Trying to get back into 40k, modelling and painting, plus a plan to focus on getting me there...

So I got back into 40K in the last few years but only fleetingly, I appreciate all of you who gave me advice at the time and hopefully still follow me. I have also been loitering round the blogs so have spoke to some of you if not actually doing much myself, for a number of reasons I wont bore you with!

Now I want (need!) a plan to focus around, I have a lot of half done models and ideas and it's about high time I turned them into an army! (and stop buying stuff like an addict on eBay!)

I originally wanted an Imperial Guard foot/gunline based Army but found A) in the few games of 6th I played it was, for me, seriously boring to play and B) I like spending a lot of time on each model so having 100's to paint wasn't a good plan! C) I found out I really like converting vehicles.

So having gone back to the drawing board in an effort to get re-enthused in playing, but also have a building/painting plan, I've put together the 1500 point mechanised list you see before you to aim at putting it together as a balanced starter force:

HQ
Leman Russ Command Squadron – 365pts
Leman Russ Punisher - Knight Commander Pask
Leman Russ Executioner

Elites
Militarum Tempestus Platoon -250pts
Tempestus Command Squad -Plasma Pistol; Plasma gun x4
Militarum Tempestus Scion Squad - Meltagun x2

Troops
Veteran Squad 1 - 190pts
Grenadiers, Plasma gun x3
Chimera - Heavy Bolter; Multilaser; Heavy Stubber

Veteran Squad 2 - 190pts
Grenadiers, Plasma gun x3
Chimera - Heavy Bolter; Multilaser; Heavy Stubber

Veteran Squad 3 - 185pts
Grenadiers; Krak Grenades; Heavy Flamer x1; Meltagun x2
Chimera - Heavy Bolter; Multilaser; Heavy Stubber

Fast Attack
Vendetta - 170 pts

Armoured Sentinel Squadron - 150 pts
3x Plasma Cannon

Total - 1500pts

So..........the worries I have about playing the list, even with my lack of experience, is model numbers and lack of template and blast weapons. I feel as a minimum I should probably buy a wyvern and massage the points to get it in, but at the same time I don’t feel that fits with the rest. I’m after a mobile elite force, I want to get in peoples faces by advancing and dropping in behind rather than wait for them to come to me. I just worry it’s maybe a bit of a glass hammer I’m trying to hit them with?

I’d appreciate some comments on its viability from those in the know, one of the hardest things I'm finding about getting motivated is the catch-22 of, I need to build the models to find out if it's an effective tactic vs I don't want to spend time on models I'm not going to use.

I have all of these models so that’s one of the reasons I have picked them, but I also have many more options from the Guard available, ratlings, rough riders, CCS, a platoon to name a few so I’m open to some tinkering, but I want to remain mobile and try and avoid a gunline. I feel I really need to find points for a hellhound but not sure where I'd get them without compromising something else.

Thanks in advance for any advice and suggestions, I have always found this a generous community, please bare in mind that I want to keep my initial model count numbers fairly low as modelling time is at a premium.

Roman Space Marine Conversion (Counts as Space Wolves Allies)

So I'm not going to talk about the who? (fluff of these Roman SMs?), what/why? (Isn't this a Praetorian blog?) or the where? (I know its been months) much in this post, I'll hopefully fill in some more detail in some later posts.

Having finally got a bit of time and inclination to do some modelling I've started working on some Allies for my guard. I say Allies, it's my current intention that my Guard are the Allies for these guys while I work on them and when they are done I can turn my attention properly on the Praetorians while at least having some decent points to hopefully get a game in.

Anyway there is at least a little bit of the why!

I simply post this guy up to get some opinion, he isn't a test model (although not glued totally yet), he is the real deal and what I intend to mass produce (20 at first for 2 squads) and I was wondering on your guys thoughts?

He and his brethren are intended to be proxy Grey Hunters in my army, essentially Legionnaires, but i'll go into detail on fluff, which I have thought about a lot, in another post.

The photos aren't great I'm afraid (crappy iPhone!) but hopefully you get a feel what I'm trying to achieve. All models will have a gladius (sheathed), cloak and leather belt straps and helmet plume. 80% will have shields others for the sake of variety (and expense!) will have lost or dropped theirs. The standard trooper will be wielding a boltgun, bolt pistol or gladius (like our chap here) or a special weapon.

This guy still needs a bit of gap filling and mould line removal. I also have a plan to add a shield boss to make my shields more scutum like.

Anvil Industry Roman Pads

Puppetswar Pretorian Pads

The only thing I was unsure of was the shoulder pads, originally I had tried 3rd party pads, Anvil Industry and Puppetswar both make great options, I particularly like the Puppetswar (right).

But somehow while all the other items add Romaness to Space Marines, these seem to take Space Marineness away. I don't know if thats a stupid comment, but thats how it feels, I haven't 100% decided yet, but without SM style pads they look a bit too converted and I couldn't add decals if I wanted. I would be interested in others thoughts?

And indeed thoughts in general, whether you think these will be ace or too cluttered, outside opinion is always welcome, I know for the majority of followers Guard is their thing so I appreciate it if you took time to have a look, for those that are interested, a little bit of thoughts on the fluff of these guys and how they fit the Space Wolves rules will come in the next week or so.

