Forum adverts like this one are shown to any user who is not logged in. Join us by filling out a tiny 3 field form and you will get your own, free, dakka user account which gives a good range of benefits to you: No adverts like this in the forums anymore. Times and dates in your local timezone. Full tracking of what you have read so you can skip to your first unread post, easily see what has changed since you last logged in, and easily see what is new at a glance. Email notifications for threads you want to watch closely. Being a part of the oldest wargaming community on the net. If you are already a member then feel free to login now.

Thanks all for the encouragement.

@Rick - My avatar likes shooting people

@TrooperPX - I did check out some DARPA exosuits as part of the background research They tend to go for additional strength rather than speed though. Having said that my Stalker suits looks like a bit of a death trap anyway (probably have all kinds of fancy suspensor and stabilization gyro systems... or something)

@Crash - Heh. As long as you post some pics its fine by me

@JohnHwangDD - They are bigger than stadard Guardsmen but they aren't quite big enough to be sentinels. Anyway that would make my Tachikominals redundant and they are far too cute for that

i know your heads are from pig iron but what are your rifles from?

The rifles are Hasslefree CAD weapons. I use the longer #2 type for lasguns and shorter, more carbiney/SMG-ey #1 for laspistols.

@Flinty: Thanks.

Tho your spider walkers make better RR cav bases than Sentinels.

As I have been clogging up the P&M forum again I thought it was time to update the tracker blog.

More work has been done on the Stalkers with their feet being shown some love... but not in that way, you filthy minded lot

I've now got 6 of them largely done as indicated below:







I've also been working on getting a workable leg-assist unit attached to the backpacks, starting with the Sergeant:


Hydraulics comprise of pinning rod threaded through a Tau Vehicle Burst Cannon barrel (fiddly to drill). Leg supports are a hacked up set of Guard smoke launchers. The biggest problem with them is that the backpack and leg assist units will need to form one part while the actual Guardsman forms a second, otherwise I'll never be able to paint the damn things This leads to copious pinning, fiddling and swearing but I think it'll be worth it in the end

I've also been working a bit more on the feet to give an armoured ski-binding type look:




I've still got to fill in the gaps formed by repositioning the feet but getting there. The other gaps have all been filled with GS so patience is required until the GS stages harden properly.

Also working on a basket hilt for my Sergeant's power weapon, updates to follow.

Nice well done better than mine!

And so I broke ranks and actually painted something before finishing the modelling on all of the rest of the Stalkers:









Also I've tried to muck about with some Object Source Lighting, with mixed results



As well as the Stalker I got attacked by inspiration on how I could bring Storm Troopers into my force. I'm thinking that they should all have the additional optics helmets as indicated below. The concept model uses Tau legs with chopped up boots. I will definately need to GS up the legs around the shins.

There is a bit of a mix-match between the Tau legs and the Cadian torso. The Tau are obviously a bit less fat than humans

I'm thinking that I can hide the difference using some GS to bulk up the crotch and leg armour.











All comments and criticism gratefully received as always

Great idea!

Loving the storm trooper, where's his gun from?

Storm trooper is looking pretty damned awesome man. Along with everything else in this blog.

I'm also curious to know where this gun is from ?

The gun is another example of Hasslefree's CAD guns. They do about 12 different versions from pistol up to support weapon. This is one of the larger examples, similar to the sniper rifles I'm using, but more obviously rapid fire beasts.

Looks great, nice paint job.
I like the stormie!

Looks good; adding some more hip armour plates would cover up the difference in thickness quite easily IMO. Nice idea!

Very nice. I wonder how I could adapt them to be longer, to fill a Cav / Bike base...

Thanks guys.

@HwangDD - I did think about trying to make them longer but then they would end up looking a bit centaur-like and I couldn't envisage how to do that. I am planning on filling the rest of the base in with scenery to try and do mini-viginettes with each model. Time will tell how well I can realise this

Quality blog, absolute quality. I've recently ordered Pig Iron heads and scout legs to kit out my cadian based force that I'm working on. I might just have to look at those hasslefree guns to completely set off the look.

Do you have any tips on painting camo on such a small scale (ie infantry)? And for your tanks do you airbrush or paint brush on your camo schemes? (sorry if these have already been answered, just kind of skimmed over the thread for picture updates).

Keep up the good work, loving it all.

Hey dude love your woodland army but we please a infantry army shot? would look great with all the camo soldiers. genius with the stalkers! i gotta think of something for rough riders now too

good luck with the rest

peace

Loving the stalkers, looking forward to seeing more of this lot

@Gavrock - When I was doing the trial scheme I spent a lot of time staring at the UK camo kit I got for airsofting. As well as getting appropriate colous you need to look at how the colours layer over each other. The other thing is not to worry about it looking too messy. Its camo, its not supposed to be perfectly lined My method involves using a green base coat and rather large blocks of tan. For the dark brown and black layers I "jittered" the tip of the brush over in pretty random patterns, trying not to replicate any particuar pattern.

