July's final day: and 10 more painting points!

With the last day of July crashing down, I spent the day ensuring that I add another 10 points to my score for July, coming to a whopping 56 points! That is definitely a new record for me. Here is a list of all the units I got painted within the last month:

2 Infantry Squads (one of which was just completed today)
1 Veteran Squad
1 Stormtrooper Squad
1 Lord Commissar
2 Company Commanders
1 Leman Russ Battle Tank

TOTAL POINTS:
56 for July

I am going to go try to crank out the rest of the platoon and company command squads, but I don't suspect to finish those in a day. The regimental bearer will probably take a day in itself to finish, and my former speed-painting assembly-line style will only get so much accomplished to that end.

Well, back to work.
Until next time,
--FP135

FoxPhoenix's 100th Post Celebration!

To honor all my avid readers that got me this far, I wanted to have a bigger post than ever before! In this celebratory 100th post, I have as much as IG madness that I could cobble together! First up: 49th Alascadian Regiment style of batch painting!

This is not a Golden Daemon quality job of painting... You will not find highlights, blending, or otherwise fancy shading in this tutorial. It is purely designed to be a quick and table-quality method of putting squads of infantry on the table quickly.

Ok, let's get started. PLEASE NOTE: This tutorial only pictures one model for the ease of creating the tutorial. This tutorial is meant to show you how to "batch paint" a single color at a time. This helps speed up the process of speed painting, not to mention wasting less paint, but at the cost of reduced quality of the paintjob on a single miniature.

STEP 1: Prime your miniatures.
There are many methods to doing this, but for Alascadians the only reccommendation I will make is that you use a lighter-shade primer, such as gray or white. Make sure you take the time beforehand to trim mold lines and fill gaps.

STEP 2: The Basecoat.
I use a cheap wal-mart brand of gray paint as my base coat, due to the amount of it you will likely be using. My preferred brands are Folk-Art or Ceramcoat, both widely available and quite cheap. In order to get the best coverage, it is best to add a minute amount of water to the paint in your palette before painting it on. This may take two coats, depending on the paint you use. LET THIS COAT COMPLETELY DRY BEFORE CONTINUING ON! I generally do this step the night before I plan the painting session, as it is fairly quick to do but takes a long drying time. Completely cover the model, head to toe, in this basecoat.



STEP 3: The Flesh
Use your favorite or preferred methods to do the fleshy-bits first. I do this to allow my mind to see that there is indeed a trooper in there somewhere, and make me feel like I have accomplished more than I really have. This motivates me to keep painting, to give this guy the uniform he deserves!



STEP 4: Tin Bitz
The armor has to have a base layer in order for the stippling we are going to do later to have a good effect. So paint all the carapace, helmet, and gun body sections in Tin Bitz, making sure to get all the edges to the armor. I also cut a step and do the canteen here, as well! Don't go over the flaps though, because those will be brown later on.



STEP 5: Black Parts
You will start to see your trooper emerging. Apply black to all the part of the weapon that have not been colored yet: the barrel, stock, magazine, etc. etc., as well as the cuffs around the boots. Be sure to also get the bayonet if it is still in its scabbard, or if it is attached to the weapon. I usually paint the grenades black as well, for the sake of speed.



STEP 6: Brown Parts
This color will be the leather straps, boots, and pouches that adorn the trooper's uniform. I start with the boots, working my way up the model to ensure I don't miss anything important. The belt is not very well defined around the waist, so you may have to use a little freehand skill and paint a straight line. Also be sure you get the straps that hold the canteen on.



STEP 7: Stipple on the Mithril Silver
This is one of the most difficult steps to get to look right. It takes a certain amount of practice to do quickly, and not overdo the silver. Use a short-bristled brush, or cut the bristles short on an old brush, and dip it in your silver. Paint off some of the excess onto a napkin or sheet of paper, as directly applying the silver tends to be too much. Using a stabbing/jabbing motion, carefully paint on the silver over the Tin Bitz parts of your model, as well as the black parts that will represent metal (such as the bayonet or grenades, not the boot cuffs though!)



