Pre-emptive strike

Hey everyone,

After first jumping head into the hobby back in 2012 and deciding to pick up a couple boxes of Ork Boyz and then very quickly realizing that I had absolutely no idea how I would paint them or how I would even like them to look like. Eventually, this leads to me having orks in various color schemes without any unification. While such could look really good with some artistic talent, I sadly lacked any of such and eventually results in me selling the whole army just to "start again". 

Everyone starts somewhere.

Fast forward to 2017 and I am full steam ahead purchasing myself an Adeptus Mechanicus army. With a clear idea on how I would like to paint them in the usual Mars red scheme and that they would be currently waging war on a planet that was just an endless desert. It was easy to work on weathering effects, bases, and the color scheme itself once you have a more precise image and after painting my orks for a couple years, my brush control and just general ability to paint had improved dramatically. Sadly there was still the issue of me completely ignoring the transportability of the models since I am not a huge fan of foam cases. I vow to myself that next time, I will magnetize every base so I can use one of those magnetic carrying cases.

So this time around in 2020, I have decided to leave nothing to chance. I have a clear vision of the army and their background, who they are, where they come from, and how I wish them to look like. Naturally, it takes a bit of time to really "pick up" on a painting scheme so I decided to practice on a couple 3D printed models just to get a good grasp on the scheme before I would make the jump to more expensive Forgeworld models. 

I decided to go forward as the 179th Pioneer Regiment as the 179th Siege Regiment already existed but I didn't wish to use their color scheme. I also wanted to make a clear distinction between the ranks of soldiers in my army so I chose a greyish blue color for my high ranking officers. As I also have plans to use them as proxy models to play as Imperial  Guard (not Krieg specifically), these models would be used as stand-ins for platoon commanders etc. Officers that command squads would receive the same scheme as my troops.

"Sci-fi Napoleon on Horse" by BREXIT. My first DKoK model.

While researching for my army scheme, I studied a lot of historical material and I  really saw the different inspirations that made up my models so I was equally inspired by their colors and I decided to use that to my own advantage. Green khaki, bases that have more mud then Verdun and in general, rather muted metallic colors that would contribute to the aspect of "grimness". 

Muzzle flash is from Battlefield FX by Deadly Print Studio.

I also printed a single Feudal Guard Manticore as I wanted to see how the scheme worked on vehicles and was pleasantly surprised by it, even if later down the line I decided to alter the green a bit to be more distant from the green khaki that I used on my troops. I also originally wanted to have white-purple-white tank stripes to further enforce the pioneer aspect but later decided to cut the white completely out of it, yet again showcasing why doing a small test run is beneficial. 

Feudal Guard support tanks.

Later on, I also printed an Alpha Pattern Leman Russ and combined it with some custom sculpted kriegsmen sitting on top of it and also a tank commander who I decided should have a more grey scheme to him to keep him separate from everyone else. This means that in total my army would be composed of blueish high ranking officers, grey tank crew, black and red commissars, and finally, the green khaki main force.