Fifty shades of pike grey- scifi models in 28mm

[Ragsta]

I love the personality of your Guardsmen and forces in general! Those helmets are distinctive and cool on the IG in particular. Great use of different models and schemes throughout.

[Freddy]

I love the personality of your Guardsmen and forces in general! Those helmets are distinctive and cool on the IG in particular. Great use of different models and schemes throughout.

Thank you! Yes, this is a design rule, every Guardsman shall have helmet and pauldrons modelled after the 3rd ed metal Cadians (my favourite GW range ever), also a bayonet on his lasgun. This way I can use whatever figures, they will come together as an unified looking army. These down there were made of Vraks traitors for example. (The two medics in the opening comment do not wear any helmet because they are concripted civilians in a campaign).

[Scarper]

I'm a big fan of the 3rd ed Cadians too - best Guard GW ever did.

Your sculpting is a solid method for forcing unity. Whilst I recognise the Vraks figures, they fit really well with the rest of the troops too, which is a challenge for traitor figures. Nice work!

[Freddy]

I'm a big fan of the 3rd ed Cadians too - best Guard GW ever did.

Your sculpting is a solid method for forcing unity. Whilst I recognise the Vraks figures, they fit really well with the rest of the troops too, which is a challenge for traitor figures. Nice work!

Thank you! With this simple trick you can basically make anyone into the Guard, this, for example, is my Sly Marbo, a Confrontation Kelt drummer (I won it on a competition back when Rackham was a thing), so originally pretty far from a scifi soldier

[Scarper]

Again, would not have recognised at all his fantasy origins. I'm a huge fan of having an eclectic group of unique models, especially with that kind of unification. Great work!

[Freddy]

Again, would not have recognised at all his fantasy origins. I'm a huge fan of having an eclectic group of unique models, especially with that kind of unification. Great work!

Thank you! His demo charge was originally a drum, he is the guy on the left on this picture. I really like to keep some of the original character of these figures, if I wanted to completely cbver them in GS I would not need a base figure in the first place.
https://i.ebayimg.com/images/g/YvUAAOSw065dU2wu/s-l1600.jpg

I really like kitbashing, and I also used a lot of Marine parts, compared to the IG parts, there was always a good variety in these and most of them is OK for IG, especially in the minimarine era. With the Primaris you have to be more careful since they are bigger, but most classical marine torsos were a perfect fit for Guard if you trimmed the sides a little bit (marines were taller, but even the old ones a lot bulkier). Like this comissar. The yellow parts are my sculpts cast in resin.

[Belligerentparrot]

Lovely stuff! Loads of character and loads of fun. The evil midget is my favourite.

It's very satisfying finding a broad setting you like and then colouring it in with your own ideas leading to different warbands/factions, isn't it?

[Freddy]

Lovely stuff! Loads of character and loads of fun. The evil midget is my favourite.

Thanks! He was originally the banner pole gretchin from the GW ogre warrior box.

It's very satisfying finding a broad setting you like and then colouring it in with your own ideas leading to different warbands/factions, isn't it?

My thinking about that is a little bit different than most peoples. Character creation for me is more about aesthetics and game effects rather than the RPG-like approach, most of my protagonists in the 40kParsecs campaign do not even have a name.

As for creating the setting, I never liked the "background canvas" style. I grew up on  Busy World of Richard Scarry-books and on Lego City, when seeing a setting I always ask questions like what the people here do for a living, what do they create, build, how they get the raw materials for that, how they get to their workplaces, etc etc- how the society and economics work. Might sound funny first, but answering these questions come with a plethora of unique ideas, thats why I made the Administratum guys for example. And also that is what I really like in Nu-Necromunda making the gangs into specialists of certain industrial areas and introducing all those non-gang factions. And if you have a working world, that will create its own stories and characters.

This is all about personal taske of course, I also enjoy a good rpg-style background story, especially when it is written with some sense of humour.

I also have some unarmed Imperial citizens too.

[DivisMal]

Ace painting on your models! 

[Ragsta]

How awesome to have a selection of such civilians!
I have nearly two companies of guard infantry that has slowly assimilated abandoned side projects and random minor squads and I agree regarding background building- at this point I have a good idea of what their homework’s and some belief systems might be like, right down to certain effigies and local customs 

Any chance of you posting up a quick tutorial on how you sculpt your helmets?

[Freddy]

Thank you guys!

How awesome to have a selection of such civilians!

They are mostly made of spare soldiers parts, Cadian kits and also my sculpts cast in resin. They were made to be a quick "faceless mob" rather than individuals, 10 men, 10 women and 5 children, I just sculpted some quick details like the woman holding the baby, some also got tools or bags they carry. Then I added some 1/48 aircraft crew too.

Any chance of you posting up a quick tutorial on how you sculpt your helmets?

I have no photos, but I can give a quick description:
1.) take a suitable blob of green stuff. This is the hardest part, finding the thin line between "goomba" and "beanie hat on a pumpkin" needs experience, also depends on the base figure
2.) Put it onto the head and form a nice half orb (like if the figure were wearing an M1 or similar simple shaped helmet)
3.) raise the part above the eyes a little bit (now it looks like a Stahlhelm)
4.) carefully push in a circle around the top, separating the top from the brim. In this stage you can remove the too much GS by pushing it towards the rear part
5.) push two horizontal lines towards the temple from the front, this way making the front part of the headset ear pieces.
6.) form the forehead part of the  brim by carefully pushing it up from down and making the lower and upper part parallel
7.) form the details of the back part of the rim- just some vertical lines.

...and now something different: my Tau just finished. I have some Tau figures from here and there, they will make a nice enemy faction in the skirmish games (a couple more cards in the "enemies" card pile). I wanted them to be different from the Imperials ofc, so they got bright white armour with some weathering (weathering with oil paint into the panel lines is a nice technique I originally used for aircraft, it is good because it keeps the base colour really well in opposite for the traditional wash technique). Also they got jungle bases with swamp water and lots of foliage.

[Scarper]

Wow, kept a nice clean white there considering the dark outlining. Thanks for the oil tip - I'll need to give that a go if I'm doing something similar.

Your rate of production is pretty mind-boggling, mate!

[Freddy]

Wow, kept a nice clean white there considering the dark outlining. Thanks for the oil tip - I'll need to give that a go if I'm doing something similar.

Thanks!  Artist oil has a really long drying time, so it is really easily controlable, you can just wash back from the places it does not belong. This makes it ideal for this kind of work. Also white is a good base for weathering, everything is clearly visible on it.

Your rate of production is pretty mind-boggling, mate!

Nah, from these pics only the servitors, the Administratum clerks and the tau are new, even for those most of the work was done during the Christmas holiday.

[Freddy]

Some more servitors finished to build the Imperium. These are from Wargame Exclusive.

[Scarper]

They look great! Lovely unhealthy-looking skin tones.
I've not seen the models before. They're really characterful. I do love the idea of an advanced biomechanical construct using a bucket and rag to wipe down vehicles though