Ride of the Elysians

Tonight the Elysians will undertake their first full-blown 40k engagement in a 2000 point matchup against the evil Hive Fleet Nostromo.

The Elysians had a small test run in September of last year, but this will be their first game as an all-in detachment. While the standard fate of newly-painted models in their maiden game is well known, I am still pretty fired up to have these guys out for a run.

Let's mount up for Toxo IV, boys!

To mark the occasion, we will set the game in - where else? - good old Toxo IV! I'm sure the Elysians are not that excited to learn they will be deploying there, but orders are orders!

See everyone tonight.

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...

Some new decals

Sometime you finish a project, but then you wish maybe you had done something different...usually I am the type to leave models or figures alone once I have decided they are finished, but with my Vulture Gunship, I was a little disappointed in that the nose art just wasn't that cool. I figured something zipping around the battlefield with twin-linked punisher cannons should have a distinct look.

I always loved the look of the "shark mouth" on the nose of aircraft, made famous by the Flying Tigers in WW2 China (although I don't know that they were the first to do it). I have seen other Vulture and Vaklyrie models out there with similar nose art, but I did not trust my painting skills to create a consistent "mug" for the craft.

Through the magic of the "Interwebs" I found someone who really, really thinks the AH-1 Cobra, a helicopter gunship used by the US armed forces is awesome. So awesome he has 1/48 decal sheets you can buy to customize your models. It seems like many of these units like the "shark mouth" too - there were several different options on each decal sheet.

The nose of the Cobra, and of the Vulture/Valkyrie, are not too terribly different, so I ordered some decals. They got here yesterday, and I went back to the Vulture and applied a decal set that I tought would look right and stand out on the green paint of the ship. Plus I thought the name "Venom" would fit well with the character of the gunship.



For comparison, you can see the prior nose art (a lame GW skull that was black so did not stand out well) at this link.

I need to weather the new decals a bit more (the white paint cannot be that sharp) but I am really pleased with the look. It will stand out, and is skull-free, which is a plus.

I have some more decals enroute (hopefully) for the rest of the Valkyries. Just need to get them done before December 31st!

Attempted door gunners

There is no hope to catch the leaders in the painting competition now, but I am hoping to at least get my 40k Elysians finished before the end of the year. I am at the hardest stage of the process (for me) - finishing the Vaklyrie models to go with the force. Having the majority of the troops racing around the table supported by Valkyries will be key to achieving the unique look and feel of the Elysian force.

The plastic Valkyrie model is way, way, way, way better than the original resin creations from Forgeworld. Having said that, the Valkyrie is still a bit of a complex model - not a quick throw together - at least not for me. So I put off the Valkyries until I could finish the infantry. Well, that was pretty much done earlier this month. So I have finally buckled down and started in on the things, and I thought I would share some mid-way progress shots while pontificating on the idea of the door gunners.

One option I had to consider was the door gunners. Really, it's pretty neat - each Valkyrie box comes with the option to include two door gunners with heavy bolters in the compartments. In game terms, a slew of extra heavy bolters on the Valkyries could really give the guys some extra firepower. And conceptually the idea of the door gunners is cool. I thought I would try one of the models with the doors open and the gunners in place. Here are some progress pictures:



Painting this model has been a serious pain - I painted the gunners and heavy bolters seperately, and then left the roof off of the model to paint the interior before putting the gunners in. Now I need to finish painting the rest of the model.



Another downside, in addition to the extra fiddly steps model-wise, is the fact that the gunners are pretty hard to see once the roof goes on the model. The heavy bolter is a larger weapon after all, the side hatches on the Valkyries are not all that big, and they are recessed well under the wings. My heart sank when I put the roof on, and I could barely see the guys! Maybe I should have used Dallas' LED system...

I thought I could overcome this by having the back hatch open so you could get a better view of the interior. That died when I DROPPED THE MODEL during the assembly process, breaking the hatch parts so that it can only now be glued in place. So the pictures above are probably the last anyone will really see of the gunners! Oh well.

When this is done, I hope having the one model with the doors open will serve as an excuse to claim that all of the Valkyries on the table have door gunners.

