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So I started playing WH40k back in 3rd edition and stopped when I left for college/when my local games store closed around 2004.
Many years later, I decided to get back into things. This past April, while visiting home, I loaded up the car with my old mechanized guard army and got to work.

The army I had circa 2004 was comprised of chimeras with predator turrets (from back when you could order individual sprues from GW) and a large number of infantry made by mixing and matching a box of cadian and a box of catachan (when the sold 30 man boxes for ~$25).

I soaked everything in simple green for about a week to strip the paint. When that didn't quite do it, I used brake fluid to finish the job.
I also ordered a bunch of new heads, backpacks, leman russ turrets, chimera and russ extra armor, vehicle stowage bits, and track guards. I picked up a hydra turret and hellhound turrets from shapeways as well.

I don't have a whole ton of patience for painting, and do pretty much everything in assembly line style.

For the infantry:
Base of zandri dust, webbing in XV88
Skin in cadian flesh
Grenades in elysian green
Aquilas in celestia grey.
I then drybrushed everything with tyrant skull, washed with agrax, another tyrant skull drybush, and touched up the flesh with some more cadian flesh.
Finally, army painter matte clear

For the vehicles:
Base of zandri dust
Airbrush tamiya sand
Airbrush highlights with tamiya deck tan
Airbrush shadows with tamiya brown-deck tan mix
Clear with mr color super gloss
Wash and weather with tamiya panel liner dark brown
Army painter matte clear

All in all, not including the stripping and modifying/repairing, I was able to have this army painted to tabletop quality in about 30 or so hours.


Here's an overview of the army:



Commanders, lieutenants, psykers, commisars etc:







Veterans:



About half of my inquisitorial 3rd edition storm troopers:



Catachan and Cadian snipers



Mortars:



Sentinels (magnetized)





Missile launchers, plasma, melta



6x guard squads with plasma







Chimeras with magnetized extra armor (bonus points to whoever knows what the orange tarp with numbers on it is for ) :







Leman Russes, Magnetized:









Hellhounds:









Hydra made using a shapeways turret modified with brass barrels:



Salamander (need to make crew members still):



Basilisk:



4 minis from my original army that I left original to for memories:




Also, I took these on a 3 year old camera phone... let me know if you'd like to see better photos.









Automatically Appended Next Post:
So after I got all this stuff painted, I was itching for something else...

So I got a vulture gunship. I painted it pretty much the same as the vehicles, just with a bit of camo and the belly painted in spacewolves grey. I did my best to keep the total paint time to about 5 hours. It's about 90% done, there's just a few things I want to add to it:
















Automatically Appended Next Post:
I then got bored again and began working on the steel legion I had stripped but hadn't painted yet.
I didn't want to do another desert themed unit, so I decided to paint them in greens.

Base in olive drab
Jackets mottled with steel legion drab and elysian green
Webbing in XV88
Weapons, boots, helmets in abaddon black
Aquilas in celestia grey
Skin in cadian flesh
Washed with agrax earthshade
Drybrushed with tyrant skull
Army painter matte clear

I'm still waiting on cat-tails to add to the swamp themed bases (And I need to touch up the rims where the mud spilled over).







I still have about 90 more of these dudes to paint

Nice work. Nice and cohesive.

Love the old school minis! how the hell did you crave up Kell!? Also great conversions like the paint scheme. Barrel breaks on Arty is awesome.

 ghostmaker wrote:
Love the old school minis! how the hell did you crave up Kell!? Also great conversions like the paint scheme. Barrel breaks on Arty is awesome.

Thanks!

I bought the Creed/Kell blister back when they first came out for the sole purpose of using Kell as my Commander... the good ole days when I could give him a power fist and carapace armour

move0ver wrote:

Chimeras with magnetized extra armor (bonus points to whoever knows what the orange tarp with numbers on it is for ) :

Isn't it to help identify friendly columns on flybys and air supports?

