More Work On The Les Grognards

The batch painting has been going well so a lot of progress has been made on the new Command and  weapon crews.

The new parts are proving to be a godsend for expanding the variety of the Les Grognards army.  It's certainly put me in a positive frame of mind for the Space Brits.

So much so that I have been planning how to build them.   I'll likely go for initial squads of seven with a Sergeant and special weapon trooper.  The other three spots will be saved for a potential future Heavy Weapons team and Comms operator.   That will likely be a 2022 project.

My latest eBay purchase consists of five Rogue Trader era psykers.  They are basic but effective figures that have been given spare arms from the Les Grognards box.

 

A True Lockdown Treat

I was at the Games Day where the Big Toof River diorama was unleashed and can remember seeing the relatively small contingent of a new form of Guardsman about to be overwhelmed by Orks.  

I had seen a selection of the Praetorians a couple of weeks earlier as the manager of my local GW had some of them to be painted up for the display.

Now, courtesy of eBay, I've taken delivery of the White Dwarf that contains the Last Stand At Glazer's Creek scenario that pitches a decreasing number of Praetorian Guard against waves of Orks as inspired by the battle of Rorke's Drift as Big Toof River was by the Battle of Isandlwana.

The scenario is so beloved of GW that the old Citadel Journal had a version featuring Mordian Iron Guard and, more recently, White Dwarf replayed the battle using Ventrilian Nobles.

Take the phone of the hook and wallow in some nostalgia.

 

The Les Grognards Ripple Painting Process Begins Again

The problem with new purchases is the need to paint them!

To that end, the crews have had their undercoats of Tamiya NATO Brown and Mechanicus Grey for the weapons.

Let the painting commence.

 

Les Grognards Heavy Weapons And Crew

The crew for the mortars and the gunners for the other weapons have been constructed.  I haven't bothered with loaders for the non-mortar weapons as they will be spare infantry once the lascannons and heavy bolter types have been added to their respective squads.

The only figures that aren't multi purpose from this set are the seated gunners that are intended for the quad gun.

 

Les Grognards Command And Snipers

The latest efforts were concentrated on building a Command Squad for the new Senior Officer and take advantage of the new rifles for a Special Weapons Squad.

The new Colonel utilises the torso with medals,  the plasma type pistol and the sword in left hand from the new box.

The vox operator.

The plasma gun parts from the original box. 

The medic is a mixture of new parts on one of the original models.

The new Standard Bearer parts inspired by the original Napoleonic Eagle standards.

The sniper squad has snipers made from the new components.  The spotters uses new command arms on original troopers. 

 

Les Grognards Heavy Weapons and Command

They've finally arrived.

Three boxes of Wargames Atlantic's Les Grognards Command and Heavy Support.

The original Les Grognards Infantry box packed a lot onto small sprues but was slightly lacking in variety.  For a squad sergeant, the only option was for either a pistol or a sword to be carried because both were mounted on right arms.  To have a figure with sword and pistol would require some cutting and regluing.

I'll add more photos soon but the new box comes with officer heads along with a left hand sword option, a power fist and parts for standard bearers and medics. Additionally there are sniper rifle parts.

The main meat of the boxes though are the support weapons.Each box comes with three sprues allowing six teams to be made up.  All can be armed the same or a mixture of four types. 

There are only three of each carriage though so even if you choose to go for six mortars, they will be mounted differently.

The five teams below are a mixture of an energy type weapon at the front (lascannon?) and a triple barreled weapon at the back (autocannon or heavy bolter?).  At the front is the wheeled carriage with the tripod at the back.

The crazy option is this bubble mount quad gun thing (either autocannon or heavy bolter.  Maybe a multi laser?)

The final weapon type is a magazine fed mortar.

 

So far I've built up five weapons to add to the Infantry Platoon squads with the quad guns and the mortars line up to be Heavy Weapon squads.  

I'm sequestered at home at the moment so, precipitation notwithstanding, there may be a chance to get some painting done for these bad boys.

One last thing. If you're mad for female wargames figures, each sprue contains one female version of each of the head types that comes with the infantry box namely Napoleonic Infantry, Old Guard Bearskin, Foreign Legion kepi and Adrian Helmet.

Is Anyone Interested In Praetorian Models Via Patreon?

I've been feeling terribly 21st Century Hip and With It after signing up to Patreon for the first time.

I am currently the only supporter for Col Gravis and his project to bring some Praetorians to life mainly to fill gaps in the original range such as plasma gunners and so on.

Shown below is the work in progress for the first of this range.

I must admit that I'm also sooooo tempted by the work of Christopher Smith working as Wakes Emporium and the 6mm range that he is producing.

Shown below are his Britannicans range.  I love the Headquarters diorama.

Just announced for his February output are APCs for the Britannicans along with what looks like some elite Life Guard Cavalry and Infantry along with some not-Mordians.

 

I've not invested so far as only the digital files are provided and I haven't really looked into printing options in my local area.

They do look so tempting though.

Imperial Guard Reinforcements

With the Pistoliers delivery coming through last week, I was able to finish building the Ventrillian Sniper Squad.  I have used the helmets without the feathers to indicate that these Guardsmen are more covert than their Infantry compatriots.

The added benefit is that these heads seem to be beard and mustache equipped giving them a more grizzled veteran vibe.

Two Praetorians are being garbed in black to take their place as crew for the latest Salamander.

I have used the non-helmeted head from the Pistoliers as the conversion piece for a Praetorian Lieutenant to stand with my Praetorian Veterans  (the ones in green) and to try and capture a Richard Sharpe feel.

This head may get swapped out though as the Wargames Atlantic Rifles box comes with parts to convert some to Chosen Men as per the Sharpe TV series.  There may be a Sean Bean style head in there so an update to this figure could be on the cards.