The Praetorian 16th Make Ready for War.

[Student]

Hello Warseer,

10(ish) years ago when I was (about) 12, I purchased some Mordian Iron Guard because they looked cool. However it quickly became apparent that a full army would take me a very long time to acquire due to the fact that metal guardsmen are expensive in money and cheap in points, so I got one squad and then went back to my Dark Angels army. Since then they have been taken out every so often and had their colour scheme changed and had a few more units added though I don't think they have ever been used in a game. Recently I felt that I should do something about this and dug them out of their box. Once again I have decided on a new colour scheme but this time I'm going to change them from Mordian Iron Guard into the much cooler Praetorian Guard, using my primitive green stuff skills to sculpt pith hats onto them. Hopefully this time the army will finally be finished and played with.

So without further ado, here are the first two troopers of the Praetorian 16th.



The green bases are only temporary and will be changed once I have decided on a basing style and the guardsman on the left is going to have his belt pouches repainted to be like the guardsman on the right. Other than that I think these two are done.

The rest of this squad have had their pith hats sculpted and will hopefully be painted soon. I've also started converting some rough riders.

Thanks for reading.

C&C welcome.

[Tomxj]

lovely! Its All about metal guard imo and you've certainly done them justice.

On the topic of rough riders have you seenthese guys by Victoria Lamb?

regards

Tom j

[Kirth]

The classic models hold a lot of nostalgia for me as they were the models that got me into Warhammer 40k and I was inducted straight into the Imperial Guard. I have always been a bit bothered that the Praetorians were a limited release. I think you've done a great job representing them with Mordians. I can't wait to see your rough riders.

[Galvatron1701]

Very nice sir, good to see another Praetorian blog.

Have you seen these:

http://colgravis.blogspot.com/p/prae...-for-sale.html

[baphomael]

Very nice sir, good to see another Praetorian blog.

Have you seen these:

http://colgravis.blogspot.com/p/prae...-for-sale.html

Those will be eminently useful for my Napoleonic guard.

[Student]

Thanks for the replies and thanks for the links to the rough riders by Col. Gravis and Victoria Lamb. I'm going to try making my own first, as I'm enjoying the challenge, but if they turn out rubbish I'll fall back on one of those.

Thanks again for your comments.

[_Si_]

Cool more Praets, keep fighting the good fight

Will be interested to see where you go with them, there being so little actual official stuff people tend to go in wildly different directions.

[punkfish]

There must be something in the water - all of these Praetorian blogs popping up.

Nice conversions and the colour scheme is pulled off very well.

Looking forward to what you've got planned next.

[Student]

@_Si_ and punkfish: Thank you. There are quite a few Praetorian logs but like you say they all seem to have something different about them. I hope I can live up to this and make a unique looking army.

So it’s been about a week and there has been a little progress. Firstly I've got another three guardsmen painted. The painting is going slower than I'd like but hopefully I'll speed up with practice. Here's what the squad looks like now:



I've also started work on my rough riders. I want to create a unit that looks a bit like this picture from the cover of the box of Risk that I've had since before I played Warhammer which looks like this:



My unit are going to have pith hats instead of the hats on the box and spears instead of sabres but I hope to capture the overall feel. Here are some early work in progress shots:





As you can see he's held together with Blu-Tack. Also I made the saddle before I had the legs and I guessed the size wrong so I need to make it a bit bigger.

Any feedback you can give me on this would be great as I want this unit to end up looking really good and it’s easier to change things now rather than later.

That's all for now. Thanks for reading.

[punisher_1983]

you gotta love the Praetorian Roughriders.

Have you seen Col. Gravis's website?
hes made some pretty damn good moulds of Praetorian Roughriders, and he designed some pith helmet heads.
i got 5, and 5 Bretonian Horses from E-Bay.
they look amazing.

[Col.Gravis]

Looks like a very nice start you've made there Student, your managing to do the helmets very consistantly as well, and I know how fustrating that is (that fustration was the origin of the Secret Weapon Pith Heads).

The rider looks very nice so far, based on the Scots Greys is a good look, are you going to give them Epualettes or go for a heavier looks with armoured shoulder pads, perhaps even Carapace? Regarding the torso, rather then resculpting as you are there, have you thoguht about using the one from the tank accessory sprue, if you ask around I'm sure you could lay your hands on enough for a dress uniform look.

[Student]

@punisher_1983: Yes I have seen Col. Gravis's site and if I make a massive mess of my own rough riders I'll definitely get some of his.

@Col. Gravis: Thanks for the complements and thanks for adding a link to this on your blogspot. I'm sure the consistency on the pith hats is luck but hopefully it holds out. I followed your tutorial to make them so thanks for that as well.

They are based on the Scots Greys, the painting "Scotland Forever!" is very similar to the cover of my box of Risk and is another source of inspiration. I am going to go for epaulettes, the model currently has shoulder pads because I haven't gotten round to removing them from the Cadian arms yet. I won’t be doing carapace as I want to keep as much red on them as possible and armour would hide it. I think I am using the tank accessory torso, is that the unarmoured one with the aquilla on the right hand side of the chest?

[anselminus]

nice work if you are interressed you can find mass praetorian bits here

http://www.victorialamb.com/store.html

it's a real nice webstore and sculpt i make heavy weapon and riders with them

regards

[Master Beleth]

Primitive green stuff skills? They look great. At first I actually thougt they were Preatorians.

Love the Rough Rider so far and I think he'll look great in the bear skin hat.

[Loki73]

Nice work so far! I like this. Thinking I may do black watch with pith. Keep em coming!

[Student]

@anselminus: Thanks and thanks for the link.

@Master Beleth: Thank you, I'm glad you think so.

@Loki73: Pith hated black watch would be awesome. I look forward to seeing them if you go for it.

So this project kind of got put on a back burner as I need to get my Scottish savage orcs ready for a doubles tournament in May. I have however got a little bit of stuff done. Here are my first two rough riders ready to paint.



Looking at the photos the banner needs a bit more sanding but other than that I think that I happy with them.

Any and all comments and criticisms are welcome.

[Saardis]

Nice greenstuff work. Have you tried making a press-mould to do the pith helmets they're wearing?

Alternatively, you could get something like these:

http://shop.ramshacklegames.co.uk/in...roducts_id=213

[Galvatron1701]

Those riders are very good, what colour are you planning on doing their uniforms?

[Student]

@Saardis: Thanks. I haven't tried making a press mould of the pith hats. I've tried making press moulds of other things and not been very sucessful so I've stuck to sculpting the pith hats one at a time.

@Galvatron1701: Thank you. I'm planning to paint them like the infantry with red jackets, blue trousers, yellow trim and white hats.

[Magot]

Outstanding GS works !
I wish I could do that.