Long time, no blog. These past weeks I just really haven't been motivated into picking up a brush. But then a couple of days ago, whilst tidying the study, I decided it was time to brush the dust off the command squad that I foolishly proclaimed would only take a few days to finish.

So now that I've got around to doing some more painting, I thought I'd give a little update. I really honestly hope to have these guys finished in the next few days, it's just up to me to get working on them.



Here is the command squad's Junior Officer. Armed with a bolt pistol and power sword, this guy is going to get stuck in whether he wants to or not. With that in mind I went with a very grizzled looking face, something he may have picked up when he got his augmetic arm. The arm itself was painted Boltgun Metal and then got two heavy washes of Badab Black to tone the silver down. The sword was painted Mechrite Red, followed by a Baal Red wash. An edge highlight of Blood Red was added. The lightning pattern is Blood Red with a Skull White edge. The whole of the sword got another wash of Baal Red, and then the groove got a wash of Badab Black.

The personal shield device also got a heavy wash of Badab Black, again to tone down the silver. The whole model, except for the sword/sword arm, will get a wash of Devlan Mud before completion. For the skin, the head was undercoated with Tallarn Flesh, I then added an Ogryn Flesh wash. Once this had dried, Elf Flesh was drybrushed over the head. The eyes were painted black and then some white was painted over the top.



Next up is the standard bearer. I have spent a huge amount of time trying to get the flag to look right and so far I'm pleased with the outcome. The main body of the flag was painted Enchanted Blue. I then had a go at mixing up a lighter blue by adding some Ice Blue to the Enchanted. Once I was happy this mid blue was drybrushed onto the flag. Pure Ice Blue was then also drybrushed on.

The metallic areas are painted Boltgun Metal and will receive a highlight of Mithril Silver, before a thinnned wash of Badab Black. For the scrolls, I used Astronomican Grey as a base followed by several thin coats of Bleached Bone. I tried to leave a little bit of grey on the edges for definition.

I've got to admit that the circle star pattern thing was the most difficult part to paint. I started by putting down a base of Chaos Black. I then went over this with Astronomican Grey, trying to leave some black showing. Then I used Fortress Grey to finish it off, again allowing some of the previous layer to show through.

The edge of the flag is being painted Iyunden Darksun, and will get a highlight of Sunburst Yellow followed by a Gryphonne Sepia wash. I've tried to add some wood effect to the pole by painting thin lines of Vallejo Game Colour Scrofulous Brown oevr a base of Calthan Brown. I think that I need to learn how to steady my hand a bit better.



Finally here are the three flamer troopers that will make up the rest of the squad. All of them have been painted in the same way. The flamer nozzles were painted Chaos Black, and then Boltgun Metal. I then washed this with Badab Black. Once this was dry a thin wash of Leviathan Purple was applied to the nozzle, this was followed with a wash of Asurmen Blue. I was trying to get a heat discolouration pattern, but this needs a bit of refining.

The fuel hoses were painted with Brazen Brash over a Chaos Black undercoat, followed by a wash of Badab Black, which I seem to be using whenever possible. The shoulder emblems were painted in the same way as the flag design, except Codex Grey was added before the Fortress Grey highlight. A very light highlight of Skull White was also applied.

And there we have it for the moment. So after a month with nothing, I'll leave you all with that lot to digest. Thanks for reading.

For once I've moved quickly on to the next project, Platoon 7-1's command squad, CS 710. This squad is built mainly out of parts from the Cadian command squad box set, but I did take some bits from other places.

To start with, all of the bits were removed from the sprues and mold lines were cleaned up. To be honest, the mold lines were almost not existent which is a nice change. Next up I did a test run for each model and used blue tac to see where how I wanted each model to be posed. After this, the legs were glued onto the base. I then glued the torso onto each model, again after a bit of dry fitting. Everything then got a coat of white primer. I'd run out of GW Skull White spray, so instead went down to my local Halfords and picked up a can of their white primer. So far I am happy with the results. It seems to go down just as good as the Games Workshop one, and keeps the details crisp, even when I thought I had a bit of overspray. Here are some pics of the squad as it stands this afternoon.



I'll start off with the two higher members of the command squad. On the left is the officer, who will have the bionic arm with powersword and a pistol of some sort. I had decided on the bolt pistol, but the arm and hand holding it make the pose look really rigid. The trooper on the right will be a standard bearer. I'm planning on making this guy look like a grizzled veteran who has taken up the flag. I may also make an additional member of the command squad equipped with a vox caster, but this is just a thought (I hardly ever play any games so why shouldn't I have a 6 man command squad, or just a squad with banners!).



All three of these troopers are going to be armed with flamers. My plan is that each platoon command squad will have three special weapons.



