Hello again faithful readers. I am going to present to you today the reason I had to post a filler post the other week. I have finally finished the Rough Riders. I have posted several work in progress posts on these guys in the past, from the time I built the first guy to the time I painted the horses. Last weekend was the Buffalo Beef and Wing Brawl. A local singles, highlander tournament held by a the Beef and Wing game club. It's always a blast and this year it was the only tournament I attended. So, I finally had a true reason to push these through as painting is judged.
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The entire squad. |
I have always wanted to have a cavalry squad, despite how poor they are cost wise. Point for point I am better off using something else, but it's guys riding horses in the year 40,000 anf they have explosive lances. They're just too 40k to pass up.
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Standard bearer and Sergeant. No real rules for the flag but hey, it looks cool. |
Painting the horses was a challenge as I have never had to paint anything remotely similar. I tried to add variety with the sergeant having the fanciest looking horse. That said I feel now I could have done a better job.
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These guys are also holding their pistols. One has a wounded arm and the other a bionic hand. |
One thing I think I have improved during painting this squad is the process for infantry flesh. I wrote down what I did so that I can repeat it and I think that of all of my squads they have the best flesh.
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Magnetized riders with lances. |
Two of the riders have megnetized arms allowing them to carry their lances, meltaguns, or plasma guns. I scratch built all of the lances from some skeleton spears and plasticard. The legs I bought from
Curious Constructs.
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With Melta guns. |
I did a bit more chipping and gouges on their armor than I have in the past. I hope that this helps to break the monotony of their flak jackets and helmets. With my guardsmen I tend not to go too crazy on detail. I save that for special characters and the like.
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With plasma guns |
Going forward I think I am happy with how the troopers look, but not so much some of the horses. I will probably paint my remaining guardsmen in this fashion. However, once I start on my mechanicus troops I will either use my airbrush to do zenithal shading or wet blend them for a much more finished look. The focus of my guard is always the tanks and characters. The endless masses of troops should just blend into gray. Thanks for stopping by!