# 1889 Imperial Guard Theme Army WIP



## Alexious (Apr 13, 2009)

Clarion 21st Imperial Guard

One of the things I decided when I returned to doing an army was that I would plan the army around a theme of some type. I decided to do this for several reasons, the first was that I had been burnt out many years before watching my friends and opponents searching for what I call the HOLY GRAIL. Without going on a long rant... we all know the people we are talking about those that are looking for the magnificent unbeatable force that can destroy any army anywhere with the rules. In my era of 2nd edition it destroyed the fun of the game for me as a player and as a hobbyist. I watched people move from ideas about a force or what was a seed of an idea, to just grabbing minatures off shelves to make something that could beat blah blah jim who's army had last trumped them and then spending all of two minutes glueing stuff into bases and demanding a new game... 

This time I decided upon a theme army whether it be competitive or not and I wanted to utilize my large ammount of old 2nd edition guard figures, I had no problem in having enough figures, they might not end up being the most wonderfully painted but my main goal was to have a force that I could take along to a tournament, games day, local shop, my mates house and play a decent battle with, and it would be painted to a reasonable table top standard.

I set myself the following goals.

1. Theme the army
2. Use the new IG Codex as a starting point
3. Write out a list for the army loyal to its theme
4. Paint it over a period of 4-5 months to a TABLE TOP standard. I always in the past spent 2-3 days doing a figure.... I needed to be happy with basics and omg.... not agonize over non perfection and learn that if I wanted to play a game before 6th edition came out, I had to limit my work to a squad a week or so and be happy with what I did at a basic level.
5. Have fun doing it and try some basic conversions along the way
6. Limit my spending to about 300 AU total for additions or parts or something I saw that was new and would fit my army well. (This included any replacement paints I might need along the way)
7. Paint the army in a way that allowed me to do scenery at the same time which I could use to display the minatures at home on a shelf/bookcase instead of them becoming lost or stuck in a case somewhere.

Stage One...

Theme the Army.

I began by looking through my collection of minatures that I had not really touched in over 15-18 years. I saw I had a massive ammount of Mordian figures and had a heap of Tallarn figures as well. (The Mordian had been earmarked to become a Cadet Commissar force in 2nd edition and the Tallarns were orginally going to become friends with my thousand sons and form a Chaos force to be reckoned with). 

I went historical for my theme when I uncovered some old Praetorian figures and decided using the tallarn and praetorian figures I could convincingly come up with a force which was like an 1880's to 1900, British Expeditionary Force sent to the Sudan. Checking online was really easy to find out that the tallarns made perfect local Egyptian forces... I read up on uniforms and began to plan out how my colors would work.

My research led me to look at this stuff to inspire my tallarns...










The London Times had written as well about the Egyptian Soldiers...

"I had already noted in the course of the action, that the Egyptians were perfectly steady under fire, and they have always had the reputation for being so, but few gave them credit for possessing the dash they displayed on this occasion."

I liked the word "dash"... LOL and could imagine some retired Colonel from the 1860's talking about his exploits and the dash of the troops. It seemed to fit my theme well so I continued to explore the options.

I then worked out my army would have to be primarily either mounted or on foot. How would an all infantry army go in the new system? Would it be competitive... I did a lot of reading and came to several conclusions but decided that even in 1885 transportation would have been required either steam train or by camel or horse... So I thought I would include Chimera's as part of my army only. I would refrain from any use of tanks and stay away from the heavy support section completely.

I then began by painting my first squad of Tallarns. I did it over a 7 day period working on them after work, and one weekend.










The Chimera in the background I did the following week after leaving it sit in a bucket of dettol to strip it completely from its black and green original coating.

I went and spent 10 bucks total and got some small canvases? for small oil painting and used them as my bases. My idea is to get each 10 man squad a base like this, nothing fancy and do it with rocks from around that I find or just whatever I had in my bits box. This way I was getting scenery together at the same time I could put them safely on a shelf in a 10 man squad set up. I bought a cheap poster paint and coated the entire canvas in the color and the rocks after I glued everything down.










I really only wanted a tabletop standard so I tried very hard to ignore anything that was unoticed at about 2 feet distance. The bases of my troops was a matter of me saying.... whats in the cupboard and literally getting a packet of MUNG BEANS..... and a packet of POPPY SEEDS and using both together.... I didn't think it gave a too bad a finish.










Basically I let the poppy seeds look like the sands and rocks while the mung beans became perfect larger rocks... so far so good.

On my third week I got a bit lazy.... I was sick already of painting 10 men at once so decided to start my command squad just to break it up a bit.

I was happy with how the junior officer came out, and after some groping in my bits box I came out with an old skeleton that immediately lost his head.










