Senior Officer Conversion

Up until now I’ve only painted a few metal figures for inclusion in the army, but I’ve since got to thinking that I would like to have the entire lot made out of plastic if possible.

So after the success (at least in my eyes) of my last officer conversion (which I now plan to use as my junior officer in the 1st platoon command squad), I’ve decided to do something similar for the senior officer in my HQ command - and here’s the results:

Once again the legs are regular cadian legs, as is the hand holding the boltpistol (from the sergeant arm). The boltpistol itself is from the space marine weapon sprue I purchased a while ago, and the torso is from the imperial guard tank commander (that came with my Chimera). The head and arms are from a (Warhammer Fantasy) empire militia sprue (the hands originally held flintlock pistols) with the left hand being replaced with a misc. closed hand (I cant remember exactly what it was from) with a hole drilled through it to allow it to grip the powersword.

Hopefully this has given me a reasonably unique looking figure to represent my captain without going too overboard.

More eBay Stuff

A couple of things arrived in the post today…

As you can see one is the Witch Hunters Codex (which cost me £3.19 + £1 p&p) and the other is the small rule book from the new Assault on Black Reach boxed set (which cost me £9.99 + free P&P).

To be honest I’m not really interested in the Sisters of Battle elements of the codex, as all I really want to do is use an Inquisitor as an ally for my imperial guard (which this book will allow me to do). So it would be fair to say that I didn’t really want to spend much money on the codex (as only a few pages in the book are going to be of any use to me), so I’m rather happy with the price as the book itself is in great condition.

As far as the small rule book goes, I know £10 (all but a penny) might be a bit much when you consider it is only half the size of a regular magazine - but I’m on a tight budget, and it has worked out a lot cheaper than buying the £30 hardback. Admittedly, this small booklet only contains the rules (i.e. no background information, modelling tips, etc) …but that in itself is plenty for me to be getting on with.

So yeah …I’ve finally got a copy of the rules in my hands* …so maybe now I can finally start getting to grips with the game itself (at last).

*as I said at the very beginning of this blog, the only experience I have with the game is back in the Rogue Trader days (1st edition).

Finished Officer

A couple of days ago I mentioned the fact that I had managed to break my plastic officer conversion (and mess the paint up a little). However, I did manage to save him in the end - so here's a close up photo of the finished miniature (after 'dipping' and a coat of matt varnish):

600pts = More Veterans

It looks like I can easily increase the size of the army a further 100 points by including a few more veterans.

So here is the first of my new veteran conversions (similar to the melta-gunner I did previously):

And here is another veteran made up from various spare parts I had lying around:

This one is mostly made up of catachan parts (body, legs, right arm, left hand and canteen) with a cadian head and ammo pack thrown in, along with a row of marine pouches. The left arm is from a (fantasy) chaos marauder sprue I think (I’ve had this lying around for years with the intention of making a few D&D barbarian type figures) - which has allowed me to have the miniature look as though he is reaching for the lasgun’s power pack.

More Conversions

Here’s a picture of some of the other conversions I’ve been working on in between painting the chimera.

I was thinking of maybe doing an alternate HQ command squad that was a little more suited to close quarters fighting. Therefore these two guys would replace the regular guardsmen (i.e. swapping lasguns for laspistols and a close combat weapon at no extra cost) and I would also replace the mortar with 2 flamers.

Unfortunately I’ve also managed to break the plastic lieutenant I posted a few days ago. I somehow managed to drop him after the initial dip - which has also messed the model up a little too. Hopefully I’ll be able to save him (fingers crossed).

500pt Army

I mentioned in yesterday’s post that I’ve been working on a Chimera transport, and so I thought I would get a photograph of it now that’s been varnished.

I might add a few more decals to it later on, but for now I’m probably going to call it finished.

So here’s a list that I’ve made to make the most of the miniatures I have painted thus far. I’ll probably tinker with it a bit now and again by swapping out mini’s here and there (like including the plastic officer I posted in the previous entry) …but now that the Chimera is done this is what I can field right now.

HQ CHOICE
- command platoon –
Junior Officer (with bolt pistol)
2 guardsmen with lasguns
2 guards in a mortar team

1st TROOPS CHOICE
- infantry platoon –
…command squad
Junior Officer (with bolt pistol and scanner)
2 guardsmen with lasguns
2 guards in a mortar team

…infantry squad 1
sergeant with laspistol & close-combat weapon
6 guardsmen with lasguns
1 guardsman with a grenade launcher
2 guardsmen in a heavy bolter team

…infantry squad 2
sergeant with laspistol & close-combat weapon
7 guardsmen with lasguns
2 guardsmen in a lascannon team

2nd TROOPS CHOICE
- armoured fist squad –
veteran sergeant with plasma pistol & close-combat weapon
8 guardsmen with lasguns
1 guardsman with a plasma gun
chimera transport with a turret multi-laser, hull heavy bolter, pintle heavy stubber, and extra armour

FAST ATTACK
Sentinel with multi-laser

I'm Back

It’s been a while since I’ve updated the blog (or even worked on any more imperial guard miniatures) as I kinda decided to put things off until 5th edition came out.

Well, I still haven’t got hold of the new rules (or even played a game of 4th edition for that matter), but I thought I would get back to work and paint a few of the models I purchased earlier in the year …and at least complete a small 500pt army.

So the first thing I needed to get finished was the Chimera. I’ll be honest and say that I didn’t much enjoy assembling this vehicle - and getting the tracks to look somewhere near right was just plain frustrating. In the end I’ve had to put the track guards on the vehicle just to cover a gap where the tracks do not meet.

Anyway, while working on the Chimera I’ve also painted up a few more troops (basically adding what I needed to fill out the ranks of my new 500pt list) and I've been working on a few more conversions just for the hell of it.

Here’s a quick pic of two of them:

I was actually quite surprised to see that there are no miniatures currently available to represent the basic officer (i.e. with no upgrades). So, as you can see, I have attempted to make my own by using a spare set of cadian legs and hands (the hands were cut from the sergeant’s arms), the head and torso from the tank commander parts, and the arms from the really old plastic guardsmen miniatures from back when I was a kid.

The guy standing next to him is another trooper to add to my veterans squad (though most of those mini’s will be used as regular toopers for my armoured fist squad in the 500pt list). He’s made predominantly from catachan pieces (head, body, and legs), but i’ll admit that I really don’t like the proportions of the catachan miniatures - and so I’ve elongated the body just a little to make the mini look a little less squat. The arms are basic cadian arms that I have cut/filed the armour off in order to make the waistcoat look more like a jacket. He’s also got a few packs and a cadian helmet on his belt too.