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.

Huh. Looks like a cool army so far. Kudos for trying something new and making it look good.
The heavy weapons teams are my favorite especially the missle. Well done.

awesome

Lol this army is really coollooking

Interesting idea cheers Cajun Man550


Automatically Appended Next Post:
Oh Brilliant -sorry hadn't realised I'd got to 3 pages
Thanks Nate TG2 The Heavy Weapons were great fun especially adding the cityfighting scenery to them. I'm glad you think I'm pulling this of!
Cheers Scrazza
and your very welcome Hans_posthumus

This weeks new model needs some explaining. He's a Shaman of the New Faith called Kanye. The model is a Copplestone Castings Ngoni Witchdoctor with a Bolt Pistol and a The Assault Group Maquahitl for his power weapon. He'll count as a Commissar for my Assault Squad. The New Faith is the Orthodox Imperial Cult with a particular reverence for Roboute Gulliman that the Ulttramarines introduced upon the rediscovery of Islandlwanda. The Old Faith still venerates the Emperor but is a far darker faith involving sacrifices and psykers..........The Maquahitl is not a Power Weapon per-se its actually a club made with the teeth of a Sail-Croc one of the largest, most dangerous and highly poisonous creatures of Islandlwanda. It kills using its venom and to those who haven't built up their immunity by taking the antidote a merest scratch is swiftly fatal. Hopefully he'll be nice and easy to pick out from the rest of the platoon. How'd he look?

I like this, it is an excellent idea. Always good to see a new take on the guard instead of the usual. I am actually trying to convert some of the Wargames Factory Brits myself.

I also going to be trying to convert some of the plastic Ancient Celts or Germans as Kaledon Hunters for my Guard army.

Good luck mate and I look forward to seeing them up on Dakka-Dakka. The most problems I've had doing this have been sourcing Lasguns and 60mm bases! Its really been utterly straight forward.......

Unfortunately I'm still waiting for the 60mm bases to turn up at my FLGS other than that things are going relatively well with Lt Ezana's Command Section finished. Except for the Commissar which I haven't yet sourced. I'll probably look for several on E Bay. The Squad includes a Lt with a Power Fist, a Meltagun and 3 LP & CCW guys this is to provide a break during painting the Lasgun models and also to provide a reasonable assault unit for my army. I figured combatant leaders made far more sense for the theme. I apologise for the poor quality of the picture and will try and take some better ones eventually!

Nice melta conversion. Still loving your urban bases!

If you look at my Asphodel blog and stop it from dying again I'll love you forever.

Cheers Owain will do its always nice to chat!

I've got a fairly beefy update for you this week. While unfortunately my FLGS is still having problems with the distributor getting them the 60mm bases I need I have finished the Missile Launcher team which means the first Tactical Squad is finished!




Heres the first completed squad



Automatically Appended Next Post:
Oh and of course the Sci-Fi Greatcoats are coming along nicely!

Those are great. If we were in the same area, they could ally with my upcoming African tribal based Space Marines. Here's the link to my 1st conversion for them.
http://www.dakkadakka.com/dakkaforum/posts/list/263752.page

I'd really recommend following the link the GS work on his Space Marine commander is utterly awesome. Thanks a lot for the offer of allegiance- When your facing the enemies of Mankind wearing only a loincloth you need all the help you can get!

Ok apologies for the lack of photographs this week I've finished the Assault Squad this week but I've decided to crack on and get them undercoated rather than photograph them (taking advantage of the weather today and the fact I've got a day off!). Currently I'm considering whether to go ahead and buy the tanks for this army or to wait and strip my old ones.... I'm also still waiting for Gale Force 9 to ship my bases to my FLGS........

Yet again no update paintings going slowly and I've got no more finished squads for you to look at. Currently I'm working on a Special Weapons Squad with Ladysmith pattern Meltaguns and I've decided to order the bases directly from GF9 apparently they should be there by Friday when I get to find out if I still have work or not. If I do the armies getting vehicles if I don't I finish acquiring the Infantry and I start making a lot more progress!

