Imperial Guard - Platoons and Command

So I have a lot of infanty. A Lot. I have been collecting IG since the days of 2nd Edition. Many of them are the original box set models you got (I loved those boxes. Each one with a different 'regiment', sergeant, special weapon and heavy weapon. I seem to recall they were decent value for money too).

Some of them are the plastic sets. Both the original Catachan plastic set (which I think receives too much poor press. It was and is a good kit. Yes the sculpts make them all look a bit too Rambo ish and their armour seems to be mainly big muscles, but hey, that is what the Catachans were all about!).

You may be able to tell from the painting styles that some were done way back, 20 odd years ago. Painting in big blobs, straight from the bottle, with little or no consideration for the details on the models. The better painted ones are the ones done in the last few years, when I had more inclination to do it as a hobby of painting rather than getting them on the tabletop as fast as possible.

Most of them are GW models. There are the occasional non-GW ones such as the casualties and a couple of the command models (can you spot which ones?).

Some of the models are ancient. There is one I use as an assassin that goes back a fair way, before 2nd Ed. The original stormtrooper plastic models I just love and I wish I had picked up more of the metal versions back then. The Frateris Militia models make an excellent basic guard model in my opinion and can be swapped out for militia, PDF, conscripts, Penal Legion or Necromunda.

I believe I have a couple more Ogryns lurking in one of my tank boxes and I must get out all the heavy weapons one day and match them up with the loaders.

Imperial Guard - Company Strength

So how many guardsmen is too many guardsmen?

This is most of my guardsmen. Most of them. Not all I don't think.

Not included are the tanks, sentinels, heavy weapons and rough riders!

More close up shots to follow.

Necromunda Repainted - Base undercoat

20 years ago I would base coat everything with Skull White straight out of the bottle. The last few years I have tried a few different things.

Now I DO own an airbrush. I have not been brave enough, or had time enough, to have a proper play with it. For similar reasons I have never used spray on primer (or any specific primer for that matter).

I have always just used a basic coat of paint.

Lately, with all my Bretonnian models and IG I have painted the last year or so, I have used cheap acrylic from the shops (see photo above).

I push out a measure on my palette and water it down a fair bit so it is quite runny. I then just larup it on with a decent sized brush. It does sit full of air bubbles and you do need to spread it around. In fact every time it looks like it is pooling badly and is going to be lumpy and horrible. But it never is!

It normally dries to an excellent, even, flat coverage with no loss of detail. I think you can see from these pictures that all the tiny bits and pieces are easily still available for painting, on the resin bases and on the plastic and metal miniatures.

Another advantage of this is you can pick whatever colour you want. Using a green undercoat for my IG and brown for my Bretonnian peasants just meant that if I did miss a bit later in painting, or there was a recess that was hard to get to, it would not be obvious at all. In fact on some of my minis I have cheated badly and used this 'undercoat' as a basic layer with no further paint on it.

I have not had any problem with my Vallejo or GW paints going onto these basecoats. (I know there is some bare metal showing. This is because these models had their slotta bit cut off as they are going on scenic bases and I was holding one end while undercoating the other. The missing bits will get undercoated when I do my first pass of painting which is normally the flesh areas).

Necromunda Repainted - Stripping!

So I have my 20 year old, poorly painted, miniatures. First thing to do with the repaint is to pull that old stuff off for another go.

I used GW acrylic paint back then (neat out of the bottle... yes ... I know better now) and I have found one effective way to strip paint safely from plastic and metal is to use Dettol.

Now Dettol is some serious stuff. It is easily available in most supermarkets but you have to make sure you get this version and not some of the others. Undiluted it is quite caustic and not at all kind to the skin or eyes (not to mention it will stink your house out).

I use an old metal tin to keep my stripping stuff in. I have an old plastic lunchbox that seals nicely. I normally mix up Dettol and water, very roughly, in around a 1:1 ratio.

I have an old pair of gloves I use when handling this stuff and normally try to wear some latex ones as well to spare the fingers. Make sure you can seal it in a couple of containers because the smell really does linger.

I then tuck it away, in an old baking tray, buried somewhere on top of my model cupboards in the garage, for at least 24 hours. I have left it longer in the past when I have forgotton about it and there was nought wrong with the plastic or metal miniatures after that. It will be easier and quicker to strip if you use a neat solution or leave it longer, but I prefer to err on the side of caution and put a bit of elbow grease in.

Now on this batch you can see what they looked like just being plucked out in the first picture. A bit like their face has been melted in the fire. I would say they could have been left longer but I thought I would clean them up and see what is what.

I normally keep all the old toothbrushes being thrown out for this job. Sometimes it is useful to take them outside in the garden and give them a good scrub, under the Dettol if you have gloves. This time though I used the kitchen sink, both in plain water and a bowl of washing up liquid and water. Just hold them under and give them a good seeing to with the toothbrush.

You will find the paint sloughing off into gooey balls. It will clog the toothbrush up as you go so pull off or rinse in Dettol every now and then. By and large it comes off pretty easily, with just the odd persistent bits stuck in very difficult corners.

I gave them a quick go in the water and laid them on a paper towel and you can see the result above. Not perfect, but not bad, and importantly, no damage or loss of detail.

It WILL generally pull any glued pieces apart, but for me this is fine as I need to get access to these for painting again anyway.

I gave them a further scrub in plain water and rinsed them off.

Above is the result after the clean up. You might see what looks like a green residue. This is just the bubbles from the fairy liquid water. They were gone by the time they were dry.

I then placed them out to dry in the garage overnight. More pics to follow.

Necromunda Repainted - Bases

So I ordered my bases from Daemonscape on ebay

They were £3.50 for 10, including postage. They came very promptly and they were well packed in bubble wrap and a jiffy bag. They were also stacked very neatly and arranged so they could not bash against each other in transit.

On inspection they seem perfect. There was no loss of detail anywhere I could see, they were very finely detailed throughout, no bubbles, warping or missing edges. Absolutely brilliant. To be honest I have seen worse looking plastic kits from GW. How they manage to cast the level of deep detail with no flash or such like I do not quite understand (and apparently no release agent either).

Take a look at the pictures above and have a zoom in around the cogs and skulls.

Rulesets Galore - Who needs AoS?

So I may be a player that has not played in nigh on 20 years. That does not mean I have not dreamed about it, made up army lists and kept up to the speed with the latest developments.

I have in fact collected quite a few rulebooks over the past year, including actual printed ones! I hope to look at them together over a few posts and compare some of their main features.

Lion Rampant from Osprey is written by Daniel Mersey. It gives an excellent broad set of rules that allow you to plan lots of historical battles from the medieval period and can be adjusted to suit your needs if you are a Bretonnian player!

Dragon Rampant is an adapation of Lion Rampant, catering for the fantasy market. Written by the same author it allows for some variation in play and a wider range (or stranger range) of units.

Conqueror: Fields of Victory by A H Lloyd is another set of rules that starts from the ground up that allow you to play historical or fantasy games a little more rapidly than the old fashioned bloated rules of certain Warhammer editions.

One Page Fantasy is part of the excellent One Page Games website that, well, pretty much allows you to play fantasy in one page of rules!

Ninth Age is essentially a fan reworking of Warhammer Fantasy, carrying on from where it left off before AoS squatted some of the armies in an attempt to rebalance everything.

All of these look excellent and value for money. I cannot pretend I have played any to death but I hope to look at a few of them in more detail. If anything, owning or using several of these provide a useful alternative to whatever your favourite system is and allows you to keep it fresh and different whilst using the same models.