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

[osjclatchford]

So, got that artilleryman done:

actually came out pretty good all told.
the thing about the lower-res nature of old metal castings is that you have to add a lot of fine detail that simply isn't there on the sculpt, with paint; the defined 'sections' of the shell, a lot of the folds on the cloth etc...
also there are a lot of connecting blank sections that are the innevitable result of single part metal castings, you've a choice of either painting these as the part they originate from as if it is stretched and skewed (like lo-res graphics on low poly 90's game models) or you can paint the edges properly difined and plant the 'blank' section in black. I chose to do the latter so that the mini would look better not only against the resins already in the force, but its also a better look in general.

so is it a fair match now its done? well, what say you?

I think, although it has the same short greatcoat and, of course the same head and colourscheme of the others it does have obviously differing details that are down to the sculpt being from a different faction and designer.
however, these things; like the big gauntlet-type gloves, the lack of armoured shins or putees and the differing lasgun design can all be explained away by the fact that he's an artillerman, not a line-trooper.
the rest is kinda close enough to not look too bad alongside the others. the lesser definition on detail not all that obvious in the end...

the real question, is it worth it?
I'd say it depends on the model you are converting. this one? I'd say, yes, totally.
I had the model knocking around anyway, pre hacked and the crouching/shell-loading pose is a very specific one that I rather liked and would be a cowson to try and replicate in resin parts from anvil quite as accurately as this.
it would be worth it for characters and specific poses, sure, but to go out of your way to get a load of metal rank-and-file guardsmen and hack them apart just to match your resins? no chance.
you'd be throwing your money away...

this does potentially open up some future ideas of using other 3rd party metal character minis as future conversion fodder though... as I say, the pose would really have to be worth it to warrent such action...

[osjclatchford]

So I decided to make up some shells to go alongside the artilleryman:

trooper Essex muses on which shells to use, high-ex or gas? If only he had a heavy mortar to load them into...

as you can see I've, again, used the Steel Legion rocket-shells and based them onto some of the nifty bits of sprue that Anvil supply their 'trencher' range on.
for those not in the know, so as not to waste space, anvil model their sprues as interesting rubble etc so as they can be used on bases or diorama pieces. something they've done since back in their 'afterlife' days... clever and resoursefull, eh?
this sprue is handily designed to feature trench duck-boarding planks and Ive used a few in some greenstuff so as the shells aren't just sitting in the mud...

these alternative shells are made from cadian flamertanks with the fin section clipped from spkes off of a chaos spikey sprue ram, the only thing I had enough of to warrent using but other things would do I'm sure. (plasticard 'x' sections would be ideal...)
the planks on this base are actually made by pressing the sprue into the greenstuff to steal the texture. I made sure that I mixed the paint on the base whilst wet to better blend the mud and board edges to make it look slick with filth and almost impossible to see where the boards end and the mud begins...

and no, I have no idea why I had three spare steel legion rocket launchers in the bitzbox either...

[Lord Borak]

Really, really, really cool conversions. I love the las carbines and the berret. Also love the gritty paint job mate and, yeah, basically everything.

When are we going to see some Armour??

[osjclatchford]

Bombard scratchbuild/conversion on page one..?

Also, sunday morning, working hard or hardly working..?

...coming soon.

[horizon]

Da Big Guns are being brought.

[osjclatchford]

indeed they are, very soon it seems!
artillery support for the eforwich 39ers has always been the intention with this collection, however I had no intention of being scalped by FW's obscene prices.
so scratchbuild 'tis then:








Years ago, when I first planned the bombard conversion, I had purchased a earthshaker cannon sprue on ebay for a very low price (snapped it up!) purely to get my mits on the cannon support struts.
I figured I'd get round to making a carriage for the leftover cannon eventually and somehow, so 12 or so years later and 'eretiz!

