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Love how understated and low tech she is, a great accompaniment to the lads in brown

The dreaded rollover!
Automatically Appended Next Post:

 osjclatchford wrote:

Excellent use of bits and kits. A very realistic Imperial Guard force. They look like they know what they are doing, in a gritty, gruff sort of way.

cheers folks!
Well, today I got the last two bebbanburg commandos done.


Plasma Specialist.
you may remember me saying, the plasmagun is made from a primaris plas-pistol with the old metal stock off a plasmagun for that bit of logic to the design.
I wanted something compact and guard-sized but still obviously NOT a plasmapistol with a stock. the new primaris sized stuff is ideal for this purpose.
the gubbins on his belt is the spare pack from the arms-master kit (his plasma cleaning and care kit perhaps?)
the "battery-cells" are from the scout sniper sprue and I imagine these fitting inside that cylindrical bit on the gun like its a revolver chamber.
perhaps that flips out, the 'dry' cell is ditched and the new one is slapped in and it spins up to speed and to create energy or whatever...


The silencer guy.
A bast to get the rifle shouldered and it still looks a little janky if I'm honest. still I'm pleased with the hand-sculpted magazine assembly poking out from under his arm. damn you can barely see it but I know its there! LOL
originally this only had the scout-rifle silencer because I'd run out of standard lasguns to steal muzzles off at the time, but damn if it didn't turn out well...
his waist is kitted out with a bolt-rifle scope, a primaris pocket, another of my 'frag-charges' (the goliath grenade dealie) and a pair of stun grenades from the enforcer set.
I ummed and ahhed on what colour to paint these so much that I just painted them straight metal in the end. I'm glad I did as there's not that much shiny metal on him so it turns out as a nice contrast to all the dark and drab.

well, thats them done then.

got two ogryns, the ksg shotgun guy and the 'rioteer' and once thats done thats it for 39th for now. (not forever though)

but fear not, I've stuff in the post from the good old U,S of A from our good buds at madrobot minis. Ordered it a bit ago and still no acknowledgement that the order is processed yet. they said it could take 3 weeks or more just to process, then theres likely a fortnight or more after that to get here.
It cost some in postage too but it was a treat to myself and I really wanted these specific head/helmet designs for a future allied regiment to the 39th that will soon be gracing these pages of this thread...
I've already said too much but all will be revealed soon...

well soon ish...

For now I'll say that it will also use parts from anvil and dkok weapons.
whats that? you want to know more?

will just have to wait I'm afraid...

Allied forces are how they get ya

I know, right.
the 39th started life out as allies for the spacesharks, they in turn were allies to the 111st royston rifles! the list will go on as long as I can be bothered to I suppose LOL

the upcoming regiment is still from the eforwich system.
A few troopers from Lady Lucy's hometown.

where the 39th pioneers hail from Eoforwich Prime, the commandos and grenadiers from the training facilities on Bebbanburg, these boys will be dropping in from Filey Secondus...

So, today I got the Tech-Priest done:

well yesterday technically, but the light was gone for a photo opportunity so she's waited till today.

Magos Corialanus Blaque.
Although not native to the Eoforwich system, Magos Blaque has found herself to be a permanant fixture in service to the 39th Pioneer Corps.
A practical sort, Corialnus is never seen in the field without her heavy leather duster to protect her robes and mechanics from the filthy rigours of trench based warfare.
Although young, she has talent well beyond her years in the adeptus, her youth only evident by the lack of the more obvious technical and mechanical 'enhancements' that members of the ad-mech usually find themself encrusted in as their term of service continues.
that aside, her absurdly tall stature suggests at some kind of manipulation beneath the robes in that regard.
Her weapon of choice is the reliable and durable ad-mech enginseer's thinkpad, an antiquated and arcane device of unimaginable power when used by the appropriately skilled hands of one of her order.
It may be true that what she doesn't know about mobile artillery and subtrerainian vehicles isn't worth knowing, but as far as combat and defences are concerned, she lets the servitors and servo-skulls do the talking.
why have a cyber-mastiff and bark yourself eh?


So as you can see I went for the dark brown on the coat in the end. I found it was a nice tie in to the commander's bomber jacket and also to the generally brown tones of the force as-far.
As this coat has nice big areas on it, I decided to stipple first then move onto edge and scratch highlighting, subtle after shading but it does add to the effect nonetheless...
I did the belt in the light leather for a bit of subtle tonal contrast and I added some detail in the form of the freehand cog banding on the hood, some weathered brass detail on the 'antithykera device' on her belt and the absurdly small freehand on the screen of the think-pad, displaying a windows98 desktop and solitaire respectively...
here's a close-up of that, prior to assembly:

The rest of the tech was kept to simple bronze and steel and the armour-plating and thinkpad done in simple black plastic finish. so as not to overwhelm the model in metals.