Overall, I have built three Valkyries, including this one, in the last two weeks. The other two are painted, and this one is in painting progress. One more needs to be assembled and painted - a "Vendetta" variant. I'm trying to get it all done in time to be counted in the painting competition...we'll see...

All told, I plan to load up a 1500 point Elysian force with lots of airpower - four Valkyries with rocket pods and heavy bolters, one "Vendetta" variant, and one Vulture gunship with twin-linked Punisher Cannons. Hopefully they will hit the table early in the new year!

A few more Elysians

The NFL season continues to grind along (and strangely the Kansas City Chiefs remain in playoff contention) offering the chance to chase in vain after Dallas, Curt and Sylvain in our painting competition. I'm trying to focus for now on getting the darn Elysians done for 40k. Here are some photos of the recent progress - some snipers!

After getting the shaft a few times from Hive Fleet Nostromo and their Carnifex Spam, I figure some snipers are needed, given that they cause wounds relatively easily. Sure, the other team gets a save, but these days, everything in 40k gets a save thanks to "cover".

Of course, since Forge World made these models, the quality is incredibly variable, and you can see the one prone fellow still has a "bendy" gun barrel which I could not manage to completely straighten out depiste all the heat/hot water in the frigging world. But it's not as bad as it was.



The sniper pack only comes with three shooters, but after painting 60+ Elysians, I am finally confident enough with them to start some conversions, so I put a fourth sniper rifle on a regular dude (the guy on the right in the picture above). The arms were a bit of a bodge, but it is still close enough.



The snipers can go into the lineup either as part of a six-man special weapons team, or as weapons in the squads. I think I will probably use the special weapons team approach, but I may try and load of a veteran squad with four shooters too for fun.

I also finished one more officer and a couple more grunts - a vox-caster, a sergeant and a couple of special weapons. The Elysians are pretty packed for infantry now - One platoon with three ten-man squads, a special weapon squad with snipers, a heavy weapon squad with heavy bolters, two veteran squads - one with shotguns and meltaguns, and the other with lasguns and melta guns - a.k.a. "melta spam".

With the infantry out of the way, it's time to move on to what I like least...assembling vehicles....but the Valkyrie spam has started...



First objective is to finish off a pair of Valkyries to round out a squadron of the vehicles for the Elysians. They will be equipped with rocket pods and multi-lasers, and will hopefully match up well to the first one I did for them. Then it will be on to a "Vendetta" version of the craft.

I already cut my hand to pieces on Sunday getting two Valk models built, but I really want to get these buggers finished, so I hope I will have more progress to show next week!

Elysians - a bit of heavy boltin'

Although I am still in Sylvain's dust (and Dallas' for that matter - WTF?) I am continuing to plug away and I managed to finish more Elysian heavy weapon teams. This time, three two-many heavy bolter crews. I hope these will come in handy when confronting the horde-like Hive Fleet Nostromo among others.



One of the sets - pictured above - is a very cool "set-up-on-the-drop-cannister" vignette. Looking at it now, I think I could have done more with this one, adding some markings to the crate, so I may go back and do that, but for now, they are ready to let rip on the enemies of the Imperium.



To keep up the Rogue-Trader theme in the main command squad, I have also added an RT-era medic, and equipped him with spare arms from the other Elysian packs. The benefit of the medic is dubious - a "feel no pain" attribute is hardly terrifying when it comes to the meagre close action abilities of an Imperial Guard command team - but it just seems right to have one hanging around.



In terms of infantry, the Elysians are pretty close to completion....three full ten-man squads, one special weapon squad, two heavy weapon squads. I need to add a couple more figures to round out the command sections. I also have some snipers, and I think I want to get those done while the momentum is going - maybe I can get to those on the painting night this week!

But the hardest part is still to come - the Valks. Drop troops are lame without air support...

A few more Elysians

Wow - the progress in the painting challenge has been awesome. It's too bad Sylvain is putting all the effort into painting wood elves, but still - wow! Great job everyone.

My output has been limited lately as I have changed jobs and been pretty busy, but the NFL is still a reliable painting enabler and last weekend I finished a clutch of fresh Elysian infantry.



In my first game with the Elysian troops, I was stung by a lack of heavy firepower. Of course, the Valkyries and Vultures are supposed to do that, so I clearly need to get those painted. But I thought some missile launchers might not be a bad idea. Assembling these was a major pain, but I'm pleased with how they turned out.

