The first 6 PHIGs are complete.

o/

Their dirty uniforms go well with the rusty body armor and weapons. Clearly these guys aren't mere parade troops.

Despite a busy week, I've managed to make some progress on my new PHIGs army. That said, heading into the week leading up to Christmas, and a trip immediately following thereafter, I'm not likely to accomplish much more for this year in terms of hobbying. 

The squad insignia/number/name/something is visible on the left pauldrons.

The right side pauldron armor shows a squad color stripe for ease of identification, as well as a good view of their rifle grenades for use with that lovely 'Grenades' stratagem.

Some enterprisingly individual (probably in the propaganda division) decided to have their army icon added onto some of their backpacks. However the combination of daily use and/or grit has rendered several of these icons into little more than a unidentifiable mess.

I've been pondering a name for the army beyond merely PHIGs. Maybe the Pirate Heavy Interdiction Group, or perhaps the Palachian (P'Lachian?) Heavy Infantry Guards? Hrmmm...the search continues. Regardless, 'PHIGs' has stuck in my brain, so I'll need to utilize that acronym somehow. 

Neverness had asked for a size comparison pic, so here ya go! 

As you can see, this PHIG trooper's height is not quite on par with that of 808 Linum of the Admech, not to mention he/she's a tad more rotund. Were the primaris marine also standing up straight, he would likely be about eye level with the top of the PHIG trooper's pointy helm. 

Lastly I hope all of you have a fun, safe, & enjoyable Christmas and

New Year & I will see you all again on the other side!  

New Guard Army (WiP)

 o/

A few of the new recruits! 

Back in October, Zzzzz posted his belated entry for Nevereness' Inquisitorial conclave, and I immediately fell in love with the 3D printed minis in his post! A link shared later, three squads quickly ordered and I was off to the races! 

These guys will be accompanying my Whippet tanks (I now have three, though two will remain boxed up until after the holidays). Lacking a proper name for the army, I (currently) refer to them as the 'PHIGs' (Pointy Helmeted Imperial Guardsmen). 

No, they aren't pretty folks. Indeed I call this the 'ugly stage' of my painting process.  Next up is a million little touch ups and whatever I missed will hopefully be hidden under inking and later added grime. 

There are only a dozen individual poses for these guys which is a bit limiting, but I'm pretty sure I have 'em all worked out to where they'll work fine. After the holidays, when I'm not spending a shit-ton of $$$ on a daily basis, I'll order two more squads which will round out my force to a thousand points. 

Above and below are the first batch of ten that I'm working on:

Some basic grunts with autoguns. The bodies are 1-piece prints with only the heads being separate, plus whatever base you want to add.

As you can see, these guys are pretty heavily laden with gear. 

Squad sergeant and SAW gunner (more on the latter below). The sergeant is actually one of the superfluous standard bearers like the one seen in the first pic, just with a hand-swap.

The missile teams are currently on little bitty 20mm bases for ease of painting. Once they're ready to go, they'll be transferred to the new Iggy weapon teams' 50mm bases.

The Squad Automatic Weapon (SAW) gunner. 

In Zzzzz's linked post above, he was treating this model as a heavy stubber trooper, but to me that weapon didn't quite fit the bill. With only a small stock/barrel extension and a drum magazine a SAW seemed to be more appropriate. 

However while my opponents don't have any issues with my proxies (well, Hogzillaries aside), inventing new weapons will likely give them pause. However, if I just use the stats of the IG Grenade launcher while omitting the Krak round, it works out quite nicely actually. Also, no one ever complains when I make weapons worse to justify a proxy. 

Autogun:  R:24" A:1 BS:4+ S:3 AP:0 D:1 SP: Rapid Fire 1

SAW:        R:24" A:D3 BS:4+ S:4 AP:0 D:1 SP: Blast  

Slightly better, but not too far removed from the stock autogun. I'll retain the Blast ability not because it actually is a blast weapon, but rather the extra hit per 5 models in the target unit is akin to the gunner holding the trigger down for a longer burst of fire. 

Anyways, its on to the touch ups!

Gee, Brain. What are we going to do tonight?

 The same thing we do every night Pinky...

No, he won't chew a hole in your wall, instead he'll punch his way in!

Perhaps this is a cautionary tale for PhD candidates to be careful with their test subjects. Or, perhaps its just a tongue & cheek gift for a PhD candidate who happens to study mice. Yeah, its probably the latter. 

I was tempted to try an paint targeting reticles on the eyes, but was concerned that I'd more likely fuck them up and so left the eyes as just red.

Lacking a bedroll, his pack instead holds a mouse pad...

This is another Robot of the month club model that I got some ways back. I showed it to my friend (and Screech's now girlfriend) Loren when she was over at the house right after I got it in the mail. She liked it and I told her I'd paint it up for her birthday. Her birthday was in October, so a Christmas gift it is! 

I thought that I was for sure going to snap the tail off prior to gluing this to the base!

Speaking of, I got the base on ebay for a few bucks and with a bit of dry brushing and a few tufts, it turned out quite nicely I think. 

I'm sure she's forgotten about it, so Screech just keep your mouth shut about it for the next three weeks, thanks.