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.

Miscellaneous Post - How I transport my infantry:



I've built four of these trays thus far. 30 to 40 models can be carried in each depending on their size and how I position them. Two are used for line infantry, one for specialist troops, and the fourth is for command staff. I've been scheming a way to create one giant carry set up for everything... but ultimately the plans look like they would either be too large or too heavy to be practical.

Cothonian,

Your trench coated infantry are great looking conversions.

Cheers,

CB

Salamander Marine











I can see this picture becoming some sort of meme... ^



This is my attempt at doing the dragon scale leather that Salamander Marines often don. The brown highlights are semi-gloss, which simulates a bumpy looking texture in the light.

This is a Christmas gift for a friend who recently got into the hobby. He is full on embracing the Salamanders, flamers, melta, and all. Now that is a weapons selection I can roll with.


Automatically Appended Next Post:

Captain Brown wrote:
Cothonian,

Your trench coated infantry are great looking conversions.

Cheers,

CB

Also, thank you! It takes forever, but is totally worth it. It often surprises my opponents when they see a whole army of trench-coated miniatures coming across the table at them. (It's also uncommon to see fully painted armies at my local gaming place...)

More 508th Hammerhead infantry on the way:



Tabletop standard of course. These are conscripts after all.

I really, really like the pattern on the salamander's holster. Great work!

 EmberlordofFire8 wrote:
I really, really like the pattern on the salamander's holster. Great work!

Thank you much good sir! Also, good to hear from you!

Late in the war the it was not uncommon for the local Munitorum to re-issue the gear of fallen guardsmen, often without a fresh coat of paint. Furthermore the 508th's recruitment pool rapidly diminished, and it was not long before the Arbites were sent into the lower hives for fresh recruits.



More pictures to follow. Soon.

Usually my problem is that my pictures end up washed out and under saturated. Strangely enough, the picture saturation came out WAY higher than usual. The olive drab on the uniforms is honestly a lot less GREEN.

Lastly it is worth noting that these are tabletop standard (I can do better, y'all have seen my better works.) It's not easy getting over a hundred fully painted miniatures onto the tabletop.

"Our god Emperor chose us! US! Not the filthy xenos or some rabble of abhumans. We are his chosen, and we will not let this filth maintain its foothold on our world! Not one step back! OORAH!"

One thing which I have started doing with my warhammer miniatures is placing Imperial Aquilas on the bases of the sergeants/commanders. First and foremost, it looks good. Second, it makes for quick ID when actually playing the game.





I need to start playing again... can't say I'm looking forward to buying the update book.

...and now for something completely different, a work in progress pic of a terminator I'm putting together:



I've been trying to achieve a Roman themed paint scheme for misc. units. Honestly hasn't really worked out... end result of this guy will still be worth showing off when he is done though.

Last but not least, I'm starting a mini project. I don't like Taurox APCs. At all. As such, I'm going to be playing around with a Rhino I have, painting it up in 508th colors and modifying it to look like it's in active service with the guard. I think it'll make for a nice Taurox stand-in.

Hellhound #3 of the 508th Hammerhead.

Most of the 508th's home world consists of hot, dry plains, with swamp lands around the poles. Jungles are dotted around the world, though they are sparse compared to the aforementioned biomes.









This Hellhound has been pictured previously, but the previous photography was kinda terrible. I decided it deserved more interesting lighting to better show it off.



On another note... Simple Green has failed me for the first time. I soaked the Rhino in Simple Green for two days before pulling it out and scrubbing it with a brush under hot water. Much to my surprise, nothing happened. Literally. Nothing.

I'm not sure what paint the previous owner used, or if perhaps there is a clear coat on the model, but I literally cannot get this paint off short of using a chisel. If it is a clear coat, I want to know what it is, as it would be the most matte clear coat I've ever encountered. So, after rinsing the rhino six more times, it still reeks of Simple Green. Obviously I don't want the next coat of paint to chip off due to residual cleaner underneath, so I need to give it a few days to air. With any luck, I will soon be underway with this project.