I have also been working on the senior officer and command squad for these guys. Some time ago I re-purposed an old Rogue Trader captain, and I thought I would keep the theme up for the senior command group, so I used a Rogue Trader standard carrier for the regimental standard (which I hope Brian will develop....).



Thankfully the proportions of the old Rogue Trader models and current Forge World Elysian are not too far off!

Up next is a set of Elysian heavy bolter teams. And then, it's time for the Valkyries...some good NFL games this weekend, so hopefully I will have more to report (and more points for the challenge!) soon.

Elysian progress

Fresh from my late-summer Napoleonic's outburst, I have recently veered back toward completing some more figures from my ongoing Elysian project. Now that their Valkyries can land on an LED-lit platform, I just have to keep going.



I finished a squad of 10 "hardened veterans" - essentially Elysian guardsmen with shotguns instead of lasguns. In keeping with the flavour of the current edition of 40k, I have two melta guns in the squad. These models were certainly fiddly to assemble - each has about 11 pieces - and all adhered to Forgeworld's ongoing quality level, which is middling at best and appalling when you consider the price. On the other hand, Forgeworld's quality-is-job-seven reputation was well known to me and I still ordered these figures, so I can't really be surprised about that.

I do find the shotguns look cool, but I did not enjoy soaking half of them in hot water to straighten them out. I was mostly successful, but one guy still has a bit of a bendy gun. Another barrel was knocked thanks to a poor cast, but I kept it anyway (still looked kind of sawed-off). My hope is that by keeping them in a group, the wonky ones won't stand out on the table.



I also painted an "Elysian Senior Officer". I like the figure, and I like the Elysian take on a power fist...seems less comical, but still strong without looking silly or cartoonish. In fact, I can see the guy building a projector into it so he can give power point presentations to other Imperial Commanders ("As you can see Colonel, the synergies we could obtain by overwhelming this flank align well with our core values for this mission...").

Being the Imperial Guard, we needed a commissar too. The Elysian sculpts are lean figures, not as bulky as the current standard GW line. A lot of the current commissars look way too heavy next to the Elysians, so I went retro and dug a model (seen above on the right) out of my RT-era figure pile. I liked that he had a power fist too. That way there is some parity in case he has a serious "disagreement" with the officer. He also fits well with the RT-era officer I have painted for this collection.

For the Elysians I have two heavy-weapon squads left to assemble and paint - one of three two-man missile launcher teams, and one of three two-man heavy bolter teams. I will try and get to those sometime soon.

I also need to figure out the army list. I can use them as actual Elysians, but that would require squeezing out another 40+ quid for a terrible Forgeworld book chock full of BS about Orks just to get the current Elysian army list. Or I can try and use them as regular guardsmen from the current Guard codex.

I'm not sure what the advantages are either way. I suspect the Elysian list will give them some benefits. For example, the Valkyries may be available as a basic transport choice instead of a fast-attack choice, sparing the need to organize the Valkyries into squadrons and avoiding the appalling squadron rules for vehicles from the current edition of 40k. On the other hand, I already have the guard codex, could just call all of the guys veterans, and see what happens.

And of course it's all academic until I can get the stuff painted...one thing at a time....

Twin-linked Punisher Cannons are great, says Imperial pilot shortly before being eaten

After preparing a Tyranid army in near-record time, Dallas hosted a game of 40k this week, pitting his bugs against a mish-mash of my Imperial Guard. The game was based around one of the soul-less, abstracted non-scenarios from the current 40k rule book, "annihilation", in which victory depends on wiping out entire units from the other side. Each side would have 2000 points worth of stuff, which equals many, many bugs and lots and lots of Imperial Guardsmen.

To give the game plot some actual colour, the Imperial force was split into two - one component was comprised of the Elysian drop troops I have painted to date, and my regular blue mechanized Imperial lads would comprise a relief force. The Elysians would start on the table, holding an objective (Dallas' excellent Imperial Bastion), and the rest would be in reserve.

