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Nice work, that hex scheme and the crackle paint look really cool!

A bunch of new additions:

a trio of Rapier laser destroyer proxies. I got them 3D printed with a larger order of heads for another project as I thought they look cool. I can't seem to find the source of the file though at the moment. I seem to remember it was from some Renegade and Heretics line, as the drivers had chaos symbols in their armor that I filled with greenstuff.
Anyway, cute little thingies. A bit difficult to paint the driver, as they came as one solid piece each, but I think they make a lot of sense for the Askaris. And 4 light Lascannons should make a dent into lightly armored vehicles at least.


Next off: three further Sentinel variants
Strike 1: Minethrower Sentinel
The logic extention of my Chimera based Lamashu minethrower. Make fast anti tank mining mobile again! Lore wise that big launcher holds 4 cassettes with 4 tubes each containing 4 mines for a total complement of 64. It looks a bit big though and I have added a smaller two-cassette launcher to the printing files, which you can find here: https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:6613504


Strike 2: Smokescreen Sentinel
Again the 3D files: https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:6621529 This is another variant, I dreamed up. A mobile smoke screen generator (the big thingy with the two barrels on the side) combined with a smokegrenade launcher (the smaller grenade launcher thing on the front) and a bigger than usual smokelauncherbatterei at the nose.


Last but not least: Electronic warfare sentinel:
The 3D files: https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:6621453 also include an approach to an advanced comm-array, but that looked just to big and to much, when I tried to fit it to the original sentinel. It's still a very crowded model, even with the smaller vox-pack from the old infantry squad. But I really liked the idea. Basically it is meant to serve as a range extender for the infantry vox-network (the Vox-pack at the side), to triangulate and scramble enemy communications (the "satelite dish" on top and on the arm on the front) and to serve as a drone port for three FPV drones on the "signal tower" (on its left side). Also note the modified Hunter Killer missile in the front which now doesn't get in the way of the door/sensors/hatches/weapons anymore. At least I never found a place on the old kit to fix the HK missile without getting in the way.
https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:6620046

I cut out the door as I wanted to have it in an opened position so that the drone operator (from Anvil Industries, just as the drones) has just stepped out to check something. Also as a small detail it has a roman numeral "VI" instead of the two or three digit numbers of the other Sentinels indicating they are rather rare

Got to work a bit on my backlog and finished up some stuff from Anvil I got a while ago:

some "heavy gunners" wielding flamers


or portable multilasers


I originally got these because I love the idea of those multilasers, which make a lot of sense for my dudes lorewise and also because the current itteration of Catachans can have two in each squad. So my idea was to get a bunch of beefy dudes wielding flamers or multilasers that can count in as flamers and have them as back up to stand in my regular squads as second flamer guy. But now that hey are finished I think they look great as a little unit of their own, so I think they might be a pretty cool looking Scion Squad with two flamers. Or I could stick them on a heavy weapons team base and have an unconventional HWT. Background wise they will be a bunch of Catachans that where absorbed by the Askaris and support them with their heavy guns. Anyway, funny minis.
In between I had some doubts with the camo scheme but then thought "well, maybe that's the reason they run around topless". If a Catachan gets handed camo-uniforms that lack on the camo part, it seems very much in character to just leave it.



Next of, two further members of my Inquisition host
a battle sister/Akolyte with a Meltagun:

Put her together from various parts from an Anvil bits bag, Skitarii shoulders and Scion arms and gun. The eye looks really bad, sorry, I will likey fix this later. The pic doesn't really do it justice, but I painted her armor in "Darth Blue" Chameleon paint from GSW which looks really cool. A bit purple-blueish metallic.


last but not least a Sister Hospitaler taking care of the wounded of the host

As with the sister I experimented on the base first coloring it purple changing over pink to an almost white rose color near the feat and then going over it with black crackle paint. The idea was that underneath the crust there is some glowing slurry that reacts to pressure by glowing brighter. Unfortunatly the crackles are not big enough to really pop the effect. Well, it was worth a try.

