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.

Hi everyone,

I wanted to give you a snapshot of my current project, a Russian/Ukrainian/Eastern Generic-themed Imperial Guard force. I want to gather some opinions and, of course, some advice on how I could improve. I have just re-started the Hobby after a 10-years break, so don't be too cruel on my paintjob =) !

When I got the idea of coming back to 40k, I wanted to do it with IG. I first chose to go for a WWII US 101st AIrborne but I soon realized it was not really satisfying. Then, I made even more hours of Dakka exploration and I finally came up with this : modern Russian troops with XXI century wargear and uniforms. The theme was utterly absent in the community and I feel it was a shame since Russian special forces are without discussion badass - whether we like them or not we have to admit it, but I'm not here to fanboy Putin politics, which I don't support - and could provide good inspiration for 40k

Enough speaking, here are the minis (with bad basing, I admit it):

My guys are coming from Rhayé, a distant planet located in the Northeastern fringe of the Galaxy, Segmentum Ultima, near the Ghoul Stars. In this dangerous region, they were isolated from the wider Imperium for a long time and then, had to become the hardest in town to resist both xenos and heretics. They were rediscovered, in early M.36, while the Sebastian Thor's supporters were looking for warriors to oust Goge Vandire. Since then, Rhayé has drawn many of its R.S.D (Rhayeski Sturmoviki Divisii, in a M41-bastardized slavic language) to defend the Imperium.



Above, my CCS, with an Officer of the Fleet. I wanted my guys to look realistic so I did not kit them with big standards and weird gothic stuff like chainswords. Just like any other R.S.D infantry man, they have homemade-MOLE vests and balaclavas. These are among the first I painted after my long break. This was also the first time I tried greenstuff. Only some of them have grass on their bases because when I started 40K again, my basing stuff was at my parents'. Whatever.



These Rhayians are the normal infantry. They have the standard-issue vest, a round helmet (I just filed the normal cadian tri-dome helmet) and an Ak-style lasgun, made with a boltgun magasine and a little reversal on the weapon barrel. I added some accessories on each lasgun to give a Speco/modern effect. No complicated work here but satisfying effect ^^. For example, the soldier in the middle, first pic, was made with a chainsword left-arm to figure a tactical grip.




You can see above my Assault Vets. They are kitted with heavy anti-balistic visors and RPG lauchers (bought from Russian Modern/The Assault Group) and are tasked with destroying the most heavily armoured targets. They have also AK-74-like lascarbines made with a simple removal of 1/3 of the Kantrael lasgun.



These are my first three Scions, called unsurprisingly Spetsnaz. I made a headswap with resin Tactical Troopers sprue by Puppetswar and deleted some Gothic-Renaissance details from the vanilla minis.


My two Commissars, bought from Brother Vinni.ru. Cheap and really good-looking. I added GW weapons from the CCS box.


And to finish, my Storm Chimera, kitted with a coaxial boltgun. I found inspiration in Sukhoï Su'35/S geometrical camo, and painted this one for forest operations. The vehicule is identified as being part of the 22nd Rhaye Sturmoviki Divisia, called "Vympel".

That's all for the moment, some Leman Russ, artillery and Inquisition guys are coming soon !
Feel free to give your opinion and, of course, your criticism

Yeah, I see =/

I don't understand why. Tha's my first post so I must have made a mistake in copy-paste from gallery. Any advice how to fix?

Yes, sir!

Do you have any idea why the pictures are not displayed?

Done! Thanks for the advice =)

Love the lasgun conversions and camo on them. Also really like the greenstuff armor you've done on them. They came out very well.

Thanks =)!

I've found the idea somewhere on Dakka and then, I try many bits to make the attachements.

Excellent work bro. By far, one of my favorite Cadian conversions.

Thank you bro !

Thanks guys ! The visors were bought on TheAssaultGroup, just like I said before. They have a whole range of accessories for US, Russian, British and German WWI, WWII and Modern troopers which goes really nicely with Guardsmen!

