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,
In this blog I wanna show you my new army project, my ideas for conversions and the progress. And of course many photos of my models. Don't we all want to see photos?

The idea behind the army: Mad Max + Cultists + Inquisition
Apart from some really bad models I made in my youth I started the hobby a few years ago with Space Wolves and following all the painting tutorials I developed quite a crisp painting style over the years. But this led to the point I needed 12-16 hours for painting one infantry model and I lost the joy of this hobby a bit.

Converting is the part of the hobby I enjoy the most and I love very individual armies. So I developed the idea to make a kind of human ork army, a little mad Mad Max style. So I could go crazy building patchwork-repaired vehicles, use all the bits out there to convert the human models and need much less time with a dirty paintjob focussing on weathering effects. So the decission was to make kind of a wastelander warband. Here are some impressions from that stage:





But then I found the INQ28 community and was amazed by the creations they make. I remebered that the thing I always loved about 40k was the techno-medieval gothic grimdark style. And the INQ28 guys really nailed this unique blanchitsu style that's iconic for 40k. I've seen wonderful conversions mixing bits from every faction 40k has to offer. And many of them use a very limited colour palette with a heavy wash to achieve this grimdark look. I felt the need to push my wastelanders into this direction. So my army concept was born:

The army of a far-off wasteland planet's fanatic gouvernor who is close to the inquisition The army works like something between a penal guard and the foreign legion. This governor is anxiously collecting criminals and everyday heretics (having wrong coloured cloth, standing suspiciously on the street, talking to the wrong people) for his army. Or criminals in this system can join the army by choice to escape justice. So basically it's an army of religious prisoners. And this governor offers them like mercenaries to the inquisition.

This army isn't an offcial guard regiment but a bunch of "purifed heretics" from an empty wasteland planet. So this concept allows me to be really creative with the equipment built from scrap, focus on the conversions and use a dirty paintjob with lots of rust effects. With the Steam Knight Nobles heads from Maxmini I think I found the perfect helmets for the techno-gothic style I wanted to achieve. So here is what I've created so far:

The sergeants:


The infantry with lasguns:





Lord Commander Sinclair Cayn
Because I (like most of us) hate to make only troops but love to make characters I already made a commander for the guys. This is more or less how my officers will appear.








And these two models are the result of playing around with some bits I had. The cherub was a fun project I made just because I had the bits. Maybe I'm going to use it in a scenic base for the Lord Commander. And the second one is a test model for my crusaders.



So, that's the concept of my new army project. I still need a name for them. Currently I'm favouring "The Iron People of (insert planet name here)" because of their rusty appearance. But if you have a good idea I'd appreciate to hear it.

The Emperor protects!

This is an amazing start, will definitely be following this.
The taurox kit looks like it was made to be a monster truck from the start, this is a brilliant idea !

Thank you! Yeah, the monster truck Tauroxes where an obvious choice for the first concept of the wasteland warband. Witness me! I have two of them half finished. Not sure if they will be part of the new army concept as they are. I'd like to try if normal tires, like the ones from kromlech, match their style better now.

 bourgeoisee wrote:


[

Wow, fantastic work! Gives me flashbacks of Lord Humongous ... The dusty look is perfect and I'm looking forwards to more wasteland warriors sir!!

Beautiful weathered paintjobs, some awesome kitbashing, and ace green stuff work too, all in a theme I'm very interested in.

Will definitely be watching, thank you for sharing!

Very nice! Some great conversions, and lovely paint jobs.

Lord Cayn is very cool, nice sculpt on the trousers. Love that wastelands sergeant too.

Thank you guys! I'll keep you updated.

 bourgeoisee wrote:
Thank you guys! I'll keep you updated.

I'd love to see a Lord Humongous truck

Haha Maybe. I'm planning to make a big fortress on a baneblade base. There would definitely be some place to hang a few traitors...

Yesterday some new bits arrived, so I built another 2 crusaders. I really like these guys. And so much more fun building them than painting infantry units...

Very nice work, look forward to seeing this army progress!

