Hey everyone, started this army about two months ago and am very happy with how it's getting on! The Leman russ needs some decals (I've got some sheets so I can make some custom ones soon) and the Vendetta needs basing but I haven't decided how I want to do it yet.

All comments and critisms are very welcome!











J













I'm now concentrating on getting lots of infantry done and will keep this updated!

Looking good! Love the guardsman cowering behind the aegis on th sentinels base.

Yes! I've finally found a vendetta camo-style I love. How do you do the camo on the vendetta?

The paint scheme looks great on both the vehicles and the infantry, not much to improve with the painting. The vendetta's base should be done though.

One thing that is lacking that would take this army from pretty to awesome is conversions. Some conversions to fit the winter theme would take it to the next level. For example headswaps/weaponswaps on the infantry ( f.ex: forgeworld hostile environment kit)

Very nicely done! I agree, that Sentinel base is fantastic!

Already on it, have got the hostile environment melta gunner and plasma gunner. Have alot of random bits from my local club aswell so expect them soon.

Also planning on getting the forgeworld manticore tomorrow.

The camo scheme is done with an airbrush, using a sheet of laminated plastic (the kind you laminate paper with- just without paper inside) and then I've cut aload of different digital shapes. It's a matter of painting the vehicle white, then spraying shades of grey through the template. I can do a tutorial but it's fairly simple.

On flyer bases I usually go all out on them, but I've gotten fed up of having to carry them around seperately and this only fits in my case because it's flat. I may try the technique I saw in the tutorials section using water effects to make it look like its flying over a frozen lake or something. Anyone else have any ideas?

Those are ace! I really like the simplicity of the digital pattern.
I like the guardsman cowering under the Sentinel- may have to borrow that idea?

PS We can see your SSID and WiFi code!

Love the Valk, but agree the base has to get "finished".

I don't care for backward tripods.

I think the other vehicles could use a few more passes of dark gray/ black to match the Valk more.

Overall I really like it.

These are awesome! I would be honored to play against such a nicely painted army.

What technique did you use for the digital camo? I have seen a few different tutorials taking various amounts of time for a greatly varied result. I might give whatever you did a try, because I really like the result.

Great stuff! Love the walker base and the camo. I always find it inspirational to see someone carrying through on an idea for an army - I'm far too easily distracted for my own good.

One of the better looking digicam I have seen... the whole scheme looks great! Good job

nice job


and thanks for the free wifi

I've gotta say, whenever I see a thread with "camo" on it, I always fear the worst. But these guard are incredibly good. You've contrasted the various grays and whites quite well, and the small breakups with the rust affects really add a level of character and quality to the paint scheme. I'm especially fond of the block pattern on the wings of the Valkyrie and the cowering Guardsman underneath the Sentinel. Bloody brilliant, mate. Good job.

I agree with pretty much everything said above. Lovin These!

Now that I have your wi-fi code, stage one of my plan is complete. Mwa ha ha ha. Mwa HA HA HA. MWA HA HA HA!!!

Really, really good. I like it a lot. The camo looks great and is done really well. Couple of things as others have said, the base on the vendetta. I wouldn't try anything too complicated with it, your other bases look great, just keep it the same. Also, some simple conversions would add lot (again, you're on the case). Another small thing, the heavy bolter barrels on the leman russ. You don't necessarily need to drill them, but it would look better. Or even just a spot of black to make it look like they've been drilled. Just a thing I noticed. But, yeah, I think it's a great looking army. Can't wait to see more.

Oh, and try find room for this guy

very nicely done! could you show some pics of your templates for the camo? that would be great. now im thinking of doing a snow theme for my tau hunter cadre

Here's a pic of the template I use for the Vendetta

Tetris!

Lovely stuff
Vendetta is great!

Thanks for all the kind comments everyone!