These MVD visors were like 5£ for 10, which is fair IMO. =)

Here is a second batch of R.S.D Infantry, a mix of Vets and Spetsnaz.




From left to right, a Vet with melta, a Vet with lasgun & rifle scope, a Spetsnaz with melta and a Vet with melta bomb (coming from SM TAC Squad).

The Vets are part of my army, the 506th Mechanized Regiment of the 22nd Rhayeski Sturmoviki Divisia (you can see the emblem of the Division on his left shoulder pad, a white bat upon a blue/silver circle). The Spetsnaz, which are under Rhayian command just like former IG stormtroopers, belong to the 10th Regiment, attached to the 22nd R.S.D for the duration of the campaign Rhayé is currently waging against Eldars.

I'm currently building a squad of spetsnaz to add to my IG; using baklava heads, cadian parts. check out these heads from mad robot:

Yes these balaclavas are great! I thought about buying some for my standard infantry and Spets but after all, I wanted a fully equipped infantry with helmets, just to improve realism. I will surely buy some to convert my future Ratlings, which will be normal humans.

But I'm hesitating between Mad Robot and Pig Iron. Their sprues both look good.

http://www.pig-iron-productions.com/hd26-masked-heads-p-91.html

Here are more detailled pics of my first finished Spetsnaz squad. I added freehand Imperial Eagles on the right shoulder pads. It is clearly marking their allegiance to the Imperium but it is also stylized to look like a Russian tsarist Imperial Eagle. It makes the soldiers closer to my theme.

Hope you'll share some pics of your Spetsnaz!

Hi Dakka !

I'm updating my Russian IG showcase :

First of all, here is my warlord, Colonel [Insert slavic name], commander of the 506th Mechanised, 22nd R.S.D. He was made with Scions, IG CCS and Maxmini parts, and I greenstuffed his balaclava. I wanted a soldier with strong Russian reference, that's why he has no helmet, despite I usually don't follow the 40k rule "the more your guy is important, the more his head is exposed" =)






Also, he has both a power fist and a boltgun because it's awesome.

In the next pics, you can see more of my Spetsnaz, with the tempestor prime wearing a skyblue beret (still a reference to real russian elite units). I gave him a hot-shot lasgun, as he is supposed to fight just like any of his men.





Hope you'll like it ! I'm doing my best with the paintjob =)

Thanks mate ! Don't hesitate to ask about my conversions, I'll be glad to share what I've done =)

Some update for my R.S.D. This time, I'm displaying my recently finished regimental command squad.



These guys are the brain of the 506th Mechanized Regiment of the 22nd Divisiia. They are kitted with Doushka Pattern Plasmacarbines, weapons that were issued in the late centuries of the Siege of Rhaye by Chaos Forces in the late 34th, when the planet was isolated from the wider Imperium and forced to rely on its own engineering capabilities. At some point during this many millenia-spawning battle, Rhayian lives were counted; plasma gun revealed itself too dangerous and was responsible of too much attrition among rhayian troops while being increasingly hard to maintain without external support. For these reasons, remaining techpriests were more or less forced by military command to overcome their religious reluctances and create a lighter but safer weapon that could still punch through Traitor Marine armour. Thus, the Doushka Pattern Plasmacarbine was born, made with the unconventional alliance between a lasgun frame and the plasmagun's magnetic mechanism. Plasma chamber being reduced and less powerful, the raw strength of the weapon is hugely downgraded but is still sufficient to treat most heavy infantry threat. After the end of the Siege, when Rhaye came back under Imperial Compliance, the AdMech tried to sue local commanders for this utter heresy. This effort was eventually vain, as the Ordo Xenos and the Ultima Segmentum Command were impressed by Rhayian military effectiveness and took them under their institutional protection. Since, the Doushka is produced extensively across in the Rhaye region, the Sirius Sector, but due to Admech hostile moves, the weapon never made it through the wider Segmentum.




