Bring on the Armour...

I've still not managed to get hold of any super glue so recently I've been working on my Vostroyan project again. This week was the turn of one of my Leman Russ Eradicators.

This is the first time I've attempted to do anything other than base coat with my airbrush. Up until this point I have also been struggling. Airbrushes are not so easy to use that anyone can get instant results! I've lost count of the number of times I have had the needle clog up and had to disassemble the entire thing to get it working again. However, after much experimenting I feel that I am starting to get the hang of it and now prefer to mix my paint myself instead of using Vallejo's model air range directly from the bottle. Below is a little snapshot of my usual set up without the airbrush stuff out. I have got a bigger desk to replace this one with soon which will allow me to have a permanent spray booth set up.

Anyway back to my Leman Russ. I primed the model in black before base coating it in Citadel's Karak Stone.

Once complete I washed the whole model in a mix of Nuln Oil and Agrax Earthshade, using a cotton bud to wipe off some of the wash from areas of the model to reveal the base colour.

I then masked off the front of the tank in order to apply some identification markings that will help to break up the dull primary colour of the armour. Annoyingly the way I placed my smoke launchers made this very fiddly!

I used Vallejo's Model Air White to block in the front section of the armour. The plastic pink thing on the right is a cheap fan to take away some of the paint particles and blow them towards an open window. I still wear a proper mask to prevent myself breathing in any of the paint. It is not good for you!

With the red added and the masking tape removed. I am very happy with the results. They are not perfect but that is fine as these areas will be washed and have weathering powders applied to them very soon. I ran out of steam there but should have it finished later this week. I'll post pics of the finished model soon.

Finally, I promised to talk a bit about the allies that I will be adding to the army. The Astra Militarum are renowned for their gun line armies sitting on one side of the table and unleashing everything at the enemy with little to no maneuvering. I wanted my army to be more aggressive and as the Imperial Guard really have very little in the way of hard hitting assault units this job would have to fall to some friends.

I initially thought of some Space Wolf allies as I had collected these in the past and they fit the whole aggressive assault element perfectly. They would look great on winter bases too! There are two things that I don't like about them though. The first is the fact that everyone seems to play marine armies and yet according to the fluff these are very rare. The second turn off for me was scale. GW's marines are not in scale with the rest of their model ranges. The Vostroyans with their bearskins actually make the marines look small! Marines therefore are out (I would like to one day do some true scale marines but right now that is too much for me).

What else would give me that aggressive unit capable of taking ground in conjunction with my guardsmen? Well the answer was staring me in the face really in the form of what in my opinion is the coolest model GW has ever produced, an Imperial Knight.

Work in progress on my Knight Paladin. As you can see he dwarfs my Vostroyan guardsmen and will add a suitable centerpiece to the army. It also helps that he will scare the hell out of any opponent I face, capable of striding towards the enemy lines unleashing a stupid amount of firepower whilst shrugging off anything short of a lascannon. They will eventually deal with him but the idea is that he is really only a distraction allowing units of guardsmen to move forward in his shadow and take up positions in cover. At the same time any guns firing at my Knight will not be firing at my more vulnerable armoured units. I'll put a proper update on this guy once more progress is made.

Well there you have it. I am loving painting at the moment and very excited about getting a playable army of Vostroyans on the table!