Forum adverts like this one are shown to any user who is not logged in. Join us by filling out a tiny 3 field form and you will get your own, free, dakka user account which gives a good range of benefits to you: No adverts like this in the forums anymore. Times and dates in your local timezone. Full tracking of what you have read so you can skip to your first unread post, easily see what has changed since you last logged in, and easily see what is new at a glance. Email notifications for threads you want to watch closely. Being a part of the oldest wargaming community on the net. If you are already a member then feel free to login now.

LunaHound wrote:Its going to roll down a hill if it gets too steep
but its cute hmm...

We call that the 'leman russ dilemma'.

ShumaGorath wrote:

LunaHound wrote:Its going to roll down a hill if it gets too steep
but its cute hmm...

We call that the 'leman russ dilemma'.

Like in Winter Assault?

I actually didnt like LR till i played that in the video game.

LunaHound wrote:Its going to roll down a hill if it gets too steep
but its cute hmm...

Can't help that - it's Imperial technology!

John, how did you do against the goals you set yourself at the start of this thread/blog?

Oh, I completely gave up in a huff when the IG Codex came out and didn't keep what I wanted (Drop Guard Light Infantry Platoons).

Your tanks are made of awesome!

It's been a while since I've had Guard on the mind, but lately, I've been noodling over the 5E Codex and thinking about what I'll have to play with. Removing the Inquisitional forces, this is what it looks like where I'll be going with my Guard army:

HQ
Colonel & Company Command Squad, Chimera
3x Commissar
1x Techpriest Enginseer

Elite
1x 3 Ogryn-class Exo-suits
2x Overseer w/ 9 Psyker Battle Squad

Troops
3x 6 Veterans w/ 3 Meltas
Mechanized Platoon
- Platoon HQ w/ 4 Plasma & mini-Chimera
- 3x Platoon Squad w/ Melta & ML, Chimera
Infantry Platoon
- Platoon HQ w/ 4 Plasma
- 3x Platoon Squad w/ ML & Plasma
- 2x HWS w/ 3 ML
- 1x HWS w/ 3 Mortars

Fast
7 Cold One Lancers w/ 2 Grenade Launchers
2x 3 Sentinels w/ Autocannon
1x 3 Armored Sentinels w/ Plasma Cannon
2x Valkyrie w/ Rockets & HB Sponsons
2x Hellhound w/ PMHS

Heavy
3x Demolisher
2x Leman Russ
1x Manticore
1x Basilisk
1x Hydra
1x Deathstrike Missile Launcher w/ Vortex Missile

Super-Heavy
1x Baneblade w/ extra Sponsons, HKM, PMHS
1x Shadowsword w/ HKM, PMHS
1x Stormlord w/ HKM, PMHS

Allies
Orrus & 2x Malcadon Spyrers (~Eversor Assassins)


As an aside, it is completely ridiculous how many Chimeras I could make use of if I were to fully Mech the army!
____

Update:

after this, I ended up getting off my butt, building and priming a bunch of my IG infantry:

____

2018 update - strikethrough stuff I've sold and won't field

great work

I just noticed that this thread is still linked in my .sig, so I'm gonna necro it to pick up where I left off.

2014 Year in Review

In 2014, I started, but stopped on a couple things that I had thought would be a good idea:
- converting Plague Monks as Psyker Battle Squads. I started the first model, and decided they wouldn't fit with the rest of the army. Fail.
- swapping Dark Elf Cold Ones for Rough Rider mounts. Turns out the DE COs are a lot skinnier than a WFB horse, so the RRs won't sit on them properly. Maybe I need to look at Saurus cav? I should sell these, or convert up new legs.

Sigh.

On the plus side, I made a big push to get my Imperial infantry models playable:
- cleaned, prepped and glued 70 infantry to bases
- primed 92 infantry black/gray
- basecoated 92 guardsmen green

My Guard has grown quite a bit since I opened this topic, and they are now a reasonably playable 200 strong...

On the side, I have 45 Sisters of Battle and 30-odd Inquisitors/Assassins/Retinue/Syprers for exotic support.


2015 Plans

1. finish all infantry (building, priming & basecoating)
2. build Manticore launcher (mostly OOTB)
3. build Valkyrie & Vendetta flyers (light conversion required)
4. build Atlas Armored Recovery Vehicle and Deathstrike Vortex Missile Launcher (heavy conversion)
5. build Shadowsword and Stormlord superheavy tanks (super-heavy conversions!)
6. address Rough Rider, Ogryn/Sentinel and Psyker stand-ins.

Hi! Read your progress!!! I a small collection of astral minitorium...

Check out my gallery! For more pictures! I'm sorry if I can't give you and url link. I'm writing from my phone.

Heya, that's quite a nice IG collection you've got there, especially that it's painted. Good variety and good bulk.

Thanks!!! i got another 45 guardsmen to paint, 2 chimeras, and 1 exterminator and 1 demolisher tank to go ....


and everything else i have planned for that army collection.. so far i got 4.500p +250ish inf. models and about 11ish tanks..