Modelling-wise, the conversion is made by removing the front end of standard lasgun and adding a simple plasma pistol without his trigger (credits to GreenstuffIndustries blog). As Plasmapistol are common in sprues, it is easy to proxy more cheaper plasmaguns on the TT. I will also try to invent a real statline for the Doushka pattern, something like R18'' S5 AP3 Rapid Fire, in order to give more uniqueness to my army. Feedback still appreciated on this

The rest of the squad :



One vet with lasgun, MoO made with Scions, Chimera commander and CCS bits, Vet with radio-vox. Legs of the whole squads are from Maxmini, and I recognize they are way better to figure modern infantry than the dull standards Cadian ones.

Still open to criticism and suggestion of improvement !

A little update for my thread.

This time, I wanted to display my Vostokian Militiamen who serve as irregular troops alongside my R.S.D. These guys are the very scum of the Sirius sector ; they are drawn from the many penal colonies, hive cities and barbaric tribes that one can find in the neighbouring systems of Rhayé - especially Vostok, the very first world to gave the Imperial administration its men to form Militsyia regiments - and utilized by Rhayian commanders both as terror units and meatshields.





When a population has turn away from the light of the Emperor, when a planet-scale crackdown needs to be carried out, and when the R.S.D cannot handle the whole task (regarding their numbers and their elite status), they call for the Vostokian to fight with them. Vostokians are crude warriors, with habits that would scare regular guardsmen, and repressive skills that make them very useful when it comes to fight couter-insurrection wars. They are usually deployed in great numbers alongside regular R.S.D units, which are supposed to show them their targets and then monitor their operations. Vostokians must operate under the strict control of Rhayian-born officiers and Ordo Prefectus Commissars as their appetence for violence would sometims lead their action to couter-productive outcomes.

They are indeed used to loot and burn traitors' belongings when the R.S.D invade a rebel planet and then, act as merciless hounds for their Rhayian masters. Many clandestine chaos cults have been utterly annihilated thanks to Vostokian willingness to hurt people, and, without being bloodthirsty berserkers, their action are seldom contested by foreign Imperial fellow officers. The other main fonction of Vostokian regiments is to serve as attrition troops; R.S.D are too precious to be employed constantly, especially in the veiled region of the Ghoul Stars were they operate and thus, Vostokian are very often thrown by thousands in battle in order to weaken the enemy. When the target has been correctly prepared - or no Vostokians remain alive - R.S.D can immediatly strike with all their force.

While R.S.D soldiers are highly trained and provided with the best wargear available, Vostokians are equipped with less than the average stuff the Munitorum give to other Guardsmen. Even in the eyes of Rhayians, they are nothing more than expendable dogs, and that's why they don't bother with their durability in combat. Vostokians thus loot from dead soldiers - friend or foe - and their units always have moltey equipement, from standard R.S.D mole vests to machetes and improvised explosive devices. They don't wear helmets, most of them don't have flak armors and the standard Avkalaz lasgun is the best they can hope from their commanders.




Model-wise, I mixed Mad Robot Miniatures bits with standard cadian sprues in order to obtain an heterogeneous aspect in the unit. I only greenstuffed two or three mole vests and gave them no helmets, still following the light infantry look I was seeking. To reinforce their "renegade" aspect, I painted tatoos inspired from russian zeks and did two big knifes with power swords form the Scions sprues. You can click and zoom on the pictures for more details cause my photographer skills don't do them justice. Hope you'll like it !

Hey, I actually like it ! They have a very "special force" look I might took inspiration for my next guys. You use them as Scions? Vets?

I guess heads and AK guns are from Mad robot too?

Thanks guys,

yeah the whole set is from madrobot except the radio backpack, grenade bits, and basing. I ordered the costume squad; they just released a new vest torso which look very modern, I will be ordering more in the future. I have about 500 man so they're whatever I need them to be, ATM they're PDF merc scum.

PDF is a good use I think; with this thug look, I'd imagine them as being drawn from the lowest and darkest levels of your world's hive cities. Do you have a gallery, a blog or something to display more pictures of them?

