Damien 1427's Broad Collection of Tat

[Damien 1427]

I consider myself honest.

Truth be told, whilst I enjoy building things, I rarely have the inclination or confidence to paint. The other problem is the town I live in is kind of a dead end, and I've only really been able to attend gaming clubs recently, which meant that I haven't had the huge drive to get things done, drifting from one project to another as the whim took me. That was the fate of my last attempt at a plog, focusing on my Orks.

So, here will be where I try to keep up to date with the various bits and pieces I have, in a vain attempt to make a dent in my backlog of plastic, metal and resin. Don't expect amazing paint jobs or astounding conversions, but hopefully it'll help a few of you who, like me, have some ability, but not a huge amount of motivation.

The current to-do list:
Red - Unbuilt, not prepped, not undercoated and not based.
Yellow - Undercoated and awaiting actual painting.
Green - Painting has started.
Blue - Finished!

Callahan 44th Infantry - 40k Imperial Guard
Company Command
Colonel, Bodyguards x 2, Astropath, Master of Ordinance, Officer of the Fleet, Sister Hospitaller (Medic), Regimental Standard, Vox Officer and Veteran Specialist.
Storm Troopers
Count-as Sly Marbo
Legio Cybernetica Robot Maniple (Count-as Ogryns)
Commissars (4 x Commissars, 1 x needs tidying)
Priests (4 x Priests)
Tech-Priest Enginseer and Servitors x 5
Carapace Veterans with Shotguns
First Platoon
First Platoon Command
First Platoon 1st Squad
First Platoon 2nd Squad
First Platoon 3rd Squad
First Platoon 4th Squad
Sanctioned Psykers (x2) and Overseer

Nuln Gunnery School - WHFB Empire
Engineer on Mechanical Steed
Warrior Priest
Handgunner Marksman with Duelling Pistols
Imperial Maneater Ogre
Free Company Sergeant
Regimental Mascot
Halberdier Regiment
Handgunner Regiment
Mortar & Crew
Helstorm Rocket Battery & Crew

Chaos Space Marines
Prototype Chaos Space Marine/Warrior Conversion. Will expand further if successful.

Ultramarines Second Company
Captain and Command Squad
Tactical Squad 1
Tactical Squad 2
Tactical Squad 3
Tactical Squad 4
Tactical Squad 5
Tactical Squad 6
Assault Squad 1
Assault Squad 2
Devastator Squad 1
Devastator Squad 2
Dreadnought 1
Dreadnought 2

That's what I have in front of me now. I'll update with photos when I can, and as I go along, I'll add various other bits and pieces to this that aren't on the immediate horizon but glare at me accusingly when I go in hunt of bitz.

[juicytomatoes]

looking forward to seeing your pics. Welcome to the random boards!

[HereBeDragons]

For flitting between different projects at a whim, the random plogs is where you should be! You should certainly get encouragement from us here if you keep updating.

[Damien 1427]

Well, I suppose I should give you all an idea of what I’m up to and where it’s going. You can see where things are thanks to the WIP list, but they’re rather broad categories. Red goes anywhere from still in the cellophane to waiting for undercoat because the weather is awful and I can’t get any spraying done, and green goes from the first touch of a brush up through to not properly based or that I’ve neglected to glue the arms on. That happens more often than you’d imagine.


Here’s the Command Squad of First Platoon. As you can see, Pig Iron Kolony Militia heads on stock Cadians. The Lieutenant is a Pig Iron Kolony Militia Colonel with a regular head. The paintjob is a basic Calthan Brown, Catachan Green, Boltgun Metal, with a little Ultramarines Blue for optics and plasma guns, and a little Mechrite Red for wires and purity seals. Then a hefty dose of DEVLAN MUD. There’s a bit of Gryphon Sepia on the gasmasks to give them a slightly different tone, and some Asurmen Blue on the optics. The trenchcoat on the Lieutenant was a mix of 2:1 Chaos Black and Calthan Brown as a base, then 1:1 Chaos Black and Calthan Brown atop that, washed liberally with DEVLAN MUD and then, when dried, Badab Black. On, and the purity seal parchment and bandages are just Bleached Bone.
I kind of screwed up on the bases, and didn’t sort them out before the models were undercoated. So I just use plain Catachan Green and some GW flock, back from when they sold them in large tubs. For the first few squads, this’ll be the case. They were assembled and undercoated about a year ago, at a time when I didn’t have any PVA readily to hand.


DEVLAN MUD hides a multitude of sins.




And the whole of the platoon so far.


