Finished Praetorian Life Guards

Greetings all! 

A quick post with a few photos of some newly painted models that have been long on the workbench! 

Finally, about 3 to 4 years after the first 5 were finished, I have finally painted the second half of the Life Guards squad! Huzzah! 

No longer will I be forced to field a unit of 5 storm troopers to no effect whatsoever. I can now field a full squad of 10 to no effect whatsoever! Double Huzzah!

Anyway, lets take a look...

Photos aren't great (apologies for that), but here we see the whole squad on my painting table (chest of drawers). I really enjoyed some aspects of painting these fellas and I'm really pleased that they match the originals with little variance.

The three in the foreground are newbies. Painting these guys assemble with the arms in place was a massive pain. I think I'm going to start doing a little more painting of disassembled models. I'm reminded of the Highland Scions who are in need of paint and the thought of trying to get in to the detail is not filling me with joy!

I love the expressions on these guys. Victoria Lamb Praetorian heads are utterly brilliant. Bags of character in every model.

One final picture with a close up of this kneeling fella. I'm so pleased to get these done.

I'm now working on an as yet unseen and announced sneaky unit... I'm having to work out how to paint green...

Finally, there is blog you should all definitely check out if you don't already do so, Tale of Painters. I've followed it for years and have a link in my page banners. It is full of tutorials and the work of some inspirational painters and well worth a look. I also might add there is a fine Praetorian gentleman that has recently began contributing...

Cheers!

WIP Colonel of the Praetorian Highland Guard

Hello everyone!

Firstly sorry for still not having posted the battle report from the big Praetorian Bad Moon Orks game, it will arrive eventually... I promise!

But I've surely got to give you something by way of an apology so here are two photos of two new conversions for the army. The army is being expanded again and there are a whole raft of new models that will soon need painting.

I've downed brushes for the time being (I'm actually waiting for some new ones as I used the old to destruction!) and am busy converting new models. Soon to be added are a Leman Russ Demolisher, another Taurox (with the VL Wheels), the Tech Priest's Trojan, some servitors, some more priests, psykers and lots more guardsmen. Of particular note will be lots more Highlanders and some very very sneaky gitz... But more on the latter another time.

Anyway without further ado, two of the new WIP additions!

First up we have the new Colonel (rank and name subject to change) of the Highland Regiment. I recently ordered a load of Victoria Lamb bits and set to work converting up some new fellas and this man, with no real plan on my part, just came to life!

The axe (not enough guardsmen with axes are there?) was a freebie. I was inspired by some space marine characters (is it one of Calgars honour guards?) and gave the pointing axe pose a go. The arm was originally a sword arm. 

The pistol is a plasma pistol to complete the 'points sink what a ridiculous combination of wargear for a guard commander' look.

He will have a Highland command squad to accompany him in due course. I think he might become one of my favourite models...

Finally we have a Praetorian drummer girl! Its all VL bits, with a hat swap and the praetorian epaulettes rather than the stock shoulder guards the model came with. So much character in this model. I think she will need to join Captain Caine's command squad and no doubt I will need to convert a few more characters up to finish it off.

Sorry again for still not having the battle report! Soon, I promise!

Thanks for reading!

Finished Praetorian Imperial Guard Wyvern

Greetings everyone!

Been a while since the last post but in that time I have managed to finish painting the Wyvern. In my opinion one of the very best guard tank kits they've made, a great model to build and to paint. Let's have a look at the photos. 

Conversion work on this tank has been minimal and only restricted to the crew. The models are stock with a simple head swap for VL pith helmets and the arms have had their shoulder armour removed in favour of regulation Praetorian epaulets. 

Spot colour purple has been used on the scroll the spotter is reading from. It features on some of the more special units and characters in the army and I figured it would add a little interest here. I imagine a Praetorian messenger galloping over and handing him a scroll with the latest firing solutions, likely already hopelessly out of date. 

The marking match those on the bombard, deathstrike, medusa and hydra and tie it in with the rest of the army.

On the right side of all my support tanks something in latin is written.

The marking on the turret matches the side of the tank and once again is repeated on the other support vehicles. 

I hope you enjoyed looking at the photos of the latest addition to the army. Question is, what to paint next... More guardsmen? More highlanders? the rest of bullgryns?...

Thanks for looking!

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!

Striking while the iron is hot!

Firstly a belated happy new year to you all!

Secondly my profound apologies for the utter dereliction of my blog for the past who knows how many months. No doubt a Commissar has a bolt pistol round with my name written all over it...

For the past year and a half I've been working full time and studying part time and of late things have been getting ridiculously busy. Its finally coming to a head as I have my final exams in the next few months, but after that I should hopefully have time to once again to pick up a paint brush and get back to my Praetorians!

Now, while updating you all on my continued existence and commitment to the cause are noble aims, they are not the purpose of this post. Oh no! As the title of this post suggests an iron is hot and I am striking something.

Earlier this evening I was out for drinks with a good friend of mine (Warboss Gorblud to be precise) and we got to talking about all manner of things 40k. Now if you have seen his guest posts on my blog last year you will have seen some of his ork horde (which has considerably increased in the past few months, I'm nudging him for another guest post!). We were talking about the new rules, how orks haven't had a new codex in 5 years, how necrons are beardy, all manner of things, but in particular big fluffy narrative games.

Now we've had a couple of big narrative games in the past; a great one at the Armageddon campaign, and and another at Warhammer World on the forge world imperial fort table. Both were great fun and have been undoubted gaming highlights of the last few years. Well reminiscing about these glorious battles got us thinking, and in particular thinking that it was high time for another one!