Some update but for my Ordo Xenos this time.
First of, my Inquisitor-Lord of the Ordo Xenos, named Alexeï Seliovitch Makarov. He's from my IG homeworld, Rhaye, and thus took the lead of R.S.D operations in the Ghoul Stars. He's a radical and he suffers not the alien to live. I chose Coteaz mini to represent him and I did not dare to convert it; IMO, it's one the best minis of the GW range.






And to finish, my Watch Chaplain, a Grimaldus mini I found in my room. He was badly painted, from the time I was 12 or so, and I decided to make him the head of my Deathwatch Strike force until I have a Watch Captain. I'm quite happy with my work though.






Hope you'll like them ! Suggestions of improvements would be very welcomed. I'm far from beign a pro but I'm doing my utmost !

Oh, and I love that chaplain, the purple is great, I guess the Inquisitor is kinda cool but he doesn't have a purple cape.

Thanks for feedback ! Yeah I wanted my Inquisitor to look like he has his own heraldry and thus colour scheme. I'll make sure to give him a retinue which is painted like him

Deathwatch is Deathwatch so I respected the artwork from FFG and Pinterest and IMO, purple is well assorted to their black and silver armors! It gives a religious/holy looking I guess.

HI Ladies and Gents,

I'm back with some Inquisition stuff, painted months ago but never displayed in my gallery. I have made some progress since and these were painted after my long break from the Hobby.
First off, my Inquisitorial Chimera, personal property of Inquisitor-Lord Makarov. I was quite happy with my work in the first place and then, I learnt how to highlights large black surfaces, so this tanks would deserve some lifting... Still, I like it






Now, my Deathwatch Vets under Veteran Sergeant Julius Areus of the Imperial Arrows. I made him my squad leader to pay tribute to my very first army, a SM force made ten years ago. My badly painted guys were recycled to provide my first Deathwatch guys. I should thank them for this !



I also play Deathwatch because I really like to paint different shoudler pads on my guys. All of these are freehand except the Dark Angel one.





Hope you'll like them! I know it's quite an average work but I'm very enthusiastic about this army and I wanted to share it.

To finish my yesterday's post, I'll give you some Tactical Terminators and a Razorback.
These guys were collecting dust on my shelf for many years so I decided to repaint them with Deathwatch colours. I still gave particular attention to freehand work on shoulder insignias and parchments. The sarge is from the Imperial Arrows, others guys are Red Scorpions, Black Templars and Deathwing/DA. One termie is still on the shelf as I am wondering if I should give him a missile launcher. These guys are my first really serious result on black highlighting on power armour, since my previous Marines weren't highlighted enough.







And here is the Razorback. It used to be a Whirlwind but this kind of tank did not fit the Deathwatch tactics very well. So I stripped the missiles of and converted some TL LC turret with a Dreadnought weapons. Quite happy with the result. That was also the first time I used black highlighting on vehicules.





Still looking for advise on paintjob !

A small tribute to the fallen : a Krieg Commander, "Poilu" Style. I got inspiration on WWI French soldiers (blue horizon) and other French uniforms.






First DKoK mini I've ever painted. Hope you'll like him !

Thanks for good feedback ☺
The rest of the squad will come soon !

A little update. This time I'm back with RSD IG. Even though I painted these tanks a long time ago, I just decided to put them on Dakka tonight.

Leman Russ Command tank (insight : the cannon is a pen)





The Command Tank and is mate, a LR MBT. RSD are not fond of heavy armour, so I tried not to play too much Russes, which is quite easy as I only own two.


Some propaganda from Rhayé : a squad of RSD soldiers progressing under the protection of the Leman Russ of the 162th Armoured Regiment, Company I. These Vets are part of the 506th Regiment, 22nd Mechanized Division, currently deployed near the Halo Stars.

