OSJC's 39th Eoforwich Pioneer Corps/Filey 42nd Droptroops (IG army project)

[osjclatchford]

so I got my finger out today and finished that five man shotgun veteran fire-team:


https://www.mediafire.com/view/zqgmnb2odlpcgiv/york_vet_02_ssg.jpg/file
Sawn-off shotgun guy. as you can see, this one uses a backpack and weapon from the atalan jackals set and some spare shot-shells on his chest rig from the fire-warrior set.


https://www.mediafire.com/view/auf8w910w87mg3e/york_vet_03_ssg_l.jpg/file
again, with a gsc double-barrelled shotgun, this one has the full-sized gun, which matches the cut-down version featured on the previous guy. his kit is an astartes grenade on a palanite enforcer pocket, an imperial shovel (mated to a mk3 marine chainsword handle, to represent an extendable grip) and a pocket from the eliminator sprue.
as well as this you will see a unique piece of kit, specific to the Eoforwich Pioneer corps, the Frag-charge:


Little more than large grenades, Frag-charges are similar in size and operation to meltabombs yet serve a very different role. used exclusively as anti-personel charges, these can be set as traps or simply thrown into an enemy bunker to "pacify" the room prior to entrance. cumbersome, heavy and very crude but certainly effective...

to make this Frag-charge was simple. its just a necromunda goliath nade with the stick removed. to make it really obvious that it is different to a regular frag-grenade, I diceded to paint it a simple black, place it on its side (as opposed to on end as nades are usually placed) and also add the astartes grenade (which is a pretty big grenade itself, compared to a cadian one, anyway) as a sence of scale.
this model's pose is also an attempt to create the sense of "going over-the-top", charging across no-mans-land toward the enemy. Sprinting like a madman, got to move fast to get close enough to use that shotty to best effect, eh?


https://www.mediafire.com/view/a9d1jx4arx5z3at/york_vet_04_pas.jpg/file
pump shotgun dude. this guy you may remember in its unpainted wip state.
as you can see this is where the goliath grenade's stick went, onto the imperial guard pickaxe handle.
the big pocket is ogryn, the nade tempestus-scion the small pocket dw and again with the fire warrior shot-shells. the shotgun is, of course, from the long suffering GSC atalan jackals set.   


https://www.mediafire.com/view/dm8rclpzc0l044v/york_vet_05_gl.jpg/file
again, one you've seen in WIP, this grenade launcher guy features the gsc launcher, the shells are from the ogryn sprue, the backpack a heavy intercessor pocket, the knife, cadian, as is the grenade too...


https://www.mediafire.com/view/x5ub51bvzxlr21j/york_veterans.jpg/file
here's a squad shot featuring an appropriately trenchy backdrop...
really loving how these came out. really got that dkok/trench warfare feel but with their own sense of identity thats really starting to flesh itself out as I go along...

most likely the stormtroopers next and theres also some riflemen on the brew too, still got a spaceshark to finish as well but thats another story...

oh, and no, Ive not yet resloved the mediafire issue. its pending an answer from them before I make any hosting changes so for now, just click the links to view this stuff...

*edit*
I've just joined imgBB to host these images, however I've left the mediafire links for now in case that goes wrong too :roll:

[osjclatchford]

so today I've done one of my aforementioned artillery sratchbuilds:

https://www.mediafire.com/file/w866q7gp13vdknn/york_nebelwerfer.jpg/file
visually inspired by a german nebelwerfer, this is clearly based off of a chaos vehicle sprue's havoc multi-launcher.
this has been mounted onto one of the seats of the valkyrie thats sitting on its front.
the grip handles are a tow-cable thats been sliced inhalf and the tow eye is off the marine vehicle sprue.
the axels are simple plastic rod and the wheelsaremade out of the drainage slots from plastic hanging-baskets. (the holes were already in there, that and the fact that the thing looks like a dkok artillery wheel, and I had them already anyway, is why I used this to make the wheels, rather than card/washers or whatever you fancy)
the front sheild is an old leman russ side-door-hatch.
paintjob is the same as on the bombard.
what is it then?
I dunno, missilelauncher proxy? or just perhaps some rather nice terrain? either way, its obvious visual reference to a trench-warfare smoke-launching-missile-platform cannot be denied.
I can just imagine this sitting at the trench edge, firing off smoke-missiles preceeding an 'over-the-top!' charge across no-mans-land...

btw the chaos multi-launcher is one badly cast bit of a model... not very nice detail at all, thanks be it was mostly covered in trench-grime and paint-chips!

the next artillery piece you see from me will be somewhat more impressive than this...