Nice and understated if I do say so myself. Ideal for a practical, diesel-punk themed army.

BTW, Steve at Madrobot got back to me already. processed and sent.
I figure I should expect the bits in a couple of weeks minimum from the states then...

I've still to get some bits from anvil and thats the start of the Filey Drop-Troops then...

Great model! I always thought Delaque/AdMech kitbashes looked great. The tallness of the delaque torso is easily explained in Admech, who cybernetically augment their bodies well past standard human physiology.

Lovely understated paint as anticipated, such a fitting priest of the army. Initially surprised by her bare arms but the rolled up sleeves just adds to the realistic approach - which goes double for the solitaire

Very nice, love the computer screen

much thanks folks.

So my back has decided to blowout another disc, it seems... sigh...

this happened similarly back in 2017 on my L4/L5 disc and that was a bad-un...
I also had a slight bulge on L5/S1 at the time.
I was +/- completely crippled from crotch to knee and in perpetual day/night agony for the inital 6 weeks, followed by 4 months of reduced mobility, strength and more pain (though considerably less acute, it became rather dabilitating to experiance for such a long period.).

Now I've had a resurgence of pain in the form of this new event.
I can say for sure its not L4/L5 again as that was so far prolapsed that all the internal jelly was expunged. I doubt theres much left of that one than a thin line husk of harder disc left, to be honest. due to the location of the pain I can say with almost no doubt that its L5/S1, I'm hoping, nou but a particularly bad bulge, but my heart tells me its gone much like t'other one...
this time I've less ciatic issue with the legs (those nerves are situated a little higher up) but, still, t'aint good.
took today off work and will do nothing but good old rest till monday. with luck the initial acuteness of the inflamation and pain of the trauma will have subsided enough that I will at least be able to work again... new job and all, typical gakky timing eh?

I'm not woe stricken or looking for sympathy, by any means.
Just telling you guys so you can expect a bit of a gap in the painting for now, as I've serious doubt I'll be sitting craned over the desk for some time for a while at least. (possibly the worst position to be in, LOL!)


so, here's something I did a week ago but was saving for now:

yes, its time for that homebrew sly-marbo stand-in


The rioteer.

as you can see, at Boss Salvage's suggestion, I've elected to add a frag/krag grenade combo to his belt.
This one comes from the new necromunda scummers set (or whatever they're called these days), I got this one from bitzbox t'other day when picking up some bits, just to see what the scale was like.
Its essentially a more realistic interpretation of the marine versions (with spon details etc...), both in style and size for guard sized minis. In the end I just decided to use it on this one as a one off but in truth I prefer using the tactical squad and sternguard grenades for that chunky, 2nd/3rd ed guard look that you all know I love so much.
The neophyte arms added a real sense of close combat (with the armour and pads) and the brown leather gillet marks him out clearly as a character.
These extra details on the arms also helped paintjob to translate really well to this model IMHO.

so is it really my marbo stand in? I dunno, could be marbo, could be an alternate stormtrooper Sgt. could simply be a killteam member.
I can think of a few other models I've made for this 39th project that would go together as a good killteam to be honest (the demosuit, beret guy and caped sniper come to mind...) bah, whatever he is hes a cool concept if nothing else and was real fun to model and paint. Thats the important thing...



also, at the same time I had knocked up this camo test for the armour on the upcoming filey drop-troopers:

A real subtle 'splotch' camo pattern made all the more subtle by using the first highlight layer colour as the pattern colour. then highlighting and scratching as usual.
the only difference on this is that I've also decided to use zandri dust as a final dot highlight too. just for that extra 'sparkle'...

also, please ignore the piss-poor job of the face. was only painted as an afterthought to 'finish' the head. just looked odd left unpainted. I know I could have just painted one of the spare helmets from the sprue but I didn't have one of those.
also bear in mind that I will not be using cadian heads, but something close enough that this is an ideal 'figure' for testing the scheme on.
most will not even have faces showing anyhow so, yeah not a problem...

That harsh feeling when you read about a "piss-poor" paintjob on a face that looks better than anything you ever managed yourself *sigh*. But... well, I have fun painting, so I'm happy for you.
Looks great, as usual. The Sly Marbo Dude definitly looks like he can stand his ground in a fight!

erm.. yeah sorry I guess.
I'll clarify by saying that what I was getting at was his sloppy highlighting (only two layers compared to my usual six minimum on skin) and the very wonky eyes. its very far from my usual is what I meant.

and yeah, the rioteer is a real skull-crusher...

