A Hard Life

So wanting to do something a bit different with my hobby time I decided bash together this chap. He's made from (I think) parts from 5 different kits some of which are GW some of which are not. I sculpted on the fur trim for the cloak myself and it came out a lot better than I had expected. 

I have no idea what I would use him for, Necromunda or something like that I guess. 

The cloak is from an old GW plastic giant kit and has been in my bits box for literally years. 

And the painted version, I wanted him to look a bit worn down so there are some scuffs on the armour (which turned out okayish) and his weapon is painted to look like some old antique piece of kit. 

My sculpted fur trim turned out pretty nice once it was painted, and I am equally pleased with how the dragon scale cloak has turned out. All in all I am happy with how this chap ended up, though he will invariably never make it to a gaming table and may be doomed to live out his days either in my storage boxes or eventually a display case. 

Sci-fi nonsense

Its been a busy work month so I haven't had much time for painting, also i'm currently waiting on some orders to appear for some cold war and modern conflict 6mm projects. In the interim I decided to make a start on my imagination scifi project as I really wanted to get something painted. 

Despite having not painted anything Games Workshop based in a very long time now I still obsessively read the books and fluff, there is just something about the universe I really like. So I thought why not make up my own army and create it in 6mm (far more affordable). 

-----40K Fluff------

 The Imperial Settlement on Natalian II is a rural farming planet at the very edge of Segmentum Pacificus situated close to the inward edge of the Sabbat Sector. 

A rural world, the planets main exports are food and man power for the Adeptus Militarium. The planet has long been a low priority for equipment and arms. As a result the PDF is poorly armed with late model laslocks and little in the way of modern vehicles.

The majority of the PDF is truck borne, with some limited units benefiting from lightly armoured halftracks. 

The original founding settlers were led by an imperial family by the name of Castius hailing from the Mordian home world. The current head of the family is the lady Natalian (a popular name on the planet) Castius who is the Governor of the planet.

The Planet sits in a system comprising of 4 planets 2 of which are little more than dead rocks sporting Adeptus Mechanicus mining operations. The remaining planet consist of 1 gas giant with an orbital refinery. 

The system has limited defence fleets, and no standing garrison. Despite being under resourced the PDF sport colours reminiscent of the Mordian Iron Guard, though that is likely where the similarities end. 

The planet has an Arbitus overseer but other than that the policing actions on the planet are all locally sourced.  

----- Fluff ends----

So I painted up 6 stands of infantry, the figures are from the Baccus WW1 range mainly as I had them lying around. I'm quite happy with how my fictional little army turned out. I'm thinking as the PDF are under strength 3 stands is a Company (1 stand is a platoon), so 6 represents a half strength Battalion with no HQ, transport or support equipment. 

I have some command units undercoated and intend to add some vehicles in due course, I just need to find some suitably 40k type vehicles. 

Science Fiction Kilts

I've been busy with work for the last week or so, but I found the time yesterday and today to put together and paint this. The figure is  made up of components purchased from Victoria Miniatures a purveyor of a large selection of components to compliment GW's imperial guard range. They are however modular and I made the above figure from a pair of kilted legs, imperial torso, shotgun arms and a militia head all from Victoria Miniatres.


The parts themselves are really well sculpted and a joy to paint. I spent a lot of time working on the kilt, and skin tones (sadly the camera has washed out the figure a little) and I am very pleased with the results. I would think a lot of the parts from this company would be good for anyone doing VSF or Pulp adventures and of course 40k.

Check the site out at the link above the figures are great, and really well priced. Also service is great, the shop is in Aussi land and yet with bog standard postage the figures were in my grubby mitts in 7 days (not working days, 7 days total). At the moment I think its free postage on everything so strike while the iron is hot.


I've bought a pretty sizable selection from them so I will be slowly making and painting up some of these figures. I'm not really making them with 40k or anything in particular in mind. I just liked the bits and wanted to make and paint some kilts! But that said I find myself thinking they could be used for a characterful game of Necromunda or similar.

I have some mounted bits as well and intend to make a small diorama or something.

In other news it turns out this is my 250 post to the blog, hard to believe given I only started it as somewhere to keep track of what I had painted. If you have put up with meandering mutterings over the last couple of years, thank you. I hope next year to return to a slightly more regular painting and posting schedule now that my work has settled, and I am working at home again.

Far Future Scribe

I've been busy as hell lately so I haven't had much time to paint. However I have had some time over the last few days to work on this. I purchased this figure many years ago and painted it in a terrible blue colour scheme. As GW do not seem to sell this figure anymore I decided to strip it back (using Dettol) and paint it again.

