More Dudes

So I decided to buy a bunch more stuff. A cadian defence force. And some others, as will be revealed here. I decided to go big so that I would have a bunch of bits so that my recent problem with my army of clones would be avoided.

Anyway so first off is a bunch of dudes. It took absolutely ages to scrape off mould lines on these. I don't remember struggling this much when i got that battleforce a few years back. Maybe its a sign of old moulds or something. I got some scions as well and these were an absolute breeze in comparison. But more on that later.

Dudes

Special weapon dudes

Vox dudes

 I left them attached to bits of sprue I'm going to knock up another batch of bases cos I really want to get a sizeable force on the table and i'm willing to let undercoated types turn up.

Command Types

Done some work on the company and platoon commanders...

Again suffering by looking a bit too similar to each other. However I'm intending to convert up a Creed counts as so the company commander probably wont be seen that often in action.

I quite like the blue detailing on the trim.

Sergeants

Finished up a couple of sergeants. I hate painting skin tones. Also I wish I had built them differently to each other. Guess I got caught up in the moment in the manufacturing line style of building...

I also think that the laspistol arm looks really unnatural.

WIP Standard Bearer

A very much a WIP one this one but I was struck by how deep and golden the trim was on this standard.

Shiny!

Other Things

Ok a bit of honesty here. I write up a load of blogs and then schedule them for publishing on a weekly basis. Over the last couple of weeks (gasp) I have been doing things that arent 40k related.

Went  down the mersey tunnels and saw some pretty awesome machinery...

Went for a walk up a hill and saw some rusted stuff that was pretty cool...

So yeah research. For all that scenery that i'm gonna build. Honest.

Aside

Forgive the indulgence, but I'm quite happy with the progress that I am making with my guard. I find the painting aspects of this hobby the most challenging, mainly cos I suck and i can find it frustrating at times, but I think i am actually beginning to make some real progress. Seeing the guard come together is really satisfying. 

With just the officers left to finish off it is time to ponder what is next. After running the sums, it looks as though I have enough soldiers to field a CCS and platoon with a PCS and two infantry squads. Not many points, but better than a knee to the happy sacks. Looking at what other bits I have lined up my mind turns to what bits I need to crack on.

Off the top of my head:

• Three pairs of legs plus three guardsmen will complete my forgeworld hostile environment plasma gunners as a SPS;
• 4 more guardsmen and another special weapons dude will let me move the heavy weapon teams from the IS to form a HWS;
• I need a bunch (3) of kneeling down legs to finish off the heavy weapon dudes;
• I have aspirations for fielding an inquisitor and henchmen and using this as a way in to INQ28 stuff (I think that this aspect of the hobby represents a precipice of modelling / painting / narrative gaming), for which i need tons of bits
• 7th Ed rules / box set

So do I go all out and get me a cadian defence force which will provide me with enough stuff to complete my immediate goals plus give me more stuff for the INQ28 attack? Or do I get just what I need? Plus I need to replace my airbrush to continue with my Imperial Guard and Iron Warrior armies. Plus I'm not made of money.

Anyway, here are some pictures of stuff that I painted a while back...

A Leman Russ and a sentinal. I used my airbrush, the well established salt and airspray weathering technique, plus weathering powers, oil paints and varnish.

Proper chuffer at how they turned out!

Heavies

So being a cheap bastard I decided to try and make more than the standard 3 weapon teams that came with the battleforce box. My original plan was to mount the second crew member on their own bases which can then be placed on the larger base, but in the end I didn't like the final result. 

Anyway I did the heavies in two batches and then went attached the crew member to two of the teams after the second batch was done...

Batch 1. I decided not to attach the sandbag bits in the end. I think they detracted from the final result.

Batch 2 with crew added to the lascannons from batch 1. When i applied the final wash to the missile launcher at the back it went a really weird yellow colour. Pity.