Chances are, that paint is an enamel of some kind. You could escalate to brake fluid, but do not soak for more than an a couple of hours, since it is a plastic model.

In all honestly, I think I'm going to give the model a little longer to air out, then just paint over it. Must admit I'm a little nervous about using high strength cleaners on Warhammer models... just too expensive to lose one. Thank you for the note though.

Moving along...


Up-armored Chimera APC of the 509th Armored:









Like the Hellhound, this was already featured but the photography was shoddy. So I'm giving it a second go with better lighting.

Regarding the reactive armor, if I ever get my hands on a 3d printer it'll be worlds easier to make. Right now the process involves grinding down pieces of sprue...

The ERA looks AMAZING though, it really makes the Chimera-line look more Cold War, an interesting mix between WW1/Interwar tanks and the Cold War at the very least. If I ever start a Guard army I'm certain to do something inspired by your armour here!

I wonder how it would look on Space Marine vehicles? Probably would be odd on the M113-based Rhino to be honest, I've never seen an M113 with ERA...
(Edit: I of course do a search and do find an M113 variant with a turret with fake ERA. It looks identical to a Predator tbh!)

I just discovered this blog. Great stuff here. I love the look of these tanks, the weathering is very nice, and the sergeant with latent psychic powers from page 1 is pretty terrifying.

-Rids

Painful to make, but a good use of spruebrik to achieve a goal!

--B

 Gwyn chan 'r Gwyll wrote:
The ERA looks AMAZING though, it really makes the Chimera-line look more Cold War, an interesting mix between WW1/Interwar tanks and the Cold War at the very least. If I ever start a Guard army I'm certain to do something inspired by your armour here!

Thank you very much!

The reactive armor really worked out on the Chimera. Really beefed it up a bit and made it look like Soviet armor.

I've also played with the idea of putting ERA on other vehicles... but unfortunately it just doesn't seem like it'd work out. My focus being guard, I took a look at what a Leman Russ might look like, and unfortunately due to how it's designed there really just isn't anywhere to put the armor on the hull. Turret might have some desirable results. We'll see.

Ultimately the Chimera has turned out to have the best results with that kind of modification. I really want another one.

Moving along...

The Rhino has finally aired out, it no longer reeks of Simple Green. I'm probably going to start bolting modifications to it first, then apply standard 508th Hammerhead colors to it (see any of the grey and green vehicles in this thread.) Lastly, I'll attach guns, backpacks, and other bits of guard equipment to finish it off. Overall I'm legitimately excited for this mini-project. 1. It's going to look great. 2. On the tabletop I get to use it as a Taurox stand-in, and Taurox stats are great.

I'm also going to be assembling a Hellhound in the near future. I'd like to get the Hound and the Rhino painted up at the same time if possible.

Lots of heart in this blog - I love the outdoor pictures and I'm going to copy that psyker sgt!

 kestral wrote:
Lots of heart in this blog - I love the outdoor pictures and I'm going to copy that psyker sgt!

Do it!

Great stuff. I like the camo paterns and the greatcoats on your infantry.

Preview of the Rhino (technically Razorback) to Taurox conversion:





I got this model pre-owned, and the previous owner had assembled it incorrectly. That is why the Razorback turret ring is on backwards. Unfortunately, this thing was glued together in such a way that disassembly was not realistic, so I'm making do with what I have.

Also worth noting is that this is the notorious bullet-proof paint job that I've been talking about. I'll be painting over it soon enough.

Last but not least, I was originally hoping to have the auto cannons closer together, but because of the amount of cutting required to make that happen elected to make a wider turret-type setup. The idea here is that the cannons have a limited forward arc. Ironically enough, that works out just fine with the 7th Edition Taurox rules dictating that as the case.

Looks pretty solid to me!

Progress on Rhino, Razorback, Taurox, thing: (Obviously Work-In-Progress)





Rhino 4, Second Platoon, 508th Hammerhead.

Rhinos look great in 508th colors.