Well I still have work so I may as well think about the vehicles (Incidentally work was utterly awesome this week, I'm an Archaeologist and in one of the other areas an Iron Age square barrow turned up, containing a central burial with a spear and sword. Amazingly enough the sword is a type I have a model of from the Wargames Factory chariots I got for my Beastmen. Personally I'm working on what was probably a spring and a loci for Late Neolithic Early Bronze Age activity). Unfortunately I seem to have some sort of block about ordering online and managed to screw up the payment so the bases will probably arrive next week at the earliest. C'est La Vie. At the moment the Lascannons getting painted and the Special Weapons team is being assembled, but not much else is happening.

Love it
especially the power fist (i assumed thats what it was)

Its funny how the American guy does the Zulu theme, yet me (who actually lives in South Africa) has never seen anything similar in 17 years locally.

I'm actually English (Yeah been regularly posting for over a year but still haven't got round to changing the flag, ah well) Your right it is a Power Fist just a Space Marine hand but the proportions look right! The theme itself was mainly based around the availability of historical multi-part plastics they've been coming out in spades and I decided to make use of it. It's the only way to make an army of this size look this effective. I also decided the theme to look totally different and having something other than white anglo-europeans in the future. I'm guessing as Wargames Factory, Perry Twins and Warlord Games plastics become more widely available we'll see far more of this type of stuff. An American Civil War or English Civil War Guard army would also be cool!

OK this'll be something more in depth than usual from me. Today i'll give you a basic tutorial on how to convert a Ladysmith Pattern Meltagun. ThisTutorial produces a good looking Meltagun for about 50p.

You'll need the following components;
A Soviet PTRD Anti-Tank Rifle (The Assault Group code WEA282)http://www.theassaultgroup.co.uk/store/product.php?productid=447&cat=34&page=1" target="_new" rel="nofollow"> http://www.theassaultgroup.co.uk/store/product.php?productid=447&cat=34&page=1
2.5mm Round Styrene Rod
3.2 mm Hexagonal Styrene Rod.
Super Glue
Needle File
Craft Knife
Pin Drill

To start with you have a basic PTRD. I selected it because of its bizarre shape and feel. Heres what the original gun looks like;

To make it look like a Meltagun I thought about what I felt were the key components of a normal Meltagun these were a Fuel Tank and the elongated round muzzle.

However to start with I shortened the muzzle and removed a weird sticky out bit at the back which I believe is a mould line.

I began with the fuel tank. I cut a short section of the Hexagonal tube and measured the length by eye, cut a length to fit. It go's between the weird bit between the trigger and the thing dangling from the barrel. (As you may have guessed I'm not an expert on technical terms for Soviet Anti-Tank Rifles!) I made sure I overcut slightly becuse its easier to file it down than to try and get it precisely right first time. I then glued it in with Super Glue.

To create the muzzle I first of all took the Round Rod and drilled two small holes into one end within a 5mm length. I then cut off the 5mm length. Doing it this way round makes it fire easier to hold and drill the holes.

I then glued it to the end of the barrel.

This is the finished gun.

After a bit of modelling this was the current final result

If your interested in more about the PTRD click here. Looking at some pictures of people actually using the gun made it far easier to grasp what went were and how they were carried.

OK good news the bases are here so I can finally go ahead with the heavy weapons. Gale Force 9's service was great and their shipping was swift. The problems I had was with the distributor not them.
I've had an idea that I can use some of my large store of Confrontation miniatures for an Inquisitorial warband for the army as well. I'll do more on that later on.
Unfortunately however I've decided to enter for Warhammer at the Nationals with the new Beastmen so they'll be getting far more of my hobby time for the foreseeable future however i'll continue adding bits and bobs to this project as well. I find having several projects on the go at once might delay completion on them all but means I enjoy it more!

After finally getting the bases my work asks me to work weekends and being a 100 miles away from my models means that any modelling will take a while! So don't expect any real updates till the New Year!

Heres the meat of the update my newly finished Lascannon Team. I should be adding a lot more Heavy weapons fairly soon however unfortunately most of my painting time must go on the Beastmen for the Nationals in April.



