Heroes of the Praetorian IV Mechanised Infantry - Gallery photos part 2

Welcome to part to of our review of the regiments heroes. So without further ado, lets get back to it!



First up we my take on Victoria Lamb's fantastic Captain Caine miniature. Its a simple hand swap for the Imperial regulation weapons and the addition of epaulettes in line with the strict Praetorian dress uniform regulations.

The model was an absolute joy to paint as Victoria Lamb sculpts have such fantastic definition, particularly in the face. I think the ease of painting eyes is always a good barometer of a sculpt.

In battle he has sometimes taken the place of a company commander. No doubt in the future I will have to properly convert him a suitable retinue. I'm loathe just to give him the normal old GW Praetorians as he looks a giant of a man against them!



Not really a hero, but he is on his own so he is at least a maverick! Sadly he is still the only Tallarn I have managed to paint, but when I get around to it there will be a company of these light infantrymen supporting the Praetorians. I love the old guard sculpts, the Tallarns are still brilliant today.



Now we have Primaris Psyker Raeven Oscuris. While not a native of Praetoria, he has served with the Praetorian IV for quite many years and due to his ranks, status and prodigious psychic talent is afforded special dispensation with regards to uniform regulations.

One of the few models in the army without any red on his uniform. Given his unique position I used purple and the dark marble to help him stand out further, while still keeping him in line with the colour of his uniform and the white belt, gloves and pouches.



As the ranking member of the Praetorian Commissariat, Lord Commissar Adolfus Stern is charged with ensuring the safeguarding and spiritual fortitude of the men.

Being a commissar I had to paint him black but I decided that he still needed something to tie him to the army. I did this by a relatively simple headswap, conversion and a few key colours being used. The head is the only maxmini pith helmet head used in the army and has the commissars usual hat badge grafted on to it.

I sculpted the epaulettes, detail on the sword and converted the bolt pistol into a plasma pistol. There red and white used in painting are the key colours helping to tie him to the army, while the purple cloak, as with the psyker, help mark him out as special.



Our final hero is Kyran Arkadius the ranking Techpriest Enginseer. Given the large number of vehicles in every deployment it is a position of great responsibility within the regiment and he is rightly afforded the respect of all Praetorian personnel.

I went to town painting this guy red and used my standard colour on the robes. Additionally you will see the purple used on the grips of his axe and tools once again marking him out in the army. It's another of my favourite Imperial Guard models and I really must get him retinue of some kind whether it be servitors or guardsmen/thralls of some type!

Thanks again for having a look. I hope you are enjoying the recent glut of posts. Long may it continue!

In my next post I hope to show you so more new photos of some of heavy armour of the regiment.

Getting ready for Vidar's fate

Today I have finally been able to put a good few hours into painting some models!

I've been busy with a couple of professional exams the past month or so, this has unfortunately meant I've barely had sight of a paint brush. That dark time has now come to and end (for the time being), and I find myself with a mountain of models that need painting!

The big event on the horizon is Saturday 20th April where I will be teaming up with none other than Col Gravis at Warhammer World's campaign weeknd Vidar's Fate where on the Sunday in a 5k a side Apocalypse doubles game, the my mighty Macharius and Gravis' Malcador will be teaming up along side well over a 100 guardsmen and 20 odd tanks!

As per usual I have left myself with it all to do painting wise before I head up there. Grand plans of adding things to my tanks, changing bits here and there, painting a platoon of Tallarns... have come to naught. I've had to revise my plans somewhat and will content myself with 3 Thudd guns, the 9 crew, 6 regular guardsmen (to give me some options weapon loadout wise), 5 possible counts as ratlings and Victoria Lambs Captain Caine who I have converted a little bit.

Here are some photos of where I've got to so far.



The three Thudd guns are done. They have all been based using resin parts from the citadel basing kit to help add some interest to the large bases and to make the guns look less lonely. There are also a few hidden 'easter eggs' as this one has a crux terminatus hidden under the carriage.



Here we have a range finder I put together from a monocular and the heavy weapon missile launcher stand.



This one has a servo skull floating around, no doubt relaying targeting data to regimental command. There is also an Eldar rune on the base of this one hidden among the tall grass.



Here you get a good look at the little tractors and the classic squat carriages these weapons sit on. I will certainly need to get some Trojans for these guys at some point in the future!



Here is a better picture of the tech priest. I'm not sure if he will ever get much of a game as struggle to see how I would really use him tactically, nonetheless, awesome model and he'll be getting an Trojan as his transport soon along with a load of servitors. (The Imperial Armour 1 second edition updates these guys and gives him the option of a Trojan personal transport)



My Captain Caine with hand swaps and added epaulettes.



My riflemen who may well become counts as Ratlings and possibly dark green cuffs and plumes to mark them out from the rest of the army.



Some regular guardsmen so I can swap heavy weapons out of units if needed. I've developed a much quicker 4 stage method for the uniforms on rank and file so hopefully I won't need to spend to long getting these guys up to spec.



The crew for the Thudd guns. A motely collection of various heavy weapon crews led by the gunnery sergeant front left who is holding a map/communication (probably with coordinates scribbled down) and has goggles on his helmet.