[Lord Borak]

Sorry about the late reply! I can't even remember when my last day off was.

They look really nice mate. Very realistic and gritty. The conversions, poses, hear and paint jobs all make sense  and are, annoyingly, really well executed. As per usual.

[osjclatchford]

thanks, LordB. appreciated!
heres some better pics of the shotgun-veteran squad again, this time on my trademark starry background (and with better lighting!)

[osjclatchford]

been at the scatter terrain again:

this time a nice pallet to go with the barrels.
I figure its +/- the right scale for the barrels? making it 1:35 scale? I dunno. its 2 inches square, which still looks pretty big for 1:35 and tbh its bleedin' huge against the guardsmen but whattayagonna do? the original 'battlefield accessories' set had the same 1:35 scale barrels two types of boxes and some tank traps AND some 2inch square pallet thingys. ok they were chequer-board metal jobbies but still. 2" square pallets so this is my basis for this monstrosity!

its made from 13 2" peices of coffee stirrers  superglued onto 9 5mm cubes of balsa. in the exact manner a real pallet would be. go look at one. its the same (unless its a euro pallet of course. they are not square and turf pallets are different too, no blocks just strips, but thats a different story alltogether.)
rather than paint the model as usual, I opted to simply stain it with watered agrax and some spot staining of watered brown and chestnut ink.
a bit of grey and green washed and drybushed after it was dry and then finally the nails drawn on as simple little slitty dots with a fineline marker.
looks ok I think. well, fine for something that cost me nothing but time, inks and a bit of balsa!

[osjclatchford]

'nother two of the stormtroopers done:


This one's pose shows off the fg42 inspired hotshot-nihilis lasgun a treat.
you can see how I simply mounted a lasgun mag assembly onto one of the anvil riflestock parts, then just grafted the van-saar lasser onto that.
painting it as wood stock gives it that high-tech yet oldskool look I realy wanted to convey.
Its chunky enough to be a hellgun against the regular rifles (yet to be revealed, and yes, I must paint some regular riflemen soon, I know...) yet its still sleek enough to not look as rediculous as the hyper-chunky hellguns I made from the reiver grapnels on the royston rifles' darkeyes...
the tankbomb is off the atalan jackals sprue and the nades are a cadian frag and a pocket/gasnade(?) combo from the riever sprue to give that 'elite' feel...


This one uses another atalan jackals component, this time the bag of dynamites to again convey some of that sabotage/demolition thing I was going for and you'll also see he has his GW citadel minitures box on his back too! lols, no I know it looks like one of those but imagine this is a box of tools or further explosives etc...
to pad him out some he has the space marine pocket triplet and another cadian nade.

[Lord Borak]

Really nice. I'm digging the 1st/2nd world war feel. The rust/weathering effects on those barrels is nuts mate. Well done.

[osjclatchford]

cheers, the ww1/ww2 feel is the desired effect here, but the use of more modern equipment such as molle vests and the like is added to make it more 40k and also to reflect that captain america war-time suit that he wore. no way such tech was available then but it looks retro enough to feel right.

