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It's must have been nearly 20 years ago I think since I last painted or played anything Warhammer 40K.

I have about 3000 points of Steel Legion. There was no youtube back then to show me how to paint. 3rd Edition where my IMPERIAL GUARD got munched by everything. My bane was Tyranids, Blood Angels, Orks and anything else that got into close combat. Which was everything. Enemy Generals and characters would single handily wipe out half the army in close combat. I came dead last in the first (and only?) Official GW Melbourne GT in general points. Though I wasn't completely last as I had a somewhat fluffy army and as I was right at the back of the dimly lit room, the judges didn't spend much time looking at the low end tables and my paint score was higher than it had any right to be. The army lost every battle and the last thing the last living Guardsmen saw was a tidal wave of Orks cresting the ridge and leaving no survivors. I'd been awake till 4am painting that army, some of the figures were still wet. And that was the end of it for near on two decades.


From how GW was going I thought I'd never be back...but it seems new leadership came in and started to not actually hate and despise their customers. There's 100's of video's showing how to paint, and an app to say which paint in what order to get what colour. I love the app.

I really like the idea of the Mordian doctrine- bonus over-watch and standing in close in lines because 50% of the shots miss anyway. NO MORE TEMPLATES! Forming a firing squad to take down those annoying and horrifying close combat characters with overcharged plasma guns! Tanks that could actually MOVE and double fire even if they did move a bit! Mortars that aren't useless! Assassins I can actually use!


So here I am.

edit- pictures now on the dakkadakka gallery






I also apologise for the bad lighting - it's 2am and I need to go buy another light for the painting desk too.

The army idea is based on a Napoleonic Infantry Battalion - hence the blue and white. Line infantry squads, with a Grenadier Ogryn squad, a Ratling light squad, command squad for the banner, some attached Calvary and attached light artillery guns on wheels (lascannons and mortars).

I have GW brushes and none of them seem to be able to make a point . So I haven't tried doing any layers. I need so much practice. So much. These close in pictures make me see all the mistakes I've made just trying to get the base coats on

The white was the only white the starter pack has- Cermite white. Which is too white. I should use one of very light greys next time. The white was washed in Angrash Earthshade , but it just makes it look dirty. Perfectly fine for a Guardsman who has been in the field for more than an hour, but I think I need to use a different one. Nuln Oil maybe?

For the black helmet and boots I used the only black I started with - Abaddon black. Which is fine, but I get the feeling I need to drybrush it with something to make the edges stand out- what should I use? What other black should I use?

I wanted gold imperial badges, but seem to have ended up with a Bronze colour instead. How can I get a better gold?

Next squad will have all the Guardsmen in the front rank with Bayonets, instead of half and half which I did without thinking about it.




The next squad I think I'll paint on the sprue, so I can get to the inside parts and not get so much paint on other parts. I have no hurry to get the army in use yet - I've played one game with the old Steel Legion army and if I can get to store to play again I'll use that.

Has anyone got a link to how to magnetise a heavy weapon squad? I've found lots of posts saying to do it, but no videos or photos on how to do actually do it.


I realised after I painted them blue and white I seem to have made a Police Guardsmen army. I might end up putting red and blue lights and and sirens on top of a Chimera to match it.

1. WHite is tricky. I recently done some dark reaper heads/eldar bone armour: base with zandri dust then ushtabi bone. Wash with seraphim sepia, then back up with ushtabi bone and finally highlight with pallid witchflesh.
Alternatively go with something like celestra gray wash with seraphim sepia/agrax earthshade then highlight with lighter colours/white. Gotta experiment and work out what works for you.



2. For black you could use something like dawnstone/mechanicus standard gray to apply a highlight. A light bit of drybrushing should do the trick if you dont fancy going at it with a tip.

3. An easy way to do gold I think, is to go from scorpion brass to retributor armour gold over black basecoat with a drybrush.

4. regarding magnetising/HWT - no idea. Found one youtube vid advocating getting couple extra bases and some more cadians and just making more teams from the parts provided.