The picture on the left shows the officers sword arm and bolt pistol arm, but as I said above I'm not convinced about the bolt pistol arm. Also shown is the banner that I'll be using and the supporting arms for the flamer troopers. The flamer arms and tanks can be seen in the right hand picture. The observant ones amongst you may notice that there are three tanks, but only two flamers. This is because I want to use the flamer arms from the command squad box set, so that they have the special shoulder pad. Unfortunately I only have two at the moment, so I'll have to go and grab another command squad at some point.



Finally the heads. The head on the far left will be the officers, the next one along will be the standard bearers. Both of these heads are from the Cadian CS box set. The middle head is also from the Cadian CS box set and will be for one of the flamer wielding troopers. The head second from the right is from the Sentinel box set and the head on the right is from the Cadian squad box set. Both of these will be for the flamer troopers.

Thanks for reading.

The final squad that I have completed for Platoon 7 is Squad 7-1-2. This was actually the first squad that I finished, but they have been sitting on a shelf waiting to be updated with a wash etc before having their mugshots taken.

Here is the front shot of 7-1-2. I love how even though the models were placed in pretty much the same place for the photos, and the camera wasn't moved, that some models are different sizes.



And to complete the squad here is a photo of the backs of all the models.

Platoon 7 is almost complete now. I will be starting work on the Platoon Command Squad soon, but beofre then expect some pictures of Platoon 9 and a Sentinel. Thanks for reading, comments are always appreciated.

P.S.: Over 50 followers now, so thanks to everyone who looks at my blog. :)

Continuing with the rest of 7-1 Platoon, next up is Squad 7-1-4. Yesterday I showed off Squad 7-1-3 here so today is another squad.

I had planned on having a third squad finished by tomorrow, but I haven't quite finished all the squad yet, and then I'm off on holiday on Saturday so they'll just have to wait.

So without further ado, here is Squad 7-1-4.



As with the previous post, there is one photo of the front and one of the back. Somehting I didn't mention is that the squad number is hand painted onto the left shoulder and the Cadian Gate logo on the right shoulder is a decal. I've also been experimenting with MicroSet and MicroSol, and so far I'm impressed. Soon it will be tested on some vehicles :).



2 squads done, 1 so nearly finished, only another 2 to go, but they will definately have to wait a while as I intend to do the command squad first (hopefully). Thanks for reading and feel free to leave comments and suggestions.

My slow painting has finally produced some results, so this will be the first post of several showing the completed squads.

The first of these squads is 7-1-3. There will be squads 7-1-0, 7-1-1 and 7-1-2 as well, but so far only 7-1-2 is completed, I'm just waiting for the shoulder transfers to dry. 7-1-0 will be the company command squad and 7-1-1 will be the "grenadier/veteran" squad and will have the different camo that I trialed.

So here are the photos for 7-1-3. Please note that this squad hasn't been sprayed with matt varnish yet due to the brilliant English summer, and the missus refuses to let me spray indoors.

I used Photoshop to arrange the pics all nice and neatly. I did find that my new camera is quite smart whilst taking these photos, the face detection ability even worked on them!



Pretty self explanitary, the above photo is a front facing shot and the photo below is the rear facing shot. I think I got all the models in the same order for both photos.



Squad 7-1-3 reporting for duty then. Squad 7-1-4 are just having their photos done and will be posted soon after these guys. As always comments and suggestions are appreciated. Cheers.

As the rumours of whats coming out for the Guard continue to circulate, so I near final final completion of some infantry squads.

Squad 714 (242) Sergeant

Squad 712 (222) Vox Trooper

I would have loved to have brought all my stuff down and managed to make it to Exeter for the "Orks Drift 2" battle as mentioned by Col. Gravis, alas I was unable to shirk from family duties. Looks like I'll be keeping my eye open for my local store events in January.

I have now begun work on my Command Squads for the 127th. I'm going to be doing the CSs for platoons 7 and 9 first and then the Regimental Command Squad afterwards.

Basically Platoon 7 CS will consist of a Junior Officer armed with Power Fist and Bolt Pistol (if I can manage a weapon swap), Guardsmen with Vox Caster and 3 Guardsmen armed with Flamers.

Platoon 9 CS will have a Junior Officer with Power Sword and Bolt Pistol (again weapon swap), Guardsmen with Vox Caster and 3 Guardsmen with Grenade Launchers.

My Platoon CSs will all follow the same template: Junior Officer, Vox Caster, 3 Special Weapons. So meltaguns and plasmaguns will be in the other CSs. I'm thinking about redesignating the Platoon and Squad numbers. Making Platoon 1 and 2 veterans/storm troopers and then Platoons 3 onwards normal infantry with Platoon 9 being Conscripts.

I haven't quite finished deciding what to do with the Regimental Command Squad so stay tuned for an update about that.

So my first week of the new year will be spent finishing off those Command Squads. Pictures will be posted on completion. Merry Christmas people - see you next year.