VL Vets ready for painting

I have a confession to make, I put the first five Victoria Lamb Rangers together way too quickly. I suppose it was because they were a present and I was excited to put together my first multipart metal models. I put them together and primed them that quickly that I really dropped the ball with them. I didn't think about the unit composition, I didn't clean up the mold lines, I didn't fill any of the gaps with green stuff. Hell, I even forgot to put gravel on their bases!

So, once my over eagerness had had a serious kick in the arse, I sat down and reworked them. First off, I filled in the gaps and blended the capes into the straps on the torsos as well as cleaning up what slight mold lines there were and added gravel to their bases.

Next came a composite change, first off I swapped the arms on one trooper for a different set. I needed the ones he originally had for a special weapon conversions. The other change was that I swapped out another troopers rifle for a rocket so he could act as the support guy for the squad's heavy weapon. It took a fair bit of clipping and filing to completely remove the lasgun type weapon, so much so that I had to resculpt the thumb on his right hand.

Another minor change across the five guys I did initially was that I broke off their waist pouches, canteens and scabbards, then replaced them with GW IG pouchs and grenades. The reason for this was that after I completed the first five, I realised that other than the bases, there was nothing really that tied them into my current guard models. So, with the next five I decided to make sure there were plenty of visual links to my current guard models.

Being veterans, there's plenty of unit options to include upgrades and therefore tie them into my current guard force. For the three special weapons guys, I went for a flamer, a meltagun and a grenade launcher. Ideally, I'd have gone for three plasma guns as Mike hates plasma but unfortunately, my weapon selection was down to what bits I had and not what bits I desired!

All three specials involved removing the lasgun type weapon, so lots of clipping and filling. I couldn't remove the weapon stocks, so I had to line up the arms and weapons to look like the special weapons came with shoulder stocks. Even though the GW IG weapons look a little large, I don't think it's excessive.

Next was the rocket launcher guy, I used catachen plastic arms for this guy. The muscles on them were far too large, so I filled them down. They're still quite big but with the addition of the rough bearded face, it gives the impression that he's probably the only guy in the squad who could carry the damn rocket launcher.

Finally, the squad sgt, this guy I really wanted to tie into the 41st millennium. So I went for the augmented power sword arm and plasma pistol arm for the high tech look. I did consider removing the shoulder pads but I decided that they actually helped tie the unit in with the rest of my force. Finally, I used a GW command head, specifically for the aquila on the cap.

So here they are, all ready for priming ..... again. Let me know your thoughts in the comments guys.

Mel

Victoria Lamb miniatures

With my invigorated passion for 40K, there comes new models!

My buddy Mike recently bought me a squad of ten guardsmen models for my army. He said they were a gift but there's a little bit of me that thinks he's emotionally blackmailing me to keep my hobby mojo going. Well, if that's the case, it's bloody working! I love these guys!

It's a squad of ten Border World Rangers from Victoria Lamb miniatures. The models are brilliant but they're posing a real challenge for me. It's the first time I've working with multipart metal models, so there's been lots of gluing arms and heads to fingers rather than torso's etc! Now, I'd like to make it clear that this is a fault with my modeling ability and not the models, which are truly excellent.

I really can't fault the detail on these guys, the molds themselves are so clean, I didn't realise they had mold lines until I'd primed the first five. They're perfectly scaled with GW plastic cadians, they're the same height, just a little slimmer, but that's perfectly acceptable as they've got bare arms and aren't sporting flak armour. Each ten man ranger pack comes with 10 legs, torsos, heads (all unique), cloaks, one piece arms and lasgun type weapons along with a good selection of pouches and bayonet scabbards.

The one thing that I am finding difficult is that the standard ten man ranger pack only comes with lasgun type weapon arms. Victoria Lamb miniatures do various other special/heavy/sgt arms for the ranger models that are quite good and could easily be called various IG weapons, it's just that I don't have any of them. I will in the future but right now, this has led me down the path of converting them. Here's my first go at swapping out  the metal weapon for a grenade launcher, let me know your thoughts guys!

All I've got to do now is two more special weapons guys and the squad sgt, so the bits hunt begins! Hopefully, I'll them them converted up pretty soon, I'll blog them when I do and then it'll be time to get them painted and added to 1st platoon. In the meantime, you can checkout the ranger and other future world ranges at Victoria Lamb miniatures, and if you buy any, let her know I sent you, who knows, she might send me some bits for free (cheeky yes but there's no harm in trying guys!).

