WIP - Mortar Team

WIP - Armoured Fist Sergent

WIP - Truk

 

Long Time No See

I've just realised its been over two months since I posted anything. We are in crunch time at work so it might still be a few weeks till anything more appears, but I've not forgotten about it.

See you later (thats assuming anyone but me is reading this :)

WIP - Sergent Dorian on Lizard

 

Boomer

Grenadier 'Boomer' Hamfischt:

Boomer is big.

Boomer is dumb.

Boomer can put a grenade down a Chaos Rhino's cupola from 100 yards.

Boomer idolises the Sergent, and has been uncharitably refered to as 'Dorians Puppy' in the past - although not by anyone still carrying their full compliment of fingers. He may be a tad on the slow side, but he's a good boy who keeps his Grenade Launcher clean and loves his Lizard, Gertie. That makes him ok in Sergent Dorians book.

Patch

Lance Corporal Lucian 'Patch' Van Strom:

Lucian is an idiot. He would be a half-wit, but he lacks the brain power. He is the son of some clueless brass hat at brigade HQ who sent his boy to a frontline unit in order to make something of himself or die trying.

Dorian is not sure what marvel of administration delivered this hapless fool into his charge, but he can't help feeling it may be some form of test from the Emperor. Despite his rampant incompetence he is keen and eager to please, and besides - anyone who insists on feeding his mount before himself can't be completely without hope.

The rest of the squad can't understand why 'Patch' hasn't met with an unfortunately fatal 'accident' yet.

Lucian has been given a shotgun and told to stick close to Boomer in the hopes that he will pick up the basics of soldiery through some sort of moron osmosis.

Last week he poked himself in the eye with a cleaning rod while scouring out the barrel of his weapon. The Doc' says he'll have to keep the bandage on for another few days or so, and everyone has been calling him 'Patch' ever since.

Hawkeye

Trooper 'Hawkeye' Stern:

Trooper Stern is possibly the single most tedious individual in the Regiment. At least one Divisional Commander is on record as saying he would rather 'run naked through a hive full of Genestealers than spend another moment in the vacinity of that soldier'.

Trooper Stern's idea of free time well spent is an evening lining up his power cells and ensuring they are all equally charged to within a fraction of a milliamp.

It has been remarked that Trooper Stern wouldn't recognise social skills if they tore him limb from limb and fed him to the ruinous powers of the warp.

Fortunatly for everyone involved, Trooper Stern can also fry the flys off a Nurgling at 1500 yards. More than one member of the regiment owes his life to the completely emotionless precision which Sterns almost total lack of personality bring to his job.

Vox Trooper Wayland

Vox Trooper Wayland:

If you need to get through to HQ in the middle a raging electrical storm, while under heavy bombardment and pushing the limits of vox range, then Trooper Wayland is your man.

Unfortunatly, if you need a trooper who regularly gets raving drunk and picks fights with all and sundry when off duty then Trooper Wayland is also your man. Not for nothing are the guard house cells known as 'Waylands other bunkhouse'.

Extricating Wayland from detention before going into the field is often one of Dorians less favorite tasks. If it wasn't for his superior skills on the vox set and complete abstainance from drink during operations, Wayland would have been sent to a penal battalion long ago.

Flash

Melta Gunner 'Flash' Gunnason:

Flash has been inhaling promethium fumes for far to long. On several occasions a normally stalwart quartermaster has fled the armoury in gibbering terror after catching him filing his fuel tanks with one hand and re-lighting his eternal roll-up with the other.

Flash has performed extensive modifications to his Melta Gun, including shortening the overall length for better control. Useful while hanging onto a charging lizard with one hand and firing with the other. He also rigged up an external promethium tank to allow him to carry a much increased fuel load into the field.

All this tinkering has incured the wrath of the Company Tech Priests on several occasions and it is only through the intervention of Sergent Dorian that Flash has avoided serious punishment for his 'Little Heresy'.

