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!