No harm done. I always find your work really inspiring. 6 layers on skin is impressive. Maybe I was just too lazy thus far.

On a different note: that splotch pattern looks nice. I'm curious to see how this looks on the whole uniform.

white ink mate...

I just basecoat in ratskin flesh. then go over with cadian fleshtone.
cadian fleshtone mixed with skavenblight dinge for stubble, then clean up with cadian fleshtone.
then you keep adding white ink into cadian fleshtone to highlight up.
oh yeah, I forget.
I also use bugmans glow in a similar fasion under the eyes and on the bottom lip.

then its washed to shade and cleaned up with more white-ink/cadian fleshtone and then extra spot shading done to taste. then eyes.
done...

sounds like a lot but its actually pretty straight forward in actual practice. the constant adding of white ink to lighten and doing smaller and smaller highlights per layer is the key...

as for the camo? it's going on the shoulder, knee, helmet and torso armour plates.
the carry vest and rig will be done in simple olive green and the jump-suit in simple beige without camo. just a bit of a mix up on the theme of the 39th so that its different yet still sits with them well.
that, and I guess I'm getting fed up with pea-dot now LOL

Rioteer looks very much the business, glad I could help with the gear I missed some of the details before paint, like the fur lining on the jacket. Great kitbash.

thanks man!

So. my back is fine.
in fact it was fine after the same weekend it went out.
I studiously did all the excercises and rested heavily and was back to work as usual on monday.
so far so good.

so painted stuff? erm, no not at present.

but meet the filey 42nd droptroops!

An off-shoot paratroop regiment from the Eoforwich system thats inspired by elysian guard and the U.S 101st airbourne...

here's a full squad-shot of the infantry squad I have so far:



as you can see I am the madman that bought the dkok plastics, just to use the arms and pockets...
well, why not, everyone else is going to be using the bodies, I wanted something different.
Don't get me wrong, its a fantastic kit. but I warn anyone getting it or more specifically bits from it, get the god-damned instructions!
Its a real clusterfeth as far as sprue-layout and shared bits are concerned.
The other thing is that, in truth, the arms are very specific for the bodies they are designed for.
Meaning that simply slapping them onto some cadians (or anvil stuff, as I have here) is not as straight forward as you might imagine.
Lots of trimming, repositioning and greesstuffing required to get the poses all good and natural. consider yourselves pre-warned...

as aforementioned, the heads are from madrobot minis over in the states.
The Jim Cameron's Aliens inspired, "CDF trooper" heads.
yes they are colonial marines helmets. but just look at the masks and goggles combo going on there!
the mask is an obvious homage to the cadian/elysian rebreathers, the helmet itself very U.S military, but features all the extra raised panelling and camera details that are reminiscent of the kasrkin cadian helmets, without going too chunky or loosing the generic paratroop look.
and the goggles scream pure steel legion!
what a potent mix, eh?
I feel the heads mostly look like the lovechild of the elysians and steel legion. mostly...

I went to Anvil industries for the bodies/legs (who else?).
I picked the light armour torso for the nice plates on the chest and back mixed with the molee vest detail that makes them fit in real nicely with the bebbanburg commandos but retain the up-armoured look that the dkok arms give...
the next obvious choice was the fatigue legs. more molee detail and the essential kneepads, plus they do not have the overhanging 'jacket' detail, making the fatigues look more akin to the elysian all-in-one jumpsuit. which is just what I wanted...

I trimmed a few of the rifles down to create a carbine version of the lucius pattern lasgun. Ideal for droptroops. Some I left full length.
why? well the 'slung' rifles made altering the barrel length a bit of a cowson to alter without considerable work and I found I rather liked the mixed bag of weapon length. much like how the 101'st used both m1 rifle and m1 carbine in mixed units...
I left it about half and half in the squad for as equal distribtion as possible, given the limitations of the kit.


