Stallenberg 502nd... with added Norfolkian 8th. 'Pip pip old chap!'

[Slave to Darkness]

As I wont be around as much due to internet or lack of from next week onwards, I have decided to vow ahead for the 12 months of hobby challenge, and play catch up for the months I have missed, because Im stupid like that. :D

 

For the Guard I have vowed roughly 35 Guardsmen, a mix of Whiteshields, Vets, Heavy Weapons and some Characters, and as every great guard army needs an enemy (and because I have so many Emperor damned Cultists kicking about and assorted Cadian doodads) I have decided to get some use out of them and make some Khornate Guardsmen. Im just trying out a few ideas so I wont be doing whole squads straight away, Ill do 20 to start off with and like the Guardsmen vow above these will be an assortment of characters and a few guys from other random unit types just to get a few ideas out of my head and into mini form. 

[Slave to Darkness]

Just started some fancy bases for my artillery, the 3D printed ones I got off ebay are about the same scale as the 1st ed Thudd Guns, and I cant have the boys from Judd's regiment having bigger toys, the Sisters of Battle will just laugh at my guys tiny ordnance (cries in shame), at least if I do some nice bases it will take some of the attention away from the size. In other news I bought a ton of paints the other day (nearly 100 quid paying gw retail, I know the shame of it...) so I can crack on and finish something for once. Yay!

 

Just waiting for my local non gw supplier to get the Wargames Atlantic WW1 frenchies in stock so I can make a start on the basic infantry, whats the max squads for a platoon these days, I dont have the codex here so cant check the fluff, was it a Lieutennant, Command squad and 5 units of infantry?

[The Pounder]

Haha!! Apparently it’s not the size that matters, it’s what you do with it!

 

Looking forward to seeing your reinforcements!

[Slave to Darkness]

Some of the bits Im working on for the 12 months of hobby challenge, and I just ordered a sprue of the WW1 French off ebay to try a few ideas before I commit to buying many boxes...

[Slave to Darkness]

Frenchies have turned up, the German gasmask heads look a bit on the large side but I dont know how big a WW1 German helmet and gasmask looks on a human so what do I know. *Shrugs*

[Slave to Darkness]

Been practicing Flecktarn, Erbsenmuster (Pea dot) and Splinter camo all morning, someone, please, kill me now...

 

Just grab a power shovel and aim for the neck...    

[Warhead01]

Been practicing Flecktarn, Erbsenmuster (Pea dot) and Splinter camo all morning, someone, please, kill me now...

 

Just grab a power shovel and aim for the neck...    

Looking forward to seeing it! 

[Slave to Darkness]

Im close to eating the damn minis now, I think a simpler scheme will do, Ill save the technical camo for my actual Bolt Action minis.

 

Got the WW1 Frenchies built and primed, deffo picking up a couple of boxes when I get paid. :wub:

So my current WGA shopping lis is 2 boxes of Frnch, 1 of Germans and a box each of the Grognards and Grognard heavy weapons, may even get another box of Einherjar because they are awesomme. :D

[Slave to Darkness]

Found my new painting music for the Guard... 

 

 

Ooooohhhhhh I wanna headbutt a tank with a landmine strapped to my head now. :D

[Slave to Darkness]

Just ordered a box of the each of the WW1 French and Germans and finally pulled the trigger on a MK V 'Hermaphrodite' (the tank, not a Heresy era Emperors Children) and found one cheaper seconds after ordering for a not Malcador conversion. Annoyingly the money I could have saved would have got me another sprue of French, ahh well, that on me for not checking.

 

I have also ordered some spare Heavy Bolters and Auto cannons to mix with the Grognard Heavy Weapons kit so that will give me one Heavy Bolter squad, one Autocannon squad and two Mortar squads in total when finished. Lascannons I am not sure about, I have never liked the actual shape of the barrels since 1st ed, and big fancy lasers dont fit the low tech vibe I have head cannoned for the Stallenberg boys (more about fluff another day). I may just use Pak 40s instead, to me a giant pew pew laser and a anti tank gun are basically the same thing, now I just need to find cheap Paks without buying a load of Bolt Action ones so if any of you guys have any Ideas please let me know. 

 

Oh and nearly finished the Camo squad of Vets so as soon as they are done Ill get some pikkys up of what I have done for the 12 months of Hobby stuff recently. Also with the sprue of French I got last week and a few left over bits I have scraped together another Lieutennant and flagboi (cant have a platoon without a Commander and Banner to march behind after all, were not commoners like the Cadians) and 5 Guardsmen, so thats the start of a second platoon (Green platoon) the officer chap in the kinky knee high combat boots (better watch for Slaaneshi influence I think) I have turned into some pointy dude for my artillery crew, Ill pop pikkys of those up as well. 

 

In non GW news, got back with the ex, thought Id mention it as you guys were here when I broke up with her last year and kept me sane, so there has been much celebrating in the trenches (Ive not been a miserable git at least), so hopefully next year wont be as as this one was.

 

Now off to nip into town to pick up a WW1 boxset, Im gonna make her watch it with me as payback for her breaking up with me last Halloween lol. Shes not getting off with it that easy. 

Edited December 10, 2021 by Slave to Darkness

[Shamansky]

With the amount of bits you need haven't you considered 'blue stuff' casting? Kind of easy way to get some bits (and only those ones) you need without filling up your 'bits-box'.

 

 

Don't want to repeat myself about your situation with GF. So you better know what you're doing. And good luck with that

 

[Slave to Darkness]

Cheers chief, and no I  have not thought about bluestuff casting, Ill look into that more. 

[The Pounder]

Good luck with the girl. They can be problematic!!

 

Looking forward to seeing more of your WW1 troops.

