Who wants to name a tank?

Well, I promised some better pictures of my Veteran squad, and so here they are!

Even though they're not quite finished, with just little bits of detail here and there to do (facial hair, aquila's, etc) I'm really pleased with the results. The three plasma gunners were converted from the Forgeworld Cadian Hazardous Environment troopers, and it was very simple to do a head swap, and even manage to salvage the top part of their backpacks to use as demo charges! All that's left to do now is to paint the squad's vox caster and Autocannon team.

I've also finally 'bit-the-bullet' and painted a tank for these men - the first tank I've painted for a long time, as I've never managed to paint one to a standard that I'm happy with... Until now.

And here we have my Plasma-cutioner! Again, this tank isn't quite finished, with just some scorch marks to add around the barrel of the main gun, and to also add some decals to give it some character, but as I've never been any good with painting tanks before, I'm really happy. I'm also really pleased with the plasma coils, which have come out really well. I will be painting some plasma cannons for the sponsons to replace the multi-meltas, as there's nothing more terrifying than 5 Plasma cannon blasts coming from this tank in a turn!

Here's a question for all of you though - what should I call this beasty? And here's some more piccies.

All the best,

Dan

Finally, some time for me! (And my models)

Well, the missus has taken my son on holiday with her family for the week (I couldn't go because of work commitments) and so I've finally got some time to get some serious painting done! I'm planning on finishing my veterans squad and company command this week, and also start painting a Leman Russ Plasma-cutioner.

Slight problem though... I've gone to take some pictures, and realised my wife has taken the camera with her! gah! So, apologies for the quality of the pictures, their from a camera phone. I promise I'll take some better ones once she's back.

I've pretty much finished the sergeant and three 'wound counters' (as I call them) though I do need to highlight up the pith helmets with dheneb stone.

The weapons aren't really doing it for me though. I'd struggled with picking a colour and settled on a wooden-style look, but I don't think it looks right. Any suggestions for an alternative?

I've also converted 3 Cadian Hazardous Environment plasma gunners into Praetorians, using a simple head swap and by trimming off the respirator unit, whilst leaving the plasma ammo canister intact.

Once again I need some help with the colour of the weapons, and also, How do you think I should paint the canisters on the backs? I was thinking metal, as white would just blend into the body armour. Or, I could always paint them the same colour as the guns.

As always, any comments or criticisms are really appreciated! Plus it should help keep me motivated on posting more often!

Best, Dan

wow... It';s been a while...

The 7th March to be exact! That's a surprising (and quite shameful) 5 months without a post on my blog, and for that, I am sorry. Unfortunately the combination of the final year of my degree, raising a toddler and helping my partner start her degree, not to mention working, has put a serious burden on my hobby time. Fortunately, now that its Summer I can try and go back to what I'd started - building my Praetorian regiment!

Now some of you will have already seen my (much) earlier posts, I had pretty much finished a squad of guardsmen, and painted my company commander, General Melchett. You may have also seen my annoyance at the size difference between the older metal models, and the new plastic ones. Because of that, I decided to sell my old metal Praetorians and build a new scale regiment from scratch... and here's what I've done so far!

I will write some fluff to explain why their wearing body armour, and I have to admit, I'm not fond of the white helmet I've given the sergeant, so I'll probably paint them the same as my earlier ones - a 'tea-stained' look. I've got some parts from Forgeworld arriving in the next couple of days to help me build some special weapons for them to wield, plus more heads from Secret Weapon Miniatures (sculpted by Col. Gravis) arriving around the same time, as well as a spare heavy weapon ready and waiting to join the ranks. hopefully I should get them finished rather quickly, so I can use them in large game I have coming up.

I'll try and post more often from now on, but I do want to say thank you to all of you who're following my blog! I'll try not to disappoint!

I'm Alive!

Hello everyone! Yes, I am in fact still alive!

Firstly, an apology for not updating my blog recently - the combination of uni work, a wife doing the same, and a teething baby have left me very little time for painting!

Secondly, another apology for the very little painting I have done, as it's not on my praetorians! I've been involved in a little painting challenge with a friend of mine - who can paint their monstrous creature in a week! I've got until Wednesday to finish, so here's how it is so far:

The Griffon is mostly done, with just the wings (and that damn annoying bit of paint on one of its's claws! grr!) to do, and to finish off the rider, but I'm pretty pleased with the results tbh! You may notice Gen. Melchett running away in the background... that's simply because he's finished now, and didn't want his newly painted coat to be torn to shreds!

So you know, it's wasn't em who named my general 'Melchett', but when my friend saw him on my painting table, the first thing he said was "Meeeeehhhh!!!!" (a la Stephen Fry).

