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Tiger hat looking snazzy!

A shame about the dreads, but if you can recycle the funds for more productive means and share with someone who will get the joy out of them, all the better!

Thanks for sharing

Sad news about the dread army, but great that you got them all painted before they left. Hopefully they’ve found a good home.

Wario came out great, the cigar being a cool touch along with the tiger skin hat. Some eBay rescue armour would be a great addition to the force and you’d make a great Mekboy for a Freeboota Waagh that reclaimed some unusual STC imperial armour

Thanks everyone! Appreciate the love and feedback as always.

@Not Online, no prob - it is Valhallan Blizzard straight out of the pot

@Llamahead, haven't heard of Tsaragrad before but sounds up my alley. Thanks for the tip!

@turtles, where Boris walks, tigers fear to tread...

@DJJJ, cheers! I am starting to think of them as a motley crew with a big ole mix of regiments all together.

@Viterbi (& gobert), I'm glad you noticed the cigar. It was just the same trick I used on the dreadnoughts, which was the same trick I used on the lava dwarves way back when - white base, yellow wash, orange wash.

@IGtR, cheers mate! The bloke who came to pick them up was super enthusiastic - mrs tzurk said he looked like a kid unboxing a gameboy on Christmas. I reckon they are in safe hands!

@gobert, thanks for the vote of confidence in diving into more Ork stuff! It did feel good to push through the last dread. Only took a day too in a few bursts. Why do I procrastinate so much on hobby stuff? Oh well!

I have been productive this week and polished off the squad.









Next step is the Catachans - first the build and wintering them up, then getting them painted!

Thanks for looking and happy painting everyone 8-)

Much appreciated tzurk.

Also nice valhalans. Shame GW never got around to plastifying them.

Nice valhallans - I always liked their simple look, and now I think about it, I think I have a couple knocking around that I should get to painting!

Thanks for sharing

Man, valhallans are so neat looking. And you've done a great job with them, they really look like they're wading through snow and the cold

I was scrolling through on my mobile, and at first glance I saw Tusken Raiders. Second look revealed something very different. But awesome.

Loving the Valhallans, the dark shadows and bright highlights look great on them. They really match the ditty snowy bases too.

Great job finishing the whole squad, lovely color scheme and excited for the winterized Catachans!

Very nice Valhallans tzurk.

Cheers,

CB

Not Online!!! wrote:Much appreciated tzurk.

Also nice valhalans. Shame GW never got around to plastifying them.

Thanks mate! Agreed about them being discontinued. I have read a lot on the internet about GW being hesitant to release new IG stuff because of the prevalence of 3rd party proxies for the range, but I'm not sure how much stock I put into that. Would love to see a multipart greatcoat guard in future, with valhallan/steel legion/krieg/vostroyan upgrade kits.

IGtR= wrote:Nice valhallans - I always liked their simple look, and now I think about it, I think I have a couple knocking around that I should get to painting!

Thanks for sharing

Cheers IGtR! Hope to see them soon. Old metal for the old metal gods, nostalgia for the nostalgia throne!

amazingturtles wrote:Man, valhallans are so neat looking. And you've done a great job with them, they really look like they're wading through snow and the cold

Thanks turtles! I wouldn't want to trade places with one, thats for sure.

DJJazzyJeff wrote:I was scrolling through on my mobile, and at first glance I saw Tusken Raiders. Second look revealed something very different. But awesome.

Thanks DJJJ! You say for the Emperor, I say HON HON HON - it's all the same underneath!

gobert wrote:Loving the Valhallans, the dark shadows and bright highlights look great on them. They really match the ditty snowy bases too.

Cheers gobert. The starkness comes from a lack of desire to layer 20 greatcoats rather than any conscious decision making but glad it turned out okay!

Viterbi wrote:Great job finishing the whole squad, lovely color scheme and excited for the winterized Catachans!

Cheers Viterbi! I stole most of the colour scheme from goonhammer's Paint Anything showcase on the IG and just dumbed down the method to speed things up a bit.

Captain Brown wrote:Very nice Valhallans tzurk.

Cheers,

CB

Thanks CB! Got another squad of them in the pipeline, among a few other regiments. Apologies for the awful photos; took them in a rush and they are more for marking progress than display!

Catachans are built but still need cleaning and winterising.



I then took a little detour into plasma town and built one for each squad.







As well as tidying up a few broken bits and adding a vox pack to the guy I use as Comms in KT.



And tzurk jr helped me clean a bunch of old metal! There are still a few more Steel Legionnaires taking a bath. I also found a squad of unbuilt Krieg grenadiers. Once a few Krieg sergeants are made and everything is put together, I will have 50 kriegsmen, 20 each of Valhallans, Catachans, and Steel Legion, and 10 Vostroyans. Nice little mix of winter guard, I think.



I'll keep plodding away. The horde is starting to look a bit intimidating!

Happy painting everyone 8-)

intimidating?

oh, that is a lot of tin... since i picked up my old warriors of chaos army i relearnt how annoying metal was to paint on...
Still good luck with them

Woops, not sure what happened with weird double post here. Sorry to anyone who had to scroll through that twice!

