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A few updates to the Guard:





I'm glad everything is coming together, but I remember now why painting armies wasn't something I ever finished in the past... I'm never happy with tabletop standard :/

The obvious solution is for you to paint every model to character standard. Do you really need all those hours of eating, sleeping, and working? PAINT, PAINT, PAINT!!!

The Emperor needs every man in the fight!

Why I oadda...

Once it is all on the table it looks great. I'm just not happy with photos of anything I do

endtransmission wrote:Why I oadda...

Once it is all on the table it looks great. I'm just not happy with photos of anything I do

That is because cameras capture unpleasant truths like the green stuff on my model that I forgot to paint. I had to slap my forehead last night when I saw my mistake,

...or maybe you are just pickier than I?

bit of both I guess

Sometimes I have to take photos of models that I think I've finished in order to be able to see the flaws or missing bits. I just have a problem of stopping going back and doing just that little bit more

Great stuff ! great work love the IG they rock.

nice updates, and that heavy bolter has always been one of my favorites by you!

I apologise for the 'Thread Necromancy', but I just couldn't leave this thread alone!
Your GS skills are absolutely stunning, and as for your conversions .....
The Chimeras are amazing. They are finished to that high a spec, they look like something sold by Forgeworld!
Thanks for sharing! I'm definitely looking forward to more.

Don't apologize. Endtransmission needs the "poke" to stay motivated. His production is well below most cogitative units in this sector. I'm thinking of having a few tech-priests check out his motivator cortex.



In fairness, he is running multiple blogs...burning candles at both ends and in the middle.

Aye, I really do need a poke every now and then as my inspiration comes in fits and starts. Sadly at the moment work is sucking up my life with horrible deadlines, which means when I do get a spare 30 seconds I've got real-life things that need doing instead of painting :(

Speaking of multiple blogs, I'm going to close down the Warhammer Quest one; it was one project too far I think.

Back to Guard... I did receive some of Victoria Lamb's praetorian bits the other day though and had the time to stick one of them together as an experiment. The detail is nice and crisp, but everything I got had large mold lines around it and didn't fit together all that nicely... the arms in particular were a pain and needed lots of green stuff to plug the gaps and smooth off the very visible join between arm and body. Once it's together it looks quite nice, but it's not the easy assemble I was hoping for.

On the plus side, this is giving me the kick to look at making my own bits that fit the look I'm after. Research is under way and I have a deadline to aim for, even if it is 2015

I'm also trying to resist (and will probably fail when the starter and book come out) the temptation to start a chaos marine army that uses my platoons as cultists for a straight forward second force. It depends on how nice the new models are at present

endtransmission wrote:Aye, I really do need a poke every now and then as my inspiration comes in fits and starts. Sadly at the moment work is sucking up my life with horrible deadlines, which means when I do get a spare 30 seconds I've got real-life things that need doing instead of painting :(

Speaking of multiple blogs, I'm going to close down the Warhammer Quest one; it was one project too far I think.

Back to Guard... I did receive some of Victoria Lamb's praetorian bits the other day though and had the time to stick one of them together as an experiment. The detail is nice and crisp, but everything I got had large mold lines around it and didn't fit together all that nicely... the arms in particular were a pain and needed lots of green stuff to plug the gaps and smooth off the very visible join between arm and body. Once it's together it looks quite nice, but it's not the easy assemble I was hoping for.

On the plus side, this is giving me the kick to look at making my own bits that fit the look I'm after. Research is under way and I have a deadline to aim for, even if it is 2015

I'm also trying to resist (and will probably fail when the starter and book come out) the temptation to start a chaos marine army that uses my platoons as cultists for a straight forward second force. It depends on how nice the new models are at present

I understand what you mean when it comes to motivation. I really do. I appreciate your efforts in ploughing on and thanks for the heads up on the Victoria Lamb products. I was considering buying the Rough Riders conversion pack. Despite hearing of your assembly problems with them, I don't think that will deter me, as Rough Riders looks to cool to dismiss. As for Chaos, DON'T. I forbid you to turn to the deceitful ways of heresy. I'm sorry, but if this is to occur, I'll have to inform the Adeptus Ministorum.

... But, yeah, your current troops would work well, if they do pose as Renegade Guardsmen.
I hope the maintenance of motivation persists and I wish you luck with any future projects. Even if they happen to be Chaos related!

Oh they will continue to be used as loyalists; I just thought it might be fun to double up and make them very naughty boys indeed in their spare time.

