Etheneus' Swedish Astra Militarum

[duz_]

I think Raine looks great I haven't finished painting mine because the details intimidate me :lol:

 

Although traditionally their colours are red and black I wouldn't get too caught up in it. I have commissars of various colours too particularly their sash.

 

She goes well with the rest of your force and no one will complain :tu:

[Etheneus]

Let's get to it

Heavy support:

Right now only the Hydra and these guys

A WIP. Had already finished a few before and two soldiers are finished here as well. The mortars are not painted or built by me although I swapped a few bits on the built ones.

 

In total 5 autocannons, 3 lascannon, 3 heavy bolters and 3 missile launchers painted. Another 6 mortars built (not buy me)

 

Ran out of crew and had to improvise to get the fifth autocannon.

 

My 4 year old son got to choose the tyranid colours.

 

Mini dioramas are fun.

[Bjorn Firewalker]

The heavy weapons teams look great, overall; love the Tyranid corpses serving as base decorations. The ammo for the heavy bolters look too small, considering how big the muzzles are; were the ammo belts from a third party?

[Etheneus]

Thanks and I'll admit I had a laugh at the ammo myself but that is what comes with the GW sprue. The guy I bought these from had made 3 mortars and I got both them and the sprue as well as an unopened box for heavy weapons so I know it's the right parts.

[GreenScorpion]

The ammo boxes and belts from the HWT sprues are indeed the ones in the picture.

I am guessing the muzzle is larger than the inside of the barrel itself, because otherwise those bullets would be too small.

 

I like the character you put into the HWT and nice job on making the autocannon without crew, no one would suspect and it looks really nice.

[WarriorFish]

Great kit bashing and conversion work here, gives them a lot of character :tu:

[Bjorn Firewalker]

Thanks and I'll admit I had a laugh at the ammo myself but that is what comes with the GW sprue.

I presume the sculptor sized the ammo belt for heavy STUBBER models, and Games Workshop was too cheap to commission work sized for heavy BOLTER models. (Facepalms)

[Etheneus]

Thanks GreenScorpion and WarriorFish. The heavy weapons were fun to do much so because of the big bases.

 

For something new then, part of my 12 month of hobby challenge. 5 snipers and 1 plasma gun.

 

 

I'm not happy with the cloaks, shouldn't have painted the camo bigger but kept it to the same size as the uniform. And it bothers me a lot that one backpack is upside down! I haven't built him and the head and waist broke off when trying to remove the backpack but it won't budge.

 

 

This guy was fun. I had a model left and a plasmagun so why not make one to swap out one of all those grenade launchers I already have in my squads.

The light effect is a little to much but was fun making. The head is from Anvil Industry's but somehow I made the flesh a bit coarse, like their was dirt in my colour or brush. I made the best of it, making him look a bit burnt by mixing in a bit purple.

 

 

I have acctually finished an almost complete command squad with a platoon commander too, I will save those for when the last guy, the standard bearer, is done.

[Bjorn Firewalker]

You did a great job painting the models. I applaud your efforts on the camouflage patterns.

[Etheneus]

Command squad done! A lieutenant with boltgun and chainsword, a heavy flamer, a medic, a vox caster and a standard.

 

 

Medic got right shoulder white to make him stand out, the bandage is a little underwhelming for the model I think.

Heavy flamer because why not.

Vox was prebuilt so used it. Has a scion vox.

The lieutenant look like a regular sergeant, think I need to do something about that.

 

 

The standard is not a regimental but the Swedish flag for two reasons (besides the Swedish theme), first in my fluff it's the planetary flag, second in the Swedish armed forces you are normally not allowed to carry a regimental standard without the swedish flag (yes, there are exceptions) so now I have a reason to make another standard.

Edited July 26, 2020 by Etheneus

[duz_]

I was gonna say that flag looks familiar and yet unsurprising :lol:

 

Great work as always I like the basing too :tu:

[Bjorn Firewalker]

Excellent work on the command squad.

[Etheneus]

I have had a little time since I've just got a new batch of recruits to my platoon (in RL)

Had this guy laying around already painted by someone else (ebay equivalent buy) but basically in the same colours but blue instead of green.

