Basing for Autumn, and Squats.

I have been asked several times about how I have been doing the Autunm bases on my Wood Elf army. So for this update I have done a small step by step guide on how.

Also, in spite of the fact I 'should' be painting Wood Elves I have been painting a few Squats. I finally decided on a cross between the Mjolnir Brotherhood colour scheme, and the colour scheme from the early Rogue Trader releases/Book of the Astronmican painting guide.
 I chose that scheme because I always think of Squats in that shade of green, and the combination of the red flak armour looks good and lightens the green up without being too bright.

First of all, the Autumn basing:

The  ingredients:

Autumn flock from 'Gale Force Nine', leaves from 'Treemendus', and cut down bits of twigs from the local park.

 I first add PVA glue on the base, usually with a cocktail stick.

 Then put the miniature in the flock, and add flock to the base to make sure it's all covered.

 I then remove any excess flock and flatten it down with my finger.

If I decide to put a piece of twig on the base I choose where it is to go, and then put a line of superglue on that area.

I have never had any problems with the superglue setting white, but if that were to occur I would paint over it in a suitable colour. Occsionally it can have a slight shine, but that can either be suggetive of water/damp, or painted over.

   I then place the twig almost immediately as the glue sets very quickly on the flock, which is very absorbant. 

 It sometimes needs to be held down for few seconds so the twig sticks to the base rather than just rests on  top of the flock. 

 Adding the leaves.

To do a pile of leaves, I put some superglue on the area and then just sprinkle leaves onto the glue. If you want to do a higher pile of leave, wait until the first pile is dry, and put on more glue and sprinkle more leaves on.

 Pile of leaves. 

Once I have left them for a minute or so to dry I tap off the excess leaves and put them back in the pot.

 When adding individual leaves I again place superglue where I want the leaves to go, and then immediately place the leaf with a tweezer. Never use fingers unless you are prepared to occsionally have leaves glued to them! 

 The finished Wood Elf.

I just painted the edge of the base in black, although a brown could work well too.

 Close up of the twig and leaves.

 Close up of the leaf pile.

 Squats! 

As the Rogue Trader Squat army list calls for a Warlord and Hearthguard, I have organised some of the characterful, command, and special weapons troopers miniatures into one.  It saves me having to find the 'official' Warlord/Hearthguard minatures on e-bay, of which I do have a set to use but I don't really like them. I prefer to make use of the more charaterful models from the rest of the Squat ranges.

 The Iron Claw General figure as a Warlord.

I have to admit whilst in the past I have never been impressed with the Bob Olley Squats, after painting a few of them in the last few days they paint up really nice. I always loved the Goblins, but I am starting to like the Squats a lot more now.I still prefer the Perry ones though.

I have taken to painting Warlords with gold helmets/armour/equipment.

 Standard bearer and Musician, sculpted by the Perry Twins.

In constrast with the Warlord and ordinary troopers, I am painting the Hearthguard with metallic/silver armour. 

They are all meant to be equiped with Carapace plate armour and so it helps to differentiate them from the flak equiped troopers of the Brotherhoods.

 Another Iron Claw Squat with a Melta Gun, and Perry one with a Flamer.

 First Completed Squat Brotherhood Squad. 

For those of you unfamilar with the Squat army list, the ordinary squads are 8-strong and can have several Heavy Bolters in addition to one other heavy weapon.

 Heavy Bolter trooper, and Squad leader. The green is a mix of black and Citadel Warpstone Glow, and then highlighted with Warpstone Glow. The brown is Vallejio English Uniform, the red Citadel Evil Sun Scarlet (the new version of  Blood Red).

 I might add more depth to the red on the targeter eye piece.

 Trooper with bolters. The one on the right is the re-painted test model from last week.

 Conversion beamer and Boltgun trooper. 

The trooper on the left is a conversion from a broken version of the one on the right with a metal Conversion Beamer.

  Plastic box set trooper slighty modified to carry the Heavy Bolter in his arms rather than have it on his shoulder.

 Part of the second squad, only two more to paint.

 Another plastic trooper, like the Heavy Bolter one above, modified to carry a heavy weapon, in this case a metal Heavy Plasma Gun.