I've been working on some Praetorian snipers recently too, using greenstuff to rebuild the shoulders after converting them from Cadian snipers. As soon as the epaulettes are finished curing, I'll show them off to everyone and begin the painting! More frequent updates to follow!

Upcoming Grey Knights Codex

Just a quick note on something interesting - I took a look at the Stormraven sprues in GW yesterday, and noticed that it comes with the option of adding either Blood Angel symbols... or Inquisition... :)

Apologies

Hello again everyone, and may I first say a big 'Sorry!' for not posting another update sooner. Unfortunately a combination of essays, dissertation and a baby with teething pains have left me with very little free-time and sleep to get any painting done!

One shining beacon of happiness for me though, is the rapid growth of my Praetorian army! Another 50 troopers, plus several special weapons, heavy weapons, command models, etc have joined my ranks, meaning I now have a full platoon, plus spares! hussar!

One other bit of great news is my order of Col. Gravis's fabulous pith helmeted heads have arrived, as well as an order I placed with Forgeworld, leading to the creation of this fine fellow:

I'd seen this done before - it's a simple head swap using Col.Gravis's heads and the Death Korps of Kreig command models. I plan to do an entire command squad using these models, as I think it helps them satand out as a Company Command. Quick thing to note though... Col. Gravis's head sculpts really are FANTASTIC. The detail is sooo much better than the pith helmeted heads on GW Praetorians, and certainly worth getting them (hint hint!)

Anyways, must be off as more uni work to do, but I do have a game against a large Nids force tomorrow - hopefully the two new Banewolf tanks I have will be helpful!

Speak soon :)

Plasma Gun Conversion, and a painting update!

OK, I mentioned a few days ago that I was trying to convert a simple lasgun trooper into a plasma gunner, and here is the final result:

I'm pretty pleased with it (for a first attempt) but certainly not too bad! I was trying to go for a plasma 'rifle' look, as I kind of liked the idea that the Praetorians wouldn't use bulky assault weapons in their massed ranks of volley fire. It was a long winded process though: I originally did it in various sections, firstly trimming down the lasgun and then covering it to form the main bulk of the weapon 'stock'. (below)

Originally I added the rounded end of the plasma gun, (shown below) and then the 'coils' on the top of the gun, before attempting to drill the end of the gun to try and and detail. Apparently greenstuff doesn't like to be drilled. Bugger.

In the end, I removed the rounded end and then re-sculpted it and made sure to add the detail in before it cured! Much easier. I think I might be able to do this in a much shorter and quicker process, possibly even sculpting the stock and the barrel in one go. Or, I could even try and have a go at Crosser Modelling's simple weapon swaps http://crossermodelling.blogspot.com/2010_02_01_archive.html

Also, quick update on painted models:

And yep, that dummy is an ordnance weapon... at least when my son throws it...

Special Weapon Conversions

Not too much painting been going on recently, as last night I was playing a game against a friends Sisters of Battle (I killed a Canoness with a 2+ Invul save with lasgun fire! hussar!) and tonight I've been trying my hand at converting some special weapons.

I've never liked the old style flamers, with the 'sprinkler attachment' on the end, so first thing was to convert one of these to look like the newer ones:

First, remove the 'sprinkler' end from the weapon, being careful to leave the hand holding the grip intact (shown below):

Then, simply cut a plastic flamer (I used the one from the Catachan sprues) at the point where the 'barrels' attach to the main 'body' of the weapon, and re-attach it to the metal body. Simples!

I'm working on a Plasma gun conversion at the moment as well, made from a basic lasgun wielding trooper and greenstuff. I would use Col. Gravis's method for plasma gun conversions, but I don't have enough melta guns to spare! (I'm blaming you for that Gravis ;) ) I'll post pics for the plasma gun when I've finished it tomorrow - at the moment, I'm waiting for GS to cure!

Size Matters...

My Imperial Guard army has now become the first army I've been collecting that features 'old-style' metal models, alongside 'new-style' plastics, and something annoying has grabbed my attention - the obvious difference in size. Look at these two models:

The left is one of the original metal sergeants; the one on the right is a plastic conversion I've made from bits and GS. Even without his head and pith helmet (on the way from Secret Weapon Miniatures) the plastic model is already almost as tall as his metal counterpart. But aren't both these miniatures meant to be the same size? 28mm 'Heroic'?

When I measured the metal sergeant and a plastic Catachan sergeant, I was surprised to find that the metal Praetorian sergeant was 28mm... while the Catachan was 32mm... and the Catachan doesn't even have a helmet!

