195 It's the Final Countdown...

Thanks for staying with me, faithful readers. Posts are slow because progress is slow, and hey - this is a progress blog!

This, then, is a run down of every work-in-progress which lies between me and the effective completion of my Imperial Guard (see my previous post for details). Most of these models have been mentioned in posts before, too.

These are in order of when I grabbed them - some are quite nice minis, but none are very well painted yet and ALL are works-in-progress! [NB: the strange furry background will be explained at the end.]

First up, my last remaining Leman Russ. It's had a converted annihilator turret for a couple of years, but I recently cobbled together the following vanquisher turret, just to see how it looked:
Next, my last remaining sentinel, Charity. Nothing really of interest here:

A commissar - an old ebay win who I've been sprucing up (his axe and hat were - bizarrely - blue):

Another commissar - this chap's all in black and his longcoat is going to be pretty shiny. If you haven't already worked it out, I'm really not taking all of these that seriously:

My artillery spotter. I'm loathe to call him a 'Master of Ordnance' as the model's so ropey, but it's a relatively old conversion now, going right back to the first of the plastic Cadian kits. Hey, I had to find something for the model to do, right?

Nork Deddog. Old-skool ogryn converted so that he's saluting with the 'wrong' hand - I really liked that idea, taken from the short story in the old Guard Codex:

My mortars. These are literally the last models of my infantry company, and in honesty I can scarcely be bothered to put brush to model. Rats. Still, there's not too far to go with them:

Finally, my FW Baneblade. More progress on this is the last seven weeks than in the previous seven years, but I'm still at a bit of an impasse. Still, I'm starting to enjoy the scheme:

And here's the reason for all that furriness. As soon as I threw the baby blanket down to use as a background, Cadfael the Wonder Corgi was onto it like a shot. For any of you who are relatively new to my readership, he also doubles as my Guard's regimental mascot:

Let's see now where progress will progress. I'm back at work from Monday, dagnammit.

Cheers!

- Drax.

194 Stay on Target...Stay on Target...

Hey, All!

As I said I would, I've been quiet of late for two reasons: (1) workload, and (2) trying to get lots of projects finished off before the group shot for post number 200.

Here are the LAST FIVE of my standard infantry guardsmen - something I never thought I'd say! Infantry-wise, all I have left now are my last three mortars, which are about 50% done, and although these five are nothing special, it's been a very slow slog to get them finished!

Here's a work-in-progress from earlier this evening, just so you can see how I'm working at the moment. Also, in this and the one above, you get a sneak at some other long-term works-in-progress that should be done in time for post 200:

And here's the painting chart - so close!

Cheers...and thanks for your patience. Watch this space.

- Drax.

193 Hardened Vets Gallery + NEW BANNER!

NB: If you've come to this post for examples of camouflage, check out numbers 5, 13, and 15a for alternatives.

Hi, All,

I got a lovely gift through my email today: a new banner from Suneokun over at Pathfinder! Suffice it to say that I think it's great, and I'll be putting it up directly - THANKS, MATEY!
What a nice chap he is, eh?

Now, a lot of folks seem to be working on hardened veterans at the moment, and it struck me that mine are in no way collated, so please find below a collection of all of my hardened vets, with a few notes and observations and some links to their main posts. This is in no particular order, and some of the best models are at the end of the list:
[NB: Not all pics are good quality and many don't do the models justice. Some models are frosted, too.]

1) G/Sgt Harker proxy and some cronies, incl. missile launcher, h/flamer, grenade launcher, demo charge (front-left) and melta gun:

2) G/Sgt Harker details:

3) Missile launcher details (I really love this model with his sawn-off launcher, but I need to update his 60mm base and give him a new loader):

4) Heavy flamer details (I enjoyed converting this, and it's a fun option to play!):

5) Demo charge details (note alt. camouflage on his rolled-up cloak):

6) Melta gun (from the FW Cadian command team):

7) My veteran sergeant. It's old now, but I really like this model - his cap was my first ever greenstuff sculpt!

8) Shotguns:

9) Vox:

10) Sniper and flamer (the pics aren't great, but I love this simple sniper conversion):

11) Another group shot - this time from part of my tournament entry last year:

12) This is my veterans' lascannon heavy weapons team:

13) This is a very clear study of the veterans' paint and camo scheme - in this case a grenade launcher with an 'uban' camo cloak. Note all my vets have their own simple heraldry on the right shoulder:

14) and one of my favourite models, the interchangeable autocannon/heavy bolter team:

15) Finally, the latest vets added to the pile (and more-or-less the last), some additional special weapons:

15a) Note that I here tried a different style of camouflage on the grenade launcher - a brief discussion of which may be found here [the normal camouflage is very simple too - there's a tutorial here]:

Thanks for taking the time to peruse; do let me know if you've any thoughts or comments...

- Drax.

PS: This is them in action: