It isn't Sunday and it is very early so that must mean that my brain is itching and I need to scratch it... and today, the itch is all about the Squat army that I am building... and over-reach.
The beginning...
Click the Pic!
In the beginning, I just wanted to get a few of the old, 1980s, plastic Squat miniatures so that I could build a small patrol army. At the start, I thought about having 2 platoons of troops, a command element and a support element... nice and simple. Over a couple of years, I got onto EBay and managed to end up with nearly 200 plastic Squats... many more than was required for the small army... but I thought "better too many than not enough".
Assembly started and I quickly discovered that I really hated the plastic arms so I decided that all the arms would be sculpted (apart from the odd one or two)... so I bit the bullet and went for it.
I started with 31 troops.... the basic platoon; which consisted of this:
1x Platoon Commander
1x Command Squad
2x Infantry Squad
1x Heavy Weapon Squad
Then I built a second one and an army command unit. All was going well... then NEW THINGS HAPPENED!!!
Mantic released new Steel Warriors for their Forge Father range, Prodos released some new Vulkan Battlesuits for their Warzone Resurrection range, I found some new 'chibi' tanks from Meng that were perfect for my needs, GW released Ambots and Kastelan Robots, I found some cool Mecha kits that might make a good basis for titans... the list goes on... and I got swept up in it.
Pretty soon, I had two factions in the army; a Space Marine faction (uper echelon leaders and hearthguards) and an Astra Militarum faction (the basic troops and armour)... and things were being added regularly... maybe even a Mechanicus faction...
Enough was enough! I needed to grip it. That said, not by very much because over the 4+ years that I have been working on the army, I have got a lot of conversions finished... and I discovered that (apart from tanks/APCs) I don't have too much to finish converting BUT I have some road blocks that I was struggling to overcome. Time to trim.
Looking at my big list of things to finish, I had one complete platoon to convert, a squad of Ogryn, a scout squad, a terminator squad and a bike squad...
The platoons have expanded from the initial idea and now consist of:
1x Platoon Commander
1x Primaris Psyker
1x Command Squad
2x Infantry Squad
1x Ratling Sniper Squad
1x Heavy Weapon Squad
3x Sentinels
There is a problem because Prodos have stopped making Warzone Resurrection miniatures and I was using the Vulkans to convert into Sentinels. This started the seed of doubt and my mojo decided to walk away... taking with it , the will to convert the Space Marine elements that still needed to be finished. I started work on the Primaris Psyker and stalled so I did the decent thing and chopped a few bits and bobs from my army list... turning the Space Marine Battalion into a Vanguard Detachment and losing a couple of mandatory elements... that meant that I only needed to convert a single terminator Sgt and a single scout bike Sgt to finish off the Space Marine element of the army... so this happened:
Click the Pic!
The conversion of the single Sgt meant that I could field two five-man Terminator Squads, rather than having to convert a full squad of ten. The above image shows the two squads accompanied by their Captains. The same thing happened with the bikes and the conversion of a single Sgt meant that I could field two three-man squads instead of needing to convert another squad of six:
Click the Pic!
In doing this, I have a finished detachment but also have the option of adding the chopped units at a later date if I want to because I have the miniatures set aside, ready for conversion.
Now, from a troops perspective, I just need to convert the platoon, which is already well started... just the arms need to be finished on most of them and six Ogryn, which haven't arrived from the USA yet. I have also finished the Ratling Snipers but will need to decide what route to take with the missing Sentinels... it may mean converting up some Hellhound tanks instead.
Once converted, I have two options... start on the tanks/APCs or start painting...
So... what have I converted so far? Lots!
Astra Militarum:
- 1x Army Commander
- 3x command Squads
- 4x Infantry Squad
- 2x Heavy Weapon Squad
- 3x Ratling Sniper Squad
- 6x Sentinel
- 3x Ministorum Priest
- 3x Primaris Psyker
- 3x Veteran Squad
- 1x Predator Hunter Squad (Harker, Marbo, Platoon Commander, Command Squad, Valkyrie)
- 1x Col Straken
- 1x Tank Commander
- 9x Leman Russ Tank (various main guns)
- 1x Engineseer
- 4x Servitor
- 1x Chimera APC
Space Marine:
- 2x Terminator Captain
- 2x 5-man Terminator Squad
- 2x 5-man Scout Squad
- 2x 3-man Scout Bike Squad
- 2x 3-man Centurion Squad
- 2x Dreadnought
Looking at the completed elements, a single platoon with six Ogryn doesn't seem very much, does it?...
... well... not until you think about the 14 Chimera APCs and the Hydra anti-aircraft tank... and the possible Hellhounds...
... Or the painting...
Oh the first world problems of the hobbyist! Cheers!
Click the Pic!
See you from central command!
5 comments:
I've been painting and customizing GW minis for D&D use for a few years now, and I've recently decided to fully embrace Warhammer. However, none of the factions in 40K have piqued my interest... until I read about the now-discontinued Squats.
What you've posted here is almost exactly what I've been planning to do--Space Wolves for the HQ and elites, and Astra Militarum for the brothers. If there's one thing that your post has taught me, it's to not rush into it.
And your sculpts are awesome, by the way.
You're armies are always an inspiration sir!!
Thank you :) .
It isn't a case of rushing in... it's more a case of getting excited enough to start but being realistic enough to know when to slow down or stop.
They say an army is never finished... but it certainly can be. I have finished armies before and I think there just reaches a point when you think "enough is enough", tidy things up and stop adding units.
The good thing about this particular army, is that I had a set idea of what units I wanted to use and was able to find the right proxies for them. It is also an Imperial army so I can add factions to it, if I want to, at a later date... so Mechanicus is on the cards BUT not until I have finished the lads.
I have 38 infantry to convert... I can then decide what happens next. Do I start painting again or crack on with all the armour?
I feel that painting should be the next logical step.
Your army is fab.
I thought my IG army had reached the 'enough is enough' stage when it completely filled one table. There comes a point when one just embraces the madness.
I get where you are coming from Zzzzzz but I am running a bit low on enthusiasm for this army and need a change... or at least a different direction so I feel the need to complete the troops section before I can move on to other things.
I still have all the APCs and a couple of tanks to convert (which will, most likely, be the next big push) but I also need to paint it all... and before I can do that fully, I need some more background and some heraldry/insignis for the army flags/emblems.
Still lots to do, hence I want to stop expanding and work to a more distinct list :) .
Post a Comment