68th Praetorian Light Infantry - British Napoleonic Imperial Guard

[nedius]

WARNING!!

Veeeeeerrrry sloooooow project ahead!

Hi all!

This will be my very long winded, slowly updated project log. To give you a vague idea of how long I'm talking about my inital 'have it all built and painted by' date is 18th June 2015 (virtual cookie to anyone who knows why). Although, a more appropriate date might be the 27th February 2014, but there you go.

Some may recognise some of this stuff from quite a long time back. Just goes to show how slow I mean. I hope that by recording my work here, it will help manitain motivation to get this done!



Project Aim:

This is both a modeling and gaming project. The modelling aim is to create a 1500 - 2000 point all infantry Imperial Guard army themed around a British Napoleonic force. Every unit must be justifiable based upon that idea, even if modified to fit the 40k universe. So no tanks, no flyers. Just infantry, heavy weapons (and then only specific kinds) and cavalry.

Each model will be extensively converted from GW original models as far as is possible, and will need to both appear Napoleonic and 40k. A tough balance to strike!

After the inital army is complete, the 'gaming' project begins. It will represent a newly raised IG regiment, under the guidance of a Praetorian officer, who learn with each battle, adapting their Napoleonic style army and tactics to something more 40k appropriate. After each game or two, I'll buy and add in one or more new items - it could be something simple like getting some special weapons in the squads, to something bigger like tanks as they are 'requisitioned'.

Anyway, to introduce it, here is the test miniature in it's initial and current form!



Even this isn't entirely reflective of the end product I'll have. The musket-styled lasgun is now longer, more in keeping with the length of a Napoleonic musket. However, my ability to create a more accurate capbadge and rosette has improved, and I've finished the legs.


Current State

At the moment, I've already got a good amount of work done. I'm close to having about 1/4 of the work on the infantry done, over 1/2 the work on the cavalry, and 1/6 of the way to having the artillery done. I'll not post all the pics today, but will post 'work already done' pics along with update to WIP pics.

However, as a bit of a 'teaser', here's the collection of many of the finished and WIP components. Close ups and detailed notes will come in later posts.

[Galvatron1701]

Very, Very nice! Love the Shako!

[Far Seer]

Great start! Loving the green stuff work on the helmet!

More please

[nedius]

Ok, so today I did a little bit of work on some legs.

A bit of explanation - I'm pretty much working on a 'making components' basis, rather than squads. My crazed reasoning for this is that I'll be able to focus on each bit of sculpting work at a time to ensure consistancy in appearance, and wont have to keep remembering how I did it... I'm currently working on 30 pairs of legs. Today, I added a second gater to 10 sets of legs, then had to give up as I'm shattered. No good reason, just am!


So you can see what I'm aiming for, here's one I did earlier...



They are made from the Cadian legs. The upper parts of the boots and all the pouches have been cleaned away, and the coat tails resculpted to look like a tail coat, rather than tails that go all the way around.

The gaiters are sculpted on, including a few plastic buttons added - you can see them on the rear view. Once that is done, the bottom of the trousers need sculpting over the gaiters, leaving the two buttons visible at the base of the foot. The above legs are finished.

So here are the WIP ones. Each stage has to be done seperately, to allow the greenstuff to set.

They started off with one gaiter already done:



And ten now have two:



Only 20 or so to go... It's a long job. Each stage takes about an hour per 10 legs. So these 30 or so will have taken 15 hours or more when complete. And that's just the legs...


Anyway, in today's 'work already done' section, here is a detail shot of an infantryman without arms, so you can see the torso clearly.



The capbadge is a little off-center, annoyingly, but as he's just one 'grunt' amongst what will be over 100, I'm not too worried. On the torso itself, you can see the straps for the backpack passing by the blank spaces for the arms, and the two crossbelts. The button lacing is just paper thin plasticard. I used this rather than greenstuff for the sake of consistancy of size. It worked well, so will do that with all the torsos. The majority of which I have yet to start...

[Kravunhive]

Very nice work, I love these type of projects and hope you can keep the momentum going. I'm interested in what you've done with the Cavalry, do you have any more photo's of those?

[Student]

Looks great so far. I'd also like to see more photos of your cavalry. I'll definitely be following this.

[Bilmengar]

Great Idea, and great conversions. Have to admit, most of my knowledge about that Era comes from Napoleon: TW (and some Wikiwalking after playing...), but fascinating nonetheless. FRFSRF seems to be made for them

Subscribed. Really looking forward to what else you come up with

[nedius]

So, today was just more gaiters... so no new post-worthy pics. So instead, let's look at cavalry, as requested!



This is the image that is inspiring my cavalry. Napoleonic British Dragoons. I chose dragoons over hussars for reasons of modeling practicality. The uniform of British Hussars was incredibly intiricate and detailed - way beyond my current ability to convert and sculpt. Dragoons, however, have plain, straightforward uniforms which are easy to convert. The heads of the Empire Pistoleers, for example, are almost an exact match for dragoon helmets.

