Guardsmen and Veterans

Got around to some kitbashing today. Here are the results:

First up are the plasmagunner and Sergeant for the first squad of my outflanking infantry platoon. The plasmagunner uses legs and a head from the Catachan command sprue, a Cadian torso, and the plasma gun from the Forge World Renegade weapon sprue. The Sergeant uses Catachan legs, torso and head from the Empire Militia sprue, and arms from the Cadian and Catachan command sprues.

Next up I have the first two members of my premier Veteran squad. On the left in the first picture is Corporal "Moose" Picard, who is based off the classic Cadian Lieutenant, with a head from the Empire General and a plastic Necromunda shotgun. He'll receive a greenstuff toque later; I didn't feel like breaking out the sculpting tools today. On the right is Private "Probie" Ternay, created by sawing Hero from the Last Chancers in half, sticking on a pair of Cadian legs and a Space Marine Scout shotgun in place of a lasgun.

Finally, a parting shot of the tray that I am slowly assembling and shuffling the completed Guardsmen around on. If you can make out the scribbling on the paper, it's a record of which models I still need to build. I've got a ways to go.

Squeaky Clean and Ready To Build

Just finished thoroughly washing my pile of Forge World conversion pieces. Two sets of Cadian Veteran bitz, a Cadian Upgrade Pack, a Renegade Weapon pack and a Thunderbolt Pilot now join the bitz pile (well, not the Thunderbolt Pilot - he's fine just on his own).

Off to build up a few more guardsmen! Pictures later/on the morrow.

The Sound Of Booted Feet

Well, I'm still here.

An excellent ski season and a particularly hectic period at school are drawing to a close, and the men and women of the 157th Aeshaettar Light Infantry are beginning to line up on my workbench. With excess Guardsmen drafted from my Vigilanti army, as well as more OOP Guardsmen bought on eBay, I've got a good foundation going - now I can lay into the massive pile of sprues and Forge World bitz bags I've assembled for the sole purpose of constructing my 1500 point all-infantry Imperial Guard army.

So, once I've settled back into a routine of free weekends... time to crack open a fresh bottle of plastic glue.

Heavy Weapon Team Bases - Step by Step

With the advent of the new Imperial Guard codex, Heavy Weapon teams are now a single two-wound model mounted on a 60mm round base. Since the standard giant tripod-mounted heavy weapons don't really fit in with the "light infantry" theme of my 157th Aeshaettar, I plan to convert man-portable versions from Space Marine Devastator heavy weapons. This means that my gunners and loaders can both be mounted on 25mm bases for ease of storage and transport. But how, then, would I mount them on a 60mm base to make them codex-legal?
Using this:




It's an Infantry movement tray for War of the Ring... with conveniently shaped depressions for infantry based on 25mm bases. Since I only need 2 models to fit on each base, I cut the movement tray into conveniently sized sections. Like so:






I then trimmed it to fit within the perimeter of a 60mm round base, and cut a corresponding hole in the base.






The section of movement tray was then glued into the middle. I'll fill any unsightly gaps with greenstuff later.



A view from the side... it's perfectly flat, so my support troopers will stand at the same height as my other Guardsmen.



And finally, for illustrative purposes, two of my Revilers pretending to be a Heavy Weapons team. This shows how the models fit into the tray, allowing me to remove them for transport or remove the loader to track wounds.



Now I just have to make 14 more.

The Founding Is Nigh

Heed the founding of the 157th (yes, they're the 157th now) Aeshaettar Light Infantry! Work is finally getting started on these guys... owing to the fact that I just picked up about 20 Mordians, 50 metal Cadians and 50 Catachans relatively cheap. The Bitkingdom order has been delayed a wee bit, but should still be going through. I also plan to hit up The WarStore for some Wood Elf bitz with which to make Aeshaettari Guardsladies.

Over the next little while I will be paintstripping, hacking up, headswapping, and repainting all the "mongrel guardsmen" that have joined up; and kitbashing together the first 30 or so truly unique Doom Guard.

Reminds me, I'm gonna have to pick up more Green Stuff to sculpt all those kamas on!