WIP - Veteran Sergent Dorian

Veteran Sergent Dorian:

A plain speaking man who has elevated being difficult to kill to an art form. Dorian rates a man by how well he looks after his lizard, his kit and his ability to kill the enemy. Anything else can go hang - especially if it raises the ire of the Company Commissars.

Once on the way to becoming a Commissar himself, Dorian left the acadamy under mysterious circumstances and re-appeared as a Rough Rider sergent in a regiment raised from his homeworld.

Since then he has distinguished himself in several actions across the Imperium, building a reputation for no-nonsense leadership and the ability to 'get the job done' in the face of difficult odds.

His career has also been marked by frequent arguments with superiors that would have seen other men flogged, or worse, and the fact that no Commissar who learns his identity will have anything to do with him or his men.

Despite his Maverick methods and shady history, Dorian posesses an unshakable faith in the Emperor that would make a Canoness question her commitment. This, and his frequently demonstrated ability to achieve the impossible with few resources as led HQ to adopt a policy of 'asking' him to do things, and 'listening' to his alternative suggestions if he refuses their initial 'requests'.

WIP - XV88 - Advanced Stabiliser System

This is how I have represented the advanced stabiliser system, which allows XV88s to move and fire heavy weapons. Its the fuel canister from a fusion blaster, attached to a sheild generator and then fixed to the battlesuit by a small piece of q-tip stem - about 3mm in length.

WIP - Imperial Guard Tank Officer - painting:1

Here is the Tank Officer after a Sunday afternoons worth of painting. Skin, brown overalls and the grey of his hat are finished and I've blocked in all the areas that need a Catchan Green base.

I'm going to paint all the non-metal areas first, spray a light coat of matt varnish then paint all the metal and varnish those areas with gloss by hand.

Now I've had chance to look in the daytime I think the rock he is standing on is too similar in tone to his overalls, so I'm considering giving it a very light wash with armour wash to grey it down a bit.

WIP - Imperial Guard Tank Officer

Here is the lastest update, especially for Andrew G who was kind enough to remind me I have been lax in that area of late.

I finally got round to opening up the Chimera kit I've had laying around for a while. Its waiting to become part of an Imperial Guard combat patrol I'm working on.

Whilst casting an eye over the accessories sprue I couldn't help thinking that some of the bits would look nice if stuck together like so. I don't have any game use for this model so its more of a display piece than anything.

I suppose he might make a good objective marker for some mission or another.

WIP - XV88 suit 2

This is the second of my XV88 suits. Both have Advanced stabilisation systems so they can Fire and Move with the Railguns. This suit has replaced the smart missile system with twin-linked plasma rifles which will lend a bit of close protection firepower to his team in situations where the enemy are getting a bit too close for comfort. The railguns are placed on the more traditional shoulder mounts so the plasma rifles benefit from the extra mobility of arm mounts once things get hairy. 

WIP - Pirahna

Here is the first of three Pirahna skimmers. I'm thinking of two equiped with brace of seeker missiles and a burst cannon each and a third with a fusion blaster. This should make a rapid reaction unit with a nice balance between anti-infantry and anti-vehicle capabilities. 

WIP - XV88 suit

I seem to be in a building rather than painting mode lately, Especially now the new Tau Empire codex is out. Here is the first of my XV88 suits. They've been in the cupboard for a while now and I finally decided to start putting one together. I've wanted to try mounting the rail guns on the arms since before the excellent Forgeworld models came out doing just that. While putting this kit together I realised it takes a certain degree of commitment and trial and error to pose the lages in anything more dynamic than the most basic 'standing up straight' pose. Because of the enlarged feet you have to do a bit of cutting and re-building of the lower legs. Despite a bit of swearing and a few scalpel wounds to the fingers, I think the end result is worth it - Just need to get around assemble his team-mate and get round to painting them to see the finished product. 