the wheels are the make or break of this conversion, they come from lego technics range and I've had them since I first bought the lego kit they came off of when I was a mere whelp of a boy! (single figures!)
once I discovered 40k (I had also been doing wartime vehicles and dioramas in my pre-teen days) I realised the wheels were suitably 40k looking and would be ideal for one of those 6 wheeled chimera jobbies that was often in the wd's of the time.
however, I never got my hands on a second set of wheels so this conversion never happened.
years pass, and in the box they reamain. the tyres long since lost to the mists of time.
however, the design is perfect for representing artillery-wheels to mimic the dkok early 20th century industrial warfare asthetic.
all I had to do was add some 'trench-tyres' which, during the wars, were little more than thin plates of dense vulkanised rubber that soften the footprint of the wheels somewhat, preventing damage to the actual wheel itself, keeping the gun standing true. just like the ork artillery wheels show them and I've also seen them first hand on similar weapons in the imperial war museum etc...
I simply used cereal box card superglued on for this but a better/more patient modeller would have sourced some abs pipe the right size and cut it into even segments and glued that on.
I figured, as It was going to be filthy and old looking, this would not be worth spending money on. spacemarine bike (or ork) wheelhub finished the wheels off just fine.
yes, I know the fw carriage has four thin wheels a side but these are twice the thickness so, funt it, it'll do...
the gun was altered by adding the muzzlebrake from the leman russ canon, the rest of the russ battle-cannon used either side of the earthshaker-gun as a mount. to this I added to trimmed down bits of imperial dozer-blade as a stubby, almost vestigial, blast shield.
as I'd used the original breach-plate on the bombard, I simply used a valkerie rocket-pod end with a little styrene railroad valve-crank I bought a bunch of at the engineering exhibition a few years back (one is on my autocannon conversion in the royston rifles thread, if you're that interested).
couple of pistons from the imperialguard dozer chassis, and a crank made from the searchlight mount on one side and a heavybolter mount bit from the valkerie sprue on the other side and the gun was done.
this was then mounted on a frame made of two predator/whirlwind plates (top/bottom) and some more of that long-suffering valkerie kit for the sides, a couple of track-guard bits at the back end and two rhino doors.
one as the back beneath the breach area and one trimmed down and put on the left side as a stand-point.
this last bit also has a handle off of something I cant remember and theres a grabrail made from a
tow hook (like I did on the nebelwerfer). also on the left side is a control panel made from a cut down auspex with a gungrip from a gsc heavy weapon positioned like a joystick.
on the right side there is the stowage section from the russ (fixed up with trackguard leftovers) and a towcable from the imperial guard tank-sprue.
the rear outrigger/platform is made from the dozer chassis with step-platess from the landspeeder-storm added. also on here is a towhook and a nifty little loading-crane, made from the servo arm from the long-suffering atalan jackals sprue with a reiver grapnel claw mounted on it (looks more like those annoying fairground claw-games than a shell-loader, true. But tis a nice detail nonetheless.)
this is then finished off with a swizzels plastic lollystick axle (no longer available these days, they are all compressed paper now, so use styrene or brass/ali rod/tube) with a pair of wheels made from the plastic basket drain holes like I did on the nebelwerfer. however, instead of leaving them plain metal with weathering, I decided to make trench-tyres for these too as it would match the others nicely and also suggest at the weapon's great weight.
oh, yeah, all of the outrigger is liked to the rhino plate under the breach-area via an upturned space marine bike pedal-section.
the front of the carriage-frame is finished with a pit of artboard (plasticard would be better in truth) with the storage-box from the predator kit and two of the chimera skull plate bits 'hung' under this to represent further amour to prevent grenades et being thown under or whathaveyou.
onto one of these the 'canvas-wrap' from the imperialguard tank-spruewas added, if for nothing but a difference in colour and texture and also to hide the twinned nature of the two chimera plates on there...


oh, and before someone askes for it, here it is with some 'crew'

no, not he right models at all but they will do for now to show the scale off properly...

although this can be considered done I'm not sure I'm 100% done with this yet. I've a hankering for a scenic base and some tools etc added hither and yon... we shall see...
 

[osjclatchford]

anyway, here are the tools and that I mentioned to go with said earthshaker carriage.

SM whirlwind toolbox, gsc pick from the atalan jackals (with added grip), a shovel from the IG tank sprue (with a handle from a goliath grenade) and the lantern from the empire steam tank kit. (this is mounted on a little hook I've added to the carriage, pics later..?)

also got that ATV quadbike I was working on done while I was at it.

although rather modern in its design I've added modern bullpup rifles so I figured this would be suitable! besides, the german Sonderkraftfahrzeug 2 half-trackmotorcycle was a thing so why not this...
(see earlier post for construction details)
 

[osjclatchford]

doing more with the earthshaker carriage

some camo-net drape made from aluminium car body repair mesh.
I painted it with a base of black spray and then overbrushed (a crude wet-drybrush-esque method) some steel legion drab and then added some zandridust as a highlight.
not only is this a nice contrast to the blue-grey armour, but its a nice tie-in with the greatcoats on the troops...


here are those tools from above, but on the model...

[osjclatchford]

at it again today...
here's five riflemen

with various backpacks made from astartes pockets...

[horizon]

Impressive how dedicated you keep going.

