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it might well be the best gaurd vehicle kit not currently in the gaurd codex, LOL

its very simple to put together, only made complicated by my insistence of converting the crew and weapons, thus making it harder to do subassemblies of these parts as easily as I normally would.
The driver, dashboard, rollcage and entire turret were all seperate.however in the ideal world you'd also want the driver's chair seperate (but this wasnt a big deal) and also the gunner in his seat as a seperate part for painting. as well as the weapons. other than that, keep the wheels in subassemblies before you glue it all and jobs a good 'un.

today I cobbled together some spare parts into a panzergrenadier, purely to test the splinter camo's viability for a future bunch of minis I have planned.

panzerfaust is the command squad bannerpole with an ork stickbomb head for the charge.
The rifle is plastic krieg, the head/mask tiny-legends resin and the body, obviously, nucadian.

consider this particular loadout of parts a one-off mini, but the coulorscheme may yet find itself on a future project...

glad I tried this now. the camo is not too tricky at all, bar three coats required to get zandri dust over black. perhaps I'll undercoat the areas steel legion drab first next time...

should of done that on the damned buggy too, would have made life easier...

please do, and enjoy pad!

Got those four of the Filey 87th done today.

This represents the last of the Filey 87th I'll be doing. but worry ye not more stuff is on the way...


Commander - with casual cigar and chest-slung Boltgun.
Made from the field ordnace crew body, SOB boltgun (with chaos pistol mag), anvil beret/goggle head and the ususal greenstuff vansaar pads.


Comm-tech - with auspex and a bad attitude! (state of the bad-ass art...)
This one uses kasrkin/anvil hybridised arms for the auspex and then the other side to match, obviously.
includes the usual mad-robot cdf head and the york pattern lasgun.


Demolitions expert - Heavy weapon kneeling body, cdf head, mad robot rolled sleeve arms and the gsc dynamite bundle (a cowson to get the niddy claws off of but worth it nonetheless). also gs vansaar pads.


Squad dedicated marksman - upgrade sprue body, head is mad-robot (allbeit a fieldcap/goggle/balaclava combo) and an old scout sniper silencer and boltgun scope on a york pattern lasgun, held in anvil arms... and other stuff you all know on sight by now...


While I was at it I made up this CLE style drop container from two of those barrels I got from spellcrow, I added the rhino D-hook to show where the grav chute connected and the eagle was cut and placed to show where it would open (I cut along its length on the container to make a groove that better shows this too) its a 40mm base, before you ask.
Done in the ambush camo as a last hurrah for the 87th, but dont count this camo out completely in the future!

cheers guys.

Painting contest? HA back in the late nineties/early 2000's maybe. nowadays I'd never stand a chance. all that nmm krap, fine-art level freehand and crazy sixteen-month + paintjob nonsense people do that ruin it for anyone either without an art degree and classical training or simply not the skill/time to devote that much to the hobby.
These kinds of people are proffesionals and should have their own seperate division to give other people a fair chance. There are some outshanding artists out there (much better than I'll ever be) who, time and time again, get overlooked for this overblown tosh and its a constant thorn in my side and gouges that chip on my shoulder ever deeper.
No. I've too fragile an ego these days to do competitions anyway. I mean, why do I need someone else to critisize my work anyway?
Don't get me wrong, we all love positive comments, all the stuff I get here is a lovely boost and is truly everso appreciated, but thats not the only reason to do it, is it? for me its about sharing technques and general love of the hobby, sharing an interest with like minded induviduals.

as for a group shot. well, aside from not having the room, the lighting is abysmal for photos for me at this time of year. so thats a long way off if at all...

anyway, for now, here is Brin:


Ogryn bodyguard, currently assigned to the 87th Filey Droptroops.


Fancied one last hit of ambush camo and figured this guy was the perfect candidate!
I figured it was the best way to one, get camo on him and ,two show off his size; hes so big they've painted his armour like their armoured vehicles!
points of detail include his "GOOD JOB!" badge, presented to him by Commissar Nixon for single handedly destrying a captured leman russ in heretic possession.
Also his alternative shield, which comes from an ambot's amour panel (that he "ripped off wiv 'iz own 'ands") as I felt the standard bucklers look a little too ornate for an ogryn weapon. This still looks like a powered shield, just a little more utilitarian.
where it joined to the gauntlet section, I simply greenstuffed a welded effect around it.
These kinds of hasty repair effects look fine on ogryns and orks, due to the slap dash nature of the creatures themselves.
For a bit of fun and as a reference to the old second edition ogryns, I sculpted on a crossed plaster and added some chain to his carapace armour. I always think of chain when I think of ogryns because of those old minis being festooned with it!
I decided his grenade should be a meltabomb (again to show his absurd bulk) and set about it by simply adding a big ringpull to the top in place of the handle. Again, I used a bit of spikey sprue chain for this.
I went heavy on the weathering and texture, but tried to stick to the pallette youve seen on my filey and other regiments of the Eoforwich system, so far.
I chose this specific head so he had goggles to match the troops and the mask was another surface to continue the colour scheme on.
The observant among you will note that, in his zeal to get to grips with the enemy, he's dragged a length of barbed wire out from their defence line on the way in. Yup, He hasn't even noticed...
This is my usual hand tied stuff with cadian sandbags, greenstuff and textred paint as on all my bases...
ok. now I'm done with filey!

