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I started gaming in 1999 and have taken a few small breaks and one larger. Been out of the seen since 2004 and had never had a fully painted army. So now I am coming back and going big. Doing a completely kitbashed army from Cadians, Catachans, Elysians and even some SM scout stuff. The majority of the force will be Veterans but I will have 3 distinct but yet similar uniforms for platoon guardsmen, vets and stormtroopers. The army will be heavily thematic based on SWAT and urban military forces. More worried about fluff and visuals than competitiveness.

Cadian Platoon Guardsmen
Head: Heavy Cadian with shades
Torso: Cadian
Arms: Cadian with Elysian Lasguns
Legs: Catachans
File off all the Imperial Eagles

Cadian Veteran
Head: Heavy Cadian with shades with a Greenstuff balaclavas
Torso: Cadian
Arms: Cadian with Elysian Lasguns
Legs: Catachans
File off all the Imperial Eagles
Every 3rd Guardsmen will have a riot shield to represent Carapace Armor

Cadian Stormtroopers
Head: Cadian Respirator from Forgeworld
Torso: Cadian
Arms: Cadian with Elysian Lasguns
Legs: Catachans
Grav Shutes
File off all the Imperial Eagles
Every 3rd Guardsmen will have a riot shield to represent Carapace Armor

Elysian Platoon Guardsmen
Head: Elysian
Torso: Elysian
Arms: Elysian
Legs: Elysian

Elysian Veteran
Head: Elysian with a Greenstuff balaclavas
Torso: Cadian
Arms: Elysian with Greenstuff over the quilted pads
Legs: Elysian with Greenstuff over the quilted pads

Elysian Stormtroopers
Head: Elysian Respirator from Forgeworld
Torso: Cadian
Arms: Elysian with Greenstuff over the quilted pads
Legs: Elysian with Greenstuff over the quilted pads
Grav Shutes

As of right now I am planning on a traditional SWAT uniform with blue jump suits and black webgear and tactical armor. However I was also thinking about doing a light gray jumpsuit. What do you guys think for the color scheme? Was going represent camo cloaks by having them painted to match the urban bases I plan using.

Going to start with an Elysian Company Command squad, Elysian Veteran Squad and a Cadian Veteran Squad. I have been compiling bits and won a Elysian Command Squad from eBay. Putting them in a bits box until I can afford to order an Elysian squad, 2 Elysian weapon packs, bases and shields. Will probably be able to start the Cadians soon though.




The Elysians will be Sniper and Lascannon heavy while the Cadians will be Meltagun heavy.

Well everyone let me know what you think about the style and visuals.

And I apologize to everyone that will complain about how I started this thread to soon. Was going to start it anyway, got excited about getting Elysians in the mail and wanted to know what everyone thought.


Automatically Appended Next Post:
Well first update, I am probably going to regret doing this later on but I did it and man am I in love again! It is great to be back in the hobby.

Well tell me what you think of my first Sergeant.

This is going to be a plog to watch. For you camo, make it a little less uniform, Modern military and police go out and spend their own money of gear and fatigues, so there's usually a good mix of gear load outs and colors. A small request, It would be awsome to see some MOLLE on these guys.

Yeah I was going to do some MOLLE equipment but like I said, I am just now getting back into it. So I am not going to try to do anything to complex. Very little experience with greenstuff. Maybe later on I will attempt some modular gear and they will become the vets and will down grade planned vets to platoonsmen.

By the I way I greatly appreciate your interest and I hope to please.

More pics tomorrow!

That sergeant looks very nice. I didn't realise the Elysian and Cadian parts would fit together that nicely - I might pick up a pack of Elysians myself for conversians after seeing that model .

Always nice to see a new take on the Guard. Its infinitely variable for a good reason

Looks good! Almost like the parts were made to go together.

Was there any trimming of the neck involved? I know Cadians have that weird neck-piece attached to their chest...

Really nice start, I love the FW Elysian stuff. Can't wait to see some paint on them. Keep up the good work.

GTtC - I am glad I inspired, hopefully the more people that buy Elysians, the more they will make. I will say that some of the arms do not mashup real well with the Cadian torsos and they also look kind of small. However I think they turned as well as can be and will look fine with a little filling and some paint.

ashrog - No I did not trim any on the Cadian torso but on a few of the Elysian heads i had to trim the neck down some.

DDRD - Seeing as there are no gaming stores within an hour of hear I am going to have to order some paint. So I will have to wait on that, but will get to it asap.

I need to get some greenstuff to fill in gaps. Do you guys think I should try to sculpt the balaclavas over the lower half of their face or should I leave as is?

Still have not decided if I want to paint them with all blue jumpsuits and black armor, or gray jumpsuits and black armor, or stealth guys to fit the color scheme of the bases (however I paint their urban bases) and normal guys blue with black. Any opinions are welcome!

Also if everyone could suggest their favorite urban bases, I have been scouring over a ton of sites and have not found any that I have fallen for. Right now I am leaning towards these http://www.dragonforge.com/Painting%20service/for%20sale/base_sets/sci-fi/urban_rubble.htm.

On to the updates!

