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How do!

Some of you may remember that not so long ago I exposed some of my minions to you in a thread in the Painting and Modelling section (If not, go here: (Another) Traitor Guard Army)

I am attempting to redo my whole entire Traitor Guard army from it's previous red (and now clichéd) image to a more rustic and gritty appearance. My painting style is different from most as I like to do a more grungy effect on my minis. I want my army to be as realistic as possible and not birght and shiny. This has led to a number of my minis to be "down" voted on various sites but I like to delude myself into thinking that greatness is seldom appreciated in ones own time

Anyway, since this is an ongoing project I have opted to create a new thread in the Blog section so that you lucky people can keep track

I'll start with a work in progress I have going:


My three latest guardsmen

And now this tank. Finished it today and it's been made entirely from parts found in my bitsbox:



Gepard Pattern Leman Russ

Also added the finishing touches to this tank today, been doing bits of it for the last three weeks:



Leman Russ 'Zippo'

And a side shot of my other completed tank:


Hannut Destroyer

I will be adding some pictures of the vehicles I'm going to work on next very shortly.

Any and all comments (good or bad) will be greatly appreciated!

Am liking this very interesting blend of Citadel and Historical kitbashing

Very nice work Infiltraitor.

Looking at your other post, its great to see how your painting has improved in 3 months or so. The guard look great, some of the bare 'Catachan' arms look like they have been stuck on, but then they have, haven't they this is more a criticism of citadel, not you.

They tanks are looking nice too, id love to see a group shot of your army on the tabletop.

Oh and I like 'Zippo' the flamethrower tank how many people pick up on that reference ?

BOSS_PIMPALOTZ wrote:Am liking this very interesting blend of Citadel and Historical kitbashing

Many thanks. I use anything to make my army different and aesthetically pleasing.

StubbyGB wrote:Very nice work Infiltraitor.

Looking at your other post, its great to see how your painting has improved in 3 months or so. The guard look great, some of the bare 'Catachan' arms look like they have been stuck on, but then they have, haven't they this is more a criticism of citadel, not you.

They tanks are looking nice too, id love to see a group shot of your army on the tabletop.

Oh and I like 'Zippo' the flamethrower tank how many people pick up on that reference ?

Many thanks to you, as well. And yes, the Catachan arms are a pain when combining them with Cadian torsos. I will take the comment into consideration for when I make some more. I may be able to improve on it somehow.

I'm glad someone has gotten the 'Zippo' reference. You'd be the first to as well. Unfortunately, a certain game has convinced everybody that they're called 'Crocodiles' :(

Is your geopard patt. Leman supposed to be a Hydra? I love the side armour

I love how everything looks so old and makeshift too.

Almost looted.

Looks like great stuff so far! I'm really liking the grittier approach to minis painting.

Nice. Got any full shots of, say, your AV?

sA

Nice StuG. German WW2-era tanks make for some nice conversions. Tamiya, right?

Okay, time to answer some of the comments.

person person wrote:Is your geopard patt. Leman supposed to be a Hydra? I love the side armour

I love how everything looks so old and makeshift too.

Almost looted.

Many thanks. And no, not a Hydra. It will use some custom rules which basically makes it a Quad-Heavy Stubber (Quad .50). I know the stubbers are more or less useless but that won't deter me. I plan on making some additional turrets for the tank from my spares so that I can at least field the chassis in tournaments.

Mr. Grey wrote:Looks like great stuff so far! I'm really liking the grittier approach to minis painting.

Many thanks. I've found the style is quite under-appreciated but it's slowly getting a following. I think I've even managed to convert a staff member at my local GW into using pigments now.

smiling Assassin wrote:Nice. Got any full shots of, say, your AV?

Thank you. But forgive my ignorance as I'm new to wargaming forums but was do you mean by AV? I will be happy to comply if only I knew what you meant

FoxPhoenix135 wrote:Nice StuG. German WW2-era tanks make for some nice conversions. Tamiya, right?

Thank you but it isn't a StuG. It's a Post-War Kanonenjagdpanzer used by the Bundeswehr. It was introduced in the late 1960s. And it's a 1/35 revell kit. I do, however, want to get a StuG eventually but I'm still deciding whether to get a StuG III or IV.

As a teaser, I have taken some pictures of the vehicles I am going to redo next. Some of them are only half complete and have had sitting on the shelf for over a year now. I'm hoping this will help, as this blog progresses, viewers to see how (if any) the miniature has improved.