Thanks Guardling!

were going back to Selby today.

But not the 151st infantry division.
they were the Selby's specialists; using the better equipment and weapons, stuff usually used reserved for the Filey 87th, No, these new guys are the 9th Selby Regulars.


These three represent the first of a more basic rifleman company, Also hailing form the Eoforwich system, specifically Selby.
These guys are the standard troops.
As you can see, they have a strong ww2 American theme to them. Evident, not only from the helmets and gasmasks, but also the duckhunter/frogskin green camo I went with.
This is simply a deathguard green base with regular looking waaagh flesh and mounfang brown splotches, highlighted with zandri dust and ushabti bone for that worn edge look. this does tend to make it seem a bit more beige than the green it really is but thats fine as far as I'm concerned.
To continue the theme, I ditched my usual grey trou and went for green there and for a bit of life decided to lift the theme with some yellowy-orange lens' on the m3 gasmasks. which is technically accurate, as m3 lens' did have yellow tinge to them. ok, maybe not as dayglow as these came out but as I say, its a bit of life to an otherwise bland scheme...


I used the Anvil dday M1 heads that you may remember Sgt Basilone, from my 151st Selby killteam, is wearing.
These have the gasmask for the extra, "another faceless guard" look it gives...


To keep the standard issue look I went for Tiny legends' basic lucius lasgun arms on cadian bodies.
I chose the "veteran" pads because, well look at them, they're so 2nd ed! and you know me and my nostalgia


This guy got promoted to sargeant because I dropped one of the pads and it dissapeared into the warp portal that apparently lives under my table when I model (seriously its just GONE!). So I figured I'd just use the cadian rank pad instead! great!
He also has the biker scout grenades for the simple reason of; I've had it for ages and wanted to use it.

I also have two more to add to this squad once the paint's on.
I'd started the painting on these before I built these other two, they have a little more 2nd ed flavour to them with the weapons I've chosen as well as the old rolled sleeve look for a bit of variation, I know, supposed to be standard issue? But I just can't help myself...

Thanks guys

got the last two of the Selby 9th regulars done.


Confidant with bolter.
I decided on using a sister of silence boltgun due to its smaller stature and its roguetrader looks.
By simply shaving off the support hand (re-carving the grooves on the stock back in) and grafting it onto some madrobot rolled sleeve arms it looked the part.
As a nudge to the second edition bolters I added one of these bolters' frame-stocks to it, makes it look much more guard issue as well. Much easier to handle.
heresy set spare mag and half an infiltrator's leg pocket as a simple backpack and thats his kit done.
to match in with t'others he has an anvil d-day m1 head and the shoulderpads from tinylegends' veteran kit (which seem to fit perfectly on ANY arms, YAY!).


Trooper with Galaxy pattern Lasgun.
Again, rolled sleeve arms for that 2nd ed feel. This time the right is madrobot and the left is actually one of anvil's cyberpunk ones (no special reason, it just fit ok).
Again with the tiny legends pads and an m1 helmet/m3gasmask head.
not sure why, but I just fancied a Galaxy lasgun in the squad. It's a third ed catachan one and looks so, SO crude next to the tinylegends lucius ones! but its a nice bit of nostalgia. I seem to have a few of these in the box so figured I'd better start using them...
his backpack is altered, simply for the sake of difference between the cadian bodies I seem to keep using for everything, I swapped out his "heresy detector" for a triplet of explosive carges, lifted from a GSC mini...

Don't ask me why, but I really dislike the pose of this cadian body. The only conversion I've done with it where I'm 100% happy with it was the Captain Stevens mini I did for the selby 151st a while back. There's one of these in the filey 87'th too, but I'm not sold on that one either...


Here's the fireteam all together.
A fun dive into (yet more) second edition inspired yumminess, this time with an American flair to it.

A nice as my extensive collection of guard units, realistically sporting varing shades of camo and kit is, all this green brown and beige standard issue is starting to wear a little thin for me in the whole creative department of late...

Don't get me wrong. Its mostly my jam, and those who follow this thread probably dig it too.
And yes, I've definately got more units planned, but every so often you need a break from the same ol' same ol'.
In the past thats led to, admech, inquisition, eclesiarchy, Tau, RT crimson fists and whole threads devoted to Fallen angels, spacesharks and Battlefeet gothic.

So, perhaps something in Yellow and black that a certain Mr Olthannon is still waiting on...?
Whats that? A year late? yeah... tis...
But whats a year's backlog in this hobby, eh?

see you soon!

he's done;

I'll say now. I really did not enjoy doing this.
It was an absolute slog.
Though it shows you that you can, in fact, paint a yellow mini up from a black undercoat this should be taken as an example of what not to do.
Starting from a basecoat of xv88 (sevaral thin coats), following with Zemesi Desert (sevaral more thin coats) blending a few layers of the armypainter's ancient honey for a gradient of colour and then blending back to zemesi at the top of the panels.
Then highlight with ushabti bone and incremental additions of white ink.

I started by painting the head on its own to test the plan.
no problem.

then the body... sigh...



