The Mordian 57th - Building an Army for Charity

[Col.Gravis]

I'm going to use this log to chart progress in a new project I've decided to take on.

Without going into too much detail, in the past month I lost my Grandfather, to whom I was very close, to Stomach Cancer after an eight month battle with the disease. It was his wish to remain at the family home, surrounded by his family until the end, and this he was able to do thanks to the amazing supported provided free of charge by [URL="http://www.hospiscare.co.uk"]Hospicare[/URL]. This is a local charity in my part of the world which provides dedicated care and support for those who are diagnosed with terminal illnesses, and to their families.

In the aftermath of this I've decided I want to raise some money for [URL="http://www.hospiscare.co.uk"]Hospicare[/URL], and as a hobbiest who was inspired by my grandfathers own creative talents there seems a very appropriate way of doing so. To this end I'm going to build a 1500pts plus Imperial Guard army, the Mordian 57th, which will then be sold on ebay with 100% of the final value being donated to Hospicare. I'm hoping to get the army finished within a year, which will mean going some by my standards, so we'll see how it goes.

So that all explained, its time to get down to business.

I'm in the process of stripping a platoon and a bits worth of Mordians which will form the core of the army, probably with a mounted Veteran Squad or two to fill out the troops, I'm definately including a couple of Leman Russ, one standard pattern, one Executioner, probably a Vendetta and a Helhound and maybe a few more vehicles besides.

For now though I've just finished a test model using the fairly standard Mordian scheme which I've settled on, I'm looking for input from anyone and everyone though on any improvements, not least because I'm hoping that there might be a few people who may be interested in buying the army once its done. What I'd really like some suggestions on is basing though, I've got in my mind an urban themed base but having never done urban basing I'm a little unsure how to pull it off effectively, any suggestions on that, or other ideas for basing?

[SotonShades]

Having lost an Aunt to cancer a few years ago, I really do appreciate the value of local hospice care. Nearly a decade later my family are still doing a fair bit to raise money for the local charity hospice that really helped my aunt and all of us through the process of her passing. So from me, a very very hearty good luck. I hope this army raises a huge amount for for Hospicare.

As for ideas; I'd be strongly tempted to add some silver to the Aquilla on the chest, possible only on the heads/body. Polished and parade ready, so much brighter than the metallics on the gun. Other than that the scheme is brilliant and very well done. If you can do the whole army to that standard it should sell very well.

Basing-wise... Urban basing can be quite hard to pull off and make interesting. While it's very easy to just do small, gravelly rubble, it ends up looking like grey sand. I think it can be done really well, especially if you get a theme running through a unit (such as perhaps a tiled plaza area, with a few tiles cracked or pulled up) or interesting rubble, with good sized chucks of masonry and other detritus sticking out, such as pipes, girders, plaques, broken furniture, computers, paper/books, personnal affections (nothing quite hits home like seeing a soldier marching past a discarded child's teddy poking out of the rubble). All this kind of stuff brings the rubble alive and shows that your soldiers are fighting over a real place where people lived and worked, rather than an open gravel pit or some grey plains. Also, a few (and I do mean few) blood splatters and other can really add a lot to a base, especially in contrast to neat, clean models like your Mordians. Keep it subtle and you can't go too far wrong.

[Brymm]

Looks great!
I hope you raise tons of money for hospice. I find it amazing that healtcare here in America is still for-profit. It blows my mind, but when you see organizations like hospice that are run purely volunteer and operate on donations, you start to see that there are amazing people in healthcare. I'm sure you've run into bad nurses/doctors/staff at places, but I've been hard pressed to find anyone 'bad' involved with hospice because they WANT to be there and help. With that said, I am truly touched that you would do something like this that I would be amiss to not want to help!!!

What do you need? Models? Basing materials? Paints? I would glady purchase some and send them your way.
Need something painted? I'm not a bad painter (in fact I think I'm pretty good!) and I think I could emulate the theme pretty well. I could do a chimera or two? Or a tank? Or whatever you need. Shoot me a private message and let me know.
Best of luck!

[Col.Gravis]

I'm quite taken by the idea of changing the chest aquilla, and Soton your not the onyl one to suggest switching it to silver, so I may well give that a go.

Regarding basing, quite a few people have suggested a cobblestones as a base, though I', quite taken up on their being at least some detrious and rubble, I think I'll have to experiment a bit to see what works, I do want to keep the bases realtively simple so as not to detract from the model, but interesting bases I knwo can really make the whole piece.

Brymm, thank you very much for your very generous offer, I've had a few such offers which I really had'nt expected and I'm not quite sure how best to proceed yet! I'll definately keep it in mind though, once I've take stock of everything which I've already got to hand i may well get in touch, thank you!

[Grenadier]

I'd like to say this is very admirable of you. And it is touching. I would never have thought of using this beloved hobby of ours as a means to raise money for a charity. It speaks well of your character.

[Col.Gravis]

I can't claim it as my original idea tbh, the charity army idea has been done incredibly by a group of hobbiests for Doctors Wtihout Borders for a couple of years, largely pushed by the chaps from Santa Cruz Warhammer I believe.

I've been making slow progress with the army, the test model I ended up settling on a Yellow Aquilla, with the first full squad on the way now.

The other bit I've been doing is this,



I want to include one or two Veteran Squads, Mordian 'Ironhearts' with Carapace armour, so the next question, what do you think the scheme should be on these? Should the Greatcoats remain the normal dark blue?

[Thornblood]

I recon, keep 'em dark blue.

Paint the armour in metal colours (Ironhearts)

Add two stripes to the sides of thier legs/greatcoats as opposed to the standard 1 on the regular troopers. Maybe add two red stripes to the arms as well?

Test model looks amazing. Really good face.

Conversion looks brilliant to. You got any more pics of the rest of the army?

[FeralOni]

that test model looks frakking amazing... i hope you get an ***-tonne of money for the charity (lost an uncle to cancer in 2010... the hospice he was in was amazingly supportive)