 Another metal Trooper and Squad Leader.

Two more plastic Squats, the one on the right carrying a bolter from the RTB101 Space Marine box set. 

Not sure what the next update will be on.

 In theory I am meant to be painting a Wood Elf army, but I seem to be painting two armies at the same time, which won't do at all! 

I'll probably focus on the Wood Elves and update on them probably thursday. :)

Confederate Cadians, and a few more Squats.

Just a quick update on a couple of WIP projects.

The first is what to do with my Warhammer 40k Cadians. I had planned to convert them up into a carapaced veteran force to go with my Praetorians, giving them pith helmeted heads. However, I thought I would do something different.

After trying out a couple of different head swaps and test models over time, I found the Kromlech Confederate heads pack. So I decided to try out doing a Confederate inspired force from the American Civil War.

The Cadian army I have is small, about 65 miniatures, and so will be a force of veteran squads and a HQ choice, with borrowed tanks/sentinels/etc from the Praetorian army. Being blue/grey, the tanks will fit in with the Confederates. I would like to do some Confederate Sentinels and some Rough Riders eventually.

Why Confederates and not the Union?
Well the grey looks nice, and as the army is a small veteran army, there is plenty of scope for making them more individual and characterful. Sky blue trousers, and the occasional butternut colour will add to the colourful mix, and also there seems to be more scope for the 'ragged confederate' look of extra blanket rols, pouches, and equipment. Regular Union troops, beyond the Zouves etc, look duller to paint. I will add some of the bareheaded Cadian heads and metal heads along with the Kromlech ones.
As an army, I don't plan on finishing them or even starting them soon, the aim was to get a good idea of a plan, then pick it up when I have finished other projects.


The other WIP are the Squats.
I spent an hour or so sifting through bits boxes and found a variety of Squat arms, heavy weapons, and enough bits for four chaos exo-armoured Squats and another bike. Also, as Squats can be equipped with a lot of heavy weapons, I have converted up several of the plastic Squats to carry heavy bolters, whilst some those with the 'heavy weapon arm' carry spare metal weapons.

I only really need a few odds and ends to finish the army, then just have to paint them. I will probably go for the Classic Mjolnir Brotherhood scheme as the brown and green test model I did seemed a little dull.

Of course, both these armies really need to take a back seat as I am still in theory painting Wood Elves! I will get back to those at the weekend. 

Three head swapped Cadians.

I have gone for a mix of trouser colours to give that 'on campaign' look. I painted the armour metallic as grey made them look too bulkyand the heads look too small (which they are'nt), and to give a lower tech feel to them. Might 'muddy-up' the boots too.

Front and back.

 The backpack is from a batch I purchased Gripping Beasts WW1 range.

One of the two packs of Kromlech heads I bought from e-bay.

You get two sprues of the one above. 

They are made from a resin, not too brittle or soft. The sculpting and detail is excellent and there were no bubbles or miscasts.

My only problem is the head on the left has a monocle, which is I feel characterful if you have one or two in an army, but silly if more.  I plan on either drilling it out, or green stuffing one in the other eye to make spectacles, or building it up more to make a targeter eye piece.

Squats. 
Heavy Plasma gun and Conversion Beamer conversions onto plastic Squats.

The Conversion Beamer conversion has the 'heavy weapon arm' I mentioned earlier.

It might look unwieldy but back in Rogue Trader many forces, including Squats, had heavy weapon  suspensors, tiny anti-grav devices, to take the weight of the weapons. 

Guild master and Heavy Bolter trooper. 

I have used plastic arms from the Rogue Trader era Eldar Guardians to give a bionic look to them. They are about the same Squat arms. The Plasma pistol is an old one from the same era.

Exo-armoured Squats. 

I found few bits of both Chaos and Loyal parts and think that they might be ok to stand-in as loyal Squats. The left arm on the one on the left is a loyal Squat arm. The arms on the other two were broken chaos arms I have repaired them with bits from the time, and will remove the star of Chaos from their shoulder pads. The power fist on the centre one is an old Ork one from the 1990 plastic box set. He was missing part of his tencled horns and so I cut them off anyway to give a cleaner, less Chaos look!