The Elysians amounted to about 700 points - three squads of veterans, included one loaded down with melta-guns (which are truly awesome - man, am I going to get some more of those guys put together). They were backed up by some fun flying/skimmer vehicles - a Valkyrie troop carrier, and a Vulture gunship mounting twin-linked punisher cannons. The relief force comprised a mechanized platoon with three squads in Chimeras, a squad of armoured sentinels with autocannons, a Leman Russ Vanquisher and a Leman Russ Demolisher.

The Tyranids had...well, lots of Tyranids - big ones, small ones, ones that eat vehicles, others that eat people, some that emit psychic blasts and a particular one that emits some kind of faintly toxic miasma. The one I focused a lot on was the Trygon, an evil, massively large and cool model that appears out of the ground and begins to wreck your sh*t. I am not knowledgeable enough about 40k or the Tyranids to detail the overall force properly, but think this entry from the blog gives a good idea of what was coming for dinner, so to speak. I can assure you it looked damn cool!

Dallas and Mike F. locked in as the Hive Mind, while I rolled with the Imperial side, and Brian H. was on hand to observe and mock all of us as needed.

The game was well-fought draw. I managed to wipe out six of Dallas and Mike's units, and they wiped out a similar pile of my lads. Here are some pictures. My favourite is the Trygon appearing behind the squad of Elysians - was a classic "I've got a bad feeling about this" moment.












(editor's note - Dallas has some great pics too - hopefully he can post when he gets the chance)

Most of the Elysians became calories for Hive Fleet Nostromo, but they gave a good accounting of themselves on the way out. The mechanized platoon did a reasonable job. The sentinels, useful throw-aways, did a great job in tying down a big squad of Tyranid warriors. The Trigon went on a tear, but I think it is fair to say Dallas and Mike were hoping it would eat more than it managed to before my panicked, curse-laden heavy weapon fire brought the thing down. On the other hand, they got to enjoy me freaking out about it, which is hard to quantify as a points value, but certainly can be fun.

Lesson for the Tyranids - don't spread out. You don't need a pincer movement to sit down for dinner. The bugs tried to come from some different angles, and it didn't pay off too well in the end. Another disappointment seemed to be the Zoanthropes (?) - the psychic blast bugs. They had to roll to pass a check to see if they could use their power, then roll to hit...it was a pretty big let-down at times for Dallas and Mike (and, of course, fun for me).

There were several lessons for the Guard. First of all, Veteran squads are awesome. I think I will make my Elysian troops pretty much a veteran concentrated force. Each squad counts as a troop choice. They have a BS of 4, can have multiple special weapons, and you don't need to waste points on junior officers and their flunkies. (Unless of course I got that totally wrong - you never know, as I freely admit to messing up when it comes to the Byzantine rules and regs of 40k codices).

Second, tanks are not as cool as they used to be. I remember a great section from the book "World War Z", where a veteran from the "Battle of Jonkers (sp?)" talked of what a let-down it was to see a tank plant a main round into the Zombie horde and nothing happened. That's what happened to the Imperial Guard in the game, where I would land tank rounds into the big bugs (Hive Tyrant, etc.) and they would simply take a wound. Yikes! It's not like the tanks don't have uses (and the Demolisher wiped out a whole brood of 'stealers in one shot) but I over-estimated the ability of tanks to take out the big bugs.

Finally, Valkyries are fun, and the Vulture with the Punisher Cannons is REALLY, REALLY FUN! It only got to fire one time (understandably, Mike and Dallas spent a lot of effort to bring that sucker down), but that was SWEET. I may need another one of those for the Elysians!

In terms of the overall game itself, playing 40k continues to be a struggle at times as the current rules compel the abstraction of fun while specifying absurdity in great detail. As a house rule, we did away with the utter stupidity that is "true line of sight". I think the next rule we will consider doing away with is the current treatment of blast weapons, in which you roll 2d6 and and a scatter dice, and subtract your model's BS from the result - EVERY TIME YOU FIRE THEM. It is utterly and completely ridiculous, and as a game mechanism, not that far removed from flicking a piece of paper on to the table to see where you hit. Considering the thin regard many current 40k fans have for the game mechanisms of the original Rogue Trader rules (in which nearly all blast weapon shots "deviated") I am surprised they tolerate this absurdity in the current edition.

