As part of the I Hate Right Hands series I present to you... the first veteran squad of the 42nd Cadian 3rd Company! These have been all made using tips from my articles and I though it's a good idea to include it in the series, so that readers get a chance to see how all those tips turn out in the end. So let's get to business, but let me just tell you that I don't think I've ever before been so proud of minis I painted...

Without further ado! The squad 301 itself leaving safety of its fine ride to engage the enemy!


That's to wet you appetite. Click below for more pictures!


One more groupshot of the 301:


And now onto individual models. First, I present to you the three plasma gunners. Do you know those minis sat on the shelf and went into battle for an entire year unpainted? They were one of the first things I've made.



The next three. The one on the right belongs to the original bunch of real year-old vets. The original idea was to head the clips hanging on a belt going through his torso, but it didn't really work out, so he ended up having a lot of clips on his belt.. But who knows maybe I'll use this idea one day! I really like the one on the left though, very dynamic. Apparently he's the only vet with no purity seals whatsoever, I wonder how I missed that! The middle one was the one I liked the least and wasn't too happy with him when I had finished him. I'm glad I didn't try to redo him though as he turned out really well.



And the last three. The middle one is my favourite hands down. I love the way he turned out, but I guess that's Forgeworld charm. The left one is quite antique as well, belonging originally to the second plasma-bomb-vet-kamikaze-squad. I have no idea where does this head come from, I got it along lots of other bits. It's probably some WFB knight or something. Fits great though!
The right one is a real tough guy. The sculpted glasses add quite some charm and I'm really happy with him.



Finally the sarge! Apologies for the shadows, I only noticed them now, oops! The sarge had some serious rework put into him into the assembly stage. I love his face, yet again a credit to Forgeworld awesomeness. I really wish they produced more Cadian infantry! At first I was going to make the plasma pistol glow different color (red) but in the end decided it would bleed into the purity seals color or stand out too much in a silly way.


But in reality the plasma pistol is a thing of previous codex. Nowadays I most likely won't field sergeants that way, so a solution was made! Still he's going to sit around with the plasma as it looks more interesting, at least in my opinion.


Now some closeups, that some of you (Hi, Drax!) seem to like a lot, on the sarge himself!

And on my very favourite vet. Did you say there's casting for new Terminator somewhere nearby?


And lastly, their Chimera APC! Finished just today. It doesn't have a camo pattern, yes. If you check the codex it seems the Chimeras are painted differently so I went with tha... Okay. Okay! I was lazy. But it still turned out much better than I though, even though it seems more white than other vehicles. I suppose part of that is the airbrush I used for the first time to get the basecoat on it.




This Chimera is just a sneak peak of what's to come. As the second one I currently have, which is dedicated to the regimental command squad has something special...

And that's it for tonight. I'd love to hear your opinions!


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Here it is at last, the fourth part of the I Hate Right Hands series! This time I'll show you how to make your squad look like it actually had fought all those battles which made them what they are now. It isn't really too hard, but it's always good to have one article with all the ideas clumped together for easy viewing so, here we go!

As usual I will give you some ideas I came up with, some that I tried and have pictures and others which are just concepts (and it's either too late to make them on my vets or I didn't really have the resources at the time). Well, let's get started.

First - what will you need? A couple of tools including:

A knife



Some drills. Mine are really ancient!



Some files. The one I'm showing has the best shape - round from both sides with a sharp edge.


And of course the squad you're making.
Other things that could help are: modelling putty (with all related tools), some of the Cadian CS bits, some random parts of Orks, Tyranids etc.


First the most basic thing. Battle damage - dents, cuts and various scratches on the vets' armour.

How?

Let's take our lil' veteran sarge. Yep, that's a new one, leading Veteran squad 3-0-2 (it's finished now, I'll post some pictures... soon..)



Take a file. Now imagine there's bullets flying the way of your mini. Of course take correction on the pose, after all in the heat of the fight he might be standing differently. Now, imagine your enemy passes his to Wound roll, but you manage an armor save. What happens? The bullets scratches the armor and swings past! Align the file correctly and make a slight scratch in armor. You can make it deeper if you wish, but be careful not to go over the board.

