The Rest of Averland...Part V

Howdy all!

So ...just to show that I haven't been completely ignoring my other obligations I wanted to take the chance to post up a picture of the Averlanders I've been working on for months now.  At this point I'm just left with the niggling details, a couple of shields and, of course, the bases to complete.  Since our last installment I have highlighted and washed all the "white" metal.  Highlighted the leather and brown bits.  Added wood grain to the wood....and most obviously given these guys some hair/beard colors.

Lets take a look...

Its the visor....gotta be the visor!

Just a quick post here...I'm home with my sick son today so ...multiple posts!

Anyway I really liked the way the visor came out on the Muster Troop so I decided to go back and try to do the same thing with the R. Knight.  Now the Visor slot is MUCH smaller on the knight than on the trooper...so it was quite a bit more difficult to pull off...and messier.  But I like the results...so in the future I will do this part first and avoid all the Clean up!

Anyway...here he his with his new shades...

Yikes! this angle shows off some sloppy wash! and rough blending!

Thats all for today...Probably...?

Cheers,

Blue

Muster Troops/Imperial Guard Paint Test

Following on the heels of my test paint scheme for the Retained Knights I took the opportunity to do the same for "Imperial Guard" figures.  As stated before I'll be using Alternative Armies Muster Troops as my standard Imperial infantry figures.  Once again I've gone for a fairly "realistic" paint job on these guys.  Though I will be using them mostly for Boarding Raids and other shipboard actions I wanted them to stand out from the grey terrain I will be using them so I've opted for a more natural woodland style camo for the cloth portions and a very dark gray/black for the armor and helmet.

...Lets take a look...

Retained Knight/Space Marine Test model

As a step forward for my RT 40K project last night I quickly worked up a paint scheme on one of my Retained Knight models to see if I was happy with it.  I'm looking for a fairly "realistic" military color for their power armor...I'm trying to avoid the bold primary colors that we so commonly associate with Space Marines.  To this end I pawed through paint stock and pulled out all the Vallejo Model Color greens, grays, and brown. By mixing a couple I came up with a color I was happy with...I think it looks realistically "military" but will also stand out fairly well against the gray background colors of the Battle Systems Terrain.  Using one color for almost all of the figure will also allow for significant time savings through the use of the bilk painting techniques I practiced with on the Brets over the last summer.

I will certainly be adding some kind of motif or unit number to this guys shoulder pads...I'll have to start shopping around for decals...

Space Marine Squads...The Begining

Building upon my last post about the 'Imperial Guard" figures I will be using for 40K gaming I wanted to show you what I have working for my Space Marines.  Like the Muster Troops that I will be using for Imperial Guard, the figures I will be using for my Space Marines are from Alternative Armies Ion Age range.  These Retained Knights make great proxy Space Marines ...they are sculpted by Bob Olley and have a very Rogue Trader "Feel" to them IMO.  Of course they were first released in the early 1990s so they are not too far off the mark from RT itself.

Right now I have enough Retined Knights to form two 10-man squads each with two support weapons.  For the sake of better pictures I will present my force in detachments of 5.

Detachment with Rocket launcher...I'll use the guy with the "pistol" as my squad leader

Imperial Guard Platoon...the Beginning

One of the projects that I hope to accomplish this year is to get some painted units together to play Rogue Trader 40K on the Battle Systems Terrain that I recently supported via Kickstarter.  The forces to be employed will consist of a platoon of Imperial Guard and a couple of Squads of Space Marines, on the side of "good" and some Chaos Space Marines and perhaps a few Orks on the side of "bad."

As I can't possibly take on the task of collecting yet more vintage citadel figures at this juncture I plan to use figures from outside the Citadel catalog for the Imperial Guard and Space Marines...figures from Alternative Armies Ion Age range in particular.  This also fits well with a recent challenge put out by Whiskey Priest on his Blog to shows the adaptability of the Oldhammer Movement by painting up and gaming with a unit of non-GW figures.

Don't look back...you can never look back...

From the looks of my Blog feed it appears that a year end summary is required...so here it is....but I'm not real happy with where my gaming headed this past year...so all I will say about my 2013 Oldhammer accomplishments is...I had a couple of good games, I broke my ankle, and I painted a shitload of Brettonians ....that's about it.

...So I would rather spend my time looking forward and thinking about what I hope to accomplish in 2014.  So lets look at the four major food groups of my obsession:

1. Collecting  
2. Painting 
3. Gaming 
4. Blogging about 1 thru 3.  

Lets take them in order!