Bonehead's heavily customised Rogue Trader Imperial Guard: the Ebla regiments

[Bonehead]

Got some good photos today, but this one was too good not to share right away.

Eblans stand by to breach an armoured door:

[Bonehead]

More models seeing paint, and a few more action shots

 

An unusually busy week means I've not got nearly as far on these four grenadiers as I would have liked, but there's a start to the paint jobs, anyway. Since I refined the process, it's actually reasonably quick on four models at a time, but it's still not very likely they'll be done this week. This is where they're up to:

Stage one is a black undercoat, and a zenithal highlight with 'the Fang' or Shadow Grey as we once knew it. Stage 2 is the base colour going on the uniforms. In this case, it's a mix of white and more Shadow Grey. I'll touch on why there's two different uniform styles in the next bit of lore, which is percolating. The white gets a wash of, you guessed it, Shadow Grey mixed with medium, and the grey gets a black wash.

Stage three is painting in the camo and green weapons and pouches and highlighting it. Stage four is touching up the black, highlighting with... you know the drill, it starts with S and ends in Y, and then washing with black, including the green. Stage five is a final highlight on the green and on the black. Stage six is metallics, and small touches like shotgun shells in bandoliers or radio backpacks. Stage seven is skin. Stage eight is covering up all the mistakes.

Here's another angle I'm including just because I like it.

 

Onto some action shots.

The Ketrine Incident:

During the mid-period of the Augustine Crusade, Eblan guardsmen of the 45th mechanised, stationed on Ketrine III to rest and refit, are the only available troops to counter an unexpected uprising at the tertiary starport.

Grenadiers lead the assault against heretics of the so-called 'Immortals' cult. The Immortals do not do justuce to their claimed title.

Grenadiers of 4th company cut through cultists to re-take the control tower.

Line troopers of 6th Company clear the fuel reserves in close-quarter fighting. The traitors' poor leadership and lack of organisation quickly tells.

The last few rebellious heretics, clinging to isolated positions, observe the advance of their enemies.

Hope you like the photos, everyone! Cheers

[Thoridon]

A fantastic army :) There's a lot of character in those old models and all the conversion work is fantastic. Really putting your own mark on them!

[Bonehead]

Thanks mate! Much appreciated. It's my 'trying hard' project. I'm not skipping any bits to get it done quickly, so of course it's growing slowly, but I'm proud of every model.

[Gnasher]

Yeah what Thoridon said, these are great, love the action shots!

[Bonehead]

Thanks Gnasher! Much appreciated.

[Bonehead]

Bam! More grenadiers finished.

Annoyingly the washes on the bases dried shiny so they're fighting heretics in the rain for the moment, but some matt varnish should solve that in due course. Whenever I can get my hands on some, that is.

I'm pretty happy with how they turned out. At this point, I've got one model to go and I'll have a full two sections and command section done for the grenadiers. Apart from most of the bases, anyway. Annoyingly the one model missing is a sergeant, and I need a plasma pistol to build one with. eBay time, I guess. Better get a few. I've got a plan for how I'm going to build the model at least.

I like how the backpacks have all come out too. Both machine gunners get a pack full of jumbo-sized magazines and the radio man got to keep his backpack, which is obviously a comm-link now. As a side-note, the section's medic -painted last year, I think- also has a backpack full of magazines for the gunners as well as his medic-bag. I like the idea that everyone who could would bring extra ammo to keep them firing. Everyone has enough extra gear to make them look properly kitted out too. Not sure why I went with olive drab for the radio pack and handset, but it works pretty well to distinguish the radio man from the others so I like it.

Finally, the now almost-complete platoon command section:

Just two bases to sort out and we're ready to roll. Grenadiers get street and sidewalk bases because they're going to be in the thick of the action- that's the plan anyway.

Thanks for looking everyone!

[InquisitorVonTansburg]

These are absolutely fantastic. These models are great and I love what you did with them. Keep it up! 

[Bonehead]

Thanks buddy, much appreciated. Right back at you on your guys too!

[Bonehead]

Ok, note one:

Methylated spirit is anabsolute champ when it comes to stripping paint. These models were in the 'utterly hopeless' pile.

Note two: do not get methylated spirits on french polish. Just don't.

I'm going to be working for hours to sort that out. Damn it.....

 

 

[Bonehead]

A little bit of progress: I've modelled the last grenadier I needed to make it a two-squad platoon. I've also finished up a heavy bolter gunner. Both use arms from Victoria Minis- they go nicely alongside the original RT arms and really increase the variety of poses you can get.

I'm pretty pleased with the sergeant's pose- he came out just as I planned. Always nice. The heavy gunner isn't too shabby either. A shouting head couples nicely with a large-calibre automatic weapon, I think. The used cases are from Zinge industries, I think. They add a little extra to the base.

Both of them are decently kitted out, too. The grenades came from the original owner of the heavy bolter- I try to keep as many useful bits of detail as I can, for the bits box.

I like to paint in batches of four to five so I'm going to model up another heavy gunner and a couple of loaders.

