Let’s talk about the Imperial Guard shall we? With Orktober receding rapidly into the distance my blog-brother IRO and I found ourselves chewing the fat and discussing other collaborations we could turn our collective wits to. At this point we realised that we both, quite independently, wanted to paint Imperial Guard and a daring scheme was hatched. Both of us have heaps of guardsmen, not to mention assorted tanks and all the other military hardware, sitting around dusty and unpainted. Through the power of mutual encouragement and cajolery, undoubtedly seasoned with banter, veiled threats and insults, we shall each of us be the proud owner of a fully painted Imperial Guard army by the end of March 2026. Thus “Forward March” was born.
There’s no points scoring this time around, and the deadline is deliberately long – this isn’t the full pelt mad-rush of exhilarated speed freeks that happens in Orktober, but rather a steady advance made heroic by the magnitude of the task ahead of us. We are, after all, just men faced with an unyeilding tide of grey plastic and lead, but our hearts are stout and our brushes sharp. It won’t be all guardsmen all the time either, at least not from me – I’ve got a few other projects I’d really like to wrap up this winter – but for the most part this is going to be my focus.
I have a bit of a soft spot for the Imperial Guard (none of that Astrology Miniethingy round my house thank you!). When I was younger I found them a bit dull, after all these were just humans and I was drawn to the bombastic orks and the twisting power of Chaos. Who would play the army made up of ordinary blokes when you could instead by a nine-foot tall superhuman in power armour, infused by the ghastly power of the Dark Gods?
In time however I came to see that we really need the Guard. The early years of Age of Sigmar really hammered this home. Back in the days of Warhammer, marauding armies would storm the lands of man on a regular basis. Chaos Lords on daemonic steeds would lead armies of monsters out of the north, ancient vampires commanding limitless hordes of the undead would attack from the east and battle-hungry orcs would pop up almost anywhere. Against such foes mankind would deploy six blokes and a whippet, armed with spears and battered swords and with four shoes and three teeth between them. Needless to say this just wasn’t enough in the end and the Warhammer world faced it’s cataclysmic end and was replaced by the shiny, golden Age of Sigmar. Except something was missing. Without Joe Average and his can-do attitude the setting felt a little hollow. Sure awesome golden warriors of awesomeness are, well, awesome but it was harder to cheer for the invincible Larry Lightningpants than it was for some luckless underdog having a terribly bad time but still doing his best. Likewise Space Marines are cool and I’ll fight anyone that says otherwise, but genetically engineered psychopathic warrior-monks are never plucky underdogs, no matter how many heroic last stands they manage to fit into an afternoon. For that you need the Guard.
Anyway, I’ve been talking about getting back to my Imperial Guard for ages now, but not really done a whole lot about it – that changes now!
As it’s been a while since I’ve painted any Guard I’ve started by grabbing a couple of infantrymen and refreshed my memory of my chosen colour scheme.
My plan is to use the same colours for these “Cadian type” guardsmen and the Death Korps of Krieg (which will also be appearing over the coming months). That way they can all share vehicles, which saves me a lot of time and effort – and they’ll look like a single united force if I decide to deploy them all together on the battlefield.
Incidentally, I’ve never understood why Games Workshop decided to market the models above as Cadians. They’re nice miniatures but they’re pretty generic aren’t they? Why not just call them “Imperial Guardsmen” and then paint the studio army in the colours of Cadia, in the much the same way as they sell Space Marines under the name “Space Marines” but paint the studio army in the blue and gold of the Ultramarines.
“Oh-oh… Uh, Perkins, we’ve got company…”
Anyway, they’re cool models and that’s what really matters. And speaking of cool models here comes one of the roughest, toughest men on Catachan, Sergeant Stonetooth Harker.
I really like this model so including him in my growing Guard army was a must. Just the chap to roll up his sleeves (if only he wore ’em) and show those wimpy Cadians how it’s done. No-one has blown up Catachan yet after all have they!