They will look better when painted. :)

The next blog update should be some more Wood Elves. I have also been asked to explain how I have done thier bases so will add that too.

Squats, and a few Wood Elves.

I got a little distracted this week.

At the beginning of the week I had painted up a few more of the Wood Elves; the 10 remaining archers that were needed to complete another regiment, and the Warhounds and handlers. I have also written the final 3,000 point army list up for them.

After a break in painting mid week, I remembered that I had joined the Oldhammer Forum back in May but had'nt really posted (here's the link:  http://forum.oldhammer.org.uk/ ).

I ended up posting and commenting a couple of times on there. I got chatting and one of the topics was on the Squats, and I remembered that I still had my Squat army to do.
The army is in need of repainting, not only to a better standard, but to tie in all the different miniatures that I bought second hand in dribs an drabs in the very late 1990's when I was going to re-field the army. This was because there was an article in a Citadel Journal about that time that suggested that they could work as stand-in's for Orks or Guard.
As it is, I have re-oregnised them back into the army list first published in White Dwarf 111.

So here are a few pictures and details on the army, which is very much a long delayed WIP.

White Dwarf 111, where the army was first published. 

[legal bit, the cover belongs to GW]

The army on the painting table. 

There are about 14 squads of 8 Squats, 17 Command/Heathguard, 8 Bikes, 5 Trikes, 2 Mole Mortars, and a Thudd Gun.

I have a few more Squats and a couple of Guild Masters in the bits box, as well as several Tarantulas, Rapiers, and a couple of Robots that can be added if needed from my Rogue Trader Imperial Guard and Space Marine armies.

I would only need a few Squats to complete the army.

 Closer up. 

The army is organised into Brotherhoods consisting of Warlord and 4 Hearthguards, and between 2 to 4 squads of 8 Squats, as well as any optional extras such as bikers, etc. 

It works out to three full Brotherhoods, and half of a fourth one. 

I replaced the plastic lasguns with Bolters from the RTB101 Space Marine box set as I had a lot of them spare. For 3.5  points per squad it's a good idea, giving the squads that extra punch. In the army list you can also upgrade any/all the troopers to carry a heavy bolter, as well as allowing one trooper to have a different heavy weapon instead!

 Bikes and Trikes. 

I was never too fussed about using bikes in the army, always seemed odd to me to have a slow moving army with really fast support troops.

However the Trikes armed with Multi Meltas are excellent delivering mobile fire support and anti vehicle firepower. A bit like short, fat, and hairy Tau Battlesuits on wheels really LOL. 

Paint schemes.

The Squat on the left is one from the army I painted about 1990. Centre was one of a few I painted in 2005 in Mjolna Brotherhood colours, the same as the White Dwarf cover. The one on the right I painted quickly this afternoon as a test model.

 Not sure whether to go for this scheme, or the Mjolna one?

 The test model from the front, painted with Vallejo English Uniform, with Violet Brown for the green for the pouches (the one on the arm is WWII German green).

 Command Squad Squats.

I only have one of the exo armoured ones.

 A few of the RT03 Space Dwarves.

 Bob Olley Squats.

Now I love his Iron Claw Goblins, but I am not a fan of Bob Olley's squats. They are nicely detailed, but to me they did'nt seem to fit in with the plastic Squats or the earlier Citadel metal ones. The guns were often unknown and you could only guess at what they could be used as. They will paint up better than they look, but personally I think that these miniatures helped to contribute to the cancelling of the Squats.

 That and the name 'Squat' did'nt really help!

Personally I think they are better for collecting to paint, rather than gaming with.

 More Bob Olley Squats, some of the better ones.

 Three more Squats.

 Wood Elves. 

The second regiment of 15 Lord's Bowmen

 Different, more Autumnally painted versions of Kaia Stormwitch (left), and Araflane (right). I am pleased with how Kaia's coat came out.

 Regimental leader and one-eyed trooper.

The leader is the Rakhir the Red miniature from Citadel's Eternal Champion range.

 Two hooded archers, one male, one female.

 Two more archers.

 8 Warhounds and two handlers.

 Close up showing more of the bases.

The two handlers.

Next update should be more of Wood elves, although I must admit I tempted to paint a few Squats. :)