we are all used to the bright glossy box art from games workshop but sometimes when
you buy something from deep in the bowels of games workshop you get a box like this
a nondescript white cardboard box with three logos on it so it can be used for any product line
inside this box are some of the oldest plastic sprues games workshop
still sells horrors long forgotten from a bygone age and i am going to fix them
ah the humble catechan guardsmen hailing from a death world which is so dangerous even the plants
that live there are deadly predators the catachan are buff sweaty jungle fighters famous for their
combat knives and their aversion to wearing their armor my favorite thing about the cat chan is the
hero sly marbo who is at the same time a parody of sylvester stallone's rambo while being sculpted to
look more like arnold schwarzenegger he's also holding the gun kurt russell used in escape from
new york just to add another touch of weirdness and awesomeness the katachan are one of two
imperial guard regiments still supported by game's workshop but i have a theory as to why that is
games workshop really struck gold with the space marines as the 40k hobby is all about making
things your own and finding your niche and space marines can be changed dramatically with just a
simple color swap it has been this way since the beginning different chapters are marines who are
all basically physically identical but their colors determine their chapter history ideology
creed and rituals it makes sense space marines already have the best of the best of the best gear
so they don't really need to customize or alter their kit it's the perfect way to have one model
range service a huge swath of gamers now compare that well-oiled machine to the imperial guard
oops i'm sorry astra militarum who have just as many regiments as the space marines have chapters
but they are all drastically different from one another they have the cadian shock troops
the starship troopers movie rip-offs the katachan jungle fighters sweaty action heroes in the jungle
the talon desert raiders with their desert camo and head wraps the valhalla ice warriors
who wear cold weather gear and ushanka hats the morty and iron guard who wear their dress blues
into the thick of combats the armageddon steel legion with their khaki fatigues and gas masks
the death core of krieg with their blue trench coats and blase attitude towards death
the praetorian guard with their pith helmets and redcoats and i'm better than you mustaches the
vostroian firstborn with their dapper redcoats and silly bearskin hats the elysian dropped troops the
other starship troopers rip off the tannith first and only ghillie suit snipers with camo cloaks
the mukabe and janissaries with their grim gothic cloaks and spooky silver masks and on and on you
get the point games wear strap tried to keep up with this for a while it was easier when there was
only two vehicles in the guard range just make some different trooper boxes and heavy weapon
team or two and you're good to go but nowadays there's almost 50 unique units in the guard codex
so gamestop shop called the range so now it has become the kdn show guest starring the catachans
and maybe that's for the best games workshop offers all the vehicles and
equipment you need while other makers like anvil industries victoria miniatures and
about a million stl makers have picked up the slack for the other regiments
but oh games workshop has kept the katachan around out of all the regiments they decided
the jungle boys were worthy of staying they even had their own book for a while i don't know if i
see it personally the canada chain are cool but so are a lot of the imperial guard regiments
but i do have a box of them so let's crack in and see what's what the plastic kit is old to
say the least and it is all the shortcomings of kits from this time period all the last guns
come with hand grips and stocks that you have to carefully cut off and then glue on the hands
which is surprisingly tricky task to pull off the models are the classic leg torso two arms and a
loose gun and head and that is perfectly modular but also a pain in the butt and everything kind
of looks bad this modularity comes at a cost i hear a lot of moaning about the newer kits but
at least those look great and go together easily the best i can say for these plastic boys is they
are truly my own creation the metal models on the other hand look a lot better sort of
they are all one part metal models and you can see the benefits of the mini being one artist's vision
more dynamic poses better proportions but they are also a product of the time and sculpting has
come a long way since these models hit the scene i'm conflicted these models just don't do it for
me there is a battle going on in my head because i really really like old stuff it makes me smile
but it's because of the oldness and jankness newer models when i see them i'm often like ah that is
so cool and i want to own it and paint it where these old kits are more like that's hilarious
i want to own it and paint it but i want to see can i save a mini with painting is that
even a thing can painting save a bad model or fix problems in the sculpt or is a bad mini doom to
mediocrity find out on this episode of jay paints a thing if the katachan are known for one thing
that one thing would be fighting in the tundra so i'm gonna be doing some classic snowy bases
i'm just kidding i'm going to do jungle i want to give my minis a little earth to stand on so i
took some cork and marked out the size of base then i tore off a little cork puck following
my pen line so that i would fit perfectly then i stuck the cork down with lots of super glue cork
is porous so you'll need way more glue than you think to keep it stuck down with my metal model
i filed the tabs into little pins and stabbed it into the cork super easy and effective on
the plastic guy i tried gluing them down with super glue but the bond was just too small so
i ended up having to pin them with a paper clip then i did some last minute cleaning
of the models they both had some pretty nasty mold lines so i cleaned them up as best i could
then it was time for some decoration i used these 3d printed leaves from epic basing and stuck them
down to my bases these are great because they are cartoony just like the models though my silly
catachan won't be standing next to hyper-realistic plants that would make them look even derpier the
models and bits share an aesthetic so it'll look seamless together then i threw on a layer of wood
glue then sprinkled some fine grained sand over it to hide the cork top after that i primed the
model's black with my favorite airbrushed primer steinel res black and then xenothon from above
with some white primer you can do this with white inks but i don't want to wait for them to cure and
white primer is pretty robust ah xenothou prime is always so attractive i always worry that i'm going
to screw it up with my paint job and speaking of my paint job i don't want to do a classic
base coat wash highlights because that's how gamesworks have painted theirs and i don't want
mine to look like how games workshops look so i think i'm gonna try to make use of the airbrush
contrast and glazing to get these guys looking nice i started with the bases as these are the
hardest to reach after the model is done i sprayed brown all over the cork then i put a green into my
