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Hey all,

After messing around with SM and DE, finally settled on starting a Guard force, after reading Gaunts Ghosts and the Cain novels (plus any other guard novel I could lay my hands on), picked up a battleforce, demolisher and a few other bits.
I rarely get a chance to game at the moment, havent got any local friends that are into the hobby, and need to find a nice local store to get involved with. As such I'm more of a fluff focused player, sure I'd like to be mildly competitive, but story and personality are more my thing.
I will be working up some fluff for them, and probably posting it in this log if that's cool with everyone?

Hopefully starting a log will give me the motivation to keep everything up to date and get on and do some painting!

Not 100% pleased with the photos, but here we go,

Sergeant - pretty much identical to the GW cadians, when they first launched I loved the colours scheme, then subsequently left the hobby, so now I'm back, kinda the only choice for me to paint! Will probably run some of my existing SM as allies, they're ultras so will stand out nicely on the tabletop.


Sergeant back


and real size


Now for some armour, these were painted today (not finished) base colours, decals and oil pin wash so far. A lot to do with them, but quite pleased.
Used a few decals from modern armour kits too.

Executioner


Executioner Rear


Demolisher


and as a Punisher


Sentinel





Comments are very welcome, really like to hear what you all think, and please ask any questions.

Cheers guys

- Dan

What I love is the use of clean, crisp colors. Especially the green on the tank. I like it! (Y)

Cheers mate, was aiming for that, glad it shows! Personally I also like the contrast of the small white transfers on the green and dark shading.
I want the detail on the vehicles to shine through, so going to keep weathering to a minimum on them I reckon.

Really like the guardsman, looks really clean and well done! Also like how the tanks turned out, very smooth

That's a beautiful green you've got on your vehicles and gaurdsman, Keep it up!

Very nice start, the paint job is really well done, im eager to see this thread grow

@Windows - Thanks! Bit daunted by the amount of green and khaki I'll have to paint to get a full-size guard army, but at least an airbrush helps for basecoating speed. Plus, I think I'm going to start a small Night Lord force to keep things varied, only hard choice is do I wait for Codex: CSM or, go heresy era with the upcoming forgeworld books! Dilemma.

@TrenchMartin1 - The green is all GW, Castellan Green highlighted up to Straken. Really pleased with it, the gloss varnish really helps the colours pop at the mo.

@RougueWolves - I hope I can keep you all interested enough to stick around to watch it grow! Haha.

Right, so tiny update.

Picture of the whole of first squad


And Inquisitor Barthol Heldenhamme


Got a little bit of fluff in the works for this guy and how he fits in. Really pleased with the teeny black beads for the rivets. Cheap and effective I hope.

- Dan

Nice. Great paint on the troops , and the vehicles look solid and clean. As a guard fan I'll be checkin this thread out often. Good Luck.

Love the converted BA head for the =][=!

Cheers! Quite pleased with it, going to be painted up as a metal death-mask covering a ruined face, which is why it is riveted to his head.
There's some fluff I'm working on, where he has a huge private gallery of hundreds of these masks, each one representing a different aspect of the emperor, and he changes it depending on situation.

Next up on the painting table to be started tomorrow night, is a commissar lord, I love the figure.

I have one more guard squad, a heavy weapons squad and a 2 command squads to build and paint.
Only hold up is I have no idea what was to equip the PCS. I want it to be useful in game, but not 4 flamer crazyness haha. So any advice would be great.

- Dan

DanSly wrote:@Windows - Thanks! Bit daunted by the amount of green and khaki I'll have to paint to get a full-size guard army, but at least an airbrush helps for basecoating speed. Plus, I think I'm going to start a small Night Lord force to keep things varied, only hard choice is do I wait for Codex: CSM or, go heresy era with the upcoming forgeworld books! Dilemma

I feel your pain, I got an IG army that's sitting around in boxes some still not even opened (somewhere around 100-120 footmen). I finally decided I didn't want a plain cadian army so I've been looking for ideas while I work on my DE army first. I want to have alot of conversion work and such so hopefully I can find an idea or two that will help me decide what to do with them. I like how that infantry squad turned out, looks really good and I think when I move onto my guard investing in an airbrush might be a really good idea look forward to seeing what you paint next!

Yeah, I'm trying to take this one a piece at a time and not buying too much at once... but we all know how well that will turn out
An airbrush is definitely a time saver, I have mine from my time as an 1/35 armour modeler, it's pretty invaluable. It'll speed up the basecoating on the guard no end.

I use an Iwata TR1. I love it, so easy to use, and real fine control. Downside, its nearly now £200, just over $300, got mine cheaper at a show.

But for guard, with lots of men and tanks, any airbrush is a great investment.

Looking awesome cant wait to see everything !

Very interesting idea for the death mask, I definatly like it.. is it similar to the mask of the king in "kingdom of heaven"?

