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Hey dakkaites, it's been probably the craziest year of my life which has led to inevitably less hobby time than I would have liked. Might write about it later. Not much progress has happened on the Ashlander Exodites front besides finally getting a silt strider printed up - but I forgot to take pics before it got packed up in the move.

today though, I ordered all the bits for my Lord Solar Leontus proxy - Lord Inquisitor Mohindra Hesh - with some headcanon starting to form around the ragtag nature of my guard force...





Hopefully have a more meaningful update soon. until then happy painting 8-)

Colour me intrigued with those bits! Good to see you back tzurk

Ok I really need to see how these bits will go together.

Those turbaned heads are amazing.

Aye, this is a wierd combination!

The potential is high for an epic mini. Captain Nemo skysurfing through the 41st millenium.

Great to see you posting Tzurk! Looking forward to seeing this Imperial Guard army.

Love those turbaned heads.

Good to see you back tzurk. Those heads crack me up: goes from cool looking bionics in the top row to looking like dudes in turbans wearing sunglasses in the bottom row.

Thanks guys, lovely warm fuzzies. Appreciate you stopping by and taking the time to leave a comment!

There's a bit of lead time on the bitz, so in the mean time I'm trying to come up with a plan of attack for the guard.

I built the army for 8th edition, and gave every infantry squad a plasma gun because why not? They were 5 points! Spoiler has pics of the infantry - they're a mixed bunch of 60 Krieg, 20 Valhallan, 20 Catachan, 20 Steel Legion and 10 Vostroyans.



So, 10th came around and we've got 3 different data sheets for infantry, and can only take 6 of any given one...hmmm - but hey, upgrades are free!

I've been mulling it over and I think the least confusing way ahead is to play it like this:

- the 6 Krieg squads will be Krieg squads. They'll get a melta gun in each squad - I'll re-use the Solar Auxilia flamer guys I used to run as command squad meltaguns. They'll also get medics - I'm thinking a red cross on the helmet, backpack or both as a way to identify them easily.

- the Catachans will be Catachans. Since they can take 2 flamers per squad, I'll convert some lasguns into flamers. I won't bother un-plasmafying the plasma guys as who knows what 11th edition will bring, and it's easy enough to say the Catachans are running double flamers and my flamer guys are the flamer guy and the plasma guy.

- Valhallans and Steel Legion will be run as Cadians. I think the Solar Auxilia flamer guys will be fine to run as meltas here too, with a repaint to match their respective colours of course.

- the Vostroyans on their lonesome will be an Infantry Squad to sit in the backfield. Since heavy weapons are free now, I think I'll model them up a mortar and just sit 2 dudes with it on a 50mm base. I'll keep an eye out on the second hand sites for a proper mortar crew but Vostroyans always seem to come with an inflated price tag.

- I can't remember if I ever showed you guys my veterans proxies - they are still very WIP, a mix of old Cadians, various FW upgrades and Pig Iron heads - but I've had 30 of these guys on the backburner for years and I guess now they'll have to be run as Kasrkin. I'll need to take a look at their weapon options before
finishing them off.

- characters can all stay as they are. Plus the Lord Solar when he's done and that's pretty much the infantry portion of the army sorted.

Which leaves the tanks. I picked most of these up in a lot ages ago, right after I sold the dreadnought army. I need to make a few changes here and there but the only one I've made from scratch is one of the hellhounds.

I have 3 stock russes, 2 converted basilisks, 2 converted rhinos, and 2 converted hellhounds.

They all need various amounts of love to get them ready for the tabletop, and painting vehicles terrifies me. Two of the russes came with some pre-paint, so I will test out some whitewashing on them before I use it on the others. As the legions are mixed, so will be the tanks - I am picturing a bunch of different colour schemes present on these guys.

Anyway, I haven't sorted a hobby space at the new house yet and the minis are still in storage. I found my guard box today though and had a dig around to lay out some next steps, or I'd never actually get around to starting anything...

Here's a group shot of all the dudes I'm gonna play with for the foreseeable future. You can see the two vostroyans cramped on their 50mm base here. PS - what's the best way to remove dust from minis?



Think he'll fit in with a coat of grey?



Or tan? I might try a bit of a heat effect with these guys to make it even clearer they're meltas and not flamers.



Some work to do on the mantlets here. The lazy part of me (which is by far the biggest part) wants to just make a cloth cover out of paper towel and PVA and call it a day...



The two chimeras



The two hellhounds - I made the left one out of a tehnolog tank, and I am pretty sure I have a knight thermal cannon somewhere I wanted to put on the open topped one instead of the heavy bolter - otherwise I might just give it some beefed up heavy flamers and a crewman.



these two guys' lasguns seem like the easiest to just swap out the barrel and the clip for the nozzle and fuel tank of the flamers...



Here's the veteran/Kasrkin test model - the cadian base of these guys came in the lot with the tanks and will eventually be stripped and repainted...




and bonus assassins that I'd completely forgotten about...



So, heaps to do!

Need to find where the paints have gotten to and start getting some easy wins in.

I'll keep you posted.

Happy painting!