Some really cool new additions! I really like the heavy weapons and the Hospitaler.

I really like the colour of the Sister's armour, I think it should be easy enough to fix up the Sister's eye.

Got my work finished on the Hydra/Wyvern I worked on using muzzle effects from Deadlyprintstudios. I know it has abysmal rules currently, but I love that Wyvern layout
I gave the gunners bodies from Victoria Miniatures to fit my army. The name on the side is somewhat cheated as it is called "Nungunungu", the Suaheli word for porcupine, but in Ge'ez script from the ethopian/eritrean region. Looks cool though and fitting for a Wyvern.

Very nice work, The targeting screen looks excellent and I like the kilts of your Askari crew!

Finished my Forgeworld Gorgon. As most of my Forgeworld models I was lucky. Barely any warping and what little there was (a little bent on the floor and the twin stubbers) was easily fixable.

I added a magnetic sheet to the floor as I wanted to build a full compliment of soldiers inside. Also as number I choose 45 to imply that the Askaris have a lot of them in their amphibious regiments


The gunners were build from some Valkyrie gunner bodies and Anvil heads.



And a look on the guys inside which are a homage to the french tirailleurs of the 19th century. I used Perrys civil war Zouaves, French Tirailleurs heads from the web (see the other thread I have somewhere collecting ideas) and lasguns from ForepostD6 that looked a lot like my image of a "Thoth pattern lascarbine". The pic doesn't really do it justice, they look nice in person.
As I die 41 I was very thankful for contrast paints that sped up the process a lot. They all have magnets on their feet so I could even put them on based if I want.








And finally they needed a flag. Background wise they are a more professional regiment from the Megacity/Protohive in the north of the planet. Therefore the better uniforms and equipment. The flag is very closely inspired by the angolan flag, that looks really awesome in my opinion.

Time for an end of year army shot again. It didn't all fit into one picture, so I separated a bit. Also appologies, that the numbers of regiments etc. changed again. I was trying to match things up a bit with the Army structure I posted further up. As I chatted with Oldmate I was a bit undecided if I go for separate Regiments for my african and Tallarn looking dudes or if they are platoons of the same regiment, but choose the former.
I was also considering if it makes more sense to count from 1st Regiment (in the 1st Division, 1st Corps, 1st Army 1st Army group) all the way to 2025th in the 3rd Division, 3rd Corps, 3rd Army, 5th Army group)
OR
If they somehow integrate their Organisation in the numbers. Like all 45 Corps numbered 1 to 45 + the 45 Infantry Regiments in each Corps numbered and the total regiment number combined. So from the 1-1st Askaris to the 45-45th Askaris. With the Corps Number only used if more than one Corps is active in a battle zone.

But I decided for now that counting from 1 to > 2000 is better, since the Munitorum would most likely f**k up the other numbering convention (and I find Regiment numbers>1000 cool).

You might notice that several vehicles and minis have disappeared since last time. I unfortunatly had to sell some off/give them away to make room. Likely KIA the poor bastards.


Here is the Imperial Guard part. I tried to distinguish a bit between the N'Go (African dudes) and Magrhebians (Tallarn dudes) by for example integrating Psykers and Heavy weapons into respective squads in one force and sorting them in separate Psyker Conclaves and light Artillery regiments in the other. I choose the regiment numbers in a way that all units should belong to the 4th Army Group, second Army, 1st and second Corps





The much smaller Expedition Force from Forgeworld Bagwa, most notable for my attempt to collect "one of each Character" as circle of elders. I'm currently working on a Skratos and Techpriest which would only leave Cawl (who will be converted and given another name)





