Hardened Veterans – The Concrete Jungle Fighters

The Concrete Jungle Fighters

Some reinforcements for the Imperial Forces, The Concrete Jungle Fighters are hardened veterans of the Imperial Guard. Each one is a survivor of countless skirmishes having honed their craft to a razors edge. They are a concentration of roided-up gung-ho superheroes who are equipped with serious firepower in the form of bolters, personal side arms, a grenade launcher and a heavy bolter. If they can’t rip it apart with their bare hands, they also carry grenades and close combat weapons for close encounters.

They have been created by combining the old RT Imperial Guard plastic head with slightly less old plastic Catachan and Cadian Guardsmen.

Catachan Jungle Fighters – plastic models

The Catachan plastics are action figure like unless you do a bit of work on the shoulder joins with green stuff before painting.

I only used one of the original heads for the Sargent, opting for classic plastic heads and a Space Wolf Blood Claw for one guy.

Some official Catchan uniform patterns from Games Workshop

Nearly every Catachan mini you will see painted, is painted some shade of green. Rather than do that, I quite liked the blue version so based these off the blue scheme tailored for urban combat, but rather than going with the red bandanas, I choose yellow.

They have been painted with a fairly quick approach and then enhanced with some decals. I have used contrast paint to glaze the skin tones onto the base, on the black, on the camo pants, on the leather bits. I could spend some more time on the details and effects it’s time to stop as I am happy with the look for the effort that went into painting them, they are ready for some gaming now and I have a lot more Imperial Guard that I want to get painted up to a similar standard.

Going forward I have some of the nice old metal Catachan models that will be perfect as support to accompany these glorious heroes on the future battlefields. Certainly specialists, snipers, heavy weapons support, more regulars etc. would not go amiss.

Rogue Trader Imperial Guard Project – More Pictures of 1989th

This is just a quick round up of the project.

Painted squads first:

 

Catachan Pattern Comm Link and Sargent

“Corporal” in center (for splitting the squad), also Flamer Guy toting a Cadian pattern flamer

 

Command Squad: 13th Company 3rd Platoon

Ogryn with Ogryn Badass

 

Works in progress.  These are pretty much test models for squads I am planning on adding to the force:

WIP Rough Rider – Front Left

 

WIP Rough Rider Sargent Front Right

WIP Rough Rider – Rear

 

WIP Necromunadan Grenadier – Front

WIP Necromunadan Grenadier – Rear

 

WIP Jump Pack Assault Sargent with Plasma Pistols – Front

WIP Jump Pack Assault Sargent with Plasma Pistols – Rear

 

Rogue Trader Era Imperial Guard Project – Badass Ogryn

tYou got a ticket to the gun show?

So after some words with Sho3box last week I went for making the Badass Ogryn.  The idea is to use the BattleMasters ogre as the base.  The BattleMasters ogre is basically the same model in a larger scale, perfect for my needs in this project as I get to follow the same style closely in making this bigger than normal brute.  Here the models are side by side for comparison.

Ogres from HeroQuest expansion on the left and BattleMasters game (from MB) on the right

Build involves chopping off the arms and shaving off any not needed details, fantasy equipment etc.

BattleMasters Ogre sliced and diced

Armor is made from plasticard strips worried by a long nose pliers into shape.

Armour made from plastic card strips

Armor is stuck to the model using superglue (more sane people would probably use plastic cement, I am just impatient and demand immediate hold due to a low attention span).  Unit badge is made by hole punching plasticard.

Badass Ogryn armor after supergluing onto the base model, not supergluing your fingers is like trying to eat a sugary doughnut without lickng your lips 

Rough assembly with Blu-Tac:

That’s about right for a pose I think

After lots of green stuffing around the arms (with the aid of the clay shaper) its ready to paint up:

Badge indicates member of Ogryn squad designation “Happy Violence” attached to 13th Company 3rd Platoon

 

Lots of green stuff was needed around the neck and arms to achieve the more animated pose versus the stock model

❤

o/

 

Size comparison again:

Yup, he looks badass enough to me

 

Context with other models:

I iz pleased, they certainly seem to have the same atmosphere now as the 80’s plastics

