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and I thought I was bored at work.... JK good fluff enjoying the read look forward to more.

Nice work on the sergeant there. Those heads look nice painted up.

Looks good painted up and the fluff is, as always, top draw.

I don't know if it is just this screen, but the photos look a little darker than usual, have you changed your lighting?

I took them after night had fallen, which is probably why.

Ah, fair enough

Do you have a bigger scale picture of the shoulder pad design? Or perhaps a concept sketch? Just interested to see it a bit more clearly

Its not a design, its a decal I bought of ebay for 1/72 models. Its a sheet of soviet banners. Cost about £7, but they're so much sturdier and better than the GW transfers that they're worth it.

Ah ok. Thought that you had made them youself, never mind.

Can't wait to see a unit of these guys together. The base looks pretty tundra, which is good. You don't often see them, so your guys will really stand out on the table.

I love the background. Just sat here and read it all. Relaxing stuff.

The model also looks great. The wash really works well to emphasise the white. Keep up the good work here!

These ones are the ones I undercoated black and built up in highlights (took aaaaages to do the white), so they weren't washed at all.

BTW, some mean, mean person has voted these models with a 1 for coolness and a 1 for paintjob in the gallery :(. I know I'm no golden demon winner, but come on .

get to the chopper! wrote:These ones are the ones I undercoated black and built up in highlights (took aaaaages to do the white), so they weren't washed at all.

BTW, some mean, mean person has voted these models with a 1 for coolness and a 1 for paintjob in the gallery :(. I know I'm no golden demon winner, but come on .

Ah my bad. Its still looking good though.

In regards to the vote down: that sucks. Dont worry I'll vote you back up!

The Kalashnikovan 2nd - An Imperial Guard Blog

Another guy to unveil, Private Mikhail Rascalov. Not going to give you his fluff, as I realised it follows on from some guys I haven't fully painted yet . I'll give you a big fluff session for all the interlinking stories some time. I would demand gallery votes, but I'm upset at how poor the ratings my painted guys are getting, so I'll keep quiet about that. C&C appreciated and very welcome though .

Platoon A Squad 1: Private Mikhail Rascalov:

He is made from the following bits and pieces.

Legs: Cadian
Torso: Cadian
Left arm: Forgeworld Cadian upgrade
Right arm: Cadian with the weapon altered to be resting on his shoulder.
Head: Pig iron kolony militia officers
Backpack: Assault group US vietnam light backpack, and Vietnamese camping roll
Accesories: FW grenade and pack, Cadian sheath and pack.

He is painted the following way:

Clothing: White. Built up in progressive highlights from shadow grey, to space wolves grey, to ghostly grey to skull white with about 10 layers in all.
Armour: Black. Chaos black with shadow grey/black mix edge highlighting.
Shoulder Pads and weapon colouring: Blue. Regal blue with mordian blue edge highlighting.
Metallic parts: Boltgun metal followed by badab black wash, boltgun metal drybrush, chainmail highlights and a watered down blue ink wash. Glazed with satin varnish.
Equipment: Snakebite leather, brown wash, snakebite leather highlights, khaki highlights.
Water bottles: Charred brown, brown wash, charred brown/bleached bone highlights.
Grenades: Goblin green, black wash, goblin green drybrush, goblin green/bleached bone highlights.
Facemask: Khaki, brown wash, khaki highlights, khaki/bleached bone highlights.
Decals on shoulders: Skytex soviet decal on right shoulder, painted on II symbol on left. Weathered with drill bit, scalpel, picking fingers.
Painted on weathering: Humbrol 63 enamel, spread around while still wet with soft brush and thinner (it creates a rust effect, see chainsword ford detail). The metal weathering is boltgun metal which is mapped with a thin line of chaos black below and a thin line of skull white above (creates an illusion of depth). Other metal weathering done by grinding up a bit of graphite stick and mixing it with a little gloss varnish and then pressing it on with my fingers and removing excess with a brush.
Base: Darkson designs resin base (one of the urban ones), painted codex grey, drybrushed stonewall grey and light drybrushed skull white, then washed with badab black. Static grass applied sparingly. Snow made from equal parts PVA and water, a dollop of Gloss varnish and adding bicarbonate of soda until it reaches a slurry consistency. Edge snow done with a more watered down mix. Sealed with a coat of gloss varnish to stop it yellowing over time.




