This be my place

[Manus]

You know as much as I like the colors, I must say - they are not really guard until they have just a slight bit of converting each!

[Geifer]

You're right, they're not really Guard. They're Conscripts.

I can't promise you I converted each regular soldier, but certainly half of them. Maybe I get good light today, I'll take a couple of pictures of the squads I have assembled so far.

[Geifer]

Update time!

For Manus, some converted Guardsmen:

The platoon's first infantry squad:


Second squad:


Veteran squad:


And while they are still not finished, I've been busy and progress has been made. Test guy and a couple of his buddies:



I'm not sure if I mentioned it before, but the reason these aren't converted and look the way they look is that despite using squad markings, I also want each squad to look distinct in some way so I can tell the models apart even in unpainted shape. Therefore the Conscripts are completely composed of snap fit Cadians (which comes with the added bonus of paying only two thirds of the price of a proper box of Cadians) since I want them to look like fresh soldiers who still carry only the standard gear they were issued.

Normal soldiers are multi part Cadians with a couple of Catachan bits thrown in for the most experienced soldiers. Squad one gets rebreathers and backpacks on every model. Squad two gets backpacks, but no rebreathers. The Veterans also get backpacks, but don't wear their helmets (they hang on their belts, though).

The Command Squad isn't yet assembled, and I haven't thought about what I want their special thing to be mostly because wargear hasn't been decided on yet. Cadian Tank commanders have pretty neat helmets. Maybe I'll use these. I barely ever put tank commanders/top gunners on tanks, so I should have enough heads for five models. Or four, if the officer gets a different and officer-like look.

[badfang]

Looking good  though I can't help thinking you'd be better off numbering or colour coding the squads - when the British Army first issued their troops with steel helmets during WW1, the brass was horrified at the sudden increase in head traumas which they attributed to the helmets. When they took the helmets back off the troops the number of deaths rocketed (though the head traumas went down).

Dec 20, 2013 15:48:09 GMT Geifer said:

. The Veterans also get backpacks, but don't wear their helmets (they hang on their belts, though).

Vets have probably got enough sense to keep their hats on.

[Geifer]

Thanks.

Well, as I said modeling rules are only an additional way of sorting squads. They do get squad markings on the back of their helmets. Check the previous page, there's a picture of the test model with complete and annotated markings. I'm basing the entire army on 2nd ed Imperial Guard organization, which is why I have "insert color" companies platoons. In this case Black Company, Red Platoon. As show in the picture on the other page, that's a black square half to the right and a red square half to the left. This will then be complemented by an orange squad designation. I, II, III (the Veterans), K (that's for Kommand ), the Consripts get the typical Imperial Heavy Support chevron (since they are a support unit to the platoon). The remaining two support slots will be filled by a Leman Russ Eradicator with the same marking and an additional vehicle number (but not the three stupid colored bars on the sides that tell the enemy exactly where the otherwise camouflaged vehicle is) as well as a Chimera following the same marking system as the Eradicator.

Plus a Commissar Lord with proper black uniform, hat and Imperial bling to lead the whole bunch.

Edit: Forget to mention, British brass is a bright bunch. That is the exact samething  I noticed with any of my armies. Fewer helmets, more deaths. Well, more quicker deaths really. My fatherly love and care for my troops generally doesn't leave anyone alive to inform me of injuries sufferd in battle. It's good to know, though. I'll be sure to issue fewer helmets in the future to prevent lasting health issues.

Dec 20, 2013 17:17:37 GMT badfang said:

Vets have probably got enough sense to keep their hats on.

Veterans have the good sense to cruise around in a Chimera where anything that makes it through the hull is not likely getting stopped by a helmet.

[badfang]

Dec 20, 2013 18:23:45 GMT Geifer said:

Well, as I said modeling rules are only an additional way of sorting squads. They do get squad markings on the back of their helmets. 

Doh! Missed that bit, me and my big typewriting finger (I generally do my BloodAxes by the shedload one mob at a time so I don't need to know which mob is which 'til after they're painted).

Dec 20, 2013 18:23:45 GMT Geifer said:

Veterans have the good sense to cruise around in a Chimera where anything that makes it through the hull is not likely getting stopped by a helmet.

Planning to move a green tide around in a KlawStompa mob, they will be getting out at some point

[Geifer]

Yeah, with the way I grow bored of the same thing after around the seventh model and go work on another army I'm really hoping to get a handful more models done before it happens here. I mean, my Ultramarines are almost done, but that took four years, too, for a similar amount fo models. I never really painted a full army before in a reasonable timeframe except my Deathwing. Seventeen models in three weeks.

I really hope I'll stick longer with my Guardsmen. I like how they turned out amd I've never had a painted Guard armny before. I've not played Guard properly since before they got their 4th ed codex either. Maybe I'm lucky and this is the right time for me to paint Guardsmen.