The sergeant's base is from a UK eBay shop called Custom-bases. I bought a set because they model damage better than me- but they've plainly used the same textured plasticard as me to make them so it's not worth me buying enough for all my troops.

Right, one more view and I'm done. Cheers all

[FashaTheDog]

The old Necromunda Spiders regiment models are always great to see.  It was also nice to see the old White Dwarf DIY fortification in the first picture.  I never thought to use textured paint on the ones I made; it looks good.

[Bonehead]

22 hours ago, FashaTheDog said:

The old Necromunda Spiders regiment models are always great to see.  It was also nice to see the old White Dwarf DIY fortification in the first picture.  I never thought to use textured paint on the ones I made; it looks good.

Thanks! I think it's more 'inspired by' the white dwarf ones than it is from the pattern exactly, but you can definitely see the family resemblance. I think my brother probably made it twenty-something years ago from a cereal box. I think the texture's just the rough cardboard, to be honest. I've not picked up any scenery since getting back intot he hobby so that's pretty mcuh the extent of my terrain collection right now...

[Bonehead]

A buddy is 3d-scanning some weapons for me so I don't have to convert every single tank's heavy stubber and every trooper's autogun. So I'm waiting until that's done before pushing on with any more tanks. Still should be fine doing the remaining heavy gunners and loaders though

Edited October 28, 2023 by Bonehead

[Bonehead]

Now then. Good news has come to town.

I got lucky, very lucky. A thoroughly nice man from scotland 3D-scanned some stuff for me.

Finally, I have a good supply of suitable guns without having to convert every one individually. See also; crouching troopers.

Happy days for me. I've found someone with a printer to do them for me too.

Should be some vehicles and weapon teams due in when the bits start arriving.

Check it:

[Bonehead]

The first lot of prints arrived the other day. I'm very happy with them.

The thing to do was build some models with them and therefore here we are; with a couple of heavy weapon gunners built. Not too shabby at all, I reckon:

The crouching model the prints are scans of was originally holding a sniper rifle so happily for me the pose will accept arms aiming a gun pretty nicely. This is very much not always the case with RT IG models. One loader was easy as anything to manage thanks to that; just put a gun (also a time-saving print, hooray) in his hands and give him an ammo box.

I wanted to do something a little different for the second one, and I'd managed to trade for an ammo box with the flap open, so I got some of the trusty flexible ammo belts form Zinge Industries and had at it. The arms had to be bent pretty carefully to get the pose to work, and the hands took a while to find the right sculpts- these are from Anvil. I finished him off with a shotgun on a strap and some shell bandoliers at his shoulders- that's a detail I love as it gives you a nice bit of colour besides the interesting detail. Overall I've got to say I'm very happy with the result.

Here's a rear angle. You can see that the first loader has a big magazine pouch from the marine scout sprue to try and link him with the gunner, who has a metal one from the metal scout model. Not a perfect match, but close enough.

Managed to finagle the poses well enough that neither loader needs green stuff so with them already on their themed bases they're ready for paint. That should finally get me some measurable progress in Greenscorpion's paint-build challenge.

Cheers folks

[Bonehead]

Well, I had a go at Greenscorpion's build-paint challenge.

Managed not to complete a single one of my pledges, but at least one of them isn't my fault. The Victoria Minis rough riders turned up late. Damn good models though, even if a lot of the lances are all bent.

I did build a few more models for the Ebla regiment -and one more I can't take a picture of because I don't remember where I left my camera- and here they are. Just a few short of the total I pledged for the challenge, but more importantly, poses I'm very happy with:

That's a complete support squad built at last. I also did two more heavy bolter loaders to bring me up to a total of five- one for every gunner. Here's a less-good picture of just the latest models:

Those 3d prints are just great. Extremely happy with how they've made things easier.

You can see that the two newest loaders are on entirely rubble-covered bases, as opposed to the street-and-sidewalk ones the support squad are on. This is the kind of base that most of the army are going to be on, at such a time as I get round to it, that is. I've really got to wait for some warmer weather so I can spray varnish all the models that need bases so that I can handle them without rubbing all the paint off, and basing them and painting the bases will involve a lot of handling. I reckon I want to add some used shell cases to the new standing gunner's base too, while I think of it.

For a change, here's a picture of the models I did manage to complete for the challenge:

A decent start on a third platoon of the Yantar 8th. They'll be getting a heavy bolter team in each squad, once I can get hold of some more heads that is. These are a lot quicker to build and paint than the Rogue Trader guys, not only because the arms fit much better than the RT ones do on the metal bodies but also because I have quite deliberately lowered my standards for them- I don't fill gaps with green stuff, and I try about half as hard when it comes to painting them. Needless to say, I've got more than a hundred finished by this point. I'm honestly pretty proud of them. I think the truth is that I'm very probably never going to try as hard again as I have on the Ebla guard, given that you can get a great result by really only paying attention to the lenses on a model. Unless I do an Eldar army. One day, I'd like to do a proper original metal Eldar army.

