Commissar's Personal Challenge/German themed Guard

[commissar_roach]

Another tank down, that's two finished now. I only have 2 more to go for this force and a flyer and it's done. I'm hoping that I can power through the last two tanks before my self-imposed deadline of July rolls around. I'm not sure if I'll be able to finish the flyer before then as I am having a devil of a time getting it to print well (supports can be tricky sometimes).

 

As you can see I remembered to put some stowage onto the tank this time around, I think it helps make it look a bit more lived in.

 

This one took a bit longer then I had planned as I ran out of my preferred Matt Varnish and had to order a new bottle. While I was waiting I was planning out a few items I would need for my Tank Ace. I found a few reference photos in some scale modeling books of WW2 and Syrian Civil War urban combat with tanks and saw a few that looks as it the crews were not able to discard their spent shells normally. In the photos it looked as if their crews just chucked the spent shells out of a hatch as quickly as they could, this led to a few shells landing on the back engine deck.

 

I really liked the idea, as if a Leman Russ was stuck in combat for so long they just ran out of room for the spent shells and had to get rid of them to make room in their ready racks for new main gun rounds. So with this in mind I went ahead and started to look for a kit or STL for 40k tank rounds I could use. As it turned out there doesn't seem to be any that I could find in my searching.

 

So I learned Blender to make my own and 3d print them.

The Smaller shells are for the standard battlecannon while the longer ones are for a vanquisher cannon (the gun my Tank Aces is armed with)

 

I was even able to make the shells with a primer that has a mark from the guns firing pin striking it. there is some writing on it as well but it's far to small to read normally, it says "M41 Pattern. Ordnance. AP. The Emperor Protects."

 

I'm thinking about making some unfired versions of these as well. Maybe use them to make some objectives, like an ammo dump or something like that, they only cost about 4 cents a shell. 

[WarriorFish]

Stowage and other extras always go far on vehicles, Guard ones especially :tu:

[Bjorn Firewalker]

Good job on the M40 Tiger.

[commissar_roach]

Looks like we are finally back!

It's funny that the site would go offline right when I think I've been the most productive in relation to this project, That or maybe I was more productive due to the site being down. Either way I have a lot of progress to report for this army as we get closer to the 1 year mark of working on it.

1st thing to report is that I blitz (pun somewhat intended) through the last two tanks for this force. I didn't get any close up shots of the finished plasma armed tiger-russ, but the Tank Commander has a few beauty shots. With both of these done that means all of the armor for the list I'm building is finished, 3 transports and 4 tanks, while I'm sure I could go ahead and add more I want to finish all the bits in the original plan before even thinking about adding to it.

 

The commander of 2nd company's tanks (name to be determined), I got her from Victoria miniatures and I really like the sculpt.

The 2nd company command tank, I really like how the spent shells and tarps turned out on this. given the fact that the shells are only the second thing I've designed to be 3d printed. I somewhat modeled this one off of tiger 212 from the Girls und Panzer anime (yes, I am in fact a massive nerd)

 

And now a few shots of the whole family!

 

With all of the armor finished up I found out that I was missing a few infantry for my command squad that I had yet to actually build, as well as needed to finish up the astropath and 2nd commissar. I was able to finish them all fairly quickly.

Plasma gunner and master voxcaster (using some old 2007 era bits from when I first got into the hobby). I really like how the stretched sprue looks as the antennas of the Vox.

 

The medic, with some blood effects that I've never used before and a nice faded whitewash armor effect.

 

The last commissar for the army, an old 3rd edition commissar. It's funny that since the scale creep started right after this guy was made he now looks very short compared to other commissars. Getting a real Napoleon complex feel from him.

 

And last, but not least, The astropath. This model is from Victoria miniatures from that same order I got the tank commander in. I really like the look of the sculpt and found it a pleasure to paint.

 

And with that this thread is now 100% caught-up with the progress I've made over the last half month. Really the last thing I now have to do from the original plan is to paint up the Avenger Strike Fighter. The only issue with that is it's still printing out as I type this post, so I very much doubt I will meet my goal of finishing this army within 1 year since the 1st of July will mark 1 full year since I started this project.