Great work, the force looks pretty awesome (not to mention you started about when I did back with 3rd/4th in the early 00's...).

I really like the guy on the radio with the crimson beret and eyes on the sky, almost like a contemporary Combat Controller JTAC, that and the high visbility marker panels (like the contemporary ones we tied on our rigs in the desert)...

Looks sharp, and shows just how good a force looks when painted with some great basic methods. Very unified, they all appear to come from the same regiment, yet stand out from the run of the mill Cadians; your turret selection and extra greeblies (especially the baggage stapped wherever they could find a slot, with marker panels on top...) on the armor really made that clear. Of course, the high vis marker panels are obviously needed when you have a Vulture for support! Another awesome piece with enough reality for us in this millienia to relate to the far future.

Great army, some lovely details and touches.

Great work, really nice looking army!!!!

Angryface wrote:


Isn't it to help identify friendly columns on flybys and air supports?

Yep!

Sudsy wrote:
Great work, the force looks pretty awesome (not to mention you started about when I did back with 3rd/4th in the early 00's...).

I really like the guy on the radio with the crimson beret and eyes on the sky, almost like a contemporary Combat Controller JTAC, that and the high visbility marker panels (like the contemporary ones we tied on our rigs in the desert)...

Looks sharp, and shows just how good a force looks when painted with some great basic methods. Very unified, they all appear to come from the same regiment, yet stand out from the run of the mill Cadians; your turret selection and extra greeblies (especially the baggage stapped wherever they could find a slot, with marker panels on top...) on the armor really made that clear. Of course, the high vis marker panels are obviously needed when you have a Vulture for support! Another awesome piece with enough reality for us in this millienia to relate to the far future.

Thanks!

A lot of the details are based off personal experience living out of armored vehicles for extended periods... they wind up looking like gypsy wagons after a while.

The company commander on the radio is a favorite of mine, if the mission commander is firing his weapon instead of working the net then he's screwed up big time.

I just need to get over the fact that almost none of my guardsmen are wearing the proper protective equipment (eye protection, helmets,gloves, SLEEVES) but in the future it's more important to look cool.

My only wish now is that I could find an opponent who had a fully painted army as well... rather than the typical bunch of grey, partially assembled models piled in a cardboard box

move0ver wrote:


Thanks!

A lot of the details are based off personal experience living out of armored vehicles for extended periods... they wind up looking like gypsy wagons after a while.

The company commander on the radio is a favorite of mine, if the mission commander is firing his weapon instead of working the net then he's screwed up big time.

I just need to get over the fact that almost none of my guardsmen are wearing the proper protective equipment (eye protection, helmets,gloves, SLEEVES) but in the future it's more important to look cool.

My only wish now is that I could find an opponent who had a fully painted army as well... rather than the typical bunch of grey, partially assembled models piled in a cardboard box

Don't forget the reflective belt with the eye-pro! Conversion idea for a later date...

Nice color scheme. I like the chimera turrets too, I did a similar turret swap for my chimera once, its a good look.

30 hours?!?! Good lord, I couldn’t paint all that in 30 weeks!

Great job and tremendous looking army. Love all the conversions and little touches.

 Gordy2000 wrote:
30 hours?!?! Good lord, I couldn’t paint all that in 30 weeks!

Great job and tremendous looking army. Love all the conversions and little touches.

It's easy to do when 80% of the work is done with spray paint, agrax earthshade, and drybrushing.

Anyone can do it, I promise!

move0ver wrote:

My only wish now is that I could find an opponent who had a fully painted army as well... rather than the typical bunch of grey, partially assembled models piled in a cardboard box

Cross the pond and you can pit that magnigicent guard force against mine (fully painted Highlanders in the snow).

Your force looks awesome. I like the added detail, bits and stowage. The Salamander is a really good conversion! Wondering where all the great heads come from which you use for your infantry?