This is the result, I wanted a really muted tone across the figure so painted the robes brown and tried to use colours which didn't stand out to much against it. The red on the pipes and detail makes a nice contrast. Typically my pictures don't do the figure justice, which is irritating as I lavished waaaay more attention on this figure than I do usually as it was a one of paint job.

I'm really pleased with how it turned out.

In other news, I finally have my fav figures out of cardboard boxes and into a display cabinet! Picked this up from Amazon and it holds a good number of my figures. There are of course still boxes all over the house filled with carefully packed figures!

Kilts in Space

Now I have been painting a fair amount over the last few days, but I can't post pictures of what I'm painting as there gifts. However I wanted to paint something a bit technical this afternoon, so having found this kit bashed figure lying in my painting pot, I decided to paint some tartan trousers.

They were quite enjoyable to paint, and I like how they turned out. I'm not sure what colours I'll paint the rest of the figure, maybe some plain canvas colours.

I'm alive!

I consider this model (and post) a something is better than nothing situation. I am now settled into the new house in Scotland, and am into the swing of working from home full time (yay) However as it stands I don't have anywhere to permanently setup a painting area. But we are going to convert the loft space in to a man cave/studio for me and the wife to share. So until that's done I'm not sure how much painting I will get done.

I'm also feeling myself drawn back to Gamesworkshop again (don't ask me why I don't know) and I've sort of paused my 20mm WW2 project until I'm in the man cave and can "paint properly" again. Until then I might just do silly little projects.

On the upside I bought myself a Rover 75 (the one that looks like a jag) with a 2.5 V6 engine which is stupidly quick, makes my trips around the Scottish country side much fun, and overtaking a breeze!

Polishing a turd

Whilst waiting for some models to be delivered I thought I would keep my hand in (as it where) by painting up this model from Games Workshop. The figure is a bodge of some bits and pieces from the same set.

Now I'm  just going to come out and say it, I really hate these figures from GW, I bought a box of them last year ( I think) for another project and hated every minute of painting them.There supposed to look like Rambo types but they just look like an oversized ken doll to me. Any way this guy was knocked together from the left overs of the box.

The posture on the carrying arm is a bit off as the hand originally had a knife in it and I think was supposed to be pointing skywards. But it was the only arm I had left and I didn't want a figure waving an oversized butter knife in the air. So I cut the knife off and fitted the ammo pack thing.

Have to say I am not dissatisfied with the result I just can't really warm to the figures as I don't like the sculpting style. Anyway it was still fun to paint and I quite like the result, and my paint job on the ammo pack ( I went with an otherworldly energy weapon type thing as opposed to just brass.

Imperial Guard Sniper

I was going to paint up another 3 vikings this afternoon but I had this model sitting on my desk and decided to paint him up to go with my other Mordian Iron Guard inspired 40k army. The model itself is made up of bits from a few different sets with a resin head from Forge World.

I spent a fair amount of time on the face and main uniform, and I like the result. Once this models based up it may, to be honest, never see the light of day again as it is a rare occasion indeed which results in my 40k stuff coming out of the cupboard.

Tomorrow, or this evening I'm going to crack on with some Vikings. At some point I'm also going to paint up a 10 man commando squad I picked up from Artizan Designs (British Commandos, naturally)

Scout Sniper

I decided to paint up something with some colour for a change. For years, despite my dislike of GW pricing, I have been collecting (of and on) an imperial guard army. I realised the other day that I never want to paint another las rifle ever again.

I have however always fancied a Dark Angles space marine army, one of the first models I ever painted was a Dark Angels standard bearer many many years ago. So I had a dig around in the cupboard and found a space marine scout I had built and never painted. I have no idea where the rest of the set are, or when I bought the model but hey I only needed one for a test model any way.

I really enjoyed painting up this model and think I might have a go at creating a little Dark Angels force, probably a slow burning project but something to do none the less.

Imperial Stormtroopers

For the last couple of evenings I have been painting up these four Imperial Stormtroopers from Games Workshop. There's another 6 or so of them in the box, which was purchased for me by the wife a couple of years ago and I just never got round to painting them.

I went for a fairly plain, non 40k, colour scheme which I think turned out pretty dam well. I also had a go at some OSL around the side light and helmet light thingy, I think the green glow has worked not to badly given that I have not really practised OSL before.

The models themselves are okay, but had pretty big mold lines and flash. Also I find GW mini's really fiddle to paint, I don't really know why but I do. These chaps turned out okay though and I might even crack on and finish the rest of the squad at some point.