And last but not least, the Inquisition and Scions

As neither the Forges of Bagwa nor the industrial conglomerates of Thoth have been able to produce high velocity cannons and armor piercing tank shells of sufficient quantity and quality, the urgent need to equip the regiment with more anti-tank capabilities led them to leaning into the old tried and tested Destroyer tank scheme from Stygies. Bagwas expertise with lasweapons and their relatively intact STC fragment regarding this specific technology allowed them to relatively easily produce a significant number of laser destroyers to equip the self propelled guns, while a variant of the Mars Alpha pattern Leman Russ was chosen as base. While the Tank hunters undoubtedly are less flexible than the Leman Russ Vanquisher, their relatively low cost and ease of production (at least for the forges on Thoth and Bagwa) made it possible to provide a big enough number of these vehicles to deal with the Askaris needs for now.
Interestingly the Administratum is not aware of this capability to produce Laser Destroyers - a rare weapon outside of the Thoth system - in these numbers, nor are the inhabitants aware that these weapons are rarely produced outside. Time will tell what will happen when - and if - this ever comes to light.



had some fun with a self designed upgrade kit for the Leman Russ tank and the engine extension from Kromlech. The STL files can be found here:
https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:6548805

My wife also installed a powerful, forward facing, red LED and a switch, so that the Tank destroyer can literally "point out" its target, which I really love.
Edit: the name on the lower front plate is Sanskrit for "King Cobra": a big snake hunting and eating other snakes which seemed befitting

Some pics of the building process can be found here:
https://www.dakkadakka.com/dakkaforum/posts/list/150/787425.page#11726447

Added a little halfling character I got as free mini from Victoria miniatures


As well as a Votan Mini I got as a store give away. It has no beard, so I assume it is a lady? Not really into Votan lore, so I can only guess. Anyway, she joins as Inquisitorial Henchman/henchlady. I played around with the base the same way I did for my Skytalon. So painting some light, bright blue and then go over it with black crackle paint which looks nice.

fast update since the last ones: I found some time to make good-ish fotos of the next two characters for my AdMech Force. I'm aiming to build a "circle of elders" including all AdMech Characters and am almost there (only a "Not-Cawl" Belisarius Cawl is missing that I might get end of the year/next year depending on my other progress). So here are a Techpriest I picked up when buying some field ordance batteries from ebay as well a Skratos. Both as usual painted with fluo paints and with bases using crackle paint over bright pinkish fluo paint.

The techpriest was already build which gave me a strong reminder why I HATE painting Admech-minis after completely building them and always use subassemblies. It was really hard to get everywhere I wanted to. Also that stupid servoskull keeps breaking off *sigh*.
Funny enough I just today (of course after taking the pics) rummaged through my "projects waiting to get picked up" box and stumbled across the servoarm of the Techpriest that was obviously broken from the mini and I didn't even realize it. Starring at it I asked myself "why haven't you noticed?" I saw that mini on other pictures a thousand times and it always had a servoarm. Hell I looked at it just yesterday in the 8th edition codex and it didn't occured to me until I found that darn arm, that my mini missed it. Anyway, I will fix it later. For now I still call my Techpriest finished.




The Skratos was much less of a struggle. Regarding him: I heard that a lot of people around my area of the world don't really like the model, but I'm quite fond of it. I like to call him Rho-Beta, which sounds a lot like a good friend of mine (Robert). We had our compulsory military service as paramedics together and he was jokingly called "sharpshooter" after hitting quite well the one time we ever got to train with life ammunition.

Firstly, your army is looking great.
I really like the laser destroyer with LED light, so cool, and a good bit of anti tank power!
Nice work on those characters! They look fantastic.

Currently working on various projects that are all in a kind of unfinished state, but I wanted to share a little storage project I'm working on.
Recently my wife got a new PC which came in a sturdy cardboard box with blocky inlets that are perfect for acting as spacers between several layers of shelves to put inside. And as I'm always hurting for space in my vitrine and do not have a good system for potentially carrying my army to a gaming venue I came up with an idea.