After doing so, you may need to use a better brush and go back to give a rough highlight to some pieces with the silver, especially the helmet. Make sure you get the canteen, too! You finished stippling effect should look something close to this:





STEP 8: Black Wash
This step is pretty easy, but you have to let it dry for a considerable amount of time. Using Badab Black wash, cover the entire model from head to toe. If you feel so inclined, you can use separate washes for the fleshy bits, but I don't usually take the time to do both washes. Speed is the key, here. When you finish, let it dry for at least a few hours before trying to put on any sealants or clear-coats. After you do, you should have a model that looks like this:



And you're done! Working in batches like this, one color at a time, can give you a great assembly-line approach to painting horde armies. Beware though, because this leads very quickly to painting boredom! I usually pop a movie in the background, to distract your mind from the monotony of the work.





PART 2 OF THE MEGAPOST: The Veteran Squad Complete! With Pictures!

That's right, I finally cranked out that veteran squad I had been promising. I have been distracted a lot lately, with making new terrain and getting my wife to decide on a color for her own fledgling Space Marine army, but they are finally done! This brings up my current painting points for the month to 46, a new personal record! Here is the picture of the finished squad:



And of the Veteran Sergeant that leads them:





PART 3 OF THE MEGAPOST: Last but not Least...

I did a kit-bash of a "Counts-as" Castellan Creed for use with my Alascadians. He is not complete yet, as I have more work to be done to his mantle, but this is a special sneak-peek I decided to throw in!






That is all I think I can possibly fit into one post! Thanks for all the support and comments, as this blog continues to grow! In no time, we might be celebrating the 500th post!

So until next time...
--FP135

Let's Talk Tactics: IG Infantry

If you snoop around on the forums a lot, you may come across two very common types of list for the infantryman's IG: Mechanized or Static Gun-line. It seems to be common consensus that the former is quickly rendering the latter obsolete, but I think a healthy balance in the two is a good approach. I call this: "Mech with an Anchor".

I have gotten in 3 games in the last week with my newly-raised IG army, at varying points levels, and am starting to form ideas on what works and what does not. For example: lone Sentinel = fail. Squad of Sentinels = not fail. I have noticed that the mechanized veteran squads definitely increase the army's mobility, but at some sacrifice in stand-off punch. The normal infantry platoon has better access to the heavy weapons with specialized squads, and thus are able to hold off heavier units with the aid of such weapons. I don't necessarily like the cookie-cutter lists that are circulating the nets now, that mainly consist of veteran squads in Valkyries or Chimeras copy-paste-copy-paste... This is A) too expensive, with how much a valk or Chimera kit is running these days, and B) somewhat unimaginative. The Gunline lists are not much easier on the wallet, and becoming somewhat outdated due to their immobility. I wanted to create a slightly fluffier force than either extreme list, to keep games at the club more interesting and to keep more money in my wallet. I settled on a mix between the two, opting for a single Veteran squad in a Chimera (with plans to buy at least one more Chimera kit in the future), two Veteran squads on foot, and a single Infantry Platoon.

The Infantry Platoon, for a single troops choice, can contain nearly any amount of points you wish to dump into it. It is possible to make a single platoon worth just over 2700 points at full strength (and with the most expensive wargear options)... that's almost an apocalypse game right there! Not that anybody would want to, much less be able to, field a platoon of that size, but it's fun to think about! I opted for a smaller size, fielding a simple two infantry squads, two heavy weapon squads, and the PCS. One heavy weapon squad was comprised of Mortars, and the other Lascannons. The PCS was outfitted with a fun little combo: two Flamers, a Vox, and a single Heavy Flamer. I would take more infantry squads, to help blob them up, but I don't have that many models yet.

This is the basic premise of the Mechanized Anchor strategy: Your 'Mech vets are the outriders, pushing forward as quickly as possible in their transports to take and hold objectives. The next wave are your less-mobile, but still as dangerous, veteran squads on foot, along with any other limited mobility units such as Sentinels or Tanks. The last wave is a mass of regular Guardsman, as many as you could fit into the platoons. Use the PCS to burn out any dug-in opposition and rally the infantry or drive them forward more quickly with orders. The heavy weapons, still troop choices, sit back on the rear objectives with the Company Command squad to play Goalie. A trio of Lascannons with a Company Commander's "Bring it Down!" order is usually enough for the games I play, but I have considered stepping it up another squad of autocannons or missile launchers for some anti-infantry defense. A trio of mortars is handy, dependent on the opposing force. I find that the mortars do little more than piss off MEQ forces, as the mortar shells do little to harm anything but the most basic troopers.

