Greetings! I go by the alias Colonel Winterborne, but otherwise go by the name given to me by the Adeptus Administratum, Phil. I’ve been a follower of ToP for years and am honoured to contribute to this excellent blog. I’ve been painting since 2nd edition and have been a finalist in Golden Demon many years ago. My big love has always been the Imperial Guard, but not just any regiment, for me it’s always been Praetorians. In this post and in the future I will be sharing with you various photos of the 5000pts I have painted and will be kicking off with a Company command Squad…
We start off with the core of the Command Squad with the officer and 4 guardsmen. We have 3 of the original Praetorian models from the late 90s, a Tallarn guardsman and the metal officer from the 00s.
When I started this army I was keen to go away from the traditional red jacket colour scheme and eventually settled on desert colour fatigues in keeping with the British military history upon which the regiment were based. The main uniform colour is very simple, it begins with Cadian fleshtone which is washed with fleshshade and then highlighted with a 50:50 mix of fleshtone and ushabti bone, then another highlight with 25:75 split, then ushabti bone, screaming skull and finally with a bit more white in there.
I think the classic guardsmen have such character and while they may now be a little dated I still think they look great. The Tallarns in particular (I have a whole platoon I’m looking forward to painting) have some incredible detail in their faces.
Truth be told these guys aren’t a proper command squad but were instead cobbled together for a painting competition at a tournament while the real Colonel Winterborne and his retinue were on deployment! Look out for them in future posts. On to a few other character who accompany the Command Squad.
Here we have the Colonel’s prized hunting hound and the Lord Commissar. The hound is from an event only miniature at Warhammer World a few years ago which came with an Adeptus Arbite.
The Commissar Lord is the stock finecast model with a head swap and converted sword and plasma pistol. The head is from a 3rd party provider on to which I’ve sculpted the detail of the helmet motif and facial hair. The commissars are one of the few ranks allowed to deviate away from the main colours of the army, with the black featuring heavily while the pith helmet remains constant. You will also notice purple as a spot colour which features in almost all my characters.
Now we have the regiments Psyker. Here is once again bedecked in the regiment’s main colours, with the aforementioned purple on his sash. I painted a black marble effect on the staff which I then gloss varnished to add further interest to the model.
Finally we have all the models together.
Thanks very much for taking the time to have a look. If you all like it I will be sure to post more in the future! Please feel free to comment, I would love to receive your feedback.
Thanks for the comments! Much appreciated. Lots more to come so heavily converted highland guard, storm troopers, rough riders, sharp shooters and much more!
Brilliant! Would love to reproduce a little of this individuality in my renegade command squad
5000p of Praetorians? You sir are a king amongst kings! Really looking forward to seeing them all.
Great work on these figures, the Praetorians are some of my favourite GW figures, interesting colour scheme too it gives the figures a Sudan campaign feel.
They look great, very different to the normal guardsmen you see!
Great, i also love the Praetorians, looking foward seeing more of them…..