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hmmm maybe you should have made some very thin cuts into the first layer of the paint? so to give the simple green a chance to get to the bottom of the mini? i think i´ve read that somewhere...

Some of these miniatures had chips in their paint jobs. The Simple Green still didn't work. It worked fairly well on the metal miniatures but I still think that acetone works better for that.

I've already melted a few SMs with Pinesol and was reluctant to try brake cleaner, so I went ahead and gave 91% isopropyl alcohol a shot. After an overnight soak, most of the paint rinsed off under water. It will probably take several more soaks to get into all the tight spots but I'm very happy. I can't believe that I've never tried this before. It works extremely well and will not harm polystyrene. So we're good on the vanilla Space Marines now...I'll be able to salvage several squads, one land speeder, one assault bike, and a Rhino out of this mess. That's a pretty good start.

Back to the Napoleonic IG. I'm ordering some decal paper from Papilio. The new plan to make these guys look a bit more Imperial is to shave the shako emblems off and stick an appropriate decal there. The shakos will remain black (they wouldn't be proper redcoats without black shakos, after all) so I'm not quite sure where I want to go with the decals yet. Black aquila on white paper? White (clear, really) aquila on white paper with a back background and hope that it blends in? Or perhaps a yellow or gold aquila on clear paper? I'd like to try them all obviously but that's simply too much money for experimentation. I'll take a look around t3h internets and see if someone hasn't done these already and taken pictures of them.

In other news, I noticed that Victrix will soon be shipping British foot artillery. I don't know if I can use the cannon or not but I can probably use the crew members. I may order a set when they start showing up for sale in the US just for grins.

my best bet is to use the golden aquilla on clear sheats...the look would be conservative and blending the imperial with the napoleonic shakos quite well, the others would look off in my book, as the colors would look too flat IMO...

as for isopropyl alcohol , where did you get it? the pharmacys?

too bad you melted some of your minis in an attempt to clean strip them....that is my greatest fear of trying new ways...

hope to see some picupdates soon, cheers, vik

Okay, non-pic update. (Sorry!)

Paint stripping is ongoing. Some of these Space Marines had three coats of paint on them. I'll estimate that half are done. I still haven't figured out a chapter for them yet. I was pretty dead set on the Space Sharks but what with the new fluff on them, I'm not so sure now. I'll kick it around some more.

I've got a solution for the shakos on the IG. I couldn't find a yellow aquila and it would likely look like garbage on a black background anyway, so I won't be using a decal. Besides, they'd have emblems on their shakos, not decals, right? I needed something three-dimensional. Fortunately such a thing existed; unfortunately, Forge World sells it, so I'm out fifteen bucks (with shipping) to get three-dimensional aquilas on my Guardsmen. Oh, well.

Viktor? I buy the alcohol at Walmart. I do not know the German equivalent.

For those of you who think that I've given up on this, I haven't. Life's just got a way of getting busy. Progress has been slow but steady.

First up: more Flesh Tearers are complete.




The inconsistencies in color and armor are (mostly) intentional. Remember, this is a cursed chapter that's in the process of dying out. Seth is a fatalist who cares about little but fighting and I'd expect this attitude to trickle down through the ranks. I want them to look ragged, disorganized, and a bit psychotic.

The Imperium's newest regiment has received reinforcements from home. Due to their remote location and pre-Industrial Revolution manufacturing base, the first waves went off to fight lacking some supplies. New units are arriving with the MKII shako, which replaces the native heraldry with a proper Imperial aquila. It also dispenses with the MKI's plume, which was quickly found to be incompatible with the Imperial Navy's air purification systems in several rather disastrous incidents. Remaining MKI shakos will continue to be used until stores are depleted, with the understanding that they are forbidden aboard naval vessels.




While not yet deployed, veteran units are currently being raised. Lacking actual veterans with off-world experience, the regiment is instead recruiting among the more warlike populations. Such units are notable in their differing dress and relatively higher proportion of non-standard weapons.



Veteran sergeant:


Veterans with shotguns:


Veterans with meltaguns:


Veterans with sniper rifles:

Got a few more veterans done yesterday and I should be able to do one or two today. I'm using the Victrix Highlanders for those, in case anyone hasn't noticed. I have another nine shotgunners to go and then I can focus back on the regular troops, although I do intend to put together another two squads or so of lasgun vets eventually. I'll probably need some more meltavets as well; IIRC, my list has at least six of them. And now that I think about it, my Marbo analog should probably be rolling like a vet, so that's another conversion. I've a bit of work left to do, and never mind the painting. I am not looking forward to those tartans.