Their kit is mostly the packs from the dkok (I felt they looked a bit parachutey but are clearly just kit-bags) but ditched the respirator tubes, one, to distance it from the dkok a bit and two, to make it seem a little lighter.
I went for primaris marine pockets (assault sprue and heavy int's) for that "new pocket" detail that I love and used the tactical and sternguard krack/frag grenade combo bits to give each guy one of each where possible. Also I made sure that each guy also has a waterbottle (cadian).
This was obviously not a feature on the 39th, who are mostly an entrenched unit, with bunkers and supplies aplenty, these guys are droptroops, they need to take all they need with them!
I've also used some of the deathwatch/scout chest pockets for an extra detail hither and yon and also to hide the odd bad join

This use of the same amount and style of standard kit on each model, again, where possible (rifle, pack, grenade, pocket, waterbottle.) gave the squad the feeling of one of the gw releases of the 2nd and 3rd edition era the chunky astartes nades and cadian waterbottles in particular were designs visibly shared across the board on many of the guard units of yesteryear: 2nd ed cadians, catachans, modians, valhallans and tallarns all used these...
disperate kit is something thats better suited to veteran units, where standardisation is lost for induviduality. I feel I lost a bit of this 'standardisation' on the 39th infantry, mixing the grenade/kit styles up a bit too much. fine on the stormtroopers, commandos and veterans but its a bit sloppy on file infantry in truth and this time round (with these droptroops) I endeavour not to do that...

The grenade launcher was the obvious choice. its all I ever put in infantry squads these days, great all rounder and it helps that the breachloaders look rather cool too I decided on a strict 'no-heavies' policy in the squads too, these would be fielded exclusively as sperate units or simply cover that with the 39ths entrenched artillery of mortars and heavybolters. who wants to drop out of an aricraft with a heavy bolter or whatever anyhow? no, makes MUCH more sense to use drop canisters and stick to six-man units to recover them or, as I say, leave that side of warfare to the 39th!
I ummed and ahhed on the bolter on the sgt. I think it looks so bad on the dkok model but then, when dry-fitting onto the sgt during construction I fell in love with the look. the simple addition of the 'stock' from the second edition bolter, mk3 marine boltgun-mag pocket and dw chestrig shells made the thing look ideal. if the rifles and carbines are m1's respectively, this bolter is the thompson!
to make it obvious he is in charge, I put the skull on the lid (shaved from an old bolter) to match the squad designations of the 39th and as an extra detail I sculpted some simple scarf neckerchiefs to both him and the squad's corporal, the second in command who takes half the squad should it decide to split into two fireteams...
a simple yet fun detail that helps mark these guys out and references the more veteran status of them, the neckerchiefs are cut fom chutes from previous jumps, you see.

Twas indeed tricky to get some of the poses going naturally (arse-scratch/pocketgrab reloading dude for example) without them being verbatim copies of the stuff in the dkok kit but thats where a bit of ingenuity and creativity comes in. thats the real fun part. using stuff in ways its not intended to be to make something new but not obviusly converted is the crux of a good kit-bash. it should look like it's supposed to look that way. not fudged to... I'm first to admit it doesn't always work though... that gl guy looks a bit spack from some angles... bah, nevermind eh?

so why aren't these guys painted in any capacity yet?
well I'm not done yet. thats where I need your help guys!

I desperately need knives for the guys.

I want them on the lower legs ideally, down the side, joined where the kneepad is.
I'll say now, the cadian ones are far too large, as are the catachan. I ideally want a dagger type, shaped like the stormtrooper ones a bit but they are both far too large and overly ornate on the scabbards... sigh
marine knives are just as absurdly huge and oftimes without scabbards.

I thought anvil would have something. they do have some kabar type knives available but their sprue only has two in the scabbards and they are, again rather huge...

there were some forgeworld ones available which would have been ideal
In fact I used some as bootkniveson my steel legion I did years ago.
they were either elysian or cadian upgrade (or both) but I'm snookered if I can find some anywhere these days...
anyone got any? open to sell? let me know!

I'm also open to suggestions to what to use. third party or whatever. I eagerly await your suggestions guys!
dont be shy, let me know what you think I could use...

Maybe Victoria Miniatures has something?
https://victoriaminiatures.com/collections/weapons/products/ranger-knives-in-sheathes-x-10

Their bushknives are a bit on the bigger side, but the sheated bajonets are smaler


Edit: by the way, those guys look excellent

thanks man.

and damn, I knew I'd left one off the list of ones that I'd deemed too big!

alas, yes the vikky lamb ones are +/- the same size as the cadian bayonets.
form is nice but at 14mm long the scale just that bit too big.

well, not so much the length but the chunkiness is the issue I think...

now, these:

these are the ones I was talking about, these would have been the perfect scale...

Hmm.. hoe about looking for a fitting 3D printing file and scaling it down? I got a lot of nice Multilaser and shotlas parts this way

oof

I bet those FW bits will be hard to come by..