You need mobile anti-armor assets though. I have heard good things of the Devil Dog, but I do not have the money to buy several kits and run multiple tank units in my already-tight list. Therefore, I opted for one big slugger that can dish it out as well as it can take it: the Leman Russ. The variant used is a matter of personal taste, but I use the LRBT to fulfill the role of anti-armor platform and I equip it as such: A Vanquisher with an additional Lascannon does the trick nicely, but I prefer the Demolisher if I think that the range will not be an issue and I have enough points. The large blast at STR 10 and AP 2 allows the Demolisher to play equally well at either anti-armor or anti-infantry. If I feel that I have enough AT already in my list, I will generally rely on the old fallback: the standard LRBT. The battlecannon is perfectly sufficient as a general-purpose munition, able to still put the hurt on MEQ and able to penetrate all but the heaviest vehicle armor.

You can go back and look at my old list, but it hasn't changed much. I am finding that the Guard has a special little niche for nearly any type of player; from treadheads, to horde footsloggers, to Mechanized and Air Calvary, the Guard has a slice of it for us all. Grab a fork and dig in, or your E-tool if you feel so inclined!

Don't forget, next post is the 100th of this blog! It may be a few days, as I want to collect enough material to make it memorable! Watch for it!

Until next time,
--FP135

A tale of two Captains...

Got two officers painted up, still need to matte finish them but I'll probably wait to do that until I paint up the 1st Veteran squad, so I don't have to mix the solution for just two models. Continuing on the painting... I'll probably get a whole bunch of stuff together for my mega-post celebrating my 100th post! It will be the post after the next one, so watch for it!

Lord Commissar

Finally, the long overdue hero of my IG army: The Lord Commissar. Fluff-wise, much like Gaunt's Ghosts by Dan Abnett, my IG regiment is slated to be commanded by a member of the Commissariat. This is my Lord Commissar-Colonel Matthias, to head the 49th Alascadian Regiment (nice play on words, huh? Alaska + Cadia..... oh you get the point.)

Who knows what I'll paint up next? Stay tuned, and find out! This blog is nearly at 100 posts, so I'll make sure to make it extra-special. Until then,
--FP135

1500 Point Narrative/Non-competitive List

Here it is: My IG list that I cobbled together from the models I have. Obviously this list is not very competitive yet. That will change when I trim some points here and there to fit in some more Chimeras and LRBTs.

49th Alascadian Special Operations Regiment Imperial Guard

HQ
Lord Commissar-Colonel Matthias: Carapace Armor, Powerfist, Meltabombs,
100

Company Command Squad: Medic, Regimental Standard, Voxcaster, Sniper, Commander PF, Meltabombs, Carapace, Krak Grenades
150

Troops
Veteran Squad Alpha: Grenadiers, Meltaguns (x3), Chimera Transport, Chimera Dozerblade, Chimera Pintile Stubber, Chimera Extra Armor, Chimera HK Missile, Chimera Hull Flamer, Demolitions, Voxcaster
265


Veteran Squad Bravo: Grenadiers, Plasmaguns (x2), Voxcaster
135


1st Platoon (Infantry): PCS 2x Flamers, PCS Hvy Flamer, PCS Vox, Inf Sqd 1 Vox, Inf Sqd 2 Vox, Hvy Wpn Mortars, Hvy Wpn Lascannons, PCO Pw Sword
350


Elites
Storm Truppen: +5 Stormtroopers, Plasmagun, Grenade Launcher, Sarge w/Powersword
195


Fast Attack
Armored Sentinel Alpha: Autocannon, Smoke Launchers, Hunter/Killer Missile
75


Heavy Support
Leman Russ Main Battle Tank: Extra Armor, Lascannon, Heavy Bolter Sponsons, Pintile Stubber, Dozer Blade, Hunter/Killer Missile
230

Points Summary:
HQ: 250
Troops: 750
Elites: 195
Fast Attack: 75
Heavy Support: 230
Total: 1500

Happy endings DO exist!

