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This is rocking! Great use of the cultists!

Hey guys!
been on holiday for a long time, but I am back now, and have been working on my veteran squad who are 70% finished now but id like your opinion on which bases look cooler?

the grey or the brown??

also check out the veterans autogun, pretty cool right? I stole it off a cultist *BLAM*

would appreciate your opinions, I'm leaning toward grey but let me know

I think the brown suits the rough and ready 404 better

Hey cheers bandwagon! yeah I was thinking the grey, but literally everyone I have asked has said that the brown looks better, so i'll go with that.

i'm secretly pleased about the brown being the favourite because I've already based the completed section of the army in brown, which means less work!

thanks for the reply dude

Nothing says "unknown and dangerous territory" like an unexplored forest, so I'd go with the brown base. It gives the feeling of having the soldiers walk through untouched nature, which, I assume, is the best for the 404

@gloomy fenix cheers, yeah not one person has said that they like the grey bases, so I think that they're the better idea. Some jungle/forest foliage would look cool! no idea where to get any though...


Alright guys, you may remember from way back in the early days of the thread when I found my old guard army and I mentioned the mad dogs veteran squad. They had a plasma a melta and a heavy flamer, which was fluffy but not particularly effective, not to mention their less than fantastic paintjobs. so ive tweaked them, with a better paintjob and better gear, and ofc, BEARDS!
But the most significant conversion work came from stealing the cultists autoguns, mentioned 2 posts ago.

FLUFF: The old dogs are a collection of the most grizzled veterans of the 404th, who have against the odds, survived long enough to get grey hairs. This is something that carries great respect within the 404th. They also bear a black shoulder pad with a red stripe, this represents the bloodshed that they have been through with the regiment. It is for this reason that the someone who is wounded carrying out a selfless action during battle can be inducted into the old dogs, or have the honour of wearing the "Red badge of courage" showing their willingness to put the regiment before themselves.


This beardy bloke who wields both an autopistol and the slightly heretical spikey weapon (both stolen off cultists) is the sergeant, rising to the top of the old dogs through brutally effective CQB skills aswell as a cool head under pressure, he has got the Old Dogs out of sticky situations more than once, and always seems to find some form of amusement bludgeoning the enemies of the emperor across the head.


Tried out painting stubble on this guy, think It looks pretty good. I tried to make sure all of the squad have as much pouches, backpacks etc. so they can sustain themselves in the field.


this guy was on of the most converted, as he has a GS goatee, and a chainsword in his right hand, which nobody in the guard seems to have? so I had to improvise. I also like his autogun the most.


pretty standard, headswap, converted lasgun. cool pose IMO


Because you can never have enough mustaches.


this Is just here because I'm showing you a cheeky backpack conversion from a vox caster. they also have no arms because I don't have enough melta guns, so they'll have to wait till I scrounge some.


cheers guys tell me what you think! I'm pretty pleased with them and think they look pretty neat and stand out among the crowds of standard guard.
(also my photography is terrible still, please give me some tips)

Wow, these vets sure look great! Also, good luck with those meltas

Thanks Gloomy fenix! appreciate the support

Aanyways guys, the 404th are beginning to take shape, and actually be a sizeable army now, so I thought I'd just give a quick status report. (for the simple reason I was pleased someone replied to the thread) so:

I have repainted an old Chimera for the old dogs, which I have called "rustbucket" and I think its looking pretty good, I followed the gw guide on youtube. Its not totally finished yet, the driver needs finishing and a few touchups are needed. Of course the weathering will come next and it will get totally wrecked in the weathering stage to fit the fluff of the 404th.
The pics aren't great but ill take good ones when they're finished




Ive also blocked in the base colours on this squad to bring up the numbers quickly, although they probably won't see a wash and highlight until I actually go buy a drybrush, (may take a while)

I tried to model this squad to all be shooting or thereabouts, so notice the little bunch of guys on the right all firing... I thought It looks cool anyways.
also sergeant "Big" John and his massive hammer probably deserves some attention. just for lols




This next squad in the production line has been converted to be more sneaky, and so have more crouching members, aswell as a prone HWT and shortened lasguns (for extra sneakiness)


Here is a close up of the cooler posed models in the squad, the beardy (of course) sergeant wielding a handy entrenching tool.
A vox operater with a tweaked pose aswell as a catachan vox, because they look way cooler.
And finally just a lasgun wielding guardsman with a pose that I'm particularly fond of.


That's whats going on in the barracks of the 404th, please leave a comment if your liking whats happening.

Thanks guys!

You sure are having a great progress with your army! You should take a phototo all the army right after you finish those squads , it would be great!
I'd love to invest more time with mine and make some progress, but whenever I try to continue responsibilities happen and the poor soldiers get stuck in "Ongoing" stage.
Also, I love the "shortened lasguns, for extra sneakiness", just hilarious

Cheers GF! yea summer holidays are great to actually get some hobby time in I'm also looking forward to taking that group shot! glad you enjoyed

Looking good mate, its true you never can have enough mustashes! tank looks good, though reckon you should give it some personal conversion to go with the mad dogs.

S_A

Cheers SA, I do agree with you saying I should convert it a bit, but as this is my first tank I don't really know what to do with it?