Disasterous.
The sheer number of layers required got to the point of obscuring recess detail.
on top of this, several of my paints and shades for no reason at all other than being out to ruin my day have dried shiny. and some simply terrible things happened.
Like, where did that massive lump/divot come from on the base rim?
why was my zemesi desert apparently full of grit?
why did the layers streak, dispite the hours (sometimes days) left between coats?
why did the ancient honey act completely arbitrarily different each time I used it?
Why was I seemingly unable to paint the black camo with any consistancy to the form and sizes?
Why did I ever even decide to attempt this..?

the more it went on and the more things that kept resisting me, the more irked and sick of it I got. At one point, it got very close to getting binned, not finished.

perhaps my personal expectation was far too high, but I can say now, that this has been a real kick to my aforementioned fragile ego.

I'm putting it all down to my new job. Its stupid hours all over the place and its really not doing much for my sleep patterns, making me most irritable and to be honest quite excessively emotional. So, I can't even really tell. My judgement is scattered. Worst part is, it doesn't even pay enough, but theres nothing else around at the min. I know I need out though...

gah.

anyway, digression aside, Yellow; Never, EVER again...


Still, the derpy skull icon came out ok though...

It has been pointed out to me that my ocd's are forcing me to only see my own perceived flaws in the mini, rather than to judge the model as a whole in it's finished state, but I guess that's just the way it goes sometimes... Wood for the trees and all that...


Anyway, it's done!

Onto the next!

cheers, bud! appreciated...

hang on...

whats that smell..?


This is Boyd... he's having a bad day.
Firstly, he's dead.
Secondly, he's been dragged from his eternal rest on the battlefield, after dying for the Emperor.
Thirdly, he has no idea where his jaw is...

Figured it was about time I showed off just what my guard have been up against all this time in the trenches of the Eoforwich system!


He's one of Wargame Atlantic's new zombies. A wonderfull kit that allows you to build thirty(!) zombies.
I've recently got a single sprue of the five repeated sprues the set comes with, allowing me to build six.
They have an excellent generic look to them and can also be further customised by the 75(!?) heads on each sprue!
civilian, military, ww2, napolenic, tricorn, ballcaps, roman legionaires, all sorts!
I've gone for the generic heads on mine.
The minis have excellently sculpted generic ragged clothing on them that can be painted to represent whatever uniforms or clothing you wish it too.
The torsos and legs are set on each six but the arms, like the heads, are fully swap-able.

I'll warn you now though, they are truescale 28mm, NOT gw's heroscale 28mm. making them quite short against nucadians or krieg, I suspect so that they'll blend seamlessly with their other minis, but consider yourself pre warned...

So, although a little short against guard, if used as poxwalker alternatives, they really help to make your accompanying deathguard look even more imposing




more of his rancid buddies will follow soon...

I love how you're trying to make spin/excuses as to their dimished size, LOL, just to make it work!

Right, they're done!



I've gone for a real mix of skintones.
dark skin is mournfang brown base, the light ones are cadian flestone basecoat and kislev flesh (for boyd).
Mr. Pink was done with bugmans glow as a basecoat.
The Jaundice yellow was actually the old GW bronzed flesh!
The grey was tricky to get feasible. I used cadian flesh to highlight it and then it made it more convincing. After this I took a similar approach to highligts for the other tones, adding white ink to the mix on the lighter tones.
Everything was first highlighted then shaded with my usual nuln-oil/agrax mix then highlighted up again after the fact.
they have all been treated to glazes here and there with either draganof nightshade (or whatever its called) or reichland fleshshade to either add warmth or cooler tones where needed.
The base of the dry blood is gal-vorbak red and khorne red and then the Stringy gory drool around the mouth and hands was achieved with uhu type glue stretched over areas and hit with a liberal coat of tamiyas x-27 red gloss to both areas (bloodforbloodgod in gw?).
All the eyes are done in plain milky white for the creepiness factor it adds...



Here's the finished 'herd' of plagueslain on the prowl...

now where'd I put that shotgun...

 tauist wrote:
Thanks for sharing the Salamander, it's going to be a useful reference for me going forward. The only thing I dont like about it is the goblin green rim, otherwise its a solid one.

I wouldn't personally even try to paint yellow or red models without using a yellow/red primer on it first. Working from a black primer? Unless you are airbrushing, fuggetaboutit!

I know... you should undercoat lighter for yellow but, Yup. I only ever undercoat black. Cos that's my jam.

And yeah the goblin green rim? Purely for oldskools sake , bud.to tie it in with the bloodangel termie as part of the same project I suppose. Certaily not something I'd do usually

 Olthannon wrote:
I can only apologise for putting you through such horror and misery but the end result is absolutely rocking!! That RT Salamander is absolutely mint. Full marks there!

The zombies look brilliant too, that blood effect looks awesome.

Hope your job goes a little better / can find a better one!

Really enjoyed the zombies, so I can forgive you for the salamander! As I say it's my mood that's coloured the feeling of the salamander. Looking at it, some time passed now, it's fine isn't it.
Got to separate myself from what I'm doing a little more I suppose.
Or failing that, try to get some damn good sleep. That wouldn't hurt too... Lol.