Okay, small problem: I can make the Victrix standard naps look somewhat Imperial by supergluing a brass aquila to each model's shako after shaving off the plume and seal of King George...a pain in the ass and George probably wouldn't have appreciated it, but I can live with it. But what to do for the Highlanders? I've plenty of aquilas but there's not really any spot on the head to mount them. I've considered putting one on the belt or even a bit lower, about where a sporran would be, but shielding one's junk with the Emperor's symbol seems a bit disrespectful, even for one of my armies.

I could also stick an aquila on the backpack. I'm just not sure if that would be Imperial enough. We'll call that Plan B. Anyone have a Plan A?

One final note: Forge World's brass aquilas are the bee's knees for projects like this. A sheet is not cheap, but when the cost is spread over the number of figures and vehicles that can be spruced up by its contents, the price is actually kind of reasonable. Decals are great, but nothing screams "Metal emblem" like...well, like a metal emblem. As a bonus, the brass is quite thin and can be bent to fit weird shapes with a thumbnail and some care. So yeah, I'm happy with my first Forge World purchase.

Wow, nice little weapon swap there!

I'd think aquila on the backpack should be fine enough but maybe take a test shot on what it looks like

I absolutely love your IG. You've managed to take historical figures and bring them into 40k without scale awkwardness. Kudos, man.

Hey fellow IG Napoleonic Victrix doer!

In all honesty I think the sporran look would be the best. I can see it working well with a tiny bit of GS as a chain and then dangling in the middle. Alternatively fit it to the bottom corner of the kilt as so as to form a broach, orin these modern times, a logo.

Really impressed with your painting of them. Mine is going soooo slowly. I only have 1 completed out of 73 (I bought the artillery as well) and I didn't even paint that one.

I shaved of the water bottle and affixed gun cartidges, or IG barrels to make them more 40kish.Also affixed gas masks/rebreathers. A couple of enemy heads and detritus on the base never hurts...

Still watching. :-)


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SkaerKrow wrote:I absolutely love your IG. You've managed to take historical figures and bring them into 40k without scale awkwardness. Kudos, man.

:(

SkaerKrow wrote:I absolutely love your IG. You've managed to take historical figures and bring them into 40k without scale awkwardness. Kudos, man.

Until of course they decide to fight against gw guardsmen

These are not pleasant to paint. I've sacrificed quite a bit of historical accuracy to speed things up and it's still slow, but I've optimized the process as much as I can by simplifying the palette. Even with this, I'm still using eight colors (with one or two washes) and a dip. My usual goal for production painting is three colors, maybe four. It takes a while. The tartans will make this even worse

I'll see about painting up a shotgunner as a proof of concept with the backpack aquila before I leave. That may have to do. The sporran thing could work but a GS chain would be at the limit of my abilities, perhaps beyond them, and would slow things down even more.

They do look a bit underfed beside the new IG. I can back that up with the fluff (resource poor planet, with recruits coming primarily from the lower classes and signing up to avoid starvation -- i.e. their historical model) but it's just a fact of life when using non-GW miniatures alongside GW minis.

The good news is that I (mostly) painted one of the shotgunners, and my scheme for a simplified Black Watch tartan looks decent and the procedure is fairly quick and easy. The bad news is that I wasn't able to take a pic before I left, as I loaned out the camera. No pics or progress until the 24th. I couldn't do the stockings or headband; I'm relying on Pigma micropens for the tartan and will need them for those as well, and I couldn't source a red Pigma in .3 mm before I left. I'll knock that out when I get back but the Pigmas are the way to go. They also make pupils much easier. I'll bet that there are other uses for them as well. I'm sold. I really wish someone made a .1 mm in white for doing eyes but I can (barely) manage that with a brush.

The aquila on the backpack doesn't look bad. I'd rather have something on the front but this will probably have to do.

Since I don't believe in making posts without some sort of content, I have a new method for weapon swaps that I used for the Highlanders. I think that it looks better than the 2E Eldar hand swap and also doesn't require OOP parts. The downside is that you'll be somewhat limited by parts, but it may help someone so here goes anyway...

If you have some of these Victrix minis, take a good look at the sprues, particularly the left arms meant for marching. See how the hands are open? Those arms may or may not be useful but those hands are. Now look at the right arms holding rifles. If you can use a replacement weapon with a traditional (not pistol grip) stock, you can simply cut the rifle off at the right hand (making sure that it's nice and smooth), clip the stock off the replacement weapon, and glue it right to the hand. Then it's a matter of finding a left arm that will place the hand about where you want it. Once you've got that figured out, carefully cut an open hand off a left arm, glue it to a suitable left arm (trim the little nub meant to fit in the rifle socket if necessary) and stick the arms on. Do it quickly so you can tweak positions if necessary, as it probably will be. If you can, place a dab of glue in the open left hand to cement it to the weapon and make the whole assembly more sturdy.

