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So a brief introduction. I never have finished a fully painted army over 500 points in size despite having been in the hobby for over a decade, however with this blog as motivation I hope to buck this trend. In addition, this is my return to the hobby after a year or so break.

The army I have chosen to attempt is Valhallan Imperial Guard and so the challenge I have set myself is a tall one (as I paint very slowly, and I have been made painfully aware even elite Guard armies have a high model count). As if that wasn't enough I really didn't want to paint any fully metal models to make this army, so every single infantryman in the force is going to be a conversion. So, I'll try to update as reguarly as I can.

Though I must stress the conversion idea isn't original as I got the concept from here: http://www.dakkadakka.com/dakkaforum/posts/list/299762.page#1661555 So kudos goes to Lord Shag for the brilliant idea that I will be trying to replicate many times over.

My first finished test model; a regular guardsman is finished. Though photos make me painfully aware of painting mistakes, please let me know what you think. Thanks in advance to all views and comments!

Very much a Valhallan in my oppinion! Nice greatcoat, but surely it's going to take forever to finish each miniature? In an imperial guard force that's going to require some serious motivation!

Loving the paint scheme, and I eagerly await more updates.

Wonderful conversion. If you keep them coming, it would be very nice army.

I am big fan of Valhallans too. But I never found enough courage to start converting Cadians to Valhallans.

Ace great coat man, really well sculpted. Am not sure however why he has cannabis leaf camoflage.

Great work in the first model, man. Consider me subscribed.

Excellent work on the modelling and the camo scheme. I think the poor guy deserves a bit more time taken over the number on his shoulder pad though After you're done the number just clean it up with your base colour again before weathering.

looking good,the pig iron heads go really well with valhallans.

ghosty wrote:Very much a Valhallan in my oppinion! Nice greatcoat, but surely it's going to take forever to finish each miniature? In an imperial guard force that's going to require some serious motivation!

Loving the paint scheme, and I eagerly await more updates.

Thankyou for the compliments! I have slowly begun to realise the enormity of the project I have undertaken, and it's going to take alot of effort, but I think the end result will be worth it!

@Vostok, Scrazza and shingouki. Thanks for the praise!

Perkustin wrote:Ace great coat man, really well sculpted. Am not sure however why he has cannabis leaf camoflage.

I have only just noticed that alot of the camo pattern on that certain side of his greatcoat looks like those leaves... It wasn't intentional! Honest!

Flinty wrote:Excellent work on the modelling and the camo scheme. I think the poor guy deserves a bit more time taken over the number on his shoulder pad though After you're done the number just clean it up with your base colour again before weathering.

Thanks for the advice. Since reading this post I have gone back and been altering the shoulder pad on the test model. Hopefully I'll post pictures when I finish a few more of his comrades.

So it's been almost a week since I began this project and thought I'd post what I've managed to progress on so far though I still have a long way to go; a few more infantry undergoing painting and a WIP shot of my Leman Russ with camo pattern, though without weathering/tidy-up as yet. Let me know what you think!

I like the color scheme. The tank also looks real nice, but what im most impressed with is the bases. great work!