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So, i couldn't wait any longer and had to start out a bit of painting - just so I'd know what the army would look like. I completed the first model today! These are regular line infantry, Penal Legion guys.

First, undercoated a squad with Humbrol Dark Brown (which wasn't really as dark as I'd hoped)


Then, painted the basic flat colors on with Boltgun Metal, Chaos Black and Macharius Solar Orange


Then, dipped it in ArmyPainter Dark Tone and waited a day for it to dry.


Finally, highlighted with Macharius Solar Orange/Blazing Orange and Chainmail and painted the base to match my grey table



Obviously, it's still really shiny - i need to Matt Varnish him once some more models are done, and the bse edges need going over with grey again, but all in all I think he turned out nice - I was actually going for a darker brown scheme, but couldn't find a darker brown spray, and now he's done I don't mind the lighter shade - my other armies tend to be quite dark anyway.

The only thing I'm not sure about is the detailing on the brown bodyglove. I'd intended it to be a single piece uniform, all the same color, but do you think it looks a bit samey? Thing is, I'd rather not do something silly like painting the codpiece orange, or just having an orange belt. Maybe some white legstraps/belt? On the other hand, I'd rather not get bogged down in too much detail for the regular grunts...

Opinions?

Maybe give them the orange as a secondary colour or something like that, but I honestly think they're really good as is.

yeah,
I think he looks ok as is.
You could try maybe paint a test model with the belt+CodPiece+Buckle+AssPlate orange to see how it looks?

PAnic...

Fantasic. Well, on the strength of that, I've just finished and dipped the other 9 guys. Should have a first finished squad tomorrow!

I'm really digging this guy's paint job so far. He looks promising, and hopefully he'll be much better after a dullcoat plus a base rim touch-up. I can't wait to see his other friends!

I was slightly suprised by the fact that you went for Dark Tone rather than Strong Tone. I suppose that it'd make the orange quite dark, but you'd have to use it for the other colours... Which pretty much answers my thoughts. What the heck, I'll leave it in my post anyway!

Awesome Penal Legion. I think your lascarbines are fine the way they are, and I love the guy with the outstretched arm, aiming. I like the special weapons, I wouldn't worry about the same pose personally. The auto-cannon rules - are you going to mount it on a 60mm and add another model for helper? As far as the mounted commissars go, if you want to use them as commissars just throw them into the squads anyways! It's the same base size, and the rules say you shouldn't be penalized for impressive models (long head and tail). Put the RR on RR bases and make their whole models fair game, or just bust out the mounted commies when the RR aren't on there. Even just a Lord Commissar on a Space Lizard would be wicked.


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Oh ya the paint job - it looks great. I wouldn't add any other colours, the brown and orange are perfect, but why not pick out the detail on the jumpsuit a bit? It's a little hard to tell from the photo, but it looks like the areas around the neck, the abs, above the knee, back of the thighs and calves, and maybe elbows and hands (everywhere the guy would need flexibility) could be given a wash, or the other areas given a drybrush or both. Don't change the colour, just play with the light/shadow of it. A closeup may help, it could already look like that. Making the beltbuckle metallic would break up the sameness of the suit as well (like on the back where you painted the one panel metallic).

Ok so finished the first squad today.





There's a real difference between the regular troopers and the Custodian. The Custodian is a metal model, and i think the dipping works much better on his more 'natural' looking bodysuit. Also, the fact that he has large holsters/knives on his leg straps really helps break up the sea of brown and, I think, makes the color scheme work a bit better.

I'm happy with this squad, but before I do the next plastics I might bulk out their legs with extra holsters and sheaths, just so I can get a bit of orange around the bottom of the model..

EDIT - having said that, all my metal models are going to be used for veteran squads or sergeants. Maybe that's one of the things that can differentiate them - that the veterans have more pouches and holsters...?

These look great painted the extra gear on the veterans and sergeants make sense to me and the orange bits will make the veterans easier to pick out!

Great to see them painted, they look boss

Brilliant work! I also like the fact that you don't have that much control over the effects of dipping your models. It's more like a "yeah, that's as good as it gets," kind of thing. Don't get me wrong, though - I do like 'em allot!

Have they yet to be dullcoated? I'm guessing that they have been, but I'm not too sure from looking at the photos. Extra pouches etc would be a nice addition, but I agree with Llamahead on this one - Leave it for the veterans/squad leaders. You don't want to make the guys that you have already painted look too different to the ones that you are going to paint.

Keep it up!

Cosmic wrote: Have they yet to be dullcoated?

Nope, these are just as-is - I'm guessing they look slightly less shiny because the photos were taken in daylight rather than under a bulb this time. Either eay, they will be getting a coat of Matt Varnish once I've got a few more squads complete!

Thanks for the encouraging comments everyone!

Nice, liking the scheme.

yeah,
The army will look awesome once you have squad after squad of this colour scheme...

Maybe you could concider a alternitive scheme for the vet squads? Green Shoulder Pads? although that might give the army a halloweenish vibe...
Or inverting the scheme orange suits with olive pads...

Panic...

They look great as is to me, I also agree with Llamahead about the Vets./sergants.

Ok, so I'm off on tour for two weeks, but with four days off in various cities. I thought I'd take the army on the road and get some of the more laborious painting done while I'm away. I can't fit much, so the plan is to take all the currently assembled 'regular' guys and get the base colors done. When i get back i only have to dip them and do highlights and basing. So today I've been undercoating....



I'll be taking with me...

4 Penal Legion Squads
2 Veteran Squads (with all options except Heavy Weapons)
4 Sentinel Pilots
1 CCS with Meltaguns

This means that I'll only have the interesting stuff to paint once I get back - all the regular troops will be done!

