Steel Legion Closeups

Have not had much time for hobby stuff lately, with a sick kid, spring yard work, and other activities soaking up my free time.  However, over a month ago, I took a few pictures with my wife's DSLR of the Steel Legion army.  I did not get out the tripod or fuss enough with the settings, so not the best pictures, but they certainly give you a closer view of the figures, and since these are from a DSLR, you can click on them to get REALLY close if you want.

UPDATE: new Photos. (well, same ones, new location)

Two flamers and a grenade thrower

Medic and Anti-Tank specialist (with a LAW)

Converted Stromtrooper Sergeant

Fixed position heavy bolter

Steel Legion Auto cannon, converted from a lascannon team, metal autocannon, and two magazines from 90s era Ork bolters

Remembering Cadia

Some of the chaps about the blogging world are taking the opportunity to "Remember Cadia", which as you may be aware was recently destroyed by Chaos. (or will be in the far dark future that is Warhammer 40k)

I happened to have an unfinished Cadian infantry squad myself, which I had originally bought with the idea of making it an armored fist squad in my Imperial Guard army. (armored fist squads were mounted in Chimera AFVs, and purchased separately from the regular platoons in the codex of the era)

Unusually for the time period, I actually painted the figures about 90% of the way complete, needing only some ink, highlights, and of course basing.  I believe that I painted these about 14 years ago, and they have actually been used in a game (pulverized by an assault squad of Space Marines).

Starting status

As you can see most of the base colors have been completed, and while it may be hard to make out in this shot, the figures even have painted eyes, something I gave up about the same time as these were last worked on.

Fast forward through a couple of paint sessions, and here we are.

Now just awaiting some suitable weather for a matte coat, some grass tufts/flock, and good to go.

Steel Legion Army Thus Far

As I mentioned yesterday in the Tau post, I had a few minutes to myself, and some light, so I set out my "army" and took some pictures.  In this case "army" means a full platoon  of four squads, heavy weapons squad, and an attached regimental support unit in the shape of some storm troopers.

A, B, C, D Squads, Command Squad, Heavy weapons to the rear, and then the Storm Troopers

Command squad and Commissar 

Storm troopers all in environmental suits

Heavy bolter squad with a spare auto cannon team (replaces medic and anti tank specialist in the command squad as needed)

Still forthcoming, some sentinels, heavy mortar, heavy stubber, and sniper. Some time later I would like to build a second platoon, scout squad,  and a company command squad, but we will see.

Imperial Guard

I had the opportunity this weekend to go through some of the [many] boxes of figures and projects I have in my garage storage area.  I like to do this from time to time to keep the various figures I have in my mind, and to decide which amongst my various projects will I bring in to the house to ignore and fail to finish next.

Example: Cheetor's post on an Olly Ogryn reminded me that I have some too, and I looked through one of my Imperial Guard boxes to check them out again.

One of these things is not like the other. 

 In one of my project bags I found the expected figures and bitz for a planned conversion... and this guy.

Hmm, a complete Steel Legion Commissar (arms not shown).  Now if only I had not just recently converted and painted one.  This guy is headed for my growing "Ebay" pile.

Steel Legion Commissar Conversion

The Imperial Commissar has been part of the Imperial Guard since the very first days of Rogue Trader, appearing in WD109 back in 1989.  The first four models models were single piece sculpts, like all figures were at the time, and were sculpted by Mark Copplestone.  These were quickly supplemented with a further six built to take advantage of the new plastic arm sprues available for the IG.

Picture from WD114 from SOL

After the RT era ended, 2nd edition Commissars were produced, which were larger and more detailed, but returned to being all metal (although multi part).  Later, when the Steel Legion came out as part of the Armageddon campaign, Imperial Guard Commissar body #2 was modified to have a gas mask to fit in with the toxic atmosphere of Armageddon. The figure was not given any of the other Steel Legion items, like bedroll, heavy gloves, or canteen.

Picture from Collecting Citadel Miniatures

I do not have that figure, but I still want a Commissar for my Steel Legion company command. As it happens, I DO have figure 401312 from the WD114 picture above, and he is wearing a gas mask... perfect for conversion!  Compared to the much newer Steel Legion, the figure is a bit crude, and short, with some curiously large feet, so I will convert those.

The first thing I did (well, first thing after having the figure sit in a bitz box for 18 years after I bought them from some bloke on rec.game.miniatures.warhammer), was toss the figure into a container of Simple Green to get the black and red paint off. A few days of that, and the paint sloughed right off with a bit of toothbrushing. This also broke down the old super glue holding on the plastic arms, and I put them aside.

