Guard 2.0

[mozznstein]

Originally Posted by mozznstein

If I can come up with one little difference on each model I think people will get an impression of individuals forming the ranks and not just little bits of plastic or metal. For me, again, the goal is the impression of realism.

Just thought I would return an earlier post about my design goals when building this army. I am trying to use a lot of minor conversions to give the individuals in the army a bit of character. I've got four more pictures showing a few minor touches to each that I think add a lot to the character of the army.

The first image is of three guys in basically the same pose but each one is very different. Even the two white guys don't have the exact same skin tones and then there are the obvious differences like different heads and the Catchan parts used on the third guy. Another thing that you might notice is that all of these models are from my stationary squads so they have their feet planted and lasguns raised. The armored fist squad has all running poses and bayonets, reflecting their more mobile close quarter role.

The second image is of a lascannon from an anti tank squad. I particularly like the larger bases because you have more room to set a scene. I play my lascannons in safe, well guarded areas so it makes sense that the spotter is standing up keeping an eye out as opposed to hunkered down for cover. However, that pose wouldn't make sense in a drop troop or infiltrating army necessarily. For one thing they'd much more likely be under heavy fire and they wouldn't likely have such a nice position behind the walls.

The third image of the rocket team is a favorite of mine. I can imagine one or two screwballs in an army enjoying a bit of silliness, even in the dark 40k universe.

The fourth image shows off a couple of things I enjoyed doing in my army. It's hard not to go overboard but I put a couple casualties on the bases. In this army I have a few eldar, chaos, and tau corpses scattered around as signs of an earlier conflict. Another thing to note is the pattern on the guys shoulder pad. No two shoulder pads are alike in my army. Fluffwise I just decided that every family or clan or whatever would have their own unique geometric pattern that a soldier could choose to display. Also, the bases are all miliput and greenstuff made to look like muddy ruins. I did that for a couple of reasons: one, any planet can have mud so they won't be completely out of place on any board; two, there is no static grass to have fall off; and three, it allowed me to do something else unique for every model.

Anyhow, sorry for the wall of text but I thought people might be interested to know why I did some of the things I did. If anyone has any questions or comments let me know.

[Fluffy05]

Where did you get the heads with Berets?

From West Wind Productions?

Great Log & Colour scheme. I am restarting Guard from Scratch & lok forward to seeing what you do.

Happy Gaming,

Allan

[Commisarlestat]

I really like your clean painting style however Im not so keen on your squad layouts.

I understand what you mean by differences in men and equipment however standard uniform is implemented in may armies quite successfully, that is a minor fluff side point though.
The real thing I see as a little odd is the internal squad uniform. If the unti is fighting as a squad then there woudl be a certain amount of uniformity between the men, so standard uniform minus helmets, sleeves etc. What you have with the steel legion addition is guys who are either completely over or under dressed. I would keep squads state of dress similar so dont mix tanith and catachan with stell legion but blend cadian and catachan parts across the force to hold it all together.
This can be done with a little bit of thought to where they are fighting once the scene is set uniform mods will follow, ie. summer in a city, armour common but sleeves lacking, winter forest cloaks and cadian parts etc.

It would simply require shuffling the models around a little.

That said I do love your stuff keep up the good work!!

A

[Andusciassus]

Must say I disagree with the good Commissar above.
I really enjoy the diversity of the squad 's uniforms, it reminds me of the Urban Guerillas or whatever they were called.
You are having a great army growing here, keep us updated and keep on building.

[mozznstein]

Well, I’m back and with pictures. You’ll have to forgive the quality a bit though. Ordinarily I wait and try to get good photos but as you can see from the rest of the WIP, that means I don’t post much. In an effort to show a bit more, here are some pictures hot from the workbench.

First off, here’s the completed Tanith flamer conversion that I showed you all in my last post.I'm pretty pleased with her as I can see that I am getting better at sculpting Notice I clipped off the ponytail. I’ve used this model two other places in my army and I don’t want any clones. Maybe I should photograph all three together next time. Might be an interesting illustration of my anti-clone guard.

Next up is my Tanith/Steel Legoin mortar team. One problem I’ve run into with this army is keeping a random mix of models. Since the metal guys have few poses and weapon types available, most of my special and heavy weapons have been Cadians or Cadian/Catchan hybrids. I wanted some special and heavy weapons teams of all the different types in the army. I converted this Tanith lasgunner into a mortar loader by snipping and grinding away his other arm then making another from greenstuff. It came out passably but my photo doesn’t show much of the hand. Clearly I need to consider what I want to talk about before I take my photos. Oh well.

The third photo is of my stand ins. I put the army into squads before painting and these guys were the leftovers. Any time I had extra paint from one of the squads I made myself throw it on one of these guys really quick. That way no wasted paint, and in the event that I changed my mind about a weapon load out I could always sub in a half finished blank and not be so far behind.

My last photo is of some tank crewmen I am converting. Through a lucky bid on ebay I got six vehicle sprues for thirty bucks. I want to use the commander figures to add more variety to my army but I obviously can’t repeat the same pose six times. The two greenstuffed guys are probably the most extensive sculpting work I’ve done yet (with one exception). I’m still trying to get the clothes to look natural but I’m improving over past efforts.

Well, that’s all for now. I’ve got a lot more to show you. All my tanks have been refinished with the exception of stowage and track guards (representing extra armor).