Vet 1




Vet 2




Vet 3



I will round this squad out with an Elysian Sniper Team from Forgeworld, when I am able to afford it and an Elysian Weapons Upgrade pack (so I can start on the Cadian side of the army). That would finish up my first squad of vets.

Nice start, I like where you are getting with those guys. And I am surprised to see that the Cadian Torso is matching well with the Elysian parts. Might use some torso swap for my own Guard force.

I'll be watching this log closely. Keep'em coming!

Well waiting on some bits to arrive and need to order some bases and supplies before I can move on with what I have. But I took a few pics of my to do lists in my army journal so you can have idea of where I want to go. Here they are.




Also I would like to know everyone's opinion on color schemes and urban base choices.

Hey this started out with my buddy ashrog showing me the ropes on greenstuff and me working on it a little. Well let me know what you think about armor plating instead of quilted padding.




PS I think I am going with these bases:

Looks good from my standpoint. I like the greenstuff and i dont, i like the armor concept, but i like the fabric design on them.

Wow. The Cadian bodies look really good with the Elysian bits; much better than they look with the Cadian arms/legs

The green stuff looks good, but it could do with being a little smoother. Your best bet is to invest in a colour shaper. A firm, small chisel head is your best bet. I can't live without mine (or sculpt anyway)

I'm looking forward to seeing these develop

'omg they look juust like the unsc soldiers of halo 3 steeeling this idea for my catachan devils

if you add scopes to all the lasguns thay will look like battle rifles from halo 2 and 3.

I love everything other than their heads... never been a fan of that design I am afraid.

Good work on the models though, they look pretty fantastic.

Endtransmission is right in that you need to smooth your GS a little better, but the general placement and design of the armour looks good to me. Will you be adding rivets or straps to show how it is held on, or will it just be integral to the clothing?

Yeah, looks good but needs to be smoother. If I were you, I'd invest in a size 0 colour shaper chisel end - I use soft, but hard would work as well, a size 0 colour shaper bullet end in hard (they're good for making folds in clothing) and the Gale Force 9 basic sculpting set. The GF9 set only has two useful tools really, the spoon head which is vital for blending GS into existing metal or plastic and the poker, which is needed for fine detailing.

I'd agree with that. The only metal tools that I use are the GW tool and the dental tooth pick one; despite having the full set of GF9. You may find it cheaper to try and find an online dental supplier and pick up the two metal tools separately, rather than buying the full GF9 set.

In fact, the tooth pick one could easily be replaced with this one from Dick Blick

You can get the basic GF9 sculpting set for about £10 - but if you can pick the two useful tools up separately for less, then do that. The third tool they include is utterly useless.

Ah. I made the mistake of buying the full set, rather than the three piece one

Lol, I don't know what 'professional sculpter' market they were targeting with the big set, but unless you're making terrain out of greenstuff or something mental like that, there really is no use for most of the metal tools. The ones that do have a use are vital though.

SilverMK2 - It is going to be a fixed part of the clothing, much like the existing "cup armor."

I have worked on a few more and man is it frustrating/depressing. I know it is my first try, but I have a large touch of OCD. I am happy with some of them, but I am unhappy with the inconsistency from model to model. It might be redeemable after paint.

Should be getting enough bits to start on the Cadian side by the middle of this week; minor set back due to Columbus Day. Ordered my bases today. Next I need to get some paint and we will be rolling.

Will try to get more GS pics up tonight. Thanks everyone for your encouragement, you are the motivation to work through the frustration.

Yeah I get like that with greenstuff. I get it looking good and then I think it might look better if I changed it a little, and invariably I end up wrecking it and having to redo big chunks of it. It gets so much easier with practice though.

Leaning towards this for a color scheme:




Gray fatigues, black armor and khaki webbing. This is my inspiration for the rifles:

Looks good, though I would go for a very dark grey for the armour, so that you can get some depth with a black wash (or similar).

Otherwise, it looks good.

Use Adeptus Battlegrey or a similar light-ish grey for the fatigues.

However, there is another option that looks quite awesome in Charadon Granite(it's a sort of dark grey/greenish color. Looks great when washed with Devlan Mud and Badab Black).

Chardon Granite is the basis for my guard uniforms. It looks really nice, though it does come out a greeny brown rather than a grey.

I think for your guys, Firefly's colour scheme (though with dark dark grey instead of black) would look good

Nah, go black for the armour and edge highlight in a shadow grey/black mix. On the cadian torsos, they are made of plate armour so a wash would only get right into the recesses. Black would look a lot better, otherwise they will end up being too grey.

I am thinking about trying (and feel free to give any blunt opinions or comments I have not painted anything smaller than a GI Joe in a couple years) Dheneb Stone for the fatigues, Adeptus Battlegrey armor with Codex Grey hightlights and Badab Black wash, and Kommando Khaki webbing. What do you think about Elf Flesh with a wash for the skin tone? Just got stoked because I do not have to attempt the eye debacle. Opinions on visor color? Someone asked me today if I was going to go with the the night vision green.

I think elf flesh looks pretty good with a wash or two. I also use ogre red (or whatever it is called) applied a couple of times over the lips to give the mouth a good colour.

I think a vibrant green would offset the otherwise quite muted colours well.

A lot of people seem to paint them blue, but you could also go for orange, gold, red or green... something bright