Valkyrie spam

Completed Elysian skimmer/flyer fleet, ready to to swoop in and mow down the enemies of the Emperor...or at least look great going down in flames

It was slow going, but I have finished the Valkyries for my 40k Elysians. This will give me six skimmer/flyer models for a 1500 point Elysian detachment. There are four Valkyries with rocket pods and multilasers, one Vendetta with three twin-linked lascannons, and a Vulture gunship with twin-linked punisher cannons. One of the Valkyries has the doors open with the door gunners in place, although sadly you can barely see them on the finished model.

Decal-wise, as I have already posted, I wanted to try and get some nose art and some kind of squadron symbol for the flyers. I remember seeing pictures of some Vietnam-era US helicopter units which often featured some unique squadron symbols on top of the official numerals etc.

The GW decal sheets are great for stenciled-numbers, but are thick with skulls (of course), planet names, vehicle names like "Hammer of the Emperor" and other stuff that did not fit what I was looking for. I wanted something a little more "contemporary" and irreverant. In the end was able to mix what I found on the net with the decals from the kits, and a decal sheet from Forge World that is actually really good (has pilot names and everything).

The gunships - the Vulture and Vendetta - as well as the CO's ride got to have some elaborate nose art: shark mouths for the gunships, and an Imperial Eagle head for the CO's Valkyrie. I also put a squadron symbol on the main access hatches of the Valkyries.

Here are a few pictures I snappped last night.

This is the squadron logo of a US Navy Viking squadron - I thought it would be sufficiently irreverant to go on the back hatches of the Valkyries

"The Road Warrior" - this is the CO's ride - the Elysian Commander and his assorted flunkies and advisors will ride in this bird; the eagle face on the nose is from a Forge World decal sheet

"Betsy" is the Vendetta gunship, set to hunt big targets with lascannons

There were two minor calamities that bit me at the last minute - I managed to ruin one set of the "Screwbirds" decals during the application process last night, so one of the Valkyries still has a blank door. I'll have to order a replacement, or just use an alternate facing "Screwbird".

The other notable problem is the canopies - they were much, much, much trickier to fit than I ancitipated. I have ranted previously about how the pilot has a damn massive skull on his shoulder pad that makes the canopies a challenge to actually place over the pilot. To get around this, I shave the skull off as part of the model assembly. But even with that, it turns out the canopies were a poor fit. Very frustrating!!! On the other hand, I will never be a patient or talented enough modeler to wow the plastic model society, and just like when there is a flaw on one model in a ten-man squad, the others tend to blend it out. Hopefully it will be the same with the Valkyries.

I am very pleased with the overall progress on this project, which started back in March of this year. Now we will be set for an airborne-style 40k smackdown. And I hope I get a few points to move up in the painting challenge!

Coming soon to an alien-infested landing zone near you...

This weekend I hope to snap some nicer official propaganda photos with the Elysians. Only a few odds and ends left to finish this project - a "scanner" for the HQ, and a banner (hopefully from Brian?) for the regimental standard carrier. Then it is on more new and exciting insane projects....in fact, another has already begun...