Conversions will be on the way when I decide what I want to do, would love to do veterans as hostile environment troopers but it is so expensive. I have a forgeworld manticore ordered so will hopefully have that done soon! Work are threatening to send me away to India next week for 3 weeks to a state where meat, alcohol and smoking are illegal so I think I'll probably get alot of painting done while I'm over there, but that will be mainly infantry so I can fit it in my luggage!

Will get the vendetta based this week and also agree with the leman Russ bolters - I've done most of the weapons but forgot the leman Russ as it was an eBay buy!

And if anyone finds the location of the wifi you are welcome to it haha!

Post the photo's in the Gallery?

That sentinel is awesome, I especially like the guardsman underneath.

Wow, I love this color theme.

First rate snow camo. That's one fine looking IG force you got there

The paintjob with the airbrush is nice and smooth. Very nice details and very very nice snow

Could you give me a tutorial on how you do your digital camo? You say it's real easy but I don't understand what you said or how you did it. Pictures of the process would help a bunch!

An working in India at the moment so it's a little tricky for me to get pictures.

At the simplest level -

Spray tank white.
Put in next lightest colour into the airbrush.
Hold up template (see picture in thread above) against the vehicle, and use it as a stencil, so it has to be held still, and keep the angle of the airbrush the same. Normally a couple of passes will do the trick.
Cover vehicle using different stencils until you are happy.
Load next darkest colour and repeat.

Let dry and then start detailing! I always spray from lightest to darkest.

I also use the hairspray weathering technique to get the rust, I'm sure there's plenty of guides on this forum on how to do that!

Hope that helps.

Look Great!

It all looks great but for me the rust and weathering really caught my eye. A+ work.

Love your work!! Please post more.

The sentinel, i agree is really good, and the pose just adds to the overall epicness. The paint scheme is awesome along with the snow on the bases, the vendetta is very impressive, and honestly, i am getting very jealous. :0

The vendetta is really well done!

Love the work you did man. That is inspiring I am starting my imperial guard army very soon and want to do some sort of snow camo. So in other words consider your idea stolen lol

Finished my first IG finecast today, a commisar -





I've also just finished building my FW manticore and LR Executioner (turret fully magnetised) and will have pictures up when they're painted...



The base to the Vendetta is now done, I used water effects to give it the look of flying over a frozen lake, I sort of made it up as I went along but it's turned out ok, will have pictures of that shortly.


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Here's the pictures of the vendetta base. Done by painting the base a varied amount of blues, then water effects with a blue tint and some snow inside. Then snow ontop!

Please let me know your thoughts!

The vendetta base looks terrific. And what a difference it makes. Commissar looks really good. Like how you've stuck to a limited palette, works really well. Like the white pistol too. Looking forward to seeing this army growing.

And since your bases are so good, I have a small suggestion for you if you ever fancy a break from painting your guardsmen. A display board.

I really like your digital camo! Thats really well done, i like how random the pattern feels. Also the color scheme is great.

Cheers

Really Nice!!

I like your digital effect on the Valk...at first i thought you used blue painters tape, but then i read more and saw your technique..very cool.
The Ice base is really nice too.
I too would be honored to battle against your boys..it just so happens my sons Fire Hawks are snow based as well!!

Keep up the great work!!

Quite a spectacular guard army! I love it

First time I've seen digital camo on a 40k army.
This is by far my favourite of the IG armies I've seen so far! Just gorgeous work, even down to the base of the Vendetta.
Made me want to start an IG detachment.

Hope to see more of your work soon!

Sweet stuff now I to can do cool camo patterns !

Not much to critique here, you did a great job.

Even without an explanation, your theme is clear, the painting is contextual and well executed, edge highlights and weathering aren't overdone and really add to the overall look of the army.

All I could have as criticism is that these gorgeous models should really be on a custom display board, winter-themed of course...

Thanks for an excellent showcase.

That has to be the first time I have seen a non- Cadian 8th style colour scheme on Cadians that I actually like. Kudos to you.

Ooh... beautiful digital camo.

Thanks again everyone for the really kind comments! I'd love to do a display board, might even do a full gaming board, will see how I can do with time, I'm away working again in the USA this time so short on painting and modelling time.