You could always add some bags, camo nets, boxes and random objects, they always look great and they create that realistic style I personally love, more less like this:

https://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/736x/18/70/6c/18706cb25e32bed0c6f9c365ffb6f945.jpg
https://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/originals/04/49/a5/0449a59923beb8c40bad9c3c03b41ede.jpg
http://i403.photobucket.com/albums/pp115/Ash-2-photos/Imperial/Armour/IGCommandChimerafrontleft34.jpg

Cool vets! Keep up the good stuff

GloomyFenix wrote:You could always add some bags, camo nets, boxes and random objects, they always look great and they create that realistic style I personally love.

I'm liking that camo netting idea, looks really cool, I am definitely bogged down in hordes of infantry at the moment, so I will post the updated chimera when I actually get round to it that may take a very long time though...

Sgt. Oddball wrote:Cool vets! Keep up the good stuff

Thanks Oddball! I was really pleased with how they turned out, glad you like.

thanks for commenting both of you! (may name one of my sergeants after you GloomyFenix)
I haven't forgotten about your sergeant though, Stonned.

 STG wrote:
may name one of my sergeants after you GloomyFenix

Weeee Gloomy is a happy guardsman

Haha make sure he's smoking something and give him a cliche Rasta flag.

S_A

Loving the personality of these guys bud!

Looking forward to seeing the sneaky squad finished

stonned_astartes wrote:Haha make sure he's smoking something and give him a cliche Rasta flag.

S_A

smoking I can do, rasta colours would be cool. I've got a few ideas cooking.

LancsHotpot wrote:Loving the personality of these guys bud!

Looking forward to seeing the sneaky squad finished

cheers lancs, I do try to keep away from the standard 'clone' cadians as they would be far too boring, and since I want to take like 110 guardsmen In my 1850 list I think I'd go mad otherwise.
(apart from my conscripts, they will be clones)

Hello again Dakka,
I havent updated in a while, but i have not been totally Idle.
I have got all the base colours put down on sneaky squad, and thats as far as they'll be getting in terms of paintjob for a while (no washes, highlights) because im going to drybrush the highlights in, and i dont yet have a drybrush lol.

but here is a pic of the cooler poses i put in the squad, because the colour makes it easier to appreciate them.

Snubnosed lasguns for reasons we all know about.

I also painted up an Aegis line, nothing special. to be honest i wanted to paint it grey, but i didnt think that would work with the fluff, so hey ho. Green it was.


Next guardsman squad in line, i couldnt really think of a theme for these guys so i'm thinking just "badass poses" for the whole squad. My 4 favorites are shown below.

From left to right we have: a cool guy taking a moment to pause and look into the distance, with his binoculars lowered
Next we have a demolitions expert who i think im going to call Pvt. Stonned, in his hand we have a packet of c4 and in the other we have the remote detonator (a sentinel pilots arm), and of course a cigar in his mouth.
and the end 2, are putting his bayonet on and reloading.
Note to SA

And to Finish off with we have a Group shot

Compared to my last one, seen here:


Cheers Dakka!

Looking really good. I especially like the job you did on the Valkyrie.

Yup, very nice. "badass poses" bring some nice character to the force.

Thanks oddball and oldravenman! Yeah i think the stripes look pretty striking on the vendetta, although it doesnt actually look that good up close...ah well. Thanks for feedback!

Wow, that's some nice battle group you have there, great job!
And beautiful poses for the guardsmen, too

 STG wrote:
I also painted up an Aegis line, nothing special. to be honest i wanted to paint it grey, but i didnt think that would work with the fluff, so hey ho. Green it was.

If you want it to have a little bit more detail, you could drybrush it a bit with an iron colour to make something like some camo colour went off, and put white glue in some parts and stick grass pigment to make moss or something (That is actually an idea I had for some scenery, it might be useful to you)

Thanks man, yeah that sounds like a good idea to me!

 STG wrote:

Next we have a demolitions expert who i think im going to call Pvt. Stonned, in his hand we have a packet of c4 and in the other we have the remote detonator (a sentinel pilots arm), and of course a cigar in his mouth.
and the end 2, are putting his bayonet on and reloading.
Note to SA

Spoiler:

I didnt make your character a sergeant because i thought smoking and plastic explosives were cooler than just a chainsword and a pistol. Hope you agree!

!

-ing sweet mate! Much, much cooler imo, much more stonned's style that, let others keep the sheep in line and let him get on with blowing stuff the feth up! sayyfe!

I shall have to return the favour come winter and my inevitable return to the model desk.

Cheers! S_A.

No worries dude!

Like the figure poses/ideas, cool colour scheme on the Valk as well, really nice finish.

This blog looks really good, I like the way you have taken other people's old models from ebay etc, and converted them and cleaned them up to turn them into a really cohesive, great looking force. Always good to have a bit of fluff to back them up as well. Keep it up!

Thanks DaemonColin and Alaricuk! appreciate the good feedback!
So unfourtunately with school having restarted i won't be having much time to update this blog. BUT have no fear! I have joined up to the armies on parade on the 13th of October, so I'll have a goal to work towards and therefore hopefully be a steady stream of updates

so. I have bought myself a Bastion, and have another one on the way,

and this is my idea to have a cool looking armies on parade centrepeice:


Heres my Idea, so I'll have the double bastion placed at the back of the place of the piece with a leman Russ rumbling through the middle which will be preceded by a small gaggle of conscripts. there will be many guardsmen on the top of the bastions, along with the aegis line also loaded with guardsmen

What do you think?
Cheers Guys