From Millsy - 28mm 40K Catachan Imperial Guardspeople (255 points)

This is the start of [ahem!] yet another 40K army I have had on the boil for [ahem! ahem!] several years now. This time it is the hard men (and woman!) of the jungle planet Catachan in all their 90s Perry-esqe metal glory.

Get in line men. There's undercoating to be done!

You can see from the first photo there's quite a few of them to go. In fact, I've added to them since this was taken (Quiet there at the back. Yes, I am talking to you Campbell. If you have something too say, share it with the whole class. No? Really? I thought not...). That photo was taken in 2007 so at long last the undercoat is properly cured and I can start painting... :-)

The first unit is Alpha Platoon, consisting of a 5 man command squad, 2 x 10 man infantry squads and a 6 man support squad. I've kept the uniforms a bit on the plain side (i.e. no camo) as I'm building them as a more vanilla force rather than the elite "Deathworld Veterans". I will include camo but it will only be on the HQ and Veteran troops to distinguish them on the table top. Being the first platoon they get the honour of the traditional red bandanna as well.

The command squad is loaded out with special weapons of the assault variety meaning they can fire on the move. It includes the only female in the army and I've painted her as a ranga (that's a ginger for the non-Aussies amongst us). For some reason GW generally has an aversion to female figures which is a shame as it makes no sense at all and might encourage more female players if there were more female miniatures to choose from.

Fluff-wise, the Catachan military probably don't allow females in their ranks, or at least those who are recognisably female anyway. Think of the "Have you ever been mistaken for a man?" banter from Aliens and you'll know what I mean. Regardless, when a wild-eyed, buzz-cut red-head turns up at the recruiting office with her own grenade launcher and an 18" carving knife nobody is going to tell her to go away now are they?!?

The two infantry squads also include more special weapons in the form of a meltagun for AT work and a missile launcher for both AT/AP. Everyone else gets the traditional lasguns a.k.a. "flashlights of the Emperor" to be making do with.

The support squad is armed with the iconic Catachan artillery piece in the form of the heavy mortar. I love the chaps with the trigger device which I think looks more like a TV or garage door remote control than anything you could use to rain death on the enemy...

Lastly we have an Elite unit of Ogryns, a futuristic ogre analogue. These are absolutely marvellous miniatures and a perfect example of what Games Workshop was capable of producing at the peak of their powers so to speak. They're packed with character and the detail is astounding.

I spent 10 hours on these 5 guys and it went by in the blink of an eye. I've made some some additions to mine in the form of 1/72 scale plastic headgear and water bottles. The fact they are perfectly in scale gives you an idea of the size of these chaps which stand roughly 40mm tall. I'm pretty pleased with how these turned out and it reminds me that when I take the time I can actually paint OK.

In total that's 31 x 28mm miniatures, 5 x 28mm crew served weapons and 5 x 40mm miniatures (at 10 points a pop according to Curt when I queried him on them). 255 points all up. Ka-ching!

So that's it for stage one of the new project. Next up is a Veteran squad, the HQ and special characters so loads more interesting metal and plenty of camo too. I might even try and get the whole army painted during this Challenge. Stay tuned...