The Hasslefree guns are great to work with. Excellent casting quality, highly recommended. My tanks are brush painted, although I'm sure you could get the same effect with an airbrush iun about 1/4 of the time

@Psycho - I don't actually have that many infantry models painted, I just have lots of different pictures of them There are a few group shots here and on my Gallery though.

Big group


Photoshop shenanipants

Flinty wrote:I don't actually have that many infantry models painted, I just have lots of different pictures of them

Heh, that's the hard part about camo Guard...

A little more footling has been occurring. I've managed to add leg assist mechanisms to about half my Stalkers now and will hopefully finish the rest soon.

Also been fiddling with some basing ideas.

Vendetta doing what it does best. PLanning on trying to fit some smoke around the flying base to disuise it. Rough shape has been added in with foam and I will try sticking tree flock to get a decent smokey appearance. Might need trimming a bit though.




And my ultra-dynamic assault Stalker has something to assault over. I primarily added it to give the model a bit more height, however I also think it looks ace

Its my first trial at a cracked clay type base, so we shall see if it still owrks when the GS has dried. I will also be trying to add in some puffs of weapon impacts on the bank and the sandbags as if he's getting shot at. Time will tell how well that works out

great Start on the base!

Cross posted from the P&M forum. Vendetta base almost finished. Designed to look like a pillar of smoke that has been interrupted by the passage of the Vendetta.

I still need to char up some of the static grass, but I have a game tomorrow and it probably wouldn't be properly dry by the time I need to pack up tonight. Also some space is left for some other twiddles. Someone suggested some charred Tau, but I'm feeling lazy at the moment

W00t! The first proper outing of the Dunedin 51st ends in a moral victory.

A 1500 point game of capture and hold (the one with 2 victory locations). Due to a lucky series of hits on my opponent's Rhinos half of his infantry and all his CC potential was stranded on the other side of the board

There was a sticky moment when his drop pod landed in the middle of my lines, but the Penal Legion boys gave them what for. The other major problem I ran into was when I failed to kill any of his terminators, even after firing 2 squads of Vets and a whole mess of chimeras at them. his return firing toasted most of the vets, but by that time the Valkyrie had turned up and was able to lend support.

The game ended at the end of Turn 5 before my sentinels were able to quite get far enough to contest his flag, however he had 7 marines left over 3 squads while I had most of my vehicles and the remnants of 3 troops units running about in transports that my opponent wasn't really able to touch.

Man of the match would have to be the MOO, after taking out a rhino, a Land Raider and a few marines as well with his accurate fire. There was a rather beautiful moment when the shot scattered off the rhino he could see directly into an infantry squad hiding behind it that he couldn't see. Solid results were also seen from the Vendetta, sentinels and the Hydra. I fully expect that my next game will redress the balance of the universe and see me being totally wiped out

Well done in the match mate and i like the vendetta base too!

Awesome paintjobs! Good work!

A MoO taking out a landraider + rhino + marines?? Sure you're playing him right? You know he scatters even on a hit, right?

Flinty wrote:Cross-linked from the P&M forum, but here to be a more permanent record.

After far too many months of slacking I finally managed to get around to finishing my Astropath.

The little lady is based on a Lahmian vampire with minimal conversion. Clothing design was basically stolen from someone's online avatar for a game I can't quite recall. Reference picture at the bottom of the post (edit - I have now been reliably informed its a Mesmer from Guildwars).

I'm rather happy with the freehanding stuff. I have definately seen better, but I'm not sure if I personally could do better The vine on the pointing arm is a little cramped, perhaps, but I'm still happy with it.

Basing is yet to occur as I am waiting to do the whole group at the same time. Probably some kind of rock/sand/static grass approach to match my other based models.

Anyway, on with the show!













And a bit of a group shot with her advisees






Automatically Appended Next Post:
Hmm.. feedback I missed! Apologies for the delay.

@JB - You humble me, sir Just remember to post pics!

@Worldwarme - Thanks

@Scarper - No probs. The MOO data pad thingy is made up of 2 parts. The lower "keyboard" bit is trimmed down from the Cadian HW HB trigger handles. Its the curved bit in betwen the hands that is supposed to fit into the very rear of the HB. The screen part is a random bit of plasticard I had kicking about. I had to file the arm down a little to get a flush fit, but nothing too dramatic.

Just a point to make, If I were her and I were on a battlefield, I'd sure as hell want to cover my thighs!

War is not the right time for dressing provocatively!

@P4NC4K3-I think the term artistic licence applies here

These are fantastic. Its good for my morale to see that other guard players are in the same atate of unpainted-ness, it just gets to you, all the men

That ven. Base looks fab! Good work, maybe add a tau warrior crawling away at the edge of the base

Imp. Monkey

ps. Do you live/are you scottish?? I ask due to the scottish flag on your assault trooper, or is that just a generic British army mark that I am not in the know about??

Imperial Monkey wrote:@P4NC4K3-I think the term artistic licence applies here

Touché, sir