Ragsta returns to the Imperium

[Ragsta]

SO. So. I'm going to bite the bolt shell and do this - I'm going to share my hobby again.

Back in the mists of time Warseer was the first miniature hobby forum I discovered as a youngling. It was also the first place where I shared pictures of my hobby and exchanged banter and toy soldiers with anonymous sprites on the interweb. University happened and my updates became exceedingly rare. Warseer also got rather comprehensively nuked by a series of unfortunate events - its own version of Old Night and the Cicatrix Maledictum. As a consequence I fell out of the habit, and when I finally returned all my old sprite chums were long gone - the astropathic ducts dead and transponder beacons silent. I miss them and hope they are all in a better place

I had developed a rather annoying self conscious aversion to posting pictures of my stuff - I felt my photo skills were painfully bad and my models were looking like assorted squig dung piles. This has since been diagnosed as Heavy Metal Syndrome (for those of you who have access to the relevant Inquisitorial archives the more modern description may be classed as Get Over Myself - Life Is Short). I am now ready to do it anyway.

My old threads are still here, and recently I went back through the dust and cobwebs of the ancient crypts to repair all the links and pictures where I could. Warseer has done alot for my hobby and the least I could do is reboot my old stuff in the hope it will help entertain and encourage others.

That's it! Thanks for bearing with me! I don't have any concrete goals and my updates will likely be irregular but I hope people like what they find, and any and all comments gratefully received!


Kind regards

Ragsta

[Ragsta]

The fact that I'm posting Primaris models on my new thread amuses me. I'm a somewhat veteran of 2nd edition, and was fading out of the gaming aspect by the time 3rd edition came along. I like any game system that flows relatively quickly these days - if the latest edition is doing this then all power to 'em! I just wish the fluff had taken a different direction re. these latest models. I picked some up cos they were going cheap and I wanted some Marines that were actually 'truescale' against my other forces. Going forward I would use older marks of helmet and the original boltguns and backpacks to try and ground them in the older background. I worked hard to get some weathering on the armour, which came out kind of okay. The photo set up is also a first for me! Some of the colour and details are a bit washed out and lost but I'll work on it, and I do like the overall outcome. Hope you like




Of those 400 men
Only 4 would come home again
Regardless of faith and how hard they trained
Only bitterness and doubt remain

[Muette]

Man, those look amazing. Hope you stick to Warseer updates, the start looks great!

[Captain Brown]

Welcome back Ragsta.

A new thread is a fresh start.

Cheers,

CB

[Ragsta]

Muette - that is rich praise indeed coming from you, sir! You are too kind but thank you anyway I am learning lots - I won't change the Marines picture now but I think I would do things differently next time.

Captain Brown- thank you, Captain! I am using this opportunity to sort out my current projects and touch up a series of things, it's been good giving them some extra love.

I am stuck indoors due to a certain illness in the household. Happily this means I can see about further updates sooner than I'd planned!
I always enjoy reading the bestiary section in the ancient Rogue Trader rule book. Lots of strange flora and fauna to fire up the imagination for a sci fi universe! Inspired by this, here are some terrain pieces my sister very kindly gifted me several Christmases ago:



Definitely still learning - this shot used daylight instead of artificial lighting. Out of whimsy I continued to dabble with photograph effects and I like where they're going so far.
I ended up using the sponging method for the bulk of painting these and I quite enjoyed it - pleasantly therapeutic slopping paint on some man eating plant matter!
Come to think of it, I wonder if these colours would work for Orks? Maybe some day.

[Captain Brown]

Ragsta,

Those plants are...disturbing.

Cheers,

CB

[Codsticker]

Great to have you showing your work here again Ragsta. The photos look great; whatever effects you are using seem to be working well, suiting the subject.

[Ragsta]

Codsticker - Thank you very much, I really appreciate it. I am very glad to be adding to Warseer again I am slowly grasping some photo stuff that passed me by in earlier times but we'll see what happens. The beauty of editing

Captain Brown - Haha yes, they are rather weird! Someone was asking me about them on the gallery but unfortunately I can't find out where they came from at all. I think it's a resin terrain maker on evilBay but my searching powers are weak. I have other weird plants and beasties to come

One of the first forces that came to be for me was a rather rag tag force of Imperial Guard comprised of very hard plastic troopers from Prinz August miniatures. I was able to get something like 80 of them for £20. This coincided with the release of the first GW layer paints and washes (Charadon Granite and Devlan Mud era!!). My original Warseer thread had multiple units created back then thanks to the ease of assembly and ease of painting. Years went by, the warp grew in strength yet I couldn't seem to shake my fondness for the 'Flexberg 17th Infantry Regiment'. The background and painting style has evolved steadily from its original form. I will be showcasing all of what I have here and performing some wee touch ups as I go along. I hope you like what comes.



Recruited from the industrial slums and urban sprawls of Flexberg, the Flexberg 17th Infantry was assigned to 4th Army Group under Lord General Menelaus as part of the Augustine Crusade forces.


One of many patrols winkling out rebel fighters in an unidentified township. Primarily composed of former gang members and habworkers, the fledgling regiment could count on a certain level of combat experience among it's officers and men. This was offset by disciplinary issues caused from an ingrained distrust of ‘outworlders’ that would quickly earn the regiment a prickly reputation.

[Lost Egg]

I'm liking the dark and gritty vibe.

