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The Kalashnikovan 2nd - An Imperial Guard Blog

A big ol' WIP post for you to see what I've been up to with this army recently. There's a few from Vet Squad B who will have shotguns, and a few from the command squad. These are all WIP, so I'd like plenty of opinions on all of the models if possible! Note that the girl bodyguard is keeping her gasmask, and I won't hear anything to the contrary! And also the bloke bodyguard's torso is 100% in proportion with a normal cadian model, he just has wide shoulders which makes it look like he has a short torso. He's a muscled up nutcase anyway though .

The model I especially want opinions on is the vaulting vet, who is pictured first:

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WIP Veteran Squad Beta guardsman vaulting down wall (or possibly cliff...).

I'm quite fond of the concept for this pose, but I'm not sure how it will look executed. As you can see, he is very, very WIP (the head is just for show, that won't be his actual head), and only his left arm is done really - forgot to stick his hand on there for the pics though. Eventually, I hope to have him holding a shotgun and mounted on a 40 or 60 mil base, with it built up behind him and him vaulting off the edge of it. In the top bit, there'll be an insert for another vet on a 25mm base, and he might be limbering up for a death-defying leap! Sound cool?









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WIP Command Squad Bodyguard Bloke

Changed his head since the last WIP and given him some carapace on his legs. Also made his rather large right shoulder pad into some weird check pattern armour that I might paint in a black and white flag scheme (too Ork?), which I think makes it look more natural in its large size. Gave him a backpack with a big ass sword attached to it as well. Just need to glue a pistol on his belt now really. I didn't give him a Kalash head, or the normal backpack as I want to make him look like an outsider - he's a renowned vet who has been brought in by the colonel for his protection.










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WIP Command Squad Bodyguard Girl

She's almost done now in all honesty. Added more details to the gas mask since this pic was taken, it looks pretty good now without looking too eldar. Just need to glue her torso to her legs, neaten up the join between her foot and the legs and give her a backpack, and probably sculpt the bottom half of her sword which got sliced when I removed her from her original legs.









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Next post?

Got a load more wip shots, including the company commander, my wounded guardsman and a couple of standard shotgun blokes. They're already uploaded if you want to be cheeky and check out my gallery homepages. Which reminds me, get some votes on these badboys! Though if you're going to vote them as crap, don't bother .

Looking good. The one jumping over the wall has an excellent dynamic pose.

I love the cross armed guy. I like the idea of him being brought in from outside too. Certainly a good touch.

The ninja wall jumping guy... not so sure of. I will wait for him to be done a bit more but I am always wary of putting large chunks of terrain on model bases.

The lady is looking good, the mask is not too huge, which is good, and you can still kind of see some femininity in her eye area etc. I know it is against ze fluff, but I would still have gone for having her mask tied to her belt or something. But you have done a good job of making it relatively small and to keep some of the grace of the face intact. So well done

Again though, the terrain on the base... At least it is relatively slimline on her base

I know they are from different squads, but I would try and combine any terrain modeled guys into a single piece, so the leaping guy from beta squad could be leaping over a wall joined to the section the woman is crouching behind. It gives things more solidity rather than having bits of terrain randomly around the board (also means that if you are playing on a completely differently themed board, there is at least some cohesion ).

But this is just me. And I am strange.

Yeah I see where you're coming from. Like I said on the vaulting guy, I want to have him leaping off the edge of a large base which will have another guy on the top on an insert 25mm base.

On the girl's base I plan on cutting down the pillar anyway, so it shouldn't stand out too much.

Certainly does help to have each squad kindof on the same purpose. I've always have a thing against a squad eith some guys standing still and firing with others advancing without notice. Just more fun to have a solidly advancing line or a line behind a wall or sandbags firing at range. So, on using terrained bases, i'd just suggest to indeed keep them unified. You know, like a mortar squad firing in ruins or something like that

PS: the girl with the high terrain looks fine, but it'll work best with that high ruin being incorporated throughout the squad, or some general urban environment debris

Yeah, my plan is to have the whole shotgun squad advancing. The command squad will all be at ease I think. I agree that having a squad not in similar poses necessarily, but in similar contexts is a good thing to do.

In terms of heavy weapons, I am going with all mortars I think. I don't play 40k, just model it, so I'm not bothered that I wouldn't stand a chance against an opponent with tanks - I just don't like the look of the standard HW platforms.

Keep the feedback coming though guys!

PS I appreciate people responding in this thread, it keeps me motivated. I have a parrallel plog on work in progress, but its had about 2 people other than me post in it. If it was the same here I'd have given up tbh!

I really like the concept of the 'wall leaper'. Its really dynamic and looks good with the idea of 'take cover!'.

Being a little nit-picky for some, I can see a few mould lines here and there, on the wall that the female bodyguard is crouching behind and on the sword in sheath on the other bodyguard (who is well proportioned, you are right, his big muscled arms threw me off!). I also really like his cross thatched shoulder pad (fur? or something else?).