anyhow.
Three or so Alan Parsons records and a few cups of recaff gets a couple of riflemen done today:

you can see how the rifles came out now. rather happy with the result. I like them a lot more than the fw dkok lasguns tbh, retro and realistic yet clearly of imperial design. they remind me of the lasguns on the blackstone fortress chaos traitor guardsmen. but a bit more sensibly proportioned for these models.
the backpacks are the leg pockets off of primaris infiltrators/incursors.
really nice for adding that dkok backpack look. the new pockets have nicer detail but standard tactical marine (or mk4 kit pockets would be much better, in truth, they have crisper detail) would do fine, I'm sure. I may yet use these on some of my forthcoming models for a bit of variation in the troops.
the sgt/watchmaster has the ridged lid to denote his rank and the suitably nasty punch-dagger/brass-knuckes comes from a bloodbowl dude. I felt that a set of brass-knuckes are suitably trenchy themed but the hugeness of this specific one absolutely on-par with 40k's weapon stylings

I've been musing on the squads a bit and realise that I've subconciously been building this with second edition rules in mind.
a quick look of the recent codex shows me that infantry sergeants can no longer use lasguns. grumble, grumble.
however dkok infantry can use them. they are called watchmasters not sergeants I believe...
so perhaps I'll use the dkok as a proxy for the army. they are close is asthetics, after all...
that also makes more sense for the shotgun veterans I've done which, as a squad of five are currently illegal.
so use them as engineers? well fine, yeah but the grenade launcher has to go.
so that will go into an infantry squad and I'll make a new shotgunner model to make the five-man engineer team I need.

I'll post more as soon as stuff gets done...

[osjclatchford]

so...
been toying with the idea of designing a lascarbine for some of the veterans in the force.
I decided to go with something akin to the elysian accatran, bullpup lasgun.
however unlike my previous attempts for the royston rifles, based on the tau rifle mixed with the lasgun, this one is based on the spacemarine mk4 flamer ad as such is much shorter and ideal to represent a short pattern las-carbine:

although only at the mock-up stage at present, I'll be sure to post some shots when I've done a guy with one.
I feel it looks a lot more integral and comprehensive than the other design I did. espescially the carry handle/sight.
the round circley bit is also a lovely visual tie-in to the grip/stock on the dkok lasgun design too which is a nice bonus...

*edit*

one of the aforementioned vetrans

still wip but enough done to show off the new carbine design somewhat.
(he will most likely end up in a command squad with a few similarly armed friends and a company commander at some point)
 
this guy features the anvil 'plate carrier torso' that (although unlear in this image) features some extensive molle details, making it a great link to the heavy armour torso's I've used on the stormtroopers, yet its lightweight enough so as not to confuse with the stormtroopers on sight.
its the collar/neck that does it on those. as soon as you see that where the helmet and collar almost touch, creating an almost knightly vision-slit effect you know they are different to the rank and file.

anyway, I was looking over the veterans/engineers with shotguns I did before and realised that if I am fielding them as engineers they lack a very important detail; carapace armour!

so 'what to do?' says I.
I figured that the eoforwich pioneers are not the dkok, sure so why not have a few differences hither and yon. got to have their own flavour in there too eh?
so if the stormtroopers are grenadier versions of the rank and file infantry, simply more armour and higher powered rifles, then I can do something similar for the engineer side of the corps too!
so an idea was born:

the 39th elite engineers aka the 'hammer hogs'
these guys will be essentially, to the current engineers, what the grenadiers are to the infantry.
They are little more than heavily armoured walking shotguns, scouting ahead and providing cover for the unarmoured engineer specialists as they go about their work, guarding the labrynthian subterrainian tunnels to prevent counter-attack...
rulses wise they'd just be another five engineers with shotguns to flesh the engineer squad out to ten.
or just an alternate looking other five man engineer squad. whatever really, just fun to create something thats unique to the EPC and not just another dkok/cadian/eleysian clone army, like what my royston rifles became a bit int he end.
oh they've got character, don't get me wrong. just a little too much if you know what I mean. left them looking really disperate. something I'm hoping to avoid in this army. I hoping that even with different armed models, keeping them rather uniform per squad/fireteam it will not 'break-the-bank' of the unified look of the force... just let me know if you think I'm going to far at any point...

