Baneblade nears completion

Greetings everyone! 

Sorry for the profound lack of blogging, it's been a ridiculous few months which has meant there has been no hobbying done at all. That said, I did manage the past couple of days to get some work done on my Baneblade! 

I've finished the main piece of freehand which mirrors to a degree that found on the Macharius. I've also tried a slightly different style lion and think it is my best one yet. Still to paint on the tank is some freehand on the turret and the mechanicus shrine on the rear. After that it'll be time to do some serious weathering! 

Originally I had converted a tank commander with a pipe (the VL head) and sabre but then I remembered I had one of curious constructs fantastic tank commanders all painted up without a tank! So I stuck him straight in there and he looks bloody marvelous. 

Fingers crossed it won't take too much longer to finish this behemoth! 

Finished Praetorian Macharius tank crew

Finally after finishing the tank itself over a month ago I have finished the crew!

Here we have the Tank Commander (a suitably Praetorian name for him will surely follow) and the driver before I started painting.

And here we have the finished Commander before he boarded his tank! (The driver was already in the tank at this point)

Here we have the fully completed Macharius Vanquisher complete with crew. I don't have ideal photo taking conditions here, but you get the idea!

Finally finished. Now on to the next project! Time to spray a bombard and a hydra... then I reckon I need a baneblade... I just love painting tanks!

I'd love to hear what you think about what is undoubtedly the centrepiece of the 4th Mechanised. Also any ideas for the name or title of the commander would be appreciated!

Cheers!

Curious Constructs - Tank Commander Review

I've been luck enough to get one of Col. Gravis' brand new Tank Commanders from curious constructs.

Here is a review of the New Tank Commander!

The miniature arrives in three parts, the torso with left arm holding binoculars, the pointing arm and finally the head. The quality of the cast is great with little or no mould lines and takes only minute to clean up and put together. The whole miniature has great definition which really shows off the great work Gravis has done in sculpting it. I'm a particular fan of the way it is in 3 parts, it gives you plenty of options for different heads (VL or GW or other Curious Construct heads all fit great) and alternative right arms. The way the head and the torso fit together is also very good, it is nice and snug and makes for a clean finish.

Here is is assembled before I started applying some paint.

Here we go, the finished article! Now with a coat of paint the detail on the model really stands out. The first thing to note is the tank commander emblem on the tunic, now I didn't notice this till I started painting but it is a tank on a laurel wreath! Absolutely brilliant.

I think Gravis has got his torso down to a fine art now, the folds and crease are great and the model pretty much paints itself in terms of highlighting.

I don't have the best light so here is another photo which might show it of in a slightly different way. Another thing to note is the quality of the face, really good detail and nice easy eyes to paint as well.

Here he is again in the turret of my Macharius, I reckon he looks pretty at home!

So there you have it, the new Tank Commander from Curious Constructs. I think it is a great model, plenty of detail and character which really lends itself to painting. If I'm totally honest I wasn't to keen on the miniature when I first looked at it, but for me, what a difference a coat of paint makes, the miniature came to life and really looks the part. Now all I need to do is find him a tank to command as that Macharius is taken...

Coming up will be a review of the Heavy Cavalry and a look at the Gravis gatling gun!

WIP Praetorian tank crew and heavy weapons

Happy weekend everyone.

It's been quite some time since my last post, what with other things inconsiderately getting in the way of my hobby time it's not been a very productive month! Nonetheless rest assured things are on the horizon and with any luck I will soon be churning out more Praetorian goodness!

First things first, the battle report. As you may remember if you read my previous posts my guardsmen took part in an epic apocalypse battle against the forces earlier this month. The report is still WIP and will certainly be worth the wait, it is certainly the most comprehensive battle rep in terms of photos, back ground stories, commentary and of course photos. Hopefully it'll be a nice surprise when I do get round to posting it!

Another thing to watch out for will be a review of some of Col. Gravis' lovely miniatures. I've managed to get my hands on some of his latest creations and as soon as I have had a chance to get my paint brushes out I will let you all know my thoughts! Also should you wish to check out his store just click on the curious constructs banner on the left hand side of the page, it's well worth a visit!

Right on to my latest creations...

The plan was always to make some crew for my Macharius Vanquisher, it's pretty much the centrepiece of the army now and needed a suitably characterful Tank Commander surveying the scene from the turret. Here is what I created...

Here is the Commander and another crewmen with the first lick of paint on. The colour is simply Tallarn Flesh, Reikland fleshwash, then Tallarn Flesh with progressively more bleached bone added until pure bleached bone for the final highlight (4 layers in total on these guys).

