Artillery of the Praetorian IV Mechanised Infantry - Gallery photos part 3

Welcome to another gallery post. Today we have the heavy hitters of the army, the artillery.

I don't have as much artillery as I'd like in the army, I've always wanted a battery of Basilisks, a FW Minotaur and possibly even a Praetor. A guy can dream. So without further delay lets check out some of the IVs heavy support.



First up we have the Deathstrike missile launcher. This guy has seen action in lots of games of various sizes and has experienced the whole range of outcomes from the unpredictable payload. It's killed my own Leman Russ, wiped out death stars and killed nothing at all in equal measure.

The painting inspiration for this was the old school epic Deathstrikes with the chequered nose and white red combo (google it and you wills what I mean).



One of my favourite tanks to use in the game and one that certainly gives people real concern, the deadly Medusa! Although I'm unsure if I can use it anymore given it got cut from the AM codex, fingers crossed the FW rules are the same.

This is one of the oldest models in my force, painted at the same time as the original platoon chimeras (over 10 years ago). It got updated when I started this blog with weathering, freehand,  converted crew and a shell rack for the back.

I've got plans to go back and update some of my tanks again. There are lots of bits of details I never touched (the skull eagle on the side, the glass in the front hatch, and further weathering with a sponge, not too mention the stowage that these tanks all need!).



Ahhh, some proper artillery! No tanks here, but instead the bane of many an opponent, the brutal Thudd guns! These pack such a serious punch and have accounted for countless enemy infantry and even light armour.

The veteran among you will recognise that they are the old squat Thudd guns. I picked them up on eBay a couple of years ago complete with Praetorian artillery crew! An absolute diamond of a find, they only cost about £30 if memory serves.

I gave them some TLC by varying gun barrel length and going to town on some scenic bases with GW resin pieces and various guard bits. The crew are a mix of heavy weapon soldiers and there is a gunnery sergeant with a map (wearing the goggles). That's right a map, none of your fancy auspexs here, utterly useless if the Praetorians infantry haven't managed to put down range markers before the battle too mind you.



Now you don't just bring a big gun to an artillery fight, you bring a massive Bombard Siege Mortar. This gun is massive. So much so they had to mount it on a Leman Russ chassis. One of FW's oldest and in my opinion best kits.

You will notice the red and white colours and the explosion mark freehand on the flank. These appear in one form or another on all my artillery tanks. In the same way marine devastators have the chevrons, or tac marines the arrows, I decided my guys needed a big explosions.

Additionally you can see that additional sponge weathering has been applied to this tank. This will eventually be applied to the rest of the army.



Finally in this instalment we have the Hydra flak tank. What a thing of beauty, shame it is pretty much useless at its in game role due to the fact flyers simply come on and smoke it straight away.

Its one game of note was in a 5/6k apocalypse game where it outflanked (due to the strategic asset), came on behind an Eldar Vampire Bomber and almost blew it out of the sky in one turn! It was left on just one or two hull points and promptly shot off into the sky. Sadly the hydra didn't get to finish the job but it sure was good shooting.

It's the FW model and like the bombard, despite its age, is a thing of beauty. Lots of gems and glass bits to pick out on the turret section of the model. But sadly it seems I decided to ignore the viewing glass on the hull. That will be remedied in the future I think!

That's enough for now! I hope you are enjoying the frequent posting. Up next will either be the mainline tanks featuring the Leman Russ and Macharius, or perhaps a job lot of infantry. Let me know if you have a preference!

Thanks for having a look!

100 posts - A Praetorian Review

Welcome everyone to the 100th post on the blog!

To celebrate my first ever blogging milestone I'm going to have a slightly different take on my usual posts. This post will attempt to review the last 10 months of blogging, showcasing some of the highlights, and having a look a look at where this army has come from and where it might be going in the future. As usual expect plenty of photos and plenty of pithy commentary and analysis!

There will be links to aforementioned posts throughout this post, be sure to check out the early ones if you are new to the blog, or if you want to see a load of work in progress, the army has come on leaps and bounds!

In the beginning...
The first post on this blog was 11/11/11 and was the aptly titled New Dawn which marked my return to the hobby after a 7 year absence! It was my stumbling upon Col. Gravis' blog and the subsequent posting of my old army on his blog that really got me started again.



Here we have the tanks that I painted before my sabbatical, devoid of weathering, proper unit marking, freehand and much more, A sorry sight...



Some miniatures do however remain the same, in particular this command section is still largely the same, though some notable models are missing.



One of the first projects on my list when I restarted the army was some new cavalry. It just so happened that it happened to be Cavember! A project started by Col. Ackland and Col Gravis and coinciding with Gravis' original cavalry sculpts I got to work making some new Rough Riders of my own in my second post entitled The whole world has gone cavalry mad

I also got started on a new Command HQ and got to work, with the help of Victoria Lamb, on finally making some Praetorian Highland Veterans! A long held hobbying dream.





