OOP Imperial Guard Tank Crew, limited edition

I'm particularly proud of these miniatures: this is one of the three members of the Imperial Guard tank crew that i own. These models came out in 1999 when, with the first 3rd edition codex, you could give tanks a piece of equipment called Crew Escape Mechanism meant to save a D3 members of tank crew in order to avoid losing completely the Victory points of the tank. Very fancy wargear, i wish i could buy this right now for my Russes (i deploy three). These miniatures were available only from GW Mail Order so this made them pretty rare stuff.

I decided to use these three models because i wanted to give my army kinda "survivor" feel, like if it has been deployed for a really long time, so starting from the day this guy lost his tank, i got attached to a veteran infantry squad to allow him to go on fighting.
The colour scheme is a bit different from the other veterans: the trousers are the same but the jacket is, instead of grey-black urban camo, plain black to represent his status of elite tank crew, pretty much like the way WW2 Germans did. In fact in my army i painted tank crews from Leman Russes or artillery with a black vest while the Chimeras' crews just plain olive green (quite Soviet looking).
Anyway, i really love the way i painted the potentiometer on the laspistol! looks like it is glowing in the dark!

Cadian veteran!

I began to paint seriously all of my guardmen: this is the first of the first batch. the camo scheme is the usual urban camo made of medium grey as main colour and black stripes.

Right now i'm using Vallejo game and model colours and for the grey i combined:

• German grey
• Basalt grey 
• Cold grey

Black stripes are painted with:

• Black
• German grey
• Black wash or Lifecolor's Panzer Uniform instead of German grey

 Green fatigues are painted with:

• Yellow olive
• Cayman green
• Camouflage green

I'm particularly happy with the red patch of the squad's number on the left shoulder. This make my guardsmen really tidy, very clear to understand who is who on the battlefield!

Command squad part IV

Fourth and last meltagunner: this one is Animal from Schaeffer Last Chancers. quite rare miniature, out of production of course even if still available from GW mailorder i guess. its rarity is why i've decided to include it in my Valhallan command squad even if it doesn't make much sense to make an almost naked man to walk into a snowy environment. i imagine this guy like a prisoner of war used by the other members of the squad like human shield and/or expendable soldier when the firefight gets tough.

 

this was the last command squad member so that's all for now! see you in a couple of days!

Command squad part III

Third meltagunner of the company command squad, classic Cadian trooper! i love these models, i think they are much better them the actual Cadians which are kind of toy soldiers with those huge helmets and that vest quite looking like a skirt. i know, plastic models are much better to convert and i'm agree (in fact you can get great troopers with converted cadians, just swap their heads with something better!) but this classic metal stuff has a lot more of charme.

Orlando's Dire Avenger

Following the exarch shown some time ago here, now we've got a trooper from Orlando's Dire Avengers squad. I'm not sure but looks like the right arm has been converted somehow in order to keep the shuriken rifle upwards. The left hand bears an imperial combat knife (don't know if catachan or from space marine scouts) painted like a magical/powered/whatever blade. i really like the soft purple gradient.

The colour scheme is the same of the exarch, so blue for the armour and red/green for the crest, representing the craftworld colours.

Command squad part II

 

This is the second veteran from my company command squad, this time a Valhallan. The meltagun has the usual wooden finish and the coat is painted with the standard Valhallan 34th regiment urban camo scheme.

He is very similar to the rest of the army which is composed of veterans (i deploy no platoons) so there was no reason to paint him differently. i am not sure but maybe i'll paint a patch on the left sleeve to show his command designation.

Command squad part I

There are many ways to play an Imperial Guard Company Command squad. Personally, i like to exploit the most the ability of the officier to issue orders like "Bring It Down!" so i chose to equip the veterans that escort my officier with meltaguns.
Since i play Valhallan Ice Warriors, which are made of metal, i would have 4 identical melta gunners so i decided to build up a squad with troopers from many different regiments and paint all of them in the same way to give them some chromatic coherency, even if they are not look alike at all. The first of these is this Catachan melta gunner that has been modified with Space Marines Scouts shoulder pads and some milliput to sculpt a flak armour (previously shown here). i also added a backpack to make him look like a sapper.

I painted him in the usual way, so Command designation on the right pad and chevrons on the melta bombs and grenades. i didn't add any snow, yet.

Orlando's guardians

Sorry for the huge delay, i had a tremendously busy schedule! i hope to relax and be able to sit back for a while.
These are Orlando's guardians, painted with the usual Kaelis colour scheme. they are the usual plastic guardians that came out in 1999 with the 3rd edition codex.

 

As you can see every gem on this model has been painted in different colours from the others giving this guardian a really unique feel and a degree of attention usually dedicated only to independent characters.

Following, group shot of the rest of the squad. The colour scheme varies in order to give a heterogeneous feel to the squad

More to come! this time i swear this is the truth!

Orlando's Dire Avengers Exarch

so, as announced, we've got the first guest post!
this is an eldar Dire Avengers Exarch (1993 circa) painted by my dear friend Orlando! the colour scheme is dominated by the usual blue for the armor and white for the helmet. the crest and the cloth have been painted with the craftworlds Kaelis colours, green and red, as well as the rear side of the flag which displays the craftworld rune, while the front side is painted blue with Avengers' rune. as you might imagine, the flag comes from the Dire Avengers plastic kit. it gives a really oriental feel and recalls the way aspect warriors were painted during the early 40k 2nd edition.

the Diresword has been painted with a really smooth gradient from light yellow to wine red (i guess bad moon yellow to gore red) with lots of washes. as you can see there is plenty of gems on this model, painted in many colours.
in my opinion, Orlando painted this miniature in a really proper way, i mean: the way it could be painted in 1993 and i like it a lot!
so i think this is a really great work, in fact this miniature must have won something in some 40k tournament, like best single miniature.
more to come!