Here is a photo of my WIP AT heavy weapons, they will be painted like normal guardsmen with red trim so that I can switch them in and out of squads if needed. The heavy weapons are the old steel legion lascannons as what with my army being mechanised infantry is important for them to be mobile!

There are a few other bits and pieces that are in the pipeline, below you can see what else I'm working on. There is also a Hydra and Bombard which have been assembled and need a coat of spray paint before I get started on them.

Cheers everyone!

Mid February update

It's come to mid February and unfortunately a rather slow period in terms of hobbying is upon me. Changing job and moving house at the same time means that progress is likely to be very slow in the coming weeks, nonetheless I will try my best and put up a few posts here and there. Earlier today (just scroll down!) I posted some photos of the finished Command HQ Chimera and Salamander, these were painted last week but I haven't had the opportunity to photo them or post about them, I'm really pleased with both of them and it brings my finished tanks total up to 10, I officially don't own an unpainted tank! Huzzah! Now I just need to buy a stormlord to remedy that...

On a side note does anyone know a)if a salamander can be used in a regular IG codex army
                                                       b) what force organisation slot does it use
I like using it because it looks ace, the problem is I suspect it probably isn't legal in my army... Please help!


Those of you that regularly follow Praetorian blogs will have seen Col Gravis taking the plunge and deciding to paint a mind numbingly large number of pith helmeted buggers, well I feel that the time has also come for me to paint some infantry. My 40k games thus far have been me taking every painted model in the army in a bid to make the points up without any real tactical thought, my lack of infantry (a paltry 35ish painted) has made my army very inflexible and my deployment zones more of a parking lot than I would like.

So what am I going to paint?
Firstly the 10 Highland vets. need to be finished, upon their completion that will be 1850pts (of legal army) fully painted
3 x10 man guard squads (2 lascannon and 1 missile launcher heavy weapons which could form a heavy unit if needed), these need to be undercoated.
10 storm troopers, now you may have seen my 'commando' storm troopers that Ive been working on, but these aren't them. This squad will be converted DKOK grenadiers and the first one is built and ready for greenstuff, feast your eyes on this guy...

Epaulets will be sculpted, also filling around the arms and neck. I'm also toying with adding something to the helmet, not sure yet, any ideas?

So in total that is 50 guys that need painting (also a fair bit of converting and sculpting for the stormtroopers), it could take a while...

Speaking of painting, I have been thinking of evolving my methods a bit and getting an airbrush. Now I have absolutely not experience with airbrushes but I'm thinking that if I can paint the khaki uniform on them all with an airbrush it will save me literally days worth of time. I'm going to investigate the matter further but peoples thoughts/experiences would be very gratefully received! Also do you think I could get a result with the airbrush that would match my hand painted ones (regarding the khaki uniform).

On a final note my guardsmen are confirmed for Badab War pt 2 up at Warhammer World in May, I cant wait! If any other Praetorian players are thinking of going let me know and we could team up for the apocalypse game!

That's enough for now, I will catch you all later.

Medusa gallery photos

Finished Praetorian Medusa!

I have finished my new favourite tank, the medusa!

The crew are two heavy weapon loaders with goggles sculpted on their helmets. The loading area has a custom built shell rack and has had the rails removed. One little touch was the Praetorian lion from the standard bearer being added above the loading breach. There is free hand insignia all over the tank (though its not my best I'm thinking about changing the crossed cannons) and a lot of battle damage to the paint work as it always appears a popular target for enemy fire.

Praetorian Salamander update

Having finally restocked on spray paint I've managed to start painting the Salamander and tank crew. Heres what I've done so far.

All undercoated and ready to go

Also a photo of the newly undercoated Medusa crew,

Step 1. Undercoat the whole tank snakebite leather. Be sure to water the paint down a little and give it two coats to get it even.

Step 2. Give the whole wash of ogryn flesh. Water it down a bit so it is 2 parts ink to one part water. This will help give the model more definition and make the base coat look more even in colour.

Step 3. Now a lot of drybrushing with ever increasing amounts of bleached bone added to snakebite leather.  About 5 or 6 rounds of drybrushing should do it. Each time more bleached bone and less paint on the brush. The final drybrush will be pure bleached bone and needs to be very light.

more drybrushing...

So that is the main colour done, next I will be picking out all the detail and painting the rest of it.

Here are the crew with an undercoat of bestial brown on theur uniforms.

I'll try and crack on with tank painting tonight, hopefuly get the medusa and crew finished for my game with necrons tomorrow!