Very nice! I'm up to 250-odd infantry, but I have more tanks. When I get the rest squared away, I'll have roughly 2 dozen armored units. Lot of work there...
____

OK, I just did a quick tally, and the "5,500 pt" force estimate is quite a bit out of date. Counting all of my stuff, including the DreamForge Leviathan Warhound Titan, I'm up to 7,000 pts of Guard goodness.

On top of that, add 2,000 pts of Inquisition forces and another 1,000 pts of Sisters of Battle.

10,000 pts of T3 Imperials and their vehicles? Yeah, I think that's enough for one man.
____

I guess I'd best try to get a picture together of all the playable stuff. That should look pretty good!

Nice to see your P&M blog is back up and running again, John. I look forward to seeing how you continue your army!

On the Rough Rider standpoint, I ended up selling the Dark Elf Cold Ones, as they just weren't working for me. I need to look into Saurus Cold Ones, instead.

The past few days, I've been plugging away at my Shadowsword conversion:



Like my other "one big gun" tanks (really SPGs), this is going to be a low-slung project. As you can see, I've dropped the rear engine deck by quite a bit (about 3/8" drop), allowing for a very low profile silhouette.

Nibelungenwerke has been busy!

Next steps:
1. forward track covers, similar to how FW does it with their Arkurian-pattern superheavies.
2. rear track, likely embedding the fuel tanks.
3. "nose" superstructure, which will incorporate a proper ball-joined gun (with balanced counterweight breech!) for appropriate range of motion.
4. sponsons, hull weapons, and targeters (yes, the lascannon are "better", but they don't look as good).
____

OK, got the forward track cover extensions done tonight, and I like the look - the extra 1/2" makes the whole thing that much sleeker and longer and lower.

Rear track cover with integrated fuel tank? Ugh. WTF? Not a good design that lends itself to fixes...

Just like a squirrel on speed, my attention shifts to a new, shiny thing.

Specifically, the new, shiny 7E Eldar with their new, shiny Codex and a new, shiny Wraithknight. The new Eldar book is fantastic, and I'll be gearing up to play that this summer.

I spent the last couple nights inventorying my Eldar army, typing it up, and tallying the points:
- over 300 Eldar models
- over 8,000 points Craftworld Eldar
- over 1,000 points Harlequins
- plus minimum Dark Eldar Allies


Eldar inventory

Eldrad Ulthuan
Asurmen
Jain Zar
Karandras
Fuegan
Baharroth
Maugan Ra

1 Avatar

2 Farseers
6 Warlocks

34 Guardians w/ 2 AGPs

2 War Walkers

2 Falcons
1 Fire Prism
+3 grav-tank hulls (unbuilt)

Aspect Warriors
22 + 4 Dire Avengers
20 + 4 Howling Banshees
30 + 4 Striking Scorpions
16 + 4 Fire Dragons
11 + 4 Swooping Hawks
11 + 2 Warp Spiders
13 + 4 Dark Reapers

Ghost Warriors
13 Wraithguard
6 Wraithlords
1 Wraithknight

Outcasts
24 Rangers
10 Ranger Pathfinders

Harlequins
1 Great Harlequin
2 Solitaires
1 Shadowseer
2 Death Jesters
21 Harlequins

Dark Kin
1 Archon
10 Warriors

And after all this, still want a few more 2E metal Eldar (3 Warp Spiders, 2 Wraithguard & D-cannon) to fill out the various unit options I might want to field under the current Codex. Also, I should get some Jetbikes, now that they look good, along with a Vyper.

On the other hand, I probably don't actually "need" all of my Banshees and Scorpions - I can't see fielding that many units in the immediate future,

Over the Memorial Day weekend, I did a fair amount of work on the Shadowsword, prepping the roof plate mount/spacers, and reworking the entire "nose" of the tank to use the nicer, sculpted bits.



I roughed out an articulated gimbal cannon mount, but was unsatisfied with the bulk, so referred back to actual SPG cannon mounts for inspiration. This part is actually somewhat complex if I am to have realistic gun traverse and elevation vs. the static gun mounts that GW uses across their vehicles. I can scratchbuild something here that will look good.

I bought styrene tubing for the barrel, settling on 5/16" diameter, so it would be larger than the 1/4" diameter barrels of my Leman Russes. This is a compromise between realistic diameters and oversize GW diameters, wanting something that looks like a traditional long barrel high velocity cannon.

I still need to address the main glacis plate, to accomodate the Cannon, Gunner and Driver, so there has been some thought into what the whole thing should look like, including mantlet and so forth. Plus Commander, Loader and RTO. I'm glad I went with a much larger enclosed interior - they're going to need it!

As I mentioned elsewhere, I switched focus from old IG to new Eldar, and started building my Wraithknight:



I've got the hard stuff done, with the legs and torso squared away, pennies in the base, and both Heavy Wraithcannon for casual, friendly games.

OK, I'm actually gearing up for an "Apocalypse" game wherein S(D) toys are expected.

I still have issues with the T-rex arms, but I don't see myself resculpting them from scratch. I have a few more minor conversions in mind before I finalize him, specifically with the secondary armor plates being reshaped somewhat.