Whats in the next post?

Another guy painted, dunno when though, I'm really busy currently. I'll do my best though.

Good stuff.

This is pure awesomesuce marinated in win.

Cheers man . I appreciate comments like that, they keep me motivated to carry on doing stuff even when my enthusiasm is starting to wane a little.

this is really cool work man! trying to find the enthusiasm, to paint and update post my vossies atm, just cant get going again!

Thanks .

The Kalashnikovan 2nd - An Imperial Guard Blog

Apologies for the lack of updates recently, I've just got a new job and its pretty intense at the moment. I've been finding a little bit of time to do some modelling, but no time to do some forumming, so you'll have to excuse me for that. I thought I'd give you a quick update on what I've been up to over the last week or two, with the completed standard bearer and a very work in progress leftenant.

Company command squad: Standard bearer (unpainted)

He is made from the following bits and pieces.

Legs: FW Cadian command squad, boiled and bent to make it look like he is more casual and then greenstuffed on the other leg to twist it out slightly.
Torso: part of legs
Left arm: Taken from the FW cadian commander, hand from a demolisher commander, small piece of resin for cigar.
Right arm: Cadian command squad
Head: FW Cadian veteran, sculpted hat
Backpack: FW upgrade backpack, with marine scouts rope bits and fw grenade
Accesories: Forgeworld ammo packs for webbing, FW pistol, FW grenades. The gasmask hanging from his neck is cut from a Cadian head, with some coiled wire added and greenstuffed to make it look like a mask.

I'm pretty please with how he looks at the moment, what do you all think?














Platoon commander: very WIP

Here is a very WIP look at my leftenant. I know I have a bodyguard model with crossed arms, but I've gone off that model and I don't think I'll use it after all. I figured I could do a better job sculpting some folded arms, and that proved to be true. I wanted him to be a big, fat overbearing gakker of a man, so I got hold of some Bretonnian command bits. The torso is a heavily filed down, chopped up and milliputted chef from there; the legs are from the Catachan command squad and the rest is greenstuff. I plan on having him with a dead rabbit strapped to his webbing and a wine bottle too.

Verdict so far?





Whats in the next post?

I think I'll unveil the painted guys as squads - it takes ages to do those big display pics on photoshop, and I really don't have the time to do them at the moment. Progress has been pretty slow on the painting side (slower than ever, I mean), but hopefully they will be complete in the not too distant future. I've almost finished a vox man for my company command, so he'll probably be the next thing you see from me. The vaulting veteran is nearly done as well (remember him?).

What I like about these is how convincing they are. A lot of guard don't have anything to help them fight for more than five minutes but the amount of kit and the manner in which they are posed exudes competency.

Thanks . I wanted him to look like he's the standard bearer because he is one of the company's best soldiers - I considered having him as an injured guy, but in the end I wanted him to look really heroic like he is this great war veteran who commands the respect of everyone around him. I'm really pleased with how the pose came off - I based it on that American civil war pic (posted it a couple of pages back) and the legs look realistic compared to that.

I expect some pedant will say he's not smoking the cigar in the military way, but I wanted him to look like he didn't give a toss if the enemy saw him. Plus it would be incredibly difficult to sculpt somebody smoking a cigarette in the military way .

The standard bearer is looking just... brilliant. The greenstuff work on the hat is particuarly brilliant.

On the leftenant I shall adopt a 'watch and wait' approach I thing. I'm not really sure about judgement on him at the moment. I can definitely envisage a small crate of wine at his feet though!

As always, excellent work.

Cheers man. That hat was a lot harder to sculpt than I thought it would be. I had to be really patient and do it in about 4 stages because it was so small and fiddly and I hadn't glued it in place (probably would have been easier if I had though ).

Your sculpting gets better and better with every post. Also, I took the time to read the stories you wrote back in the first few posts and loved them. It warms the heart to see someone so engaged in their fluff. You may have just inspired me to do a few of my own.

heh... with the cigar guy, it might be a little late but have you thought of running fibre optics through it to make the cigar glow?