I've just ordered some forgeworld infantry conversion kits, and a leman Russ turret conversion, so will have those done as soon as I can.

This project has all of a sudden turned crazy. I got a hellhound and vendetta for Christmas. Then 3 days later the guy who owns my LGS decided he needed to get rid of his 10 year collection of guard - mostly not built. Probably about 10,000 points worth atleast, but havnt had a chance to check it all properly. There's an unbuilt vendetta, 2 chimeras, 12 leman russ's about 20 boxes of heavy weapons teams, 5 boxes of command squads, and atleast 200 infantry, but probably more!

I think I'm going to be busy!!

Gorgeous base on the vendetta. Really original. Commissar looks great too.

looking great! love the stencil sprayed camo . well executed . keep us updated .

I really like this!!!

Thanks again everyone!

Can I request a Mod move this to P&M Blogs?

I've got loads of stuff to do and will be best in there as I put up pictures of conversions and paint jobs as I go!

Thanks.


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Ok, so I'm just finishing up another 10 infrantry, so have about 25 troops painted now.

These are now primed and ready to go -



Over the weekend I've taken advantage of the spares I have and a few FW bits to make my own Marbo, please let me know what you think!

Very nice, always love seeing snow themed army.

Great paint job!

Got my new airbrush through today (Badger Patriot 105) and it's much better than the cheap ones I've been using.

Going to try and start airbrushing the white on my infantry is it's very time consuming at the moment.

Anyway, here's the results of todays airbrushing session -

Fantastic start to your snow themed army. Love the digital look on the valkyrie, the dynamic poses of you minis, the detail and intrigue you have created with interesting diorama type bases (i.e. sentinel, very cool). Everything looks awesome, looking foward to seeing more models as your army continues to grow!

Leman Russ executioner completed -





Also painted my first guardsman using an airbrush to do the white, unfortunately he's a slightly different colour the previous men, but he took about 30mins in total compared to about 3 hours for the older ones I'll be doing all my infantry like this I think from now on!

Nice Russ, and lovely camo on all the vehicles.
Could we get some pics of the guardsmen?

Here's the airbrushed guardsman -



And here's older all hand painted guardsman -



I could do a better job on the airbrushed one, the face needs more work and the white highlights are a bit bad mainly due to my ceramite white going really thick, and I was rushing a bit.

What are your thoughts?

Great idea and very effective

Guess what I got for my birthday!



Been a fun build, will get to work detailing and painting it soon! I'll try and get pictures up of the amount of stuff I have to build and paint, as it really is rediculous now!

Here's a bit of an update!

Have been fairly busy lately so not too much done, I now have 35 infantry complete, 2 leman russes, 2 chimeras, a sentinal, a vendetta and 3 auto cannon teams.

Built and ready to paint I have, 20 more troops, 10 with forgeworld hostile environment upgrades, another vendetta, a leman Russ Demolisher, 4 Lascannon teams.

I've finally got the forgeworld manticore finished -






And Marbo



And am working on the Shadowsword now!




I've started using oil paints on the tank and infantry and they are amazing, I really reccommend them to anyone wanting to try new things, the shading and blending you can get with them really is good!


Please let me know your thoughts and comments!!

Superb work, the valk shows off the digital camo beautifully - I've never seen it done this well

Edit: and the shadowsword is a massive canvas for it! Could you give a bit of advice on oil weathering? - I'm looking at giving it a try but can't find any particularly good resources online

That marbo looks badass! Great work!

Yeah no problem, the oils are really not very scary to use, and give great results. The way I use them is similar to a wash, thin the oil paint with white spirits until it is the consistency of a GW wash. Use a brush to make a streak down the side of the tank. Dip the brush in white spirit to clean it, and dry it off a bit. You can then use the brush to streak or completely remove the oil paint. It's so easy to work with it because it doesn't dry, you could completely remove the effect very easily because it will be wet for a while.