He’s probably the only Catachan we’re going to see from me over the course of this project as the existing plastic models are truly rubbish and we’re well overdue for some new ones *hintbloodyhint GW*. Anyway, that’s enough waffle from me for one post. With the best will in the world even old Stonetooth Harker won’t be winning many battles without a few more troopers to back him up so expect to see more guardsmen as soon as I get them painted.
Convert or Die 
Anne’s Assembly Challenge – mid-month update
Sometimes life outside the hobby blocks us from getting our little dudes built, painted and played with, sometimes it inspires us and sometimes it’s a bit of both. Right now, for me, it’s the third option. As well as being busy assembling my troops for my ongoing Imperial Guard project I also had to go and retrieve a whole heap of stuff that had previously been stored in my parents’ loft. Needless to say, there were miniatures in there; stashed away during one or other of my various house moves, waiting to be collected “soon”. So now I have a heap of boxes cluttering up the house even more than usual and I need to get them sorted, organised and out of the way before my wife looses her patience. Enter Anne’s 2026 Miniature Assembly Challenge!
The challenge runs until the 31st of January and participants simply need to commit to building as many models as they choose and then actually getting on and building the damn things. I had already promised myself that I would build at least 6 kits in January and so I chose some that I was particularly keen to get on with and signed up. My plan is to work my way through the following:
Palanite Justicars for Necromunda (my Christmas present to myself)
Palanite Enforcer Captains & Sergeants (also Necromunda)
Orcs riding Gore-gruntas (big pigs)
Rockgut Troggoths (that’s Stone Trolls to you and me).
Nurgle blood bowl team
Marauder bombers (Aeronautica Imperialis)
So, with roughly half the month gone how am I getting on? Well not badly actually; halfway through the month and halfway through the list. Of course I’d probably be a bit further on if I hadn’t gotten distracted and built some other things as well but obviously those need done too so it’s all to the good.
My first target was this pair of stone trolls. I painted one of these back in 2022…
…but the other two from the set have lingered, unassembled, until now.
Then it was time to take to the skies with a pair of marauder bombers for Aeronautica Imperialis.
The most recent addition to the backlog are the Palanite Justicars for Necromunda which I got as a wee Christmas present to myself. I’m very keen that going forward nothing is bought only to sit untouched so I cracked on with them next.
And whilst I was in the Underhive I made a start on the Palanite Enforcers too.
After that however, rather than moving on to the other things on my list, I turned my attention to the various boxes that only had a few quick and easy odds and ends in them; things I could build quickly in the interest of making maximum space for minimum effort.
It’s been a while since I did anything very much with my Ogres but they’re a collection I’d really like to get back to. This lumbering Irongut already has several mates in the painting queue, and getting him built allowed me to flatten and dispose of another box.
This chapel comes from the Garden of Morr, and is the last piece from that set to be built. I have a plan to paint up some suitably morbid terrain for my various undead to fight over but as with so many things it hasn’t happened yet.
When the latest iteration of Warhammer Quest – Darkwater – was released I decided to give it a miss (too expensive, not enough time or space) but I wasn’t about to pass up the chance to snag a few Pestigors for my warriors of Nurgle army when I spotted them on ebay. There’s something “old school” about this version – as opposed to the other ones that were recently released – that I really like. Time to get the grubby goats assembled too then.
Lastly we have a load of orcs from the LotR/Middle Earth Strategy Battle Game. I know a lot of people love the Lord of the Rings game but I’ve never got beyond painting a few orcs for it, and these ones never even made it off the sprue until this week. Who knows, perhaps once they’re painted I’ll get drawn in and finally build myself an army worthy of Mordor.
Anyway, that’s where I’m up to. Despite it being a busy month (although when is it not?) I’ve managed a good bit of progress and I’m feeling relatively confident about tackling the remaining kits on my list in the second half of the month. Next on the list; big ugly orcs on big ugly pigs!
3 Comments | tags: Aeronautica Imperialis, Challenge, LotR, Miniatures, Necromunda, Nurgle, Ogre, Orc, Pestigors, Troggoth, Troll, Warhammer, Warhammer 40k, WIP | posted in Thoughts and Comments