In an ideal world I'd like to expand the loyalist side to include a full platoon of praetorians, a full platoon of mordians and an airborne platoon of elysians... in an ideal world where someone else works and I get paid of course

The VL models are nice, just be warned that cleanup will probably be needed on the torsos, legs and arms; and greenstuff will be needed to fill in gaps between the arms, torso and legs. Personally I also feel that the torso is a little small compared to other guard, but the cadians are wearing body armour and the catachans are 80s action heroes... so to be honest they are probably about right; it just looks wimpy.

endtransmission wrote:Oh they will continue to be used as loyalists; I just thought it might be fun to double up and make them very naughty boys indeed in their spare time.

In an ideal world I'd like to expand the loyalist side to include a full platoon of praetorians, a full platoon of mordians and an airborne platoon of elysians... in an ideal world where someone else works and I get paid of course

The VL models are nice, just be warned that cleanup will probably be needed on the torsos, legs and arms; and greenstuff will be needed to fill in gaps between the arms, torso and legs. Personally I also feel that the torso is a little small compared to other guard, but the cadians are wearing body armour and the catachans are 80s action heroes... so to be honest they are probably about right; it just looks wimpy.

Yeah, sounds good. I think that the mixture of platoons will make a nice diversity within your army. You don't often see that. As for the VL models, thanks for the info. I think I'll do alright with it though. A Guardsman is never scared of GS work and cleaning up!

Joshua Von Wolkestadt wrote:A Guardsman is never scared of GS work and cleaning up!

They are when you're looking at buying enough pieces to build a *full* platoon with all the options... that's about 140+ figures to clean up, build and greenstuff

endtransmission wrote:

Joshua Von Wolkestadt wrote:A Guardsman is never scared of GS work and cleaning up!

They are when you're looking at buying enough pieces to build a *full* platoon with all the options... that's about 140+ figures to clean up, build and greenstuff

Hmm, indeed. In such circumstances, he may fear the GS.

Oops. I didn't realise it had been quite so long since the last update. Real life had managed to get in the way of painting in a really big way over the last few months; but with the project nearing completion and rumours of the chaos codex on the horizon I can start planning the other half of the Malfian story.

For those of you that have been paying attention, the Moles are the survivors of a plague outbreak on a mining colony and they are hot on the trail of those that caused it. Rumours have been circulating about a chaos cult called The Contagion (not to be confused with The Disciples of Contagion).

The Contagion is an unaligned cult led by a Dark Mechanicus warlord, known as Dr. Artze and is comprised of a large number of his experiments. Dr Artze specialises in virology, taking every opportunity to experiment with different strains of virus, ranging from the Fydae zombie plague through to various strains of the Obliterator virus. He doesn't technically worship any deity; he follows his own agenda of experimentation. If others choose to see him as chaotic, that is ok... He doesn't really care either way. Renegades flock to his banner from all across the Malfian region as it gains them some form of protection from his experiments and gives them a cause to follow. Amongst these are a number of sub-cults that do follow the different gods

Well now, that's a nice little bit of fluff with ample opportunity for interesting ideas

I have plans for most of the current codex units and a number of the rumoured additions. The one I'm having trouble fitting into the theme are the noise marines... Though I guess they can just be drugged up on psychedelic drugs, rather than frenzon and other combat drugs.. we shall see. Plenty of other things to build first.

The main issue I have at the moment is coming up with a paint scheme that I like the idea of. Currently I'm thinking white with either rusty oranges or turquoise as the accent. The icon will be comprised of part of the biohazard symbol. Will post a sketch tomorrow when I'm not typing this up on a bus home from the pub

Chaos are something I've wanted to do since I started up again, but the current models are awful. The new starter models give me hope...

Impressed that I can only spot one typo in that case

I like the colour scheme ideas, sounds like something different.

Noise marines could have had their senses dulled by some experiments, and they need things to be over the top in order to perceive them? Or something...

Typo? I see no typo

I want the colours to be different from your typical chaos force, so it will be interesting to see how some experiments with the B&C painter come out.

Part of me says that a Chaos worshipper who's an expert in plagues almost certainly worships Nurgle......But meh I guess its certainly anarchic not to. In fact my comment is probably far too ordered.

I'm not convinced an AdMech renegade would necessarily understand the concept of worshiping a god; their work would be their driving force. That doesn't necessarily mean that the gods aren't involved still... they may see it as a benefit to them regardless of his worship. Virology and genetic research could be seen as Nurgle's realm; but you could also see it as a force for constant change (Tzeentch) if it does more than just maim and kill.