On the infantry I literally washed the whole model with black oil paint and then pulled the oil off of where I didn't want it using the clean brush technique. It's also very easy to have a really nice blend with them. My best advice would be to grab some oils and experiment, once you realise how easy they are to use you will start experimenting with them.

Your camo is awesome!

I'm so jealous to your skills mate. Lovely bases, I've been doing my best to build as awesome bases, but awesomeness remains to be seen...

This army is different, will follow your work.

Ok, Shadowsword is done! Please let me know your thoughts. Have had alot of fun and taken my time getting it how I wanted!








And here's what I bought yesterday... I think I'm going to be busy!




Again thanks for all the kind comments! I'll get some better pictures of the Shadowsword tomorrow when my camera is charged and the sun is out (possibly)!

Any advice or things people recommend would be great, I'm really enjoying working with oils now!

Really nice Guard army, I'm feeling jealous about that tank camouflage scheme, btw how are your infantry going? not much shown of them so far and I'm interested to know what you have planned.

just make sure you seal the oils with a varnish after (you probably are)

subbed

Nice!

How are you doing the numbers and writing? Freehand?

Most of the markings are decals from the GW kits, aslong as you do a clear coat of varnish over the top of them they look pretty good.

On the infantry front, tbh I havnt done anything particularly special so far, I do have some forgeworld hostile environment troopers built, but not many painted. I'll get some pictures up later!

Well done. I believe the British used a similar camo pattern in Europe. I've seen something called the Berlin Brigade pattern that uses blocks of color similar to yours. Try taking pics with the vehicles in front of grey GW buildings with doorways and windows to see how it blends in. Great work.

I have some terrain bits I havn't finished, but will get onto those soon, I'm tempted to make a whole board for the army but that will be in the future.

Currently I'm spending alot of time on the Marauder Destroyer I picked uo last weekend. I've been pretty happy with alot of the test fitting actually, there's far less warping than expected, and it doesn't look like I have too much filling to do when I actually glue the body together so fingers crossed.

Currently the whole model is free of flash, all straight and sanded down nicely, and it all test fits together pretty well. I've attached all the engines to the wings, and the 2 rear tail fins are also together. I'm going absolutely mad pinning EVERYTHING and using a combination of superglue and resin to glue the beast.

Tonight I have just finished the cockpit, as it looked like it would be awkward to paint when it's in a big heavy model.



Anyone that's built one of these; do you have any advice or tips? I'm really enjoying building it so far, I've not ever built a huge resin kit before. It seems to be going well, it's just a matter of being methodical and patient.... and pinning alot!

 AngelGrinder wrote:
Anyone that's built one of these; do you have any advice or tips?

1) As you've noticed, when in doubt, pin it. The Marauder has several heavy parts hanging from fairly small glue joints (especially the wings and engines), so make sure you use nice thick pinning rods to take the weight. This is especially true if you're planning to build it with the landing gear down and display it sitting on them, you must pin the connections between the hull and landing gear legs very carefully or the weight of the model will break them.

2) Carefully check the fit of the engines before gluing anything. On mine the engines were too wide and so the wings wouldn't fit flat against the main body until I sanded down the inside edges of each pair of engines (this won't be visible once it's assembled). If you have to do this make sure you mark which engine goes in which position.

3) Think very carefully about how you're going to paint it, especially if you aren't using an airbrush, before assembling anything. This is a heavy model, unlike, say, a plastic Valkyrie if you're counting on trying to hold it by one wing while you paint something you're going to end up with one wing in your hand and a pile of Marauder pieces on the floor.

4) This is a minor thing, but be careful with that little hose bit dangling from the bottom of the tail section. It's a fragile piece in an spot where you're almost guaranteed to put it down with the model's weight on it before realizing your mistake.

Great advice thanks! The engines unfortunately one moved while gluing it and I didn't notice so it note quite straight - so the wing won't go straight at the moment. I'll get it sanded flat no problem. I tried to get the engine off and it's not budging. Which atleast shows my pinning is working!