[Slave to Darkness]

I can see peoples concern, ex's are ex's for a reason, but most of our problems were because our own mental health issues clashed with each others and all we did was argue because we didnt think how our stuff affected the other one, we were just consumed in our own crap and ignored the others, (and I wasnt on medication for most of the past 12 months we were together).

The past year apart we have managed to deal with our issues and things are much better. We were like dark versions of Sheldon and Leonard, she was the cold one who didn exactly understand human emotions and came across as uncaring, I was a needy over emotional scrotum who couldnt deal with his emotions so lashed out and I was a total arse a lot of the time, if anything I was worse as she didnt know what mindset or mood I was gonna be in and me living in a hostel didnt help as everybody there managed to rub me up the wrong way so I could flipflop between 'all is one with the world' and 'time for a genocide' between leaving my room and leaving the building...

Now we have good vibes, who would have guessed talking instead of getting agitated and arguing would have worked... Now I just need my neighbour to stop sniffing around her but thats another story for another day.

Anyhoooooooooooo... Back to the toy soldiers and less about my personal crap, the Mk V turned up yesterday, I have the hull and tracks all sorted but still need to figure out how to do the turret on top, then what weapon configurations I want. At least the infantry is nearly finished, I have found my usb cable so I can upload some pictures later on now. I feel bad making wordy posts without any pictures to look at. WGA Germans are in transit, still waiting for the seller to dispatch the Frenchies though..

Heres the first of the German/French kitbashes, since I took this picture they have backpacks and a few shovels and grenades attached, the German heads dont look as large when the packs are on I think.

Group shot of the WW1 part of my Stallenberg army, not including the Mk V 'Malcador', 90 infantry and heavy weapons squads I am waiting on or ordering on tuesday (gonna get a box of Grognard heavy weapons and another box of Frenchies for more shovel waving sweaty meatsacks).

Im also thinking about flyers, the Valkeries/Vendettas etc look good but I dont think they will fit the WW1 aesthetic, so I am thinking Zepplins or Bi Planes of some type instead, if someone could point me in the right direction of said treasures Id be eternally grateful, I have no idea when it comes to model planes etc, never interested me as a kid.

Edited December 12, 2021 by Slave to Darkness

[Shamansky]

 

Im also thinking about flyers, the Valkeries/Vendettas etc look good but I dont think they will fit the WW1 aesthetic, so I am thinking Zepplins or Bi Planes of some type instead, if someone could point me in the right direction of said treasures Id be eternally grateful, I have no idea when it comes to model planes etc, never interested me as a kid. 

If you will manage to flatten and duplicate Valkyrie's wings, it is possible to make bi-plane. This, as i see it, will involve either lots of cutting, if you use plastic wings, or careful heating and flattening, if you take resin wings. I'd suggest to make a test construction from cardboard before cutting/deforming real stuff.

[Slave to Darkness]

Yeah I dont wanna ruin an expensive GW mini if I have no actual plan of what Im doing, I nearly messed uped Be'lakor doing that. I might try teching up actual biplane kits instead, tbh I have enjoyed converting the Bren Carrier and Mk V, makes a change from GW stuff and I have never built a plane in over 30 years of modeling so I think its time I had a go. :D

 

I have also figured out the turret problem for the Mk V, the kit comes with both male and female sponsons, so the spares will become the turret/bunker thingy and I have a spare LRBT battle cannon somewhere, that was nice and stress free for once. Might do the heavy bolter turret and demolisher variant next, may even do the flamer variant if I can source a flamer big enough.

 

As for the kit itself, rubber tracks that dont fit, plastics a bit warped in places and feels cheap, but it was the cheapest brand I could find as I didnt wanna chop up a 60+ quid revell kit, 25 quid was much more affordable, I say I deffo got what I paid for and Im happy with it.

[Slave to Darkness]

Gonna do a small vow for Decembers 12 months of hobby challenge, 2 five man squads, Standard bearer and Lieutenant, couple of artillery crew and the Malcador.

A few hours later the Malcador has gotten to this stage...

and a blurry scale shot next to a Leman Russ and some Kriegers.

and the previous Guard vow I made is done.

Mortars and Autocannons.

Artillery.

Vets.

Lieutenant and two command squad chaps.

Grenadiers.

Edited December 15, 2021 by Slave to Darkness

[The Pounder]

Looking good!

[Slave to Darkness]

I didnt know if I wanted to do the Malc and Bren carrier in the usual grey or the WW1 german camo with the green, brown an tan splotches. Took a risk and tried camo, glad I did as they dont just blend into a tide of grey minis. Oh and I have nearly finished painting it as well. : D Think Im getting my painting mojo back finally.

[Slave to Darkness]

Ran out of black ink so I cant dirty up the tracks so Ill call it done.

WW1 Germans have turned up today, time to crack on building conscripts...

[Shamansky]

To substitute ink you may just use mix of black and brown paints 'thinned' with the mix of water and clear alcohol (3 portions water to 1 portion of spirit)

Edited December 17, 2021 by Shamansky

[Slave to Darkness]

Ill be getting some more today, was just lazy yesterday and didnt wanna set foot outside.

 

Currently trynna kitbash a mole mortar and some engineers, they aint great but meh, if it looks kinda like what Im after and at a fraction of GW price then Im happy. Oh I built 5 conscripts as well but thats not exciting lol.

[Warhead01]

Your army is looking so cool! 

[Slave to Darkness]

Your army is looking so cool!

Thanks! Its finally coming together.

Next on the to do list...

More Conscripts.

Engineers? With shotguns and the start of a Mole Launcher..

Command Squad and some more vets in the background...

[Slave to Darkness]

Got the sprues through the post, the Germans will be built as Conscripts to bump the ones I built up to 20, and the French will finish off the squad I started and leave me a few bodies over for probably Grenadiers in greatcoats... More meat for the grinder and all that...