So I had to take a break from painting for a while... but I knocked out a batch of 100+ (swamp theme) Steel Legion. Total time was approximately 40-48 hours mostly due to using about 3x the number of colors I did on my desert themed minis.

I did the entire batch one color at a time... it was a slog, but more efficient than doing batches of 10.

Like before, I did them to a reasonable tabletop quality. I don't have the patience to do anything fancier.













And the minis still left to do:

Great looking Imperial Guard.

So I just finished my current project... and old school Storm Trooper force. It took me about two weeks to paint, maybe 24 hours total?





Some custom Hot Shot Volley Guns:









and some miscellaneous characters:








Not sure where to go from here... I've been wanting to paint a squadron of Valkyries... but then again, it might be fun to do a force of Vostroyans.

I love the scheme and look of the Army great work! What did you use for Hell hound turrets?

 ghostmaker wrote:
I love the scheme and look of the Army great work! What did you use for Hell hound turrets?

Thanks!

The hellhound turrets are from shapeways. This guy: https://www.shapeways.com/shops/forpost?li=pb makes some really neat chimera/leman russ accessories. I got my hydra turret from there as well, although I replaced the barrels with brass tube.

I like the Side skirts.

 Atropus wrote:
I like the Side skirts.

Thanks, I magnetized them for easier transport... All my foam trays are for new-school chimeras so my vintage ones barely fit in as it is. The spaced armor panels go in their own compartment.

Where did you get all the side skirts for the tanks. I know its an old FW kit I just want to do the same if I can

I picked up a set years ago. When I got back into the hobby I went to get more but found they were no longer available so I made a mold of them for myself.
I'm pretty sure you can find reproductions of them out there as well. It's a shame GW doesn't have anything like that because it's a pretty neat detail/addition.

My swamp steel legion were lonely so I painted them up a Malcador Infernus that I got for cheap on ebay. I tried a whole bunch of new techniques on this, specifically in the weathering department, exploring the use of filters, grime streaks, and mud splatter.

I also saw it fitting to use a rare/OOP metal forgeworld tank commander on it. I don't remember how I got him, but he's been kicking around my bits box for the last 16+ years.

I also put a little effort into taking a decent photo.

So I wasn't happy with the Army Painter "anti-shine" clear coat I used on the Malcador...
My FLGS recommended MIG AMMO super matte clear coat (used through the air brush). I sprayed it over the existing clear and I've got to say that I'm in love with this product. It is a true matte.

I went back and resprayed all 120+ steel legionnaires with it as well.





Here's the sentinels I painted up in a matching paint scheme:





And a small selection of my steel legion (which you've seen already, but some better pictures):







My next project in this swamp paint scheme is going to be an uparmored leman russ with a mine plow and forgeworld turret.

like the death corps of krieg, but your other army is fine but looks a little pale
would do the rim a dark color like you did with your deathcorps

 skeleton wrote:
like the death corps of krieg, but your other army is fine but looks a little pale
would do the rim a dark color like you did with your deathcorps

That's a good idea...

So I had a second hand Leman Russ that I couldn't get rid of on Ebay, so I rehabilitated it.

I used a Blood and Skulls extra armor kit (front and sides), Forge World mine plow, Forge world turret, Secret Weapon panniers, Secret weapon grating, and other stuff I had in my bits box. I even painted up a Snake Strianski that somehow appeared in my bits box 15+ years ago.

The boxes on the side of the tank are lane markers (that are magnetized on). For those unfamiliar, when the tank proofs a lane through a mine field using the plow, the lane markers shoot posts into the ground that follow on vehicles can use as reference points for safe passage. Normally Sappers would have to go through and do it by hand, but some lucky units have vehicles equipped with this type of equipment.

Just knocked out a new project: an Arkurian-pattern Stormblade.

So I painted up an ebay rescue Avenger Strike Fighter.

The pilot canopy was incredibly warped... I did what I could to save it/make it fit.
Both canopies were pretty cloudy so I cut the glass out.

I also extended the lascannons a bit.