The tail cable has broken already, it's definately an exposed weak point!

For painting, I will mostly be using an airbrush, I'm hoping I can make the tail join strong enough to hold the model, as I will use the tail gun hole to hang the model while I paint it.

Again, thanks for the tips!

This is definitely one of my favorite army blogs I've seen. I love the Shadowsword- it fits really well into the rest of your army and the camo looks excellent being emphasized on such a large model.

How are you going to paint the Marauder? In terms of fluff I'm pretty sure they belong to the Imperial Navy- and the standard base you most often see on their Valkyries (http://www.games-workshop.com/MEDIA_CustomProductCatalog/m2610107_99120105038_IGValkyrie2_873x627.jpg) Thunderbolts, Lightnings etc seems to be mostly grey. Are you going to make a new camo for the Navy, keep your camo or go with that grey?

Thanks mr omega, glad you like it!

I have been contemplating doing it a navy scheme, the problem being I've already done the vendetta in my digi scheme so think it would look out of place if I did it differently. I'll write up some fluff for the reason why it's all the same colour, se massive long term campaign or similar should be a good enough reason!

Ok, so the bomber is now 90% built, the canopies aren't done, and I havn't attached the turretrs yet- I'll do that after painting.

So, here's a couple of pics from the build giving an idea of some of the dodgy fitting of parts.

The front nose cone was actually a really good fit, I thought maybe I'd got a really good cast....





Then I got to the rear of the bomber, and things stopped lining up....





So I spent some time greenstuffing and got most of those gaps sorted pretty nicely, and then attached the wings... which also didn't want to fit very well. So, I pulled out the plasticard and use it to mask all the problem areas and level out some of the bits that were too small.The plasticard has had holes drilled into it to match the rest of the model, and I think it will look really good when painted....




Next step is to make a flying stand for it, I have some nice steel rod, as soon as I find a good size and shape for a base plate and get it welded on, I'm pretty much ready to paint.


Thanks for looking!

Right, base plate and stand is now made, so I'll get to work on getting it nice and prettty with some sort of diorama on it!



I'm working on a few bit's simultaneously at the moment to keep motivated, I bought a Primaris Psyker the other day at warhammer world at a tournament, and I'm currently painting the 2nd Vendetta. I'm getting alot more confident with the airbrush, and also practicing new techniques etc for when I do the marauder soon.

The new vendetta I'm shading alot more with the airbrush, so I'm hoping it will have more depth in it than the first one I did.

Looking good.

the marauder is an old model so its not surprising the molds can be a bit off, even so those gaps are huge.

Yeah it's not great quality for something they charge such a premium price for. Wanting another £32 just for the 8 hellstrikes missiles is a bit much aswell.... Going to try and fit the Valkyrie hellstrikes to it. Anyone else found any good alternatives?

Here's the vendetta after the digi camo is done. Time to do all the details and weathering. This ones going to be 'dirtier' than the last one, looking like its been through some tough times.

Have so much to do, will have lots of pictures of bits soon. I'm aiming to get the first few airbrush coats on the marauder tomorrow.

I've recently bought the Raging Heroes Admiral Olga to use as a commissar, along with some maximini space police heads to use as airborne veteran conversions. Also picked up some anvil industry pump action shotguns to fit onto a squad soon. I'll have pics up soon but if anyone wants to see anything in particular let me know. In the meantime i just finished my primaris psyker. As always let me know your thoughts and if you think of ways to improve it!

Thanks!

He looks great. You still using oils? The face and the chest piece really look nice. Really nice tones. Looking forward to seeing more. A wee group shot of the finished models wouldn't go amiss.

Thanks! Yeah still using oils, they're great. Im trying to convince everyone to use them, they are so much better than washes!

I'll try and get a army shot shortly!

 AngelGrinder wrote:
Yeah it's not great quality for something they charge such a premium price for. Wanting another £32 just for the 8 hellstrikes missiles is a bit much aswell.... Going to try and fit the Valkyrie hellstrikes to it. Anyone else found any good alternatives?