I also broke a few bolts when I realized that close combat attacks on vehicles are ALWAYS on the rear armour. In hindsight, the rule makes sense - that's what you get for having tanks unsupported by infantry (not that I think a squad of guardsmen would have done much against the !#$!@#$ing Trygon, or that a huge monster is really "infantry", but anyway). I'll keep that in mind next time I roll the tanks.

Of course, no matter how much 40k rules suck, they never wreck cool models and fun opponents! The game was a hoot, and looked really cool. Thanks to Dallas for hosting a great game! I look forward to returning to the table with a full 2000 points of Elysians, completely kitted out with all of their Valkyries...

Elysian Update - New Officer and New Bases

Back to some painting again, with the excellent NHL playoffs kindly offering up several seven-game marathon playoff series which provide the perfect backdrop for progress. I'm continuing to work on the Elysian force, determined to get these chaps ready for a 1500 point game before August.

Up first is the new Captain and a couple of new recruits. The Elysians do have a lineup of officer models (including a chap with a power fist) but I wanted a model that would really stand out as the senior officer in charge of all this cool, flying kit. Although the "Commander" was my favourite officer of the Rogue Trader collection, what I liked about the Captain is the crossed sabres on the cap. I thought it mixed well with the theme.

Someone show me where the Valkyries are!

I was really pleased with how this retro Rogue Trader-era chap turned out. Definitely stands out from the other Elysian troops, but still fits in closely thanks to the spare arms. I figure that will be OK for a senior officer. I have some other spare "command section" guys from the Rogue Trader lineup, and I am toying with trying to covert them too, but I might just leave well-enough alone. I'm not sure the whacky helmet of the old standard bearer would look that good in the army.

I also went back to some previously completed Elysian models for a re-basing project. Readers may recall my whingeing about how the Elysian figure line involved several two-man team variants for the special weapons like melta guns . This was annoying because it did not fit well into the 40k rules, plus was it was totally annoying on a subjective basis. And hey, it's all about me....

Well, in Regina I noticed an Ork player had some of their adbsurd oversize bikes mounted on non-square, rounded-edge cavalry bases. I asked where he obtained them, and was surprised to learn they came with the figures, meaning that GW had created a new base! I picked up a few, popped out my melta-gunners from their two-man bases and tried out the new bike bases. The results of the experiment are below.

Melta-gunners - just wanted to be able to see other people...

I'm glad to have the melta guns as singles, although the one guy with no melta-gun looks a bit disconnected from anything relevant (now that I think about it, I should have piled through the bits box and put a plasma gun on the base or something). Overall the fit is not too bad with the other regular troops. The rounded edges make a big difference in helping the models "fit in".

I have approximately 30 infantry models left to go....hopefully I can make a big dent in that pile this weekend.

Elysian Progress

I am trying to move forward with my Elysian figures. They paint so fast that I blew through the first couple of packages of troops I had assembled. Then I wandered off to a couple of vehicle models that will be supporting them, and before I knew it, the momentum had stalled. I've never been good at focusing, but I do want to get these fellows ready, so for a start I thought I should build all of the remaining figures before firing up the painting assembly line once again.

Mass production under way at the Greg B cave

I was also looking for an officer that would stand out a bit, so I thought I would try this old-school Rogue-Trader era Imperial Guard captain. I love the Rogue Trader Imperial Guard figures, and a recent Rogue Trader game at Dallas' place (hey Dallas - post the pictures!) made me think that trying to include an RT model of some kind in this force would be a good piece of nostalgia/homage.

The officer's cap on this model has a pair of crossed sabres, which I think fits the Elysian look. The arms are not a great mix - leaner-looking than the chubbier Captain, but hopefully it will fit well when painted. Mike F had suggested a yellow scarf to emulate Duval's character in the film "Apocalypse Now", but I think I'll stop here for now.

Hmmm....I hope the arms fit a little better once this model is painted

I also have a squad of Elysian veterans. They have shotguns (which look really cool), but unfortunately these packs featured a lot the Forgeworld downsides, including tons of flash and bent gun barrels. Hot water helped save most of the gun barrels, but the flash was frigging annoying....