 Ragsta wrote:
I love those zombies, I think the size is just fine as they will make their brave opponents stand out more I would happily get a box myself if I had space at all!!

The Salamander looks mint. I can sympathise when hating one’s own creative process but the end results are what keep me going. Nothing more satisfying than that final seal of varnish!!

There's always room for undead! Especially these tiny little minis! I like the way you think, too. Guess they do make the guard look even cooler.
Yup. With the salamander, suffering of the process aside, he is fine. Like Bob Ross always said "hope you're plagued with dissatisfaction..."
Guess it makes you do better next time? Perhaps.but don't look to me to paint yellow marines again anytime soon. Lol..

Anyway, I've nothing to show at present but rest assured, I've some krieg engineer themed kasrkin/stormtroopers on the go made from leftovers of some anvil stalhelm heads and the last five kasrkin bodies from those oldskool stormtroopers I converted last year.
They'll be in the orange camo and are the heavy support crew for my krieg engineers that I did...
Pics as soon as they're done...

well. no kriegsrkin as yet... as they're not quite cooked yet...


But, would you believe it? We're going back to Filey!


A little addition to the 87'th


You might have noticed that every member of the 87th I've done has dust goggles on, for that drop-troop feel.
This Florin sump-rat is of no exception!

*note*
This is actually a revist to a mini I'd painted with another of his little buddies (sporting c4 style block-bombs) a while back for the 39th.
I decided the goggles on this one, as well as the stick charges, made him an ideal candidate to add a bit of spice to the 87th, All I did was bring the highlighting "up to speed", add some filey camo on his little vest and do the the goggles in the red/orange gem...

Time's not been on my side of late and I thought this'd be a good little quicky so that I had something to share...

 Nozeminer wrote:
The goggles tie the little fella in with the rest of the troops, like he's their little buddy. Too bad after he completes his mission, you won't even be able to find pieces of the goggles.

Oh no, got that covered...


Florin sump-rats

Like their necromundan cousins, the sump rats of Florin are indeed rodents of unusual size.
however, their domesticated nature means that thier genetic stock is much more stable than other wild sump-rats, not being exposed to hazardous waste or radioactive reactors.
On Florin they are mostly bred as pets for the wealthy and are considered status symbols amongst the arisocracy, easily trained to perform tricks...
However, never ones to pass up an advantage on the battlefield, the regiments of the Eoforwich system have trained these rodents to be extremely capable and accurate mine and other IED dectectors. thier small, light bodies allowing them to enter minefields and unstable structures without fear of detonating pressure sensitve devices.
On Filey, many have been kitted out with explosive vests and trained to find the weak spots in enemy vehicles and fortifications, whereupon they schluff off the vests and return to their handler, the explosives then detonated at a safe distance.
sneaky and underhanded, yes, but absolutely effective, nonetheless...

I'm not a monster

Thanks Ghostmmaker!

new project today.
some artillery for the Flexberg troops...

Yeah, you heard me right; Flexberg!
No, you're not in the wrong project thread.
Ragsta's got me drafted to help in the war effort and it seems the Flexbergers are soon to be the proud owners of some heavy artillery!

I've been commissioned to build and paint three artillery pieces for him, all from "the honerable lead" these minis are; 8" howitzer, 60lb gun and big-bertha, Krupp 42cm...


So, in 40k terms; thats a bombast field gun, a heavy mortar and a medusa!
Here they are after initial build. Literally just got them in at the time...

Ill say now.
The resin is a godawful mess. miscast, bubbley, slipped and oily as buggery... sigh.
The white-metal components are even worse. Disheartening at first, but in truth, nothing for an old soak like me to get sorted...
I can see why Ragsta didnt fancy tackling it...

I have been requested by Ragsta to essentially "osjclatchford-ize" them, to get them up-to-speed with 40k's aesthetic so to speak, adding bits, removing others all the time checking in to make sure its to his artillerymen's liking...

first up the bombast proxy:

I've added rivets all over and a skull icon to the barrel.

Fixed an ugly-assed section on the rear

and added a laurelwreath icon just under the barrel.

looks much more 40k already, no?


I've since added this towhook


I also toyed with using these wheels I had instead, I thought it was rather fetching. However, Ragsta firmly decided he wants them all to match, so I'll stick to what it came with, on this occasion.

Next, I turned my attention to the heavy mortar proxy;

Again, more rivets

A skull icon to the top of the breach and an aquilla on the deckplate

An imperial tank sprue bit as a support and the addition of a lined barrel, courtesy of some ali tube I had.

Finally the medusa;

Another lined barrel (an old biro end) and a robotic servo-arm to load the medusa rounds. (this was an anvil component I meant to use on the goliath I did but then didnt... waste not want not)

The rear of the breach comes from an old chimera hatch and the platform is the inside of a window that spellcrow sent me as a freebie when I ordered the barrels from them.
Also on here is a grab-climing rail made from heavy grade solder, bent and fixed in place on plastic tubing.

I added this rhino aquilla under the barrel because it fit a treat and looks bangin' doing so!
We decided, no gunshield. Meaning Ragsta has that for another potential build int he future...