Also, managed to grab a Rhino off of Ebay for $22! Finally a price that doesn't make me cringe. Seriously, people are selling used and damaged guard models on there for brand-new price!

Very nice conversion work! works as Taurox, looks great in that camo.

A mechanized detachment of the 508th engage an unknown hostile force. Location redacted. Action from the Ordo Hereticus pending.









Another pic that makes people say, "Wait, Bullgryns are larger than Terminators!?"

This was a buddy of mine's first game of 40k. He runs Salamanders, and puts a TON of effort into painting them up right.

Lore-wise the 508th is not a traitor Regiment, which makes it awkward when they end up fighting Space Marines... over and over again.

regarding painting progress, not much unfortunately. I rather suddenly found myself quite busy. The other issue is the GW price increases... Kind of put me in shock for a bit. I really like their models, but I can't really justify how much they cost at this point. Makes me sad.

Vehicle crewman of the 508th.





I've been experimenting with backdrop color/lighting levels with my photography. I really need to build a light box... Anyhow, here's more pictures of the same dude but with a different backdrop:









I had some spare time so I decided to put a little extra effort into this guy (more so than the hordes of conscripts.) Slightly fancier brush work to try and highlight the creases in his jacket, multiple coats of paint for the leather tanker helm, and extra effort on the face. Finished off the helmet and jacket with some agrax earthshade. Ultimately I really needed some extra practice with faces, so that was a major motivator to put some extra time in. Not my best work, but I'm happy to get the practice in.

(Also most of his face is going to be hidden by the twin auto cannons he is manning...)

Update on the Taurox Counts-As:











The conversion is almost complete. The gunner's base (that hold him at the correct height) needs to be painted black to make it less obvious, then he just needs to be glued down. Also some minor touch ups. I think I'm going to go ahead and leave this vehicle not-mudded. I think it looks good as it is.

Also I am beginning work on a funky side project of sorts. If it works out, I'm hoping to build out a squad or three of 3rd Company Ministorum Guard. One of my models has already been done in this style:

That moment when you start researching some new methods for weathering and realize that your work looks downright cartoonish compared to some...




At the very least, there are a few things I've been doing right.

First off, sponge. Been using that since forever. If you watched the video through, you probably saw the part where he mentions that you should avoid overloading the sponge at all costs. For raw damage (which is the focus of the video) this is perfect. I take to using similar methods. For mud on the other hand, overloading the sponge is great. See below:



Going back to the damage tutorial, the part that stood out to me the most is applying damage as multiple layers. For the majority of my models, this is what is missing. Is most cases I "apply damage" (semi-gloss dark grey applied with sponge) then finish with thin silver highlights for "deeper" cuts in the armor. While this is certainly passable, it seems that applying the lighter colored layer first would come out better. Ironically, I did accomplish this once accidentally, which explains why that particular model came out so well (see below.)



If you focus in on the turret, those dings came out excellent, likely for the reasons discussed above.

So what am I to do now? Imma try the method in the video on my Taurox/Rhino conversion. Curious to see how it looks...

Thanks for sharing the video. Good stuff.

How exactly the manufactorums of the 508th's home world obtained the STC for the Rhino APC is open to debate. Whether or not the adaptations and adjustments made to the design to better suit it for use with the Imperial Guard were techno-heresy is also open to debate. Ultimately, the world fell before any serious inquiries could be made. Regardless, the Rhino "copy" that served with the 508th proved very effective during its service.



















Finally finished up this model. Ultimately, I did not get to use the weathering method shown in the video from my previous post. The weathering method shown was dependent on me starting with that method, and I was already to far along to really change course. None the less, it came out looking good. One thing which I like about running a guard force is the wide variety of vehicles the faction has to offer. If the guard were reduced down to only a few core vehicles, I might very well quit the hobby.

For future projects, I want to get one of those gene-stealer rock grinder vehicles. I think it'll look like an excellent utility vehicle in guard colors (and, of course, would be another very nice Taurox stand-in. By the Emperor, my opponents will hate me...)

If your opponents hate you for this kind of thing, you're playing the wrong people.