Keep up the good work sir!

There are other things you can do with heavy weapon teams

Nice, those look pretty cool . I do picture my army as being a highly mobile force of guerilla fighters though, and emplacements like that don't really conjure those images to me. I prefer the look of mortars myself.

Oshunai: Yeah I haven't filed down those two particular bits yet - I usually file down after I've completely built them.

I always took those two heavy bolter teams to be very mobile/guerilla like as they are simply using existing terrain and detritus as cover

@Flinty: Cut the knife outta those sandbags, who stabs sandbags?! And get some paint on your MOO, I've almost got mine done! ha

@OP: Models look pretty awesome so far, especially valuting man, I love it!

Fantastic models , awesome fluff , you are a total inspiration.
I am adding an IG platoon to my DH army and am waiting for some Pig Iron heads to arrive so it is great to see some of the things you can achieve with them,

Will be watching this thread closely, keep it up!

I find most of the HW's to be absolutely huge when compared to the IG. Who is going to lug around a HB which is as big as they are?

I try to find smaller "count as" guns for my IG... I have used a couple of old school Ork Trukk big shootas as HB for my IG, as they are smaller and look relatively good. Well, relatively good for the time when I modeled them, which was quite a while ago.

Compared to the HW teams above, and the models in this tread, they look pretty naff, but I am sure I will fix them when I get round to doing up my IG.

@Get - I like mortars too, hence they are my choice for WH squad, however I think they are a bit 2nd line-ish to be stuck in my infantry squads.


@CrashUSAR - Its a handy place to store your knife while improving your cover I am getting around to the MOO. Just finishing off the 2 HB teams actually. Then perhaps onto the CSS.

@SilverMK2 - the GW weaponsa re a bit oversized, its true, however you can always get around this by saying that they are fitted with suspensors (or made out of some super-special material unique to Forgeworld Fancypants)

endtransmission wrote:I always took those two heavy bolter teams to be very mobile/guerilla like as they are simply using existing terrain and detritus as cover

Yeah to be fair those ones are very well done - they look a lot lighter without the big shield bits in front. I still prefer mortars though .

BLACKHAND wrote:Fantastic models , awesome fluff , you are a total inspiration.
I am adding an IG platoon to my DH army and am waiting for some Pig Iron heads to arrive so it is great to see some of the things you can achieve with them,

Will be watching this thread closely, keep it up!

Thanks, really appreciate comments like this!

For mobile guerilla work I'd have said Missile Launchers would be the weapon of choice as they currently are commonly used by them. Although Mortars are also commonly used in that role as well....

Yeah missile launchers would work, might have some of them.

After the command squad is done, I'll do another vets squad with shotties, then I'll do some fast attack and heavy support choices, probably a sentinal squad (or maybe some skidoo rough riders) and a leman russ.

The Kalashnikovan 2nd - An Imperial Guard Blog

Another load of WIP shots for you all to see, got the army commander, Colonel Blodniek plus his trusty hounds, a couple of shotgun vets and a very wip wounded guardsman model for my command squad. Hope you all like them, and as always, comments welcome!

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Army commander: Colonel Blodniek.

He's done except for a bit of neatening up and giving him a chain to keep his dogs under control (it'll be in his power fist hand). He's based on the FW cadian commander with a rather tricky little headswap - the head is from the FW cadian respirators upgrade pack. I'm not sure whether to keep his left arm as it is (since he'd end up with two cables running from him if I connected it to the comms bloke - the other cable being the leash for the dogs), and it might look a bit weird. I'm either going to have a cable-free comms set-up, or reposition that are and have him either holding a pistol or with his hand nonchalently on his hip.










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WIP Command Squad Wounded guardsman

Eventually, he'll have his other leg propped up on a sandbag with his trousers rolled up, and the medic bandaging it. Sound cool? His torso is driver from the last chancers set, for anyone who's interested. For his head, I'm thinking of giving him a FW veteran head with bandages and sculpting an oxygen mask going between him and the medic's backpack. Rather conveniently, the driver torso has a gas mask hanging on it already which would be good as his original one. Then I'll just sculpt a nice Kalash cap on the ammo crate next to him! Him and the medic will count as one model on a 40mm base I think. A mini diarama for my command squad!








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WIP Veteran squad B, shotgun troops

Just a quick photo of what the standard blokes with shotties look like. They don't have accessories on them yet. I'm thinking of making these guys really accessoried up to make it plainly obvious that they are veterans, since at some point down the line I may have enough completed guys for infantry platoons. These guys have shotguns though, which means that they have to remain vets, so I need to separate them from the rank and file somehow. Any suggestions on how to achieve this?

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Next post?

Some more WIP shots on the command squad, not sure when they'll be up though. Some time this week I'd imagine.

Love the commander. I really look forward to seeing the chains. Will you be using actual chain? I think that will look absolutely fantastic.