This mess is an experiment in a base topper for the guns.
The concept is thus; once cured, they can be removed from the backing acetate, then ragsta can glue them onto his base of choice, add his own materials around the tracks and paint accordingly, to match his army, then simply glue each gun in place! lets hope it works, too because thats half a pack of miniput sitting there!

more soon...

The man himself!

It's just some aluminium tubing I had from some such place too long ago to remember wence it came from now...

As for which unit, perhaps they're a detachment of the eoforwich artillery support regiment? perfect opportunity to extend both of our respective fluff into one extended osjclatchford/Ragsta multiverse..? Lol...

aaaand done...



bombast proxy




Heavy mortar proxy



Medusa proxy


This was great fun and I'm pretty pleased with how hte colourscheme has tied all three together a s a battery, dispite the size and form differences (as well as all the odds-and-sods and bitz-and-bobs I've added to each gun.)

Sure hope ragsta Like 'em...

Now the trickiest part of all is how to ship these badboys from the Eoforwich system to the Flexberger's current warzone in one piece... now, wheres that yellow shipping container..? time to give ol' Jago Kane a shout methinks

Actually, I was referencing the fluff...

Still, not a bad idea at that...

Eoforwich sent them to assist...administratum orders.

Guard is guard and needs must. Jago shipped them over on the yellow snork.

As for the rest..? That's up to Ragsta

got those aforementioned kriegsrkin done, at last!

full squad


This pose was based on the old metal kasrkin aiming/advancing guy. With the gun-wires gone (god I hate those, bloody stupid), it took very little effort.

Here is the squad commander. I added the chest lamp to tie him in with the engineers.
His robot hand is done in the awful pink to visually reference the hideously coloured early prosthetic limbs of the 50's and 60's.
It also reminds me of Lister's robot arm he had in series 7 of red dwarf...



Another mask guy.
the HWT backpacks help with the engineer theme, due to all the wrenches and screwdrivers and that on them.
As the backpacks duplicate a bit across the squad I made some swaps for other bits here and there, like the krieg hatchet and waterbottle on this one...


...and the shovel (krieg), knife (old cadian) and scope (boltrifle) on this one!
Made sensible by the fact his scope is absent from his hellgun. which I added a nucadian lasgun sling too for some extra detail/bulk


The team's specialist has a melta, because that makes the most sense as far as damage output and the demolition/assault nature of the sapper's they are supporting.
I added a spare muzzle (got the idea from a deathguard mini) and did the colourisation of the heat bloom on the current muzzle. With this in mind, I chose the backpack with the pair of asbestos gloves/mits slung on the backpack. (can't really see it here. but its there!)
I figured he can use those to swap his muzzles out!
To further sell the sense on working away from his own lines and in/under enemy territory, he has a spare tank of melta fuel on his pack. Taken from and old landspeeder multimelta ammo. (a meltabomb would do if not).
he aslo has a holster (heavy intercessors) as his backup weapon.
To hide the fact that I'd used the backpack with the roll of tape on before (the guy with the hatchet, where I'd removed the gloves from his pack and put a gasmask box on instead) I shaved the tape off and added an old cadian waterbottle. melting is thirty work, I guess!


...and here is an example of one next to one of the engineers. They fit together well.
I mean it makes sense. If the engineers are made from cadians then the stormtroopers should then be made of kasrkin...
I elected to do all the 'soft' armour in the grey.
I figured there was not much trou on display as on the engineers and this way, with camo on the trousers too, the colourscheme was balanced. if I'd done all that stuff black they would have just been very dark dingy and kinda boring...

This whole squad has been made of leftovers from my other endeavours. The heavy backpacks coming fom the crounching cadians I used in the filey 87th and the kasrkin being left over from my 3rd ed style stormtroopers. The heads were just sitting there in my bitzbox! never get rid of stuff you might use in the future!
All in quite the result I'd say!




also, as a diversion I've tacked this mini too this week:

Its a copplestone minis 'em4 Robot skeleton with MAR' mini I bought from Forlorn games on ebay.
But I know what your thinking...
"thats a second/third ed' necron, that is!"
Although similar at first glance, its actually quite different. except for the head. I mean damn, its bang on, no?
As you can see Ive gone full nostalgia-nerd and done it the 1997 army theme as shown here:

Well. I do remember those with much fondness but alas, never bought any when they came out originally.
I personally loved the fact the faction only had the five warriors, two immortals, a destroyer, scarabs and a lord to lead them all.
easy to collect and nice and uniform on the tabletop as reams of faceless, souless automata should be.
They had (and I suppose still do have) a certain egyptian theme to them that essentially made them 'tomb kings terminators' for 40k, which, tbh this one lacks but imho, its better for it.


The steel finish and red eyes were an absolute must.
As you can see Ive added some weathering and rusty patina across his frame, suggesting that this necron is a lttle older than the ones you see gracing the tables today (which is kinda silly as theyre all supposed to be ancient, but you get where I'm coming from)
I also added the gold and blue scheme to his chestplate (like the egyptian iconography parts on the originals) and decided to do the the gun in the simple black casing with the muzzle done in green to represent the classic gauss crsytal muzzles...
the original mini's gauss guns had large ribbed tubes that came out of the 'stock' end and were rendered as bronze.
as these were absent on these, I simply did the ribbed hosing on the thighs in weathered bronze to reference this.
the base wa the final touch for me.
simple corkdust and chunks in xv88, washed with agrax and then drybrushed in zandri then ushabti with a mournfang rim.
very oldskool and a very pleasent diversion from my usual stuff that was a real walk down memory lane and genuine fun to do.
You know, if you showed this model to me in 1997 and said I was the person who painted it I'd have never believed it...

now, if only I could get hold of an original '97 immortal to go with it...

cheers!