Here is the stripped figure compared to a Steel Legion grenade launcher trooper, also showing the backside of the miniature, where you can see that he has a pouch and a old style bolt pistol held to his belt by a strap. You will probably notice that he is a bit short, and his neck is a bit stumpy.  Fortunately this grenade launcher trooper is going to provide the legs, and the neck will be less of an issue from the front I think, as the gas mask will provide some cover.

With new arms and legs

Here he has gone from being a bit short, to being a bit tall, which was a result of the difficulty I had with pinning (I even used a power drill and made little headway on the white metal of the legs).  There are also new arms from a Chimera commander (with bolt pistol) and a chain sword arm from a Steel Legion sergeant (now demoted to mortar loader). I also added a Cadian bayonet to replace the old style bolt pistol that I cut off from his left hip.

And here he is all painted up, generally following the painting for my Steel Legion figures.

As always, I really enjoy this army, and after I finish up the remaining bits and pieces (heavy mortar, heavy stubber team, and sniper), I really need to consider if I want to make a second platoon to go with that planned company command...or maybe just a scout squad?

Necromunda Sniper

Back in the good old days of GW mail order bitz orders, my favorite thing to do was to build custom units created from scouring the catalogs for various alternate figures.  These were still aimed at the usual army book or codex entry, but might feature unique heads, or weapons or alternate figures.  Making the unit for cheaper than retail price was a particular thrill. (E.g. Empire pistoliers made from the Empire command sprue and bitz heads)  My first Steel Legion squad was built in this way, and consequently it featured the elusive Necromunda sniper figure as a regular guardsman.

At the time, I intended to have just the one Steel Legion squad, used as an Armored fist squad in my otherwise foot bound army (made mostly from Catachan plastics, Cadians not yet being available).  Consequently, rather than buy a Steel Legion boxed set, I ordered various blisters and bitz to build the squad, and ended up using the Necromunda sniper figure as an alternate guardsman.  Currently the figure goes for relatively silly amounts on Ebay (One auction in progress has it at £9), but I bought the figure for $4 or whatever the bitz price was.

Picture from Collecting Citadel Miniatures Wiki

If you examine the figure closely, as I have while painting it, it becomes clear that this figure was sculpted by someone other than a Perry, and further, that it was probably a trainee piece.  The conclusion can be reached by the somewhat uncomfortable pose of the figure, and because the equipment is clearly not the same as used on the other figures of the range, particularly the bedroll.

Comparison shot of the rear of the figure and some standard Steel Legion troopers.

(Photo from bcderue's bucket, found via Google)

Since the Fanatic range tended to release more dubious sculpts from trainees or hired sculptors, it makes sense then that the Necromunda Sniper came out under that banner (as a Necromunda Sniper) rather than as some sort of supplementary blister for the Steel Legion.  Indeed, at the time, the only snipers that the IG had were ratlings, which were later effectively replaced by regiment specific sniper sets, themselves replaced by the Catachan and Cadian command boxes (which includes sniper arms).

In any case, in this man's army, he is just a rifleman, and I have another figure converted from a heavy bolter gunner which I use as a sniper.

Weekend Basics - flock and tufts

I had a three day weekend this weekend due to a work holiday, and managed to get a bit of time while the kids were asleep to finally flock and add tufts to these figures.

Monday I sprayed them with matte sealer, so we are inching so very close to completion.  On that happy day, I will post a review of the whole project, and also try and feature some of the various conversions present here. (Might be useful to someone, since, last I checked anyway, GW still sells these figures!)

Weekend Basics - Future Wash

This weekend was ostensibly a long one here, and it seemed longer since my wife was out of town, leaving the kids and the house in my dubious hands. Amidst the various chaos of the weekend, I did manage to get three so hours for work on miniatures, and I finished the base paint for the 63 figures my Steel legion platoon, and followed that up by a wash.

Shown here are the three components of my wash, which are GW Black wash from a bottle I got in 1997 (!), craft store matte varnish, and Future floor finish, which is the best smelling of all hobby products. My mix ends up somewhere pretty close to what people get from a dip, although I brush it on (and have been doing this for far longer than I have been reading about dipping).  I quite like the end effect, but mixing it each time is a bit of a pain, and it is highly glossy even with the matte varnish mixed in, so it needs a spray varnish to dull it down again at the end.  When the old GW black wash runs out, I will probably switch to a contemporary GW wash, which will have the advantage of being "out of the bottle" ready.

Still to come for these guys: a bit of touch up, some greenery for the bases, and then dullcote and we are done... probably about 1.5 years in total, although not too many hours all together.  I also have a few more of these guys on my workbench (Heavy mortar, Commissar, sniper, Heavy Stubber team), and will then need to cast about for my next large project. (Game mat? WHFB Chaos?)

