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Hello DakkaDakka,

I'm a long time lurker and I've enjoyed following these WIP blogs--so I've decided to start one of my own. I play 40K with friends locally--very non-competitive--and have been working on my Imperial Guard Cadian army for awhile. While I enjoy the gaming, I probably enjoy the painting and modeling a bit more. Unfortunately, I am easily distracted and start slacking on painting to kit-bash some new model or another. I'm hoping that maintaining this blog post will help keep me moving forward and get all these little dudes painted!

The backstory of my force is that they are on a resource rich planet in an area very similar to the North American Southwest of old Terra. This matched the color scheme I decided, desert is easy to base, and scattered cacti are fun! I'll start this blog off with some quick shots of where my army currently stands, then I'll jump into what I'm currently working on--which is a thematic "home field" table. One quick note my painting: I generally paint a model until it looks good to me from about 12 inches. Later I may or may not go back to refine details and highlights; usually starting with single character figures.

(Looks like I can't post links to DakkaDakka gallery images in my first post...images to follow shortly.)




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7th Cadian: 7th Company "Terra II Expeditionary"

Officer Corp and Attendants


Infantry


Heavy Weapons & Veterans


Armor


Rangers (very early sneak peek)


Not pictured due to not being fully assembled and/or haven't finalized color schemes: Psykers, Abhumans, and the Ministry.


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Time to get started on my terrain for Terra II. I have a number of terrain kits from Games Workshop--will get to those eventually--but what I have really been in search of are some quality natural terrain pieces. While I love modelling and painting, scratch building my own terrain isn't really my thing. Finding realistic terrain kits that fit my theme was proving difficult. Until I stumbled on Terrainify's Etsy shop (https://www.terrainify.com). The pieces are quality 3D printed, but more importantly the sculpts are amazing. For my table, I picked up several rock pillars and a raised hill to serve as a centerpiece.

Pillars


Hill/Rock Outcropping




I'm going to start off with one pillar to make sure my color scheme plan will give me the results I want. Full disclaimer--I intended to start this blog last week but did not. As a result, I have one pillar complete and will be following up with WIP pics shortly. So let's get started...because Tiny says "No slacking!"

Wow, this is excellent! i like that you chose a style of setting that doesn't seem to common. And i really like the cacti with the sentinels.

Thanks! The cacti (from Pegasus Hobbies) are definitely some of my favorite basing pieces.

Here is the first of the spirals I've been working on. I chose the smallest so I wouldn't waste a ton of paint if I didn't like the end results. I started off with some cactus and a couple skulls. The cacti wouldn't really be growing out of rock, but they are part of the theme and I'll give them something to cling to. Additionally I ripped some pieces off a wine cork to scatter around as smaller rocks. I tried to find spots where these rocks would have "caught" and not rolled off. The actual purpose of most of them, is to be a disguised "hook" to hold model bases in place. This way there are more interesting figure placements without the models taking a tumble.



I used some Citadel texture paint to fill in gaps around the cacti and add some fill around the rocks. I used Agrellan Badland texture, but only because that is what I have. I use it mostly for basing to serve as a filler or add some contours. Eventually I cover most in sand.



Finally, sand added...



primed and ready to paint.

Looking great. Nice different theme there.

You say you use citadel texture paints to fill gaps etc. Maybe consider picking up Vallejo Dark Earth Paste. It does the same thing but is in a much bigger jar, pretty cheap and great for all sorts of terrain and basing goodness. Keep up the updates, great work.

CassianSol wrote:

Looking great. Nice different theme there.

You say you use citadel texture paints to fill gaps etc. Maybe consider picking up Vallejo Dark Earth Paste. It does the same thing but is in a much bigger jar, pretty cheap and great for all sorts of terrain and basing goodness. Keep up the updates, great work.

Thanks for the suggestion! Will definitely look into the Vallejo paste.

Rock base colors on.


Here I used a variety of colors from a similar pallet as the base to pick out some details in the rocks. Colors are way too bright but I think they will tone down nicely after an all-over wash. (I apologize for this photo quality. I didn't realize it was so blurry until it was too late to re-take it.) Also painted sand.


All over brown wash.


And dry brush highlighted.


All that's left are some final details and done...

I've started prepping my next two pillar pieces. For these I decided to add a little bit of story.

This one...


...has some hidden spies. Are our noble Cadian patrols being watched?


This one was the scene of a battle with roving Orks...


...where a brave Guardsman's heroic deeds have been immortalized with a makeshift shrine.

Very nice.

Love the Rough Riders, where doid you get the saddle bags and lances from ?

Cracking rock spires as well.

DaHedd wrote:
Very nice.

Love the Rough Riders, where doid you get the saddle bags and lances from ?

Cracking rock spires as well.

Thanks! And sorry for the delayed response--just back from vacation.

The lances and rider legs are from Victoria Miniatures (https://victoriaminiatures.com) -- The 10 Man Rough Rider Conversion Kit.

By saddlebag, I am thinking that you mean the one on the center pic. It is actually a 3rd-party backpack bit and I only had one, but thought it looked cool as a saddlebag for the sgt. I ordered some miniatures from Kromlech (http://www.kromlech.eu) a while back and there were some bonus bits tossed into the order. This backpack was one of them and I believe it is from their Imperial Highlanders Backpacks kit.

Back to work on my rock spires. Have this one base coated...


...and shaded...


Will be working on the highlights and final details this evening and hope to have some completed pics up tomorrow.

Woo! another cadian thread, love the beret on your veteran on the first post, looking good dude!

2nd rock pillar done.

Rock of the Valiant

Finished this third pillar piece a couple weeks ago--life's been busy in January.








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This past week, I've been working on some desert woods. I've been sitting on this model for nearly a year. Every time I thought about painting it, I found I didn't have a clear vision of how I wanted the finished piece to look. Work on these past three rock formation pieces has really help this coalesce.