Of note is the 80’s style mohawk/crest thingie which is just a plastic HeroQuest ogre mowhawk transplant.  The weapon choice is an interesting one.  I didn’t really have a clue what to arm a Badass Ogryn with.  The Ripper gun conversion I was building for the other Ogryns is simply too small for this brute.  I didn’t really consider him the type of chap to be changing the mags in a heavy bolter or any of the other weapons I had lying about for that matter.  I needed something simple and lethal.  On a deep bits box rummage I came accross the old Space Orks plastic heavy weapon which happened to look like a plasma pistol in this guys hand.  I was instantly sold on the look without really considering in game use – which has to be a good thing anyway.   He should be fun to break out for scenario games, there are few things as fun in 40k than managing to get your ogryns to beat your opponents favorite troops to a bloody pulp if yer asks me!

 

Rogue Trader Era Imperial Guard Project – Ogryn

Following on from feedback on the proto-ogryn (https://theottovonbismark.wordpress.com/2012/11/05/398/) we have the improved version of the HeroQuest ogryn.

Already nicknamed “The Bad Lieutenant” by the GF

I spent a bit of time over the last week sculpting a classic imperial guard circa 1989 helmet onto the plastic HeroQuest ogryn head using green stuff.

Using the basic HeroQuest head as an armature for the green stuff

I nearly contemplated suicide getting the smoothness of the head

The bits on the side are plastic shield bosses from the Skeleton Army boxed set

 

I took it at this stage and made a mold of it in silicon as I plan to make a few of these guys.  I used lead to make a casting of it for this model.

Plasticard strips attacked with my needle nose pliers are used to make the armor plates

The armor is much improved vs. the earlier version.  The thicker plasticard used gives the model more visual weight than before and allows me to get nice battle damage effects on the plates.  Use of a needle nose pliers on the plasticard allows me to shape and texture the plates in a pleasing manner.  The head has been moved up the body a little to bring the posture back a little bit towards humanoid.

HeroQuest Ogryn Makeover

The bare feet were given some attention to give them similar footwear to the other guardsmen.  Note his oldschool timepiece.  I was going to give him a normal watch but Mrs. VonBismark suggested that I needed to go more low tech given the operator.  It looks like he could kill with this watch.

Not much taller than a guardsman really

The armor is heavier than the standard guardsman which is grand for this fellow given he is a sort of assault shock trooper.  The unit badge gave me trouble.  I could not find a suitable imperial transfer for it.  I see him as being attached to the 3rd platoon so I gave him the platoon badge colours and it is always desirable to keep the same badge colours on such a small group of models.  The transfer I went for was from the ork sheet which I painted over to get a nice inverted colour smiley face.

🙂

I like how this model came out in a number of ways but his very short legs still bother me a little.  I learned a good bit from him and can quickly get the strongest points of this model created quickly again on the next one.  That next version of the HeroQuest ogre will surely have some heavy modification lined up on the lower torso for this model, somewhat inspired by my reading up on converting space marines to truescale here:

http://masteroftheforge.com/

Great site for green stuff conversion tips.

Rogue Trader Era Imperial Guard Project – Medic

This guy is the medic for the command squad sculpted by Mark Copplestone.  It’s of 1989 vintage and is a quaint sculpt with regard to how the medikit on his back connects flush to the breastplate on his right hand side whilst on the opposite side the there is a space where the uniform and belt are visible making the whole assembly an asymmetrical design.

An imperial medic prepares to administer the last rites with his autopistol

I decided not to paint anything larger than a button red on this model and I chose to use a metallic green for the helmet badge and a more green tinted uniform colour than the other models in the squad.  Colour wise it is going to be hospital greeens rather than red-cross reds for this force.

He has really cool boots which are quite different from the other models in the set which are generally only riding boots style things or boots & goulashes.

An imperial medikit.

I went for a very dark skin tone for this chap as I knew I wanted to have white equipment.  I like how the dark skin tone contrasts with the gold framing the breast plate and white helmet.

Rogue Trader Era Imperial Guard Project – Command Squad Troopers

Two more members of the command squad to round it out to five models.  A chap with a grenade launcher and a regular lasgun armed trooper.  Both figures are from 1989 and are Mark Copplestone Sculpts to the best of my knowledge.

