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I have a old, deep-seated hatred of guard... and I've always thought the figures were boring. But, both of your work has made me re-think at least half of my position.

Keep up the excellent work gentlemen!

Well lets see if we can get that ball rolling? J-paint inspired me with his brilliant conversions and made them so different with such personality which is what I believed Guard was missing! they just had no soul to speak of, conversions were few and far between with some quite ugly standard models, but I saw something in J's work that made me push my perceptions to the side and look into alternate parts and see if i could find the character and personality I wanted in the army! I found it and as you know started my own Guard force but I always come back here to get more inspiration and ideas, and I'm never left wanting either! I encourage anyone to at least pick some troops up and have a go yourself, you might be suprised!

Well, if there was an allied contingent of some sort that made sense (from a gaming perspective), having guard in support of my marines would seem perfectly consistent & pretty cool.

Methinks we should find one for you then my friend! :-)

SO UR THE GIT WHO MADE THE SANTA ORK SLEIGH, you have my respect sir *tips top hat*
But seriously you made some bloody cool models. dkok valhallans, scourge head guardsmen, warrior of chaos space wolves, kroot bastard tyranids, the list goes on.
Respect man.

I like the Woodians. 40k is dark and i like seeing that modeled

Young Logan

Ah Rawson I really appreciate your honesty, I know entirely what you mean about the sloping armour, unfortunately I was trying to imitate a very boxy tank so was never going to win on that one! Hopefully the next alternative hellhound barrel is more to your liking. I havnt forgotten your bits btw! They are in a bag by my desk but I have been so busy recently I havnt been near a post office!

In the end, I guess it's all a matter of taste. I guess that's why we give each other "input" and not "direction" If it makes you feel any better, I love the paint

As for the bits, I have some waiting for you as well! Let's get a move on!

@Kevlar'o - WHy thank you, I still havn't found my perfect tank yet so I wont be stopping just yet.

@Vik - Thanks Vik, but unfortunately it still has lots more to be done, mostly jsut details, the basic paint is pretty much done. (Y)

@Gits - Ah yes Gits, come to the guard side. The things you could achieve, my, it would be awesome, I definately think the mantis warriors could do with a few meatshields!

@Nerd - Burn your brushes! Pah! Dont you dare, I still need to see those sentinels! As for your other comment, you should be an imperial iterator, such moving prose I agree entirely though, guard can be alot more interesting that people first think.

@Novelist - Lol, I would indeed be the Git responsible for that monstrosity! But thank you kindly!

@Logan - I agree, especially with the guard though its very hard to include grimdark to what are essentially army-men.

@Rawson - Im glad you like the paint at least Rawson! YOur bits will be in the post first thing tomorrow, I promise.

So just a few bits and bobs tonight guys, mostly just improving the guys youve seen before, The first three have just been based in the new style and the paint improved slightly. The second from last guy is in fact a new addition to this blog, noting overly special, as you can see the wodians influence is starting to seep into the valhallan troops, (fluff wise: Those valhallans with the masks have started to be corrupted by the wodians, or at least influenced, corrupted is a bit too emotive.)

As for the posters, i would like to credit Gits for this fantastic idea, I shamelessly stole the idea from his aegis defence line. The lascannon team one is just a silly one, but I thought it was quite funny, it originally said stay calm and burn the heretic, but the 'and' and 'the' seem to have got lost, so now it almost looks like an order thats been printed off for the firer in case he panics during battle!

Your Valhallans with masks are looking beautiful, and creepy at the same time. That Hellhound is looking beautiful with that colour scheme.
The 'Keep calm and burn heretics' poster is brilliant

Stunning work J-paint... just fantastic.

What's that flocking that you're using? It's really cool.

that flamer guy is so sick! i love him... what head/face did you use for that?

and the lasgunteam with that poster...lol...cool!

[I forget if I've posted here before, but here goes]

I like your 'not Alfa Legion' guys with their secret masks. I also like your Wodian guys with self-explanatory inspiration. However, I don't feel much for your Vahallans. The use of the ushanka (sp?) on all 3 forces, as well as great coats, means that the effect of Krieg/ Vostr. models as Valhallans is a little diminished, and hard to spot out as an independent force. I do like the notion of combining several divergent Imperial forces, but (I may be a traditionalist) in a wargame setting, it may be more effective to show the difference more, even if they would be dressed similarly in a real situation (warp knuckles, who always carries two weapons in their hands or brandishes a sword on top of a tank?).

Overall, your work is absolutely excellent. I'm just throwing in my perspective.