Col

462 Field Ambulance Squadron

I finally managed to the get treatment tent done recently which means that 462 Field Ambulance Squadron is now complete. Headed up by the infamous Doc Butcher, it's got everything a good medic needs to those injured guardsmen back to the front line.

I've got to say, even though these will probably never see a tabletop battle, it was a really enjoyable project that had bit of everything in it hobby wise and seeing them all together really is the icing on the cake.

Here's the links to the individual pieces ....

• Doc Butcher (wip)
• Operating Table (wip)
• Stretcher Bearers (wip)
• Ambulance (wip)
• Stores & Casualties (wip)
• Treatment Tent (tutorial - coming soon)

Doc Butcher finished

I finished Doc Butcher last night, overall I'm pretty pleased with how he's come out. I went a little OTT with the blood on the apron, that's what happens when you try to paint at 2am when you should be sleeping. I did add a bone saw at the request of a few of the guys on the Bols forum.

It took me three attempts to get the teeth right and the handle was a real challenge but it worked out quite well in the end. One thing I did realise when I was painting him up was that in future, I need to sculpt more texture / creases on arms, aprons or any other large flat areas. With the Doc's arms being mainly flat, when it came to painting them, they turned out flat. So, that's the first sculpting lesson I've learned since starting sculpting, hopefully, I won't repeat that mistake again.

Finally, I had a play with one of the biker bases John at Spectre hobbies sent me. I'm sure you can guess where I'm going with this one.

Doc Butcher

My adventures into GMS (Guard Medical Services) continues with my first field surgeon to go along with the Ambulance, and my casualty objectives.

As some of you who follow my blog already know, I've only just started to play around with Green Stuff and sculpting. My only other attempts have been the cloaks on my snipers and my marbo. This model was a whole different challenge to those cloaks.

I wanted to get across the look of a field surgeon, so that meant that he had to have an apron, face mask and some sort of medical tool. I started with a tank commander model, cutting off his side pouches. From there, I built up the apron. The arms are from the catachen command medic, I filed them down a bit as surgeons don't have huge muscles and then added cuffs to give the impression the arms were clothed. Finally the head came from the catachen command sprue, I cleaned up the side knot for the bandanna and added a face mask. Overall he looks like I wanted him too. I showed my wife, and she said 'Is it a butcher?' much to my initial dismay. I thought for a moment, then realised he's a field surgeon, so yes, he's a butcher! Doc Butcher to be precise.

OK, now I know I'm new to sculpting, and I'm certainly no Col. Gravis, so I'm going to be honest with myself about what I don't like and think I could do better. I don't like the fact that none of the edges are sharp on the apron and mask. They're all rounded, but I'm assuming that's because I'm using a rubber sculpting tool and not a metal one. Also, the cuffs came out a bit chunky, so in future I'll put a lot less GS on initially and building it up over time. Hopefully, over time, I'll get better at judging how much GS I need to do something.

If any of you guys have any tips or know of any good guides, please let me know as the more info I can get, the better. So, what do you think of Doc Butcher guys?

Can you guess what this is?

I picked up a "painted" chimera in a trade at my local club. It was a bit damaged, it had lost it's lasguns and the turret wasn't quite right. So I wondered what else it could be used for and an idea popped into my head. I've done a bit of work on it, just a little more to do.

I've filed off the turret mount and lasguns mounts, added a vent, stowage, antenna, search light, tow hooks and stowage hoops. I've got a little more work to do on it, but it's 95% there. So, can you guess what this is going to be?

Work continues on my autocannon squad, they're almost done now, just got to do their black armour and I'll be starting on the lascannon squad. Going on campaign continues to grow, although I'm needing pics of campaign maps, so if any of you can help, drop me a line.

IG Veterans

Like the rest of the FTW community, I got Ron's email about the never leave at home unit, for me it's Veterans. Unfortunately, I haven't put together mine yet, so in the games I've had in the past, I've just used normal troops (The guy above was painted by my mate Tolcrothlogan). I'll be painting mine relatively soon after I get my mojo back.

So, what is it that lights me fire about veterans. Well, they get the job done. In truth, guard arn't the best fighters or shooters but with a bit of experience, they can do wonderful things. They're a ....

