Dangerman's Tallarn/Desert Imperial Guard project

[duz_]

Looks great really dig the basilisk conversion :tu:

[Cap'm Heckus]

That Basilisk is stunning.  Bravo, sir.

[Bjorn Firewalker]

Leman Russ No. 411's battle damage is well-applied. Basilisk No. 212 is well done; the stabilizers are an excellent addition.

[Dangerman]

Just a quick update to where I am at with this project. I have been busily painting the remaining infantry to fill out the troop selections. To keep track of this project I have maintained a spreadsheet so I know what's been ordered, undercoated, painted etc. At the moment I am currently painting the last three Autocannons for the infantry platoon and over the weekend I bought the last box for this project, which was a heavy weapons squad. It was an odd feeling getting the last piece of this project, happy yet realising the end is near.

Because I have been busy painting 30 infantry models I needed to find a way I wouldn't get demoralised in the plethora of models I had to paint. I used my spray booth to batch paint the Karak Stone base layer, and the Tallarn Sand on the lasgun/armour/helmet layers. I kept the parts on the sprues to make it easier to hold and separated out the key parts; guns, torsos, helmets etc. This saved me hours on the painting side and any overspray are easily mended when I add the other paint details on the model. The best mask I found was regular blu-tac. I could mask the fabric parts on the torso to prevent the Tallarn Sand from getting to them. This is the first project I've used an airbrush on, and I have to say, if you can invest in one, do it. It's made life a whole lot easier on the painting front. The best part? Games Workshop sell air-brush ready paints! Win-Win!

These are the troops so far. If you've got eagle eyes you may note some of the little details I've added to these models. At the back are two full infantry squads (RHS), and three missing their Autocannoneers (2x back left, 1x front left).

[Dangerman]

All the troops are now finished! This is the last heavy weapons squad for this project and to keep my options open I decided to magnetise the entire heavy weapons squad. With this I can keep them as the Lascannon squad in the list, or swap them out into any of the options in the kit.

The following picture is a breakdown of the squad into their individual magnetised parts (minus the mortar tubes I've misplaced). The feet are magnetised to the base as the position of the heavy weapon gunner does change based on what weapon is in the gun mount. I did have to realign the feed for the heavy bolter as the front feed position was past the gun mount shield. Carefully slicing the ammo feed off the front and gluing it at the rear worked a treat. Plus it makes more sense the ammo feed being towards the rear of the weapon. The gunners trigger is attached to the heavy weapon via a pin that slots into the rear of the heavy weapon.

As a bonus I added a flame effect to one of the flamer troop models for dramatic effect. The flame effect is done by molding greenstuff (the solid blue/yellow strips) onto a paperclip in a sausage/elliptical shape. Then once it gets tacky, use a pair of needle nose tweezers to tease out the flame edges. Keep doing this until you get the effect you are looking for. This is an old technique a Warhammer staff member showed me years ago. It works really well and the fire colours can be readily dry brushed on after the yellow undercoat is applied.

The very last model for this project is the command chimera and that is going to be a conversion kit involving a custom interior with lighting! All I am waiting on are some bits from the UK, which will take some time to get here. In the meantime I'm going to finish off some Black Templars that are in need of some paint.

[WarriorFish]

Great work, good to see you're still being productive. The HWTs really work well and the flame addition is a nice touch, I wouldn't have thought it was GS! Looking forward to seeing the Chimera next :tu:

[Tallarn Commander]

Looking really nice! I might have to try that flamer trick with my Tallarns.

[Bjorn Firewalker]

Good job on the heavy weapons teams. The flamer's flame is beautifully sculpted and painted.