New Imperial Guard FAQ 1.3 and Gunnery Sergeant Harker

I don't really comment on the rules much as I am more of a part time hobbyist and only play the occasional game for fun, but I found the latest FAQ mildly interesting.

The only real change of note I could tell is Camo Cloaks changing from conferring stealth to adding +1 to cover saves. While there is therefore no difference to a unit that can take cloaks in general (Stealth conferred +1 anyway) , it does add a +1 bump on top of Stealth and therefore make Harker a more potent option.

So his squad now gets +5 save if not in cover but with Forest a +3 and anything better +2, if they take infiltrators and therefore camo cloaks.

So by my reckoning you could for example get a unit with a heavy bolter, three melta guns, and a lascannon, that with infiltrate can set up after your opponent has deployed and will have huge amount of firepower and pretty much a minimum of a 3+ save. Ok thats a lot of points but deadly and difficult to shift I would imagine.

A slightly different suggestion would be three plasma guns and a lascannon at a whopping 220 points but able to sit in forest or even better a building to take out light vehicles/terminators/meq at range while happily hiding behind a 2 or 3+ save.

As I say I'm not a big gamer, but when I do I like to use the special characters for a bit of more interesting take on the Guard tactics and this seems a bit more of a bonus than a simple +1 might otherwise seem. However I may be totally wrong and I'm interested in what the hardcore gamers think as at the end of the day you're still paying 30pts for a +1 cover save. But if you run Harker with some camo cloaked brethren (which I have seen on a few blogs) you might be happy. Or you might think a demo charge is worth more than a +1 to your saves for the same points?

Chimera Leman Russ Conversion Finished Building

So here it is in all its glory (minus the paint job obviously).

I'd planned to get it done a while back but then I went on holiday, back to work then was ill and before you know it a months gone by!

The heavy bolter is magnetised so it can be swapped out and because of this the front bottom section is fitted into place securely but removable in case I ever need to repair the back magnet (thinking ahead!).

The aerial box is also magnetised so it can be on or not, and for easier storage/breakage protection. Looking on the photos I wonder if I have over done the aerial size! But on the actual model I think they look great.

The forge world turret can swivel 360 and the main good thing about it is it can be swapped out easily for a different kind as they just drop in (I have a Vanquisher with Pask I'm doing after picking the turret up cheap off eBay). Its glued in elevation which doesn't bother me after seeing quite a few droopy Leman Russ barrels out there!

I have gone with the Chimera hatch on the front because I a) think it looks ace! b) probably wont need them on the Chimeras so win win.

I replaced the missing track sections with cut and filed plasticard and hopefully once painted it will give the impression of hatches to gain access to the tracks. I was going to put handles on but thinking about it you would probably lift from underneath so seemed fiddly and unnecessary.

I tried to keep the back interesting but not too cluttered, hopefully I have achieved that. It took a while to sand the Baneblade exhausts so they fit but I think they look well worth it.

Finally I know the side skirts were dividing opinion. I could take the point that some thought the model needed more "bulk" but they just didn't look right to me. I have spent a bit of time around and always liked tanks and it looks very unnatural to me on any tank to have the hull continuing passed the tracks. That being said once cut down they looked too flat so I added a 1.5mm section of plasticard to bring them out a bit. I really like the look but I'm aware others may disagree, but it definitely looks more tank like to me.

There we go, any criticism always welcomed as there's still time to tweak with it, but I'm rather proud and look forward to doing the next. I want two to start with but eventually 3 or 4 hulls with 5 or 6 turret swaps.

I'm taking a slightly different direction post building this....I'm going to carry on slowly doing the Praetorians but I'm actually itching to play with some painted models. Now at the rate and pressure I put myself under to paint these guys perfect, I think platoons of guard in the near future is not likely! So I'm going to work on my planned Allies, use the Guard as Allies then slowly flip back to Guard as I do more. I'll say no more about who the Allies are as I have lots of test work on at the minute but its a take on old classic that's been done before. Hopefully you staunch Guard guys wont mind commenting and continuing to give me much appreciated advice on something else.

Chimera Russ Conversion WIP Update and Advice Required

Ok so here is the intended look of my Chimera. The track guards aren't stuck down yet, I finished cleaning up and reshaping them earlier (they really were in an appalling condition straight from FW), neither are the side armour pieces or front hatches.

I love the look but would like opinions on the following before gluing down.

1) What do we think of the chimera round hatch on the front? I love it and think it goes really well but as you can see from my previous post I think I'll struggle to get them to do all three tanks and my chimeras. Do people think a flat square hatch of some description would be better?

2) The track guards I loved when I bought but didn't realise they had the gap till they arrived. I don't like it and I am thinking of filling it over with plasticard. What do others think? It just looks a bit weird and pointless IMO.

3) I'm quite tempted to not have the side panels sticking out but instead cut them flat so they stick directly to the sides, it may look less wide but somehow maybe more tank like?

4) I'm going to add some aerials to the turret but other than that was planning on leaving the front and top pretty uncluttered, unless anyone has some suggestions of what to add?

Any other constructive criticism also greatly received.

BTW anyone who enjoys sticking imperial guard tracks on is a sadist! I forgot what a pain in the arse they are! Not to mention the fact they never meet up properly, thank god I'm covering the gap!