Iron Skull Best in Show

Happy bank holiday everyone!

Apologies for another interruption before more on the Praetorian v Bad Moon 5k battle report, we will get back to that soon, we have some more urgent news to get to today. This weekend I attended the inaugural 40k London GT and Iron Skull painting competition run by Siege Studios.

Tournament-wise I did pretty well and finished as the best Guard general with 4 victories and a loss. I played some fantastic games against some great opponents.

The real success for me was in the painting competition. I managed to come away with 1st place in Sci-Fi single miniature, Sci Fi Squad and Fantasy miniature, 2nd place in Sci-Fi vehicle/monster and even walked away with the Best in Show!

And to cap it all off the great guys at Siege Studios even took some proper photos of my models so you get a break from the rubbish I usually post. Lets take a look.

Above we have my winning 40k Squad which also walked away with best in show (and a cash prize!). Sadly Colonel Winterborne and the real command squad were busy on deployment in the best army nominations so this cobbled together rag tag bunch of officers were thrust into the competition!

The whole army even managed to win Best Army. Never have I been more proud of these fine men of Praetoria!

Next up the Macharius Vanquisher. It finished second behind a Tau mega-super-massive-suit (no idea what its really called) which was beautifully painted. The judge said it was a damn close run thing and picked me up on me not weathering my freehand panels very much. Solid feedback and one which will be taken into consideration when I come to add some extra weathering and tank stowage to this behemoth.

Next up the might Nork. While his brother ogryns were smashing face on the gaming table he was engaged in some part time modelling work and walked away with 1st place in the Sci-Fi single miniature category.  The judge was particularly complimentary of the flesh on this guy, noting the seamless blending and smooth transition. I think this is really one of my best painted models. I'm definitely going to pick up some more bullgryns/ogryns soon as I love the models and really enjoy painting them.

Finally a rare treat for those of you who also like Warhammer Fantasy! A Bretonnian Knight painted by me all of 15/16 years ago! Covered in countless hand painted flur de lys and a direct copy of the original 'eavy metal paint job. Years back in entered him into Golden Demon in the young bloods category and was a finalist. I didn't place in the top 3 (I was robbed!), the reason given by some of the GW staff that I knew was that the judges had concerns that I hadn't actually painted it...

It was a brilliant weekend, a big thank you to all the organisers of the London 40K GT, Siege Studios, my great opponents and those who voted for my army in the main competition.

I was definitely getting a nudge to enter more painting competitions and Golden Demon next time round... Thoughts?

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.

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!