Panzer IV chassis with a Baneblade turret. Made this because I thought the turret had Panzer IV aspects to it. Plus I like tanks.


Heretic Pattern Leman Russ. Bought it off of a Canadian fellow. Only thing I have bought pre-made. I just fell in love with it.


Heavy Sentinel. Doubt I'll be able to field this in anything other than Apocolypse battles. Was fun to make anyway. I have another, anti-infantry one as well.


One of my plainest vehicles. A command rhino. Woo...

AV = Avatar.

This all looks very interesting, I like the vast assortment of vehicles.

sA

Oh, right. He's one of my Necromunda gangers. I've just uploaded them onto Dakka actually.

I might have to start another Blog for the gang as I need to finish them off for a Necromunda game at my local GW o_o

Anyway, link = Marksman Nadel

Those necromunda models look spectacular. I love your blending of the historical with the future. Great stuff.

This isn't much of an update as I'm saving most of my painting for next week when I get together with ChaosBubbles for a weeklong painting session (with Monster, Nachos and Nazi Zombies to help).

I've spent the whole of yesterday and today going through all my bits and bashing together a few new troopers.



This next one is a Sergeant made from pure GW bits. I rarely do pure GW minis but I was in my local GW last Friday and spoke to a chap about what I'm doing and he wants to see my stuff. He thinks that it is good enough to be displayed so I have to really make at least a squad or two with GW bits only for that purpose.



I also have about fifteen headless troopers as I remembered this morning that I had ordered some West Wind Russian Gasmask heads that still hadn't arrived. I need to make space for them as they are godly.

If you're adding a StuG, go with a III - the IVs are too long. Plus, less chassis superstructure options to work with.

I like the recent trooper you made there! Is that another tamiya head? It looks awesome.

JohnHwangDD wrote:If you're adding a StuG, go with a III - the IVs are too long. Plus, less chassis superstructure options to work with.

Many thanks for the advice. I shall pick up a StuG III within the next couple of weeks I think.

FoxPhoenix135 wrote:I like the recent trooper you made there! Is that another tamiya head? It looks awesome.

Thank you. It's a West Wind head from the German Heads with Gasmasks blister. I love that head and I have a few more lying around but I don't want to over use them.

I'll have to look those up! Know of any US retailers?

FoxPhoenix135 wrote:I'll have to look those up! Know of any US retailers?

Unfortunately not, the company is still quite small in the UK and deals with a few local gaming stores. And it takes them about three weeks just to get them to your door. I'm still waiting on some Russian heads I ordered a month ago.

JohnHwangDD wrote:If you're adding a StuG, go with a III - the IVs are too long. Plus, less chassis superstructure options to work with.

I'm with John, the III will fit better with 40k sized tanks as they have a smaller chassis.

BrotherStynier wrote:

JohnHwangDD wrote:If you're adding a StuG, go with a III - the IVs are too long. Plus, less chassis superstructure options to work with.

I'm with John, the III will fit better with 40k sized tanks as they have a smaller chassis.

Thank you, that's now two for the StuG III.

I was naughty and painted the sergeant yesterday. I know I'm supposed to be waiting until next week but I was watching some movies and my hand just wanted to do something.

I McLove your plog. This is delicious.

Yes, quite tasty. Especially that sergeant!

love the style you give the traitor guard, old gritty rusty hasnt had the emperors weapon shipment and upgrades so made use of its mechanic skills.. toobad im a loyalist otherwise id be inspired

captain.gordino wrote:I McLove your plog. This is delicious.

Many thanks Cpt.

FoxPhoenix135 wrote:Yes, quite tasty. Especially that sergeant!

Thank you for the kind words.

physcosamatic wrote:love the style you give the traitor guard, old gritty rusty hasnt had the emperors weapon shipment and upgrades so made use of its mechanic skills.. toobad im a loyalist otherwise id be inspired

Thank you, but you can be inspired for your loyalist army. They don't have to be plain. THEY DON'T HAVE TO BE PLAIN!!!

A little update for you, PaintFest 09 has started. I am spending the next week or so at ChaosBubbles place to pretty much build and finish our armies. Just waiting for the sun to reach it's apex so I can some pictures of yesterdays WiPs. For now, I'll just show you this picture of what we're up against:



I'm just waiting for ChaosBubbles to get out of bed, we were burning the midnight oil but because his sofa is about two feet shorter than me I would rather suffer mini-fatigue than cause my spine to turn into an S shape




Automatically Appended Next Post:
Okay, I have some WiP shots from what I did yesterday.