Hi everyone,

It was rainy the other day above Paris so I decided to finally make my Inquisitorial Chimera matching my Inquisitor colors. I painted the tank black and red just like my Stormtroopers but, every day since many months, I kept telling me that the personal Chimera of my Inquisitor was ridiculously different from him. I am quite happy with the result now and I wanted to share that with you.

Initial color was slightly highlighted black. i turned this into a more clearly highlighted enchanted blue. I drybrushed the tank for one hour or two and redid the red part to make their contrast deeper as well.







As always, sorry for amateur quality pictures.

Just received 9 metal Cossacks from Perry Miniatures. I had the idea to convert them to make brand new Rough Riders. I wanted to share my excitment to have these little guys and the light modifications they are currently undergoing. My goal is to "imperialize" them and add them to my RSD codex. Basically, I just had to give them grenades and IG wargear.

This Cossack has a Avka 173 Krinkov pattern Lascarbine, more suited to cavalry because of its size and weight. It has been made by shortening a lasgun, adding a boltgun magazine and the bottom of a hellgun. It will receive some greenstuff to fill the holes as soon as I'll be home.


Cossacks with laspistols.




The Ataman, leader of the squadron.


The quality of the sculpts and the scale are perfect and I'm looking forward to have them on the tabletop. I'm still wondering about their paint scheme and some help would not be too much to ask ! Camo cloaks and furs should follow the colours of my army but for their uniform, I'm hesitating. Midnight blue, brown, dark green?

Hello everybody,

Here is my first Cossack auxiliary for my R.S.D. It is a Russian Napoleonic cossack from the Perry range. I just had some grenades and pouches from IG infantry squad. Not a great conversion but still, I like the result .




I will play them as a custom unit inspired from the current Rough Rides. I still have to define the rules.
Hope you will like him !

Keeping up with my Cossack Squadron. This one has a power spear, made with green stuff and pen wire.





I also made some house rules for these men, since Rough Riders are notoriously impossible to play. Feel free to comment, I need advice on balance :

WS BS S T W I A Cd Svg (55pts)
Ataman 3 3 3 3 1 3 2 8 5+
Cossack 3 3 3 3 1 3 1 7 5+

Wargear : Flak Armour, Power Spears, laspistols, frag grenades, Don Alpha Steeds.
Special rules : Outflank, Light Cavalry.

- May add up to 5 Cossacks : +11pts/fig
- The Ataman may choose an item from the shooting weapons / melee weapons.
- The whole squadron may replace its laspistols by Krinkov Carabines (R:8-16'' S3 AP- ; R:0-8" S3 AP5) : +1pt/fig.
- 2 Cosacks who did not get any of these equipments may take a special weapon (except a flamer).
- The whole squadron may have krak grenades : +1pt/fig.

Special stuff:
Don Alpha Steeds: The model gains 1 WS2 S3 AP- I3 attack in close combat.
Light Cavalry : once per turn, if an enemy unit declares a charge on the Cossack Squadron, it may make a special move. If it is not retreating, the squadron may immediately move 2D6 in any direction. The charging unit cannot choose another target but can charge if the squadron is still at range at the end of the special move. The Cossacks may act normally during their next turn.

And I'm also working on a Griffon Tank conversion. My friends offered me a Krieg Heavy Mortar I will use to make my vehicule. I saw how this little guy can be useful on small points games so, I'll give him a try.

Thank you very much for positive feedback, people!

Those Cossacs are awesome. Doesn't the kit come with Lances?

Yep, you have a sprue of three with each blister. Cossacks come by three at Perry, so one per rider ! It's like 10 pounds for the blister.
When you unbox them, they are kind of twisted but the metal is fairly easy to work so you just have to roll them against anything flat and here you go.

All I can do is recommending Perry for any Rough Rider conversion you would want to do.

Here is another Cossack and the squadron in its current state !





Two guys left and I will finally test in battle !

Squadron finished !




Davaï ! For the Emperor !

A last cossack to finish! I really wanted to have a standard, I made up something with a metro ticket.





Hope you'll like him !