The planning so far hasn't really progressed beyond a vague idea at this point but we discussed dates and are thinking late Summer/Autumn would be the perfect time to hold the next such game. Giving both of us time to add to our armies and enough time for me to get back on the hobby horse after my exams.

So far I've only given you an insight in to our conversations down the pub, now as exciting as that may or may not be to followers of my blog I have an ulterior motive for telling you all...

Colonel Winterborne needs you!

Warboss Gorblud and I are looking to organise a big game and need you to help us make it happen. We are want to recruit some Ork and Guard players to get involved in this game and make it truly epic. Pretty much everything is on the table at the moment with regards to size, mission special rules, location etc. Our thoughts so far are very limited super heavies, we want this to be about hordes of orks, hundreds of guardsmen and enough tanks to rival kursk!

If this sounds like something you would like to get involved in then let me know, there is no date in mind just yet so all I want is an expression of interest (we can arrange date and geographical location later). Some of you out there have fantastic armies and it'd be great to have my Praetorians line up alongside (or if orks face off against) yours!

Let me know!

Tallarn new recruits and Praetorian Chosen Men

Before I post the next load of my Wars of Armageddon photos I thought I'd give you a few photos of the new Praetorian Chosen Men that you might have seen defending the Chimera Factory, and also the test model of a platoon of Tallarn Desert raiders that will be joining the Praetorians in the future.



So far only three finished Chosen Men. I wanted to get all 5 done for Armageddon but sadly 3 was all I could manage. Luckily for me 3 was the minimum unit size for Ratlings (count as) so no problem with fielding them at least.

The legs are plastic IG, there are various items on the belt which are IG and the torso, arms, epaulettes, guns and heads are Victoria Lamb. The greenstuff addition of the Rifleman plumes on the front are my own work.



Here we have the leader lighting up a cigar.







For these guys I kept the same main colours with the white belts etc and the khaki uniforms, but as denotes their special status I ventured into green for them, as colour which hasn't really featured in my army up till now with red being the preferred colour.





You can see from the photos the the Victoria Lamb epaulettes are absolutely brilliant, successfully saving me a lot of hours trying to do my own, and in particular they ensure they are a uniform size and shape.





Here is latest edition! The test Tallarn model Using the same colour for the tunic, I've used the white for the head scarf, a new gray for the trousers and then brown for the wrappings, belts and pouches etc (not least because the white is a pain to paint so much of!).





The Tallarn range have some fantastic faces which are great fun to paint.



With the armoured shoulder guards I can include squad markings. This guys here is from Squad B or possibly company B.





Another of this characterful guy and then the the squad with the Tallarn for scale and comparison. I reckon a platoon of the Tallarns will look great lined up with my Praetorians. I'll have to get a lot more chimeras I reckon, can't have all these poor buggers walking to battle.



In the next post you will once more get to see the Chosen Men in action facing down a truly immense ork horde...

Wars of Armageddon Part 2 - The battle for the chimera factory

Welcome to part 2 of my posts about the wars for Armageddon campaign weekend.

This post has photos from a special mission that was fought over the weekend, the defence of the Chimera Factory. Here's the scenario...

TACTICAL WARZONE: ARMAGEDDON PRIME: HIVE
TEMPESTORA
2000pts ‐ Imperial Guard VS Orks
Secure the Chimera factory ‐ At the end of each player turn, whatever team is in control of the
facility and providing it is not contested, may control  the 2
Chimeras that guard the factory (See Codex: IG), these act as normal however units may NOT
embark onto them, nor can you target them whilst they are in your control. In addition, at the end
of every game turn, roll a D6, on a 6 another Chimera is created ‐ which may be used the same way
as previously described.
The winner is the player who owns the Facility at the end of the game.
Benefit:
 Imperial Guard Victory: Unit type: Fast, Tank ‐ Chimeras.
 Ork Victory: Trukk Front Armour increased to 12



The battle lines are drawn and the Imperial Guard start in possession of the chimera factory. For this battle my Guard had some space marine allies in the form of Black Dragon Assault Marines, a Terminator captain, a vindicator and two squads of 5 scouts.



The ork horde is lined up ready for the dash across no mans land. Given the size of the board, the orks go first and also get a free move before the start of the game.



The Salamander and the empty Command Section Chimera occupy the main access point ready to act as speed bumps for the ork advance.



The Praetorian chosen men keep watch from the roof of the Chimera factory. Spying the clouds of dust and smoke caused by the Bad Moon trucks the alarm is raised and the guardsmen ready themselves below.



The majority of the ork forces push for the gate, the first truck to approach the gateway is swiftly destroyed, disgorging a unit of mega armoured nobz. Their armour proves no match for the weight of the Imperial firepower and they are gunned down in short order.



The nature of the bottle neck means it is difficult for the orks to arrive en masse and enables the Imperial to focus on one or two units a turn.



Ork air support arrives to late to trouble the imperial lines greatly.



The orks that did reach the gate were swiftly leapt upon by the Black Dragon space marines who tore the survives to pieces.



The Tank Commander marshalls the firepower of the King Russ (Macharius) while the guardsmen at the while unleash volley after volley at the onrushing orks.



The Chosen men pick of the few remaining survivors.



A few killer kanz and some boyz remain and the Imperial lines hold firm. Emphatic Victory to the Imperium!

Up next a 2k doubles game with Tycho's company of Blood Angels against Nazdreg's Bad moonz...