Kaesar II

@Jeep - Thank you very much! I'm glad you like, I was worried the poster was too silly,but hey, you cant take your toy soldiers too seriously now can you!

@Gits- Thanks gits, and you know I have no idea what the flock is at all! I have a small pot of it with my basing materials, but i bought it like 8 years ago, I have a feeling it was woodland scenics, but what exactly I couldnt say! I will investigate for you! Thank you by the way for the poster idea, i am forever in your debt, was a great idea!

@Vik - It was actually the skull head I got with the wraith kit (the one i made ad-mechy) with the addition of a bionic eye I had lying around, turned out ok didnt it!

@Kaesar - Thank you for your thoughtful post, it really is appreciated! Comments like this help me actually try and think about what I'm doing, keep it in a cohesive shape and not just a blob of random projects lumped together and branded an army! I do see what you mean about the valhallans though, they are a bit less characterful than the others, but that was in a way intentional, they were meant to form the bulk of the troopers with maybe a single squad of wodians and Dolorians. I think it may look more obvious once I have got whole squads together. As for any troopers who look like valhallans (ushanka etc) but wearing a dolorian mask, this is meant to represent the slow integration/developemnt of spy networks for them in the valhallan force....(hope that makes sense!) I agree the vostroyans make it doubly confusing! They are just meant to be valhallan vets, and I think that too will be more obvious when there are more of everything. Please do say if you can think of anything that might help the valhallans though, always very keen for input!

I'm pleased I could provide some fodder for such fantastic work. Keep it up mate... it's always a joy to see what you're going to post next!

ah... thanks for that info aboiut the skull/wraith!

Oh wow, well done jpaint-! sesh i haven't been here in a long time. really love the new updates. The post is cool! keep calm burn heretic. Very well done.

great work J-paint - sorry its taken me so long to comment!

fantastic to see models posed in something other than straight combat poses (ie leaning aginst some rubble, taking a breather. he just needs a smoke!).

gonna jump on the bandwagon and say the signage is awesome, as is the wear and tear on his great coat.

@Gits - Hopefully you like this then!

@Vik - No problem sir!

@Comrade - Thanks man! I havn't been in your thread nearly as much as I should, for this i apologise.

@San -DOnt worry sir, just continue to inspire with your painting!


So then guys, sorry for the lack of updates as of late, been having my final year uni exams, so was drowning in revision notes, fortunately that ordeal is over and I can finally dedicate some serious time to the little plastic people.

So to start off here, I have had a play around with some new camera settings, what do you think? Black background better?

First of all let me just bring you all up to date with the limited hobby stuff I have managed to do since I last updated, first of all I have been putting some small details and extras on my valhallans, and redone this vox-caster, as you can see he's pretty worked up by the grot scout hes just intercepted!




This guy is a bit over saturated, still was playing around with camera settings....As you can see I have added a forgeworld brass etch aquila to the hat.


Now these next pictures aren't in the dakka gallery because I'm not happy that they are finished yet.

First of all I have the progress on the hellhound tank (it is purely a hellhound now, as you can see I have changed the turret, I think this looks alot neater than trying to force it to be a battle tank AND a flame tank: I am not happy with this yet, as far as the paint goes i'm content, but the overall look is lacking, I am planning on adding a load of stowage on the back and maybe some camo netting or something. When I have properly finished I will post better pictures, I'm aware these are a bit dark.





And what the enemy will see as it bears down on them:


Finally I have decided to more or less finish with the valhallans for now, they will maybe get a couple more additions, but for the most part I consider them done. As I have started exploring in the last few pages is alternative regiments, those with elephant memories will remember the concepts for Wodians and Dolorians, and I think I will keep the general idea but tweak it slightly. I will also be focusing on the dolorians more, which I am going to change to DOLOSIAN, just because I can ;p

The idea here is that I am going to play down the alpha legion links, but they will still be there in the background, being grimdark, but for the most part they will be a highly disciplined loyalist regiment, called the Dolosian 20th Legionaries. First of all I have come up with a rough head concept:


Excuse the wierd white hair on this, no idea what it is! Have a suspicion it may be glue.


Edit, sorry guys! I almost forgot the most important thing in this post!

I have started a new insane tank project, only just starting, but you get the idea, its big!

Very awesome J! those pics are dark but they are really good at bringing a clear image for us to peruse! I like them like that mate, how do you do your tank tracks? that is an excellent and realistic approach which those shots show off very well :-) not to mention the vox caster, so good!

Tank tracks are fairly easy actually, basically you paint them black, wash them in lots of muddy/rusty weathering powder/wash mixtures and then finally to make them look metallic, you take a graphite pencil, and scrape off some of the graphite and rub it on your finger and all over the tracks, it gives it a realistic metallic shine, really cool effect, not my idea though, got it from the forge world master class book, I highly recommend it for painting tanks realistically!

