40k Tale of Painters Entry 4

Hello all. After showing off my Epic ToP entry, its time to bring out the 40K. The Praetorians have come on in leaps and bounds since you last saw them, with addition of 5 news squads and the first of the armour pieces. I'll start by showing you what I produced this month, which thankfully is most of the interesting stuff!

This months entry:

7 Veterans, 1 Commissar & 1 Medusa @ 354pts

Army to date:

7 units @ 747pts

First off here are some pictures of the Veterans. I couldn't seem to get good shots of these guys, but they will do now.

Though I'm using the Vostroyan models (which are awesome), these are not Vostroyans on an exchange trip, but rather Praetorian 'Spire Born'. In my fluff, every Praetorian Infantry Company contains a few squads of Spire Born, normally in the 3rd (support) Platoon. They are the sons of Nobles and merchants, from the highest levels of the Hives of mother-Praetoria, and are equipped with the best weapons and armour the Regiment can offer. They are expected to prove themselves by dealing any threat that the poor grunts are overwhelmed by.

The bespoke equipment of the Vostroyan models fitted this idea brilliantly, and the Bearskin hats helps the army keep its British military heritage intact. With this in mind I used lots of gold and bright colours in order to make the Spire Born stand out, as they would expect!

Next up with have the mighty Medusa, the first of two.

(Go here for some large versions of the pictures, as Blogger seems to hate my photos)

I've tried to add a lot more realism to my Guard armies, as opposed to my heroic Dark Angels, and so I want the tanks to look like they have been through several months of hard campaigning. To this end I experimented with some of the tips in the Forgeworld Master Class book (which I would highly recommend!). I find one of the hardest things with weathering is knowing when you've gone over the top, and I'm not sure if I have on this Medusa, so I'd love to know what you all think.

I also used the new forgeworld weathering powders, especially the soot and dirt ones. I'm not entirely sure how best to use these yet, so I didn't go overboard, but I think they added to the model nicely.

I regret not adding any stowed kit, something I'm going to rectify with the rest of the tanks. I think it finishes the 'used' look.

Also in a departure from form, I painted the wonderful interior on the model. Its so nice, it would be rude not to!

I really think the interior adds to the overall tank, and even though it will rarely be seen, I'm happier knowing its there!

Right, finally, my favourite model I produced this month, Commissar Thorn:

(Again, please go here for some larger shots)

Its hard not to love this model. Like the Interrogator Chaplain, I think he is one of the best sculpts GW has produced. It just exudes character, and you can almost hear the orders bellowing from his mouth.

So, with all that in mind I was keen to get a good paint job done for him. I will admit one of the great frustrations with using the army painter method to get my Praetorians done is that it really does nothing to black. Where as I'm used to seeing black highlighted (as on my Ravenwing), I decided not to add too much to what the AP does, in order to keep painting quick. Plus I'm pretty sure that to highlight the black would make the model looks less gritty and push it into that 'heroic' paint style I mentioned earlier. What do you guys think?

Anyway, regardless of how the black worked out, I'm still in love with the model and pleased with the paint job. So much so the Commissar Thorn has taken up residence on the right side-bar of my blog. He said he'd have me shot if I didn't let him...

So that's it for now. When I get a chance I'm going to take some shots of the Platoon Command Squad, as I realise these Praetorian command models have not have their 5 minutes of fame on the blog, which is simply not on. I've also finally got a big FW toy constructed and ready to paint, pictures coming in the new year!

Thanks for reading!