"Eggs On Legs" - RT-Era Sentinels from GW

"So, which low bidder submitted this design to the Imperium?"

Our Rynn's World mini-campaign to mark the the 25th anniversary of Rogue Trader has been a good prod to add some more Rogue Trader-era elements to my Imperial Guard force.  Last week I finished an Imperial Guard Assault Squad - and just in time for last week's game I also added a couple of Imperial Guard Sentinels.



The graphics from the stat-sheet make the Sentinel look tough!

 I cannot precisely remember the year these things were released, but I remember I was pretty jazzed to have some mobile, walking firepower for my plastic Guardsmen. Then I got one of the models - it was certainly and adventure to put together! Each leg is four different parts, all designed so you can articulate them any way you like.  The trouble is that they are so slight, and the body of the vehicle so heavy, that you are severely tempting fate to attempt anything more than a slight forward step (unless you are prepared to devote significant time whittling away at pinning etc.).

Roomy cabin for the pilot - NOT.

Laspistol hangs on the outside for backup shooting purposes.

The adventure continued this time - it was touch and go to get these things built in any sort of fashion that would allow them to hold up on the game table. The easily available large round plastic bases give these models a much better platform to work with (the large square bases with the original models were not actually that large).

The model has ladder rungs on the back, to maintain the illusion that the pilot could actually leave the cockpit voluntarily.

As with nearly all of the early GW models, the lack of skulls on everything is refreshing.

The multi-laser was a pretty good weapon back in the Rogue Trader era, with high strength (6), a negative on the save modifier (-1), a long range (60 inches!) and the ability for "following fire".  And of course the pilot had a trusty laspistol for backup.  As the Orc players discovered last week, the laspistol was actually a decent weapon back in "the day" as well ("what do you mean minus one save modifier - are you sure?!?").

The fact that the pilot needs to hang something like that on the outside of the hull says something about how crammed that thing is - in fact, short of assembling the thing around the pilot, I don't know how they actually sat in those things!

Sentinels ready to move out against the Ork boyz.

The Sentinel has gone through a couple of rounds of changes since this original model was released.  Today's plastic Sentinel is a very fine kit, and I quite like the look of it.  But it was fun to put a couple of these old things together for Rogue Trader, and see them out on the table last week (extra bonus that they models survived the game without breaking...way to go super-glue!).

Up next on the nostalgia train is a Tarantula gun unit, and an Imperial Army Landspeeder! Stay tuned for pics as those projects move along...

Meanwhile, there will be a brief pause in our Rynn's World Campaign owing to the travel plans of key Fawcett Avenue members - but not for long.  Watch for hostilities resume later this spring! Someone on TMP mentioned a Battle At The Farm follow-up scenario of some sort from WD 94 (or 96?) - if anyone has any specific info on that, we would love to hear from you! In the meantime, we are plotting the next encounter on Rynn's World, and adding new models.  I'm hoping Thrugg - thought lost during our Battle At The Farm - may have in fact made it back for some, er, "medikal treatment" from a Mad Doc...