Tank stowage and base updates

Welcome the last of the posts I scheduled before I went away for a month. In this post I will share a few photos of the updating that is going on throughout the army, with a new base scheme and new tank stowage to keep them provisioned on the coming campaigns.

Here we have the first batch of troops which have been fully updated. We have 4 squads of 10 guardsmen, 3 AT teams, 3 mortar teams, 3 Thudd gun teams, Command HQ, 3 chimera and 1 Taurox. Additionally various characters like the techpriest and the Lord Commissar.



You can see that I've added lots of stones to the bases and painted them up in a gray slate colour to add an extra element to the army.



You can see two of the Chimera here, they have had all their lenses painted, sponge weathering applied and new stowage added to hulls and turrets.



The command section's chimera has all sorts of bags and packs strapped to it. You can see that the gun cowl for the heavy bolter has also been painted now too.



The Command HQ pictured here have had stones added. While only a little touch I think it really makes a difference and looks great.



Another photo of the chosen men.



Finally another photo of the new mortar teams.

Right, that's your lot for now. I'm back in the UK from 1st April and will look to get finishing the Baneblade as soon as I can!

Thanks for reading!

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!

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!