![\"Let's](\"https:\/\/www.rocketshipgames.com\/blogs\/tjkopena\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/11\/IMG_6706.jpg\")
<\/a>Let’s do this thing.<\/p><\/div>\n
Captain Higgenbotham scowled into the swirling dirt and debris. \u00a0His greatcoat flapped wildly as the air churned with bulk lifters and smaller craft spooling up for takeoff. \u00a0Holding on to the hydraulics of his Valkyrie’s loading ramp, he took in one last deep breath as he surveyed the horizon far out across the plain. \u00a0From here you could barely tell what was happening all around the planet, the sky still egg shell blue and the trees verdant green. \u00a0But he knew it was a world aflame.<\/em><\/p>\n Watching yet another flight of Landspeeders overtake the staging field, he thought for a moment about the Space Marines. \u00a0Clinically he understood. \u00a0The entire Kingbreakers chapter was fighting to create space and time, to evacuate and preserve as much as possible before the inevitable. \u00a0He and all of the corps would no doubt be dead already without their countless untold sacrifices. \u00a0But he didn’t actually understand. \u00a0Forestway was lost. \u00a0Had been lost. \u00a0And yet they warred on, more than just a fighting retreat, but less than a winnable battle. \u00a0A lost cause. \u00a0But still they died, and died, and died. \u00a0For what? \u00a0For pride? \u00a0For revenge? \u00a0For the emperor? \u00a0Higgenbotham understood the words, but not what lay behind them. \u00a0He and all the surviving Forest Guard would leave, now, and fight again on other days, on other worlds. \u00a0Turning into the craft he slapped the ramp controls, shaking his head. \u00a0Forestway was dead. \u00a0<\/em>There was no need to stay here looking for war. \u00a0From now on, no matter where they went, there would be only war.<\/em><\/p>\n This is the first squad for my long planned IG detachment, the Forest Guard. \u00a0They’re a mostly Cadian-patterned Imperial Guard regiment, initially mustered from Forestway, also the original chapter planet of the Kingbreakers, long since burned exterminatus as fallout from the endless machinations of the Legio Apex traitor marines.<\/p>\n These particular guys will swing back and forth between company and platoon command depending on need for the foreseeable future. \u00a0In the no-FOC PAGE<\/a> December Apoc game they’ll probably be a platoon lead and I won’t bother with an IG HQ. \u00a0Not a lot of thought went into the armaments and unit. \u00a0Their primary upcoming use is that Apoc game, so I’m not super concerned about having the most efficient load out ever. \u00a0I’ve also got a bunch of regular Guardsman sprues on the shelves still plus one or two more command squads, so later if I need something I have plenty of options to build it. \u00a0Here I was just putting together whatever looked cool and might be useful, like the radioman and medic. \u00a0And plasma never goes out of fashion.<\/p>\n MEH-DIC!<\/p><\/div>\n It burns, captain, it burns!<\/p><\/div>\n All in all I’m happy with these guys. \u00a0They looked ok, looked ok, looked ok, and then I started putting on washes and they looked great. \u00a0In hindsight it’d make more sense to start prototyping colors on more generic, easily replaced, and less prominent dudes, but it turned out ok this time.<\/p>\n The one thing I’m not super excited about is the banner. \u00a0I just got lazy with it and should have at least done it up in more colors like the GW exemplars. \u00a0That guy’s likely to wind up demoted or even an objective marker once I make up some fancy custom banners, or to have his current banner snipped off and replaced. \u00a0Ditto on the banner guy’s power sword, it’s pretty weak. \u00a0In general I’m not happy with how I do them, so I’ll have to work on in. \u00a0Sometimes the process I used here works well—one of my Librarian’s force swords came out really nice, as did a Sternguard power axe—but often it just kind of comes out flat.<\/p>\n For the corps!<\/p><\/div>\n I was explicitly trying to go for a simple, fast process here, both to contrast with my fairly laborious Kingbreakers color scheme and style, and just to deal with the reality of having to do up tons of models to have a viable IG force. \u00a0The washes thus are doing a ton of work. \u00a0There’s no edging, very little drybrushing, and actually very few colors overall.<\/p>\n I like this scheme and it’s reasonably fast so I’ll probably stick with it. \u00a0But if I was going to do a ton of these guys, i.e., a primary army, I would almost certainly spray prime in either the armor or pants colors, probably ideally the latter as it’s more recessed and just slightly slower to paint. \u00a0As at most an allied force and probably just an Apocalypse supplementary army though, I don’t feel like getting an expensive can of primer for just that color or being limited to those color options.<\/p>\n Notably, I’m pretty committed to not doing decals on these guys. \u00a0The Kingbreakers’ custom decals look fantastic and bring a lot to the custom look of the army, but here it just doesn’t balance out high enough on payoff versus effort to decal a million guardsmen. \u00a0Maybe some vets will get the treatment once I have a proper logo drawn up and acquire some more decal paper. \u00a0The latter’s actually a hassle to get and print; it’s not super widely available, shipping costs more than the paper itself, and it seems like it breaks down over time sitting unsealed on the shelf (printed decal paper is sealed, just the same as a painted model).<\/p>\n Awww yeah, Ministry of Sound comin’ in loud and clear!<\/p><\/div>\n Yep, we got yer dials and your tubes and yer gizmos…<\/p><\/div>\n Compared to the Kingbreakers I also went much simpler on the bases here, just base coating and flocking, again thinking about optimizing the process to churn out dozens of these guys. \u00a0Instead of fresh basic flock though I did use my cup of scrap, literally a cup into which I brush off all the excess flock, grass, gravel, etc., after I’m done working on models. \u00a0That gives some nice little textures here and there as random bits and types of flock get mixed in. \u00a0On the Kingbreakers I usually wash even flocked bases to create a dark, decayed, wasteland look as well as blend with my heavily washed dudes, but here I skipped that so the flock would keep more color and bounce.<\/p>\n The color scheme came out more Cadian than I was hoping, but that’s not the worst thing ever. \u00a0Ultimately the standard Cadian scheme is pretty good looking, and jives with my preferences for more muted and vaguely more realistic colors. \u00a0At a minimum though these guys are darker and more grey than a lot of Cadian forces out there.<\/p>\n I originally mocked up the color scheme on Bolter & Chainsword’s Imperial Guard Painter<\/a>. \u00a0That was very useful to play around with ideas. \u00a0Many of the more colorful schemes I was originally leaning toward wound up looking more like Blood Bowl paintjobs that I wouldn’t be happy with en masse.<\/p>\n Hut, hut, hike!<\/p><\/div>\n From that sketch I wound up dropping a color, following the mantra of fast & easy. \u00a0It looks great in the image above, but separate \u00a0colors for tunic tops and bottoms was going to be a huge extra hassle. \u00a0The dark grey armor would undoubtedly also just blend in with the granite top anyway, particularly as on an actual model the armor covers more surface area. \u00a0Low payoff for lots of effort so the scheme got streamlined down to two primary colors. \u00a0The basic paints for these guys are:<\/p>\n One nice thing is that all of the colors are thick, solid paints, and largely all new GW Base paints or older Foundation colors, so one coat could be passable under a wash, and two coats is smooth.<\/p>\n I’m not sure what’s up next in the painting queue. \u00a0Another Kingbreaker Predator? \u00a0Drop Pods? \u00a0Various top secret, Inquisition-redacted projects? \u00a0Piles of Guardsman? \u00a0Time will tell!<\/p>\n Who run Bartertown?! Master-Blaster run Bartertown!<\/p><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Fresh from the workbench, sha-BAM! Captain Higgenbotham scowled into the swirling dirt and debris. \u00a0His greatcoat flapped wildly as the air churned with bulk lifters and smaller craft spooling up for takeoff. \u00a0Holding on to the hydraulics of his Valkyrie’s loading ramp, he took in one last deep breath as he surveyed the horizon far … Continue reading Army<\/h2>\n
<\/a><\/a>Painting<\/h2>\n
<\/a><\/a><\/a>\u00a0Color Scheme<\/h2>\n
<\/a>\n
To Arms!<\/h2>\n
<\/a>