They’re the same scheme as the rest, but I will say I don’t know if I’ll have any further Carapace Veterans with shotguns. If I add any more, I’ll just spend the time and convert regular lasgun arms to fit the models. Yes, they’re Space Marine Scouts with Pig Iron Kolony Militia heads. No, the arms don’t always match up, which is why I’m looking at just upping some lasgun models next time. But if anyone else is thinking of using them for this purpose, go ahead. Just make sure the arms fit beforehand, and don’t glue them on after you’ve painted them. You’ll probably be forced to swear quite a great deal.


Yes, they’re Space Marine Scout Snipers with shortened barrels. I stole the idea from a project log on Warseer last year, although they have different Pig Iron heads (Kolony Inner Guard). They’re still in progress, although the plan is for dark colours on the armour, forest camo on the cloaks, and red optics (To differentiate from the regimental carapace armour squads). The projected scheme for the armour is 2:1 Chaos Black and Catachan Green, then 1:1 Chaos Black and Catachan Green, and finally 2:1 Catachan Green and Chaos Black as a highlight. A similar scheme for the cloth and metal (Replace Catachan Green with Calthan Brown and Boltgun Metal), and then some camo-cloaks. No, I don’t know how I’ll do that. In any case, the legs, weapons and bodies are separate from each other at the moment, for ease of painting.


Count-as Sly Marbo, although I have no idea what to call him. Just a Cadian Officer with a new head, bolt pistol and combat knife (Arms are… somewhere. I saw them earlier today), demolition charges and a Heavy Weapon Team backpack, painted in the same way as the Platoon Officer. I built him for a laugh, because whilst I really like the body and would have loved to use it as a base for regular Veterans, it’s not exactly easy to come by.

For the sake of space, and because the rest of the stuff is very early days, I’ll leave you with that.

[Damien 1427]

Well, it was a slow afternoon, so I stuck on some ITV3 reruns of Lewis and Poirot and got to work on my Stormtroopers.



Yes, they’re Space Marine Scout Snipers with shortened barrels. I stole the idea from totgeboren, whose Traitor Guard/Cthulhu Mythos Daemons/Word Bearers plog is a must-read for any aspiring Imperial Guard player (Loyalist or traitor!), although mine have different Pig Iron heads (Kolony Inner Guard).

The scheme is pretty basic, but the idea was to make them stand apart from the Carapace Veterans and regular troops, because they're centrally recruited and trained unlike the common footsloggers, hence the different helmets. The scheme is very dark, with the base cloth being 2:1 Chaos Black and Calthan Brown, the armour 2:1 Chaos Black and Catachan Green, and the metal 2:1 Chaos Black and Boltgun Metal. Then, as a second layer, an equal mix, then a 2:1 mix with Chaos Black the lesser part as a highlight. The optics and sights were Mechrite Red (To differentiate from the Callahan 44th), and the holsters, belts and pouches the same dark mix with Codex Grey and Chaos Black. The camo-cloaks were Dark Angels Green, then a camo-pattern of Bleached Bone, Calthan Brown and Chaos Black, based on the method of Admiral Drax. To cap it all, a wash of good old Devlan Mud, Badab Black on the belts and holsters, and Baal Red on the optics and sights.

All in all, I'm rather happy with them. Not how I hoped, and perhaps the very dark scheme didn't suit my attempts at improving technique, but they do stand out against the rest of the army whilst still having that common link to them. Also, I think the camo pattern needs a bit more work, so I'll probably shop around for other guides.

[Damien 1427]

Well, the good news is the majority of my Imperial Guard WIP is now undercoated and awaiting painting. Whilst fishing out some spare parts I managed to find an Enginseer and Servitors I must have bought a few years back, and to round off his squad I prepped a Pig Iron Kolony Task Droid as well. The Penitent Psykers are my Psyker Battle Squad, although right now I only have two. I may end up filling out the squad with WHFB Empire Flagellants, albeit heavily converted ones.

Right now, only the Colonel, Robot Maniple, Regimental Standard and Redemptionist Priests need additional work before I can undercoat them. The Colonel hasn't even been started. The first Robot is tidied, and just needs a few AdMech symbols and devotional parchments to round it off, and then I'll start working on drilling some holes in it and the base I have for it. The Regimental Standard and Priests need a bit of sculpting work, in the case of the Regimental Standard he needs a shoulder pad on his arm, and the priests need new heads (My spares are slightly too large).
The female Commissar, the Astropath and Uriah Jacobus all need to be stripped down, and I may try my hand at that this evening. So, right now, we're pretty much on target.

[juicytomatoes]

the pig iron heads on the cadian bodies look nice! For a large model count army like yours, Devlan Mud is indeed your friend.