Here are the results after drybrushing and very small amount of layering.

edit added version on dakadakka gallery instead



I'd like to drill out the guns, but I'm not sure if it's possible to drill out lasgun barrels. I do need to do the grenade launcher at least.

If you were to paint the inside of a lasgun barrel to be the colour as it fired, what would you do? Red? Yellow?

I need to do something about the eyes, but I don't know what. A very small dark or lighter wash? I do not trust my ability to paint them individually.

I'll have to try Nuln oil instead of Agrash Eachshade as a wash on the white uniforms. Or maybe a yellow wash instead.

GW really needs to release some female Imperial Guardsman because seeing the same heads on all of them really stands out. I will need to order some from Victorian Miniatures. I hope that dosn't deny me entry to playing at stores or tournaments :(

Hopefully tomorrow some movement trays I ordered 2(!) months ago arrive, so I can do the bases. The plan is to use a GW texture paint, then paint it dark green/light green/brown, and then use PVC glue to glue a dark green model railroad static grass on it....though I'm thinking of maybe painting the grass and ground a brown instead, to get the complimentary colour wheel going. I might just do a texture brown and see how that looks first before trying the grass. I don't like the idea of doing the GW tuffs of grass because I can see everyone does that already.

I don't know what colour to paint the base edge - default black, brown to match the texture or goblin green like GW did 20 years ago for EVERYTHING.



Items to remember for the next squad:
I need more layer colours. I need a better brush that has an actual point on it to do layering better. I did a small amount, but not much.

I need to be more careful snipping out of the sprue. You can clearly see some of the heads got cut off too low.

I need to remove more mould lines.

Keep at it! You have made a nice start.

Drilling the grenade launcher barrel is good enough. Don't try it on the lasguns. I use a pin vise with an appropriate sized bit. Sometimes it helps to use a smaller bit to drill a pilot hole first.

I agree about female guard figures. GW is missing out on a gold mine. I have a few female figures from an old garage kit production run. I need to put a few more of them into my force. The Victoria Miniatures are superb. I don't have any of her female soldiers yet but I have some of her metal infantry that look like Mordians.

Yes, be more careful snipping sprues. What do you use to snip them?

Good brushes are worth it if you can take care of them. Even the right type of GW or Army Painter brush for the right job makes a difference in the quality of the paint job. Sometimes, however, it is not the brush. Many people either use paint that is too thick or dry or they leave too much paint on the brush during the detail work. And some just don't let things dry enough in between coats or touch the wet model with their fingers too much. Lots of small improvements in technique end up making much prettier paint jobs.

 JB wrote:
Keep at it! You have made a nice start.
Yes, be more careful snipping sprues. What do you use to snip them?

The official GW snipping tool that came in the painting starter pack. Is the stand alone one better? I also have a modelling knife now.

Base part done: Armageddon Dust texture with an Agrax Earthshade wash. I can't decide what to drybrush it with - white, lighter brown or dark green if I add flock?

I'd like to flock it, I have a green static grass or a dark green moss - would that take away from the painting or add some colour? I'm leaning towards the dark green moss, but should I flock the whole base or have parts of mud left, or leave it as mud?

edit added to dakkadakka gallery





I think I'll make the base side Abaddon black afterwards.

Note the polish on those boots! I got some Nuln oil gloss and I'm quite happy with it.

And here is the 1st squad with flock and base. Just need to varnish them.

I'm not convinced the flock made it better. I suspect the simple texture mud worked better, but I really wanted some green on the base. I think i need to use a lot less of the flock, make it rather subtle instead of nearly the entire base.