Filey Drop-troop 'Fulmar' class assault-pod

Sometimes the skies above a drop-zone are simply too dangerous for a valkyrie deployment, a low-orbit or even an extra-orbitial gravchute drop. In these specific circumstances the deployment of squadrons of 'Fulmar' class assault-pods allow the squads to be sent planetside well above the usual safe limits of orbital deployment, these single man drop-pods too small and too fast to track or fire upon, sending their deadly cargo well behind enemy lines, the sounds of rapidly decellarating pods causing terror and confuson as the Filey deploy amongst the enemy, quickly taking objectives and overruning defences before the enemy has time to prepare for assault...


"Incoming!"


After my dissapointment of the grey colourscheme of my filey equipment pod, I decided to give it another go, on one of these saviour pods from killteam.
This time I went for the green and black of the filey 87th trooper's armour with some steel finishes added in.
I figured it worked on the auto mortars so well, it was worth a go on this.
I think its much better.

I was mostly inspired by quake2's one man droppods...

While I was at it, I decided to do my other legions imperialis scale dread-droppod that was still awaiting a paintjob in this colour.


consider it a do-over of the filey supply pod.

Its better I suppose.
I think the peggy minge technique struggled a little with the small size of the mini (on the grey one I did before.)
This time, however, utilizing the same techniques as on the 'Fulmar' assault pod has definately yeilded better results.

Decided to have another crack at this today


The nightmare fuel that is my cybercherub

you may remember its last incarnation, its made from the body of the Kairic Acolyte's Vulcharc familiar.



This time I went for a simpler look (less mechadendrites) and then added a basic skull (chaos spikey sprue) with section of bfg aerial for an eye and gubbins sliced from various weapons to make the skull and body seem more integral and to add 'doohickies' to his back.
you obviously cant have missed the use of static grass as matted fur around the head, back armpits and crotch. A rather disturbing and rank looking effect that makes it looklike it flew right out of one of John Blanche's paintings!


The liberal use of weathered metals and dark tones help there too, of course!

The inspiration comes from Neil Reed who created something very similar for the Lesotho blanchitsu campaign.
see pg113, WD dec 2018...

Thanks muchly guys. I really do appreciate the kindness...

@guardling
I'm looking at the new vulture things on the new chaos knights... No bugger's got any for sale anywhere though!

Today I discovered that chatGPT AI bot can make some nice boxart/codex art style images of my models if prompted to do so correctly and with the right level of instruction and description.


I'm calling this one the cover of the unofficial Codex Filey drop-troops or even a Codex Eoforwich, if there ever was one!

putting people out of work? no not at all. fun and free exercise for me to create codex shots of my minis. absolutely.

and before anyone crows on about stollen assets and all that jazz. these are my minis its based on and its a free rescource. I can do with them as I please.

love it or hate it. its not going anywhere. might as well try to enjoy it...

Cheers bud. Do go check out my bfg thread for more

The trick is to use the string ; "wh40k art style, remove bases, remove background".

Then. Don't just ask what you want. summerise it with commas and colons to point out the important bits.
If you don't have a pic with rotations to show the mini on all sides, describe what's actually happening on the mini as if you're explaining to a child.
Finally always finish with "try to keep the colours forms and shapes as true to the original"

That's the kicker. You must get that point across so it doesn't deviate too far.

Also. Never EVER get it to edit something it's already done. It's diminishing returns.

If you must, refine the search string And start a new convo. So it doesn't draw from something that's already gone wrong before...

I know AI art conjours mixed feelings, but the codex art is something I poured over hours at a time back in the day. It's completely influenced my model style and now I can turn said minis into art of thier own, it feels like a full circle. I'm not done by a long shot but I don't think I'll share any more, for now. I do have something planned for the future, possibly using this and most likely even more of these but that will take some time to reach fruition...

More actual minis soon

A little trip down memory lane, and right down the end to nosltalgia avenue!


Second Edition inspired Bunker!

I fancied a break from my usual troops (or bfg ships!) and settled for this bit of classic looking terrain.
Based on the cardboard bunker designed by Adrian Wild that came free with whitedwarf back in '94:

Remember these?

Well, this one is a 3d print from bodgehawk on Ebay, based on original stl designs by Medicationforall.
I had long coveted the cardboard bunker back in the day, getting a late start on whitedwarf (I started buying wd nov '98). everyone had either built it straight from the template or not got it at all! madness! you'd photocopy it first, right? who'd miss out on having more than just one... well aparrently, I was alone in that sentiment and as such have had to wait 30 years to get one. Was worth it..?

... spoiler, t'was.