At ForgeWorld, quality is Job #7

The real hilarity comes when you read on the package about how the models are produced using the best techniques....right - it's all the resin's fault....

Once I have all these guys painted, the infantry component of my starter force will be mostly complete - a command group, three squads of regulars, a squad of veterans, and a special weapon squad with melta guns. I would still need a platoon command group, but with the Guard army list, you can take veterans as a troop choice, so I may try to run it initially as an all-veteran force.

I may add some other odds and ends, like heavy bolter or missile launcher teams for the squads, and things like a Commissar and the advisors. But the bulk of the grunts should be in place.

Of course, the harder part will be finishing the air component. This bunch will need five Valkyries to ride around in, and I've only finished one! One problem at a time....

More Elysian Air Support

While my 40k Elysians will hope for a fair amount of support from their Valkyrie troop carriers, I also wanted them to have some pure gunship support. When Forgeworld originally came out with the line of models, they included the Vulture Gunship to accompany the Valkyrie troop carriers.

While the plastic Valkyrie has (mercifully) replaced the Forgeworld model, they still offer Vulture gunships, and I picked one up as part of my Elysian splurge. I finished the model this weekend. Here are a few pictures.



These models, once solely resin (and almost impossible to assemble for experienced and patient modellers, never mind someone with my limited patience) now take advantage of parts from the plastic Valkyrie. Basically, you get a full plastic Valkyrie with a bunch of resin bits - the engine, the cockpit, and the tail assembly and extra wing hard points.

The Vulture has a chin-mounted heavy bolter, and then four hard points to load additional weapon sets to your taste. For a weapon load, I opted for twin punisher cannons. I think that gives this thing like 20 ST 5 twin-linked shots, which sounded pretty good, plus it looks cool. Only downside is the two weapons take all four hard points.

But even that down side is limited. The weapon loads are more limited...while you might think that loading this type of vehicle up with AT capability would make the most sense, the rules (ah yes - the 40k rules) are such that you are actually wasting points on a Vulture model, becuase the rules don't let you stack up on one weapon (i.e. all missiles, or all autocannons). In an actual conflict, a mixed weapon load would make sense. In 40k, where being really good at one thing leads to maximum value in the game, mixed weapon loads are a flush, and you actually end up with a Valkyrie that can't carry troops.

Also, the "Vendetta" variant of the Valkyrie, with three twin-linked lascannons, is likely to hunt tanks as well as any Vulture, plus it can still carry troops. So while GW may be successful in selling some more Valkyries this way, they kind of put the conventional Vultures out of a job.



The paint scheme is the same green to match the Elysians. I had a lot of trouble with the decals on this one, with heavy silvering despite my efforts to prevent it (gloss underneath, then dull-coat after).

And while the combination with the plastic parts is a frigging dream compared to the previous all-resin model, the combo still has some slight oddities. For example, the canopy (from the Valkyrie) doesn't quite seamlessly fit the Vulture cockpit. And as always, you have to watch out for the stupid, bukly skull-shaped shoulder pad on one of the pilots.



Chances are this thing will be shot down regularly, but I do hope one day it catches one of Dave V's Dire Avenger units in the open and ventilates them, soul stones and all.

Now, back to more Elysian grunts, and more Valkyries....

Elysians Catch a Lift

Elysian Drop Troops will not be much good if they can't get a ride to the battle! I have started with the Valkyries, and I finished my first one for them over the weekend - here are some pictures.



The paint scheme is a very simple green, which will work with both the Elysian troopers and the Bundesguard if they ever need to fly somewhere. For a weapon load, I went with the rocket pod and the multi-laser. From what I can tell, I think it makes the most sense, and plus I love the look of the rocket pods. Three of these things flying in a squadron will be able to lay out a fairly high volume of abuse. This will be the weapon combo for the balance of the Valkyries in this force, although I will do a couple of "Vendetta" gunships as well (which are armed with several lascannons and are great at killing vehicles).



Although the scheme is basic, the models are actually a pretty slow go, as I like to paint the cockpit and the pilots, and even a cursory effort there tends to slow the project. Besides, as I have ranted many times, I am not at all a patient model builder, so this part of the project will be slow going for sure.

Compouding this challenge is that Valkyries are not all that expensive points-wise, meaning a 1500 point army will be able to field quite a few of them! A good problem to have, but one that will slow down the production.