I saw it once on a model railway and thought it looked awesome.

Man, that would be cool to do that . Wouldn't have a clue how though in all honesty.

I'm on the brink of a major decision that might cause some of you to baulk though... I'm thinking about building, sculpting etc etc all the men in my army and then sending them off on commission to be painted. I am really pressed for time, I'm the slowest painter in the history of mankind and I now have a very well paying job that will give me more money than I know what to do with (£30k+ for a first job out of uni isn't bad eh?). Does that go against every fibre of a gamer's being, or is it a legitimate thing to do considering the army will probably take decades to complete otherwise (and I wouldn't mind starting playing games again at some point)?

At the end of the day its your army, i don't mind people getting comissions but i think you're actually a really good painter so there's not really any need. However, i understand where you're coming from on the time front.

To summarise: If you can find a painter to do a good job and you really don't have the time to do it yourself, go for it!! You could always keep a few of your favourites to paint yourself.

I'm going to echo infilTRAITOR; the 'carrying enough stuff to actually fight a war' with look* is very good. I'm going for a similar look with my Canadian detachment. The white colour scheme with the Pig Iron swedes is good as well. And they all look well executed.

* I wonder if CESTAFAW will one day become one of those dakka abv that shows up in a different colour and gives you the meaning when you hover over it.

PS if you're drawing that wage just out of university, don't pay off your loan - send them away to get them painted instead. I'm painting three apoc armies ('cause that's where all my spends went) and its killing me. Slowly.

Lol CESTAFAW, I like it .

If I do go down the commisioned route it will be with gmm studios I think - the guy is ridiculously talented and compared to some commisions he's not bad value either.

Paint them as you finish converting them. Or, at least prime them and get a base coat on. Just do things a bit at a time, in batches. I am going to have a LOTR marathon some time when I don't have a disturbingly large amount of homework, and as I watch the movies I will probably get a significant amount of my force painted, or near-painted. I too am a really slow painter and love converting and modeling so much that I'd rather make new random models than paint my old ones...

That's just me.

Rico...

The thing for me is that I work a 9-5 job which I spend about 3 and half hours total commuting to every day (might start spending a few nights a week in hotels since its paid for, which would curtail my hobby gaming even further); I have a girlfriend I'm already neglecting; I need to go to the gym at least 3 times per week or I'll turn into a fat blob because I spend most of my life sat at a computer; and at some point I also have to eat and sleep. I'm also pretty sure I have irritable bowell syndrome the amount of time I spend on the toilet these days (going to the hospital to get it checked later this month though ). TBH painting warhammer comes pretty low on my list of things to do - I much prefer the modelling side of it and what little time I do have to devote to my army I'd much rather spend doint that.

In all honesty, I don't really enjoy the painting either, I view it as a means to end (ie, getting what I have modelled completely finished rather than painting being part of the process in itself). If I have the disposable income to get it done much better than I can do myself on commission, then I will.

I've been in contact with the guy at GMM studios and he quoted me $9.00 per standard model to paint them to his maximum standard, which does add up to a truly frightening amount of money for an imperial guard army. I'm not going to pull the trigger on it yet, might wait until I've bought a new car first.

Phew!

Just read through all of this for the first time (had been lurking occassionally when I had time before) and I have to say, mighty impressed!

You do a great job making your figures unique (my favourite part of the hobby!) with many subtle conversions and clever use of parts. The standard bearer in particular looks great and I like how the rotund (fat) fella is turning out too!

One thing though, are we the same person?! Your last post seems to describe my life at the moment almost exactly (except the bowel thing)! We have the same commute, same hours at work etc etc. Pretty frustrating having so little spare time eh?!

I know what you mean about the painting side, I can find it a bit tedious sometimes too. Converting and sculpting just seems to show more tangible results much quicker. I really think you should keep at it though, you have good talent already and I'm sure you will find it enjoyable to put paint on those conversions and do them up yourself.

Looking forward to more.

Cheers.

Dante

Those water bottles on Mikhail Rascalov are a great idea although I'm sure his comrades would prefer Vodka!