First up I added some details I felt were vital to sell the effect.
Namely some butresses cut from 5mm foamboard with thin card toppers with half-round bead rivets for the iron-clad-reinforcement look and as another excuse to add detail it the form of rust effects later.
The exterior door was from my old chimera (now a griffon), The aquilla from the old ig vehicle sprue and the 'dags' on the top rail are cut from some I beam to reference the very same detail as featured on the old hand-crafted bunker that in turn inspired the cardboard bunker this is based on...


Being a filament print, one of the next things I did was get it cleaned and spray-painted up ready to texture it. (the butresses were added after the spray btw.. foamboard hates spraypaint) I went for my usual mix of easyfill45 mixed to taste with cuprinol garden shades exterior acrylic. A tiny bit of fine sand thrown in this time, as (unlike insulation foam cut bunkers) this needed a little bit extra on the texture front.
As it happens this mini is an example of where the print artifacts have actually helped the mini; the banded sides looking like cast concrete and the pits in the top looking like rusted steel.
Still, that being said my texture paint, alongiside some agrellan earth and typhus corrosion added to the effects nicely.


Painting was done with stippling and drybrushing and was intended to portray the same colourscheme of the old classic card mini, but with extra weathering and effects to mirror the thirty years of real-time that its been since the minis were first available, in the fictional world it lives in.
This was accomplished with nuln oil, and thinned ratlinggrime. as well as some oranges for rust. a couple of propaganda-posters and a barrel on the inside. because, why not!
Its old, tired and possibly abandonned. but still it stands...

...and yes. It has an interior that I almost didnt do. but remembering the fact I did my 'badger' excavator interior, I figured I'd no excuse...
However, I'd say thats considered optional...

go get it here:
https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/395168705731?itmmeta=01K5BY0YR2SCC9MV9AKCCA278K&hash=item5c01e3ecc3:g:ILwAAeSwrsZowGwv

 tauist wrote:
Dude, that's awesome! Looks real good too, considering you did all that just with GWs "basic" paints.

Now it needs some MK7 marines for a mood shot..

Cheers. Undercoat aside. It's just the fang, Russ grey and fenrisen stippled on successively.

Then zandri dust and ushapti for the worn bits.

It's shaded with nuln oil and agrax as well as some thinned rattling grime...

The rusty steel is gal vorbak, stippled with mournfang brown, then xv88 then shaded with agrax and a bit of rattling grime. Then orange recess/runs... As well as metallic edges...

The "Canaries" - Yellowline Trucking Co
Ever expanding into new territories and potentital mining prospects, Jago Kane's Yellowline trucking Co. needs protection. As well as his own sub-fleet of former Navy pilots to protect his space-bourne assets, he also has his own private military contractors to secure his mining, trucking and other money-making schemes first hand.
The 'Canaries' got thier name from their primary role. entering, Asteroid-mines, hulks and other condemned structures and cleaning it out of any dangers, be it structural, geological, enviromental or even the elimimination of the occasional genestealer or ork infestations, as well as the eagre discouragement of any other would-be prospectors who had the audacity to get there first.
Essentially, they go into the nastiest, scariest and most dangerous of places where noone else dare set foot. If they come out alive and with most of thier original apendages intact, Jago knows its ok to send the "important" people in.
As such, the Canaries are recruited from the hardest, tougest and most fearless, ruthless induviduals imaginable. Motivated by a good wage and an almost psychotic buzz for danger, its rumoured that death-row inmates, pit-slave gladiators and even guard deserters are among his staff.
however, rumors aside they get the job done. And thats enough for Jago.
Sporting the best voidsuits, extra-atmospheric breathing and stabilising gear and carapace-armour that good-money can buy, as well as armed with enough firepower to boot, they are often mistaken for astartes on some of the more backwater planets they visit. A misaprehention Kane is more than happy to exploit....



Trooper Lantash - of the YLT co. "Canaries"

Yup! new project.
Something I've been meaning to do but never quite got round to till now.
This is based on one of BigMrTong's "knifton" marines.
An absolutely amazing set of minis based on both the pre-rtb01 metal marines and the artwork of Pete Knifton. A stunning combo resulting in an almost orgasmic mix of roguetrader and general 70's/80's sci-fi tropes!
The minis clock in about the size of one of the new cadian figures, making them a much better way of doing roguetrader oldhammer minis but with good proportions for today's standards as well as absolutely exquisite levels of crisp clean detail.
They have a certain mismatched quality of design, with odd limbs, odd boots, gloves and pads that helped me, in this instance, to create a voidsuited naval armsman with the look of a private military contractor, making the best of whatever he can get.


Painting was an interesting affair to say the least. I knew I wanted *white, black and (of course) yellow. But I also decided on a deep blue for the under-suit and red details too.
I wanted simple steel equipment as well as my usual leathers, canvas and olive green kit you usually see on my guard.
and weathering. Lots and lots of weathering; these guys don't exacly have a quartermaster to supply new kit, nor an astartes techpriest and crew on standby to keep the kit going. No. They're armed prospectors and mercenaries, as such, a little battered.
The overall result is a sci-fi model that looks like it belongs on the front cover of an 80's novella! not encumbered by existing lore or mythos; its just a sci-fi trooper. Just as all the original RT minis were before space-marines background got fleshed-out and they became what they are today...