Well I guess that some stories do have happy endings... The codex that had gone missing finally showed up yesterday. I was quite elated, to be honest. Today in the post, I received the last bits of my orders, including the old metal command squad figures and a Commissar equipped with a powerfist, which I plan to use as a Commissar Lord for the Aura of Leadership he provides. I also love the look of the Cadian Officer with the Powersword held vertically at the shoulder... very regal and commandeering. He should be a treat to paint.

In other news, this Leman Russ is finally done about as much as I want it. The actual method I used for the paint scheme was very simple, but the sheer number of details that required picking out was what made this tank take so long to paint. I suspect the lonely Chimera APC I have will take a similar amount of work and dedication... but I don't think I will worry about painting that until I can afford to buy the other three Chimeras I need to make a decent Mechanized list. For now I am running a slightly modified light infantry gunline, which I will post up later after I iron out a few details.

For now, I have also been using spare bits, purchased online, to build a few additional special weapons troopers for my Veteran squads. I have enough bits that I might be able to squeeze a 3rd veteran squad, but I would prefer to build a few units that might see more regular use, like a special weapons squad or some more heavy weapons squads for my 1st Platoon "Night-Stalkers". (If you must know, I am using the platoon nicknames from my Company when I was in the service... It is easier for me to remember them that way.)

Well, time to get back to it. Let me know how you think I did on that Russ!

Lost in Transportation

My poor codex still has not arrived. It has been over 3 weeks since the seller shipped it via USPS (as confirmed by tracking number). This does not mean I could not play, however! GW would probably have an aneurysm if they knew... but I downloaded the popular army-list creator Army Builder and used the fan-created material to create a list. Granted, because I am cheap and have not bought the license, I can only have 3 separate units in my list. On the upside, the amount of points is unlimited. Perfect for combat patrol games, though. A infantry platoon alone can take up the entire 400 points allotted to a combat patrol scenario. AB is versatile enough to figure out how most of the equipment for the IG works, and I just filled in the gaps with info gleaned from 40k radio's episodes that review the IG 'dex.

What's more, is if I need to have a larger list I just figure out the points for each unit individually in AB before pasting the necessary info into Excel. It is not easy, but it works. Now I just need a printer.

Assault Men

Sturmtruppen were designed to operate separately from normal infantry lines, striking at predetermined weak spots in the opponents' defensive line. They were meant to bypass some strongpoints to strike at the rear objectives, forcing the defenders to choose between repelling the raiders or bracing for the wave of normal infantry following the advance.

In 40k, I think the storm troopers imitate this tactic well. With deepstrike and low AP hot-shots, they can really wreak some havoc in an opponents back-fifty.

These here still need basing and a matte finish, but other than that I am done with them for now. On to the other projects!

I don't drink "Diet" colas....

...so why would I field a low point Leman Russ? No, I kitted my latest project to be maximum points, and not the light version. Pintle Stubber, a dozer blade, sponsons, and the rest of the works for this one. Add that to the growing "to-do" list of painting.

Guard List: Just for Fun

This is a Guard list I made that will use the models I have, and it will be just for fun. I will primarily use it against MEQs, but my wife will be playing the MEQs so I want it to be more of a challenge! I normally tailor my lists for anti-MEQ, but this time I am taking a more generalized and goofy list just to A) make it easier for her and B) to get a feel for the guard in the new codex while putting some of the best-looking models I have on the table.

Well, enough gabbin', I'll get to it:

1000 Point Imperial Guard

HQ
Company Command Squad-
Regimental Standard, Medic, Sniper (absolutely no reason to include him but w/e), Voxcaster, Master of Ordinance. Commander has a Powerfist.

ELITES
Storm Trooper Squad-
+5 STs, 1 Grenade Launcher, 1 Plasmagun, Sergeant has Power Weapon

TROOPS
Veteran Squad 1-
Demolitions, Meltagun, Voxcaster

Veteran Squad 2-
Demolitions, Plasmagun, Voxcaster

Infantry Platoon-
Heavy weapons squad with mortars, 2 infantry squads with lascannons and Voxcasters, Platoon command has 1 heavy flamer, 2 flamers, 1 Voxcaster. Platoon commander has plasma pistol.