I think I'm going to get some army shots here in a few weeks once that fighter is done. The whole army on a table is a sight to see.

[The Pounder]

You really have been busy!

I think your Commissar it outstanding.

 

[WarriorFish]

Nothing like group shots to pull an army together, they really pop with the theme

[Slave to Darkness]

Damn those tanks are looking nice, you done a good job. 

 

One thing that does bug me about Girls und Panzer, do the tanks have any other crew other than the characters we see through the series? I know its not really relevant but you are literally the only other person I have come across who has seen it. 

[duz_]

Maybe it's a good thing the site was down great progress! Looking good 

 

Ps I believe @Hirois also a fan but a discussion that's better had via pm 

[Slave to Darkness]

8 hours ago, duz_ said:

 

 

Ps I believe @Hirois also a fan but a discussion that's better had via pm 

Aye thats true, tbh all I wanted to know if there is actual crew in there. Been bugging me for ages lol. 

 

++EDIT++

Now that I am more awake I have had another look at the Russ tanks, damn they look great. Nice and chunky like a tank should be, now Im gonna shame my tanks and make them feel bad for not looking good enough. 

Edited June 29, 2022 by Slave to Darkness

[commissar_roach]

so I've been in a bit of a slump over the last few weeks, just got some work done on the Avenger yesterday. I haven't had much chance to finish it, and most likely wont for a few days. Either way I thought it'd be nice to share some progress picks

 

pre-chipping

 

 

After the chipping pass (first time in almost a year that I've done hand chipping without fluid)

 

I still need to do some post shading, panel lining, and enamel washes. after all those steps are done I'll do all the metallic and the canopy windows (not looking forward to that).

 

Hopefully I can fit in more hobby time soon, because I really want to finish this army up soon as i have about 3000 points of space marines that I need to start working on before the pile gets any bigger.

[dees]

Good work! The earthy greens and browns against the mechanically ridged yellows are very thematic. 

[Slave to Darkness]

Ooh nice flyer. Gonna look great when finished. 

[commissar_roach]

Well everyone, it's been a long road but I have finally reached the end of it.

 

In 1 year and 2 months I have now finished all of the models that were apart of my original army plan. This last model took a lot longer then I had hoped but I love the way it turned out for the most part.

 

Behold, The Avenger Strike Fighter.

While the 3d print had some warpage and needed a lot of gaps filled, and some of the waterslide decals I used were so old they barely worked anymore, I think it turned out great. I also wanted to do a little bit more with the base for it, so quickly put together a bit of a trench scene.

 

1 year 2 months

79 individual infantry models

7 vehicles (3 APC's, 4 tanks)

3 weapon teams

and 1 Flyer

 

I have to say I'm a little sad to see it finished, but it's nice to now be able to work on different things. I have a whole tau army to paint still, about 100 Napoleonic French to finish, and a giant pile of Space marine plastic from the indomitus box, 2021 Xmas battleforce box, the Imperium Magazine subscription, and randomly bought boxes. 

 

That's not to say I'll not be expanding this force in the future, I have some cyclops demo tanks I need to paint up for it, and I'm planning on using the new cannon fodder boxes from wargames Atlantic to build a section of conscripts for this army at some point.

 

Once I can finish some terrain bits and clear some space off my tables I post some groups shots here of the fully finished force together.

[Slave to Darkness]

Congrats on getting everything finished, that flyer looks damn fine and love the base.

[The Pounder]

That’s a lot of progress in a year! Sad to hear it’s ending there.

 

Good luck with the other projects!

[commissar_roach]

8 hours ago, Jud Cottrell said:

That’s a lot of progress in a year! Sad to hear it’s ending there.

 

Good luck with the other projects!

not totally ending, I still plan on adding to the army from time to time, I just wont be working on it as my primary project.

 

I've got a lot of plans for a big conscript horde, some artillery, and Cyclops Demo Tanks in the future.

[duz_]

Looks great the basing is really good too 

Definitely worth the wait