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!)