Thursday, December 30, 2010

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...

3 comments:

Curt said...

Greg, these are brilliant! Great work. Hey, there is a con here in Regina in May (with a 40K tourney, of course). You should roll-out with these bad boys for that.

Dallas said...

Brilliant work as always dewd. Look forward to pitting the Hive Queen against these guys...

DaveV said...

Great work, Greg! The all-ship photo looks very intimidating. I like how each ride is personalized.

I just got two more Eldar Hornets in the mail this week. Got to get them painted, to fit in eight fast skimmer hulls in 1500 points...