Keep 'em comin!

[Damien 1427]

Well, a bit of movement. I managed to get the torsos of 3rd and 4th Squads finished, but their limbs are still WIP. It's a bad habit I have in regards to Imperial Guard.

On the upside, I managed to finish my Tech-Priest and his servitors.


The "official" models. I swapped out the Heavy Bolters in favour of Pit Slave weapon arms. I just prefer close-combat servitors, and if I'm honest, I don't like the design of the heavy weapon limbs.

The fifth servitor. It's Pig Iron Kolony Task Droid. I really like the model, but he does stand out. Sadly, you can only get them in packs with officers, so no chance of buying a whole group.

It's not a brilliant paint job, but I'm happy with it. In particular, I like the skin. But I really should have thinned the Badab Black a bit more when washing the bare metal. Still, hindsight. I'm starting on my Ministorium Priests and Commissars tomorrow.

[Damien 1427]

Well, I've managed to get a fair bit painted in the last few days. So I suppose I should show you.

Let's start with the Priests. I went with purple and gold to set them apart from the rank and file, and as much as I like crimson and cream, my Adeptus Mechanicus contigent are already in red and gold. It saves confusion.

The Inquisition Zealot. Love the giant gold Evicserator.


One of the Redemptionists. In the end, I went for the face masks from the kit.


The other, and whilst both have Imperial Guard sergeant laspistols, he has the chainsword hand from the Space Marine Captain.


The Arch-Confessor. A nice model, but I didn't do it justice.

The count-as Sly Marbo, which I'm tempted to call "Jenkins".

He's the plastic Cadian officer with a Space Marine Scout bolt pistol and combat knife, Heavy Weapon Team backpack, and a Pig Iron Kolony Militia helmet head.

And onto what parts of Company Command I've finished.

The Master of Ordinance, the Pig Iron Kolony Technical Advisor with an Inner Guard head. The two Necromunda Arbite Cyber-Mastifs are my Colonel's Bodyguards.


The Company Command Vox Officer, Plasma Gunner and Regimental Standard. I'd freehand a design, but I'm terrible at it. The banner is from the WHFB Empire State Troops.

And more of First Platoon.

First Platoon Third Squad. I tried out a few new techniques on 'em.


First Platoon Fourth Squad.


And everything that's assembled. Basically, everyone except the Colonel and my Raging Heroes Commissar. You may even catch a glimpse of my Officer of the Fleet, Hasslefree's Privateer Godwyn.

[Fusion]

This is quite a nice little painting log.

Can you please sculpt a 28mm coffee pic miniature. That is all I require from this thread.

[Damien 1427]

Can you please sculpt a 28mm coffee pic miniature. That is all I require from this thread.

The green stuff would burst into flames and the sculpting tool would break. Some things are not meant to be of this earth.

Maybe I could print it out as a count-as Wailing Banner for my WHFB Empire.

[Damien 1427]

It’s been a little while, but I’ve been a very busy chap. Those who’ve kept one eye on the list above may notice almost everything is finished, based and ready to die on the field due to my crap generalship. The Colonel is still sitting in bits, and I haven’t even begun to design my Maneater Ogre. I’ll probably start those next week, along with something… else. But without further ado, here’s what I’ve been working on.

The Company Command! Okay, so the Colonel still isn’t finished. Or even started. But his staff are done and dusted. You’ve seen the others, but here’s the rest.


The Medic, which is a Sister Hospitaller. My first serious attempt at painting white. Took a while, but I’m broadly happy with it. I kind of wish I’d waited for the new Ceramite White, but I’m still happy with my attempt.


The Astropath, which is a Daemonhunter/Witchhunter Mystic, now sadly out of production. I think I fluffed this one up. It may get stripped down again in the future for a third go. His scheme is more-or-less the same as the common Guardsmen.


The Officer of the Fleet, Privateer Godwin, from Hasslefree Miniatures. This is a brilliant miniature, and barely needed any work before I undercoated it. A simple enough scheme, and he stands out. He’s meant to, he’s Imperial Navy, not Imperial Guard.

The Commissars! As I’ve said, yes, I’m fortunate enough to own the rare female Commissar. The resin bases are from Scibor, and painted up with a vague attempt at sandstone (Basecoat of Snakebite Leather, drybrush with Bubonic Brown, then Desert Yellow, then Bleached Bone, and finally Skull White). Those were only rebased as it was too much hassle to try and stick them in a regular slotbase, and I had the resin ones sitting around for other projects.


Commissar One, with bolt pistol and a riding crop. No, I don’t want to know.


