Merlon's not quite 40K SF thread

[Merlon]

The Battenburg does look good, have you thought of putting some on the front of the hull or you had enough of painting it? 

Battenberg tend to be applied in a seven block pattern, unfortunately most vehicles are too narrow to apply the pattern on the nose, which is why they apply different markings there. As the dozer blade is wide enough I applied the seven block pattern there instead. Likewise the imperial eagle on the rear door stymies the yellow and red chevrons that should be applied at the rear.

[Merlon]

Built a couple of  28mm scale Romney Huts for skirmish games, they are more or less timeless.
Nissen huts are a different WWI design, though it tends to get used as the generic name, like biro and hoover.


Starting to work on the Greenhaven militia. I always loved the second edition Cadian infantry, so I have been gradually accumulating them from eBay. Wanted to do some conversions to break up the poses and confuse some of the collectors. Quite happy with how they went.


There is a cliché in many game scenarios,  where players contract to steal something for a client.
Imagine their consternation when the five crates of electrical equipment, due to a mistake in translation, are a little heavier than they thought and security is getting closer....

[Freddy]

Nice, the metal Cadians are still my favourite range from GW, I sculpt my own Guardsmen according to this design.
I also like the scenario idea of not just collecting stuff, but also acquireing some means of transporting them, I've seen too many scenarios where people just scurry away with half a ton of stuff on their backs

[HerbertTarkel]

Nice job on the huts, and nice to see vintage metal Cadians!

[Merlon]

Thank you for the kind words.
I also prefer the metal Cadians. The first generation figures have a lot of character and even after all this time I still notice new details on the figures. I have steadily accumulated over a hundred Cadian figures for the Greenhaven militia.
Just need to decide on a decent colour scheme for them.


The second generation Cadian had the benefit of ease of conversion, but had those awful pauldrons and big guns. The spare heavy weapons are useful for scratch building Tarantulas and bunkers weapon points.


Still the pauldrons can be carved off and be used for figures where I can justify a different uniform.


I have not bought a box of the third generation Cadian yet, the sprue images suggest they would be awkward to convert.

[Merlon]

Some multimedia meddling, from within the great boxes of bits comes:-
An Empire Pistoleer horse sanded down to remove a lot of the horse furniture.
A pair of rider's legs I bought from Victoria Miniatures best part of ten years ago.
A Cadian gunner torso.
All balanced together. Now with a squinted eye and some new saddle bags and cases and a rifle in a scabbard - I might have a mounted scout.
Or am I more barking than usual.

[Inso]

I completely agree with your "2nd edition" Cadian love ... They were brilliant, as were the original Catachan Jungle Fighters.

It's good to see a K9 unit too .

Clever use of the Cadian gunner on the horse... it certainly suits the role.

Nice work .

[Merlon]

Thank you for the kind words.

Slow progress on scout riders, due to a shortage of gunner torsos
Still shows promise, rather than wait on the vagaries eBay I think I make a mould and either  press green stuff or do resin casts for the torso.


Whilst hunting around eBay, spotted a 1/50 scale excavator which took my fancy. Converts into a nice excavator servitor useful either for a tech priest retinue or scenic clutter


Still prevaricating on a colour scheme for the Greenhaven militia, tis the curse of being a far better modeller than painter. In the past I have swapped conversions for paint job, but I want to try and do Greenhaven all by myself

Keep on buggering on.

[voltan]

I like that excavator servitor, it's giving out some Mek-quake vibes, to me at least.

[Manu Miniatures]

Idea for color scheme: Cadian 122nd





Camouflage might be intimidating, but it "make" the whole mini, and allows to paint armour and weapon just black with edge highlights. Mini should still look finished and suitably detailed.

I would try something like this:
- black primer,
- all clothes painted with some light grey with good opacity,
- grey or bluish-grey wash over clothes,
- blue patches, no more than half of the area, very few black patches
- cleaning process with black
- details: skin, a little bit of metal, adding red on shoulderpad, or different color for different squads

Painting patches and then cleaning spoilage with black might take some time, but technically it should be pretty easy.

[Rick]

I really try to avoid painting black.on camouflage - when you look at black areas in contrast, the camo black is a less intense shade. I usually do a dark grey on the camo - it seems to work well and then I can keep the black for guns, equipment, etc.

[Merlon]

I like that excavator servitor, it's giving out some Mek-quake vibes, to me at least.

Thank you, confession time I had never heard of Mek-quake before. 2000AD never really crossed my event horizon, probably heresy I know.

Manu Miniatures & Rick, thank you for the suggestions.
Two things to bear in mind
Those kinds of paint schemes are well above my pay grade and competence.
The Greenhaven militia are just that, not Cadian. Indeed as militia or tertiary level military forces they are a quartermaster's dream for off loading obsolescent uniforms and equipment prior to refits.

[Freddy]

Great addition, I might steal the excavator idea

[Merlon]

Great addition, I might steal the excavator idea

Feel free to take inspiration Siku do a range of 1/50 scale vehicles, the excavator is one of those - obtained from eBay.

So went on holiday and came back with a  souvenir of ten days Covid, delights COPD Asthma. So spent the time trying to evolve a colour scheme for my Greenhaven Militia
The horse scout are a bit roughly finished, but they are gaming figures rather than Golden Demon. Pity I only had three horses in the junk box, may try to score some more from  eBay.




Also did a half squad of infantry  (repeatably, thank god for paint stripper) to figure a recipe of colours for future use. Further shading can be added in due course if I get to grips with the paint. A lot of skilled painters on this forum, I am not there by any means.




The uniform might look a little disjointed, but there are reasons for that:-

Following several incidents in the backlands, Lord Talisar had petitioned permission to raise militia forces.
Permission was granted almost immediately, but no equipment was forthcoming; despite further petitions.
The militia struggled on with private purchase and equipment acquired by many grey routes
Eighteen months later, a large dust cloud approached the tatty logistics base of the militia. From within two cargo ten haulers and trailers with four sealed containers of supplies emerged.
The drivers paperwork showed these were the long awaited supplies for the militia
The containers were lowered to the ground, receipts signed. After a brew and a bine, the vehicles departed once more into the dust.
Messages were sent to VIPS, rounds of back slapping ensued.
A wary veteran Sergeant decided to investigate further. Opening the latches and swinging the creaking doors open. The view was filled to the roof with paper or plastic wrapped bundles, a heady perfume of greases, oils and sundry preservatives filled the air.
Digging deeper into the piles of material, it became apparent there was indeed uniforms and equipment for some twelve hundred men. But the batch codes did not match. There was equipment from many units and theatres. A quartermaster somewhere had seized a golden opportunity to clear the dross from their stores, dumping it on a hapless third line unit.
The Sergeant swore "We are so going to be lynched tomorrow"

[Rick]

Obviously a line Sergeant, not a QM or Stores Sergeant; they tend to get far more creative, both with expletives and ways of dealing with a fubar.