Maybe back (from the warp)!

i'm sorry for this very long hiatus, i had to manage lots of changes in my life. briefly: i changed job and i moved to Switzerland due to this, had to find and furnish a flat, split up with my long term girlfriend and totally changed lifestyle. what a mess!
my new job leaves me a few free time, not enough to keep an acceptable pace of miniature painting so i tought it could be a good idea to host some friends on this blog, just to keep the thing alive and give people the opportunity to show their works and maybe receive a bit of feedback from you guys out there. so, every picture you will see with the label "black/red painting guest" will not belong to me. stay tuned for further update, which will happen soon, i swear!

PS: the fact that i'm pretty busy doesn't mean that i'm going to stop painting :-) don't worry!

Cities of Death campaign map!

Battle for Tcharkov is gonna finish soon so we are planning a new campaign with the Cities of Death expansion, just to make a little change! this is gonna be the new map, from Googlemaps... most of you will not understand why it is so funny, but hey, what a gag!

Gothic DIY scenery WIP part II

do you remember this?
well, i made some changes like removing almost all that ugly ball-textured polystyrene and replacing it with more compact stuff. the parts that still show the old styrene are gonna be treated with some filler in order to make them look like masonry work.
i really like the theme of the stairs because they make me remember the scene of the 1925 movie "The Battleship Potemkin" where the cossacks shoot the sailors, even if these stairs are much shorter. also, i really like how the space marine statue looks in the gable. i'm planning to add some texture, like a wire mesh or something, to the circular window that should be a rose window.
thoughts?

Ruined temple part II, still WIP but with some detail

back to work!
i've added some detail to the temple as you can see. nothing special i know, but i think this extra stuff really contribute to give some personality to this piece of terrain. the space marines statues are 2nd edition miniature that came with the old boxed set 1994, i guess. the skulls on the bases are from skeletons sprues. on the top of the facade there's a simple decoration made with one round base, a winged skull from imperial guard vehicle sprue and some rivets.
any suggestion?

headbutt on the bus windscreen!

hey!
today i broke the windscreen of a bus with my head so no miniatures painting for a while! i can't believe how much hard my head is!
by the way, i'm ok, so don't even worry!

Ruined Temple WIP

 i've officially started to model my Cities of Death scenery in order to start playing as soon as possible at Killteam.
this first piece is nothing special: just styrofoam front with gothic windows and some lancet arches.

i added on the back the big aquila sculpture that i found in the Honoured Imperium box, just to give the place a "holy" feel.

hand made crater. tutorial on the way. soon, i swear!
i feel there are lots of things missing, especially on the frontage so i'm gonna add lots of details. any suggestion?

Kill Team camo scheme part II

 

more Killteam camo scheme! i chose to paint the flak armour grey in combination to the camo scheme of the fatigues just to give this soldier a ww2 feel... just think to Wehrmacht/SS soldiers on the western front in 1944, you couldn't find two men dressed in the same way, so this is what i'm trying to achieve.

the camouflage is done this way:

1. black primer
2. catachan green basecoat
3. bestial brown spots
4. bubonic brown spots
5. black wash
6. 50/50 camo green + catachan green highlight
7. snakebite leather highlight

Kill Team camo scheme

have you ever played the Killteam mission from Battle Missions expansion?
i never did but as soon as i read the rules i totally got into that so i'm planning a new camo scheme for my imperial guard. this time i want something for a temperate enviroment, just for difference sake, it's boring to paint all the time the same camo scheme.
the idea was to recreate something with a Wehrmacht flavour so i chose these colours. i'm not sure about this scheme so i'm making a lot of sketches. let me know what do you think about guys!

Imperial guard progress

we are slowly progressing... eheh. what do you think i should do next? i'm planning to remove rough riders because on the latest faq it came out that furious charge doesn't stack with hunting lance bonus so...

Chimera 4A1

so, the famous stretched Chimera is finally done!
it took me a lot of time to model ad decide how it should look (also because of my laziness) but now it's over.

the camo scheme is the usual one: classic stripes with urban colours. the checker pattern is the designation of command tank (sometimes the company command squad rides this tank, depending on the mission), painted just to make it easier to distinguish (for the opponent) where the squad with different equipment is. the red dragon badge, on the left, indicates the squadron (platoon A). the roman numeral VI indicates the company.

the same on this side. check out the wooden boxes! il like them a lot! on the top i modeled a camo net with some bandage kept hard with PVA glue.

artistic shot I: tank commander

artistic shot II: 1st passenger

artistic shot III: 2nd passenger

which chimera do you like more?

Catachan tank commander

more catachans!
this is the Leman Russ Exterminator tank commander that came with the old kit (1999). it belongs to Teo and his name his J.A. Tiger (ahah, very A-Team)! obviously counts as knight commander Pask!
personally i'm pretty proud of the aquila sign on the helmet and the specs. do you like it, guys?