is just an old fashioned pair of tinted glasses. Like a airforce pilot visor, y'know? I fought with the colours somewhat, and I'm still not absolutely pleased with the outcome. If any of you have examples or dvice on the subject, I'd love to hear it.

Okay, sorry. Last pic turned out to be rather dark. Few hours of light up here. Boosted that a bit with a change of venue. Here's a better lit pic.

IMO those goggles are great! I wouldn't change a thing, but then, I'm only a beginner

I agree with above post, goggles look very realistic, and your colour scheme is just as clean and well executed a before, again: well done.

great stuff mate , your colonel is great full of character!

Great plog, I love Colonel Raines,such a simple headswap has transformed that miniature. Consider it stolen for when i get round to doing a guard army your rank and files are looking good too. Keep it up

Thanks alot, guys! I've got one more vet to finish before I've gotta start modelling a bit for a new batch of troopers to paint. First off, I'm gonna make a heavy falmer for my vets to round them up. Then I'm gonna take on a rather big project (for me at least) in making a Marbo-count as character. I have some big plans for both of them, and am quite looking forward to 'em After those two, I'm unsure if I'm gonna try to make a legionnaire squad, another vet squad in SM Scout armor with a Bastonne-count as for a sergeant.... or go get me some armor and wings to paint. We'll see how the first two conversions go

Okay, well, glad you like the goggles. Not sure, they feel rather.... dull and uninteresting to me, but then again, I guess that's sorta what I aimed for. I'll take a look at some ski-goggle pictures to see if I can get some ideas.

@Calibanite: Oh, you just steal that idea then. Only condition is posting a link to a pic of him here when you do so I can see

Okay, I finally got the last Vet in. I'm having trouble with the skin again, however. His facial features are a bit sharp. I've had this problem before but it's usually limited to other stuff going on in the face. Either broader features like on the GW faces, or other stuff happening like bandages on the FW heads. Does anyone have any good tips on how to... soften the contrast a bit? With GW paints and preferably no mixing of colours. Hard to get mixing perfect each time, and I'd rather avoid it for colours I wanna use regularly.

Also, I've allready put together my flamer. Wasn't so hard. I just gotta fill in a few gaps with greenstuff. Gonna do that while I take on the job of making my Marbo fella. Not sure if I'll start today or tomorrow or during the weekend. My Marbo ideas feel quite daunting to start on. Gonna give ya some WIPs on that when I've got a few.

Great looking vets! The goggles look great and I like the armour colour.

Thanks for the encouragement

Okay, so I've started working on my Vet flamer (which is like complete except for a few gaps I need to fill in with greenstuff) and my Marbo-count as. Sadly, it's not much for a picture yet, and I'm not terribly good with any digital painting software, so alas, you'll have to take my words for it. To make matters worse, I think I need a bit of sculpting help:

I'm modelling my Marbo (or trying to) with a long jacket over his Cadian flak-chest. The jacket I'll have to make on my own, which is what I've started now. So, I'm no greenstuff sage, and all that I have greenstuffed have been smaller additions, and nothing that required staged sculpting. If anyone know any good articles and guides about sculpting larger pieces of clothing, I'd much appriciate it.

Right now, I've started working on the base of the coat. That is, the coat itself. Wrapping it around the chest and legs (arms and head not attached yet. Figured it'd be easier that way). But right now, it looks butt ugly because I haven't been able to smooth it out completely, make good creasing in it and stuff like that. I've also left out the collar and edging of the coat. I figured that'd be the easier way, to let the basis harden, sculpt on that and then add details in greenstuff little by little? I'm also going to make a shoulder belt for the sword that's gonna be strapped to his back, which I'll be adding later when the base of the jacket is finished. Is that how you usually go about these things? Let the greenstuff harden before sculpting more ontop of it? I found it even more difficult to form the greenstuff of the jacket since it covers so much of the model (from neck to knees) without getting thumbprints on it. I'm using the standard GW-tools and warm water for lubrication.

Love the color scheme on your IG, nice work!

Great work. love the shotgun veteran, keep it up.