really this is just another excuse to model some more no-nonsense guys like the stormtroopers but with shotguns because, shotguns!
visually a fair mix of the engineers and the grenadiers, these guys will use the same 'plate carrier torso' as the above pictured trooper and feature the similar shorter tunics as worn by the grenadiers (this time using anvil's putee legs in place of the vikky lamb ones) too, keeping the "travel light, move fast" asthetic already employed by the grenadiers.


the weapons will actually be anvil's KSG shotguns.

yes, a rather contraversial choice, as they are a very modern, bullpup design. I feel they will create an elite and high tech feel yet (with wooden stock effect in the paint job) still feel akin to the shotguns used by the engineers I've previously modelled.
of course it helps they look like the stargate atlantis triple barreled shotguns too

FYI, I'm still waiting on anvil to restock these KSG shotties so I'm afraid you'll have to wait for pics of these till then.

[osjclatchford]

well what a weekend for guard colectors eh? and orks for that matter (but thats a topic for another thread methinks...)

looks to me that the future of this regiment may well end up being based on plastic dkok troopers.
A good look at the sprues shows that the heads/hoses will indeed be seperate after-all, making the potential for conversion in this area a doddle... great news indeed.

might even be worth buying from scalpers if its a fair enough price... otherwise expect to wait over six months or whatever. still. very exciting times.

so what of the old 39'thers at the min?

well, I fear I may have gone too far with the whole extra extra engineers.
but that may have something to do with the fact that ksg shotguns i'm waiting on, on anvil's website have been on "available in 4-8 weeks" for over two months now... sigh, damn covid and brexit shyte...
I'm not giving up on those by any means but I have no illusions I may well have to wait a LOT longer than expected to get my hands on those sexie shotguns afterall... perhaps I might even have some dkok to put them on by then! LOL

so not wanting to sit on a bunch of plate carrier torsos and puttee legs indefinately, when i've not money to waste on such things, I've decided instead to utilize them with those nice new carbine I designed:

inspired by the british wartime commandos, these guys are this army's interpritation of the elysian droptroops, albeit viewed through a dieselpunk lens. incorporating the molle vest designs of the heavily armoured grenadiers 
and the lighter tunics to suggest similarity with the elite stormtroopers, whilst still being basic guardsmen. these guys feature the nice puttee legs and brodie lids to keep the ww1/ww2 trenchy feel intact and also feature the elysian style lasguns and shoulderpads for the modern tactical aspect. the standout feature most of you will have noticed is the beret on the centre guy of the group.
this was a simple greenstuff sculpt as, one, I wanted him to be wearing the gasmask like the others and, two, I could not find any suitable beret heads for love nor money.
the simple additon of a scout rifle silencer on one trooper and some of 40k's more exotic imperial grenades helped to cement the whole elite/special ops look I wanted.

the bacground behind these is that they are veteran guardsmen that specialise in the more covert and stealthier side of things as far as special ops are concerned.
The grenadiers, hitherto referred to as the Bebbanburg Hammer-Hogs.
(got to use the name somewhere in the force and I figure that name is ideal to represent the brutality and blunt nature of the grenadiers fighting style of blow up everything and shoot everyone in the face)
are the hammer, these guys are the scalpel.
essentially they'll either end up as a hardened vet squad or simply end up as the company commander's personal bodyguard of handpicked bad-asses...
I still like the idea that the commander would pick the best operatives from the elites available to him and use them as his own personal guard. hence the fact that the armour is similar to the Bebbanburg grenadiers but clearly not as obvious. carrying the theme across but not the function on the models. making them fine as basic guard.

[horizon]

Again, great.

[osjclatchford]

cheers H! got some on the paint desk (about 50% done so far) but got too hot to keep painting for now...
will get them done soonish. (its the last two bebbanburg grenadiers and the replacement shotgunner I mentioned afore to five-man-loadout the veteran/engineers squad in place of the grenadelauncher dude)

will also be converting up a standard bearer in the style of those commandos in order that they'll be the company commander's cmd sqd...