Automatically Appended Next Post:
Undercoat Corax White spray paint

Base colours:
Fatigues- Ceramite White. Need to change to another white base.
Flak armour - Kantor Blue
Skin - Bugmans Glow
Boots and Helmet - Abaddon Black
Leather pouch, bag, canteen, belt and straps- Mournfag brown. Note- do the armour straps in Kantor blue next time. Might use dryad bark next time.
Frag Grenades - Death Guard Green. Should get a darker green.
Gun, Bayonet, krak grenades and canteen top - Leadbelcher
Eagle on Helmet and gun , belt buckle - Retributer Armour
Sargents strips and badge on armour - Averland sunset
Gunsite and buttons on chain sword - Mephiston red


Shade:
Fatigues- Agrax Earthshade. Might try Nuln Oil next time, but it works with the muddy base. Might use some Lamnia Medium to make it more subtle.
Flak Armour -Drakenhof Nightshade
Helmuet- Nuln Oil
Boots - Nuln Oil Gloss
Skin - Reikland Fleshshade
Leather items- Agrax Earthshade.
Frag Grenades - Nuln Oil
Gun, Bayonet, krak grenades and canteen top - Nuln Oil
Eagle on Helmet and gun, belt buckle - Casandrol Yellow
Sargents strips and badge on armour - Casandrol Yellow
Gunsite and buttons on chain sword Carronburg Crimson

Drybrush:
Fatigues- Longbeard grey
Flak armour -Chronus Blue
Skin -Kindleflame
Boots and Helmet - Praxti White
Leather pouch, bag, canteen, belt and straps- Sylvanth Bark
Frag Grenades - Niblet green
Gun, Bayonet, krak grenades and canteen top - Necron Compound
Eagle on Helmet and gun -Sigmarite
Sargents strips and badge on armour -Hexos Palesun
Gunsite and buttons on chain sword -Khorne red

Base:
Amergedon Dust -> Agrax Earthshade -> Praxti White

Edge of base: Abaddon Black

So, FWIW, if playing at GW stores and events is a concern, you can make female Guard with GW bitz by bunging the Escher heads into the empty Cadian helmets.

Comstar wrote:
And here is the 1st squad with flock and base. Just need to varnish them.

I'm not convinced the flock made it better. I suspect the simple texture mud worked better, but I really wanted some green on the base. I think i need to use a lot less of the flock, make it rather subtle instead of nearly the entire base.

Comstar,

Yes, the flock looks too green and perfect. You can get a container of brown flock or static grass and mix it in to make a more realistic colouring. You could always add a wash of brown to moderate the colour and make it more natural.

Cheers,

CB

I'm not happy with it, but I need to stop at some point.

I put some Agrax Earthshade on the moss, put dark green static grass on top, dry brushed some brown onto the grass (which dosn't really show up).

Minastourm Varnish spray can to end it all

I need to use a lot less flock next time. I think I'll leave the feet muddy and have the grass on the edge, to show where previous Guardsman have trod. Add a splotch of red for dried blood on one or two of them.

I need to paint the end of the lasgun barrel some colour not silver to show the gun firing - a yellow maybe? Maybe a yellow with a red glaze? I want to use a glaze on *something*.














Automatically Appended Next Post:
Squad 2 is mostly harmless

Squad 2, painted what I needed on the spruces:





Painting the guns and armour was 1000% easier on the spruce. I still made mistakes but it's still vastly easier. I still need to do the armour plate more closly and not put the main colour between the plates I think.

I used Celestra grey instead of Ceremtic white. Much better paint to use. I still, need to paint the leather armour bindings before attaching the arms.



Now I need to either remove the paint from the joins or use super glue to attach them. Which way is better?

Really like the Napoleonic colour scheme.

Painting on the sprues seems to have made a huge difference, I'll have to give it a go. For gluing, I'd use a mouldline remover or similar to take a little paint off maybe?

How do I make the officers stand out? I wanted to put them on a horse, but that makes them too big...they can't hide behind in LOS I guess? Also their base plate is too bi :(

I thought of doing them in red, but that's British not French. How did Napoleonic era officers stand out?

Looking at the figures now, I probably should have done the front of the armour white and the top fatigues blue, but oh well.

I might make some milliput bedrolls for the next squad.

I plan on NOT doing squad makers, as long as everyone has a lasgun and sits on the movement trays (which FINALLY arrived after 7 weeks) i might paint a colour for each movement tray instead.

Officers can have gold and/or silver details. You might give them colored collars or cuffs. Other distinguishing features might be different hats or more scenery on their bases. Maybe a higher base?