One bright side is with all the overtime at work I've been able to add 90 more Zulus to the force! Equally that only cost £45 compared to £108 for Cadians or Catachans.......
Another advantage has been I've able to spend a lot of time thinking on and planning this project. Eventually this will lead to an Imperial Battle Group the Liberators of Ladysmith Sector 7G who will almost certainly eventually consist of several regiments as well as the Zulus I'm planning a British Napoleonic Force with a Scots Guard Air Cavalry force. I will also probably add some Skitarii and local PDF levy. Some stripped down Earthshakers suitable for manhandling over mountains will also have to be considered.....One element I have decided on however is to convert a Knight Commander Oddball based on Kelly's Heroes from an old tank commander model I have at my parents. I'll also be hunting up a lot of my old guard models for this army.......

OK this is a quick question. I've been seriously considering getting some of the Old Crow vehicles to count as IG vehicles being able to get 2 or 3 times the number of tanks for my money appeals. Do you reckon they'd fit with the Infantry? They're more Sci-Fi than the GW vehicles byt they scale well and I like how they look I'm just not absolutely convinced of them for this project......Any Opinions?

I've noticed that your painting's improved HUGELY since you started. Well done. As for vehicles, I think Old Crow is WAY too clean-looking for this army. I'd give Ramshackle Games a try.

Thanks a lot Owain. Ramshackle Games aren't militarised enough. I've always seen the Islandlwanda as a disciplined competent military force with a skilled grasp of tactics. The Old Crow models mainly seem to be far superior to GW in terms of value and I actually like them more. Although I can understand your point. To be honest I see these as less of an African 20th century militia as more of the 19th century organised feudal army. This means that vehicles and equipment should look less ragtag than the current stuff.
Whats improved not my paintings so much as my colour choice and my knowledge of how I should go about it. As you go through a project and practice a technique you get better. The first few practice models for a colour scheme are always the worst! I also made a rooky error and tried to shade with a lighter colour.....All of the difference has been made by gnoring the eyes and getting theshading right!

OK this'll be a far better update than most. I was at my parents for Christmas and picked up a few old models to reuse in this army. This Commissar is my favourite paint job and model from when I painted it 7 years ago.......It still holds up and the conversion with a Attilan Rough Riders Arm and a SM Plasma Pistol looks good. The pinky reddish burn on his face is from his Plasma Pistol overheating. I'm planning to just rebase and add him to the force. If you think my paintings improved since I started this force you should see the rest of what I've picked up!

Their will also be Stormtroopers, Ogryns and Ratlings as well as another 2 Commissars
As well as this I've got images of my assembled Special Weapons Squad with their Ladysmith Pattern Meltaguns.


I've also finally got to make some use of my Gale Force 9 60mm bases! The 2 missile launchers for the tactical squad are completed as well as the 2nd Lascannon for the Heavy Weapons Squad. In fact I'm only 5 models from finishing assembling the first 58 man platoon.
Here are the Missile Launchers


This Lascannon Team is mean't to be in the act of reattaching the main power coupling to the Cannon.

While I was at home I picked up this guy. He's the Cadian Griffon Mortar Spotter and based up he'll make a great Master of Ordnance unfortunately I've already got one. I'm considering painting 1 of these 2 up as a Master of the Fleet although I was planning to use a Early 20th century airman model for this instead.

I just keep picturing a bunch of them wandering to an abandoned armory and pressing buttons, turning handles, just blowing stuff up, then raiding the village next to theirs.

That would be true if they were Orcs not a disciplined Regiment of his Imperial Majesties Servants.........

This isn't really an Islandlwandan update this is more about the associated scenery of Ladysmith Forge World and Sector 7G. The plan is to build models for several locations including Rourkes Drip Water Extraction Facility, a Mine, a Manufactoria, a Container Yard and a Hab Zone. I'm currently off work at the moment so I've spent a lot of time mooching around the internet looking for cardstock templates to make terrain from. Heres the first example.

This is the Free Watchtower Sample from Finger and Toe models http://www.rpgnow.com/product_info.php?products_id=28531&it=1. I quite like the look of these sets and might eventually get some however I'll wait until I've exhausted the interesting free projects first! It's simple and easy and does make the follow on packs look tempting. Has anybody downloaded any of these or other similiar products if so I'd like to know?
I've also found this website. The Chickenhawk in particular looks tempting!
http://www.toposolitario.es/workshop/index.html
To be honest I'm thinking the Container Yard is a good place to start as I've got about 30 or so Container Designs downloaded already!