So how did this happen? Either the Praetorian isn't 'Heroic' scale (which is possible) or possibly, GW is making its models bigger than the 28mm' Heroic' scale they claim to be, so that other companies models don't match up with them, forcing us to buy GW models (seriously, would you put it past them, considering you can't use non-GW models in your armies at tournaments and in store?)

This got me to thinking... if the metal Praetorians aren't 'Heroic' scale, then the other older metal Guardsmen aren't either - including the Mordian Iron Guard. That would mean that it would be a simple head swap with the heads from Empress Miniatures:

Admittedly, they're not as good as the heads from Col.Gravis, and I'd have to take the regiment badges off the piths, but even with all that work and effort, it would still save me a HELL of a lot of money buying Praetorians off eBay!

New Imperial Guard from Forgeworld!

I recently emailed Forgeworld to see if they had any plans to do some new Tallarn or Praetorian models in the near future... this was their reply:

"We currently have no plans to make any  more Tallarn, or any Praetorian models, however, you never know, it may be something we do in the future.
However, Imperial Armour Volume 11, has Space Wolves , and imperial Guard fighting Eldar, so there will be some new Imperial guard pieces for this book"

I'm personally very excited... If I find out some more I'll let you know!

Painting completed so far...

Quick update on what I've been doing so far:

Finished the sergeant and a kneeling trooper to go with the standing trooper I finished the other day. I really want to try and get a couple of units that are in firing poses, standing and kneeling, but it's proving hard to find those specific models - I'm guessing lots of people have had the same idea!

I've also managed to get hold of 11 more Praetorians (thank you eBay!), including one carrying a melta gun, meaning that so far I have:

1 sergeant
1 flamer
1 grenade launcher
1 melta gun
1 missile launcher
3 lascannons
17 basic troopers

You may notice - a lack of officers. Yep, something I'm hoping to rectify in the future. I've seen a great conversions using the Death Korps officer model (simple head swap) that I'm thinking of doing, but also using the entire command squad. I really want to try and find some plumed helmets to give them a 'horseguards' look. Also, I'm hoping to add a couple of units of Rough Riders, in the style of the 17th Lancers - just got to find a decent lance arm.

Also, decided to go with green cuffs on my Praetorians, as (as Col. Gravis rightly informed me) the British Army 5th regiment of foot did have that colour on their facings. One thing I'm not too sure about though is whether to use the green on the trim of the jackets as well as the cuffs.

I'm also thinking of trying out a white primer for my models rather than black, as I'm finding that the red jackets aren't coming up as bright as I'd like. I'll have a try at some point, and then decide which looks better!

Ok, so not a quick update, but realised I had more to say than I originally thought! Now enjoy some pictures :)

Added some pictures of the cadian conversions I've been doing as well - just waiting for the head sculpts by Col. Gravis to arrive, and wait for the start of the epaulettes to cure so I can finish them off. Damn you holiday post!

First pictures!

Ok, apologies about the quality of the pictures, but still new to all this, so sorry if they're blurry/big/too bright/etc.

I painted this trooper as a 'test' model to see how the paint scheme I'd chosen would work - obviously the red tunic/blue trousers was a must, but I wanted to see how the little details would look.

I went for a white belt and pouches, a la the 24th foot, as I felt it popped out from the uniform. With the combat knife sheath, I originally went for a silver colour, but it looked awful, so a bronzed effect it was! Yellow epaulettes were, again, pretty much a must, but its the cuffs that have been giving me the most questions - should I leave them blue, (as in the photos) so they match the trousers, or should I go for a green, as the 1879 British uniform has?

Obviously, comments would be appreciated, criticism as well! Just be gentle, first post with pictures, and all that!

I'm painting the sergeant for the squad at the moment, and another couple of troopers, so I'll post those pictures up as soon as they're finished.

Happy New Year! and a progress update :)

Happy New Year to all of you out there!

I spent my evening painting a test model for my Praetorian troops, which I'll post a picture of later as soon as I finish off the little details. Also, I've just placed an order for some of Col. Gravis's pith helmeted heads from 'Secret Weapon', and hopefully placing an order soon with TrooperPX for some Praetorian bodies and arms to allow me to build up my forces quicker than having to just wait for models to appear on eBay!

As I said in my original post, I've been trying to convert some Cadians into Praetorians as well, and my first attempts seemed to go well last night, with the arms completely rebuilt and now curing, so that I can add epaulettes to them later today (and then the heads, when they arrive!)

To go with my plastic unit, I've been modelling a sergeant from some bits I had left over, and he seems to be taking shape as well now - epaulettes and braiding looking really good - one is pleased :)

Pics to follow soon!