It's a good start that I have no interest in revisiting Tyranids at this point, even though I think modern Tyranids look fantastic. If I'm not incentivized to look at another army I like, I may actually stick longer with my latest current project.

I actually hope Orks don't come around anytime soon (sorry ) as I see a resurgence in Gorkamorka if the plastic range gets expanded. And you know how it is, once I got me some teef, I'll buy me some new snazz and before I know it this here Badmoon goes on a Waaagh again like in the old days...

[badfang]

Dec 23, 2013 9:28:38 GMT Geifer said:

Yeah, with the way I grow bored of the same thing after around the seventh model and go work on another army I'm really hoping to get a handful more models done before it happens here.

Probably a bit late now that you've already started  but a while back I had a go with a quick and dirty way of painting cammo uniforms using the 'hairspray' method - spray the uniform brown, spray with 'Purity Seal' (if you use anything else make sure it is Lacquer), spray with hairspray (I don't think it matters what sort), spray green blodges and stripes on your uniforms, stick the minis in a bowl of hot water and attack the edges of the green with an old toothbrush.



 
It's then a case of painting up anything that doesn't want to be cammo (skin, straps, boots etc.) - at least the cammo bit doesn't take long, and as long as you remember WHICH colours you used, the cammo can be duplicated easily if/when you decide to do some more.

EDIT - This, of course, is completely irrelevant if you haven't got a spraybrush - really could do with that facepalm smiley sometimes (depressingly often in fact).

[Geifer]

I don't think it's a method for me, but that is quite interesting. Never read about anything like it before. Now of course that sounds more complicated to me than using a brush since I don't have a set up for anything more extensive than spraying on a basecoat on a handful of models at a time. Plus, I don't have hair that would require hairspray.

I'm also not confident that I have the same level of control with sprays as I have with a brush, and I like control.

The problem really isn't that I don't want to invest the time and work in the models, but that I want to invest them in the most interesting models. After painting the fifth Space Marine, any old Necron will look more interesting to paint than Marine number six. I'm just terrible at painting armies because there isn't much novelty in painting the same color scheme over and over (and why I'm historically much more fond of elite armies than hordes).

[badfang]

LOL, I'm that thin on top I doubt I could find a hair to spray, the stuff I bought was the cheapest on the shelf. I wouldn't worry too much about controlling the spray - I generally find that if cammo looks controlled, it doesn't look like cammo. As far as spending the time on interesting models is concerned, my problem is that I try to make them all interesting, which is why I did those six and the seventh caused a stall - they're all converted from GW and Milliput, the outer surface of the seventh is about 90% Milliput which got me wondering if I actually want the GW at all. Still wondering 18 months later.....

[The Irontooth]

Too be perfectly honest Badfang, that doesn't sound quick at all.

Keep going Geifer! I'v heard a commissar got the order to shoot you down if don't keep painting these conscripts.

[Geifer]

Dec 23, 2013 13:46:11 GMT badfang said:

LOL, I'm that thin on top I doubt I could find a hair to spray, the stuff I bought was the cheapest on the shelf. I wouldn't worry too much about controlling the spray - I generally find that if cammo looks controlled, it doesn't look like cammo. As far as spending the time on interesting models is concerned, my problem is that I try to make them all interesting, which is why I did those six and the seventh caused a stall - they're all converted from GW and Milliput, the outer surface of the seventh is about 90% Milliput which got me wondering if I actually want the GW at all. Still wondering 18 months later.....

Know all those problems. My Obsidian Lions were interesting to the last man. Of course I only got five done per year, so you can see how that might not be ideal. It's what stops me from getting into Orks. I have all the parts I need for the Orkitekt of Fate. Prior to the Blackreach Waaaghboss I just used Ghazghkull:



Not very glamorous, and not what I had in mind, but he did the job at the time. But with a plastic Waaaghboss within (Black)reach, there's no way I wouldn't convert my own these days. Trouble is, I tried converting the painboy for my Flash Gitz. I didn't get very far and only found the motivation to actually do something with the started model when I decided to send him to HG as a gift. Same story with my Battlewagon. Half done and now hidden under a half a meter thick coat of dust. It's never the model itself. It's the commitment to the other hundred models I'll need and that I will want to customize to the same degree that stops me. And yeah, deciding half way through whether to change direction or not sounds familiar, too...