They are however very expensive, as are in my opinion all GW models. I really do not understand why they think its okay to charge two or three times what any other manufacturer would charge for a lead mini. Anyway I'll just put my soap box away and go quietly! 

Imperial Officer

As a change from my french troops I painted up this GW Imperial Guard officer that I glued together a while ago and undercoated and then, in true wargamer fashion, loss interest in painting. I decided to give him a more sedate paint job than GW miniatures usually receive, and quiet enjoyed it to be honest.

I'm not a huge fan of GW what with the insane expense of the army's, the constant changing of rules, army books etc etc. But I might be convinced to knock up another squad or two to accompany my other very blue Imperial guard troops.

Current Army

My current army, works out at about 650 points comprised of the following:-

HQ - Company commander with Boltgun and Powerfist with Melta Bombs, Medic, Voxcaster, Sniper, Plasma Gunner, Krak Grenades, Carpace Armour

HQ - Lord Commissar with Carpace Armour and Power Weapon

Troops -

1 - Veteran Squad. Sgt with Plasma Gun and Power Sword. Squad has Vox Caster, Grenade Launcher, Heavy Bolter team. Grenadier Squad (Carpace Armour)

2 - Veteran Squad with Voxcaster, Flamer, Lascannon Team, Grenadier Squad (Carpace Armour), Chimera Transport with Heavy Stubber and extra armour.

3 - Veteran Squad with Voxcaster, Flamer, Heavy Flamer and Grenadier Squad (Carpace Armour)

I'm not sure what to add at this point. I'm thinking perhaps a Sentinel or two or maybe another tank.

   

Last squad (probably)

My latest squad for my Mordian style army. I will use them either as a veteran squad or as penal legion troopers. Yes I know that I can't have a bolter armed guardsman so in reality he will obviously have lasgun stats.

If there penal legion I will add a commissar model as custodian and remove the two flame dudes for basic troopers.

This rounds my army out at 3 infantry squads each of ten men. Frankly this well be the last as I always struggle to paint lots of pretty much the same thing. Its the main reason I don't have a ork or nid army

Shiny Transport

My shiny new transport. I wanted to try something a bit different so I used a can of Ford Midnight Blue car spray paint that I had lying around for the primary colour. Bit experimental but I think it turned out okay. I'm sure the shiny look isn't to every ones tastes but as my army is Mordian themed I thought it was fitting that there transports were shiny as hell.

New Veteran

The first of my new squad of Veteran's. Their based on Catchans with some extra bits. The blue trousers and odd bit of orange pulls them together to fit into my Mordian ish Imperial Guard Army. On a side note I'm thinking of starting a small Chaos Warrior based Warhammer army. I'm thinking of lots of red!

Distractions (ii)

 I've now painted my veteran sgt. I still need to add grass etc to the base but he's otherwise finished. I like how he turned out looks very veteran like, especially with the fancy hat and plasma pistol.

Upgrades

I have spent the last day or so upgrading and generally improving an old model. The left hand image was a heavy weapons team I painted ages ago in a pretty bad desert camo scheme. Rather than bin this model or resign it to the shelf. I took of the old auto cannon and fitted a lascannon (which I modified so the power pack fits to the side) and then added a second figure made from cadian, catchan and sentinel parts, and have a nice new heavy weapons team.

I really like the little fence line, which was the main reason I didn't want to bin this model.

Distractions

I started painting the plasma gunner for my Command Squad last night. But typically I got distracted and knocked together the above Veteran Sergeant to lead one of my squads. The helmet is from a set of Empire Pistollers with the big feather cut off. The eagle looks very 40k ish. The plasma gun and power sword arm are both taken from the Imperial Guard command sprue.

On the painting table

This, and an Imperial Guard Chimera are what I have on my painting table at the moment. Oh I've also got a partially destroyed tower to paint as well but that's fallen by the wayside as I can't decide what colours I want to use.

Once these three guys are finished, and the Chimera's painted I'll have two veteran infantry squads, a command squad and a Chimera. Not a bad start to my Imperial Guard Army.

real men don't need tripods

This is my Veteran Heavy Bolter Team.

I wanted them to look a bit different and as I had used the tripod from the Heavy Weapon kit on another model I produced a guy carrying the bolter, ready to fire from the hip. I basically cut the flamer of a cadian figure and fitted the bolter in its place. All in all I think it looks cool. The kneeling figure was made from parts from the Cadian Command Squad set.

Obviously I still need to finish the base with a bit of brown paint and scatter.