Sweet hell's teeth, this project

Many amazing things going on, tho I'm most struck by that monster taurox, the basic troop kitbash and Cayn himself, particularly that paint job. Going to be an awesome, dusty adventure

- Salvage

Started to paint the infantry. This is the first one finished. A proof of concept for a quick painting style.
Even though I really tried to paint him quick and dirty it took longer than I expected.
Not really looking forward to paint about 100 of these guys





Next to my Commander:

Crusaders looking good, and lovely work in the first infantryman

Very nice, the dusty look has worked very well!

Love the paint scheme and the crusader design!

Following. I approve this concept.

Fantastic work... really nice GS details, weathering, the verdigris on the gun fittings is right on. Those Crusaders are enviable too.

Thank you guys! Especially for the verdigris on the gun fittings compliment. I wasn't sure whether I like how it turned out.

Today I tried to use an alcolyte torso for the crusaders instead of the neophyte torsos.
The problem I didn't realise before I received them: They are made for 4 arms. But I can get them for 1 € per torso instead of 3 € for the neophyte torsos from the box...

Neophyte torso on the left, alcolyte on the right. The torso for 4 arms isn't as nice as the neophyte one, but 1 € instead of 3 €. And once they are finished the difference will probably not stand out too much..


You can see that the right torso is bigger, but I think that's fine..


And furthermore I managed to paint the other 9 infantry models for the 1st unit. Only weathering is missing now.

I love the huge helmets! The lord with eagle is great too. Very unique look for a guard army.

Okay, so acolyte/neophyte torsos... is the rest of the bitz-kit pretty straightforward, or is it more of a little something from everywhere? I'd be curious if a default build is emerging from experimentation, because these are the best looking scratch crusaders I think I've seen.

 bourgeoisee wrote:
Only weathering is missing now.

I find it pretty telling just how much life that weathering adds to these minis

- Salvage

Thank you!!

@MacPhail: I tried a bit around because originally I wanted them to differ more from each other. More like individual knights than a uniform unit look.
But I found that the genestealer torsos looked the best because of their industrial look. They break the feudal/medieval look of the other bitz and pull them to the 40k space crusader style.

Arms are neophytes too. Heads are from warhammer fantasy knights. I just removed al the feathers and heraldry stuff they wear on their helmets.
And the legs are from the High Elf Spearmen. I wanted to have some robed legs but I didn't find many to choose from. In addition I just used some plastic card to give some volume to the waist. The elf legs are quite skinny.
Finally I made the shields from plasticcard because I wanted to paint them differently and I dindn't find blank shields with a shape that pleased me. And some of them wear backpacks from neophytes or skitarii.

 bourgeoisee wrote:
Thank you!!

@MacPhail: I tried a bit around because originally I wanted them to differ more from each other. More like individual knights than a uniform unit look.
But I found that the genestealer torsos looked the best because of their industrial look. They break the feudal/medieval look of the other bitz and pull them to the 40k space crusader style.

Arms are neophytes too. Heads are from warhammer fantasy knights. I just removed al the feathers and heraldry stuff they wear on their helmets.
And the legs are from the High Elf Spearmen. I wanted to have some robed legs but I didn't find many to choose from. In addition I just used some plastic card to give some volume to the waist. The elf legs are quite skinny.
Finally I made the shields from plasticcard because I wanted to paint them differently and I dindn't find blank shields with a shape that pleased me. And some of them wear backpacks from neophytes or skitarii.

Very cool... I can't wait to see them with paint!

Two nights with my bits and pieces created these two company commanders.
I really like how the characters developed through trying hundreds of different bits.

I saw these on a FB group, probably one of the converter ones.

Excellent use of the bitz box. While I like the infantry, I love the characters. They are stand out fantastic.

The first your Lord Commander, looks stoic as is fitting for a rag tag guard commander.

Really looking forward to see where the direction goes with this army and hopefully some kitbashed/ Converted vehicles or creatures befitting them.

These guys are great, nice work! Love the shield-bearing servo-skull.

The new wheels for my WIP Taurox arrived yesterday. I guess I like it.

Really unique take on an Astra Militarum army! Incredible kit-bashing, and a wonderfully gritty paint scheme. Very John Blanche-esque!

Took a little break from painting miniatures to build a scenery. This is mainly for photographing my models in the future. I hope it will look nice once it's painted.




I made the rivets using a silicone mold and some fine filler for car paint. The filler only needs 30 minutes to cure so one can work without brakes! And it's quite cheap compared to the usual putties for wargaming/modeling.


248 rivets on this picture