FAST ATTACK
Armored Sentinel-
Camo Netting, Smoke Launchers, Autocannon, H/K Missile

TOTAL: 1000 points. (If it doesn't quite add up I cannot remember if I added Meltabombs and Krak grenades to certain units like the company command squad and platoon command squad.)

The plan:
The plan is to use the infantry platoon as a mobile base of fire for the rest of the force. The command squad stays back and fires that large ordinance blast at distant targets (I'd be using the Forward Observers stratagem in Cities of Death games) and holds together the gunline with the standard, while being able to issue orders to either squad (and reroll fails thanks to the abundance of vox's). The veterans are the mobile objective takers (or destroyers, with those demo charges), and coupled with a overly-loaded sentinel and killy storm trooper squad, should be able to knock free an objective. I figured they didn't need too much anti-tank firepower, as my wife would never field anything heavier than a predator at this point. If the need arises, however, all the veterans with meltabombs make getting near them a risky prospect. 1 commander with meltabombs- not that scary. 9 dudes with meltabombs- a little scarier. 18 dudes- ouch. The storm troopers are just general rabble rousers and meant to work in conjunction with the sentinel to distract and kill things. With carapace standard, they are the most survivable, and with the hellguns (oops, i mean hot-shot lasguns) they spit death at MEQ troops, which could be useful for blasting an objective free. The platoon command squad with flamers... well that is just silly but might be fun in a Cities of Death game. I wanted to give a flamer squad a shot but didn't feel like making a special weapons squad.

Well that is all I can talk about tonight, it's now late and I'm going to turn in. Feel free to comment on the pure silliness...

FP135

At the parents' house...

...Doing some laundry. While I am here (and thanks to the modern marvel of laptops and wireless internet) I thought I would post a picture of the painted infantry squad I have been working on for the last couple days. They are pretty much done and hardcoated, I just need to put a matte finish on them. (And base them of course, but as mentioned earlier I want to do that all in one go.) I can't wait to get back and start painting some of the veteran squads I have head-swapped. They should look great in this scheme. (My lame quick-photography doesn't do the scheme justice, it looks quite good in person.)

In the post today, I received some of the things I had been waiting on. Still no codex. I am starting to worry, seeing as that was the first thing I paid for and it still has not arrived, even as things I paid for mere days ago are arriving.

Today I received a 10 man stormtrooper squad. I am obviously going to need to buy a stormtrooper sergeant to make them field-able. They are the non-kaskarin (sp?) models, and I quite like them. I might paint them up similar to the inquisitional stormtroopers, so I can use them as DH stormtroopers if I so desire.

I also received cadian bits, such as torsos, legs, and extra mortar pieces. I will be constructing some special weapons teams from the bits I had left over in the battleforce box, as well as some additional mortar teams. I don't have the bipods for the mortars, but I might model them as being part of the soldiers kit, on the move, instead of in the act of firing the weapon. I'll of course mount them on the same sized base, so they are rules-legal.

Well that is it for now. Hopefully I won't have to stay and do laundry for too long before I can get back to my IG!

Making the Most of your IG Heavy Weapon Teams

A large limiting factor that most people have with their leftover heavy weapons from the squad is that there are not enough bodies to put on the guns. Well, I have come up with a temporary solution that allows you to put heavy weapons teams in your squads without having to buy a whole bunch more legs and torsos for the job!

Step 1: Make a base. I cut mine from a garage sale sign, purchased at walmart for 2 dollars. You will need to double them up if you do this, to get the right rigidity. Even when doubling them up, there is enough material to make at least 6 bases. Plenty for the leftover weapons on the sprue.

Step 2: Cut a lot of sprue. Cutting up the sprue into small chunks resemble small bricks. These bricks will be strategically placed later to create a nice rubble effect, as well as contain the bases of the minis you use as the gunners.

Step 3: Construct the weapon. If you have the tripod, use it. If not, it is possible to build a brick wall from the rubble and mount the weapon on it. The trick is to leave two spaces that can accommodate a regular miniature base. I find it easiest to do if you construct the gun the farthest forward you can fit it on the base.

Step 4: Use your infantry as the gunners! They also work great for representing wounds. When the gun team takes a wound, simply remove one of the infantry models. When you finally get the extra bits, you can glue them into the spaces you left, completing the model. In the meantime, though, add some LAZE to your gunlines!