airbrush and sprayed the leaves and plants this is a nice first step two things already finished
and a little bit spilled onto the model but it won't matter as i'm going to paint over them
and speaking of painting over them i took some contrast camo green and threw this onto the pants
contrast is perfectly complemented with a xenothon as you get your contrast and value all in one i
continued this contrast trend with some plague bearers flesh on the shirt this with the bright
white turned into a lovely yellow green and then i put some snakebite leather over you guessed it
the leather parts putting this contrast on the boots the boots didn't get much xenothon so they
look very dark the belt got a medium hit with the white so it looks a little bit more of a mid brown
and on the bright white pouches on his shoulders the contrast looks very light brown almost orange
three different colors all with the same brown it's always great to get the most out of your
equipment and you know what else you can really get the most out of that's right our patreon over
there we have lots of high quality terrain stls available and is the best way to support us making
videos in addition to great grim dark terrain you'll also gain access to one exclusive video a
week some behind the scenes voting on what models i paint live here on youtube a live hobby hangout
every week and more another great way to support us is checking out our merch you can follow the
link in the description below to our shirts and sweatshirts with some fun hobby related designs
now that said let's work on the skin next i mixed up a skin tone mixing brown into some red beige
i watered this down a ton and mixed it with some paint medium to help it flow the wateriness of the
paint meant that my xenothol is showing through and i applied multiple layers until i had built up
a pure color on the highest parts of the mini then i broke out the airbrush and using my super fine
needle and nozzle i sprayed on the original red beige this brought my skin tone up and kept a nice
blend going i also used this on the faces spraying from above and masking the model with my fingers
what i'm trying to do is introduce some subtlety into the models the way gamesworkshop painted
them they have lots of contrast but it's way too much and in all the wrong places
look at those muscles they are basically outlined in red that's not how you paint skin
i want to highlight the details but not literally outline them and taking advantage
of xenothal is the way to do that everything will have the appropriate value based on light
so the colors will look dynamic and not so flat and cartoony the models are already cartoony i
don't need to push the silliness even further you can totally do this airbrushing step with
a brush but i have an airbrush so i wanted to use it to save myself a bunch of time
next some washes i used richland flesh shade but i am not just slobbering it on that would
make the skin look red and bruised instead i am using mostly wash medium and just a tiny bit of
the red wash going over some areas a few times to get the recesses in between the muscles just right
after the wash i went back in with my brush to fix any overpowering the wash did and clean up the
face and make the details more prominent last step for the skin i mixed a little white paint and used
this as a final little pop of value to the skin lots of steps but each one is easy and it leads
to skin that looks a lot like skin and not this i used the brown that was already on my palette to
make a quick wash for the model's hair mixing with black for the grenade launcher specialist and red
beige for the last gunner next up i introduced a new color red all katochan wear red bandanas and
this one instance of bright red will make for a very striking detail that'll bring emphasis to the
face of the model these guys are coming along nicely and the next step is going to be their
weapons now the question is true metallic metals or non-metallic metals non-metallic metals usually
look better but they take way longer so i'm going to be lazy and stick with true metallic metals but
i have some ideas of how to spice them up i put some silver onto my palette and water this down
a little it mostly hid my xenothon but it was still peeking through just a little bit
then i gave these silver areas a wash with null oil this will help show off the details but after
a thick washing the weapons were looking too dark so i broke up my small dry brush and some bright
silver and brought the shininess right back up now my weapons look good but i want them to really pop
so i took some blue ink put this into my airbrush and carefully sprayed this onto the weapons
this will give them a cold feeling that doesn't exist anywhere else on the model
is it realistic that katachan keep their weapons so clean and shiny that they have
a blue chromy look probably not but i think it makes for a big visual impact and that really
matters a lot more to me than realism after all this is 40k not some dumb historical i took the
colors left on my palette and made a dark brown wash and put this over the base then i took the
same brown that i've been using for the whole paint job and used this for the rim of the base
i think i'm done and that's always the question isn't it when is a model truly done
for me it depends on what kind of a mood i'm in if i was feeling like more of a perfectionist i could
throw a bunch of greens on my palette and tidy up the pants the contrast brown did a pretty good job
of the pouches and straps but i could do better i could even break out some micro brushes and paint
their eyes but you know what i don't feel like i need to i'm satisfied i've been paying for about
four hours and i'm happy with the minis i'd be content to plonk these down on the gaming table
and i had fun painting them and you know what that's really what matters i didn't really plan
to fall in love with these minis that's why i didn't paint the entire squad i thought i would
try to fix them while meaning on games workshop a bunch for selling such old dumb looking models
in games workshop you have to update the catachan they are borderline unacceptable
every day these old kits are still in the web store the situation gets more ridiculous but i'm
kind of digging on them now after painting these two i see the possibility in a fun looking retro
throwback force and it didn't take too much time or paints i didn't use nearly as many colors as i
usually do taking advantage of washes and contrast i think it'll paint up a kill team of them and
bring these silly plastic models from 1999 into the tabletop in 2022 and i don't think we've heard
the last of the jungle fighters as someone from games workshop still seems to love them games are
shot from time to time comes out with promotional mini's limited release models mostly in the form
of primaries lieutenants and a smattering of other models and as most factions get one or
more usually zero unique models the catachan and army of rambos in the jungle have gotten
three so i won't be counting them out just yet but in terms of timeline i am not holding my breath on
new plastics what do you guys think was i able to fix these models or am i polishing a turd i
think i'll continue to paint them maybe even keep my eyes open on ebay to pick up some more metals