That really is a lot of work to do. I’m enjoying all the old rhino kit conversions in your tank pool. And all the Valhallans. They were a great characterful 2nd ed line.

Not sure about the dust situation. A big makeup brush might help to buff it off without too much abrasion. I have an old woodelves dragon with the same problem.

Extra points for use of the word de-plasmafication.

Thanks theCrowe!

Valhallans have always been my favourite of the old sculpts. Not sure GW's ever topped them in the Guard range.

Will give the makeup brush thing a go. Lucky mrs tzurk is very generous in her hand me downs!

Here are the flamers mocked up for the Catachans, and the "melta" flamers put on their bases.

The guy I originally bought the Krieg from hadf a bunch of these acrylic disks as his bases - he'd intended to paint the minis off the base and them leave them clear so they'd match whatever terrain was on the board.

Fiddly buggers though - double stickers to peel off, doesn't take glue super well. Anyway.

Feels good to hobby again, even starting this small!





Thanks for looking and happy painting everyone.

Nice looking army there, Tzurk. I especially like the Vostroyans. I like the tank conversions as well.

Yeah, awesome army! Love the catachans with their fur coats!

I’m with theCrowe and the big makeup brushes to clear the dust. I’ve heard others using cans of compressed air too. Some of the tanks look pretty dust laden, so the latter might have a bit more luck dislodging bits

I love seeing your army tzurk! It feels like it's been a really long time since I last saw them.

I use a large make up brush for the removal of dust to, mate. Nice to see an update from you.

Thanks guys! Luckily mrs tzurk is pretty generous with her old brushes so will definitely give that a crack.

In the meantime, some paint has touched a model for the first time this year.

I think the flameltas ended up matching okay.

Steel Legion:


Valhallans:


I tried to do hazard stripes on the gas bottles for these guys but quickly got pissed off and went simple. Oh well - baby steps! Plus they match the plasma and will stand out easily on the table.



I was pleasantly surprised with how my plan to whitewash the tank turned out. I think it will be fun to have a bunch of vehicles with different camos but matching whitewashing.



I think up next I'll keep going with the details on this tank and have my first finished vehicle in a looooong time.

Then trundle through the rest of the vehicles - and hopefully the Lord Solar bitz have shown up by then!

Thanks for looking everyone and happy painting,

Amazing job. I do hope gw brings out the flamer and rotor cannon veletarii soon, if only seeing more of yor winter guard !

Love a mighty Imperial Guard army, no finer site on the tabletop battlefield!

I like your various guard vehicles too, some cool minis in there.

Good luck getting it all painted!

Your guard are awesome. I too have a 'mish mash' army of mostly old metal or plastics. They're my cityfight army, so I mixed all the models up to represent a regiment that had been stuck in urban fighting and thus everyone was equipped differently. Then I bought Vostroyans when they went on made to order and, well, yet another guard army. I love how you've painted them up, and can't wait to see how the whitewash scheme comes out on all the tanks!

Gotta love those welders masks. The gritty finish on the tank works well, too. Lots of cool character.

Thanks everyone!

I agree that a massed IG force is one of the wonders of the Warhammer world - and the more regiments represented the better!

Cityfighting guard (was it a White Dwarf mag or a Codex?) were a big inspiration for the combined arms of my own force and is also why I call them snowfighting

Here are two finished tanks ready to roll out...





It's starting to look like a real army!



Thanks for looking and happy painting everyone 8-)

Those are some gritty tanks, looking good!

The whitewash looks to have unified the tanks really well as a single army, but kept them unique

The ammount of pain, making first such a nice camo only to winterise it afterwards. Hats off to you!

They feel a bit chilly just looking at them, nice work.

Thanks for the comments fellas!

Bit of progress to share.

First off, I am happy to report the makeup brush worked a treat for helping to smooth over years of neglect.

Before:



After - much better!



I think this is the most perfect barrel I've ever drilled.



With my two chimeras, I felt that the half-track read well as an APC. The other, however, was clearly a rhino with a turret and given the similarities to the hellhounds I wanted to make sure it was more recognisable as a chimera. What's the most iconic part of one? The goofy lasgun array...



Here are the two chimeras ready for weathering. I was planning to give them the same whitewash treatment I'd given the russes, but now I'm not sure - I quite like the clean grey! I will have to test it out on a base or something and see if I like it.







I also paper-towelled, PVA'd and primered up the mantlet covers for the basilisks. I'm not in love with how they look, hopefully paint helps rectify some of that.





Will keep plugging away at the armour for now.

Thanks for looking and happy painting everyone 8-)

The basilisks will look better painted. Right now my eyes don't resolve it as mantlet covers as it looks like greenstuff.

Tanks are looking awesome Tzurk, nice looking conversions. The basilisks are really cool, like what you did with the mantlets.

Vehicle fleet shaping up nicely, I think those Bassies will turn out fine. I like the mongrel APCs/ Hellhounds, this will be the ultimate rag tag bag force!

Just discovered this blog, love what I'm seeing! Great kitbashes

A load of interesting conversions there Tzurk.

Cheers,

CB