Showing posts with label Veterans. Show all posts

Yes, finally the 303rd. They sat on the shelf comfortably for a while now, so it's about time to show my last veteran squad.


A word of warning. I have applied matt varnish to them, as I have done with all the Guard minis... Except this time it didn't want to be matt. After two coats, I gave up. Funnily enough, I varnished the metal Rune Priest with the same varnish and there was no gloss at all.

These are... slightly glossy. I was quite annoyed, but thankfuly it doesn't show that much.

They still look quite good I guess and I would be really happy with them if not that accident. Especially since they were the first Guardsmen I painted since quite a while... But enough me ranting, pictures!

Three standard poses. I really ran out of original ideas after two squads. Since they looked slightly bland with just rebreathers (and shotguns) as their main unique points, I decided to add a couple of litanies, 302nd style.

Run-by-shotgun-in-the-face, Mr. Sir I Have A Tactical Map For you and Charge'em! men.

And another three. Glasses with rebreathers look awesome. And I could use the standard sergeant head again and it isn't so obvious, thanks to the reabreather! Only in the middle I noticed the ammo case contains lasgun batteries and they've got shotguns. Oops. So I had to paint it differently.

Finally the sarge himself. A tough guy, with a little aristocratic look in him. He needs no pansy rebreather. Or a helm, for that matter.

So, what do you think? This is the last veteran squad I'll ever be making, so it's more-or-less the official end of the long-standing IHRH series. Wow, it took a while!

And a little something, that doesn't warrant it's own post. 302nd's new Chimera

Those new Chimeras are nice, but there's like, nowhere to put stowage on. I guess it's good, since I'm running low on the remnants of the old Accessory Sprues...

Not a lot today, however I want to present you a little sneak peak of the upcoming 303rd Veteran Squad! Hope you like them. There'll be much more on them coming later.

First a little shot on "regular" veterans within the squad:

They all bear shotguns and rebreathers, there'll also be a few purity seals. They're still unfinished, I'll try to get some more on them to make them more unique, even though they should stand out quite a bit thanks to their loadout.


And obviously, there's more if you click below!


Here's the sargeant leading the squad. He's been done for quite a while now, but he gained a, sparkly... green, new rebreather!


And another regular vet. This one will have a tutorial attached to him as a new installment in the IHRH series! Can you guess what it's about?


That's it for now. The melta guys are also out there, but not ready to be unveiled just yet. Alas, I cannot finish the squad just yet. I am waiting for my second Wolves battleforce to arrive with the two missing shotguns! I'm hoping it will be here soon enough, since there is a big tournament coming where I'd like to field them and they would have to be fully painted before that!


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At last, here it is. After fighting a battle with the Chaos God of Internets that denied me access to it, I finally managed to break through and write this post. I know there are a few of you, oh dear readers, who waited for this, so without more delay - the 302nd Veteran Squad of 42nd Cadian!


As usual, starting with a group shot. Or two.




As you can see, the squad is totting melta guns. It also has a distinct lack of purity seals compared to the 301st. The reason for that is actually quite simple. I ran out of them, but ordered more from a bits store. I really like the look of SM purity seals on guardsmen, so didn't quite make my own. However when the order arrived it got misplaced. It was done together witha friend of mine and he left it in our local store for me to pick up.. And apparently it got lost with the load of stuff they have out there.

With the lack of purity seals I decided that it might even be for the better. I will come up with some other feature and each squad will have it's own distinctive element! Have I achieved my goal? You decide, when you watch further closeup shots after clicking below.


Here is the sarge. Not a sergeant, sarge. Just look at his expression. I just love that head (coming from the Cadian Command Squad sprue) with the cigar. I just wish I made him modular, so that he could hold a Power Fist instead of that pistol. *cough* Oh well.



The special weapon... specialists. Three meltagunners. The left one you should be already familiar with and the right one is the metal Cadian meltagunner. The one in the middle is a little homage to the 301st and certain plasma gunner. Only he has a bigger knife!



And the "regular" vets. There always has to be one kneeling, eh? The middle vet wasn't always a veteran actually. He was originally meant to act as a guardsman in a Platoon Command Squad, but since the loadout of that squad changed significantly he was suddenly unemployed. I though not to waste the model with FW parts and after small repaint (covering hte gold pieces pretty much) he's a veteran now. If only I hadn't ruined his face, sigh! The right one might be least inspiring of the vets, but take a look at his pistol! Did you know that, according to The Imperial Infantryman's Uplifting Primer, each guardsman is equipped with an auto pistol? It would be quite fun to have that in-game, though I suppose that'd make us mini-marines.