I figured that a proportion of the AdMech that supported Horus did so in order to be able to do unrestricted research rather than any real belief in the cause, or the chaos gods. Likewise you're going to get AdMech in the 41st Millenium that go a bit too far in their research.

The research doesn't necessarily need to go into warp tech either; I think having Artze studying virology and genetic manipulation would easily lead to the Inquisition and the AdMech declaring him traitor if his experimentation got too close to deconstructing Gene-Seed or an accident unleashed a plague on a planet.

Guess I must have been reading it on a phone in a bus then

I agree with your logic, research into forbidden areas has always struck me as the most likely reason for tech-priests and their brethren to turn renegade. Fluff-wise there might be some mileage in the idea of an Inquisitor who believes Artze has been corrupted by Nurgle just because of his specialisation.

Its widely believed that is the reason most turned aye, none of them would be anywhere near human anymore though, the eye of terror prevents that.

However, renegade Adepts, those that choose to leave the Cult Mechanicus for freedom of research and other such ideals, would not necessarily worship chaos. at least not in the beginning


edit: Hell, the Cult Mechanicus is about as divided as the Inquisition, there are most definitely those that would be ousted as heretics immediately should their work ever be known.

 monkeytroll wrote:
Guess I must have been reading it on a phone in a bus then

More like I found the edit button

 monkeytroll wrote:
I agree with your logic, research into forbidden areas has always struck me as the most likely reason for tech-priests and their brethren to turn renegade. Fluff-wise there might be some mileage in the idea of an Inquisitor who believes Artze has been corrupted by Nurgle just because of his specialisation.

You're right, the Malfians probably assume he's Nurgle based because of the Fydae plague outbreaks they are following.

Last night I started to cut out all of the new starter models and hack them apart. While the duplicate Chosen now looks different enough, I'm 1 cultist down thanks to the Hellbrute idea.

As I mentioned earlier, Artze experiments with various plagues and viruses; physical and digital. One of his current fascinations is the Obliterator virus and how it merges man and machine in what he sees as a more pure blend than then current limits of human technology.

Part of his experiments are to see quite how far the virus can be pushed...



The aim is to try and blend the two abdomens together so they look like one thing and make it look like Artze has taken an old Dreadnought body and attached an infected subject to the torso. The tentacles, cool though they were, didn't really fit with this idea. Nor did the horned front.

Pics at last! Good luck with that. Might have to increase the size of those pecs

 endtransmission wrote:
Last night I started to cut out all of the new starter models and hack them apart. While the duplicate Chosen now looks different enough, I'm 1 cultist down thanks to the Hellbrute idea.

As I mentioned earlier, Artze experiments with various plagues and viruses; physical and digital. One of his current fascinations is the Obliterator virus and how it merges man and machine in what he sees as a more pure blend than then current limits of human technology.

Part of his experiments are to see quite how far the virus can be pushed...



The aim is to try and blend the two abdomens together so they look like one thing and make it look like Artze has taken an old Dreadnought body and attached an infected subject to the torso. The tentacles, cool though they were, didn't really fit with this idea. Nor did the horned front.

the cultist needs to be trimmed down a smidge more. (just under the pectoral muscles looks about right.)

 Galorn wrote:
the cultist needs to be trimmed down a smidge more. (just under the pectoral muscles looks about right.)

If I trim the torso down to that point, he's going to be far too low down. The plan is to bulk him up under the pectoral muscles so that it blends in more neatly. Currently he's just temporarily held in place while I sort that bit out.

On a different note, here's the first draft of how I want the marines to look (colour/logo wise). The trim will be a rusty orange; sadly the painter seems to think that the trims should be metallic, so it doesn't look quite like the colour I picked, but you get the idea

Some more modelling updates from last night

In order to make the heavy stubber look a little different from the flamer I've added some shoulder pads using bits from the Kroot frames to bulk him up and some guard accessories. The last thing I need to do is make the masks look different. I'm currently thinking that the flamer needs a welding mask, so filling in the chaos star and building it up a bit. We'll see when I get that far



The next one was the duplicate Chosen. Please excuse the really dodgy photo, it was late and the lights were really bad. I've replaced the head, removed the chain and shoulder horn and added the chain-bayonet. I've also cut his foot off the connecting piece so that I can put a rock underneath. That should all make for enough of a difference.


The close combat cultist leader now has a back banner


And the Hellbrute has started bulking out a bit. The bottom set of abs needs trimming down a little bit, but I think he's taking shape nicely