@Rogue Wolves - Yeah, pretty much exactly that!


Tonight will be making a start on this guy! Going to try and do a rough step by step for him.


Dan


Automatically Appended Next Post:
SpicyBadger - Cheers, sorry I missed your comment before! Oops. Your renegades are looking great!

So, here's a little step by step of how far I've got on the Commie Lord tonight, his face!

First up, nice clean(ish) painting area, I have a sheet of plasticard down as a painting surface, I can mix paint directly on it, then just clean it right off after.



Next up, thin tallarn flesh to the consitency of skimmed milk, then give a couple of coats. Lighten the mix using bleached bone (i used the vallejo equiv.) and put highlights on cheekbones, nose, top lip and chin. Very hard to see in this shot, but they are there!


I then create a wash using Baal red, Leviathan purple and some Reikland fleshshade.


At a guess it's 5 parts Reik to 2 baal red and 1 lev purple, I do it by eye so just experiment. I use this wash because I find using fleshade on its own is too browny/orangey, and not very natural.


Lightly wash it over the face, being careful not to let it pool too much. I use multiple thin glazes to build up the shadows, you get more control that way rather than flooding the face.
You should be able to see the purples/reds coming through, adds some warmth.




I went back and re-highlighted the face, and used the wash with a fine brush into the fine crevices.



And here he is done and with a face. I used a little pure lev. purple to shade some of the darker areas, and baal red around the scars, then highlighted the scars themselves





Would love to hear your feedback, and feel free to ask any questions!

Cheers

- Dan

You're a great painter, nice work. Consider me subscribed.

Thanks Scrazza, means a lot!

I'm going to try and keep a step by step going for the whole commissar lord paint process if you/everyone is interested in it?

- Dan

Great painting on this commissar I'm definatly interested in the step by step!

Cheers Rogue!

Right, so tonight, we have the Commissars new clothes!

Basecoat, Chaos black, kommando khaki and a bit of tallarn flesh. Wanted a warm black for this one, and the usual black - grey - light grey leads to quite an unnatural black.



Started the highlighting, adding more Kommado Khaki to the mix. Did this in a couple of stages, kept it nice and thin.



And here we are. After the highlights, i went back with the orginal colour, and gradually added more black to shade it, then pure black into the darkest recesses. This was thinned even more, so it went on like a glaze.


So, thats where he is, I'm not 100% happy with it (or the pictures, need to get a light-box set up! And not take pictures with my phone would help…) But I don't want to strip and start again, I'll probably tweak it a bit tomorrow.
Was the first time I've attempted black clothing, so very much made it up as I went along

Dan

Got a bit more done on the Commissar lord over the past 2 nights, think he's coming on slowly, but anyway, pictures!

For the reds I use this paint set by Andrea miniatures, its excellent. Period.
They also do balck, green, yellow, blue, white, gold and silver. I use the Blue and white sets also, I heartily recommend them.

Starting with the red cuffs/hat, base on.


The red was highlighted up through the colours, and a final highlight with some flesh colour mixed in for the finest highlights.
Also decided to go with green for his armour rather than the usual metallic style you see. Figured it will help to fit in with my army more, the details will be picked out in gold/brass though for that appropriate bit o' bling!


Bit of a rubbish photo (phone pics, sorry!) so the shading doesnt really show very well on the purple inside of the cloak.


Same goes for the back of the cloak. I plan on repainting the boots as dark brown/black leather to help make them look different from his trousers.


And on a slight tangent, got Fear to tread today, started reading on the commute home, and a terrible curse of mine, is that I get the urge to paint whoever features in the books I read, so on that point, do BA work well as allies for guard? Or should I stick with my vanilla marines I've got collecting dust waiting to be painted as UM's?

Cheers for looking, and feedback is greatly appreciated

- Dan

wow this commissar is looking fantastic!

Rogue - Thanks, glad you like it! My first attempt at black clothing, pretty pleased with it, and the purple too!

Made a bit more progress this weekend, not as much as I would have liked but in between going fishing with mates and seeing my girlfriend, managed to grab a few hours tonight to work on the commissar.

Metallics started, the end is in sight!





The dark vengeance leak has completely thrown me, so I will be grabbing a couple of those boxes and starting a Night Lords force, will provide a nice painting "opposite" for the soft, cloth covered guardsmen.

Thanks for looking

Dan

Subbed!

Thanks for the tutorials, Dan! They're pretty interesting Great work so far on your IG army!

Subbed for sure!
Rawson

Nice skills wish i was that good mine look like a monkey done it with its rear end! Lol


Automatically Appended Next Post:
Nice skills wish i was that good mine look like a monkey done it with its rear end! Lol

Really like your stage by stage guides and the injured guardsmen at the start of the blog is top notch.