As stated before, this is a temporary fix. What other ways have you found to utilize all the weapons that come on the sprue?

Imperial Guard Project Update- 1st Squad Painted

Ok, I know I don't have pictures yet, but this will have to tide you over until the next time I can manage to get some pictures up.

Earlier today I got the first squad painted up to go along with that Sergeant in an earlier post, and they are awaiting basing. (I'm going to base all the models in the army at the same time, to maintain consistency.) Tonight I put together some modular heavy weapon teams, which I will go over in more detail at a later time.

I have completely assembled the contents of 1 Battleforce and an extra 20 man box of Cadians, but I am still waiting on a lot of things in the mail. I am waiting on a 10 man Storm Trooper squad I bought second-hand, a Company Command Squad in the old metal style (mainly because I wanted that officer holding the sabre really badly), a Leman Russ box, and a Chimera box for the command squad. I eventually want to buy up to a Mechanized company, but for now I'll have to settle for just one lonely Chimera.

I still have a bunch of Pig Iron heads for converting, so expect any more infantry squads I purchase to be getting a head swap.

I promise to post pics as soon as I can! I swear!

Next time I will also go over my proposed list with the models I have purchased and the models I have converted. We'll start out at a 750 super-small game and work up from there!

Until next time,
FP135

A Special Shout-out...

...To the awesome staff over at www.rattleheadgames.com

I got my Pig Iron heads today, ordered from RHG a week ago (including the weekend) and they showed up in the post today. Fast shipping is great, but there's more to this plug-in than that!

I had gone there looking for the PI heads, and I found them at 6 dollars a pack. With a flat shipping rate of under 4 dollars, I knew they were the obvious choice to go with over The Warstore. I saved the page under my bookmarks and went among my merry business, planning to buy the packs as soon as I could afford it.

The next time I came back ready to order, the prices had gone up to match the Warstores prices. They were now an even 8 dollars a pack. I feverently checked my shopping cart, and was relieved to see that I was still going to get them at the former price of 6 dollars a pack. I immediately placed my order.

Their customer service rep was excellent. He replied to his emails promptly, and assured me there would be no extra charge to ship my products to Alaska. He was courteous and friendly, and willing to ensure I was taken care of.

Today when I got my parcel, I saw that the shipping price was 4 dollars and eighty cents, a full dollar over the price they charged to ship it to me! On top of eating the difference in pricing for the product, they also ate the difference on the shipping too! And they had great customer service to boot! What more can you ask for in an online retailer?

How about actually keeping their product in stock? The Warstore has been sold out of PI heads for weeks, while RHG has a large stock of them in supply. Do you really want to wait for a couple weeks for Neal to restock? I don't.

Here's to you, RHG, for being an example to all the other miniatures game retailers.

Christmas in July!

Lookey at what showed up in the post today!

Yesterday I got impatient waiting for this battleforce (it had only been 3 business days but I get bored easily) and went down to the local gaming store. I walked back out with the old x20 box of Cadian Shock Troops.

So last night I sat down and assembled them all in one go. This morning, I cranked out the painting and got the sergeant done (pictured above). I planned on getting a whole squad done by the time the battleforce got here, but that obviously didn't happen. That's not to mention the Stormtrooper proxies I had been working on before that... I have a lot of work to do.

Send me an email or comment every once in a while to remind me to eat and sleep, ok?

Stormtrooper 1 is done!

...And his buddies are waiting. Just thought I would share what I have done on him so far. This is pretty much the scheme, but I may go back and do heavier highlights later. For now I just want them table-ready. How do you like how that backpack came out? I am pretty pleased with it. It was simple to make and looks decent while adding some character to an otherwise-static pose.

Any day now my Battleforce should get here, along with the 60 heads I ordered from Pig Iron Productions! Next stop: Conversion-town!

Collaborative Contribution: Greenstuff Bedrolls

Cadians can be boring, but there are so many! How can you possibly do anything to them that will not take forever, but still improve their diversity?

Here is a quick tutorial on making easy and fast greenstuff bedrolls to add to your trooper's kit, and it doesn't take long at all:

1. Take a small amount of greenstuff and make a long rectangle of the desired width you want the bedroll to be. The length may take a little bit of tinkering to get right, as too long will result in a bedroll that is too fat. (No I don't mean eats-at-McDonalds-everyday fat, I mean that its circumference will be too large.)

