Just a quick one this time – a drop pod for my Steel Guard. I was going to experiment with my new airbrush but I got distracted and forgot and just painted it! If I ever do another one of these I will do the red and grey the other way round so that the aquilas show up better.
The final thing I’ve finished recently is another squad of obsolete marines for the Steel Guard. Apparently Assault Squads are completely pointless in 8th edition because there are flying primaris marines who are much better. I expect the same to be the case in 9th, but if oldhammer is about anything its about playing for the love of the game and not picking your team based upon a complex series of equations most guaruanteed to deliver victory. I hope to play more games of 9th edition than I did of 8th (i.e. five or more games), but I reserve the right to throw an assault squad onto the table if I feel like it.
The highlight in this squad is that Ive slipped in a christmas marine, as I felt that his wobbly stance would work as a landing pose. You will probably agree that is doesn’t particularly, but that’s life. Sergeant Plaid is a Space Crusade sergeant whose fat power glove should have been painted as a foam fist really. Next time!
Just a quick update before I get to some juicy stuff later… Brother Russkikh is a lovely old Rogue Trader Chaplain which has some fantastic details on it but a horrible helmet. I did the best I could with the face but it doesn’t look very skull-like. I have to say that it looks better in the metal, as it were. The picture here is not very flattering at all! Oh well, its hardly spoiling my chances of getting called up for an invitational 😀
Its been a long eight weeks or more since I moved house again. A very busy eight weeks in which I have hardly managed to do any painting at all. But fortunately the Steel Guard paint-scheme is very forgiving, so here’s a Razorback in the colours of the 7th Company. Really this was an excuse to paint the rider, Lieutenant Ryen, as he hops a ride. I don’t think that modern GW does miniatures like this one anymore – he’s never been a gaming model, always just a spot of character sitting on a rhino chassis somewhere. I love his expression, chewing on a cigar, never mind that his pauldron (is that the shoulder pads?) is missing. I’ve also tried to paint the gunner as a techmarine – once upon a time all drivers and gunners were techmarines I think – well, they are in the Steel Guard! Happy Eggmas to all my readers, think of us sad diabetics when you’re guzzling your chocolate eggs!
Another Steel Guard squad, plus another Captain for the Command Team. I’ve painted one of the Space Wolf Captain minis before, for the Captain of the 3rd Company. That time I experimented with non-metallic metals, attempting a gold armoured marine. It wasn’t especially a success, though I might try again sometime now I’ve had a few more years practice. I’ve been trying to clear my leadpile recently, having moved countries to glorious Cymru and having therefore to have to confront the sheer piles of stuff I own. I’ve sold off all the mid-period miniatures, leaving only the cool old stuff and some of the brand spanking new sweet miniatures the GW workshops are cranking out these days. Thus this squad is all classic minis from the days of Rogue Trader and 2nd Edition, and I think it looks before it, don’t you?
Next out of the leadpile is a rebuilt Rogue Trader dreadnought. I do like these models, whether long or short of leg they really feel like an archaic machine. The face on the sarcophagus is great, giving a sense of the inhuman and megalithic! It feels like quite a dramatic mini, considering how slab-like and immovable the sculpt is. That’s the sign of a good sculptor, I think. You can imagine this pulverising its way through a battleline, small arms fire bouncing off it and power-fists laying low anyone who came near! This particular one has been rebuilt. The left side (facing the dread) has had the circular shoulder piece replaced by green stuff as it was missing. One of the bolters was also missing and has been replaced with a standard bolter. Due to the lack of detail this is a challenging mini to paint, and I think I did OK considering how average my painting skills are.Â
Another Techmarine. I think I need to start painting some of the other specialists of the Steel Guard, they’re lacking Librarians and Chaplains. The Techmarines are fun to paint though.
I must say that I have real trouble getting enough light and no shadows in my photography. Learning to paint (ish) has been hard enough, learning to get good photos seems to be something else I need to do now.
Ancient Binahus is a great hero of the chapter whose mortal body was reduced to a thick meaty paste by Orks one afternoon. His brain, bits of nervous system, and a few rashers of crispy marine bacon were interred into a dreadnought so that he could fight on. But his dreadnought is also his chapter’s secret shame. Don’t tell anyone, but this Steel Guard paintjob hides an earlier Ultramarines job! Can it be that the Steel Guard have yoinked one of their allies’ dreads?
Binahus is a dedicated tank killer with a multi-melta and power claw.
I’ve had these knocking around for a while now waiting to be posted up here. I am still struggling with eyes, but I’m getting better I think. I liked the early scouts much more than the modern ones – these plastic ones aren’t exactly dynamically posed but their outfits are fantastic. I love the mix of military and flouncy, kind of like Prince!
Sgt. Fe and his squad prepare for an infiltration and elimination mission.
I love that the title of the captain of the Seventh Company is Chief Victualler. Â I wonder if he goes to the shops himself, or if he just writes the shopping list and sends some of his company to go? Â Maybe they get tesco to deliver. Â The Steel Guard are a fleet-based chapter with a Star Fortress and a number of Fortress Monastery-Garrisons so it might get a bit complex. Â Perhaps he just writes the menus and hangs around the kitchen harassing the kitchen-workers like the manager at restaurant I worked for. Â I’d hate to have to do the washing up after a big dinner for over a thousand hungry Space Marines.
So this chap is a Primaris Captain in gravis armour – which I think means that his armour makes him look pregnant! Â I am glad that Games Workshop haven’t completely lost their playfulness.
The snow effect looks a lot better in the photo than it does in person.
I hate painting cloaks. Haven’t quite got the power sword effect right yet either.