In week four I decided to make a start on my Praetorians which I am now finishing slowly along with the old citadel ruins I found in in a box hidden deep within the perilous garage that I had not ventured into at home for many a year.

The Praetorians I stuck with the original color scheme circa British Infantry 1880 Dress uniform. I liked the following so much as a quote from a military history book on the subject...

The Sudan was also the last place where the red coat was worn in battle.
The red coat had been symbolic of the British Army to Britons and foreigners alike for nearly two centuries. It is understandable that it was abandoned as a battle dress only with great reluctance. The argument for its retention in the Sudan, that it would "Impress the natives", is more indicative of the Victorians' concept of themselves than that of the "native mind". At no time did the red coat exercise the same effect on the Sudanese Imagination as it did on the British.

I liked the idea that the Praetorians in the 41st Mill would think the same about Chaos or Orks.... LOL! 












The citadel ruins have given me some problems and I am finding now that the yellow lights I paint under are hiding my errors and where my inks and washes are not reaching.... or where my paint has not reached but under the yellow lights and my probably older vision I am missing. but I am fairly happy with my results. One thing I am sure of is that I am steadily getting my army together. 


Conversions.

I sat down and planned my Regimental HQ... or Company Command Squad with some thoughts. What officers? What not to include and it had to be themed correctly...

I started with what they would not have.... I decided that no way the Command Squad would enjoy a vox.... its just not the way a Praetorian would issue an order. He would call it, yell it or be very dramatic and stand with his men... after all its not sporting to shoot or aim deliberately at an officer when other lower class Egyptian types and natives can stand in front of you and take the las blast... LOL.

I decided that as a British base and being a full Infantry force... they needed a Master of Ordinance and would need an Officer of the Fleet. I didnt want to spend a heap on advisors so I sat down and looked through my bits box and came to the following conclusions... I needed something to help them along and add to their flair... so I went and bought a basic Cadian Command Squad new plastic box. I created the following from them and my bits box.











The figure on the far left is a sniper that I converted that you cant really see from a tallarn using just an old trader lasgun. I cut the lasgun and just added the entire length of the old trader lasgun to it and used a small plastic tube on top to make a scope... so far they look ok.

The Master or Ord was a little more creative... I used a tank commander body and head and added an arm and then used the new arm from the cadian box set along with its legs. The back pack which I will eventually take a better shot of was made with a petrol container from a chimera box set... cutting off the handle so it was square box with aquilla on it, then adding the old trader lasgun body from the sniper rifle I had now left over and putting that with a space marine backpack banner pole as an aerial.

The officer of the Fleet was very easy. I just found an old trader colonel minus his arms and legs and added parts from the new cadian box to make him look very officerish....

So far so good on the conversions, I have a few more to go.


Anyway after 1 month.... thats my progress.


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## Micklez (Nov 22, 2008)

Looks nice mate, its good to see a blast from the past. So thats Cadian, Praetorians Tallans pieces in one army, very nice.


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## Azwraith (Apr 23, 2009)

wow really nice i will be following this

great background on the force and the painting is very nice.

are you going to use a dullcoat on the army as it is quite shiny,
also i think the head scarfs could use some badab black washes or just a darker red as it just seems to light to me but at the end of the day you want it to make you happy and thats all that matters.


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## Alexious (Apr 13, 2009)

They seem to appear shiny in the pics, in real life though they are quite dull, its probably more to do with my photo's than anything else.

I used delvan mud for the wash on the tallarns and used badab black on the praetorians, for them it went too dark so I had to redo their helmets in bone. The photo's have actually picked up a lot of the errors and stuff that I don't see day to day looking at them.

for coloring purposes I decided to make the red gore my theme color.... it will and should appear on just about every figure to give it some uniformity. The one thing I was at pains to avoid was having a technicolor army with no flow even though its a mixed guard unit force. Hopefully the red gore theme through the army will give it the cohesion I want. 

Comments are always appreciated... especially those that are good tips at painting large slabs of units... the problems I have encountered so far are more to do with keeping myself motivated to paint large slabs of troops, I do break it up and do some modeling, paint a character etc, but at the end of the day.... its squad after squad.


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## Azwraith (Apr 23, 2009)

yeah i totally agree alexious i find it so hard to stay focused on finishing a squad.. im like termies at the moment cose its alot easier for me to paint but i still have like 5 more troops to go to finish my tac squad... then i have 10 more troops to put together SIGH!
and neophytes.. bah

neway if the red is red gore then im sure the colouring is fine it just looks very bright on my monitor.


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## Alexious (Apr 13, 2009)

Having been on holidays for a week. I have been doing some painting and therefore decided to update my thread.

My first new project was to start on the HWS for the army. This was designed to give me a small break from squads.