The Highlander and regular sprues contain mostly the same arms but there are a few differing poses, so if you're using both, keep this in mind. Some of the Highlander officer arms in particular are great. I used those for both the kneeling sniper bracing his rifle and the kneeling shotgunner motioning to get down. Trim the officer epaulettes if you must, but I didn't bother. It really won't be noticed on a tabletop.

For the meltaguns, I got lazy and simply clipped the right hand off the arm. The GW meltas are cast with a gauntleted hand already holding them so I just used that. It's regulation with these guys: meltaguns can only be used with the MKIII, Pattern One (Improved) gauntlet due to previous injuries. Again, this probably won't be noticed anyway and it saved me a hell of a lot of time.

Don't get locked in with the paired arms on this! The pairings work with the original rifle, but not necessarily with anything else. A Brown Bess gets held right under the lock with the left hand but this isn't appropriate for a shotgun unless it's being combat loaded. (I did model one guy like that. He's in one of the pictures.) Instead, the left hand will probably need to be further down the barrel. The left arm will also affect the position of the right arm, and vice versa. That's why I advocate gluing them on quickly so that they can be repositioned. Hold them both in place (no glue) and see how they affect each other before applying cement.

You'll notice that you only have a few suitable left hands in comparison to the rest of the sprue. That's why most of my guys are holding Brown Besses. If you find yourself running out of arms and don't want to buy a whole new box for more parts (even if this option is inexpensive in GW terms), you can always set up a right arm and just have the left hand doing something else, like motioning for cover, waving others forward, gesturing with a sword, etc. Just know that if you're using resin weapons like I am, the bond will not be great and the surface area of the joint is really too small for a pin, so the weapon will break off eventually. It can also look awkward if not done right. Keep this in mind.

I got the shotguns and sniper rifles from http://bitspudlo.com/. The sniper rifles are a pain to attach to the Victrix naps, as they're really not modelled to use pistol-gripped rifles. Bitspudlo offers three shotguns (two with pistol grips, one without) and you can specify which ones you want. The transaction took so long that I was considering contesting it but it turned out all right and I was very pleased with what I got. If you're going shotties on naps, you'll want the shotguns without pistol grips. If I were converting Cadians or Catachans I would certainly go with the pistol grips. The shotguns are slightly oversized for Victrix but acceptable; likewise, they should be slightly undersized for GW but I bet that they'd work.

You may have noticed that most (but not all) of my minis were based by just gluing them to a slottabase. I did take a few and cut the feet free from the base cast onto them. The difference is barely noticable and two little feet don't provide much surface area for gluing, so now I just stick their integral bases to the GW-legal bases and cover it up with plenty of glue and turf. It looks fine at tabletop distances and gives them a little extra height, which I've found vastly improves their appearance while alongside heroic scale minis. It also saves me a lot of work. Those spindly little legs snap easily unless one is extremely careful.

I've done some looking around and I probably won't be able to game with these locally, at least not at any stores. And you know what? This doesn't bother me at all. I can (and do) still use them in Deathwatch, and this exercise has turned into more of a modelling project than a gaming one. I may never play with them, but the journey is proving enjoyable in its own right.

NEW SIDE PROJECT: There's no standard bearer in my list but you've probably noticed that I made one anyway. Any ideas for a good standard? (Good = image printable with minimal manipulation. I can't paint one.)

Personally, to give it some real meaning for you in the US (unless you have British Ancestry), I would look at the colours of the regjments that fought in the British American War in 1812. Their colours will be easy to find, and you can probably copy the jpeg of wiki, and then print it.




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And of course, the reason why we didn't retake the rebel colony is that most of army was fighting Napoleon...so fits in with the Napoleonic perfectly.

It's not really a nationalistic thing for me. As far as I know, no one bearing my surname had emigrated to the US by the time of the Napoleonic era. I don't have a dog in that fight. The N00bers didn't start showing up in America until the 20th century. The N00ber surname originates in Germany via France and a N00ber of the Napoleonic era could have been fighting for anyone, or no one at all.

I'd like to keep this British, or reminiscent of the British, but with the 40k twist. Think of that banner with the Emperor lording over a guardsman. Maybe I could photoshop an appropriate nap in for the guardsman? That would be perfect.