[Mr joeingtons]

Echoing lost egg I think that the gritty atmosphere is very interesting, really like the weathering on the primaris marines.

[Ragsta]

Lost Egg - Thank you, sir, I'm glad you are getting something out of these posts! I like dark and gritty too, I'm really pleased you're picking up on that as I didn't want my eventual force of Guardsmen too come through as too polished.

Mr Joeingtons - Thank you very much, I'm glad you like the weathering. I took an inordinate amount of time working on those 4 and it felt like my eyes were bleeding by the end haha!

So I had planned to post some more IG but I need the time to get some larger group shots set up. In the meantime I have more exotic flora to distract you with!



I am not mad. I know I am not. Because I saw them! Plants the size of men! Plants that ate men!! When the others return they will tell you the same!!

These are Triffids from CP Models. I like to paint up random beasties that I could potentially use for random encounters or even as background pieces on the tabletop - at a pinch these could be used as rather bizarre scatter terrain! Random models like this are also a really nice palette cleanser after slogging through a squad of infantry.

These models were lovely and I based the paint scheme on some Leopard plants that rather resentfully live with us. There are other plant monsters in various online places and I'm pondering adding to these using the not Triffids from Crooked Dice...

[Lost Egg]

Had my eye on those minis for a while and you've done a nice job on them sir.

[Codsticker]

Yeah, love the colour choices- great looking carnivorous plants.

[Ragsta]

Lost Egg - Oh you should get some, they are very nice models! As I said, I may well end up getting some of the Crooked Dice ones too.

Codsticker - Thank you so much! They took a wee bit of time but I was pleased with the outcome.






3rd platoon led by Lieutenant Grunled, part of the 19th Company Flexberg 17th Infantry Regiment. 3rd platoon carried the company's heavy bolters with them and operated in a fire support role for their companions. These pictures show their heavy weapons being carried by certain individuals of either great strength or augmented supporting body armour. It is very unlikely they would have been fired in this manner, however.

Much of the original equipment for the Flexberg belonged to the recruits themselves, with a modicum of Munitorum supervision to ensure standardised ammunition types and spares. The Commissariat found that indoctrination of the new recruits went more smoothly if they were permitted to retain certain original possessions like these. Integration of rival gangs was another matter entirely.

I don't want to bombard you lot with picture after picture of Poor Bloody Infantry but at the same time I feel like it's only fair that my weary Guardsmen get their moment in the spotlight!

I never intended to create so many infantry for this force but it seemed to develop organically. Many somewhat whimsical side projects ended up getting integrated into the project - so abortive Necromunda gangers along with zombie apoc survivors all ended up pressed into service by the Commissars!

3rd platoon uses the spot colour of yellow and many bald heads as it's 'accents'. I've made an effort to introduce different ideas like this to each of my platoons to help give them some sense of identity and hint at some vestiges of their past as gangers and other rabble.

Thanks for looking

[Codsticker]

Some really nice kit bashing there Ragsta.

[Captain Brown]

Cool work there Ragsta.

Cheers,

CB

[Cinelongs]

fantastic some are very detailed, I would like to have some collection, I am just an amateur but I enjoy seeing how you collect.

[Ragsta]

Codsticker - Thank you sir! There are very many kits mixed into my Guardsmen, I've used loads of the Wargames Factory Shock Troopers with different heads and weapons, plus there are some Space Marine Scouts, randome IG metals and plastics and Schaeffers Last Chancers scattered amongst the company. It would be nice to have a clean cut and uniform force some day but I like the organic and rag tag look the 19th Company has developed.

Captain Brown - Thanks, Captain! I appreciate the kind words alot.

Cinelongs - Hello Cinelongs! Thank you very much, I really appreciate it! I am still very much an amateur too. Do you have any projects yourself? I'd love to see them!





So I have been working on some very random alien gribblies for some random encounter types in sci fi and post apoc.
I'll be brutally honest - I did not enjoy these sculpts AT ALL. The clean up was very bad for me and the finished job not my best work but at least they are done, and now I know to be more careful when I buy models on a whim!

I don't mind buying minis out of whimsy sometimes but this particular experience has made me reconsider the way my projects stand. I have 40 infantry I was GOING to use as a wee stand alone platoon but now I am going to fold them into my Flexberg as reinforcements because I know I will enjoy the painting scheme!


Emperor save me, even the picture is bad haha! Oh well, at least the miniature mountain has been reduced

[Captain Brown]

Ragsta,

Keep fighting the pile of shame.

Cheers,

CB

[Ragsta]

Thanks Captain!

++M42.037 Augustine Crusade - Imperial fleet assets under Admiral Krenzler launched strikes against orbital defences in the Minos system among several others. The INS Victory, Rampart and Dominion participated in each of these actions.++





These are some of the oldest models in my collection. One of my goals for 2020 was to finish off and update my Imperial fleet - usually my tweaking paint jobs and tidying up odds and ends. The nice thing about this thread is it helps encourage me to do so! I have also given each of my ships a nameplate from the excellent people at Versatile Terrain. The Imperial Navy is not free from vanity it seems

I will continue to post the Navy as I go along, and I will include some backstory from the Augustine Crusade background that the mighty Apologist has been pioneering here. The same goes for my Imperial Guard, which I've already started doing a little of.

Thank you for looking everyone