Praetorian Commissar with Powerfist

I present one usually painted commissar! I tried to use the colours that are standard across my Praetorians such as yellow trim and cuffs, dark blue trousers with a red stripe, and plenty of red all round to try and make him fit with the army but still have enough black to look like his rank.

Here's one of his back so you can see a bit more powerfist and sword detail.

I chose the model as I love the pose and the details and weapons are a nice nod to the old praetorian commissar model I have knocking around somewhere. Also I dislike the new plastic model as he looks like a pirate... and he has a chain from his weapon to his lapel. HIS LAPEL!

Sorry for the slightly blurry images. My camera just won't behave!

Praetorian 500pts Army list for escalation campaign

My friends and I have been planning an escalation campaign for around a year and a half now. It's due to start in March so I'm planning out my armies to ensure I've got the right troops painted in advance as otherwise it might not happen during the campaign and I'll end up in trouble part way through! We've got a good mix of armies included, with two tau, one iron hands, one sisters of battle, one tempestus scions/inquisition, one dark eldar and one craftworld eldar/harlequins (awaiting full releases to find out quite what this will entail!)

The aim is to start with 500pts and increase by 250pts each month after the first. Here is my first 500pts. The aim is to have good lists rather than abusive power gamer lists so we have limits on forgeworld and 30k units. One flier every 1001 pts and a group veto system setup with list submission windows and time for feedback. As a result I chose my guard so I can have some powerful chimera vet action and use my fluffy ratlings, ogryns and the like for entertainment value. I've painted these models up ages ago and rarely do they make it to the table due to their awfulness!

The list contains a command squad in a chimera, two veteran squads in chimeras and three ratling snipers because they're cool.

He's the command squad. I need to think up a suitable name for the well bearded fellow. Its got a lascannon and two plasma guns to take it to tau crisis suits and the like. I've tried to design my squads to be able to have a go at most unit types and this is no exception.

The three ratling snipers. With scout and being able to claim objectives in 7th these chaps might actually not be completely useless for a change. They will probably still spend most of the game hiding and occasionally trying to pull off a unit pin.

Veteran squad one. I need to sort out a base for the autocannon team I realized. They're equipped with an autocannon to deal with long range transports and infantry as well as a melta gun and flamer if they get up close and personal with any targets.

Veteran squad two. Generally I group weapons so three melta or three flamer, however in such a small game I decided to mix them so that my opponents couldn't so easily target the unit and thus the weapons they are weakest against.

Each squad has a chimera, they will be armed with multi lazers and heavy flamers to be able to have a go at anything going. We had previously had an ork and tyranid player so perhaps now heavy bolters would be better but what can you do!

My models are on display here on my friend Arthur's lovely forgeworld board with the GW building kits scattered across which will represent two to three of the urban environments on 3 of the 9 planets we have in the system to play on. Pictures of the amazing campaign map he has had made and the planets backgrounds to come in the future.

Any thoughts, ideas, or advice on the smooth running of campaigns or on my army list would be very welcome!

'The Jokers' chimera with squad marking for my praetorian vets squad.

One more chimera for my Praetorians. Its pretty standard for my army, the usual army painter leather brown and bone sprayed cammo. Copious weathering in the form of fresh scratches, old corroded chips and drips of sepia from nus bolts and joints for the main body. Rust and dust for metal and tracks. Some squad markings on the left side help break up the fairly monotonous colour scheme that's made worse by the track guards. and a few kill count markings add a touch of character.

Which led me to the right side of the tank, A friend of mine had a drop trooper army commissioned and each sentinal had its own little marking like a classic WW2 plane or similar and they looked awesome. I also wanted something to add just a spot of colour to break up the side of the tank and stop the eye just being drawn to the underslung barrel so I thought I'd give a squad marking a go. I thought a playing card might make a good filler, having a little colour but not being too large. I'd also done the weathering first so wanted something small to fit at an odd angle between my work as I couldn't really be bothered to redo it! I felt a joker with a droopy multi coloured hat could be easier to do and more recognizable without looking to closely. Also it made quite a good sounding squad name 'the jokers'. I'm not convinced its amazing but is a start.

At some point I'd like to go back and add other markings to my older tanks to try and break up the wall of identical looking units. I'm thinking the classic swimsuit lady should probably feature, maybe a snake eyes dice roll, a raptor head and a top hat. I've got seven chimera's, three leman russ and three basilisk painted. My Vendetta has the angry eyes and teeth. I've got another two leman russ, three medusa mortas, three hellhounds, a manticore, two hydra, two more vendetta, three valkyrie and four more chimeras to do so um... could do with some more ideas please! What makes a good tank squad marking?

If I manage to get a few more done and like them enough I might match some banners to some of the designs and do something with the six or so pointless banner bearers I've got sitting around.

Imperial Guard command chimera's (for my praetorians)

New stuff!

