Praetorian Blood Axe Kommandos?

Greetings everyone!

I've been hinting for sometime that I'v been working on something a little different for my army, something a little greener... well without further ado... a Blood Axe Kommando! 

Now before you call the Inquisition on me hear me out. Back when the Praetorians came out, part of the story of Big Toof river was that the badly led Imperial Guard had ignored the intelligence of their highly paid mercenary blood axe kommandos. In doing so they walked right into a trap fully believing the settlement to be lightly garrisoned. As you all know it did not end well for the Imperial Guard and led to Glazers Creek where the remnants of the 24th where holed up maintaining supply lines. 

Anyway, I've always loved the idea that the Blood Axes could be bribed to turn against their fellow greenskins. How far you trust their intelligence is another matter entirely. This inspired me to build a unit of kommandos to fight with my guard, either as proxies for something or simply as orks in bigger apocalypse style games where their sneaky skullduggery can be woven into the story.

Anyway enough guff about the fluff, let's talk models. This guy is one of Kromlech's fantastic Afrika Korp models. They have tonnes of character and with the uniforms I thought they would fit in a treat with my Praetorians.

This model was a lot of fun to paint and was also very straightforward. I actually painted him in parts, with the torso and legs glues together and then the arms and head separate. It was a pain when it came time to assemble him as I had to greenstuff the gaps on the arms, but it was worth it for ease of paint job.

The green for the skin is the GW method they demonstrate in their instructional video with an extra light highlight from me to make it that little better. The eyes are worked up to pure yellow in the centre too to give them a little extra interest.

The white webbing is the same as my regular guardsmen as is the uniform colour. I've changed the shorts to grey to add an extra colour or else I though it would end up far to mono colour. The gun itself is just plain silver as I was at a loss what to do with it!

Here we see the ork next to some of the Life Guards for a comparison of size and to see how the colours go together

This ork is pretty massive in comparison to the guardsman, just as it should be. I know orks are meant to be on the same size bases but I fancied they would look better on the new Space Marine bases and I think I prefer them on the bigger size.

Here we see the ork staring down the barrel of a Life Guard's flamethrower. You will see the vein on the ork arm which is painted with a slight blue hue

So there you have it, the first of a unit of 10 sneaky Blood Axes to add to the Praetorian IV.

I'd really love some feedback on this guy before I paint the best. In particular the following - the weapon, can I leave it just metal? I it needs another colour, what? What do you think of the skin, does it need to be darkeror different in another way? Does the model need more colour? 

Any feedback whatsoever would be greatly appreciated! 

Cheers!

Finished Praetorian Life Guards

Greetings all! 

A quick post with a few photos of some newly painted models that have been long on the workbench! 

Finally, about 3 to 4 years after the first 5 were finished, I have finally painted the second half of the Life Guards squad! Huzzah! 

No longer will I be forced to field a unit of 5 storm troopers to no effect whatsoever. I can now field a full squad of 10 to no effect whatsoever! Double Huzzah!

Anyway, lets take a look...

Photos aren't great (apologies for that), but here we see the whole squad on my painting table (chest of drawers). I really enjoyed some aspects of painting these fellas and I'm really pleased that they match the originals with little variance.

The three in the foreground are newbies. Painting these guys assemble with the arms in place was a massive pain. I think I'm going to start doing a little more painting of disassembled models. I'm reminded of the Highland Scions who are in need of paint and the thought of trying to get in to the detail is not filling me with joy!

I love the expressions on these guys. Victoria Lamb Praetorian heads are utterly brilliant. Bags of character in every model.

One final picture with a close up of this kneeling fella. I'm so pleased to get these done.

I'm now working on an as yet unseen and announced sneaky unit... I'm having to work out how to paint green...

Finally, there is blog you should all definitely check out if you don't already do so, Tale of Painters. I've followed it for years and have a link in my page banners. It is full of tutorials and the work of some inspirational painters and well worth a look. I also might add there is a fine Praetorian gentleman that has recently began contributing...

Cheers!

Infantry of the Praetorian IV - Gallery photos part 5

Welcome to another gallery post!