Since I have no idea if you ever leave this subforum:
https://www.specialist-arms.com/forum/index.php?topic=9442.msg79723#new

Book III (!) will feature space sharks.

[osjclatchford]

I had no idea what any of that was but its kinda interesting!

today I got round to something Ive been working on under my hat for a bit now.

A heavy bolter nest.

made from the kromlech bits-of-war HMG carriage (the one I had as a heavy bolter for my 11st RR) with the heavy intercessor heavy-bolter in place of the vickers/maxim it had on it as-standard.
the heavy bolter has been altered to fix any 'missing bits' with gs, the grip is the ass-end off an intercessor's bolt-rifle and the top handle comes from an autocannon ammo mag.
the box-magazine is from the atalan jackal heavy stubber but with a 'flap' from an imperial vehicle sprue ammo box, to match more of these added to the base.
those I modelled to look like two 'fresh'ones, one of these featuring some rounds poking out on a belt (made from a deathwatch pocket) and also one discarded one, thrown over the fence.
the fence posts are just bits of round sprue, filed down with a triangular file to give the wood texture and the barbed wire is scratch-made from 0.4mm wire.
the empty shells are from anvil, several small 'piles' and some induvidual shells stuck on too for a fair looking distribution.
the obligitory spade from the heavy-weapon sprue and the whole thing was good to go!

so why 50mm base not 60? why a base at all if its on its own? the nebelwerfer hasn't one!

well I wanted to do it as a stand-alone mini diorama as I wanted all the fence and ammo details and all that jazz but wanted to make it so it can be used with any squad, any regiment really, if I wanted to. simply putting it with two riflemen on their own bases, I suppose...

use aside, I feel it looks very similar to the dkok one in the end and thats down to the kromleck carriage. anvil do a good one too so thats worth a look if you're interested in other suppliers. the use of the HI bolter makes it it's own thing for sure... very familiar but subtly different

here's a top-down view as a parting shot:

[osjclatchford]

So today I decided to paint up my infantry company's commander:

Major Winters.

Unlike those commanders that bought their commission and lead via fear and intimidation, Winters earned his commission via several battlefield promotions.
Don't be fooled, it was not a case of dead-mans-boots, Winters is a natural born leader, who prefers to lead by example. such actions caught the eye of regimental command and with each promotion, Winters rose and rose again to the challenges before him, more than proving his worth time and time again.
There's nothing winters would ask of his men that he would not and has not done himself.
By leading from the front, he has earned their respect and his reputation for legendary heroism their admiration.
Winters has very little respect for pomp and circumstance, preferring to stick to the practicality that standard issue kit provides.
As a young lieutenant, winters was issued a ludicrously ornamented and expensive plasma-pistol by a grateful planetary govenor.
secretly amused at the ornamentation of the pistol winters supressed the smirk he felt rising as he was presented the firearm and accepted the gift for the honour it was.
"ornamentation aside, it was an exceptionally well built pistol, as short-lived as it was.." he later remarked in hindsight
In his zeal to "get-the-job-done" as he puts it, fighting heretics on karak prime, he taxed the power core to the limit through extended use, knowing full well the weapon would likely explode. The pistol's final shots slaying the heretic astartes leader he was dueling, at the cost of his hand up to the elbow as the core blew in a flare of a  blinding-white plasmatic explosion, quarterizing the wound as it did so.
In agonising pain, half binded and limited to use of his chainsword for personal protection, Winters first ensured his platoon's squads had secured all their objectives, only then did he allow himself the luxury of passing out at the aid station.
not being something he's overly keen to experiance again, the Major now sports a simple bolt-pistol, claiming "the only thing this will blow up is heretic skulls..." 

this model uses the anvil puttee legs and an 'irregular' torso to achive the pilot's jacket look.
I felt the whole, fighter jacket look gave him a sense of induviduality and authority, yet retained a feeling of practicality I wanted to show.
he's in charge, no doubt about it but he's still one-of-the-boys.
the pose also helps to that end.
the arm on the sword comes from a whf pikemen with a bit of gs for a cuff.
the skeletal hand is the one I cut off the reliquiry from the blade-guard ancient I turned into that fallen angel model.
I felt this looked rather like a t800 hand and that also went rather well with the bomber-jacket and helps to add a sense of a history to him.
the sword is from an old metal commissar arm with the hand removed and a grip from a catachan sword put inside the hilt-cradle.
the bolt-pistol and mag are from the HH mkIII marine sprue.
I went for a 32mm base to show his importance as a character and added some more home-made barbed wire as on the heavy bolter base.
while painting, as I did the jacket in the dark brown leather I usually do the gloves in I chose to do the glove in a yellow leather instead. looks appropriately ww1/ww2  I feel. he's kinda dressed like Indiana Jones now I think of it!
his helmet colourscheme shows off his rank nicely too.
something I should have mentioned before, the helmets and crests signify ranks quite clearly in this army, once you know the legend:


