Astra Militarum To Crush My Enemies & Listen To The Lamentations Of Their Women With

An Unstoppable Painting Juggernaut!

My current painting campaign is continuing well. Despite recent debacles I'm still painting Astra Militarum. I'm really enjoying painting up my old lead models. they have plenty of character, and as they were bought quite a while ago, I'm being pretty economic with my cash. So without any more waxing lyrical about possible lead poisoning and licking the tips of paint brushes, here's some prose and pictures;

Men Carrying Things

First up are two demolition charge holders and a member of a lascannon (I think) weapon team. It seems carrying said demo charges results in a certain amount of modesty in my Catachan troops (who for the record belong to the Krablokistan 47th) hence the t-shirts. The Lascannon charge holder on the other hand is only too happy to show off his heavily steroided upper body.

Baggage Handling in the 41st Millenium.

Little Hulio & His Moral & Spiritual Advisors

Here comes another backstory! I was sorting out models to go into units for my Astra Militarum force when I spied with my little eye an Orlock juve without his pistol weapon. Then I thought he looked more than a bit like a Catachan jungle fighter (albeit a rather weedy one). This is not a huge internet revelation as many times before I have seen people make similar comments. So I decided to paint this little fella up as a rookie in the squad, a sort of private Ryan who needs to be saved regularly by the grizzled sergeant. To Hulio's right is Commissar Death always ready with a word of encouragement or a quick squirt from his hand flamer (that GW have now deemed it unavailable) to keep morale in tip top shape. 

Commissar Death, Little Hulio and Sergeant Squint. 

Three Grunts

Below are three Catachan's all from the original box so I believe I've painted five or six of each. Nothing much to say about them really except I'm happy they're done. I didn't give them tattoo's as six point models don't really deserve them. Now if they were veterans then that would be different.

Grunt Juan, Grunt Tue & Grunt Tharee.

The Big Guns 

The missile launcher heavy weapons team is one of my favorites. I have painted up a few and for me, the guy with the missiles is reeking of character. The heavy flamer is fun too. One thing that gives this weapon team a bit more interest is the bowed legs of the missile launcher stand. Either the Guardsman who wields it is a demon in combat and has beaten many a xenos to death with, or the pair are some sort of Laurel and Hardy duo who keep dropping it whilst walking across busy streets allowing it to get run over by Chimeras and having other hilarious adventures. Either way it gives them a bit more fluff.

Heavy Weapons Out For The Girls! 

Shell Shocked Silas & Ruger 'The Shoulders' Fer

The guy on the left is another jungle fighter with steroid abuse problems and the one on the left is a heavy bolter operator. Sadly for him, I have yet to paint up his carriage so until then he just looks like a simpleton pretending he's driving his imaginary car. He does fit in my Ork Trukk so he may be able to make some money as an Uber driver in the apocalyptic wastes. 

Rebel Without a Seat & Grunt Fer. 

Short, Shifty & Shooty

I also finished five ratlings to give me a squad of ten. Fun models to paint. I gave them all yellow caps/bandannas as they would not be permitted to wear red in the Krablokistan army. They were issued yellow (because they are a bit) and the common nickname of the squad is now 'the pimples'. Alls I need to do now is repaint the other five to give the unit cohesion, something that my armies rarely have. Cohesion is in short supply in my world due to the redonkulous length of time it takes me to finish a project.

The "best" Snipers In 40K 8th Edition?

The Nearly Borg

These guys are proof of my hobby lack of focus as these servitors were bought to go in my Inquisitor warband for my Inquisimunda games.  40K dropped and I sort of lost interest. I did manage to finish them more because Imperium is an all encompassing tag in the army creation process so I can shoehorn them into my Krablokistan force. Of course, I'll need an Admech to bring them up to adequate but I really like the models so I will make the attempt.

Servitors For Hire.

So that's all for today. I am working my way through my Imperial Guard like lightning (well more like a snail's pace) but due to the blog's current name, it seems like lightning. Tune in next time when I may well have my Tallarn special weapons squad (amongst others) finished and ready to kill the enemies of mankind.

Thanks for Reading.