Some Dark Art bases I've painted up


Traitor Guardsman with Scythe. Because it's cool.


Traitor Guardsman. Used a Dark Elf wristblade and, yes, that is a Vindicare Assassin head.


FW Renegade torso. Greenstuffed the chaos sigil away. Given him a Dark Elf sword. He's gonna be a Sergeant.


FW Renegade torso. Just a basic guardsman.


Err...this was an experiment. I'm not good with greenstuff as you can tell.


Another experiment using a chimera lasgun end.


Copied ChaosBubbles german head.


Found a whole bunch of Kasrkin the other day. Neat. De-Imperialised (cried so much while shaving off the eagles). He still needs finishing.


Drummer for my command squad

These guys are all looking fantastic.

If I may say one thing, make sure that the colour scheme is coherent, that you paint in batches if possible. I'm not one to rant, because I often fall ill to painting individual soldiers of guard squads, not groups. However, you have a very varied and exciting look going on, and along with the bases, you need to make sure some elements are constant.

And I'd like to top that off with a round of Huzzah and Congratumalations, I'm a fan of the school of hard-knocks and gritty painting, and in 3 Months you're better than me. Bravo.

Oh, and that Drummer has exactly the right ammount of attitude to stick two fingers up to the Emperor. Nice.

sA

Looking great. I wish I had that sort of courage to cut up my minis, even though it is obviously worth it from what I see here!

infilTRAITOR wrote:...I'll just show you this picture of what we're up against:...

Bottom right, green tank: the granddaddy of all land raiders!

What's it's name again?

Weren't they just called a mark 1 tank?

Thank you everybody who has taken the time so far to leave comments. They've really helped spur me on!

smiling Assassin wrote:These guys are all looking fantastic.

If I may say one thing, make sure that the colour scheme is coherent, that you paint in batches if possible. I'm not one to rant, because I often fall ill to painting individual soldiers of guard squads, not groups. However, you have a very varied and exciting look going on, and along with the bases, you need to make sure some elements are constant.

And I'd like to top that off with a round of Huzzah and Congratumalations, I'm a fan of the school of hard-knocks and gritty painting, and in 3 Months you're better than me. Bravo.

Oh, and that Drummer has exactly the right ammount of attitude to stick two fingers up to the Emperor. Nice.

sA

First off, thank you. With my current time constraint I am going against the grain and painting in batches. I do prefer to paint individuals as to give them some character but taking 6-7 hours per guardsman is a little excessive. I managed to get 6 painted over the course of 9 hours yesterday.

I am also thrilled that you are a fan of the rustic look. It seems very hit and miss at the moment but I am trying to make itcatch on

FoxPhoenix135 wrote:Looking great. I wish I had that sort of courage to cut up my minis, even though it is obviously worth it from what I see here!

Thank you. To tell you the truth most of the bits and pieces you see I've had for years and have been saving them "for something special". The other week I just said to myself "you fudging idiot, you haven't even done this army and yet you're thinking about something you want to do in a few years time". Anyway, breaking from the norm is quite fun as you can say to yourself that what you have built is from your imagination and not from something you've seen somewhere else. Very rewarding indeed and I wholeheartidly recommend. You, yourself, have the skills to let your imagination run riot so I urge you to at least give it a bash; even with just a test trooper

person person wrote:Bottom right, green tank: the granddaddy of all land raiders!

What's it's name again?

Septic is right, it's a British Mk1 Tank (Female). That belongs to my painting partner; ChaosBubbles. As do the two super-heavies you see.

UPDATE!

I'm sorry to say that I'm lacking in any photographic updates today. Weather was dire this morning so it was too dark to get any shots and then, as it was clearing up, I had to skidaddle off to the hospital for an appointment.

But, I have almost finished painting a Heavy Sentinel, a mortar team, infantry squad and a tank destroyer. I will have to get some snaps of them shortly. One thing I didn't count on was how many troopers I actually had to paint. I figured I only had enough bits to make 30 troopers at most but it turns out I have 80-100

I think I need more time. Or more nachos.

I really like the indiviuality of each figure. This is definitely a project to watch as it progresses.

There is some great inspiration in this Blog. *steals ideas and runs away*