So I got myself 4 cheap wood-planks of fitting size, added a sticky metal foil on top and screwed in a handle from a drawer:

Next I put magnets under all my infantry models (found a relatively cheap source for 20mm x 1mm and 25mm x 3mm magnets) and put them on. Then put the plank in the bottom of the cardboard box:


next added one of the mentioned spacers. Its basically like a rectangular box missing the floor, so it stabilizes the box itself and gets some space between the lowest shelf and the next one


Then I filled the next two planks with the other half of my infantry and the cavalry and Ogryns (still have some to magnetize, but I'm getting there)


I'll have to come up with another spacer between deck 3 (Ogryns and cavalry) and deck 4 (intended for Sentinels, armored cars and Field Ordnance for now, but I think I will mix with infantry to better use the space), as I only have 2 of the cardboard spacers. But when its finished I should have a system to pack up 60-70% of my minis in a compact way which makes them transportable and stowable.

A neat solution to storage and transport. Nice work.

Brought some stuff over the finish line:

Melta/Mortarsnail
The idea for this came when I had some Gorgon mortars left from my Gorgon project. I found a nice snail from the company Schleich for cheap and cobbled together a saddle from spare parts. Also magnetized it to fit two SoB Multimeltas as alternative. One might question the wisdom of warning snails with short range anti tank guns, but those beast are fearsome ambush predators... all fear the MELTASNAIL






Next off: a couple of feudal Guardsmen, kitbashed together from AoS Cities of Sigmar steelhelmets and Scion parts. I think it's a pretty common conversion. I used them to experiment with different browns and also with a more muddy base style. Also used some magnets to either use them as DKOK heavy flamer team or as single flame troopers in Catachan squads.

Mortar snail is Fantastic! Imagine the deployment options. A platform that (given enough time) can find it’s way into any hydroponics facility in the known universe.

Beware the support snail! Nice work.

Those armoured flamerthrower men look great, the scion arms really fit well to those bodies.

Time for some horsies!

A while back I backed Victoria Miniatures Rough Riders kickstarter and finally came around to finish the two sets I ordered back then.
First batch: a couple of "Not Ghaunts Ghosts" the regiment picked up along the way. I realized they are still missing their tattoos when I took the pics, so I might add those later.










And also a couple of Aussies that were send over from the Commonwealth:








I really love how dynamic those horse poses are, even though I had some trouble fixing the upper bodies of the riders to the saddles. Likely because I was very lazy on dryfitting beforehand. Also the models allow for a lot of customization with the arms, including different lances, gun-arms, sabre arms and ones throwing mines. As you see I worked with a lot of contrast colors, this time protecting them with either stormshield (GWs satin matte varnish) or AK interaktiv ultra matte varnish, which works really well.

Some very nice cavalrymen! Great work on some nice sculpts.

Another two models finished:

First a modified Taurox truck. I technically like the model also with the roof, but I wanted something... different and also didn't want to waste the details inside. So I build it open topped and without the backplate, so that my guys can quickly jump in and out. This way I find it looks a lot more like a simple transport truck than like a special forces vehicle. I also played around with a paint scheme from the excellent 3rd edition Catachan Codex to test it for my Baneblade project. I grew very fond of it. It's a mix of Vallejo Dark green and Citadel Zamesi Desert with Abadan Black stripes in between.






Next little thingy: I wanted some more Chimera conversions, as that kit is so extremely useful for them. This time it was to be a Samaritan, so the Medevac version. For this I used the little angled backplate that comes with the Chimera sprue, turned it around and glued it to the back of the drivers compartment. The sides and back were build from plasticard and the roof is a Valkyrie door which fits nicely and brings in a lot of detail. Also I got some cheap from a bitsshop. The details on the inside are from my bits-box. Here are some picks from the building process:


And the finished model:






For its name on the side I used an Online translator to try and write "Schweizer" in N'Ko Skript from Guinea. It's meant as a respectful nod to Albert Schweitzer (forgot the second "t" while translating, but whatever), a french-german philosopher, theologist, organ musician and pacifist who is most famous for later studying medicine to open up a hospital in rural Gabun together with his wife Helene to fight against curable diseases in that region. Pretty amazing person. I read a book he wrote about his time in Africa and am currently reading a collection of his sermons which are also pretty good, if you are interested in christian theology.