Here's the effect. It's rather small, my first vet squad had them a bit deeper. I managed to finish painting them yesterday, and man they turned out great. I'll post some pics and you'll see how battle damage is visible.

Okay, now basic physics. When a bullet hits the shoulder it's deflected, since the shoulder is round and it slides on its surface. What if it hit the flat chest armor area? It won't get deflected, it will hit in the spot and possibly get stuck (or get through.. ouch!) or just stop and fall to the ground, while the guardsman feels a little punch. Still, the flak armor is rather weak so it's going to leave a mark.
That's where the drills come in! Just see this:

Again, don't go oever the top. I do feel the hole on the sergeant is a tad too big. They should be small. The other places for holes are: shoulderpads - but think about it from what direction did the bullet come, not to get deflected by round shoulderpad!, helmets - same as shoulders, and the ankleguards. So yea, basically everywhere! ;) As long as you think of basic physics.

What can you use a knife for? Imagine you guardsman is fighting some savage alien beast. Maybe a Tyranid or maybe jsut some local predator. It's towering over the guardsman and swings its clawed arm just over his head. If it was not for the helmet he would be decapitated, but the Emperor indeed bless him that day! Only a scratch!


Now imagine a hand-to-hand swirling mess. Guardsmen armed with a knife is fighting some freak with a sword. He swings at guardsman's head and misses just barely, still managing to hit the helmet. An inch to the left and this guardsman would need some bionic eye implants!


The Orks charge the Guard lines. The words that every guardsman fears the most are heard. "Bayonettes on!". They put them on and greet the greenskins first with a hail of las-fire and then with a wall of knives. But still Orks have tough skin. After you do that a couple of times that knife won't hold off well. Here, look at this: (It's probably more visible on the shadow than on the knife itself...)

Right, so much for things you can do with your tools. Now onto some more advanced methods. I mentioned the new Cadian Command Squad bits. They're awesome and in case you were hestitating - don't. I'll probably end up buying one more of those and if I was just starting Guard now I'd buy at least 2 or 3 to make my veterans, in addition to Command Squad itself.

It does indeed include some parts that make for great "battle-damaged" veterans. Take for example this man:


He was fighting Orks in the previous battle and the swing of the Choppa was so strong, that even though he has parried it, it broke his arm. Nothing Sisters Hospitaller couldn't fix luckily! Though he still has to continue fighting and was issued a compact lasgun, that he can still operate with one hand. Yay, I finally managed to use that lasgun from vehicle accessory sprue!

The second one is the Regiment's Champion. Proudly carrying the regimental banner into battle. He's a veteran of many fights. In one of them, he lost his eye in the heat of the battle.


This man had his arm slightly "scratched", but he's still carrying on.


Now, all of these things can be really easily done with a bit of green stuff. You don't really need those bits. I've shown you how to do bandages with green stuff in previous article. You can do an eyepatch similarly. Putty gives you also more freedom and variety in what body parts have those guardsmen got injured.

I really advice you to try it out. Most people seem to go "What, sculpt?! Are you mad, a rubber duck has more skill with green stuff than me!" when told to do such a thing. What I say is "Have you tried?". I thought I can't even sculpt a rock, and now take a look at my psykers and Commisar Lord you all were so kind to comment on.

And the last part, the xeno bits I've mentioned. Remember the old Xeno-Fighters doctrine? I think it even had a requirement of trophies being modelled. Yeah, that's the point - trophies. Random Ork heads, a Tyranid talon, maybe a helmet of a single Chaos Marine or similar items like that. Just keep in mind one thing. I mean, would you want to carry an Ork head strapped to your belt? Sure it'd show how badass you are. Still, do you think you'd want to carry it for a week? Especially in warm climate? No, I don't think so... Or perhaps that's why they're wearing those rebreathers/face masks...

And that's all, folks! See you next time in a painting guide to 42nd colour scheme! Also coming soon is the freshly out of production line vets, Chimeras, Valks and maybe finally I'll show you those new platoon additions... See you soon!


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Here they are, the finished Psyker Battle Squad I promised to show you a while ago. Took a while to finish them and I'm really satisfied with the results. Now they sit comfortably undercoated and waiting their turn at the painting table.


