Desert Guards

[Willypold]

My... infatuation... with Space Hulk has led to collecting both Tyranid and Space Marine/Imperial Guard armies. Someday I would like to try to adapt the AT-43 rules for them, as I'm not entirely happy with some aspects of the 40K rules - but I do like the minis! Both armies have had several different paint schemes before I finally settled for the present look. The Tyranids are inspired by Madagascan hissing cockroaches, and the humans by the various desert wars during the last century.

Rhino and a somewhat unfinished Terminator - I haven't decided yet if the termie bases should be sand like the rest, or something more space hulkey metallic.



Heavy weapons squad:



And another:



A couple of guardsmen:



And finally their ride:



At the moment I only have one good picture of any of the Tyranids, a sort of side shot of a carnifex:

[AKULA]

the paint schemes work well

 

[Damien]

Wow, just freakn' awesome concept and paint job on the tanks! I too don`t like the 40k rules but really like the minis.

Keep posting, I would love to see more

[Sangennaru]

so nice!

simple but really new! i've never seen the imperial guards in this scheme, they look... really realistic and believable!

i like them, thumbs up!!!

[YPU]

Impressive, you pick out just enough details for it to look good, any less and I think it wouldn't work anymore, but you put it right in the sweet spot.

Say, if you don't like the 40k rules, but you do like the minis, how are you on the whole grimdark fluf?

[Westfalia Chris]

Wonderful work on the sand tones. Only nitpick might be defining the "muzzles" on the Rhino's stormbolter and exhausts (not really paint them metallic, although some chipping could be nice, just add a spot of black).

[Ray Rivers]

Wow... 

Love the Tyranid.  Best army from GW but oh so difficult to paint.

Well done!

[Criamon]

Great paint job! I like very much the sand color and the color of the tanks track. 

[Red Orc]

Very very nice indeed. Excellent scheme for the Guard, and the vehicles look great.

[Willypold]

Thanks for the comments, all! :-)

Grimdark? Enlighten me, please!

I'm surprised that there aren't more desert themed IG or Space Marine armies out there, or is the desert concept too closely associated with the Tallarn army in the minds of all 40K players that everyone is reserving the sand piles for the army with almost no minis? Just a random thought...

The painting is really very simple. I basecoat all the models with Army Painter's sand coloured spraypaint, paint everything with Iyanden Darksun, cover with Devlan Mud, and then drybrush with P3 Menoth White Base and Menoth White Highlight. The first tanks I painted were basecoated in black, followed by successive layers of yellow drybrushing. It was extremely time-consuming and gave a slightly more yellowish tone, because of the black basecoat. Both the Chimera and the Rhino were painted that way, but later vehicles have received the sand basecoat.

My basic problem with the 40K rules is the "my turn - move everything - your turn - move everything" game play. I like the idea of alternating activation throughout each round, being able to respond immediately to what's happening on the table and having the option of giving each mini in each squad different things to do during the unit's activation phase. Ages ago I used to work for Target Games as an editor and games developer, and one of my last assignments was working out some of the preliminaries for what was later finalized as Warzone. The main concepts I contributed to the game were the idea of actions and the unit based activations. When the game was finally released I never got into it, though, mostly due to the fact that I wasn't particularly fond of the minis.

[Red Orc]

'Grimdark' is a name people give to the feel of the background to 40k - 'In the grim darkness of the 41st Millennium, there is only ... war, oppression, madness, ignorance, compulsory worship of a corpse, a billion things trying to enslave/kill/eat you, and skulls all over everything'. Something like that anyway.

My son's Space Marine army has sandy bases, as he started collecting with the Marines from 'Battle for Macragge', and when I got a few Guard, I started painting them up in a desert scheme based on WWII British desert camo - primarily sand and grey (that's why I checked the thread out to be honest). I have a terrain project that is based on Mos Eisley that is intended to link up with them; the whole thing if we ever finish it would also include some Star Wars and other minis for desert-based sci-fi skirmishing and adventuring.

[Willypold]

Aha, the fluff! :-)

Some of it I like, some of it leaves me cold, and some parts I quite dislike. If I can avoid the skulls I will, for example. I was (still am) really fond of the old Space Ork books, with rampaging madboyz and such (and would like to get hold of them again). I do have a number of orks too, as I had a period when I was building a lot of ork vehicles around the time when Gorkamorka was released. Actually, a couple of these have been repainted in the same desert camo, so watch out for the "Coalition of the Unwilling" at an Apocalypse table in the unspecified future! :-)

[Prof.Witchheimer]

I was (still am) really fond of the old Space Ork books, with rampaging madboyz and such (and would like to get hold of them again).

yes, they were great, still got "'Ere We Go!", tons of cool artwork.

[Axtklinge]

Very cool paint scheme!
Congrats!