So sadly I can't take credit for the construction of these. I bought these lovely kitbashed chimeras off ebay. If you wanted to make some yourself it appears fairly easy. They have predator turrets with the autocannons removed to be replaced with multilazers, plasticard trackguards with rivets I believe made from cut off styrene tubing given their slightly varying length. The piece the turret rests on has been pulled back and sits on a piece of plasticard that covers the space in the middle of the tank left when the rear troop carrying part of the tank has been cut back.

I am going to use them for my CCS (centre model with the larger yellow block of the squad marking) and two PCS's (which I have yet to paint!) in games in my friends up and coming no astartes campaign (which I admit feels a bit odd as Spacemarines have just got their re-release but whatever :P its to give us time to actually build the armies!)

I sprayed the base colours on these using army painter skeleton bone and leather brown. I hard line highlighted them with ushabti bone and tallarn sands respectively (old paints bleached bone and graveyard earth). I then weathered them up using both rhinox hide (op. scorched brown) feathering with leadbelcher (op. boltgun metal) feathered over the top off the edges to represent fairly fresh deep scratches into the metal on the edges of doors, armour plates and any other areas that looked like they had a big plain bit of one colour and could do with being broken up a bit. I also used my smiles technique with the same colours I had used to hard line and filled them in with rhinox hide to represent older paint chips that have had time to tarnish. (See my Vendetta post for step by step for these techniques.) I finished off details such as metal reas with leadbelcher and an agrax earthshade wash, gems on the edges of the hatches flat bits and the turret cannon targeter bit in from abaddon black into increasingly light shades of blue through to white. I finished off with some red and yellow squad marks to add a bit of colour and then weathered these up (if your doing them, put the colour in before you weather to stop wasting time by repainting bits you've spent more time on!).

I like how they have come out, I hope you like them! Any thoughts?

Praetorian Ogryn Thursdays Round Up

Just a quick group shot of these chaps as I've not done one yet and to make it a months worth of thursdays:

I can't see myself likely to extend the squad past this or else they won't fit in the chimera that they so desperately need. I've used them in one game so far and they got fear of the darknessed straight off the board the second I got them out of their box. Lesson Learned!

Praetorian Ogryn Thursday #2 Bone Head and thanks!

I'm on track with my (pretty easy I'll give you) target of one a week. In fact I'm slightly ahead as I couldn't resist working a little more on the banner of the standard bearer you'l see next week. Here's my Bonehead for the unit, with the obligatory metal skull (odd then he's not called metalhead?) the eye of which is just a space marine bionic helmet bit jammed in the green stuff, I had to sculpt his hand a bit, and his figners a bit chunky but its really a bit late to change it! Here's some pics:

I just noticed I accidentally smudged black on the back of his jacket, must have been when i was painting the base edge... lets er... call it a trial weathering technique until I get around to fixing it :P.

This seems like as good an opportunity as any to once again say thanks to all those who take the time to stop by and have a look at the blog and a particular thank you to my followers. Popping things up here, getting your feedback and comments really helps me hit my modelling goals and brings me that step closer to sticking and painting that entire cupboard of unopened warhammer boxes I've collected over the last eight years or so!

Praetorian Ogryn Thursdays.

Those of you who have been following from early last year when I started this whole blog thing may remember I made up a squad of 6 ogryns. Its about time I got them painted up really. Thus as a motivational exercise for the next few weeks I'm going to post one of the last three up every week starting today. TA DA!

Heres an ogryn grunt. I actually might like him the best of all the guys I made up. The GS work is hardly flawless but they were my first major GS project and I'm still pretty happy with the overall results (from a distance at least!). I also wanted to say thanks to all those who many eons ago commented on what I should put on their banner. The painting of it has begun, I'm sorry it took me so long!

Praetorian Guard CCS Lascannon Team

Finally got around to finishing this one! Which means I now have a complete CCS to pop on the table. Next on the praetorian table is to do another 10man squad and finish up the Ogryns and their banner...

Praetorian Storm Trooper Squad

Heres a few pics of my first painted squad of the praetorian storm troopers i made up awhile ago now. They gave me an opportinity to try to tie different parts of my army together by using the cammo scheme on my cadians on their cloaks but sticking to the main praetorian colour palette. I have some tallern's i mean to one day paint up in the same camo, but er.. don't go holding your breath for these!





Also I wanted to appologise for the length between posts, I got a new job a few months back now and its been inhibiting my ability to post as often as I'd like. With the release of the new fantasy rulebook i wondered if anyone would be interested in shots of my empire or tomb kings armies, at the very least perhaps they could provide some filler? In the meantime I'm afraid posts are going to continue to be slower, I enjoy painting/posting/etc. too much to stop, but I won't be able to continue my older rate. Thanks for all of those still following!

