WW2 US themed Guard (Yet another army by Roach)

[commissar_roach]

So it's been a long time since I last worked on anything hobby related due to a lot of factors and I've been getting antsy lately. So I went ahead and broke out the Cadia stands box and the last IG Xmas battleforce and started working on a new themed army. (With actual GW miniatures this time!)

So this time around I planned on doing an army whose theme was more carried by their color scheme and less with large amounts of proxy work. I settled on doing a force themed around WW2 US troops, since the basic cadian kit can be made to fit that theme with some easy steps.

first was to do some head swaps

 

I settled on using US GI and US Airborne heads from bolt action boxes I had in my stash. they fit with a bit of green stuff work to fill in the neck holes. I'm pleased with how well they scaled with the Cadian sculpts.

I knew I didn't want to spend another year working on this army so I went with a mix of contrast paints with some basic touch ups from regular paints. it really cut down the work time.

 

I really like how well they turned out considering I only spent 3 and a half days on these from starting to build them to finishing them to this point. The bases will be done later in a batch with other minis from this force.

 

 

The next big part of the project was the vehicles. now I didn't want to do a lot of 3d printing or working with 3rd party proxies for this force, so that left me with trying to make the GW kits feel more "WW2 US'y" and that was a bit harder. 

My first test model was the sentinel from the cadia stands box. I went with an armored sentinel and after brainstorming on it for a while I went with a cast hull look to try and keep it in theme.

The first passes of hull armor texture and adding of weld seams.

 

I added wires to the back of the smoke discharger and drilled out two of them to make it look as if it had been fired recently.

 

I also went and replaced the antenna with some stretched sprue (I mean, come on, that's required for one of my projects)

 

I also added texture to the armored leg panels and drilled out the holes for the heat shields on the back of the engines exhaust pipes.

 

with all that leg work done I went ahead and painted this up with my normal method for vehicles. basecoat, chipping, post-shading, decals, and pin washes.

(the other shots refuse to upload to Imgur, so they are attached to the post)

 

I was a little out of practice but I think it turned out well enough for this being the first vehicle in, like, almost 2 years? (darn does time fly)


And that is all I have so far! the weapons and small details on the sentinel will be the next things I do, along with all the bases. Then I'll be building and painting up a squad to see how well the paint scheme/method holds up with a full squads worth of minis.

I'd love to hear opinions on all this! it's the first time I've done some of this and really want to know what others think about it.

[Galron]

I like it. My only suggestion is an easy general one on the earth(and green) tone contrast paints. Use an extremely light dry brush of u:cuss:abi bone or Tyrants skull on all the non-metallic parts. It will tone down the brightness a bit and make them a little less contrast cartoony

[commissar_roach]

Well those haven't been varnished yet, so hopefully that and the bases will bring the shine down a bit

[MithrilForge]

looks great, My mate is doing a US themed Cadian army as well but he's simply going with colours and no conversion work (Unlike the great work you have done ) and very well done on that by the way 

I love the Sherman vibe on the walker, very nice indeed. 

here's my mates walker just for interest of sharing like minded fellows work 

 

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Cheers, M 

Edited March 15 by MithrilForge

[Hiroitchi]

Looks great man. Awesome stuff.

[commissar_roach]

I haven't had much time to work more of this but I was able to finish up the bases and extra weapons for the Sentinel.

I originally wanted a more 'wet' look to the ground, but I was short on time and skill, so went with more dry look I've used before for Bolt Action minis

 

 

Hopefully I'll be able to get more done soon, but I have a surgery coming up and it's unlikely I'll get the time so reinforcements might have to wait a bit for this force.

[MithrilForge]

Looks great 

 

also good luck with the surgery !! 
 

Cheers, M