WIP - Cavalry Melta

Here is the Meltagunner for my Imperial Guard roughrider squadron. The meltagun came off the space wolves upgrade sprue. I used the sergeants right-arm-holding-pistol from the Cadian sprues. Its easy to lose the pistol using a sharp scalpel, but the melta required the but trimming down a bit to get it to fit. This led to me shortening the barrel and removing the fore-sight to create the experimental 'Short-pattern' Cavalry Melta you see here. 

Diary of a Sentinel: part 5

Here is the fully assembled Sentinel. Undercoated and dry-brushed with tin bitz and bolt-gun metal. The next step is to decide on a colour scheme for the patrol before embarking on the painting proper.

WIP - Rough Rider experiments

Here are the results of my first attempts to combine Dark Elf Cold Ones with Cadian plastics to make a more interesting Rough Rider. The rider is made from the legs of a metal Atillan rider while everything above the waste comes off the Cadian plastic sprues. The Mount requires a bit more tidying up and I need to figure out how to model a cool looking saddle from green-stuff and whatever I can find in the parts bin. 

Diary of a Sentinel: part 4b

And here's the top half. The folding-stock Lasgun and extra pouches I added seem to work ok. This is the first time I've experimented with modelling webbing and stuff from green-stuff. Cockpit interior, pilot and roll-cage have been painted already. The exterior has been undercoated and dry-brushed with Tin Bitz and Bolt-Gun metal. 

Diary of a Sentinel: part 4

The legs and base are now ready for spraying. The basic plastic base has been landscaped with fine-grade milliput and textured with modelling sand. A pulse-carbine, helmet and some tau grenades have been included to theme the patrol towards fighting Tau - my main army. I'm also experimenting with extending the texturing material (sand) up the lower legs to reflect a bit of weathering. I'll report more on how that works when I get a little further with the painting. 

Snippets from the warp

Real life conspires against the miniture arms race once more. Slow progress since my last entry. New bits arrived in the post the other day so I have begun experiments into roughrider conversions. So far I'm part-way through building a single rider mounted on a dark elf cold one and armed with a grenade launcher. his upper body is from the Cadian plastic sprues while the lower half is from the classic Attilan Rough Rider figures. So far it looks pretty good, the main problem I can think of so far is how to scratch build nine saddles that look nicely detailed and identical to each other.

The sentinal is also progressing, the legs and base are nearly ready for spray undercoat, once thats done the assembled body and weapon can be mounted and then the paint job can be completed. Once I have assembled the model I may pause and go back to finishing off my Marines before continuing with the Guard Patrol.

Diary of a Sentinel: part 3

Here is a close up of some of the custom detail I'm working on for this model. Seeing as this unit is supposed to be an experienced scouting force I gave the pilot of this Sentinel his own customised lasgun and some extra kit pouches. The folding stock makes for easy stowing without compromising accuracy, and the scope makes it easier to observe the enemy from a distance. 

Diary of a Sentinel: part 2

The parts are coming together. Doing a detailed job on the painting means I'm going to have to paint the cockpit interior before putting everything together. The milliput and parts from the bits box will be coming out to doll up the base a bit before the undercoating stage. 

Diary of a Sentinel: part 1

I've just returned from the store with a new Cadian pattern Sentinel, the first major model for my Guard patrol. My aim is to make all the models unique in some way or other, so lots of conversion work and then top-class paint jobs to really show off the finished figures.

As the title suggests, this is going to be the first in a series of posts that will follow the individual progress of this model from sprue to finished article.

Finished - Single Space Marine

I pushed on and completed the remaining stages on this figure. Once I'd completed all the colour steps, but before I'd finished the base or done any weathering, I gave him a light spray with gloss varnish. On top of that I painted a layer of thinned matt varnish on the green and black areas of the Bolter, the pouches round the back and on the parchment of the purity seal.

The dirt on the legs is a wash of snakebite leather and chesnut ink, thinned with water and with a dab of washing-up liquid added. Once applied I wipe the majority off again with a paper towel. The base gets a wash of brown ink and the succesive dry-brushings with snakebite, leperous brown and finally a very light bit of bleached bone on the bigest chunks of grit. when I'm doing the dry-brushing I make sure some of it strays onto the lower legs as well.

