guardian – Twitchy Bristles

Before, After, and Next Steps

Pictured, Guardian from 2018 vs. Storm Guardian from 2020.

Felt like I needed a win today, so I’m posting something fun. When I started painting Warhammer again back in 2018 I started with a handful of Guardians, Howling Banshees, and psykers, and after a couple of years I thought it would be neat to compare some of the first models I did with the models I’ve been painting more recently.

Pictured, Howling Banshee from 2018 vs. Howling Banshee from 2020.

I’m happy to say that I think I’ve made strides as far as my painting goes – the more recent colors pop better and I think I’m getting better at picking contrasting colors that look good together. More than that, though, using occasional resin bases, kitbashing, and my basing have all moved a little out of my original comfort zone and I’m excited to see what kind of improvements I’ll have made in another two years’ time.

Lastly, I want to add that because I’m working on a thesis right now and moving into “crunch” time I’m likely not going to be uploading much over the next month or so. Hoping to focus on that for a while and hopefully come back to painting refreshed – I have a few Eldar and Death Guard projects primed and ready to paint and a new “mystery” army I’m excited to build too.

Thanks for the support and views, and see you on the other side!

Storm Guardians

I said a year ago to some local friends I play with that I was never, ever going to build Storm Guardians because of how niche they are and how much the upgrades would cost. As fate would have it, though, I ended up with an extra few sprues of Guardians, and since I already have a regular 20-person Guardian blob I decided to do something different – so I tackled part of my shame pile and supported my local FLGS all at the same time.

Pictured are the whole ten-person squad with Flamers, Chainswords, and Aeldari Blades.

I’m happier with how these look than my regular Guardians and after playing with them a little (especially the chainswords!) I think I’m going to bring them along with my regular army a little more often! The resin parts were surprisingly easy to work with, my only complaint is the distribution of parts in the GW Storm Guardian kit – I ended up buying 2 upgrade kits and still didn’t have enough chainswords to equip a default squad.

In the most desperate of circumstances, the strategic needs of the craftworld will call for a group of Guardians to deploy as Storm Guardians – warriors specifically armed to fight in the maelstrom of close combat with shuriken pistols and elegantly balanced chainswords.

Support Weapon

Guardians Jorel and Oran, standing by to unleash the D-Cannon.

The same friend who gifted me the “Big Sister” wraithlord got me a couple of metal guardians to fix up, too, and I managed to get a hold of a weapon platform after to go with them. I magnetized and mounted the cannon onto a 50mm base, which isn’t quite ITC standard but it’s worked for me in a bunch of local games, and I think it’s a nice fit.

*The most dangerous guns used by the Asuryani are those such as the D-Cannon, which enables its user to open a portal to the hellish immaterium of the warp.*

Might try my hand someday at one of the updated plastic models, but for now I’m very happy with how this turned out, and it packs a hell of a punch! Doesn’t even need line of sight or anything.