The following photos were taken about and a bit ago. Consequently some of what you will see has been updated and changed! Tanks have been updated with stowage and additional weathering and infantry have had their bases updated where needed. Anyway, I took these photos so I'm posting them!



This squad was the first 'new' squad I painted when I returned to the hobby at the dawn of this blog. Notice the minor conversion on the autocannon where I have used the plastic autocannon from the Cadian kits.



Here we have a few more guardsment from the 1st platoon. The number is more than pictured now as I have fully updated and rebased 4 squads of 10 with sergeants as needed. Another 40+ are on the way.



Here we have the first 3 chimeras. As mentioned in previous posts the main painting was done over 10 years ago at the advent of the army. They were updated a couple years back to look like this. They have now been updated once more! Look out for a post of them in the future, they look brilliant and have had all the viewing lenses, targetting reticules, eagles and much more painted and with a healthy addition of sponge weathering.



Here is the platoons first Taurox. Another will follow so the whole platoon of 45 is fully mounted. I think for the next Taurox I'll go for the autcannons mounted on the turret for variety.



Here we have the command squad for the first platoon. The melta gun and Lieutenant were painted a couple of years back but the other 3 date back far longer (though may have been updated a little). In two minds about these fellas and think they need a bit more work to bring them up to code.



This is the chimera for the Lifeguards. It still needs to be updated from this but as it was painted in the last 3/4 years it is still very decent. I'm planning on removing one of the heavy flamers and replacing it with a heavy bolter. No point having two as you can't fire both unless you don't move!



The anti tank squad. There will be three more lascannons painted up eventually (using the original models). These guys have had the based updated now too as they were previously the wrong shade.



The Praetorian Lifeguards! I really like these guys. The second 5 are finally converted and undercoated so it's a simple matter of me getting them painted. Can't wait to see the full 10 finally painted.



Finally to round of this post we have the highland veterans. One of the first new units I worked on for the army a few years back. Having Highland Praetorians was one of the inspiration for me getting back into the hobby. Very much looking forward to painting the new Highland Scions.

Hope you enjoyed the post! I'll be rounding off the gallery posts soon and will have a few new things to show too.

I'm off to Texas for the whole of March (do I have any followers down that way?) with work so sadly there will be no time for hobby in that period. However I'm scheduling a few posts for while I'm away to ensure that I keep up with my blogging resolutions!

Thanks for reading!

Curious Constructs - Heavy Cavalry and Life Guard heads review

Today as promised back to painting models and less talking about them!

I recently acquired one of Curious Constructs Heavy Cavalry miniatures and a few of the Life Guard heads, here's a few photos and my thoughts on them.

Let's start by having a look at the bare metal sculpts

Firstly the Life Guard heads. The quality on these is really great, in particular the eyes on the face (which make painting a whole lot easier) and the small eagle motif front and centre on the band round the helmet. The helmets have a plume which extends from an eagle head perched on the top.

Here we have one of the heads on the heavy cavalry kit. Starting to look the business I'm sure you will agree! Once again the quality is very apparent and the whole kit fits together very well. In the past I've had problems with necks and collars but here it was clear Gravis had ensured it wouldn't be a problem with these ones.

The model fits nicely on an Empire outrider horse.

 Here is the very same man with a lick of paint! (apologies he doesn't have a horse)

As with all Curious construct miniatures I've seen so far the model lends itself to painting very well. On the uniform the creases and relief are just right which make highlighting easy. The face is very well sculpted, and in particular as mentioned before the eyes are very good (some of the easiest I've painted in a while).

What a great looking miniature! It took me a while to work out what colours to paint him as I wanted to make him stand out from the other cavalry and infantry in my army. As such he has a predominantly blue scheme to mark him out as elite. Any armour worn by my army is a beaten copper colour and I have continued that here with some gold on the helmet and fixings.

Only critique of the miniature would have to be the plume on the helmet, I feel it is a little heavy and could do  with a little more motion. That is just nit picking though really! A really great miniature from Curious Constructs! Expect to see a large unit of these in my army in the future, now just to find some horses for them all...

Be sure to check out the Curious Constructs shop and also Col Gravis' blog where you can find out about the latest releases.

Praetorian Storm Troopers Gallery Post

Here are some photos of Praetorian Life Guards.