Thanks for dropping in though, hopefully next time I will have something a bit more substantial. I will have to see if i can find a better balance with the black background and keeping it light, very tricky.

Thanks J, I have heard of using the graphite before but always worried about it rubbing off and not sealing well? I have used a similar method a while ago using paint rubbed between my fingers in a fashion much the same.

if you work out some good technique for pics please please let me know :-) I like what you've done but if you're not happy with it then by all means experiment! pics are my bane at the moment, i can get some good paint down but the images really don't do my models justice sadly :-( not to mention i'm not very versed in the technical aspects of dslr camera's!

paint on dude, looking forward to more stuff!

All your tanks are so church hill inspired. Really love the work on the troops as well, get the feel that they are really characters, not just troops. The tank camo is also a great tough, would love to see what else you will do it.

Thanks! I have just as little camera knowledge, but I will let you know if I make any breakthroughs. As for the graphite, rubbing off is a definite issue, it makes varnishing compulsory, unless you don't want to touch it when you are finished!

Edit; Sorry comrade, you sneaked your comment in there! I am very glad you noticed the churchill likeness! It originally started as a churchill imitation that got a bit distorted along the way, i must admit I have a soft spot for the churchill though, the camo of that last tank was based off an english camo scheme i've seen on the game world of tanks. Thanks for the comment!

looking fantastic J-paint. hope your exams went well.

i prefer the black background...less screen glare lets one focus in on the figures i find.

particularly love the work you've done on the guy with the vox caster. his face is outstanding...especially the eyes. also really like yellow/black striped cable across the model, adds a nice colour contrast. how did you do the blood?

both tanks look great and im looking forward to seeing Dolosian 20th. got your colour scheme picked?

 J-paint wrote:

Edit; Sorry comrade, you sneaked your comment in there! I am very glad you noticed the churchill likeness! It originally started as a churchill imitation that got a bit distorted along the way, i must admit I have a soft spot for the churchill though, the camo of that last tank was based off an english camo scheme i've seen on the game world of tanks. Thanks for the comment!

You do your work well!

Add me on WOT Comrade_Panda

@San - thanks, yeah i find it gives a better idea of the actual colour, and thank you! Its wierd, you can see my progress on painting faces just by going through this blog, I used to be terrible! As for the blood I wanted it to look a bit more realistic to the bright red people normally splash around, so its a deep dark red, (like the old red gore) with a heavy splash of a redy-brown (like the old dark flesh) and then highlighted with the original red and then spareingly covered in gloss varnish in the deeper areas that would still be wet. As for my colour scheme, i thinking of going more typical army colours this time, a drab army green and dark black/grey armour, but using the light bone colour you have so kindly told me the recipe for for a spot colour, we'll see, it may change depending on how it looks.

@Comrade - Will do.

So just to prove that I am truly back, I thought I would share a confession with you all, below you will see a lovely sentinel pilot that I have spent a long time painting.....the confession is that I now intend to cover it up to make it an armoured sentinel, my original plan was to magnetise or pin the top so it could be a scout or an armoured, but i cant get it to sit right, and i know i would never be happy with it not fitting flush, so I am going to glue it down, forever covering the poor fellow up, ....yes, I am crazy:




And the problem i'm having with both pinning and magnets, the problem is it is all too small and it needs to fit exactly:






On a less obsessive note, here is the base for said sentinel:

That base is rocking. Can do damage to the sent. for view of the pilot?

Looking good, as always, J-Paint. I will echo that the base is brilliant.

That Hellhound is fantastic! Did you scratch build the new turret?

@comrade - Whats that about the pilot?

@Darth bob - Thank you! The paint should make it come to life.

@dsteingass - Fortunately not! The turret is an odd mix of plasticard on the sides, and the top and bottom are a side sponson turret for the baneblade, It needed a bit of tweaking, but the general shape is perfect! Still have to add stowage to it, but I'm pretty happy so far! Thanks for the comment.

So no pictures just yet, but I thought I'd share a secret with you, as you may have noticed the new tank is lacking tracks, and even with kind donations I didn't have enough, so I thought I would try my hand at some simple resin casting, I will let you all know how I got on later, fingers are crossed for now, its settting.

As a quick question, how draconian are GW about copying details to add to models, I can understand them taking issue with casting whole figures, but say a press mould of a pattern on a cloak? I obviously don't want to run into any issues here so I thought I would ask the opinion of the almighty dakka hive mind?