Here's the vendetta after the digi camo is done. Time to do all the details and weathering. This ones going to be 'dirtier' than the last one, looking like its been through some tough times.

Man that digital camo is awesome. You've done a great job in carrying it over to the scale of GW figs. I especially like the blue you've used to accent th digital snow.

THat Banblade is also top notch good work.

Great Camo scheme!

would love to see a bit of It also on the foot soldier, It would be awesome, but maybe too complicated....

Thanks again all! The scale for the camo is nice and easy, it's all 1cm wide!

I tried the digi camo on the Marbo on the previous page, but yeah it's very tricky and I wasn't that happy with it, could do better but it would take absolutely ages!

Anyway, busy day airbrushing so here's some more WIP of the marauder. Hoping to have the digital camo on it this afternoon.




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And here she is, went quite heavy on the weathering as I want it to look very well used!






Please let me know your thoughts!


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For some reason pictures are coming out alot brighter than they are, the soot etc is closer to black.

looks great . love the digital camo .

It looks amazing as usual with your skills. Could we see it next to some of the other pieces to make sure it blends in? Perhaps another army shot

Thanks guys. Got a bit of blacking work done on the marauder so I can start detailing it soon. Nearly finished the raging heroes female commissar so I'll have that pic up soon aswell. Will try and get a full army photo done tonight!

Finished the raging heroes model, she will be my platoon commander, quite a nice model to work with but very fiddly!

Will definately get full army shot done tomorrow! In the mean time here's the admiral Olga model







Let me know your thoughts!

Not at all a fan of that model. You've painted her up nice, though!

Thanks. The model has some incredible detail on it, better than alot of games workshop models but makes it very fiddly!

Anyway, as promised I have an army shot. Can't find my camera cable so the better shots will be along as soon as I can find them. In the meantime, here's the iPhone shot




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The dozen blade that is still pure white is an unfinished tank, finished the turret for it today.

Beautiful army angelgrinder I like the pain job on the lady, but to show devotion maybe an Aquila tattoo if she's showing off the best the imperium has to offer

If I could find a few spare mm I would get an Aquila on there but I don't think theres room!


[

 AngelGrinder wrote:
Thanks. The model has some incredible detail on it, better than alot of games workshop models but makes it very fiddly!

Yeah, Raging Heroes makes some greatly detailed models. I'm a fan of their not-Daemonettes but I just think they took a great, highly coveted concept (Female Commissars) and over-sexualized it. I would pick her up in a heartbeat if she wasn't wearing a hiked-up dress with her tits hanging out. Personal taste, I suppose.

Though, to be fair, you did use the one that doesn't look quite as sexualized as the other two.

 AngelGrinder wrote:

Anyway, as promised I have an army shot. Can't find my camera cable so the better shots will be along as soon as I can find them. In the meantime, here's the iPhone shot

Army's looking sick dude. Can't wait to see more! Also, holy crap I never realized how big the Marauder Bombers are. That thing is massive!

Yeah it's a big old beast. I'll take it of the stand and put it next to the army so you can see how much it dwarfs everything!

 AngelGrinder wrote:
Yeah it's a big old beast. I'll take it of the stand and put it next to the army so you can see how much it dwarfs everything!

Sounds good! What are your plans for the other Sentinels, if any? Are you going to do them in cool, dynamic poses like your last one?

I will do when I get round to them, will have to think of some interesting poses!

Anyway, here's the better quality army-wide shots, hope everyone likes them!













Thanks for looking!

Looking great, wish i had the time (and mone) to put together something like a maruder. The bases go really well with the army, and the rust effects on the tanks adds a nice contrast. Are you going to add any of the envirnmental troopers that FW do, they'd make a good vet squad in that army

Young Logan

I spy, with my little eye, something beginning with F...

Flamer?

You've lost me!

Working away again at the moment so no updates this week unfortunately.

The female Commissar on the left. Did I miss a post about her?

Edit: Oh apparently I did... whoops.