Here's the CCS with Meltaguns, including the first Commander conversion (with the crest). I took a bit of the advice on Meltaguns and gave a bit more movement to the last two guys I made...






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Ah, and before I forget, I tried a bit of a basing experiment and painted one of the bases with the darker Adeptus Battlegrey instead of Codex Grey. The idea was to bring out the paleness of the ballast and give more of a 'bottom edge' to the model.

What do we think? Darker or lighter?

I like darker.

Awesome work. Absolutely brilliant. I did have a suggestion for you though. Earlier you said you'd like Commissars but in the new rules they're strangely limited (Why the hell can't a vet squad or a penal squad have them? Personally I think a Penal squad should HAVE to be led by a Commissar) so I have a suggestion for an alternative. Since you're making a penal army I am sure you are familiar with Adeptus Arbities http://wh40k.lexicanum.com/wiki/Adeptus_Arbites . Why not, instead of Commissars, just make your sergeants and Custodians into Arbities, basically funneling the drug laced convicts into battle? Since Arbities are more than likely as varied as Imperial Guard themselves (I assume anyway) you could really just model them any way you wish really and just make them look authoritarian and paint them as officers of the law. I figure that would fix the idea of trying to use Commissars and give you a unique look and feel to your leaders.

Anyway, that's just my suggestion.

I second that idea.

Rook wrote:Since you're making a penal army I am sure you are familiar with Adeptus Arbities http://wh40k.lexicanum.com/wiki/Adeptus_Arbites . Why not, instead of Commissars, just make your sergeants and Custodians into Arbities, basically funneling the drug laced convicts into battle?

Why thanks, but you see I already have THIS....

http://www.dakkadakka.com/wiki/en/Ian%27s_Arbites_Army

I'm not sure about painting up even MORE Arbites! But maybe there's a possibilty to include squads as Stormtroopers units. Or even do a game with half and half, or an Apocalypse game with both armies....

ArbitorIan wrote:

Rook wrote:Since you're making a penal army I am sure you are familiar with Adeptus Arbities http://wh40k.lexicanum.com/wiki/Adeptus_Arbites . Why not, instead of Commissars, just make your sergeants and Custodians into Arbities, basically funneling the drug laced convicts into battle?

Why thanks, but you see I already have THIS....

http://www.dakkadakka.com/wiki/en/Ian%27s_Arbites_Army

I'm not sure about painting up even MORE Arbites! But maybe there's a possibilty to include squads as Stormtroopers units. Or even do a game with half and half, or an Apocalypse game with both armies....

That... is totally badass. I have always wanted to see a full Arbities army I would say, since you got them, just stick a few in with you army and combine their fluff? Eh probably not but that is absolutely cool and seeing both a penal/slave army and an Arbities army played in conjunction in apocalypse would be very nice. If that ever happens you should post pictures I would suggest, if you use some of them as Storm Troopers, throw in some Valkyries and have them be like helicopters dropping from the sky. I have always thought that would be cool.

Ok, first update from the tour - my first day off resulted in a game at the local GW, and an evening painting spree - here's ten undercoated models all ready for dipping when I get back, including some of the veterans. I'm gonna try and get another ten done by the end of the evening!

Looking very nice. Coming in way late on this but I think the basic troops would have looked fine with no backpacks. More fitting for assault style troops in my opinion.

Disagree with Tyyr. The backpacks give a good "campaign" feel. Also, penal legions are notorious looters, probably even after extensive hypno-conditioning. They've gotta have somewhere to shove all that loot!

Nice use of old i-kore goodies. I'm using a load of viridian stuff in my IG force, so it's interesting to see what others are doing. Keep it up matey!

Like the Mohawk/plume. Not sure if it ties in well though.

At least he stands out.

Looks cool. I like the pinky.

Ok, so, a mate just gave me 20 junker legionnaires on sprue - looks like a penal legion to me!

inmygravenimage wrote:Ok, so, a mate just gave me 20 junker legionnaires on sprue - looks like a penal legion to me!

Fantastic! Every guard army needs a couple of squads of crazy legionnaires...

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SECOND PART STARTS HERE

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SO it looks like I've got a bit sidetracked there. I went away again in Feb and spent the time updating and finishing my Daemon army ( http://www.dakkadakka.com/wiki/en/Ian%27s_Slaaneshi_Daemons ) instead. But it's ok, I've found a new motivating force. I'll be attending the Platinum Devil tournament in Canterbury in April ( http://www.dakkadakka.com/dakkaforum/posts/list/275792.page ) which is a small 1000pt event. I'm going to try and finish 1000pts before then. I have six weeks.

* Company Command Squad (4 Meltaguns, Officer with Powerweapon, Astropath) in a Salamander (counts as Chimera with Multilaser, Heavy Bolter)
* 10 x Psyker Battle Squad (9 Psykers and Overseer) in a Salamander (counts as Chimera with Multilaser, Heavy Bolter)
* Penal Legion Squad
* Penal Legion Squad
* Penal Legion Squad
* Penal Legion Squad
* 5 x Rough Riders (4 Lances, 1 Meltagun)
* Hellhound
* Hellhound

There's options to have the other Hellhound variants, depending on what I think will be best overall (or if the tourney looks to be heavily mech or something). Of these, a lot of time will have to be spent on the tanks, so the only squad I'd be worried about completing in time would be the PBS. If I don't finish them, I'll replace this squad with a Veteran Squad (very quick to paint), and redistribute meltas across them and the CCS.

Sounds cool. Can't wait to see the Meltaguns don't the Methalor Penal Legions in the Macharian Campaign have a special rule which makes them fearless in LOS of a Hellhound as they know if they run away it'll be used on them. (It's a Bell of Lost Souls campaign set thing)