Praetorian Leman Russ #2

So this one has taken me awhile! Still here it is in completion with dust n' rust weathering and a little chap with a greenstuff helmet.

Carriage Wheels for Praetorian Lascannon's

I picked up a few lascannons without wheels and so found some replacements im very happy with, i might look at getting more for my other heavy weapons... this one will make up part of my las-plas command squad, i have another three for a weapons team/squads but at the moment im conentrating on painting up my command squads and a second unit of guardsmen so i can field an all praetorian force and drop those cadians :P Further pics when paintings finished!

Praetorian Plasma gunners

Here's a couple of pics of two completed models, i chose blue for the plasma guns on these, any thougths on other colours i could try with their complicated colour scheme?

Praetorian Storm Troopers #2

Here the second squad, this time they're equipped with two melta's.

Praetorian Rough Riders

So i went with the Empire outriders in the end:







I added lances from the Empire knights set, arms from the empire state troops set and grenades to the end of the lances from the space marine tactical squad set. Now to do some research on painting horses...

Praetorian Marbo

A Guard mini Lictor is pretty hilarious fun and i saw some really great models for this guy made by other people. Together with the catachan model by GW in no way fitting with my desert themed Praetorian army and finding the tank crew bodies fit the praetorian uniform bill perfectly i thought it was time to crack out a model that wasnt just 'another' praetorian squaddie. Meet 'Lost his marbles' Marbo:



The helemet/pack is from the empress miniatures range as i was feeling lazy about sculpting and the pack looked fun to represent a demo charge. The head is from the empire knights of the white wolves sprue, the one that i first saw and thought 'thatl be useful if i ever want to make a crazy guy model,' which rather fit the bill. The cleaver is from the ogre kingdoms set and the pistol is a chaos bolt pistol with added scope and lasrifle barrel, as i wanted it to look big enough that he could blugeon people to death with the thing if he missed.

Praetorian storm troopers

I decided to try milliput so these models were a bit of a milliput VS greenstuff experiment. In conclusion, greenstuff is way easier to handle, less flakey, doesnt melt in water meaning you can water your hands up to allow less sticky handling (to avoid finger prints in your models!) BUT cost 9xs more. Ill be trying to use milliput more on the less detailed parts of modells, for filling gaps etc its perfect.

These guys, very obviously are space marine scouts with sniper rifles. they suited the bill of shneeky and quite well armoured guys with weaons with power cables. I simply drilled holes in then snipped of the ends of the guns, turned them upside down, and rotated them by 90degrees so the little stub was at the bottom before reattaching them to the shortened gun barrel. Given i want two squads of these guys, each with 5 men and max heavy weapons to deepstrike and upset people two have plasma guns. The next squad will have two melta's. The heads are from empire outriders i got with a thought towards doing some rough riders, but im not happy with how thatl turn out... im still thinking lions.

'Lost his Marbles' Marbo is done, ill get a pick up by saturday or as soon as i get some good daylight. Hes my first completed Praetorian infantryman using no praetorian or mordian parts and im quite pleased, pic's soon!

Praetorian Leman Russ fun

Slight change in cammo scheme, i wanted to try and get a cleaner look on the tank and im quite happy with it. Plus now my little tank commander chap gets some wheels (er..tracks). Anyone know the best colour to do chips on bleached bone/ Desert yellow? If i fancy it i might go back and add some to it sometime.









Unit Marking Stripes, all my standard Leman Russ will use these colours:





I decided to go back to my demolisher and try out unit marking stripes, part of the point of painting this army was to help me practice different things and thus improve my painting skills (skill here... straight (ish!) lines!) so i stopped being a chicken and gave it a go. This has a slightly different colour scheme to the standard Russes. I had some trouble deciding which colours to use, I figured safe colours that would go well would be the prime colours, secondary colours, black and white. I tried a few combinations out on my pallette and went for this:

Praetorian Ogryns, final(?) three progress report

So ive added the bionic eye and head plate to the bonehead. Ive also done one more standard ogyrn with a full length coat who I still want to put a helmet on. Finally the standard bearer with another half length coat who will probably be left bare headed.





These still need ripper guns (ork shootas that i'm waiting to arrive) although I'm not sure if I'll add one to the belt/back of the standard bearer or not. I'll be doing banner concept sketches this week, any thoughts or ideas are more than welcome, thanks to Gotthammer for some great ideas so far!

I also wanted to say thanks to those whove commented anything so far, i really appreciate your interest, ideas (and compliments!). Another special thanks to those who have decided to follow my blog, really means alot that your all interested enough to come back and have a further look, 10 followers already is beyond all my hopes. You've slaughtered my secret fear that I'd be posting pics and text for myself for three months and noone would notice until I got bored and gave up. So again, many thanks to everyone for making this fun for me and helping me keep up the painting and modelling and to anyone who joins in the future!