Valhallan Ice Warriors: Part 2 (Astra Militarum\Imperial Guard)

Valhallan Ice Warriors

In this post I will be painting five Valhallan Ice Warriors, representing half of the ten-man squad from Part 1 of this series.  In this post I will be discussing my painting inspiration for the Ice Warriors, and the paints I used for the miniatures.

 

 Primed Miniatures

My painting inspiration for the Valhallan Ice Warriors came from the Soviet winter combat uniforms of World War 2; the Soviet winter uniforms were khaki in colour and had red collar patches. For these miniatures, I wanted to capture the contrast created between the red collar patches and khaki colour of the uniforms.  Before I start painting, I like to create backstories for the miniatures; I find this helpful in the painting process, especially when it comes to selecting colour patterns for the miniatures.  For this squad of Valhallan Ice Warriors, I envisioned the clothing and equipment carried by the soldiers as a combination of standard military issued items and personal gear (equipment purchased by the soldiers themselves, surplus from other units, gear looted from the battlefield, etc.).

Painting Stage 1

Painting Stage 2

Painting Stage 3

Painting Stage 4

Standard Issued: The standard issue gear and clothing are the heavy winter coats, gloves, boot leggings, boots, caps and lasguns.  For the standard issued items, I wanted to give these a uniformed look; thus, I painted these in a consistent colour scheme (khaki for the jackets; black for the boots; brown for the boot leggings and gloves, etc.).

Winter Jackets & Markings: I used Tamiya Khaki XF-49 for the base colour for the heavy winter jackets, with Reaper 09278 Gory Red being used for the red markings and insignias.

 

Completed Miniatures (front)

 Completed Miniatures (back)

 

Personal Gear: The personal gear are the articles of clothing and gear the Ice Warriors provided themselves; these include such items as pants, shoulder strap bags, canteens and ammo pouches.  A variety of colours and patterns were used to paint these items, reflecting the variety of sources the Ice Warriors obtained these items from.

Camouflage:  There are two camouflage patterns found on some of the personal gear (pants, shoulder strap bags, etc.) carried by the Ice Warriors: a four-colour woodland camo pattern and a three-colour urban camo pattern.  The four-colour woodland camo pattern is inspired by the camouflage used by the U.S. Army in the 1980s.  The woodland camouflage is made up of the following Reaper paints: 9177 Camouflage Green (base colour), 9122 Terrain Khaki, 9161 Shield Brown and 29843 Solid Black. Whereas, the urban camouflage is made up of the following Reaper paints: 29834 Field Grey (base colour), 29843 Solid Black and 9039 Pure White.

 

In the next post in this series I will be painting the five remaining Valhallan Ice Warrior miniatures and will be exploring the Valhallan Ice Warriors in 40K fiction.