While it's not a bad kit, technically, the kit clearly isn't as good as a MG Gundam or 28mm Dreamforge Leviathan. There are serious joint clearance and capture issues that suggest the kit just wasn't designed properly to support full articulation and posing.

It is nice that the kit exists, I give GW credit for that!

Wraithknight is now playable!



I converted the torso and codpiece, along with rearranging the rear vanes.

The knees, feet & ankles were posed into something more dynamic.

I reversed the knee guards to look better.

I gotta say, this model did NOT want to be converted, unlike my IG armor, which practically begged to be reworked.

I brought 2k of Eldar to the Big Game: Guardian Host, Aspect Host (Spiders & Reapers), and Wraith Host (Wraithguard).

The Wraithknight got to shoot, fight and Stomp! doing all of the things he was supposed to do, killing lots of enemy models.

Thing is, fielding him out there with my mixed color units and such, I wasn't feeling the unified Eldar army theme that I wanted. I kind of want to strip and repaint everything into a single unified color - pearl white armor across the board, with purple/yellow accents and amber/amethyst gems.

With Age of Sigmar releasing this week, I broke my Dogs of War out of storage and got in a game. I think AoS played nicely, and move to pure casual play has spurred me to start building and playing Fanasy again.

Classic and converted Dogs of War

playable
- General
- Paymistress
- 3 Wizards
- Asarnil the Dragonlord (on Forest Dragon; unpainted)

- 6+ Vespero's Vendetta
- 24 Ricco's Republican Guard (partly-painted)
- 10+ Braganza's Besiegers
- 12 Marksmen of Miragliano
- 10 crossbowmen

- Mengil Manhide's Manflayers
- Lumpin Croop's Fighting Cocks (all Classic Chaos Familiars!)
- 2 ogres (unpainted)

- 2 light cannons (unpainted)
- Giants of Albion (converted Keepers of Secrets)

It's a good-sized force on its own.

unbuilt
- Borgio the Besieger
- 20 Leopold's Leopard Company

I'll be playing AOS this evening, and if I like it, I'll probably go forward with adding other items of curiousity, such as:
- not-Birdmen of Catrazza
- not-Beorg Bearstruck and his Bearmen
- not-hot-pot catapult
etc.


Servants of Malal!

In the future, I think I'd like to theme the army as Servants of Malal, with a new take on some classic Characters:
- Kaleb Daark, in Chaos Plate with Daemon Axe
- Heinrich Bors, Chaos Wizard
- Skrag, Ogre Maneater in Heavy Armor

As things move along, I'll probably want to convert a Greater Daemon of Malal

http://realmofchaos80s.blogspot.co.uk/2013/01/the-malignancy-of-malal-solving-mystery.html

And maybe a throwback Regiments of Renown
- Flying Gargoyles of Barda using DE Harpies

2015 Dogs of War - Work in Progress

I traded some Empire for some DoW Pikemen (Leopold's Leopard Company), so getting those assembled and basecoated, along with the rest of my old DoW is the next thing on my plate of things to do.

I guess your work on this is pretty old now but, how did you make the scratchbuild Hydra? I really like the quad cannons and I'd like to make something like a Pantsir for my Russian-style force. Any tips?

 RazgrizOne wrote:
I guess your work on this is pretty old now but, how did you made the scratchbuild Hydra? I really like the quad cannons and I'd like to make something like a Pantsir for my Russian-style force. Any tips?

Yeah, those tanks were built several years ago, and the Hydra is probably the most complex of my scatchbuild models, based on what I remembered of the Flakpanzer Gepard from the early 60s.

Major assemblies were:

- Chimera hull, with scratchbuilt upper deck. The turret ring and base are from a Leman Russ. This part is relatively easy, as it's rectangular styrene card.

- twin-linked guns, using Defiler Autocannon bitz. I'd have used IG HWT Autocannon bitz instead, and a larger "box" at the base.

- main turret with bitz, using a Defiler torso knob as the tracking radar. This is tricky, as the body is from me carving up a "classic" Leman Russ turret and using that as the basis. There's a styrene rod that goes through to the guns, allowing vertical pivot in addition to the rotation to the sides.

I'm loving the guard conversions. Shame the codex isn't that good.

Thanks, glad you like them. And yeah, IG have definitely had their share of ups and downs.

They certainly have. I'm still sitting on a small mountain of guardsmen that i can't bring myself to paint. Maybe someday..

Yeah, those tanks were built several years ago, and the Hydra is probably the most complex of my scatchbuild models, based on what I remembered of the Flakpanzer Gepard from the early 60s.

Major assemblies were:

- Chimera hull, with scratchbuilt upper deck. The turret ring and base are from a Leman Russ. This part is relatively easy, as it's rectangular styrene card.

- twin-linked guns, using Defiler Autocannon bitz. I'd have used IG HWT Autocannon bitz instead, and a larger "box" at the base.

- main turret with bitz, using a Defiler torso knob as the tracking radar. This is tricky, as the body is from me carving up a "classic" Leman Russ turret and using that as the basis. There's a styrene rod that goes through to the guns, allowing vertical pivot in addition to the rotation to the sides.

Thanks for your answer. I'll consider this when I'll finish my current projects. Congratulations again for your tanks, they come up very well.