I'm hoping that gw will be releasing some more kits for dkok this winter/next spring/summer to go alongside the new plastics; command squad, commander, heavy weapons, horsemen even? engineers perhaps? we can but hope but, nonetheless, its got me holding back on any further purchases untill we see whats in-store for the plastic dkok.

[osjclatchford]

well, I got those last two stormtroopers done today:

note the other tank-mine from the atalan jackals set and another of those frag-charges.
I've added in some cadian nades and the cadian bayonet and empty scabbard.
note that the bayonet charging guy's lasgun is empty, no charge-mag in the chamber.
the pocket is from the intercessor sprue.

and here is the obligitory squad shot:

the bebbanburg grenadiers in all their blunt and offencive glory!

also got another shotgunner done for the engineer/sapper veterans squad.

note the wrench from the atalan jackals sprue (god I've pillaged that kit haven't I?), pockets from the mk4 marine sprue and intercessor sprue (large and small respectively) and the shells/krak grenade from the sternguard kit.
the shotgun with the muzzlebrake is from the neyophyte sprue but had the annoying niddy looking alien claw hand on it. I shaved it all away, cleaned down the pump to nothing, then replaced it with a bit of aluminium tube with a slot cut out of it to fit over the original, mutilated pump.
this gave me the option of modelling it back, mid-pump.

shant bother with yet another squad shot of those... you've seen more than enough of those guys by now...

[osjclatchford]

I decided to add some gore and an overall good splattering to the bayonet armed bebbanburg grenadier so as to better suggest at the brutality of the squad.

He's been getting properly stuck into the heretics in the trenches, I think it came out pretty good all told.
 
oh and here's a WIP of that bannerguy that goes with the other commandos in the company command squad:

[osjclatchford]

So, I fancied a nice little experiment today. as an excuse not to start on the rank and file infantrymen (tis rather hot though so i feel I can be forgiven)
I was collecting up some old models to sell-on and found this headless wonder in the mix:

clearly far too mutilated to be usefull to anyone as a steel legionnaire anymore, I thought I'd test my skills and see If I could turn him into an artilleryman one-off for my 39ers!
A little nostalgic forray into white metal to see if my love affair with the stuff is still strong or if all of gw and anvil's lovely plastic and resins have turned my head forever...


the head, collar and gun had all been chewed to funt with a hobbysaw and clippers from the look of it, so, I first set about replacing the lasgun barrel/muzzle with a resin one I had (I've run out of plastic lasguns now) and, although a little short, I think it's fine to represent a stubby cut-down carbine, that is little more than a glorified laspistol with a folding stock. Almost as if the lasguns are an afterthought for the gunners, the sort of thing ideal to represent what a back-field artillery unit would be armed with. this was also a bit damaged so was re-rendered with some gs (damn pis-poor fw casting, grr).
I completely resculped the collar while I was at it.
the front hose was clipped away and the 'vents' on the rebreather canister shaved off and a pocket fold sculpted in its place.
whilst the newly reformed collar was still soft I pushed an anvil brodie head (with a cut down neck) into the middle then reformed the whole lot with my silicon sculpting brush. simple!
I then did the base with the gs left over. then to cover the hole on the back where the rocket backpack used to be, I simply glued on a scout grenade/pocket combo on there, yeah I could just have easily re sculpted back to be a strap etc, but, this is a nicer finish imho...

well to answer the above original question, its not something I'd do again in a hurry.
whist doing the trimming and carving to reform the front collar and right-hand pocket I remembered what a bitch it is working with white metal to do such things. it broke 5(!?) stanleyblade tips doing it!
the stuff is a pigger in retrospect and, yes its true to say I am a total convert to plastic and resin these days... well anvil's resin anyway...

I should get him based and painted within a few days and then we'll see how/if he fits in with the other Eoforwich boys in terms of quality. will the paint job be enough to make the grade or will he forever slip into darkness with the rest of his steel legion kin Ive consigned to oblivion in the pages of history...

my reasoning was that the steel legionarre wit the plasmagun I did to test the colourscheme is ok, so..?

more soon