Today I thought I'd post a link to a lot of great inspiring Blogs. The theme is Imperial Guard armies. There are a lot of Blogs out there, but these are just a few I've had the pleasure of finding (insert Zelda secret sound here).

Onyx's Hobby Blog 

Ever have the urge to make an Epic Armageddon Army? Go to Onyx's Hobby Blog where he has some AWE inspiring armies for you to look at. There's a whole lot of armies to drool over!

The Chaosgerbil's Lair

We can't forget the Traitor Guardsmen now can we? Chaosgerbil's blog is packed full of battle reports and insight into the mind of chaos. This is a great example of what my army aspires to be. I may have to try this out as well: Codex_Lost_and_The_Damned_ChaosGerbil_v5

Praetorian 77th

I clicked this link almost on accident while browsing the Dakka Dakka forums. To my surprise I found a great Blog devoted to the Praetorian 77th regiment. It's more than just Imperial eye-candy; there's also a lot of unique design work like the Rough Rider's conversion (which is the closest I've seen to what I have planned).

Col.Gravis' Praetorian Imperial Guard
Another fantastic Blog devoted to the Praetorians. You can find just about anything you want to know about the Praetorians here. My personal favorite is Malcador Defender "Dauntless", but I'm a sucker for Super Heavies (Aren't we all?)

These are but a few of the many great blogs out there. Of course there are so many to mention, but I'm tired of typing and really want to paint now. Please follow them if you haven't already!

Have a cool site to add? I'd love to hear about it

More pics of the Renegade IG army. This time it's of the first batch of troops to test the paint scheme.

The bodies are from a set of troopers I got a few years back. One model was chopped up to later be used as an objective marker. That project, however, was put on hold since it didn't work the way I hoped. The other four troopers I used for testing paint schemes.

Now that the Renegade project is going, nearly anything that isn't nailed down is going into this project lol. My primary goal is to build the army as creatively and inexpensive as possible. Troops, like the ones above, are fairly easy to come by. A lot of times people will disregard a model because it has a really rough looking paintjob or some wear-n-tea. Armor, like a Basilisk or Valkyrie, can be quite expensive especially when armies require lots of them.

Fortunately there's eBay and I've had some luck finding good deals. I managed to grab a few Leman Russ tanks, a Valkyrie, and a Baneblade all at good prices. With any luck I'll be able to fill in some more gaps in the list without paying too much  :)

Work continues on the Renegade IG army.

I was a bit reserved on creating this army, mostly due to the fact that GW keeps raising prices so often. Thanks to eBay, however, and some *cough* bartering with my FLGS, I was able to obtain a few good deals and get the army started.

The model is from the Colonel Schaeffer's Last Chancers set (the Hero). He is a cool model, but needed some modifications to make him a bit more ...chaos-y. Both arms were removed and replaced with a power fist and a CSM plasma gun. I don't know why I added the plasma gun. It was the only gun that looked cool so I'm going to make it work. The head was also upgraded to a cool gas mask with officer's hat (I can't remember where it's from though). Plasticard was used to make the claws, though I don't see them lasting very long without a lot of modification.

I have a lot more plastic and pewter staring back at me demanding more attention. Who am I to deny the Chaos Gods?  :P

More pics to come including the Penal Legion Mutants. Cya then!

This is a well made argument video by Matt from Miniwargaming.com. It's directed toward GW on how they treat their local retailers. Check it out.

Ah yes, who doesn't love Flamers of Tzeentch? Probably your opponent, lol.

For the points they can be quite devastating. They glance and wound on a 4+ (which really hurts MEQ armies). Thanks to the Deep Strike rule you can drop them in for a suicidal strike, or if you prefer hide them somewhere safe and rely on their jump ability and 4+ invulnerable save. They give the Daemons a much needed anti-tank punch.

You might ask "How many should I run, though?" The answer is simple; groups of three are very effective. The reason is flamers can't get any more than three templates off (Breathe of Chaos) on their first round of shooting. I suppose you could run more units, with one having Bolt of Tzeentch (30 points Range 24" Str 8 Ap1), though for the point cost I don't think it's worth it.

When Deep Striking you place the first unit (assuming they didn't mishap) then the second and third starting in a circle in the next row. That means the unit's bases are all touching one another. Adding a fourth model doesn't allow you to fire one of the templates without wounding your own units, which makes them less useful as a suicide unit. Granted, you can always run up to twelve, but if you want that many you may as well run a few squads of three instead. You'll get better results having more squads if you plan to drop them in as suicide units.

I got a good deal recently on a three pack of Flamers. It'll be nice to have the extra models (as I don't trust the pewter to stay together).

A couple coats of Flat White and they're ready for base coating. after a little touch up (I like to add a few watered down skull white layers to help reinforce the base coat) I'll start by adding a few coats of blue ink.

Once the wash dries I paint the flame areas with Iyanden Darksun base coat. It works great if you want to start a solid coat for yellow areas or in this case painting a flame. My only complaint about GW base paints is that they are pretty thick, so much so it's almost like painting with glue lol. I heard this is because they have such a high pigment (oink, jk). Still, a little water is all you need to keep it nice and smooth.