Imperial Guard (Astra Militarum) Heavy Weapons team WIP

I thought I would do something a little different for once and show you the way from an idea to a finished model. I'm not that good at updating the blog, so 'I have created a new tag called WIP, and from time to time I will show you what I am working on. I probably won't be doing it for all the rank and file models but I will do it if it is something big, different or something I feel I would like to share for other reasons.

I feel that it can be a bit boring to have every model on a flat "black" base with nothing going on (the base will not stay black as it will be painted up some way, but you know what I mean), so I thought I would go for a little mini dioarama when building this Cadian heavy weapon team.
I wanted to add some extra side sponsons and turrets to one of my super heavy tanks, so I bough the Baneblade Sponsons and Accessories sprues from Games Workshop. On these sprues there were two extra sets of the barrels that goes on the back of the tanks. I want to use two barrels for my Stompa flamer conversion that I will make in the future, but the other two I had no plans for so I glued them on to a base from the Sector Mechanicus Industrial bases set as I wanted to use this heavy weapon team along with my city fighters. I can also field them and have them blend in seamlessly on the gangways of my big refinery that I am working on, but most of the time they will be fighting in rulal areas.

They are armed with a missile launcher that they steady on the barrels to aim it straight. I have also given them an extra missile as that was all I had spare, but I might add a crate to another base and that could potentially be full og spare missiles. The soldier sitting on his knee holds a laspistol for close combat and binoculars to get range and target information. The soldier with the missile launcher have a laspistol holstered on his hip, and they also have a spare lasgun for keeping the enemy away when they are out of missiles. I can also add a container og some sorts to another base in the future and place that close by and say it is an ammo dump, so they don't need to run out of missiles in a while.

Here they are primed and ready for paint. The guardsmen are not glued to the base yet, but everything else is glued together. I will glue the guardsmen to the base with superglue when the painting is mostly done to avoid remnants of glue being visible on the finished work.

I've had one paint session with them so far, and this is where I am now. The barrels are painted Zandri Dust, and will have one more coat with that before they are washed with Agrax Eathshade. Then I will go over them with a sponge to weather them up. First with a brown color to create patches of rust, and then with a metal color (also with the sponge) to make them look worn.
There is a lot of metal here, so I haven't decided exactly how to paint the missile launcher, but I'm thinking either black or dark green. Dark green could be my best option as the armor and helmet that is right beside it are black. 
The uniform pants are Mechanicus Standard Grey and the jackets are Administratum Grey. This is the standard paint scheme for all my Cadians.

My Astra Militatum/Imperial Guard army is made up of several different units, but I try to have some things painted the same for all of them to add unity to the army.

I have Cadians, Catachans and Tempestus Scions as troops. Cadians and Catachans are both regular Infantry Regiments, while the Scions form up an elite Stormtrooper Regiment. 

They get different colored jackets dependning on what they are wearing. The Catchans often have combat vests or t-shirts, the Cadians have uniform jackets and the Scions have another kind of armor. But all pants are Mechanicus Standars Grey, and all boots are Black. This is also true for my abhumans (both Orgyns/Bulgryns and Ratlings).