So all of the above needs to be finished by the time I go to bed on Thursday 18th April. Can I get them finished in time? Fingers crossed! At the time of posting this I have already almost finished Captain Caine, and can I just what a model, a delight to paint. Expect to see him in the next post and an update on the rest.

Thanks for reading!

March update - reinforcements incoming!

Greetings everyone!

Apologies for the lengthy wait for this post, the past month or so has been very busy and continues to be for the next month or two. I'm in the time consuming position of working full time while studying part time for some professional exams, the thing which unfortunately has to give is my painting and modelling.

Nonetheless, I haven managed to paint at least one miniature which you will see shortly, and in addition have completed the far less time consuming task of purchasing some much needed reinforcements to bolster the ranks of the 4th Mechanised Infantry.

To make amends for my hobbying transgressions I have a jam packed post for you that I hope you will all enjoy.

So without further ado, lets kick this post of with the newest recruit, the techpriest enginseer...



I've wanted a techpriest for a long time. I like to think of my army in functional terms and like to have the various logistical and mechanical support to keep the army running. The techpriest is the first step in achieving that. In the future I hope to add a Trojan or two, an Atlas recovery tank and who knows what else.



My army is an Imperial Guard army first and foremost, so while it doesn't necessarily fit with the Victorian Steam Punk aesthetic I felt he was nonetheless a good fit for the army. I kept the colours to the limited palette I use throughout and juxtaposed the red and khaki seen on most units, to give him red armour (befitting the mechanicum) and khaki robes.



Once again details such as belts and pouches are picked out in white like the rest of the army, and on this model in particular I enjoyed picking out all the little details that make these models so interesting.



Before I move on to the new recruits which I recently purchased let me show you some which I recently converted. Now those of you that have been following me for some time may remember that I converted 5 commandos from the victoria lamb miniatures using the heads with caps rather than pith helmets.



Well I reviewed these guys recently and wasn't happy with how they looked. They didn't sit quite right with me. So I got out my green stuff, opened the bits box and went to work. Here is what I ended up with.



Behold Praetorian Riflemen. I swapped heads for the pith helmetted variety and sculpted front plumes on all the helmets which have a feather a small rectangular piece and then an even smaller Aquila sculpted at the very bottom.



They have plenty of of pouches and kit and have Victoria lambs epaulettes too.



I also got to work on another fella for the army, and with a few subtle conversions made a Captain Caine of my own.



He has the VL epaulettes and a double hand swap so he fits in with the traditional 40k weapons and a slightly different feel with the sword arm forward and the pistol back.

The penultimate item of this jam packed post is some new allies for the Praetorians. While I was shopping on ebay I looked at other items of one of the sellers I was looking at and low and behold some Tallarn Desert Raiders caught my eye for about half the price they cost new. Well I couldn't resist and got myself a platoon!



I've always loved the Tallarn models and think they will look great alongside the regular infantry. I have two squads and a command section, that all includes a melta gun, 2 grenade launchers, a mortar and a lascannon. A pretty eclectic selection of weapons but that has never stopped me before. Plus the mortar crewman with his hands over his ears is one of my favourite ever guard models.



I'm really looking forward to painting these guys and will be using the same red white and khaki palette mentioned above. I'm thinking khaki trousers, red tunics, white head scarfs perhaps, or maybe khaki tunics and trousers, white accessories and a red head scarf. If any of you have any suggestions I'd love to hear them.



Finally on to my latest Praetorian purchases. Now essentially I lost the plot the other day and bought probably rather too much on ebay. I know prices are usually high, but I got a quite a few squads at what I felt to be a pretty reasonable price. I actually expected to outbid on many things so I got rather more than I bargained for. So first up I have a whole load more guardsmen so I can bulk out my platoons and make bigger blobs. Including the Tallarns I have increased my army by about 70 infantry.



Also a few special weapons, now I finally have enough melta guns to try out the ubiquitous melta vets if I so desire. Also not pictured I got 3 more mortars and 3 more lascannons.



A few more officers to lead the new recruits.



And finally the pièce de résistance. Thudd guns!!! Original squat Thudd guns which were sold with Praetorian heavy weapon crews! These I picked up for just over £30 and I consider it money well spent. I have no idea what these do in game terms but some slightly bigger artillery, and such classic models to boot, was to much to resist.



The guns are immensely characterful with the small tractor on the back and the big carriage. While I am tempted to leave them as they are, I do have a mind to remove the gun barrels and replace them with longer bigger ones.

If anyone has any idea how these work please let me know, and in particular, how many crew does each need and do they need to be mounted on the base or separate models?

The last news is that Col. Gravis and I are off the Warhammer World for Vidar's fate campaign weekend. The weekend includes a mighty 2.5k per player apocalypse game! Needless to see we intend to join forces so that is a battle report you can all look forward to where the malcador and macharius shall fight side by side. It's also possible to prearrange opponents for this game, we are currently looking for 2 ork players to play against, if you happen to be going and an ork player or know of any that are then please let us know! Alternatively if you aren't an ork player but are going then also let me know.

Right that is your lot for now, I'm not sure when I'll be able to post again, I suspect it'll be a month but I'll see what I can do.

I'd love to hear your thoughts on all of the above. Thanks for reading!