The 39th use helmets with ridged crests and skull motives to denote ranks at-a-glace.
these are as follows:

39th Eoforwich Pioneer Corps Infantry Ranking designations.
- Squad level (non-coms, sergeants etc...) - plain crest, green skull
- Platoon level (junior officers, lieutenants etc...) - green crest, bronze skull
- Company level (Captains, Majors etc..) - green crest, silver skull
- Regimental level (Colonel's and above) - green crest, gold skull

so, sgts have a clean stripe but a green skull and all officers have the green stripe, just changing the skull badge for rank.

theres auxilleries too;

- Medical corps (all ranks of medical officers) - White crest and red skull
- Engineer corps - as the infantry scheme, simply exhanging the green with black.
(so, simple black skull for squad-level and a black stripe and 'metal' skulls for the officers)

however, Its worth noting that veterans and covert operatives are often exceptions to the rule, Opting for the simple plain brodie lid design for reasons of stealth, or to avoid becoming obvious targets for enemy sniper-fire...

[horizon]

With a background story as well. Good job!

[osjclatchford]

cheers, though I can't take all the credit.
aside from the bit about the plasma-pistol its all true:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_Winters
more or less...

man's a legend...

[osjclatchford]

So, although Ive had a spurt of prolific activity here recently, I've become a bit preoccupied with some rather desperate home improvement work the last week or so, as such I've had little to nout to show, painted wise.
so to make up for this void of activity, here are some wip guys Ive on the go at the min...


some riflemen. Mk4 marine and infiltrator leg pockets. cadian knives, cadian and khorne berzerker grenades.

their sergeant. note the enforcer pockets and the sm pocket triplet.

this L.t is the platoon's leader. twas a bit of a cowson to get the pose as I wanted it to be honest, but totally worth it in the end.
the torso is a valkerie crew one for the armoured, yet simple look I fancied.
the arms are made up of the imperial guard tank sprue gunner arms. the hammer arm uses the hand from the pikeman arm (the other half of the parts I used on the major) to give the over the shoulder look. the hammer is yet another component from the atalan jackals sprue. backpack is mk4 marine pockets and the grenades are tactical squad sprue.
his holster comes from the heavy intercessor sprue. but any would have done I suppose. I just like the bullet details on it...

this is the platoon command squad medic. lots of catachan pockets and some gs to make the hands match (small plate on the back of the glove as on the medkit carrying hand)

heres a sniper and grenade launcher guy, also from that command squad.
boltrifle scope, mk4 and intercessor pockets and grenade pouches.
the gl is GSC neophytes sprue with the 'stock' from the enforcers sniper rifle mated to some .5mm styrene rod. the barrel is altered a bit so that it's rather stubby looking.
the shell is one of anvil's empty rounds with a half-round bead added.

here's a bit of a more crazy concept.
this combat engineer is sporting a state of the art "demolition-suit".

combat engineer corps demo-suit.
this crude yet effective servo-exo-skeleton amplifies the users strength and speed, giving them destructive power almost on par to astartes power-armour, though with a large degree less protection and sophistication...

the observant among you will see it's made from an orlock arms master.
the inclusion of a brodie-lid-head and a bit of a resculpt of the chest to remove the chunky-ass neck chain and cover up the exposed pecs and abs, replacing it with a simple uniform undershirt.
the belt buckle and sash have also been altered, shaving away the bottom of the 'skull' and reforming the sash to further distance it from the orlock iconography it started as.
the hammer head was also swapped out, the ludicrous and odd-looking orlock one for the practical and realistic looking one from the gsc aberrants sprue. this helps cement the somewhat industrial look I've been going for across the army.


this dispatch-rider one may or may not get finished. still not 100% on this yet
its only at the blutack stage so no GS sculpting (aside the base) has been done yet.
the panzerfaust is from mad-robot and is a leftover from my royston rifles panzerfaust jousters.
he too uses a valkerie crew torso and uses the bedroll from the tank sprue and some guitar string with 90% of the outer wire removed as an aerial on the wire-less set.
still missing it's replacement right handlebar (the original of which ended up on the ammo-atv) and I'd probably scupt a face-scarf, flapping in the wind, hence the gasmask on his waist.
but as I say, still on the fence on this one...

painted stuff soon, I hope.