@Not Online, thanks and good luck to you too! Will hop on over and check them out. I haven’t had any problems painting metal yet - but I am pretty lucky to live in an area that has pretty much perfect priming conditions all year round - and in terms of cleaning and assembly they are an absolute dream compared to plastic and (especially) resin!

Well. Intimidating indeed. All those old metal lads.... Since i picked up work again on my warriors of chaos army, which was basically a decade in an open box, i realised just how annoying metal was to paint on....

Good luck with yours , and looking forwards to the results of it

Metal figures are better for gaming in my opinion...the weight of the figures means a sudden bumping of the table or attack of the cat is far less of an impact. Now plastic is easier to convert and the GW plastics are beautiful...but they often feel like they could all get blown over in a strong wind...even when I add pennies under the bases. However, since I am old and have been playing for decades, there is probably some sentimentality sneaking in.

My two cents,

CB

That is a lot of old metal to get painting! I like how you’ve modified lots of them to take plasma, fun little conversions, and useful too! Can’t wait to see the catachans all bearded and fur lined !

Thanks CB! Definitely agree that metal minis just feel right!

Cheers gobert! Some work better than others but I think they add a bit of character and fit in with the ragtag nature of the mixed fighting force.

Not a huge amount of hobby progress - dudes are on bases and catachans are starting to be wintered up. Still have 11 poor Steel Legionnaires sitting in their bath who haven't been scrubbed down yet, but otherwise that brings us up to the 12 full squads.



Just parking some ideas on potential scale model kits to use to replace the 3D printed tanks. I know that for some people using real world tanks is a deal breaker, but for me as long as it's reasonably close in dimensions and I can 40k-ify the guns, I'm happy. I kind of like the idea of having a mix of Soviet and German tanks to represent the Valhallan/Vostroyan and Steel Legion/Krieg units working together - maybe even having a US tank or two in there that the Catachans have brought along.

Leman Russ Option 1: 1/48 KV2



Hatches and accessories will need to be upsized but this thing is pretty much spot on to the height and width of a russ. It's ~2cm longer, which doesn't bother me so much given a dozer blade adds more than that.

Comparison (not mine):


Leman Russ Option 2: Meng World War Toons King Tiger



Another that is pretty much spot on for dimensions and even shares 40k's chibified proportions. Seems to be pretty popular with modelers online.

Comparison (not mine):



Chimera Option 1: 1/35 Pz II



One of few tanks I can find that is close in size - being 0.5cm longer and 1.5cm narrower. Doesn't scream APC to me, but then, neither does the Chimera...

I have ideas for a matched chassis Soviet hellhound and basilisk; so if the Chimera is German or American, I can handwave it as being a variant design/from a different STC than the other two.

Chimera Option 2: 1/35 T60



Spot on for length but 2.3cm too narrow. Seems to have a bit more room for guardsmen inside, particularly if the front was plasticarded up and the turret moved forward.

Chimera Option 3: 1/35 M113

2cm too long, 1.3cm too narrow. I like it as a thematic fit for the Vietnam War-ish Catachans, but it is very obviously the inspiration for the shape of the Rhino, so maybe too on the nose there.



I thought about the hanomag as well, and even saw a good hanomag-to-chimera conversion online, but it was shortened and widened and I just don't have the faith in my modelling ability to pull off that kind of build.

Hellhound: 1/35 T 18

Same length, slightly too narrow. Just a really interesting profile, room for fuel barrels at the back, and I like that I can then use the SU 18 for a basilisk and we keep the whole shared chassis thing. Would probably take his lil hat off the turret.



Basilisk: 1/35 SU 18
With a gun swap and some detailing on the case, would tie in nicely with the T 18 hellhound.



Basilisk Option 2: 1/48 M7 Priest


Narrower still (6cm v 9cm for chimera chassis), but another option.

Malcador Infernus: 1/48 Churchill Crocodile
Hard to find dimensions for; but the Malcador is roughly 18cm x 8cm without the trailer and this is 25cm x 8cm with the trailer so seems pretty good to me. Could scratch build a new gun, or maybe use a thermal cannon from a Knight or something.



Baneblade: 1/35 Light Lowe

i have no idea on the dimensions on this thing and since it was unbuilt can't even find the real world ones to convert. I have seen baneblades made from Mauses before, so as another German superheavy maybe it is in the same ballpark. I love the aesthetic though. Even has the perfect spot on the hull for a demolisher!



Anyway, those are my ramblings for the moment.

Hopefully have some more meaningful updates soon.

Thanks for looking and happy painting everyone 8-)

Built, based and ready for priming! Bar a few particularly bad mould lines that have shown up in these pics.

Vostroyans


Valhallans


Krieg clean-ups and add-ons (and tzurk jr)


Krieg sergeants


Krieg fill-ins - I couldn't find my bag of "krieg arms" so got busy with Ad Mech ones. Of course I found it after they were built! The guy with the shortened plasma caliver is the 6th plasma gun for Krieg which means I have the option of running them all in infantry squads or having 2 x vet squads with 3 plasma each. He has metal arms because he's an experienced plasma gunner who's weapon has Gotten Hot! on more than one occasion.