It's why I'm so happy with my little Guardsmen at the moment. I can be happy with them even though there are no major conversions in there. The Commissar Lord will get the treatment, because I can convert one model alongside painting an army's worth of models easily enough, but I don't need the Guardsmen to look special. In fact I don't want them to look particularly special. All the conversion work I did on the soldiers was basically bitz swapping between kits and filling a couple of gaps. Very refreshing to me. I find it hard to hit the right balance. I can't really live with having a characterful character but otherwise only faceless cannon fodder. There's too little of me in the army that way. But going all out on conversions is simply not practical, mostly due to time constraints (or in other words, getting enough models done for an army in a reasonable timeframe). I'm feeling quite good about my new Guard regiment at the moment. Plenty of faceless fillers, but some character on a squad and even individual basis. The guy from squad one with the laspistol resting his other arm on his lasgun is directly lifted from background chatter of German grenadiers in Company of Heroes 2: "My rifle, a pistol, a knife, and three grenades. Yes, I'm always well armed." And behold, the Guardsmen carries a lasgun, a laspistol, a combat knife and three grenades. One of my favorite old metal Cadians is a kneeling model with plasma rifle. So I made the grenade launcher trooper of that squad so he kneels. My old Armored Fist squad was a Steel Legion squad with close combat Sergeant, grenade launcher and missile launcher. And so my new squad one has a close combat sergeant, a soldier with a grenade launcher and a heavy weapons team with missile launcher. Lots of little details that anyone else is not likely to pick up, but it's what this army makes fun for me, without adding any significant time for conversion work. Right after converting every single model I think it's the best thing I can do. In fact, should I actually get this army painted in the near future, it may actually be better than the next best thing. Here's to hoping.

So, I think I went off on a tangent. What was I thinking about? Oh yes, camo. Control freak here, but I can't paint random camo. There's always that one spot that just doesn't look right, so I have to go and correct it. But then another spot close to it doesn't look right anymore sitting next to it like that, so that needs fixing, too. Before you know itI've had to overhaul the whole model and I've actually added work and wasted time unnecessarily.

In spite of everything I actually like painting camo. I feel no need to be neat or replicate the exact same pattern on every model. That does speed up things, and it provides otherwise identical models with a bit of diversity, which I find helpful during painting and visually pleasing afterwards. Two identical snap fit Cadians will look different when two identical snap fit Ultramarines will not.

Dec 23, 2013 14:38:24 GMT The Irontooth said:

Keep going Geifer! I'v heard a commissar got the order to shoot you down if don't keep painting these conscripts.

I was told the Commissar got my back. This isn't what I had in mind!

Happy news on this front. Five Consripts are now almost done. Varnish is drying and tomorrow I'll put Blood for the Bloodgod (I really don't know why GW didn't add an exclamation mark or three at the end)on their boots and paint the base edges. Half an hour's work and the first batch of soldiers is done.

I won't be able to oblige with the Conscripts, however, since I already have half of infantry squad one well under way. This isn't a pattern yet but before I paint the same identical five models (three, really, the box has three designs with two duplicate models) again I'd rather put some paint on different models. When this group is done or when I finished the whole squad, I'll tackle the next batch of Conscripts. Batch painting in groups of five has worked out well so far even though I hate batch painting. My method of basing and the camo pattern favors groups of five models.

[Geifer]

Update time!

Commissar Marika WIP:



Because I need an HQ and the other ones don't appeal to me, I decided on a Lord Commissar to inspire the soldiers of Red Platoon. She's mostly done, but still WIP. I have work to do on the backside of the coat, the right epaulette needs laurels and there are a number of places that needs skulls, perhaps aquilas and scrolls as well. The left hand is probably not done, I have yet to decide whether to add another layer of green stuff to make it look more bionic. And obviously the cable leading to the bolter ends in the middle of nowhere. I'll add a small targeter there. Should be done by the end of next week if all goes well.

Today I assembled the last of the Conscripts and finished the Leman Russ Eradicator. I might actually paint it next after squad one is complete (half of which only need their bases cleaned up before they're done; the other half is basecoated). I'll probably need some time to think about where I place the markings on the Russ, and if that leaves areas that are big enough I might stick an aquila or something on from a vehicle accesory spure. Currently the only thing that still needs assembling is the Chimera, but since I have an old one I'm not sure when that will happen. I'll be able to play the army now, and as long as I am still motivated to paint I'd rather not get bogged down in assembling additional models.

I'll take the army to a test game tomorrow, and will also for the first time use my Wall of Martyrs. I can't paint the buildings yet since I've run into a snag, but I might throw in a defense line now and then to get them painted as well.

[Geifer]

Update time!

Just adding an HG shot (because it's a most important part of building an army ).



As said in the last update, the five guys from squad one were almost finished, and now they are, easily told apart from the snap fit Conscripts. Work has begun on the other half of the squad, and might give me a finished squad by the end of the week.

Another by the end of the week deal, Commissar Marika is making exceptional progress. In a stunning feat of manual dexterity today I've completed work on four different parts of the model without ruining freshly sculpted detail and having to redo it more than twice. Which means that I am now convinced that she'll be ready for painting by the end of the week.

[badfang]

Very nice work on the Commissar (gobsmacked that you can work on 4 separate areas and keep your thumbs from completely trashing the bits you've just done), and your command squad looks the part, even the snap together conscripts don't look too shoddy. 45 left?