Commissar Two, a 2nd Edition one that was in the old days when one could have a power fist and power sword. He counts as having a power fist and bolt pistol.


Commissar Three, the female one. I was going for a weapon swap, but in the end I decided it was easier all-round just to count it as a Hot-Shot Laspistol.


Commissar Four, with power fist. I really like the pose for this, and I wish I could do it more justice.


The Robot Maniple! Which counts as Ogryns. The first is a Pig Iron War Droid with a few purity seals, and a head made out of a Tau Battlesuit Sensor. I don’t think I did a bad job, although it’s hardly stunning. I might try something more adventurous for the second one. It’s also on a Scibor base, painted in the same fashion as the Commissars.

The Penitents! Well, my Sanctioned Psykers. Two Penitent Psykers, and a Mistress of Repentance. I covered over her mouth because it helps made her look more sinister in the dark grey armour. I was lucky enough to pick up the Forge World 2012 Arbite Officer with Cyber-Mastiff, and I may end up using it as an Overseer. Either as an alternate model, or for a second squad of Penitent Psykers. I’ve plans for the rest, perhaps using WHFB Flagellants as a base.


The Overseer, which is a Mistress of Repentance with a little green stuff for a mouth-plate. Got to say I like the way the flame turned out. Not bad for a first try.


The Penitents. From a Witch Hunter boxed set, another wonderful model sadly taken out of production.

(Continued in the next post...)

[Damien 1427]

And now, my WHFB Empire. Which I started picking up before I had even heard the book was being reworked. Otherwise I would have built them as a Cannon and a Hellblaster, but what can you do? To shake things up, they’re all on snow bases to stand out from the black uniforms of the Nuln State Troops. The bases are same as the 40k stuff, but with a moderate brush of white, then covered with PVA and then dipped in snow flock, and edged in Codex Grey. Nice and simple.


The Engineer on Mechanical Steed! An amazing model, but it needed to be pinned. It’s great it’s now made in Finecast, even though the price has more than doubled. Good thing I’ll only ever need one.


Handgunner Marksman with Duelling Pistols! For another unit of Handgunners. I just like the model.


Freelancer Knight! Depending on my mood, he’ll either be a Free Company Sergeant or a Captain of the Empire. A wonderful model, full of character. It’s from Mordheim, and if he gets used as a Captain, I may paint up the mounted version as well.


Halberdier Regiment, led by Duellist! I like the Duellist models, which is why he’s stuck leading my Halberdiers. I did kind of fluff up assembling them all, but it was easy enough to paint. Just a grey/black mix which was then washed in black ink. Nice and easy. Also, because plastic standards are my personal bane, he’s weighed down with a washer.


Handgunner Regiment! These are what I started the Empire for. Why yes, one is missing an arm. No, I don’t know where it is.


The artillery crews. They’re painted up in the same way as the common troops. Partially to enforce a theme, partially because I’m lazy.


Comrade Bear! The Regimental Mascot, which is perhaps one of the few official unit fillers. They’re partially filler, but also a count-as Musician for State Troops.


Warrior Priest! He’s from the Blessing the Handgunner mini-diorama, and I do like that he stands out.


The Helstorm!


The Mortar! I may use the bits left over from the Mortar and Helstorm kits and try and build the Cannon and Helblaster too.

And that’s it. Whilst there is the Colonel, my Raging Heroes political officer, another Priest in the post, and the various little bits and pieces as prototypes or poor attempts at sculpting, where do I go from here? I’ve more than a few Space Marines to paint, and there is the Island of Blood set too. Still, whatever I work on next, I’ve done quite well I think.

[Damien 1427]

I will not lie, it's been a while.

My GW stuff stalled when I decided to get a spraygun (You'd be surprised at the amount of hassle I went through to get one) to save on a lot of the effort involved. Then you've the price rises, which killed any interest I have in playing Fantasy anytime soon stone dead, so I lost a lot of willpower to get things finished. Nevertheless, I will get them done. Just the stuff above is the last of what I'll be buying from GW any time soon.

In the mean time, I picked up a load of 15mm stuff cheap from around and about, for FUBAR and Gruntz. I picked up a pack of Rebel Minis Earth Force Marines (And a heavy weapon pack), along with a pack of Rebel Minis Titan Marines, and two packs of CAT mechs. And as Iron Sky was out, and because I'd wanted to paint white for quite some time, I painted the Earth Force Marines up as Moon Nazis. I kind of screwed up their CATs, so I'll do those later along with the Titan Marines (Who'll be entirely in black).


The whole lot of 'em.