I've also been building traitor guardsmen, and the recent lot of them have come out really nicely so what the hell, have a look at them and all:

I really like the look of this gasmask with old plastic cadian helmets. There's a sinsiter and also slightly mournful look about the combination that really appeals to me. It's got really good bad-guy energy, especially in combination with the more brutal body armour from VM.

Anyway, if you wanted to know why this log is going slowly, now you know; I'm dumb enough to be simultaneously building three high model-count armies, all of which require me to convert nearly every model. While running my own business. And playing in a band. And having an actual job.

Edited January 13 by Bonehead

[The Pounder]

No wonder your progress is slowed! You’ve got loads going on!

 

Quick question, how good are Victoria Miniatures? I’m tempted by a Praetorian Guard at some point.

[Bonehead]

The quality varies. They're very good about replacing really bad casts, but the odds are you'll probably need to trim some pretty nasty mould-slip lines and you'll definitely need a lot of patience to assemble them. They're not nearly so easy to put together as modern GW plastics, they're much more like the old GW stuff with metal bodies and plastic arms; each model is more of a modelling project and you might need to trim or file arms and so on. Having said that, the almost infinite range of possible poses, and the total mixability of parts ranges does it for me. I've got more than 100 models done in the green Yantar army and there are no duplicates. Plus you can, as I have done, add in lots of bits from other ranges. It's a golden age for model parts right now, especially if you're an old hand converting.

[The Pounder]

Thanks for the heads up @Bonehead! I think I’ll pass on them in that case.

 

Patience is not one of my virtues! 

[Bonehead]

Small bit of progress. Got some undercoat on my finished heavy bolter squad and a couple of stragglers form other units:

With the undercoat homogenising the various materials from different sources they look properly like they're all part of a set now. Very pleasing. Just to the right of the undercoated models you can see my first missile launcher loader. I did try getting hold of some Elysian missile containers but could only get two- and I failed miserably at making up matching ones from plastic rod.

So I've gone with a pragmatic option instead: hacking up a 2nd ed catachan missile loader and stealing his missile pouches. This is probably the most widely bought and indeed moulded heavy weapon loader fo the entire 2nd ed IG range- first one to come out, and part of the most popular set. Which is why I chose to use him; he's easy and cheap to get hold of and me hacking up a few won't make a dent in the total out there.

I do need to make a strap for the new owner, as well as give him some more gear in general. But by the time I've finished off painting the last five members of the HB squad, there should be two missile launcher loaders ready to make up another five-man set to paint.

 

[Bonehead]

Didn't get as much painting done this week as I'd have liked, but I got a respectable amount of stuff done on the remains of this heavy bolter squad. Can't complain; got distracted by picking up a very tasty Epiphone Masterbilt archtop. I been looking for a nice archtop for years and this one ticked every single box, including being 100 quid cheaper than the average despite being basically mint.

So, no apologies. Been banging out crap blues.

Anyway; here's how they look with a flash:

I actually got them up to the stage of only needing final highlights, metallics, skin and detailing. Pretty good for only about four hours (for me). The standing dude holding an ammo crate is growing on me every time I see him, and I lked him well enough the minute he was built.

Different lighting, worse detail but maybe truer colours.

And a different side:

It's kind of peculiar to think it but now I'm looking at them I've realised these are going to be the first unit that gets actually, properly finished- been that lazy about basing everyone else. Think I forgot to add some used shell casings on the gunners' bases but that's a very easily fixed problem.

Anyway, I'm confident they're going to look great when done. Then I guess they'll need a chimera to ride in. And I did finally get enough stubbers to start working on those, didn't I?

Damn. Another job.

 

[Bonehead]

Right, finished the fire support section. Won't waste time lying, I'm very pleased with these. They came out just great. Which is more than I can say for the photos, but whatever.

OK, from the front:

Bit too bright on the right, but the left is pretty colour-accurate. I really like the way they look as a unit. A good mix of poses but still coherent. And of course there's always time for a 'firing a heavy machine gun while yelling' pose. It's just a classic.

From the side:

Focus and colour are a little out, but you can see all the extra detailng I like to add to give the army a veteran vibe. These are hardened and experienced troopers and they know there's no such thing as too much personal firepower. Therefore there's ammo boxes and pouches in abundance.

From the rear:

More gear. You know the drill.

And a view from up high, showing off the bases:

The unit are positioned on a road for the best field of fire; with the standing team occupying the sidewalk. If I was a better modeller or maybe just more pedantic I'd have modelled the bases with the paving all in the same direction. Well, next time. You can just see the empty cartridge cases on one of the bases as well as the generally crappy state of the roads. The city council can be forgiven. It's tough to send out the road sweeper when your depot's been bombed.

When I get round to mortar teams I'll put them on rubble bases, not road ones; it doesn't make sense for mortars to set up in the open. Same with missile launchers; when you're shooting at tanks you need cover.

Anyway, as technically the first all-the-way finished unit In the army, I reckon they're a pretty serious success.

Let me know if you agree.

[Gnasher]

Top drawer as always! They look great well done that man.

[Bonehead]

Thanks mate! Much appreciated!