It was a busy November and even Col. Winterborne himself made an early appearance. The total for November which was only my first (not even a I started 11th!) month blogging had a grand total of 11 posts! Decemember would then proceed to beat that with a mighty 15!



My Rough Riders were finished, I started planning the banner for my Command HQ and I got to work on updating some of tired looking tanks with lots of shiny freehand! Not a lot got finished in December but a lot of converting and modelling was done to bring the HQ and Highlanders up to speed and ready for painting. This month also say my first ever battle report and victory for the army!



The new year saw another great surge of hobby activity and recorded a blogging high of 18 posts in January! How on Earth did I find the time... There were battle reports against Eldar and Chaos, and the Command HQ was finished along with a fair few tanks weathered and updated.







It was sure a busy month as my work station testified but rather alarmingly there are some models I was working on that I still haven't found time to paint!







These guys really need to get done, even to this day I haven't finished the modelling side of them and need to get the green stuff out!



February saw me paint my first new tank from scratch and you got to say how I do it from start to finish with the Salamander Command Vehicle (I love this tank, I really must get a few more for the army...)



February also saw the 4th lose against a beautiful Dark Eldar army, me manage to get a whole heap of tanks finished and also the very first storm trooper using the DKOK grenadier models.









Somehow March seemed to fly right past and it wasn't unitl April that my next posts registered. Nonetheless I focused on two units... A new Lord Commissar started to raise his head and the Highland Vets finally neared completion...








May. Oh May, what a month, a mammoth of a hobbying month. I played in a South coast tournament and was off to the BadabWar Part 2 Campaign weekend at Warhammer World at the end of the month and it spurred me on to tremendous hobbying feats! I finished no less than a deathstrike, a bane wolf, a chimera, storm troopers, leman russ executioner, 20 man blob, commissar lord and the highland vets!


















The army as it stood before the painting and modelling frenzy...



I even invested in making some explosion markers for when my vehicles got hit.



A bloody encounter with the ork menace at Triple Helix in Westbury.













The boys did me proud at Warhammer world and I managed to scoop not only the best badab hero for my commissar but also best army and a I finished on the winning side of the campaign! Three cheers for Praetoria!











Hobbying sadly seems to come in peaks and troughs and after May the frequency of my blogging has declined somewhat, not through disinterest or lack of passion but unfortunately due to the pressures of the dreaded real life! That hasn't stopped me (hopefully) producing some quality posts but it has meant they have been fewer and farther between.

Being up at Warhammer World for the Badab War made me get my wallet out and a few goodies from forge world were swiftly mine, a bombard, hydra and most significantly a Macharius Vanquisher! While to this day the two smaller tanks remain in a state of undercoat the month of June saw the Vanquisher finished (minus the crew who came later) and there were plenty of posts about what I consider to be the best looking tank GW or FW have ever produced.







I absolutely love this tank, I really must get a squadron of them...



I spent almost the entirety of July away and consequently got no modelling or painting done whatsoever, I did however take part in a rather epic apocalypse game of 40k - The Siege of Magnus Hive (the battle report for which has been in my to do list for some time, hopefully soon it will be ready!)

But here are a few sneak peak photos...

More of those to come in the future along with a full report...

August, September and October have only yielded a handful of posts but I have still managed to make a few new additions to the army. Notably the tank commander for the Macharius and a Psyker to make the most of their new rules in 6th.

And that walk down memory lane brings us just about to the present day and the present state of the army (more or less with the addition of Macharius tank crew and Aegis defence line).

It has been a thoroughly enjoyable 100 posts of blogging and I hope you have all enjoyed it too. Here are a few statistics about the blog. 

Here we have the top 5 posts of all time, by individual page views - 

1 Black Dragon Space Marine Army (not even a Praetorian post!!!)

2 Praetorian storm troopers and highland guard update

3 Photos of Praetorian Lancers

4 Praetorian Storm Troopers Gallery Post 

5 Finished Rough Riders Photos

So quite a surprise there, but the most popular post doesn't even feature any Praetorians! I'll have to see what I can do to rectify that in the next 100 posts...

So what next for the army. There is plenty that needs to be converted and painted on the to do list - Hydra, Bombard, AT heavy weapons teams, a dog, tech priest and servitors, 2nd platoon. On top of that I really want to get a thunderbolt and a Baneblade and chimeras for everyone that is stuck walking at the moment. I've already filled a massive KR multicase with this army and I think I might need to get another... Not a good army for space economy! 

Right that is quite enough of what has been an utterly mammoth post. I hope you have all enjoyed it. To finish I would like to say a massive thank you to everyone that follows my blog, comments on my posts and posts equally brilliant stuff on their own blogs. In particular I'd like to thank the Praetorian community who are always inspirational!

Here is to the next 100 posts!