And the last three. The left one is my all-time favourite, another excellent head from the Cadian CS. It's not as detailed as the bare head from the FW pack, but still looks mighty fine. The middle vet is funny. It's a first time I finally got to use that las-carbine you get on vehicle accessory sprue. Ironically, I always assumed it's a pistol and tried to use it as such with no luck. Only recently I've seen what exactly does the Steel Legion carry. I think it fits rather well, hes wounded so can't carry a regular lasgun, but a shorter, more compact carbine fits just right in one hand! And lastly the vet on the right, who is something of a squad medic. I wish vets could take medics, maybe as one of their doctrines (the cost is even the same). Perhaps it wouldn't be that good, but it'd definitely have a cool feel about it. Still, it's impossible, so he doesn't really do anything special game-wise, but he's just carrying a medic backpack and has fancy bags and equipment.



And that's it. I wodner if you caught the "defining feature". Perhaps not, as it did end up less obvious than I though. Still, it's the litanies written over their armour and weapons, kind of SM-esque. It does look quite good, but doesn't stand out like the Purity Seals.

Now, I am actually slowly making the 303rd. They're going to have much better "defining feature", very obvious. What is it? You will find out...

I could end here, but I though it'd be fun to throw in one more pic, since I've made this gaming table and all. Here is the 302nd on the battlefield! I wish I could show you their dedicated transport, but sadly I do not have that Chimera yet. I'll be sure to post it once I get it.


And that's it for 302nd. As goodbye words, here's a sneak peak of the next update.


And what I'm currently working on.

As always, thanks for reading and I'd love to hear your comments!

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As part of the I Hate Right Hands series I present to you... the first veteran squad of the 42nd Cadian 3rd Company! These have been all made using tips from my articles and I though it's a good idea to include it in the series, so that readers get a chance to see how all those tips turn out in the end. So let's get to business, but let me just tell you that I don't think I've ever before been so proud of minis I painted...

Without further ado! The squad 301 itself leaving safety of its fine ride to engage the enemy!


That's to wet you appetite. Click below for more pictures!


One more groupshot of the 301:


And now onto individual models. First, I present to you the three plasma gunners. Do you know those minis sat on the shelf and went into battle for an entire year unpainted? They were one of the first things I've made.



The next three. The one on the right belongs to the original bunch of real year-old vets. The original idea was to head the clips hanging on a belt going through his torso, but it didn't really work out, so he ended up having a lot of clips on his belt.. But who knows maybe I'll use this idea one day! I really like the one on the left though, very dynamic. Apparently he's the only vet with no purity seals whatsoever, I wonder how I missed that! The middle one was the one I liked the least and wasn't too happy with him when I had finished him. I'm glad I didn't try to redo him though as he turned out really well.



And the last three. The middle one is my favourite hands down. I love the way he turned out, but I guess that's Forgeworld charm. The left one is quite antique as well, belonging originally to the second plasma-bomb-vet-kamikaze-squad. I have no idea where does this head come from, I got it along lots of other bits. It's probably some WFB knight or something. Fits great though!
The right one is a real tough guy. The sculpted glasses add quite some charm and I'm really happy with him.



Finally the sarge! Apologies for the shadows, I only noticed them now, oops! The sarge had some serious rework put into him into the assembly stage. I love his face, yet again a credit to Forgeworld awesomeness. I really wish they produced more Cadian infantry! At first I was going to make the plasma pistol glow different color (red) but in the end decided it would bleed into the purity seals color or stand out too much in a silly way.


But in reality the plasma pistol is a thing of previous codex. Nowadays I most likely won't field sergeants that way, so a solution was made! Still he's going to sit around with the plasma as it looks more interesting, at least in my opinion.


Now some closeups, that some of you (Hi, Drax!) seem to like a lot, on the sarge himself!

And on my very favourite vet. Did you say there's casting for new Terminator somewhere nearby?


And lastly, their Chimera APC! Finished just today. It doesn't have a camo pattern, yes. If you check the codex it seems the Chimeras are painted differently so I went with tha... Okay. Okay! I was lazy. But it still turned out much better than I though, even though it seems more white than other vehicles. I suppose part of that is the airbrush I used for the first time to get the basecoat on it.




This Chimera is just a sneak peak of what's to come. As the second one I currently have, which is dedicated to the regimental command squad has something special...

And that's it for tonight. I'd love to hear your opinions!


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Here it is at last, the fourth part of the I Hate Right Hands series! This time I'll show you how to make your squad look like it actually had fought all those battles which made them what they are now. It isn't really too hard, but it's always good to have one article with all the ideas clumped together for easy viewing so, here we go!

As usual I will give you some ideas I came up with, some that I tried and have pictures and others which are just concepts (and it's either too late to make them on my vets or I didn't really have the resources at the time). Well, let's get started.

First - what will you need? A couple of tools including:

A knife



Some drills. Mine are really ancient!



Some files. The one I'm showing has the best shape - round from both sides with a sharp edge.