Imperial Infantryman's Uplifting Primer: Damocles Gulf Edition

Just a quick one today, but earlier this week I read the Imperial Infantryman's Uplifting Primer: Damocles Gulf Edition which is a slim book from Games Workshop published "in universe". It purports to be a guide book given to each recruit in the Imperial Guard, which lists some of the basics for lasgun stripping, aliens (Orks: brittle boned cowards, much less muscular than they appear!) and the like. The book is rather dated now in terms of 40k background, but it was still fun to read, and I appreciated that I was able to get it from my local library, rather than spend the money needed to buy it on Amazon.

This edition of the book adds information about fighting the Tau, which was humorous enough, but it did have a couple of pictures of suitable interest that I copied them here.

The first picture shows the difference between a fine citizen of the Imperium, and a Tau sympathizer.  There are not many pictures of Imperial citizens, so this was interesting.  The second one shows the Tau "blood god" to which captives will be sacrificed.  It occurred to me, that it would indeed be interesting to have Tau cultists, subverting the greater good for their ancient gods, but alas, current 40k has the space commies as being fairly "clean" aside from possible trickery with regard to the various subject/ally races.

Anyway, a fun little book if you can read it for free, but surely not worth $200 to buy it from Amazon.

12/11/2015 Paint Table

Conversions seen dimly here: Two flamers, bolt pistol arm, grenade throwing arm, guy with LAW on his back

Finished the pre ink/base stage for this next squad, just one more to go, and I will have done all the basic paint work for this platoon. This puts me at one command squad, one heavy bolter squad, three rifle squads, and a stormtrooper squad for ~53 figures painted. I am also starting to work on the company command squad, and you really can not justify having a company command for just one platoon... might need to get a couple more going. 

10/16/2015 Paint table

Finished the last little touch ups on these guys, so now they are ready to have their bases finished, get their inks done etc. This puts me at 1 command squad, 2 rifle squads, 1 heavy bolter support squad, 1 stomrtrooper squad painted, and two more rifle squads to go. Unfortunately I keep get getting distracted by new ideas for conversions (e.g. a guy shooting a MANPAD), and by thoughts that I would like to have two platoons instead of just one. [I should of course finish painting the first platoon before worrying about the second!]

In the background is a bounty hunter for Necromunda, which I first started painting about 8 years ago...

I have also put together SGII stats for these guys, and the Tau I painted, so I should be able to put a game together if needed.

November Army - 11/14 Progress

I managed to paint at lunch today:

Of course, I cheated and brought the more interesting portions of the army to paint, i.e. the command squad and the attached grenadier squad.

I keep saying "army" but really I am painting a rifle platoon, plus three sentinels, and an attached grenadier squad, seconded from the battalion.  The rifle platoon has a command squad, 4 rifle squads, and a heavy machine gun squad for a total of 51 effectives.

I am also in the process of converting a few company level assets, such as a heavy mortar squad and it occurred to me that maybe I could build and paint a full company.  Mostly because I have more conversion ideas... Yes, I am crazy.

November Army - Painting Progress

This might not look like four hours of work, but it is... painted pants, bedrolls, canteens, and a few other things for the 50+ figures.  I also completed a test figure for the Storm Troopers.

Under the Ott Light, you can see the difference between rattle can flat black and airbrushed Reaper Nightmare Black.  One of them is extremely blue.

November Army -Basing

Just finished the basing of my little army project... now on to airbrush priming.

You can see the majority of the figures to be painted here

 I may have gone a bit overboard with basing, as I built a destroyed sash window, a wooden floor, fence, and a few other crazy things, using time that would have been better spent painting.

Lots of people use sprue for bricks, but how many use a chopper to make them all the same size?

Pre-sanding

Sculpting at work

Similar to my earlier post about painting at work, I have been sculpting at work lately.  mostly this is gap filling and the like for my various Inq28 figures, but I have added straps, fur, pistol holsters and a few more ambitious items.

The box is one of those old Games Workshop bitz boxes that I seem to have a few of, and it suffices for this use.  I carry a file, a needle pointer, a spearhead sculpting tool, and a custom made "lifter" tool I made from some sprue.  I use Apoxie sculpt exclusively these days, partly because it is water soluble (meaning easy cleanup) and partly because it is in the little plastic containers and thus has not dried up.  A bottom of a water bottle holds a bit of water for me to dip my tools in, piece of tape to hold figures and bitz during transit, and we are done.

Today I finished these three Steel Legionaries, two of whom have been converted to carry flamers, and one who has a single shot anti tank missile strapped to his back (for use in SGII battles).

The reason I have been converting these fine fellows?  The family is out of town, and like last year, I plan to get some serious army painting in...