*...and, god, I struggled with that white. But, more will follow soon, I'm sure

Cheers.

Mike Tongue Surely is a retro master!

And yes...I'd be a lying if said that RedDwarf hadn't inspired the background for the Canaries.


For this one, I found I couldn't resist a little trip back to Rynns world!
The shoulder pads, in particular; both being very classicly and distinctively astartes in design and featuring the bulbs and studs of the rtb01 boxed set art, were crying out for me to do my crimson fist scheme on him!


With the undersuit and actual boots, I figure these could also make great scout stand-ins for people using the new horus heresy beakies as regular marines. They scale well together and seem to be less up-armoured...
however they'd also be just as ideal as their own thing. There's nothing stopping you making an entire retro army out of these guys...
I did the undersuit in a a very blue tone (calgar blue base) as opposed to the more desatured armour thats based on the fang. However both were highlighted +/- the same, creating a subtle difference between the two areas that at first is rather subliminal. and thusly you see the marine as just one colour. this is intentional.
The boots and pockets were dona as on my CF scouts leather and canvas respectively. however, unlike the canary, the straps were done as the same as the armour and the central panel on the boots also done as armour. Again, to keep the solid tone of the marine and not break up the mini with disparate colourscheme, as, for me, thats more of a guard thing ...
As the bulb was there I elected to do a simple 'troops' arrow like the rtb01 boxed set and also decided to do black lenses instead of yellow for the same reasons. though in hindsight I think they might have been a good addition now...
The eye-lens 'gems' were done in the studio fashion, dots in opposing corners.
I dont know if you noticed but I usually don't do that. mine usually have the eyes/goggles as shaded from the front. both eyes dotted the same side top-left. (most evident on my filey troop goggles and the canary above) its a feature that can look a little more comicbook but it works well on eye lens' that meet in the middle like one solid goggle. however, on 'actual' GW marine heads this seperate/opposing method generally looks better as the lens' are usually quite seperate...
So yeah, definately more Canaries incoming...
But, I've a feeling more classic Rogue Trader schemes from my past might yet show themselves on a few of the more overtly 'spacemarine' looking ones with the matching pads etc...

This is Morden:


Morden sends forth the hoards to crush the enemy lines...


This was a mini I decided I wanted to make to finally show off the real enemy my Eoforwich guard are facing in the kugelstadt campaign.


made almost entirely from leftovers and scraps, the only thing purchased specifically for the mini was the bolter carrying arm as i felt it added real gravitas to the pose.
I wanted mass. A real monsterous creature, terrifying to behold and absolutely towering over the guard that face him. consider him a "boss" creature.
That being said, I still wanted it to convey enemy soldier, not just monster mutant thingy with tenticles etc. that modern deathguard have.
As such, I intead went for the heresy era XIV legion colours but concentrated on weathering to sell the age and decrepid nature of nurgle's blessing.
Starting from a brown undercoat (rhinox hide) its stippled from steel legion drab, through zandri dust and then corax white mixed in. ending in pure coxax white highlights and chips. further weathering created with some rhinox hide chipping.
as well as extensive recess-shading and rust runs etc.
verdigris was a must for the shoulder trims and chest skull, as was my usual *rust "effects" for the chain/cuff, backpack vents, piping, blakies and other hoses and under-armour.
The only real exception I made to the "weathered-to-funt" aesthetic was his bolter and grenades. These are his tools of war, they must still function, as such they show only the gentlest of rust and damage; they're old and beaten but cared for...
The greens, leathers and base were done the usual way I do on my guard stuff...
An absolute blast to work through and easy as you like with the stipple, shade and weather technique, with surprisingly good results!

do try it. you'll enjoy it...

oh, and 10pts for those who recognise all the bits

*see my other vehicle paintjobs for more info on this.

Got another two canaries done:

I played about with the scheme a bit.
Yes, the under voidsuits, kit, leathers, arm and leg armour are the same on each, but the armour panels have a little bit more personal takes on the whole black, white yellow scheme...
This was a fun project. I've still more of these 'knifeton' marines left... but I think I'm done with the canaries now.
I might just play about with different marine skins on the rest...



The 'Canaries' deploy from the back of their battle-Jitney and prepare to enter yet another death-trap for the promise of either certain death or a quick buck...

flyingpancake wrote:
All your work is phenomenal, part of the reason I signed on and made a personal blog on this site, is this inspiring army.
Quick question, I remember seeing you paint red brown platanenmuster camouflage on some models. What is your recipe for that? I might want to try something similar at some point.

That's nice to hear. I'm glad it's inspiring! When I think of all the stuff in the old white dwarfs that got me inspired, it's pleasing to know I can do that for other people...

The autumn Krieger's?
Perhaps this will help;

 osjclatchford wrote:
Thats a nice thing to say!

heres a WIP/swatch of some camo schemes I'm playing with for the new regiment for 2024!


Autumn - is bugmans glow, deathkorps drab and jokero orange.
Spring - is bugmans glow, deathkorps drab and loren forest
Splinter - is zandri dust, waagh flesh and mornfang brown.

Although when I revisted the spring scheme for my Filey droptroops I substituted the Loren forest for the more vibrant goblin green (warboss green in today's money?)