So it's been a seven month break for me, and here's why:

Right after my last post in this thread I had to depart for a month for business...not a big deal, as I have to travel frequently, often for months at a time. While away, a certain cat named Terrance (the one shown earlier stalking my first squad of guardsmen, a 20 lb. bundle of mayhem) trashed the house as she often does while I'm away, but this time she got into the miniatures. The result was the destruction of an awful lot of hard work. Models were sat on, laid on, chewed on, and knocked off of shelves and batted around the house in the feline equivalent of golf. A lot of them ended up in pieces, and some of those pieces still aren't accounted for. A thorough cleaning of the basement failed to turn them up. They likely ended up in the litterbox.

Needless to say I was pretty annoyed by the whole thing. Coupled with the demands of life and work, a car crash and other drama, I basically put things on hold indefinitely. Or so I thought at the time.

Last month I wound up on a new crew at work and it just so happened that most of them are gamers. After numerous discussions, the interest slowly returned. I now have the inclination and the time to get this going again and it would be a shame to sell off such an interesting project, so I suppose that it's time to resume. I won't be starting entirely from scratch fortunately but I have a lot of extra work ahead of me now.

Presently I'm finishing a test scheme for the veterans. I've screwed it up slightly but I think I know where I'll be going with them. I'll put a picture up when I'm done.

The army will probably be shifting to a foot list until the new edition is released; once I've taken a look at the new rules, I'll decide whether or not to add vehicles and which ones I'll want. The Flesh Tearers are more or less assembled and miraculously escaped the wrath of Terrance so they'll be completed as previously planned. I still haven't decided on a vanilla chapter yet, but since they're the lowest priority I have time to think about it.

You know, I still haven't figured this out. I paint something up, it looks good to me, I take a picture (admittedly at a fairly high resolution), I blow it up, and then I have second thoughts about the whole thing. No matter. I promised a picture, so here it is.



The headband is just plain wrong; instead of looking up the proper pattern, I went by memory and my memory is often wrong these days. Following models will have correct headbands. The stockings have been dumbed down out of necessity and I'm not going to budge on those. The hat needs more highlights, the eyes need to be painted (I do those in large batches on the days when I wake up hating myself) and I need to figure out a way to steady my hands for the lines on the tartan. The glossiness is from the Minwax and will go away when it gets hit with the Dullcote. But other than all that? I can live with this.

Again, it looks all right at arm's length...kind of my motto for painting, actually.

since your latest picupdate was kinda long ago...where is that cool looking shotgun from?

also i think that kiltwearing soldier is looking rather beautiful...the tartans specially...how did you do them so neat?

a really cool mini...just make his base and you are set!

Maxmini.eu makes the shotguns. I bought mine from bitspudlo.com.

I found a tutorial for painting the tartan here: http://camospecs.com/Article.asp?FictionID=22 Unfortunately, I'm not that good.

I started ~ 2 squads today. Hopefully they will be done tomorrow. From now on, I will be painting one squad at a time. Two squads at once is too much.

So those squads are mostly done. I'll base and Dullcote them tomorrow.



Next up: psyker battle squad. I need a break from these.

Due to the snow storm that we're currently experiencing, work was cancelled. It wasn't like I was going to be driving anywhere, so why not paint some minis while on the clock for once?

The veterans have been based, Dullcoted, etc.



Sniper:



Shotgunners:



Sergeant w/ shotgunners:



Shotgunner and meltagunners:



Psyker battle squad is waiting for Dullcote and basing:



Some new arrivals in the paint queue, from left to right: 2 x bodyguard, psyker overseer, 3 x SWS w/ demo charge. (The demo charges will be old-fashioned spherical bombs. I've decided not to install the fuses until after painting, but the holes are visible.)



All in all, a productive day. The weather forecast for tomorrow is looking grim so there may be more to come.

That is some super looking work!
I love what you've done!

Hey man! Looking really good! And impressed by the painting on things I know first hand are blooming difficult to do! Think the kilts look good, as do the shot guns!

Keep up the good work!

very, very good work mate...

the poses are superb, and the demolition crew is just a plain original!

also the psykers give me plenty of ideas...^^

Thanks guys.

The snow continued and they wound up shutting the base down for a second day! Of course, I spent it productively: I cleaned up, did the dishes, did some laundry, shoveled the sidewalk...actually, I just watched TV, assembled miniatures, and sat around on the couch all day.

So, bad news: I'm completely out of shotguns and left hands. That means that until I figure out another solution or buy another box from Victrix, there will be no more meltavets, SWS troops, or anything else. I'm not afraid of conversions but I can't work miracles. On the plus side, I now have 3 shotgun vets w/ sergeant, 3 meltavets, 3 SWS demo charge guys, 2 bodyguards, an overseer, and 4 regular sergeants w/ pistols and power swords in the paint queue, with the PBS still waiting for Dullcote. This should keep me busy through the weekend.

