Cerberus VII Regiment (Plastic Stormtrooper Squad)

[Sgt. Walters]

Dude, I'm so going to loot your penal legion! And that's a promise. They're incredible.
This has to be one of the coolest, let alone THE coolest army ever built for the IG.

[Deleted]

Right the detail of your painting is awesome.
Im loving the dayglow orange feel of the penals, and that night stick!!!
Dispite the grey's being a dull colour your guys seem to stand out and look soo good.
The one problem with looking at threads like this is that I want to change my paint scheme again!!!!

[Morat]

Yup, I suffer the same thing. Another motivator behind this guard army was my continual desperation to do an Urban Tau army when I already have a pretty big Jungley (is that a word? It is now.) one already.

Loot away Sgt Walters and thanks for the props, high praise from a man of your talents, that new command squad is top hole.Oh and belatedly Deadhunter wins the going rate of 18 internet recognition points for spotting another of my disgracefully stolen references. As for being blown up by the martians, in this day and age (give or take 40,000 years. The only alien on mars appears to be the Void Dragon. But then a necrodermis -is- a kind of "fighting machine" is it not?

[Morat]

Finally started that Penal Legion tutorial for (the extremely patient) Scarper.

Haven't finished them yet, but I have got them to the end of the armour stage which is what people were mostly interested in.



First step is to paint the fatigues Solar Macharius Orange. As with everything else, this is well thinned and applied in a couple of quick coats.



This then receives a wash with neat Baal Red ink.



I then go in to re-apply the orange to the raised surfaces that are made a bit mottled looking by the ink. With this directional lighting you can really see the difference in finish between the ink and paint. Varnish will of course get rid of this at the end.



Now we get into the armour at last. It receives a basecoat of Boltgun Metal. Well actually it's Mithril Silver and black, because that's what I have but it doesn't much matter. Hardly any will be visible later.



I then stipple a mix of Solar Macharius and Calhan Brown all over the metal areas. This is watered down a tad and the brush well loaded with paint but at the same time not actually dripping with the stuff. Sufficient that it comes off on the model easily with no significant pressure applied to the brush. I try and use a brush that struggles to hold it's point for this. Not a wrecked, splayed out mess, just one which tends to split a bit. I then rotate this brush as I go round to cut back on any potential repetitive patterning that might occur.



After this I mix Devlan Mud ink with the stippling colour along with a fair bit of water to make a wash. This is applied on top of all the metallic areas to blend in the stippling.



I then apply a wash of neat Devlan mud to add definition and hard lines in the recesses.



Finally I stipple on Adeptus Battle Grey in the same way as I did the rust stippling. The only difference is I aim to apply it almost entirely in the centre of panels. leaving the original rusty colours at the edges. On large flat areas like shoulder pads I go for a more spotty finish in some patches to make the paint appear blistered, Otherwise the shoulder pads end up looking in better condition than the body armour.

There is a final armour step, but it's the last thing before varnish. Taking a soft pencil, I rub the edge of it around a lot of the armour plates. The graphite adheres there adding a chipped metallic effect. It wears off with handling though, so there's no point doing it to these guys yet.

Not sure when I'll finish these guys but will try and keep the photography up if I can. Back to tiny men/elves for now though.

[Colonel-Commissar, (M.I.A)]

very detailed thank you

[Aeon]

Those are awesome! Time for each one?

[Morat]

Probably no more than 15 minutes per stage. The orange cloth somewhat more as there's rather more of it.

[Scarper]

Thank you so much morat, that's going to be really really helpful! I'll try doing all the armour steps up to the adeptus battle grey, and replace that with my armour colour. Hopefully that'll work! Cheers for the tutorial, I'll see if i can upload something when I finally finish it ;D

[BobaHat]

Can't believe I didn't see this thread until now. Those are some really well done Guardsmen! It's great to see someone take their time and display skill and patience!

Really well done! I can't wait to see more!

[Happyorange]

Thanks for the tutorial! I'll have to try these cool techniques.

[grandmilitantniemi]

.................*stunned*............................

[Morat]

Rise from your grave!

Finally -finally- got round to waving a paint brush at some guard stuff of late. Not moving as fast as I once did as real life (the wretched tiresome drag) has intervened to distract me. Still, should have a (small) game using my Penal Legion tomorrow, still looking for that important first actual win with the army.

Small version first to protect those lovely margins:



And then larger, we have:

img693.imageshack.us/img693/4691/penallegionl.jpg

All taken pre-varnish, and demonstrates I still have a bit of work still to do on the Custodian.

Next up was to be a Penal Legion Sentinel, but I've now talked myself into doing another squad of basic infantry, to further enhance my bodycount. Still wont get me to win games, but might stop me getting "tabled" quite so often.

[privateflippy]

Those penal legionares look badd ass! You could almost quote the custodian in his pure white saying 'I dont mix with the filthy scum!' *snort*. The painting workshop was much appriciated. Your bases also look elabroate. You should do a basing workshop as well if that is possible. It would help people like me that are new to basing.

[Bobulus]

Fantastic! I love your models, and they were my inspiration when I've started the IG.

Really great! Keep up posting please!

[Morat]

Jun 29, 2010 23:44:32 GMT -5 privateflippy said:

You should do a basing workshop as well if that is possible. It would help people like me that are new to basing.

And so I have, not that my bases are -that- complicated but as I was doing more, it didn't hurt to have the camera to hand if you'll forgive the duff flash photography.




I get two different widths of Plasticard strip (available from most modelling and craft shops). I chop these up into roughly square shaped sections. This is done by scoring the surface of the plastic, then snapping off at the score lines.