2. Careful to keep from fingerprinting it, stick it to the back of the model.

3. Using a sculpting tool or a dull knife, use a rolling motion over the perimeter of the roll to make two indents in the roll, indicating where ropes are holding it in place.

4. If you have a really steady hand, you can use a sharp utility knife to cut minuscule alternating diagonal slashes in the bottom of these indents to give the appearance of a rope's strands. Alternatively, if you are good at making chains you could place a chain in the indents to attach the bedroll.

That's it, pretty simple huh? Now those boring Cadian troops can have a bed to roll out! They don't do much anyway, may as well catch a wink. You can really pump these out once you get the hang of them, and they add a bit of flavor to any ground-pounder army.

Pop on over to FTW for the complete compilation of collaborative contributions by community crafters! (Wow that was a lot of alliteration!)

New look, for both the blog and the trooper!

Continuing on with my conversion project, I tried to do a little more greenstuff work. Now I know why Ron at FTW loves doing greenstuff work so much! It really is a challenge. I am definitely beginning to get more comfortable delving into sculpting simple stuff. Here is as far as I got for tonight (it being 1 in the morning): I used some guitar string as tubing for a hose leading to the back, cut the gun free and bent the arm (with a pair of pliers, thus needing to repair the arm where the teeth bit into), and laid the foundation for a backpack sculpt later on. I had fun doing this and can't wait to get some sleep so I can get back on it tomorrow!

As a side note, I hope you like the new blog layout. I needed a more relaxing theme!

Pre-IG Project continued: Storm Troopers

Well, the cat is out of the bag. Here are my latest conversion projects: A squad of anti-MEQ Storm Troopers converted from yet more Ral Partha miniatures (4 Neo-Soviet Vanguard and a Mutant Handler from the Vor line, no longer a mainstream production game). These are my first attempt at converting metal models, so we'll see how it goes. I don't have clamps, so I am trying to attach the plasmaguns to the metal models by first gluing them with plastic cement, which theoretically will make the plastic plasmagun conform better and stick a tiny bit. After it is dry, I am going to go back and superglue it on to make sure it stays put. If that doesn't work I may have to get creative, like using greenstuff or an epoxy glue.

Hopefully I will have these ready to paint by tomorrow morning. Stay tuned!

Pre-IG project: A squad of.... uh....

...Something. I only have a Cadian Battleforce coming in the mail, so I will be needing some more models to have a playable force. This here is a double-edged sword: A paint scheme test as well as a possible "counts as" for either a veteran squad or a platoon command squad. What do you think? What would you proxy this unit as? I am not planning on converting them (as they still go to another game system) so what can I use them as?

Dante finally complete!

After much labor, my Commander Dante model is complete. I don't really think I will use him anytime soon, as I have reverted back to Vanilla SM lists for the most part, but I suppose he could stand in as a force commander with a Jump Pack and combi-melta.



Oh, and Happy Independence Day, fellow Americans! Thank you to all my brothers in the service that are fighting for it right now. Stay safe, Mitch!

Back in business

Due to an unforeseen family emergency, some of you may have noticed I disappeared for a few weeks. I am now back, and jumping both-feet-first into the IG! I have sold my meager Ork army, and purchased the new IG 'dex and a Battleforce. I realize that I will not be able to field a complete, and legal, army right away, but the battleforce will give me enough to play some combat patrols at least. I dug out some old Ral Partha miniatures that I wasn't using, and stripped the paint off them to use them as testers for the scheme I had in mind. I was going for a similar look to Halo 1's UNSC Marines kit. I think I got pretty close. See for yourself at http://www.dakkadakka.com/dakkaforum/posts/list/246556.page

So, seeing how I cannot seem to keep real life from invading, until further notice I am going to discontinue the regular weekly updates and just update when I find time, like today. I apologize for the inconvenience.


Lastly, I will be attempting to procure some Pig Iron Productions: Kolony Militia heads for use with the cadians I have purchased, but I wanted to try my hand at green-sculpting some rebreathers on the standard cadian heads before I do. Does anybody know of any tips or tutorials they can direct me to?

Until next time,
FP135