1. 10 man squad, 
2. that's a troop selection, 
3. gets an improved BS 4, 
4. can have a vox for rerolling oders tests,
   
5. can have lasguns or assault shotguns, 
6. can take 3 special weapons, 
7. a heavy weapons team,
8. can get an improved 4+ save, or +1 to cover saves and defensive mines, or melta bombs and a demo charge.
   
9. can get another rentless, feel no pain heavy bolter whilst getting infiltrate, move through cover and stealth.
10. or can get a vet sgt that can issue commanders orders on Ld 10 as well as been able to regroup regardless of the situation.
11. can take a cheap chimera or mobile gun platform as I prefer to call it.
12. could hop on a valk for some hellrazing.
    

Now, stop for a moment, then scroll back up and have another look at those options and have a play with combining a few and when you're done, come back. Go on, go now, scroll up :-)

Ah, now you're back, see what I mean, these guys can be customised to get any job done. The possibilities are endless, and they always do wonders for me. That's why they're the boys who never get left at home.

It's a bit hard to write a post about veterans this close to November the 11th without mentioning those who have fallen for our freedoms. To those who have gone....We Will Remember You.

 

Please support the Royal British Legion Poppy Appeal.

Hellhammer finally finished

I finally finished my hellhammer last night. I've been working on it since April, so I'm so glad it's finally done. Overall, I'm quite pleased with it. It looks a little brighter in these pictures than it does in real life. I'm hoping to revisit it once I've got up to speed on using oil paints and weathering powers. Anyway, here's the pics :-

Introducing the 2nd tank of 018 Heavy Armour Company.











I finally finished my hellhammer last night. I've been working on it since April, so I'm so glad it's finally done.

Painting Points

Another 20 points off the total, plus I've managed to pull a sly one. I had a Russ and three Chimeras which I'd bought from a friend. They were already painted and a bit bashed, I could have cleaned them up but little man took an interest, so he's been painting today and right now, his new mech guard are resting after repelling an assault by lofty, scoop and skip.

So, with these four models (40 pts) and the Hellhammer (20pts), I've taken a good chunk off the vehicle total. For those who haven't followed my painting points, the figures on the left side are how many models I have left to paint. Only once I start getting these down will I be getting more. It's basically a battle against the grey plastic crack build up.

I really can't justify getting the new demolisher or hellhound kits until I get my vehicle figures right down, so I'd better crack on.

571 Infantry Company Command

At the moment, my company command squad is looking a little bare. There's only the commander and his chimera. I'm planning to pad it out with veterans, specialists and advisers.


Long term, I've got quite big plans for the company. I'm planning to build it up to a full infantry company with four platoons. The first will be a veteran platoon made up of 5 veteran squads and a command squad. The second and third will be standard infantry platoons, the 2nd platoon are almost finished already. The fourth final platoon will be a support platoon made up of heavy weapons.

It may seem strange to have such grand plans, but I'm looking at how the army will grow over the next 6 years or so. I figure that's how long it'll take them to redo the codex. This sort of idea may be a bit alien to some of you out there, but I've been in the hobby for over two decades so far. Guard weren't my first army, I have quite a few for both 40k and fantasy as well as quite a bit of specialist stuff. But I do love my guard, and I figure I'm going to be playing with them until I get old, so I figure I've got another three decades at least ahead of me.

I'd better get painting ...

571 Infantry Company - 2nd Platoon

2nd platoon came into being after reading some of the rumoured pre release rules of the new codex. The idea of a whole platoon, over 100 men making up a single troop choice just amazed me so much, I had to do one. I decided that I didn't want conscript, as the Corbanian 1st are a professional army. I've nearly completed the platoon, I only need to do two more heavy weapons squad and another ten man squad. The heavy weapons teams are sitting on my painting station primed and ready as I type this.

Command Squad

Transport

Specialists
Flamer Support Squad
Grenade Launcher Support Squad
1st Sqaud
2nd Squad

3rd Squad

4th Squad

Missile Launcher Squad

Mortar Squad

Heavy Bolter Squad

754 Armoured Support Company

My hellhound squadron. I wanted three because my force is city themed and under the old codex rules, these things rocked in city fight. In the new rules, they're still pretty good. Long term, i'm going to add three more of the new variants and then three salamander scout vehicles building it into a fast support company.