And of course the squad you're making.
Other things that could help are: modelling putty (with all related tools), some of the Cadian CS bits, some random parts of Orks, Tyranids etc.


First the most basic thing. Battle damage - dents, cuts and various scratches on the vets' armour.

How?

Let's take our lil' veteran sarge. Yep, that's a new one, leading Veteran squad 3-0-2 (it's finished now, I'll post some pictures... soon..)



Take a file. Now imagine there's bullets flying the way of your mini. Of course take correction on the pose, after all in the heat of the fight he might be standing differently. Now, imagine your enemy passes his to Wound roll, but you manage an armor save. What happens? The bullets scratches the armor and swings past! Align the file correctly and make a slight scratch in armor. You can make it deeper if you wish, but be careful not to go over the board.

Here's the effect. It's rather small, my first vet squad had them a bit deeper. I managed to finish painting them yesterday, and man they turned out great. I'll post some pics and you'll see how battle damage is visible.

Okay, now basic physics. When a bullet hits the shoulder it's deflected, since the shoulder is round and it slides on its surface. What if it hit the flat chest armor area? It won't get deflected, it will hit in the spot and possibly get stuck (or get through.. ouch!) or just stop and fall to the ground, while the guardsman feels a little punch. Still, the flak armor is rather weak so it's going to leave a mark.
That's where the drills come in! Just see this:

Again, don't go oever the top. I do feel the hole on the sergeant is a tad too big. They should be small. The other places for holes are: shoulderpads - but think about it from what direction did the bullet come, not to get deflected by round shoulderpad!, helmets - same as shoulders, and the ankleguards. So yea, basically everywhere! ;) As long as you think of basic physics.

What can you use a knife for? Imagine you guardsman is fighting some savage alien beast. Maybe a Tyranid or maybe jsut some local predator. It's towering over the guardsman and swings its clawed arm just over his head. If it was not for the helmet he would be decapitated, but the Emperor indeed bless him that day! Only a scratch!


Now imagine a hand-to-hand swirling mess. Guardsmen armed with a knife is fighting some freak with a sword. He swings at guardsman's head and misses just barely, still managing to hit the helmet. An inch to the left and this guardsman would need some bionic eye implants!


The Orks charge the Guard lines. The words that every guardsman fears the most are heard. "Bayonettes on!". They put them on and greet the greenskins first with a hail of las-fire and then with a wall of knives. But still Orks have tough skin. After you do that a couple of times that knife won't hold off well. Here, look at this: (It's probably more visible on the shadow than on the knife itself...)

Right, so much for things you can do with your tools. Now onto some more advanced methods. I mentioned the new Cadian Command Squad bits. They're awesome and in case you were hestitating - don't. I'll probably end up buying one more of those and if I was just starting Guard now I'd buy at least 2 or 3 to make my veterans, in addition to Command Squad itself.

It does indeed include some parts that make for great "battle-damaged" veterans. Take for example this man:


He was fighting Orks in the previous battle and the swing of the Choppa was so strong, that even though he has parried it, it broke his arm. Nothing Sisters Hospitaller couldn't fix luckily! Though he still has to continue fighting and was issued a compact lasgun, that he can still operate with one hand. Yay, I finally managed to use that lasgun from vehicle accessory sprue!

The second one is the Regiment's Champion. Proudly carrying the regimental banner into battle. He's a veteran of many fights. In one of them, he lost his eye in the heat of the battle.


This man had his arm slightly "scratched", but he's still carrying on.


Now, all of these things can be really easily done with a bit of green stuff. You don't really need those bits. I've shown you how to do bandages with green stuff in previous article. You can do an eyepatch similarly. Putty gives you also more freedom and variety in what body parts have those guardsmen got injured.

I really advice you to try it out. Most people seem to go "What, sculpt?! Are you mad, a rubber duck has more skill with green stuff than me!" when told to do such a thing. What I say is "Have you tried?". I thought I can't even sculpt a rock, and now take a look at my psykers and Commisar Lord you all were so kind to comment on.

And the last part, the xeno bits I've mentioned. Remember the old Xeno-Fighters doctrine? I think it even had a requirement of trophies being modelled. Yeah, that's the point - trophies. Random Ork heads, a Tyranid talon, maybe a helmet of a single Chaos Marine or similar items like that. Just keep in mind one thing. I mean, would you want to carry an Ork head strapped to your belt? Sure it'd show how badass you are. Still, do you think you'd want to carry it for a week? Especially in warm climate? No, I don't think so... Or perhaps that's why they're wearing those rebreathers/face masks...

And that's all, folks! See you next time in a painting guide to 42nd colour scheme! Also coming soon is the freshly out of production line vets, Chimeras, Valks and maybe finally I'll show you those new platoon additions... See you soon!


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