New Imperial Guard painting

So I've decided that I'm tired of painting the same thing over and over again! Of those that know me, will of course know that I've done my fair share of painting armies. Most have been mine, and some have been the same army painted more than once. I'm by no means a pro at painting, but I've definitely done a lot of it.

This lead me to think about my guardsman and how I'd like to paint them. So many different themes and colors to choose from, let alone all the many different models to choose from. So I decided that I wanted to play an army that features a plethora of different models. The richness of units and styles that the guard have is difficult to rival, so why just go with one type of army?

The point I'm slowly working towards is that I'm shooting for an army that is a hodge podge of color, type, and style. I'll be collecting at least one of each unit and trying to paint each unit differently. Hopefully in the end it will work without feeling like a bunch of randomly selected models.

The Back Story of the army will be that two or three seperate armies came out of a particularly bad campaign, and as a result most were nearly decimated. The remaining forces were combined hastily to continue the action of their campaign, unit they could be resupplied with new recruits. But of course, with the long distance between worlds, many forces may never see proper re-supply. Most vehicles have had to be repaired too many times to count. The units are forced to work together, using their various talents together to create one viable force. In-fighting and competition is common place throughout the force, and while only a squad is represented at a time, I consider each unit to have a few trainees or reinforcments at rest to represent their ability to lose models in fights and still continue to function in a fighting force. I intend to have multiple HQ selections, units, vehicles, and stories to represent all the different forces that combine to create the army. Most will be heavily weathered, and hopefully their will be a lot of different types!

below is the beginning of my army, and what my seem like a random assortment of models!

Veteran Flamers

Veteran Flamers, showing off their fire breathers!

Ogryns test skin tone

Almost finished Ogryns.

Continuing with the theme as the rest of the army, I decided that I needed to have a large range of skin tones that would run through the entire army. The idea being that many units were from many different worlds. I converted the Ogryn unit from the Ogre Kingdoms box from warhammer fantasy. I didn't do much to change them, simply adding some backpacks and guns. I used grenade launchers to represent the ripper guns, I know they're really small but in the end I figured they rarely shoot with any efficiency, and they're really supposed to be more a a close combat squad anyhow. I think the guns work well enough.

I decided to test the different colors I had to see which would work best with the Ogryns, but found that having a bunch of different made the most sense. Especially since the uniform is only vaguely visible, and pretty indiscreet anyhow. Since the Ogryns would be a motley crew anyhow, I think the end result of every model having his own distinct skin tone would make for a great look. Luckily, I think I was right, and they've turned out really good!

 With such large areas of flesh exposed, I figured that adding tattoos to give the Ogryns a fiercer look. They're already pretty mean looking, but the tattoos really give them a finished look!

 The Penal legion models I picked up from Victoria miniatures. They have regular troop legs and arms mixed from cadian and catachan models that I had laying around, and I decided to make them really pop by making them bright orange. I love the models and enjoy how fun they are to spot on the table. Everyone so far has been surprised at how good they look, I'll take that as a compliment!

So I've decided to make the switch to blogger to talk about our 40k gaming, campaigning, modeling, painting, list building etc. I love the amount of blogs around and enjoy all the different opinions! So this will hopefully be my little corner of the interweb!

My name is Tim and I've been playing 40k for a lot of years now. I'm old enough to accept a loss from someone nearly half my age, but not quite old enough to remember the rogue trader days with fondness. I love the direction our game is taking us and hope that many more people pick up the game so we have more players and armies grace our tables!

Our gaming group lives in Colorado Springs, and is part of a surprisingly large community of gamers. This may be due to the proximity to several military bases or just a testament to how good the game can be. Our tables are blessed with nearly all of the armies of warhammer 40k and a few varying styles.