A few more Legions Imperialis models from the period between October-December 2025, though they are also the last ones to show for awhile (until I finish another batch). This time we have some Solar Auxilia aka Imperial Guard aka Imperial Army, depending on your own GW vintage & experience. As with the last post, these are 3D prints from some STL files I’ve had for years, and so while they don’t precisely match the new, more “dripping in trim” look that GW has given their LI SA kits, they work well enough for me. These ones are just from a different Forgeworld.
These photos turned out a fair bit more saturated than the models are in hand. I was using Marouda’s new phone camera to see how it goes. They are in fact painted in the same kind of Desert Yellow that my Afrika Korps forces are painted in.
The historically-minded amongst you may have noticed some of the markings look a little familiar. Indeed, the paint scheme of these tanks is a mixture of DAK, 8th Army and “40k/HH”. The desert yellow is, as noted ripped from my DAK scheme. The tank platoon numbers are also from German WWII decal sets.
On the opposite hand, the Platoon markings (Squares, Circles, later on – Triangles and Diamonds) as well as the AOS markings (numbers in squares) and the “Desert Rats” Divisional Insignia. The hull stripes were a marking used by the British Tank Corps during WWI and part of WWII, notably in Operation Crusader in the desert war. It’s a distinguishing mark that GW used as inspiration for their own tank schemes from the early days of their plastic Imperial Guard kits, so it fits both “slots”.
I ummed and ahhhed about adding chipping weathering to these as I do with my WWII tanks. In the end I decided against it for the time being, as there’s going to be a lot of tanks that are a lot smaller then these in the future, and I can always go back and add it to these later on.
Azazel's Bitz Box. 
Very cool! Love the mix in of historical schemes, I do remember discovering the stripes on the Matildas and realising that’s where the early 40k markings were from.
How did you print these? They look really good.
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Thanks Nicolas! The tanks were painted pretty much like my DAK tanks, but without the weathering and some bare metal and dark brown sections added in for differentiation (because 40k). The thick stripes were just a steady hand and careful touch-ups when I got wonky, and the rest (numbers, insignia, squares, etc) were all Flames of War decals.
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These are excellent! 🙂 The nuances of the colours and markings were not lost on me even before I’d read the post (and remembered looking at your North Africa tanks in past posts)! Since these are small scale models, and have quite a “cluttered” appearance, I think they look fine without weathering or chipping!
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Thanks John – no surprise that you picked up on the markings immediately. 🙂
Thanks for the vote of confidence in not weathering them further as well! 😀
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Fantastic work on the Imperial tanks mate ( yes I’m old ! LOL) the use of historical color scheme works really well on this faction.
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Haha thanks Dave! Historical-inspired schemes work well on a lot of non-historical forces. Watching Andor S1 again right now (and then onto S2) and the German WWII aesthetic is even stronger than it was in the OT, given all the feldgrau uniforms instead of white plastoid armour.
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What a batch of beauties! I love the classic scheme, they look awesome indeed, and I think you made the right decision about not chipping them. Great job!
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Thanks mate! Hopefully I manage to get more of them finished sooner rather than later! 🙂
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Very nice.
Always nice to see tanks!!!
And they are big tanks.
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Thank you – they are in fact very big, very small tanks.
Or is that very small, very big tanks? 😮
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The only thing I like seeing more than tanks is even more tanks! 😀 In all seriousness, these came out really nicely and I appreciate all of the details that they have. The decals look nice as well and add a nice pop of color to the tanks!
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I know how much you love tanks! While I know you’ll be gutted to hear this, while I do have quite a few more vehicles and things with turrets coming, I don’t have any more tanks close to be able to being shown.
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I guess I might as well unsubscribe and see myself out then haha! In all seriousness, I’ll be curious to see what you do have coming up. You’re always working on something interesting in my opinion!
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Very 8th Army looking indeed! You have been busy!
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Thanks Mark. Busy but with my usual scattershot focus! 😮
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They look awesome. Well done mate.
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Thanks mate! I need to get a lot more of them done so I can get a game in. 🙂
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Lovely job mate – proper tanks 🫶
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Cheera Alex! Appreciate it!
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Great work matey👍🏻, always love seeing tanks!
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Cheers Pat. No more tanks ready to show for the moment bit there are (always) more in the pipeline!
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I might have one coming up in the near future 😉
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Looking forward to seeing what you’ve got planned!
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