The dark patch on the right cheek is actually intended…

Rear detail – he will probably get some more personal iconography later on

 

Really, who the hell designs a gun like this?

Love that rear badge on this sculpt! ❤

Both figures are painted up to almost complete stage.  I need to sit down with the whole squad and try to normalise them a bit to each other.  They need some personal icons and to have little tufts glued to their bases to complete the effect.  I have opted to matte varnish the models generally with the exception of the gun, amour plates, shoes, helmet and goggles which received the gloss varnish.  I am pretty happy with the work on this squad so far.  I still need to get a medic done up for them so they will be Rogue Trader legal.

😉

 

Here is the group shot so far:

Cheeeeeezzze!

Rogue Trader Era Imperial Guard Project – Veteran Orderly with Platoon Banner

The Orderly for the Lieutenant’s command squad with the Platoon banner for the 3rd Platoon of the 13th Company of the Necromundan 1989th Regiment.

Imperial Guard Orderly with platoon banner

 

The model stays close to the source material with a few minor changes to suit my tastes.

 

The Source Material for the Banner

 

The banner is made from rolling out green stuff when it is half dry.  One of the features of this banner is that it actually rotates around the flag pole.  I do this so that is is easy to paint the rest of the model when you can move the flag out of the way, it makes packing and transport easier, makes it more able to take a drop (tested already) and means you can change the position on the final model if you are unhappy with it’s facing with ease.

13th Company 3rd Platoon, Ollanius Pius with the slogan “Mortis Imperius” which google translate says means “the power of death”

Necromundan 1989th Regimental Banner

 

Rear Detail

 

A dramatic pose is a prerequesite for carrying the platoon banner in this guardsmans army

 

Next up is the grenade lancher guy and a guardsman to round out 5 models for the command squad and soon after will do a medic as an optional 6th model.

WIP – Rough Rider Sergeant on Servosteed

This is a work in progress for a potential rough rider squad.  I may never get around to building a full squad of them but I always liked the concept of using the undead steeds as the basis for a rough rider riding animal.  The idea is similar to the servo skull cyber-robots made from the heads of trusted imperial servents except in this case it is a trusted horse which has had the dubious honour of being cyberdized.  Oddly enough I have never seen anybody do a decent effort at this concept that was not just a really lame looking cadian on an unconverted undead horse – if anybody has come accross a good one please link me!

I have opted to not bother with the rather cliché hunting lance and have gone for a bone splintering chainsword which the preferred cavalry weapon on Necromunda where it is used for crowd control in the underhive 🙂

Ohh yeah and I have also taken the liberty of intergrating a storm bolter into the Servosteed for sheer awesomeness (and you never know when you will be called upon to crowd control a genestealer cult).

The mechanical bitz come from clockwork watches which Ms. VonBismark had previously scavenged, I highly recommend getting your hands on some old scrap watches for parts, especially for the tiny buzzsaws 😉

 

There is more detailing to go on this fellow before it is finally ready for some paint.

Rogue Trader Era Imperial Guard Project – Veteran Sergeant

A veteran sergeant to accompany the lieutenant in the command squad.  Skin tone is much ruddier than for the lieutenant.  I am planning to include bit of variety in skin tones for this project.  Grey armour colour for this fellow, keeping the black carapace for the officers.

Rogue Trader Era Imperial Guard Project – Lieutenant

A classic Lieutenant sculpted by Mark Copplestone.  This guy dates from 1989.  Eclectic is the word that springs to mind looking at this figure design.  I have opted to paint the trousers in a light grey with a red stripe on the side and to do the armour bits in black with gold trim in order to distinguish him from the enlisted men on the tabletop.  Light grey (white) pants are very much inspired by the John Blanche painting officer standing beside the Commissar.  Note that the plasma pistol is from a contempory marine model.  I painted the gauntlet so as to give the impression of him having a robot hand…I hope he plans to only use it for good.  Given the contempory rules for plasma weapons (which seem to be inspired by russian roulette) there is a pleasing touch of irony in him having a robot hand.

I love these Copplestone figures which deserve to have great paint jobs to show them at their best so I hope I haven’t butchered the paint job too much!

Next up on this project will be the rest of his command squad – Medic, Orderly (flag waving guy), Grenadier, Veteran Sargent.

 

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