The bitz list for the dragoons are:

Empire Pistoleer horse
Empire Pistoleer heads
Resulpted Cadian torso
Resculpted Cadian arms (gunner arms to hold the reins, mortar shell arm as a base for the sword arm)
Resculpted Marauder horsemen body (see below)
Greyknight falcions (again, see below)


The British cavalry didn't use lances, so I've decided mine will not be modelled with lances. I didn't want them to have chainswords, either, as that would be too impractical a weapon. This leaves me with a dilemma, my whole cavalry now appear armed with power swords... which they can't be... So I'm not yet 100 sure how to diferentiate powerswords and none-powerswords. I'm thinking about backpacks with cables to the swords to show they are powered. Any suggestions would be much appreciated!

Anyway, the cavalry legs are made from the marauder horsemen bodies:



The body is cut away, and the detail on the legs removed, leaving the boots (boot cuffs cleaned off though), the stirrups and the detail at the back turned into the tails of the coat. I have step by step shots, if anyone is particularly interested.

When the bits are all combined, you get this:



Here's a close up of just one of them:



I'll post a pic of all nine with my next post. They aren't finished... They still need the saddle-rolls and other equipment added, and the hair plumes on the helmets. I need to learn how to do that first...

[muggs]

This plog is awesome, I assume you must have read some of the Sharp books then! Footsloggers are looking wicked!

Just one point - the British Army did use lancers, in fact their descendant regiments are still in existence.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Queen%27s_Royal_Lancers

[nedius]

This plog is awesome, I assume you must have read some of the Sharp books then! Footsloggers are looking wicked!

Just one point - the British Army did use lancers, in fact their descendant regiments are still in existence.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Queen%27s_Royal_Lancers

not quite. Lancers were first introduced into the british army after the napoleonic wars.

For example, one of the regiments that formed the Queens Royal Lancers, the 16th, were converted to lancers in 1816, the year after the end of the war. Prior to that they were the 16th royal dragoons... all the more reason why my dragoon choice is appropriate!

Insidently, when I get round to doing my veterans, they will be representing the rifles. Not sure I'll be able to resist modelling in a Sharpe and Harper!

[muggs]

Fair enough, I thought I could remember something about Lancers in one of the Sharp books, but then I havent read any of them for about 10 yrs so I'm probably wrong!

I'd be quite happy to see your progress shots of the Dragoons!

[nedius]

The allies of the British did use lancers, so I could have done some Prussians, but I wanted to stick to a british force.

Will get some of the dragoon WIPs when I begin on the final 11 (two squads of ten in final army). I'll load up some images of all 9 of the current ones soon.

Anyway, still cracking on with legs. I've got 7 left to do in this batch, so might get those done later this evening. then I can finish the trousers legs next couple of days.

[nedius]

Right, well all the gaters are done, and I've begun sculpting the trouser legs over the top. I've completed 5 sets entirely, and begun doing single trouser legs on the remaining sets. Once that is done, I'll have 35 sets of legs complete, added to the 13 models already done, will give me the legs I need to make my first 400pt and 500pt armies. To give you an idea of how long term this really will be, my 1500pt army requires 145 sets of legs. So, once this batch is done, only 97 to go...

Anyway, here they are, all the leg components. I have done some more work this morning that's not shown yet.



On to 'work already done', and I'll finish off with the cavalry. Here's some shots of the 9 I have so far;







As I said before, these are not complete. They need additional equipment added and the hair plumes added to their helmets.

[nedius]

Ok, I've managed to do quite a lot of work the last two days, so I'll bring things up to date. This means that it may be a while before many new pics are posted, as it'll be a while again before I can put so much work into them.

Anyway, the component production is going along slowly. These are the legs I'm currently working on:



The top two rows are completed and are now just drying, the lower rows still need the last trouser leg sculpting into place.

I've also made a good number of my 'las-muskets', what I term the 'New Land Pattern "Brown Bess" Lasgun', after the most common weapon used by the British Light Infantry during the Napoleonic wars.



I've cleaned a bunch of torsos, ready for redecoration:



and have begun decorating them. I've added the shoulder straps to the ones seen below.



I've also been adding capbadges and rosettes to some of the heads.

[Commitz]

Really impressive sculpting work here. I've had ideas that involved converting loads of plastic cadians before but never would I have considered going through with them due to the amount of work involved. Respect well and truly earnt here

[rcal13]

this is loooking great !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Keep at it. I really hope to see this army make to to table ready.

[Razerz]

Holy crap! That's some dedicated sculpting. Great work!

[nedius]

Ok, today I finished off adding the shoulder straps, the chest strap and the button laces.

They don't look great at the moment... but once the buttons and cross belts have been added it all falls into place.



To prove it, here is something that has helped keep me going.



My first squad is coming together! There is still work to be done on each model, but the overall effect is, in essence, there.

[Corvussanctus]

Looking very good these guys!
I have only one suggestion, and that would be to at least halve the hight of the gun stock. Then the guns will look more sleek, and more wieldable.
Here is a picture to show what i mean:

[Whitetip]

Really cool project mate and looking awesome so far. I'm looking forward to seeing how some of the more obviously '40k' elements work with the Napoleonic vibe and I can only hope the resoundingly positive feedback keeps you motivated!