+ inload: Catachan Colonel +

+ Boots on the ground: Catachan Colonel +

+ War of the False Primarch? No. Augustine Crusade? No. Alien Wars? No. Scallop Star Purges? No. Just a kick-ass model that I wanted to paint? Yes. +

+ ...and of course, being an awesome model doesn't preclude him from being used in any of the above scenarios. Themes, campaigns and stories (to my mind at least) should provide inspiration and a broadening of the possibilities, rather than making you feel you can't using your hard-painted models in different ways. +

+ There's a balance to be struck here, between using your models exactly as you want, and the unspoken social contract that is key to everyone having a good time. All participants having consideration for the other people involved, and what they want out of a game, is perhaps the most important bit! +

+ It's worth noting that being a good person to play against (as opposed to a 'good opponent' in terms of the actual game) doesn't involve just rolling over and running with what the other person/people want to do. Be engaged, be active, and everyone will have a better experience. If you're enthusiastic about something, speak up, discuss, and come to a compromise with your friends; or, better still, create a synthesis of all your good ideas. +

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+ Some armies lend themselves more easily than others to being involved in different scenarios within the 40k universe. Guard, Orks and Eldar, for example, are hugely diverse and don't really vary much across the timescale of the galaxy. These armies can turn up anywhere from tiny kill teams to massive apocalypse games, and from the Horus Heresy to the post-Resurrection period of M42. +

+ Some armies/forces require either more though to come up with a cool reason why they'd be fighting – or, as a group, you might come to an agreement not to use them against each other. Perhaps most obviously, highly-themed Horus Heresy period armies don't easily fit into games against Tau or Tyranids – but unless you come to the conclusion that you or the other player(s) won't have a good experience, remember that there's no harm in playing a scenario in which the Tau/Tyranids are played as one of the numerous Xenos species encountered during the Great Crusade, or conversely that the Space Marines are a Chapter blessed with huge numbers of Relic equipment. A good story can help fill the narrative gaps. +

+ Above all this, It's also worth remembering that you can just treat things a bit more lightly, and forget the number of rivets (or limbs!) on your models, and simply have a fun game. Not everything needs to be justified. +

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+ Enough talk! More action! +

+ Man, I think this model is awesome. A great combo of cheesy action movie  and video game tropes, cool chunky GW details, and a real sense of character. About the only thing I don't like about it is the fact that the first plastic infantry model for the Guard in about two decades was a limited splash release that can't be found for love nor money. I hope that local hobby shops benefitted from GW's largesse (and I do genuinely think it was a nice gesture), because it seems to have caused a large amount of friction and disappointment in the Imperial Guard community. Here's hoping that it gets a broader release at some future date. +

+ Enough grumbling (that's reserved for when the Longbeards get on the painting table!), let's get stuck into definitely-not-Carl-Weathers-from-Predator. This figure isn't quite finished, but I couldn't resist showing him off at this point. +

+ As noted in yesterday's inload, it's been a while since I've painted up Guard – though a few baseline humans have been sneaking through. This model was a treat to paint, with a mix of smooth fabrics for detailing, nice clean plates for sharp highlighting, and the perennial favourite, bare skin for blending and glazes. +

+ I kicked off with an experiment, using Halford's Camouflage spray paint to undercoat him. I genuinely thought this was an April Fool's joke when I spotted it in-store, but it turns out it's a range of four matt sprays that you use to build up camouflage on (full-size) vehicles. The deep brown is a lovely undercoat that I think combines the best bits of my usual black and grey primers – lots of depth, but not dead. +

+ I started with the base, then moved onto the skin. Once these were complete, I painted the fatigues using a variation on the camouflage tutorial here: [+noosphericinloadlink embedded+]. The swapped-out colours are pictured above, but note that the brown undercoat is serving as the deepest value. The key thing is to have a deep tone, midtone and light tone. +

+ Bits still to do include the lenses on the field glasses, the eye on the servoskull/banner/aerial thing, and some sort of eye-catching accents – perhaps some bright glowing green xeno blood? +

+ Bright accents don't make much sense on camouflage, of course, but they do make a model more fun. Tasteful and muted is my vibe, but it's nice for special figures to stand out a bit. +

+ The rear detailing could do with some more attention, too. I was toying with the idea of a slight OSL around the backpack generator/battery for the power fist. That cloth could do with a marking or two, as well. +

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+ Jungle is massive +

+ One man does not a killteam make (unless you count Marbo, of course), so I've also been working on his squadmates. Sergeant 'Ripper' Jackson, above, was a kind gift from Lord Blood the Hungry. She's coming along nicely, and I hope to finish her off this week. +

+ Vaguely related to this is a Knarloc who's been sitting on my desk for a long while. Kroot are one of those projects that're always the bridesmaids, never the bride. I thought fitting them in with a loose jungle theme for 2021 might encourage me to get some done. +

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