All I need to do now is bring all the other ones up to match him. Unit markings still need to be added at a later date, once I know what they will be. I will probably also refine the weathering process as I go along. I think they eyes are definitely better in blue, it stands out nicely against the red of the helmet. 

WIP - Single Marine Montage

Here is the marine thats most finished so far. The rest of the squad is not far behind him, but I pushed on and did a bit more highlighting on this one by way of a test piece. I tried to gem the eyes but I don't think it has worked and I don't like the colour now I've seen it on the model. I shall black it out and start again, a midtone blue with a more diffuse lowlight I think. To finish it completely I think it needs eyes redoing, purity seal on leg painting and a red gem effect on the currently silver blob just above the trigger finger. Once I decide on unit markings and such I shall also paint the rims of the shoulder pads and add some sort of symbol to the pad itself. I also need to paint the name plate on the left pad and finish the base properly. 

New Photos Soon

Developments have been slow since last week. Life and visiting friends kept me away from the painting table all weekend, but I'm back at it now. The Marines should have progressed enough to be worth photographing again soon. It's a real effort to stick to my plan of balancing quality of painting with speed. I'm painting the two veteran sergents seperatly from their squadmates so I can lavish a bit more attention on them as they are nearly characters. Hopefully lessons learned on the Marines will mean that the 10-man scout squad will progress faster. I'm thinking that I might go back and do a bit more converting on the scouts before they go off for undercoating, I want to play up the idea of the chapters tribal influnces and the scouts seem like one of the best places to start. The scouts have only recently been recruited from whatever world the chapter takes its numbers from, so their feral nature will be more obvious in their appearance. I'm thinking buckskin trousers and combat moccasins with some evidence of tatoos or wapaint on areas of skin.

My magnets arrived in the post yesterday, so they will sit in my modelling box until I think of something to do with them. I might use some of the smallest ones to hold the side hatches of my devilfish closed, instead of the bluetack that is currently doing the job.

Guard Patrol Progress

I'm begining to collect bits for my planned Imperial Guard patrol. I found five of these Rough Riders on Ebay the other day which look like they are ripe for conversion. Seperate legs and torsos being their most sought after attribute, but the spru of guns looks like it will come in handy as well. I won the auction last night, so all being well they should arrive in the post in the next few days. As well as the Rough Riders I also found a quantity of rare earth magnets on Ebay. Don't know exactly what I'm going to do with them, but I'm sure they will come in handy for something involving swapable weapons and such.

WIP - Marines - Progression

Here is one of the models that has already featured in an earlier post so you can get a better idea of the painting stages each one goes through on the way to becoming a finished model. I've painted the base texture in its basic brown colour as it gives a better idea of how the finished model will look against the finished base texture. 

WIP - Marines - Front and Back

Here's a front and back close up to show the details better. I started out trying to come up with a paint scheme that would be quick and easy to paint individual models but still look good. As usual I think I have probably overly complicated matters - but seeing as most of what I do is painting and modelling I don't mind if it takes a bit longer to finish an individual project. 

WIP - Marine squads

Here's an update on the progress of my Marine force. As well as these 10 Marines there are a pair of veteren sergents that need painting up. Once thats done I will be able to field two small tactical squads or a single big one, depending on available points and tactical considerations. There are still a few bits and pieces that need doing to each figure, but all the basic colours have now been blocked in. The cream and brown areas of the armour need final hi-lights, as well as the green areas on weapons and kit. Eye lenses need painting, I'm torn between red, green or yellow at the moment. The gold areas all need a final hi-light of mithril sliver, or similar, and the dark metal areas also need more attention before they are finished. Finally there are various other hoses, lenses and purity seals that need a touch of colour to finish them off. After that all thats left is to paint the bases and apply a protective coat of varnish.