Long Time, No Siege

It's really been FAR too long since I posted on this blog, but i've been working on a few things which i'll post soon. Most of Red Platoon is now painted lacking only a Chimera to finish it off entriely.

With the first two squads of Yellow Platoon painted along with their transports its getting very close to having a fully painted legal army. Barring a few models for the company command squad and Yellow platoon command squad that is, which are in progress.

Even the third platoon (Green, I must think of some better names than just their colour) has its basic command squad sorted ready for painting (although this may be some time away) to go with their finished chimera.

Hopefully i'll get round to posting some of these finished squads and transports as well as getting more things done. At last count there's about 3500 points painted, but that does include a Baneblade which isn't exactly easy to shoe horn in every game.

Commissar Lord Branko

Lord Commissar Branko

Lord Commissar Branko has exactly no-time for anyone's shit. Your unit's running away? Prepare to be shot. Along with the Commissar who was assigned to your platoon for letting such a trivial matter reach his level

Branko fought with the Cadian 83rd for many years as a commissar and has the scars to prove it. After being selected and trained as a Cadet Commissar he fought alongside his former class-mates in the field supervising numerous platoon officers and weeding out troublesome sergeants  After deposing a Platoon Commander who lost his faith while on assignment in the urban jungle of Northern Cadia, he successfully completed the late commanders mission and returned with an emboldened platoon of troops ready to follow him to the last. After appointing a new Platoon Commander from one of the more headstrong sergeants, he was entrusted with ensuring the platoon regained its composure and did not falter a second time.

His time spent with the unit honed his own leadership still further and after fighting against the odds and successfully leading more assignments than that of his peers and turning around a particularly bloody battle on a Necron world he was appointed to Commissar Captain by a mortally wounded Regimental Commander, and later Colonel-Commissar in order to lead the regiment who had come to respect him so.

Over the years tales of his victories and ambitious charges leading his men into battle became legends of single handed destruction of his enemies and world rousing speeches to buoy his troops morale. Passed down from commander to lieutenant, to sergeant and to guardsman, everyone knew of the stories. In some cases troops would claim to know someone who was there when it happened, whether it was true or not was lost to the ages.

Eventually, the Commissariat promoted Branko to the position of Lord Commissar, over seeing missions of up most importance and where possible, returning to his faithful 83rd Company to guide them as his own when victory can be the only outcome.

Notable Battles

Imperium Cosplay

After a good weekend of gaming this cropped up on imgur, These are pretty fantastic all round and there should be more!

Battle report from an interesting 3500 point game to come this week and some more content.

Now Painting... Yellow Platoon

I've eventually sorted my first (Red) platoon, and the pictures will be going up in bulk shortly, however in the mean time i've started work on my second platoon of troops.

I've got almost every model needed for the platoon itself, so they just need painting. Simple right? So begins another long run of painting guardsmen...

Here we have all 5 squads from Yellow platoon. The first ones who are really needed are squad 1 and 2 as they make up the required part of second platoon for a legal army. They've already got their chimeras painted (currently subbing into Red platoon) so they should really catch up!

Above all twenty guardsmen are base coated in (what was Emerald Green) and then the boots were painted black. The next steps all involved the black parts of the clothing: Tunic piping, webbing straps, shoulder pads, webbing pouches and accessories then finally the cuffs or rolled sleeves.

Next step, skin! Once all the arms and faces are painted the rest of the work is more interesting and detail oriented.

Next up are the weapons blocking out and detailing.

Command Chimera Conversion

For each of the command squads in the army, they'll have a tank for transport, much the same as the regular squads. Although while the regular squads are using the newer model with thinner side pods, any command vehicles are using the older style.

Newer kit, left (squads) - Older kit, right (command)

However, the company command tank needs to stand out a bit more. Forgeworld have a different door which would have been easier to fit if i'd remembered before i'd attached the regular one. But it still went on ok.

To make the tank a bit wider and give it more presence on the field i decided to make the tracks wider, initially using tracks from the Baneblade. However they're roughly 25mm wide, which would be huge. Comically huge. So instead after a few days of searching and pondering I settled on Land Raider tracks, which are a bit smaller and marginally easier to get hold of outside of a kit.

While I waited for the tracks to arrive I worked on the dozer blade, which also now needed to be wider to accommodate the new tracks.

Fortunately there are two types of blade in existence  one with and one without edges making something a bit more unique for the tank.

The turret was made some time ago and now finally finds its place on the right tank. There aren't any pictures during the painting as it actually came together fairly quickly, plus it's better as a finished result.

The track guards had to be adjusted too to be wider, although at this point the tracks hadn't actually arrived so making them was a little tricky guessing the size. The lamps on the front were from a dreadnaught kit, but work pretty well.

And when the tracks turned up, it was all good!

First of many posts to the Cadian blog with a bit of luck.

Raising the Company

Finally! With a nearly completed first platoon it's about time I got round to sorting the blog i've been meaning to do for so long with the progress of the army.

It's not much yet, but soon i'll be posting a lot of the work i've already done to them.