Straken


Steel Legion


Catachans 1


Catachans 2


Painting time 8-)

Will finish Catachans and Valhallans first as I know where I'm going with those.

Vostroyans thinking emerald green coats and white pants - bit fancy.

Steel Legion maybe a light grey overcoat with dark pants. Models are very similar to Krieg so want them to be easily differentiated.

Will have a look at potential schemes before getting started.

Thanks for looking & happy painting everyone!

Looking forward to seeing how these jungle guys turn out

That’s a lovely collection of metal Guard, one of my hobby regrets is amassing and then selling off a host of 2nd Ed Cadians :/

It’s late to the party but I like the painted Valhallans, nicely done! Winterised Catachans made me chuckle!

For Leman Russ options I’m inclined towards that Meng Tiger myself, but there’s also the Meng Churchill to consider! I’m thinking about bashing some of the Churchills to represent WW2 Kangaroo style Chimeras… It’s on the ‘if I ever get round to it’ idea pile

I like your SU18/ T18 ideas.

Thanks RegularGuy! Have started on them today, hopefully finish up before too long!

Cheers Ragsta. Sorry for your loss - the old Cadians are beautiful sculpts! I would love to get my hands on a squad eventually - it would be great to have one of each, although Tallarn, Mordian and Praetorian seem to be a lot harder to find.

The Churchill as a Kangaroo APC is a neat idea.

Apologies for rushed photos, but have made a bit of progress this week.

Did some industrial scale priming, which turned out to be a bit of a mistake for a few reasons. Nothing unsalvageable and lessons learned for the next time I am spraying 50 dudes at once (hopefully never)!



Krieg guys are done and dusted - love this scheme, banged them out in a day. I also pulled the sponsons off the Russes are they were awkward and I never got around to filling them with weapons, and repainted the areas underneath.


Valhallans took a bit longer but are there. God bless Agrax Earthshade - making my minis look good since 2017!

Pre-wash


Post-wash + quick highlights


Valhallan group shots




All the infantry so far...do I really need to paint 50 more?


Green down on the Catchacoldachans - gonna try for all 20 at once! Hoping they will be pretty simple given there are only a few colours going down and they are generally in big, unbroken blocks. You can see some of the effects of the dodgy priming here...


I also picked up a 1/35 Pz II to see if I can Chimera-fy it up. I can picture the hurret and tull weapons as well as position of the lasgun array; it will just come down to whether or not I can bulk the back up to convincingly sell an APC hull. I am hoping a Taurox hatch will sit nicely over the top, but will have a play with plasticard as well.

tzurk,

Well the troops are getting painted.

I like Chimera Option 3: 1/35 M113. It looks like an APC...it was an APC...a simple weapon swap or two and you have transports.

My two cents,

CB

Thanks CB. Progress is progress! the M113 is definitely still an option at this stage and I agree that it fits the bill with the least amount of work.

Small update, some bad pics of the catachans and a shot of the infantry shelf so far. Vostroyans are next!

Painting the catachans was a bit of a trip on the hobby rollercoaster; at basecoats I was wondering why I even bother painting anything, then after an Agrax wash I thought they were coming together okay, then trying to highlight all that skin nearly drove me crazy. In the end, they are finished and that is the most important thing.







Thanks for looking everyone and happy painting 8-)

EDIT:

I started working on the Vostroyans, but sort of got disheartened with them as I went through the basecoating process - I am not sure of my colour choices, paint application, etc...

So I put the batch on ice halfway through the cleanup/detailing step and went ahead and finished the sergeant. I am happier with the end result, and now have a bit of a boost to finish the rest of the squad.

Good lord, that's a lot of guardsmen Love bearded Straken, that's exactly the detail he needed And the Vostroyan Sgt. looks really cool, excited to see the scheme applied to the rest of the squad.

Thanks Viterbi!

We're almost there. I was going to cap it at 120 infantry, but now I'm thinking about grabbing 30 more to make vets - maybe by grabbing a Start Collecting and the Cadian Defence Force boxes as that nets me two Leman Russes and a Chimera to start off the armour as well. Alternate heads on the Cadians - either 3rd party or maybe Skitarii Vanguard - could make neat vets pretty easily.

And then there's Scions too!

Anyway, I have finished off the Vostroyan squad. I spent a bit more time on them than usual, due to the intricate nature of the sculpt and the fact that I really, really like the models. If they weren't so expensive I'd like to have a bunch more of them!

After struggling with the scheme I am really quite pleased how they look finished. I used a bit more of an overall colour scheme on these guys than simply saying that all pauldrons are brass while guns are steel, to sort of match the bespoke look of their equipment, and I'm happy with how that came out.

Anyway, here are the pics! I'm aiming to get the Steel Legion dudes stripped and rebased and primed today so I can start work on them tomorrow.





That's it for now, hopefully have another update soon. Thanks for looking and happy painting everyone 8-)

Very nice tzurk.

Cheers,

CB

Great looking squad!

Its rare to see such well painted vostroyans!

Lovely work on the Vostroyans, that's a really nice teal colour!

like the colour scheme on the krieg minis