And a problem arises. I was at first planning to paint their robes red and now I am unsure of this. It might turn out okay, but might not. On the other hand I wouldn't paint them in standard Red Gore->Blood Red, more like Red Gore highlighted with mixes of white, to make the color look a bit different... I mgith have to pick up Scab Red for that too. If you have any suggestions, feel free to share them in the comments! Anyway, enough talk, pictures!




Here's the squad. Click below for more pics, as usual!




I think the guys here are my favourites of them all. The one on the left has a dynamic pose, lack of sight, an hour-glass as his psy-focus (Check Dark Heresy rulebook for that! ;)) and the beard. The right one actually looks quite noble-ish, he was the first one I decided to make the high collar and it turned out great!





The left one didn't have a lot of modifications. He's annoyed, aiming with his laspistol and yelling. Woo. The only thing is that he has no eyes. Other than one cybernetic that is. While the original model probably wasn't intending that it appeared as such to me and I decided to go with it. The guy on the right on the other hand looks abit like a vampire, I guess it's the coat and the teeth that make such impression. But it's actually quite fluffy. If you read Dark Heresy (Can you tell I love it and draw lots of inspiration from there?) you can see that psykers get to roll for a random effect of their sanctioning. One of them, which our party psyker actually has, is that the psyker lost all his teeth during the process and was given a replacement of carven dentures made of teeth of dead pilgrims. Awesome, huh?




And the final pair. The left one is a bit meh. I suppose I should've made an outstretched hand rather that fist on his arm, but oh well. The right one had some really nasty sanctioning. I mean, he has a bandaged arm and lost his face. It'd be too much of an effort to reconstruct it and he wasn't really that promising, so they just decided to give him that iron mask. Cheap and efficient, isn't it?

And the entire squad in a bit of a closeup.

Now, I've seen it asked again in comments so I'll answer once more. The tops of the staff are resin casts of the staff top of one of the original metal psykers. I have a friend over here who's dong those things and he cast them for me. Everything else is plastic Empire Flagellants (or metal Sanctioned Psykers), some spare Vehicle accessory and Cadian bits (the pistol holsters and pistols) and quite a bit of green stuff.

Coming up next - the long-delayed next chapter of IHRH (got pics taken just need to write it), some shots of the new platoon additions, Valks and hopefuly painted vets. Also there's an upcoming Apocalypse game, I'll be sure to post some battle report!



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Yay, an update. I got a few days off studying. Managed to pass everything ,just one (the worst, heh) exam left! This time also gave me an opportunity to test out the new codex and let me tell you, it is awesome! 42nd has triumphed twice so far. Anyway, the real update...

Here he is. The supreme commander of the 42nd Cadian Regiment, Lord Marshal Havelock Hals. My first dabble with NMM technique... Well, just see for yourself and tell me what you think.




I'm awesomely proud of him. My second try at NMM, first real one and it turned out really well. I had some accident with him being metal and later with varnish being thick... Luckily I managed to save him the cruel fate and he can proudly lead the men of the 42nd to battle. And lead he does! Victory after victory, we bring the Emperor's Light to the enemies of Man!

I also have to say I really love that servo-skull that came with the new command squad, it adds some character to the mini definitely.

More pictures are to be seen, just click below!


Here is his command staff, freshly out of the training grounds. I'll post up more details once they're actually painted.

And the second command squad I'll be sporting. While Hals and his staff make up the Regimental Command Squad, this one is of the 3rd Company. Lead by freshly-promoted Lieutenant-Colonel Emmet who has just recently stopped being a humble veteran sergeant. I'll prolly scribble some fluff for this eventualy.

Anyway here he is, yep, nothing special but he isn't fully finished yet, lacking some accessories and such:

Though his true form.. is rather... different!


Right, just kidding. Yup, I couldn't really decide what loadout should he have so he'll have it all!



And on a finishing note, since a very long time I actually posted Hals on CMoN. If you would be so kind to vote for it you can do it here. No registration or anything required, thanks!



And lastly, something to wet your appetite for the upcoming update:




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