 

 

I made the khaki robe whiter and the gold brighter and made the gems red to bring out the contrast a bit more. The green was added to fit my swedish army theme.

Kind of look like a bishop about to smite some heretics.

[Etheneus]

First games of 9th done. After four weeks working, two of them on a live fire exercise I'm finally home and could play.

First game was acctually against my son, 4 years old and he loved it! I'll admit that it wasn't the real rules but simplified rules and he acctually won. He just sent everything forward and shot at my tank, killing it in the first round on good dice. He was so thrilled, the humiliation was worth it.

 

My first real game of 9th (1000pts) was against Craftworlds and it started well but not pushing that advantage and a faulty target priority had him recover and pushing me off almost every objective round 3. I lost 42 against 76.

Fun but I need to get into the objective game. A single infantry squad can't hold objectives.

[Etheneus]

My first tank commander was made almost a year ago, just forgotten to post him.

 

 

And this is the reason I discovered I've not posted him:

 

 

My second tank commander is done.

Have already played her in the games mentioned in the previous post and she did good. Turret and sponsons are magnetized. I'm happy with here. The black beret is fitting a tanker.

Edited August 24, 2020 by Etheneus

[Bjorn Firewalker]

Good job on the tanks.

[Etheneus]

Thanks Bjorn!

 

I should paint my two chimeras for the 12 month challenge but been having this guy on my desk looking at me.

 

Janus Draik

 

He was bought painted and in similar colours. The white coat was to white and no details. The beast was grey, haven't changed the head. The trousers were badly highlighted, not sure why because the rest have looked good. The weapons were all gold.

I like my take on him. Will probably use as an inquisitor.

[Bjorn Firewalker]

Good job on Janus Draik's model. Is the thing around his neck a hide-turned-cloak and a hunting trophy, or a pet (one I suspect is Chaos-tainted, in that case)?

[Etheneus]

It's a hide. Both look like one and doesn't seem to have any rules for anything else than his sword, pistol, one use grenade and some kind of concealed weapon (also one use).

[Hiroitchi]

looks amazing man... love the heavy weapons teams

[Etheneus]

Thanks Hiroitchi, will make mortars next, after an Inqusitor.

 

Two Chimeras with magnetised options done.

 

Sorry for the poor light.

These have gotten basecoat, wash and first highlight layer inside the Swedish Royal Castle or with the better name the Swedish Palace. I had the honour of be Royal honour guard there with my platoon a week ago and there is a bit of a down time in between things.

 

The second highlight layer and details was done at home and this trophy skull was added as well as the designations. And yes, the FA chimera has been updated with those letters as well.

 

 

The gunner can use both the stubber and the stormbolter.

[Bjorn Firewalker]

Excellent work on the Chimeras.

[Etheneus]

Something new!

 

I want to make a Crusade force and loved the Kyria Draxus model (Then I realised bringing named characters is not as fun as bringing unamed.) So here she is.

 

 

Her shuriken catapult is made to look like the ones my main opponents' Craftworlders have. The armour is made to look a bit green and the rest of the colours my four year old son chose.

I made a small mistake on the face but made it into a scar above her right eye.

 

Now I will finally make the mortars.

[Bjorn Firewalker]

The model is beautifully painted.

[Etheneus]

So after two months finally some progress. Haven't had the motivation to continue for a while but now I've completed two Heavy Weapon Squads of mortars and a Commisar with plasma gun.

 

 

What is all the yellow things?

- Bananas

Why?

- In the Swedish Armed Forces most notably (but not exclusively) in the army we call our Mortar platoons Monkeys, and monkeys eat bananas. They never put their mortars to work before a box of bananas are deployed at the firing position.

- Why do you call then that? (Isn't it offensive?) Frankly I'm not entirely sure if there is some elaborate reason but it's a long standing tradition and to serv as a mortar crew you can have about the lowest intelligence rating in the army. Monkey see, monkey do. Simple. Offensive? No, they embrace it, their "warcry" is making monkey sounds and beating their chest.

 

Oh, and here is the commisar that I didn't assemble and whom will most likely not see use because Why would I use Plasma on a 40 point model.