I'm torn on the notion of adding door gunners to some of the models. It will be a pain model-wise, for one thing (even though it will look pretty cool if I can pull it off) but I am also not sure if that is a good investment in points or not. How often will the heavy bolters come to bear on targets, vs. the rockets and the multi-laser?

I'll probably do the next one with door gunners anyway, for a looks-cool-factor if nothing else (it can be the CO's ride or something) and wait till I get some game experience with the Valkyries to see if the door gunners are worth the trouble.

Yet Another New Insane Project

I have been eyeing my pack of new 40k plastic Valkyrie models (obtained in a greal sale from Maelstrom Games - they are insane - use them while they are here!) for some time. I have already assembled and painted a couple of them - one to fly with Gün Schwarm, and the other to accompany my vast force of "blue" Imperial guardsmen. But I have always wondered about doing an all-flying Imperial Guard force. Of course, this is hardly original - I think a lot of players are out there trying it (or something similar), but the notion never quite let go.

I have also always liked the look of the Elysian drop troops at Forgeworld. Yes - it's a bit of a flush money-wise, but the bulky look of the current Cadian plastics (which are still fine figures) doesn't beat the lean look of those Elysian troopers.

So I figured "what the hell?" and took the plunge, ordering some Elysian drop troop figures from Forgeworld to serve as the troops that will accompany the Vaklyries into battle. After doing one test model last week (pictured above), I have painted a few more up over the weekend. Here are some blurry pics from the painting table courtesy of the camera on my blackberry:





The paint scheme is intended to be a modest, muted one, with dark green armour and grey "jump suits". As with the Bundesguard (yes - I'm still working on those too and no, focus is not a gift of mine) the idea was to have troops that looks more like "average" soldiders, as opposed to most of the 40k stuff I paint, which as a lot of blues, whites and other colours that you probably would not see on the battlefield.

Thanks to the magic of Devlan Mud wash, it paints very, very fast.







The models are very nice, but very, very different from the usual 40k fare - not just because of the randomness of Forgeworld either. For starters, they are quite slight compared to the equivalent 40k figures. This is something I have noticed with the few Death Korps of Krieg guys I have painted from Forgeworld also. I know nothing of sculpting, but Forgeworld generally seems to keep their human models to a slighter proportion than the current GW plastics.

The packs of models themselves have their share of Forgeworld challenges (bizarre, useless instructions, and some significant flash in some cases) but overall come together fairly well. Use caution when assembling - the shoulder plates, bayonets, canteens, gun clips etc are easily lost when clipping them off the sprues. I really had a tough time with the prone guys too - but I think that indicates that I am a very impatient figure modeller, as opposed to an issue with Forgeworld modeling :).

On the downside the Forgeworld sculpters, I imagine to capture a bit of the "paratrooper" feel of the Elysians, seem inclined to have a number of prone figures, and make even more weapons into two-man teams. In my opinion there are too many two-man team models with the Imperial Guard already. I'm sure other gamers will disagree, and that's fine - it's a question of subjective preference, after all - but I don't care for prone figures in a 25/28mm wargame (as opposed to some kind of diorama) unless they are snipers. I also don't like many two-man models in a skirmish game - it's a wargame, not a duel of dioramas. By these (possibly silly and likely in the minority) standards, there are too many prone models in the Elysian lineup, and many that have to work in teams. Exhibit "A" is the melta guns (pictured above).

I tried to work around this, but you end up with spare, unusable figures. Also in terms of scale, while they have made the humans slighter, Forgeworld has matched the size of the melta guns to what is current in 40k, creating a bit of a disconnect. I have one model (not painted yet) purporting to carry the melta gun as if he would fire it, and it does not look right at all...the melta-gun looks huge. Cue the "suspensors" from Rogue Trader!

Anyway, overall, this project is fun, and really like the sleek look of the troops, and the sci-fi feel of the visors. My whingeing about the two-man teams and prone troops aside, the sculpts are really cool. These guys will go up pretty fast. The Valkyries to match them will take a bit more time though (I am not a fan of model-building, after all), but the scheme will hopefully paint as fast on the Valks as it does on the troops.