The tallarn autocannon squad turned out ok... I had the minatures for years and they had been badly painted previously so they had their dunk in the dettol for 2 days then I started painting them.










I experimented with the wheels on the guns, but have come to the conclusion that they really need to be black. I will go back and finish the first one I did changing the wheels after I do some touching up.










The bases I experimented with adding some bits and parts from the junk I am accumulating and also just to give some basic scenery to them. I was happy with the autocannon shells which came from some ancient toy set I must have purchased years ago, the skeleton didnt turn out as well but I will do some repair work on him later.


I then moved onto completing my first praetorian squad.



















The great thing about the camera is that it is showing me where my inks are not reaching so I am able to go back and do more on them and tidy up missed areas. 

Next to stop me getting fed up with troops I moved onto some of my command figures which I had been working on in post 1.










I spent about 16 hrs in total on them nothing too fancy but I wanted them to look decent.

From left to right, they are either my stormtrooper sgt or my "treat as" sgt bastone. I used a Trader Rough Rider Lt. body as the basis and used parts from the new cadian command sprue to give him his arms, the legs are from the chimera boxed set tank commander. I was happy with how the old chest part came up particularly.










Its rather strange looking at the old chest part, but I am sure that GW had something like "Sigmar" in mind when they based the old mini's and the story of the twin tailed comet. 

The second figure is my officer of the fleet. I again used an old RT base, using a Captain Rough Rider figure (you can tell he is rough rider from the crossed swords on his cap) and adding parts from the cadian command spures. The colours are deliberately 19th century naval officer with navy and the cream coloured pants. Trying to keep a slight theme running I did the interior of the coat red gore.

A few minor errors that the camera has picked up for me will be fixed up as well. 










The last figure I did was my Colonel in Chief of the Regiment. As the regiment is mixed with Praetorians and Tallarns to represent the British Expedition into the Sudan in 1880+ I wanted something that had the tallarn colours I had been using but looked much more British. I came across the old Valhallan Lt figure but as I want to use him as Creed I needed to cut the old chainsword off and replace it with a laspistol that came from a praetorian sgt. The most difficult thing I found here was trying to find a left handed laspistol arm or hand. I could not find one after ages of searching and the Cadian command sprue only has right handed single pistol wpns. So at a distance he looks fine but if you get too close it appears he must be genetically defected with a wrong way hand... oh well nobody tell the INQ! 

The colours are the same as the Tallarns, but he still looks officerish, commanderish for the Praetorians which do have the bone coloured pith helmets with the red jackets. I debated on the sash but wanted a different colour so he would stand out a bit on the battle field. 










In general the pics are ok, but the great thing is they are showing my errors, I think its either my bad eyes or my lights that I paint under, but the camera picks up all the parts I have missed which I will then go back and fix up.


Next project is to finish my Master of Ord, who is going to be navy blue based as artillery officers and troops wore navy in 1880 till 1900 in the British forces. Then I will move onto another squad of tallarns and praetorians.


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## jetstreamnz (Jun 9, 2009)

I think they look good mate, I also find that from pics I can see errors in my guys, however they usually arent that bad unless you are trying to eat the mini. (Have a really close look).

Get a cheap adjustable lamp and throw a daylight bulb in it, I picked up both from bunnings, actually using 2 lamps, one fixed and one that I can adjust the direction when I am painting ....

+rep and keep it up!


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## col44mag (Mar 30, 2008)

Looking good bud really liking it. I've always done winter and mud themes but your sand theme is reall cool


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## Alexious (Apr 13, 2009)

Hmmm dust off the old project.... blow a lot of dust off my half finished figures and start updating...

As I have returned to the hobby full swing after being way laid by life in the last few months, I have been slowly doing some painting on my guard. 

I have now finished the tallarn platoon finally...

3 infantry squads and the Platoon Command Squad










































Two Chimeras, which will be transporting my Stormtroopers around


















Vetrans.... FOR NECROMUNDA AND THE 8th SPIDERS! CHARGE! (for those of you who remember that far back...)


























And lastly some of the Company Command Squad that I have been doing with minor conversions.... 

The medic is just a praetorian gunner with a cadian medic pack and legs
The banner was a simple cut of a Praetorian sgt
The Master of Ordanance is a Chimera sprue Tank Commander, and Cadian HQ body parts, added a jerry can to his back, cut an old RT lasgun and added the top of a SM back banner for the aerial.











Am fairly happy with the results so far.... the idea is not to spend forever on them, just base colors and some washes to bring up the details etc. When you have some many figures, by the time I get the army done I dont want a new codex to have to deal with.. LOL

Comments appreciated, or ideas.

The sandbags are pegasus hobbies, I have found their stuff great so far and they come pre painted and are made of resin.

Cheers. Alexi.


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