The larger squares generally look better if you crack them up a bit first, so I score them and snap them into 2 or three pieces, leaving a couple of intact ones. I'm careful to lay them back on the board in close to their intact configuration, as it can be quite a jigsaw puzzle if you have to do it at the next stage.



I then apply patches of glue onto the bases of the miniature I'm applying them to. I put the larger cracked ones on first then add the smaller ones. I quite often stick several smaller ones on top of each other.



Once the poly cement is dry, I add my texture mix. For this army I use bird sand as I do with all models, as it's the only sand I've used that actually sucks up PVA glue and hence sets like concrete. It virtually never flakes off. I add to the bird sand about 20-30% model railway ballast, this adds some grit to the mix and a more variegated texture.



I then apply PVA glue across the top of the bases, I try and work it into the vracks between tiles too. Once done the ases are dipped into the sand, and any excess shaken off, I then run a modelling knife over the surfaces of the tiles to free them of any mis-attached sand. Job done.

Obviously this lot needs painting, but as that's the last thing I do on a model, that'll have to wait for another day.

[Telliphas]

Hey Morat your penal legionnaires are fantastic.

As soon as I saw the page in the Codex I instantly wanted to build my own squad of them. Love the orange fatigues on yours, perfect look in my honest opinion. I've just ordered my self some bald heads from the empire flagellants stock, but I was wondering where you've gotten your heads from?

I notice GW does a pack of ten heads off of the site, did you use some of these as well?

Could you give a part list please of what you have used for them?

[Morat]

Well there's a couple of flagellant heads in there, along with one from the Imperial Guard command sprue. All the rest are Catachan heads with the bandanas/hachimaki/hair shaved off with a sharp knife then filed smooth. Top tip for doing that is to use teeny tiny cuts, removing little more than a millimetre square at a time, means you won't cut too much and wreck it.

Current progress with the project is 2 lasgunners from the new squad complete and the next two just started.

[Telliphas]

Cool thanks for the info Morat, I'll have to get some of the Catachans then. I nearly bought a few heads when I purchased the flagellants heads with the idea of doing exactly what you describe, but I wasn't sure it could be done. And now I know it can, off to the bits site I go.

Thanks again.

[Bobulus]

Morat, so you paint 2 models a time? I'm doing the entire squad, but this is sometimes really annoying, there is no end. ;D

[Morat]

Yup usually 2 at a time. Any more than that and I feel like I'm making no progress and I don't find a palette mix of paint lasts longer than a coupe of models anyway, so I don't really see much of a time saving in doing 10 at once.

Having said that, 10 -is- a long batch, but when you've finished it you have the option to do something completely different. When I finish a batch it means I have to do 4 more before I'm actually done.

[Bobulus]

Haha, true... Yesterday I've finished washing the recesses on armors of my vet squad and it took two days and a couple of hours to do that. Now the highlights, and the rest of the details on the models plus backpacks, metallic, hands, lights, eagles, pouches, bases and... they're over. If I'm lucky, next week. ;D

[Morat]

Now that's another squad out of the way and another one purchased this morning as it looks like I'm to have a 2nd Platoon ready before I get any armour. Got distracted part way through and have ended up starting another (mildly secret for now) project, suffice to say it gets me away from grey for a brief time. More on that next month.

Finally got to play a game using my nice new squads, and just for once it wasn't Meqscum.

A returned (after 15 years away) wanted to try out his jolly nicely painted Orks. Didn't end well for him.

Bring it down killed 2/3s of his deffcopters first turn. Master of the Ordnance in a fit of accuracy landed a basilisk hit right in the heart of his big mob (9 killed), fire from a blob squad killed a ton more and then an Eversor arrived on his flank, charged into the surviving 10 or so and killed 5 to one lost wound. He then ripped another couple of wounds off the warboss who'd ambled into combat, got himself killed in return and the resulting blast finished off the warboss and all but two of his hapless mates!

Meanwhile on the other flank, some Penal Legion found themselves facing down three Killer Kans, so -obviously- I charged them in. Thought I might bring one down, but in two rounds they killed the lot, while the Kans managed to chop up a lone Legionnaire for their troubles.

In the center I had to face down a Nobz mob in a Trukk, my Inquisitor's plasma wielding retinue, iced the trukk and my brave (if foolish) veterans "kept the nobz busy" by bleeding to death all over them, that bought me the time I needed to bring the rest of my guns to bear on the brutes, and I had them down to a lone confused Nob by the next turn.

At that point the poor (but very gracious) Ork player folded, so he got another game in vs blasted Necrons, helped him crush their mechanical hides into the floor, Kans nailing the Monolith was a high point.

Anyway, that was a pointless digression, you've earned some pictures for wading through that drivel.



In small size

And a big lumpen, clunking, brute of a picture can be viewed below.

img24.imageshack.us/img24/4232/squad3j.jpg

[Bobulus]

Lucky 7th? All the way.

Go Morat!

Nice job.

[Morat]

Well I've spent the last 10 days working on a side project that has now stalled due to lack of relevant parts. So I decided to finish off my command squad by adding an "Astropath". Couldn't get the parts for that either, so decided to build an "Intelligence Officer" to achieve the same goal. Decided to have him come for an entirely separate regiment, perhaps that of the Lord General's own. Thus the Kesteran Lifeguard are now born.



Obviously this man is a complete ponce.

He's a giant though so it might not be best to say it to his face lest he deliver a jolly good thrashing.

[Bobulus]

Great! You use him as Astropath?