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THE XYPHON SECTOR

Perhaps most remarkable for being unremarkable, the Xyphon Sector is one amongst many of thousands of Imperial sectors. Located to the galactic east, it is a mid range value sector, the type of which is the bedrock of the Imperium. It has it's threats and dangers, but areas of it are relatively calm. Some of the population live in paradise, whilst others know nothing but war.
However, in these dark days, even these relative mundane parts of the empire of man have to rise to the occasion. More threats emerge every day, the Tau pushing in from the East, the Acoloytes of Pain raid ever more frequently from the Schism and the ever violent Orks of Urglot the Imitator all serve to test the defences. Accordingly, the forces of Xyphon have been martialled in recent years to an unprecedented level.......


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Welcome to my new project log. The general idea behind this is to gather together all my 40k projects into one. This way, I don't need to feel guilty which 40k army I paint, it all adds to the total!

The main focus of this will be guard (no surprises there then). Also included initially will be Tau, renegades, and Orks. In fact, Orks will feature quite a lot early on as I am trying to clear the model back log and they are the most common army in my unpainted pile. However, guard will get some special love, and I will be starting with them.

My guard army will retain my usual red and bone colour scheme - it's kind of my trademark after all! However, the colour scheme will be tweaked using the new paints, and I shall be trying for a higher quality finish. Most importantly, I shall be taking inspiration from the other great ideas from the internet.

I decided to start with a simple Platoon Command squad, so here we go:

The officer and the medic:





My aim here: To have a young, keen officer and a overladen medic. I really wanted the medic to look like he has too much kit. I used the sentinel drivers right arm for him, as I figure I can paint that control stick as some kind of scanner.

Next, the vox caster (really pleased with him)





I have used the catachan vox for him, and tried to give him a relaxed pose. The gun has lots of extras on it as one of themes for the guard of Xyphon sector is that they are encouraged to mix and match equipment at a personal level to make them each as effective as they can be. Of course, this sometimes causes problems with the more traditional parts of the Imperium.

Now for the flamers:



One thing I did notice with the torsos when doing these it that they are slightly bigger then a normal one. I don't know if it's something I am doing wrong, or if it's just a by-product of GS push moulds, but it makes fitting cross body arms a little tricky. I found this on the heavy flamer guy but some carving and gap filling sorted it out.

The heavy flamer on his own:



I wanted him to look different to a normal flamer guy, so converted his back pack. I am not entierly sold on this (it may look too heavy) but with the addition of support straps to the shoulders, I think I can get away with it.

The good news is these guys are now undercoated, so painting begins this weekend!

In the models above you can see some common themes: kit bashing, use of GS torsos, and also extra bits from other companies. Also, lots of conversions! Only the guard will get this level of attention as it's quite time consuming.

Anyway, enough from me. More to come with fluff, OOB's etc. As always, your opinions are always wanted.

Those are looking awesome, I really love the alternative guard look.

The background is brilliant too, I'll be keeping an eye on this

Looking really good! I do like new guard threads, even if you threaten to turn to Orks soon The torsos are press moulds you say? they came out really nicely! I can never keep so much detail when I have tried. When I have tried however I have had the same issue as you with them being slightly thicker than the original, assuming your using a two part mould? Looking forwards to more from you.

Really glad I got to see these. The overloaded look of the foot soldiers gives them a feel of realism.

Really like the push mold torso's. I agree with Arctic Dragon as well. I hate seeing guard or space marines that only have the one magazine in their gun and no other gear on them.

What scheme are you going to paint them up in?

Very nice conversions! How did you make the body armor? Could we have a tutorial?

The Fat Elf: Cheers mate, there is plenty more fluff to come, mainly so I can introduce my other armies.

J-Paint: It's not a two part mould, see tutorial link below.

Artic Dragon: Cheers, that is the look I was aiming for.

Dangledrof: They will be in a red and bone scheme.

Igandris: This is the tutorial I used, works a treat - http://s3.zetaboards.com/The_Ammobunker/topic/7503185/1/

Thanks for the positive comments people. Progress has been slow. I messed up the flesh on the squad, so had to replace the heads, hence why two of them are headless. But here is a (poor) progress shot of the fatigues which are done:



First of all, the pic is rubbish. Second of all, I think the wash was too dark (it wasn't that bad on the test model) and annoyingly the new washes dry shiney. That shoud be taken care of with the final varnish, but is annoying none the less. Anyway, the fatigues are the most time consuming section, so I am hoping to make more progress on these soon.

So, made some slow progress. It's not the fact I am a slow painter, it's just in the last week I've had two hours of time to paint. Annoying is not the word.

Anyway, I have laid the armour down:






I am pleased with how they are going. The next question is what colour to do the weapons. My optios are:

- Bone like the armour
- Black with grey highlights
- A third colour.

Thoughts and opinions are welcome guys.

Looking very good here! It really is amazing how much removing the aquila on the helmet changes the look, I really like it!

As for you saying about the new washes drying shiny, I've had that problem too sometimes, very frustrating, only seems to be certain pots, and I have found that vigorous shaking before you use it can sometimes help, (no idea why)

As for the weapons....its a difficult one, but I will vote for black, I think bone will blend in too much, and another colour will look wrong on just the gun, keep it simple i reckon!

I decided to go with the general consensus and decided on black weapons. The first three guys are done.

The medic (with blue latex gloves!)



The two flamer guys:





You can see on the flamer guys better than the medic, the platoon markings I will be using. The top colour shows the platoon, and the second the squad, so in this case, white means first platoon and purple means command. I think, I might have that the wrong way around as I don't have my notes to hand and not having painted 200 of them, it's not ingrained yet.

In order to call them complete, I need to figure out company, battalion, regiment and army markings. The regiment symbol will be a transfer on the right shoulder, and the left shoulder the army symbol. Both of these will probably have to be home made, so that is another thing to have to learn how to do, any advice appreciated.

Company/Battalion wise, I am undecided. I could do a similiar type thing to the platoon markings but on the left side of the helmet, or I could so something else, but what? I think it needs to be on the helm somewhere, but just not sure what to do.

Anyway, c+c always appreciated.

Nice, I like the color scheme. I also like the look of your models. They look realy individual.

Ah, now the color scheme is up and looks good

Looks awesome! I like how you put a scope and a grip on a lasgun. Cool conversions .