Close up of some of the basic infantry.


The glorious leader, with an awful attempt at blonde hair.


And to show that they're Moon Nazis, the obligatory red armbands. I refrained from the swastikas for two reasons: One, I feel kind of off about actually painting an actual Nazi swastika even on something as silly as a Moon Nazi; Two, I'm too cack-handed for that kind of detail.

The scheme was black spray undercoat, followed by Uthulan Grey, black ink wash, Uthulan Grey again, and then if you're feeling fancy White Scar highlights (Which they may one day all get). The guns are just black, Eshin Grey, Dawnstone and then a black wash. The visors are straight black with a gloss varnish over it. And the armbands are just Mephiston Red. The officer was just Elf Flesh with an Ogryn Flesh wash, and his hair was a Casandora Yellow wash over pure white, followed by a Lamenters Yellow glaze. It's a bit too dye-job for my tastes.
The bases were Astrogranite followed by a Longbeard Grey wash. I'm not entirely sold on the Texture paints, I think I may go back to the traditional method of glue and sand before undercoating in the future, but I'll try out the snow set on my Titan Marines.

They were the first 15mm models I've ever painted, and I enjoyed the experience. They're not that much more fiddly than 28mm, and it just feels like you can get away with a lot more at this size, in regards to mistakes. Whether I'll expand my little platoon of Moon Nazis is up in the air, but I certainly intend to pick up more stuff in the future. The prices are certainly more palatable than 28mm.

[Damien 1427]

Well, here we go again.
This isn’t my first attempt at building tinboys, although so far, it’s been the most successful. To cut a long story short, I keep wanting to build a Dreadmob, as seen in the Imperial Armour list, but part of that is a mandatory squad of Boyz. And life being as it is, it wouldn’t hurt to have enough of those boyz hanging around should I need to field a codex army. But I don’t want to field just regular Boyz, oh no. I want an entirely mekanikal army of tinboyz, runtbotz, dreadz and kanz! So this is really chronicling my attempts at getting that concept down, the simple count-as Shoota Boy. Get that out of the way and the rest will fall into line easily.

The Mark One
The Mark One is my first attempt, this time around, at the robot ork. The idea was something simple, easy to make, didn’t require a huge amount of materials, could potentially be cast up in resin for personal use, didn’t use any pre-made bitz, and most of all, would be easy to tell it’s meant to be a Shoota Boy. To be honest, I failed. Oh, it was easy to make and didn’t use a huge amount of parts, all of which bar the rivets were made by myself out of plasticard/rod. But it was too big. It’s a shade larger than Mega Armour, so odds are, should the Mark One ever take to the field, it’ll be used as a Meganob. I suppose something to consider for the future, when I come to building Slasha-Nobz or Meganobz.


The first stage, without any detailing. The original idea was to give it a chainsaw-type choppa-arm, but this was ditched on the grounds of fiddlyness and the fact I couldn’t be bothered making another engine. As you can see from later pictures, it just became a very large blade.


The individual components all laid-out, after detailing.


With the legs attached, ready for painting. At the time of writing, it’s been undercoated and hopefully I’ll have it painted if the weather gets a bit more compliant.

So, what will I be taking away from the Mark One?

• Build smaller. Much smaller.
• The Mark Two will definitely have a pelvis/crotch below the main torso, where the legs can attach to, rather than bolting onto the side of the main box-like body.
• A separate head might be something if I can build a decent one.

The Mark Two was scribbled as I built the Mark One, and it’s not so much a refinement as a different idea entirely. But that’ll be when it happens.

[Damien 1427]

And the Mark One painted, with comparison shot.

[HereBeDragons]

On the bright side you've come up with an awesome (and cheap!) way of making meganobz!

[biginbelgium]

Wow , I am impressed. That is a very nice guard army. Keep it up!

cheers
Tim

[Purplebeard]

Whoa - you have painted a lot. An impressive lot.

[Damien 1427]

Well, the Mark Two has been built. Hurrah.


Like last time, it's almost entirely built from scratch. Only the rivets on the jaw are pre-made. The hand was originally a bit of sprue. The rest is plasticard/rod. And a hell of a lot of plastic cotton bud tubes. As an aside, I'd advise against using them, at least the Sainsburys ones I used. They're too thin to form a connection, and have a bad habit of falling off and not making a solid connection despite being left for ages.


From behind.


As components. I did go a bit mad on the rivets this time around, but it certainly helps.


Comparison shot. It fits, so it could happily fit into a mob. Or be the start of a new one.

All in all, not that bad. I'll try and get it painted if the weather holds. No promises.