I'm pooped. After this, I'll probably spend at least a few days on the Flesh Tearers again. I need a break from these damned Naps. It's gotten to the point where I actually look forward to assembly, and the assembly is a pain in the ass!

Partial day at work today, as the snow has stopped and is finally melting. I primed the minis in the paint queue but could not bring myself to start painting them yet. I'll get that going this weekend.

Something occurred to me recently. Look at those Victrix minis and remember that I'm not good at painting - I just know a lot of shortcuts and tricks. Pay particular attention to the faces. When I started gaming way back when, I paid the extra money for GW minis (they were expensive back in the late eighties and early nineties too, in case anyone was wondering) because they were the best in the world. I'm not sure that this is the case now. The smaller manufacturers are turning out some amazing products and Victrix particularly has impressed me with their faces. There are angry expressions, sure, but some of them look downright contemptuous: "Do you really need me to deal with this? Seriously." The highlander faces are even better, as one or two of them seem to be smiling.

I'm not done with GW yet. I'm still working at least two armies using only their miniatures, but it's refreshing to assemble and paint something else. I'd love to see IG with this level of character, and that lack of cartoonishness. I understand why the silly dimensions came about but it's obviously no longer necessary now, as the state of injection molding has improved tremendously. Perhaps it's time for them to return to their roots.

I got hung up on things. Picture update coming tomorrow or Wednesday. What I got done: 3 meltavets, 2 bodyguards, 3 SWS with demo charges, 3 shotgun vets, 1 shotgun sergeant, and 4 normal sergeants with power swords. What I didn't get done: painting the edges of the bases black (I'm particular about that) and Dullcoting them. That will probably be tomorrow but no promises; I'm stuck in school again at work, meaning longer hours and less motivation to do this stuff when I get home. I'll probably do a group photo as well with the whole bunch, more for me than anyone else. It's easy to lose track of your progress when you're only painting a few at a time.

Intermediate goals: I need a few more heavy weapon teams. Time to start casting cannon carriages, maybe tomorrow. I've never purchased a heavy weapons boxed set from GW but from what I understand, there are multiples of everything in there, right? It would probably cost less to just buy one of those than to keep grabbing bits whenever they infrequently pop up.

Long term goals: This army will require transports eventually. I missed out on a nice lot of armor not too long ago because I forgot to sign in to Ebay prior to attempting to snipe the auction. I'll keep an eye on things there and start accumulating things as time and finances permit. This brings up an interesting question, though. I'd love to just paint the vehicles in a standard airbrushed woodland camo scheme for the sake of time and simplicity and this would indeed work with the fluff (they can't build their own Chimeras after all, and any imported ones would likely be already painted) but it might not jive with the red and white color scheme. Should the vehicles be painted more like they are, or would camo work?

Hey nOOber!

As a fellow Victrix 40ker I picked up the Victrix British Foot Artillery. Pretty good set; gives you 3 guns, with which you can knock up some interesting 40k options. It also gives you I think 15 men.

As for the colour scheme for armour. I am watching this space. Ive got a fair few of my guys half painted now and the have one tank...but I have no idea what to paint it!

I was thinking a sort of polished steel, or iron type look.

Or possibly a just black for cast iron. Could even fluff up it has a much slower movement value, but a higher A value due to being a foot of cast iron each side.

Victrix Artillery: I looked at that and might eventually spring for one, but mostly for the crew members. The carriages look to be a bit larger than I'd like. The nice thing about the 25mm scale carriages is that they're undersized, so they don't look too ridiculous for heavy weapons. The 28mm ones are sized for actual 28mm artillery and seem to be a bit large. I haven't seen one in person though, so they might have the look that I want.

Armor: Red and white with metallic trim would probably be the most appropriate, but I'd like to be able to recycle the odd Chimera or two for other armies should the need arise without them looking too out of place. I haven't detailed the fluff here yet but these guys are from a poor world that's just entering its industrial revolution and can't manufacture complicated machinery on their own; thus, they'd likely be purchasing their armor (at least initially) and it would be arriving with a "standard" paint job, so I could go either way on this. Such a paint job would obviously work with other lists.

I'm still undecided.

I will try and get you a pic of a wheel next to a Victrix and regular GW guardsman tonight...

But I have a memory like a sieve.

I'd like to see that if you don't mind.

Also, I lied about taking pictures. I caught something nasty and I'm not in the mood to do much of anything right now.