The model itself looks great too.

In terms of the phone, can he have a bit of a wippy sat phone wire, rather than a cable?

I think the medic and wounded guardsman will look pretty great. One suggestion I currently have for you is to see if you can get the model's right arm lowered a bit so that it looks like the man is holding the lip of the crate he is sitting on... sort of bracing himself during the medic's administrations.

For the shotgun guys, have you thought of adding bandolires (sp)? Or failing that, add some ammo pouches on their belts (or trousers?) bulging with shells.

Llamahead wrote:For mobile guerilla work I'd have said Missile Launchers would be the weapon of choice as they currently are commonly used by them. Although Mortars are also commonly used in that role as well....

For Guard insurgents the Lascannon actually makes more sense... Its probably easier for them to recharge the lascannon power pack than it is to resupply with rocket ammunition.

Yeah, I'm using the mini chains from forgeworld. Thats a good idea about the phone, it might look good with whippy wires (though I'll have to make sure they're not too long or it will look silly). It'll immediately be obvious he's giving orders down to the troops then - cheers!

The wounded guardsman's arm touches the crate perfectly when he isn't sitting on a blue tac cushion! It was more by luck than design tbh, but it looks pretty cool. That's why I'm keen to be able to show some face on him, to give him some human emotion that is lost with the gasmasks on the pig iron heads.

No problem. Those chains sound great.

Haha, well pointed out on the blu tac, I really didn't notice it

I am not sure which head (for Mr Wounded) you refer to looks like, but looking at the rest of your models, I am sure it will be a great choice.

Its a head with a buzz cut and a bandage over one eye, wrapped around the top of the head. The expression is kind of a gritty, determined one (I'd prefer one with an obvious pained expression, I'll carry on looking for a bit). The only problem is that FW make stuff in true 28mm whereas the torso is very much 28mm heroic (he has an enormous torso). I'm worried he'll look like a pea head if I use the FW head.

Could you add extra bandages?

Or perhaps he is just an extremely unlucky trooper who always gets injured, so has a few cybernetic repairs to his head?

Thats the head I'm on about.

Firstly, loving the commander with dogs. Where are the dogs from? Second that wounded trooper looks great. What are you going to do to model the stump of his other leg?

Lastly the shotgun guard look good, though they are in need of 1. Bandoliers and 2. More gear, and perhaps extending the carapace armour down a little over their cloth areas on their chests, so the armour has greater area of cover. Just some thoughts.

I haven't got a clue where the dogs are from, I just saw them on ebay and bought them. The seller didn't know either. They came as a set of four, two wolf like cyber dogs which I've used and two mastiff ones which I sold again on ebay a few weeks ago. If I remember correctly, they had 1998 sculpted on their base tags, but they weren't proper base tags like GW were doing in that era (they didn't fit properley into GW slottas). I guess they're probably some defunct sci-fi mini's company pieces, or some old OOP models from some obscure company. Whatever they are, they're some really unique models, glad I came across them!

His other leg will be rested on a sandbag and his trousers will be rolled up, with the medic about to bandage that leg. I'm not sure whether to give him a boot or not. Since those pics were taken I've given that leg a wire frame and greenstuffed up to the point of the rolled up trousers.

I like the idea for bandoliers and extending the armour, I'll probably do that. The only problem is it might go the other way and they'll end up looking too different from the lasgun vets for them to count as the same thing! Its a bit of a dilemma really.

Flinty wrote:

Llamahead wrote:For mobile guerilla work I'd have said Missile Launchers would be the weapon of choice as they currently are commonly used by them. Although Mortars are also commonly used in that role as well....

For Guard insurgents the Lascannon actually makes more sense... Its probably easier for them to recharge the lascannon power pack than it is to resupply with rocket ammunition.

Didn't see this post just now .

That's a good point, I'll bear that in mind. I remember from back in the 3rd Edition days when I actually used to play 40k, I used to worship at the lascannon alter - my Iron Warriors were stuffed full of them! If I ever do start playing again then I'll need some anti-armour capabilities too. Yeah, I think I'll go with Mortars and Las' as my only heavy weapons.

Any suggestions on how to make the lascannons look 'light' though?

Make miniature Lascannons that can be carried and rested on sandbags or something?

Hmm, they might not look like Lascannons though... I've always liked the dkok heavy weapons, but I'm not sure if the wheels would look right in a snowy environment.

I like the sound of what you are going to do with the wounded trooper, though if it was me I'd leave his boot off and sculpt his foot (if your skills with the GS are good enough, which I'm sure they are). Maybe he has gotten frostbite in the cold 'Russian' snows? Hehe

In regards to the lascannons, I'd have them cut down, so shorten the barrels, strip of the outer casing and gunshield and replace with just the vital lascannon parts (which are handled in two places). Then the loader gets to carry the power pack and wires. At least thats my idea.