Basing With Dirt

 

Sometimes the laziest method works surprisingly well. After completing most of my Praetorians, I turned my attention to basing them. I had initially planned on making new scenic bases and casting them. I even started the process of doing that. Then inspiration struck. I live in a desert. My guard live in a desert. Let's just crab some dirt from outside and super glue it down. I'm surprised by how much I like it. The test base looks pretty good to my eyes. I think I'll add more rubble and junk to the bases, but with just a few tufts only these work. Here's to effortless basing!

More Praetorians

 

Time to share some more work in process shots of the new army. I'm loving how these are turning out, especially for such old miniatures. Once I get them based, I'll setup a light box somewhere for some better photos. Light here in Arizona is rather intense, so my usual practice of just taking photos from my desk won't work any longer. I think that is a small price to pay to live in this beautiful desert. If you were wondering, yes, these will be desert based! 

Praetorian Guard WIP

 

With the color scheme set, I soldiered forth with the rest of the army in a batch painting fashion. I'm very rusty, but I'm having a blast painting these guys. I thought the commissar was the commander, so I painted him up really un-commissary...er un-murder-deathy. 

Now the big question becomes whether I can accumulate enough to field these guys in an actual force. I think I can scrape together two infantry squads, a command squad, and maybe two weapon team squads. Is that enough? I have no idea how Guard work in 9th, or how an army is even put together. What I do know is that these guys need a single suitable FW ww1 styled tank to accompany them. Which variant should I pick? I guess the easy path is the pick the most WW1 looking tank possible.  

Praetorian Guard

 

Ancient 40k models are lumpy, small, and fun. This is just a test model while I figure out which paints are still usable after our move, but it was a blast to paint. So many paints have gone bad though! Painting is a stinky moldy affair right now. Still, this was loads of fun. (Now have to go bleach my brushes)

Lord Solar Macharius In Front of a Macharius

 After 11 hours of driving, I returned home and needed something to help me relax. I selected an ancient GW model of the Solar Macharius and painted casually. My goal was to make this effortless. I just randomly attacked the model with very little concern for quality. I enjoyed every minute. While the model isn't painted to a very high standard, I'm still really happy with it. It is a slightly awkward pose, but I think it worked out. Much like the tank behind him, sometimes I just paint for the act of painting and not for the end product.

More Imperial Guard

These are nearly done, but I ran out of gas and have a let these sit on my desk for more than a week. This happens from time to time. I start a model and enjoy whatever phase of model making I get to, and then I stop working on it. I have resolved to finish these guys today though. The Chimera is closer to completion than the sentinel, but I think I can knock these out in around an hour of painting and maybe another hour of weathering. My not-an-army army of Cadians now has DKoK markings. I figured as a remnant force they'd be attached to a bigger regiment as replacements. 

Imperial Guard Banner Bearer WIP

This rather German looking guy is a Cadian banner bearer, holding the battle flag of Cadia. Shame Cadia fell, but it gave me motivation to build this army. I mean not army. I am definitely not building an army of these guys. Won't happen.

On a more serious note...my god these flags take a long time to paint. This guy is still WIP after 5 hours of painting!

Imperial Guard Basing

The test bases from the weapon teams looked spot on, so I painted up a bunch of old 25mm bases for the infantry and got to painting. I think I matched the color pretty well. I love the contrast between the miniatures and the bases. Don't worry, weathering power will be added to the model's feet to tie them into the overall scene. I'm really having fun with these old models.

Imperial Guard Weapon Teams WIP

I enjoyed the first batch of guard so much I decided to paint all of my remaining Cadians in one go. I am certain this will not form an army, but I'm happy with how these guys look and am having fun. That is what matters after all.

Imperial Guard WIP

I'm still sick with convention-crud picked up at Adepticon, so I've had to quarantine myself away for a few days. This has given me time to experiment with some new Imperial Guard color schemes. Initially I just wanted to play around with Secret Weapon Miniatures Dark Rubber paint. However, after making this weird not-squad, I'm pretty close to wanting an entire army of these guys. I think I may have judged the old GW plastic Cadian boxes poorly. These are pretty cool minis. Sure they have mold lines in inconvenient places, and some really odd faces, but overall, these minis rock. I'm surprised. Now I only have to paint 190 more of them to have a force. Maybe I'll just make this a kill team after all.

Original Imperial Guard Sentinels

A few years ago, I found my original IG army and started paint stripping models that I might want to eventually repaint. These two sentinels were part of that effort. First painted decades ago, these guys got a quick lick of paint last night. I didn't want to spend too much time on them, but I wanted them to exist as finished models again. They don't go with any army I have. These guys are just one-offs that will sit in a cabinet and fuel my nostalgia. I just love seeing these old tiny things. A Primaris is almost as tall as these guys. That's how small they are!