3D printing sounds like a worthwile idea for these I'd think

well thats out of the picture for me.
I've no access to such technologies and my experiance with shapeways has prejudiced me against 3rd party printing sites indefinately. (see my bfg thread for full rant...)
I'm not wasting money on an unstable and unrealisticly expensive medium.
I just wondered if you guys know of anything from another game system that might work.
although I know of the systems, I'm not hot on all the faction names/bits...

Knife conundrum solved!


yup, its one of these:

trimmed and shaved into the dagger shape/size, with the grip off of one of these cut down and grafted to it:


yup thats kinda expensive but I did get a bunch of the scabbards in a batch and I have many of the old second edition marine knives:

I can always nick the grips from these so no biggie there!

So, here's the Filey drop-troop grenadiers!

as you can see I've used Anvil's balistic heads, heavy torsos and drop-troop legs.

the look I was going for was a general improvement of the 3rd edition stormtrooper minis.
the visors, armour, holsters, backpacks and plethora of pockets and grenades all help to enforce this image.

I had a bugger of a time making the rifles into hellguns (moreso using only the rifles I had left-over from the dkok kit after modelling the other squad) adding boltrifle scopes and fusing the stormtrooper hotshot-las barrels on (that was a particular cowson)

It's also why I went for a grenade launcher in the squad too, meaning I only had to make three of the hellguns!
The grenadelauncher itself comes from the atalan jackals and was a 'proof-of-concept' of how to make a gl on the dkok arms that was different to the reloading one in the kit. In fact I've used the medic backpack and hand to use the vials as grenades in this context.
The triplet of nades from the atalan jackals on the chest rounds out the look...

With the backpacks, I decided to keep the 'gasmask canisters' on there to seperate the minis from the rank and file droptroopers a little more. Them being chunkier and all that.
however, I only had two backpacks from the dkok kit left! argh!
As I say, I did use the medic one on the gl guy and then remade the other remaining two needed based on primaris eradicator pockets with flanking smaller pockets from the infiltrator leg pockets to mimic the dkok backpack, albeit without the bedroll. yup, thattledo!
again with the waterbottles and marine 'nades but also now using primaris holsters, as the big holstered pistols on the 3rd ed stormtroopers were a prominent feature I wanted to replicate, allbeit, with nicer detail (the 3rd ed holsters were much cruder than the new primaris ones)

The limited arms now available to me made posing a bit of a cowson to do but it came out well in the end.
The pose of the sgt, in particular, is a favourite.
Yes, its clearly based on that classic kasrkin artwork from the rulebook!
https://static.wikia.nocookie.net/warhammer40k/images/e/ed/Cadian_NCO.jpg/revision/latest/scale-to-width-down/460?cb=20110804081732
theiving git aren't I?

more soon...

Looking good!
Are you gonna continue your camo scheme for these guys or try a different pattern?

well, I was going to do that splotch on the armour but instead i've decided the usual waaagh flesh green is going on the shoulder, knee, helmet and torso armour plates.
the carry vest and rig will be done in the simple olive green and the jump-suit in simple beige without camo. just a bit of a mix up on the theme of the 39th so that its different yet still sits with them well.
kinda like how the base elysian colourscheme is much like the cadian 8th one.
they are very detailed minis and lack the large open space that greatcoats afford, making camo areas both smaller to render and could create a cluttery look.
that, and I guess I'm getting fed up with pea-dot now. ;D

that being said I intend to do a simple camo akin to the us marines duckhunter (though probably much more simplified) on a very pale green base, just on the bedrolls and scarves...

you know, to suggest at chute-silk...

done a one of the troopers to try out the colourscheme.

rather happy with it...

Love how your guard look, very cool. Congratulations on your admech / delaque from last month. I think your kitbash landed much better than my own, well done!

Thanks man.Theres a lot of delaque conversions out there. Makes it a bit of a bugger to make something unique. pleased to hear that I might have achieved that!

also, as a general notice, please be adviced that I've just updated the images of the File droptroop. bit better now...

A formidably good harnessing of bits and converting, sir. I love Anvil, and one day I’ll probably grab a bunch of Mad Robot too as I like the look of his stuff too.

The painted result is on point - subtly linking to their trencher brethren but hi tech and sleek enough to really leave a presence.

I am very close to finally presenting your gift of reinforcements by the way…

thanks.

as for madrobot. do get stuff its tip-top quality. but I will say now, order enough to make it worth your while. shipping can be a cow-son...

also, looking forward to more of your guard!
not much love for guard these days, but probably because they play like shyte these days... :(
roll on the new codex, eh?