Imperial Guard: Rebasing Project (Part 3 - Stormtroopers)

This is the last unit I painted for this army (not including vehicles) about 5 years ago.

Looking at them now I can see my painting has come on a lot!

I was quite pleased with them at the time - now not so much.

Still - I have no plans to repaint any of my troops - just rebasing them which is making a big difference to how they look anyway.

I still prefer these minis to the new Militaris Tempestus Scions, though.

Before:

After:

More Imperial Guard-related stuff:

Imperial Guard: Rebasing Project (Part 2 - Ratlings)

So after rebasing my Ogryns I moved on (in no particular order except they were next in the box) to my Ratlings.

You'll notice as I work through these units that a lot of my models are very old. I'm not sure exactly how old these chaps are, but they're certainly no spring chickens. Wait till you see some of the stuff I've got in this force in later posts!

To deal with these I kept the original bases as the textured sand that's on them is useful to the new scheme. I used a Dremel-type grinding tool to grind the green paint off the bevelled edge and brush-painted the base black before drybrushing white then adding snow, scatter, ballast and static grass.

Before:

And after:

More Imperial Guard-related stuff:

Imperial Guard: Rebasing Project (Part 1 - Ogryns)

Well I've sidetracked myself. Again.

I was well on the path to renovating and adding to my Sentinels by creating a Sentinel Platoon. I had everything assembled, undercoated (black) and had applied a load of masking tape ready to spray a layer of grey over the majority of the models, when I discovered my grey rattlecan was empty.

So I set about deciding what else I needed to do. Big list. Don't get me started.

What did I want to do? Well, since I'm working in my Imperial Guard, let's address a bugbear.

I HATE the bases on my Imperial Guard.

When I did my Valkyrie a while back I drew a line in the sand and decided that I was going to base them the same was as I had done for my Beastmen, Epic Chaos and (more recently) Tau. At some point I hope to be able to build a gaming table so want to establish a consistent look for all my models so they will fit in.

So I figured I'd start with my Ogryns, as apart from the bases being the wrong colour, they were on 40mm square bases and I wanted to move to 40mm round.

This is the unit before:

Photo taken at Warhammer World

And after the change:

You've no doubt noticed that my Ogryns aren't Ogryns at all - they're converted WFB Ogres. Purely by accident - when I bought the first three of them from ebay a few years ago I wasn't paying enough attention. I liked what came in the post and worked with it. Then I decided to add three more so picked up some more Ogres and started playing with Milliput - the result is the models with the berets, tin-helmet and flak jacket.

More Imperial Guard-related stuff:

Imperial Guard: Sentinel Platoon (Part 1 - bits in boxes)

I'm taking a break from building my Tau army to work on something I've wanted to do for ages - a full Sentinel Platoon.

I'm fully aware of the problems of Sentinels on the battlefield - they're slow (for a fast-attack option!), fragile, BS3 etc. However, I've always love the aesthetic and have wanted to be able to deploy a full platoon ever since I first got the Apocalypse book. The idea of 10 Sentinels striding across the table (for however short a period they may survive) sounds ace to me.

For my Imperial Guard I omly had two Scout Sentinel models, and they were in a bit of a scrotty state (and after my last hastily-packed-away trip to Warhammer World - both broken).

So about a year ago when this whim last seized me I set about trawling ebay for Sentinel junk lots. I did quite well, picking up 6 scout models in a single auction for under £15, including shipping. They were all in a similar state to my own models - broken at the ankles, weapons snapped off and the cagey-bit around the drivers damaged.

That brought me up to 8 models.

I then managed to pick up 4 Armoured Sentinels in top condition for a small amount of cash - can't remember how much.

I wanted more armoured Sentinels, though, so I hit the bitz shops and picked up some of the plated canopies and some feet and legs to make up what I was missing.

So I start my project like this:

Bagged up legs, hips, feet and and bases

The pilot compartments and weapons

The four intact models

Right - out comes the drill, wire and glue. Chocks away!

More Imperial Guard (Astra Militarum) stuff:
More Sentinel-related posts:

Tau: Fire Warriors (Squad 3)

Here is my third and (for a short time) final post in this series on preparing my Tau army.

There will be more on this project in a few weeks but I want to do a short side project as a break.

So, here is my third unit of Fire Warriors.

More Tau-related stuff:

Tau family album:

Tau: Working with Skyrays - Part 3 (Quick Tip)

Here is the last part (aside from actually getting some paint down!) on my series about making the fullest possible use of GWs Tau Skyray and Hammerhead kits.

• In the first part I covered the options that were available in the kit.
• In the second part I covered rebuilding the front underslung turret.

This is the final part and covers modelling the main weapons to make them interchangeable so you can field your Skyray as a Skyray, Hammerhead (with your choice of weapons) or Devilfish.

I'm not the greatest modeller in the world so feel free to improve on anything I'm suggesting here if (and when!) you see a better way of doing it.

First - the easy bit: The Skyray

I only magnetised this so that the missiles can be removed as fired in-game. I think they're designed to push-fit but I found they weren't a good fit and wouldn't stay in place. 

I glued some pieces of paper-clip into the slots

Added some magnets to the missiles. I'm undecided about these particular magnets and may replace them with smaller, inset ones.

And it fits together like this (the engine pod at the back is just to balance the turret)

The second part - the Hammerhead turret. 

I shaved down some of the details on the "block" so that the weapons could fit totally over it and added a magnet at the back...

And another at the front

In order to mount the railgun I fabricated these small bits of, er, things. For scale they're small - the hole is just beg enough for a small magnet and the entire piece fits inside the hole at the bottom of the railgun, nearer the front than the back

You can just see the, er, "thing" in place complete with magnet on the right-hand edge of the hole.

When dropped in place over the block on the turret the magnet holds the railgun in place and stops it tilting forwards

The Ion Cannon is a little more tricky - there's nothing inside it's hole to glue a similar "thing" to so I had to glue a boatload of bits of sprue into it, front and back, in order to be able to mount magnets. It's a looser fit and so needed magnets both front and back.

Not a great photo but you can just make out the bits of sprue and the magnet inside the hole. It's a similar view if you look into the hole from the back of the gun. Two magnets are required to secure this weapon

And here it is in place

Painting of the tanks is going to need to wait until early 2015 as the Christmas Holiday season is a busy time for me and also there's a short "sabbatical" project I want to do too.

More Tau-related stuff:

The Tau Family Album:

Tau: Fire Warriors (Squad 2)

And here is my second full squad of Fire Warriors, complete. These guys have pulse carbines rather than pulse rifles.

The photos above are the same unit from two slightly different angles.

I'm going to try to get one more unit done before Christmas (which is exactly two weeks off) and then take a short break from the Tau to do a mini-project I've wanted to do since getting the first "Apocalypse" book and add a Sentinel Platoon to my Imperial Guard roster!

More Tau-related stuff:

The Tau Family Album: