Tanith - And in roll the Volpone Bluebloods

Typically I've worked on a single platoon for this ongoing Tanith commission each year (check out previous posts HERE) but this year my client switched jobs and was able to afford a second installment. Continuing to expand the forces involved, he asked for a platoon from the Volpone 50th, the so-called Bluebloods. General Sturm and Major Gilbear play important roles in the narrative arcs of the Ghosts, that of obstacles to be overcome without resorting to violence.

Initially we discussed working on a 25-man platoon carried in three Taurox transports. I'm not a fan of the Taurox model at all, so I suggested the Crassus Amored Assault Transport. My client checked it out and agreed to pick one up. The Crassus has a transport capacity of 35, so my client added two Cyclops Demolition Vehicles to the docket. Anyway, on to the models : )

Like many of the regiments in Dan Abnett's stories, the descriptions of the Volpone Bluebloods are quite vague. We scoured the books and the Internet and basically found that there was little beyond "grey and gold armor" and "matte-black hellguns" to go on. Sometimes that can be fine, and knowing I'd be working with the Scions kits, I started to develop the scheme.

Major (later Colonel) Gilbear was the adjutant to General Noches Sturm when we first encounter them in the storyline, just as the General orders artillery to shell the retreating Ghosts (in Ghostmaker). He is described as tall and physically imposing, so I really had to use the stormcoat provided in the Scions box to bulk him out. I also added a few millimeters to his legs so he stands taller than all the others in the platoon. Hanging from inside his coat is a fox tail, a nod to the origins of the name Volpone (Italian for sly fox). He sports a red beret, rather than the blue we chose for the troopers to again mark him out as a commander. While the armor and fatigues of all the models in the platoon are nice and clean and neat (rigid Volpone discipline demands it), I decided to paint up his stormcoat as a battered old thing, no doubt once worn in combat by an heroic forebear.

Here are the standard bearer and vox caster for the command squad. It was fun to paint up that big banner (all those details are already sculpted on) although it was a bit tough to scrape away the "Scions" text that comes molded to the scrollwork.

Rounding out the command squad are the plasma gunner and the medic. The pose for the plasma gunner is very cool. Just right for a guy who is preparing to lay down devastating cover fire while his comrades advance. The medic's equipment is very cool, the case is very neat and the narthecium in his left hand completely brutal.

We decide to split the troopers into three initial squads that could be recombined into two larger squads should my client so desire. The first has a sergeant with power fist and two troopers with meltaguns. Tank-hunting is their obvious role.

The second squad features a sergeant with a power sword and plasma pistol, plus two troopers with hot-shot volley guns. This squad can certainly focus on power-armored opponents.

And finally a cheaper generic squad, a sergeant and five troopers with stock weapons. If my client wants to play with larger squads, he can simply split this squad up and insert the members in to the previous two.

On to the Crassus. This beast of a transport vehicle was released a few years ago by Forgeworld and it was the star of quite a few memes in its time, but it has since faded into obscurity. I'm actually a fan of it. I think it looks pretty cool.

If you put the side sponsons on, you can load it up with four weapons from the following list: heavy bolter, heavy flamers, autocannons, or lascannons. Of course my client wanted all four options available to him : )

As you can see, I've kept the weathering to a fairly minimal level, following on from the idea that appearance is incredibly important to the Volpones.

It was interesting to paint the interior before I had fully assembled the model. It added another step that I hadn't initially thought of, but I think it worked out pretty well in the end.

 Finally, we have the Cyclops Demolition Vehicles. These little guys have zero weathering or damage on them, because it's their first time out since they left the factory. When your job is to explode violently on your first time out, you don't get a chance to pick up nicks, dings, and scratches ; )

Their two controllers can also be folded into any of the squads, should my client not want to fields the Cyclops bombs.

I hope you all like them. I will say that the photos have unfortunately knocked out quite a bit of the subtle shading on the grey armor, but that's sometimes how it goes.

Cheers
Dave

Tanith - Some armored support from the Narmenians!

Time for another addition to the ongoing Tanith commission. This time it's the Narmenian 1st Armoured Regiment, under General Grizmund, who have had some time under the brush.

The Narmenians supported the Imperial defense of Vervunhive in the novel Necropolis, the first novel where we saw the way that Dan Abnett could keep the Ghosts going, even though they'd lose hundreds of men each battle (by folding in other units who had been equally mauled).

Although they play a critical role in the defense, and Grizmund is an important plot point, there is surprisingly little in the way of descriptors for the tanks or their crews. The main description is of the color of the tanks - "mustard drab". To achieve this mustard-drab color I started with an airbrush of GW Zamesi Desert, followed by a highlight airbrush of VMA IDF Sand Grey. The tanks and sentinels were then given a couple of shading washes of AP Soft Tone, and finally all were given a light drybrush across the top edges with VMC Pale Sand.

Tracks, weapons, and other details followed...

You'll notice a big pile of weapons in front of the three tanks I painted up (two Mars-Pattern Leman Russes and a Mars-Pattern Demolisher). They are there because I magnetized and painted up each sponson weapon option for two of the tanks.

The way the "new" weapons slot into the sponsons, it was easier to mount the magnets on the side of the piece that slides into the sponson mount, and on the side of the sponson mount itself (as you can see above, the small circle in the center of the photo).

Here's the Leman Russ with sponsons - No. 28, Purity's Hammer.

And the Demolisher - No. 34, also known as Emperor's Wrath.

Here's General Grizmund in his command Leman Russ, Grace of the Throne. After my initial photos were sent off to the client, he requested I add a mustache to Grizmund and the banner flying back from the turret. Both of these things are a nod to the General Grizmund model that Forgeworld made way back in the day.

You'll notice that most of the lenses on the tanks are saturated purple, rather than my regular red or green. I did this to contrast nicely against the desaturated mustard yellow of the hulls.

On top of the gun mounts on each tank there's a mailed fist, the symbol of the Narmenian 1st Armoured Regiment. These are decals cut down from the FW Iron Hands decal sheet.

The sentinels received the same magnetized weapons treatment. I think that by the end of the project I'd used 41 magnets for just six vehicles (five if you don't count Grizmund, who has no magnets).

On the panel in front of the driver's door I put the vehicle number (1-3) and the Narmenian mailed fist icon.

I know my client is happy, and I hope you like them all too : )

Cheers
Dave

Death Guard - Some old school reinforcements and some new models.

While searching around for some Ogre bits a few weeks ago, I stumbled on a handful of old school Rhino-based vehicles. Some were missing parts after years of neglect, others had never seen paint (beyond their black primer coat), so I decided to resurrect them as reinforcements for my Heresy-era Death Guard. I little scraping here and flipping there and I'd managed to salvage the four you see above. The two blue vehicles were originally part of the Crimson Fist Space Marine army that I built in 1997, that graced the back cover of White Dwarf sometime in 1998 (I think). I had a few hatches handy, but hot enough exhausts to replace the damaged ones. I decided to replace all of the exhaust tops with plastic tubing to tie them in with the current Forgeworld homage to this old transport.

Since this photo, they've all been primed and are awaiting a session with the airbrush (which is in turn waiting for me to complete the assembly on my Spartan).

But enough of the old school stuff, here are a few photos of some shiny new models I've assembled using some of the great new parts from Victoria Miniatures!

First up is a trooper using a head, arms, and legs from the Arcadian kit, and the all new Cloaked torso from the Borderworld Rangers kit. Despite being planned for a different set of legs, this particular cloak falls wonderfully over this set of advancing legs. This guy would make a great stand-in for a Vervunhive recruit to Gaunt's Ghosts!

I love breaching shields like this (I currently have 20 for my Death Guard!). Although there aren't any immediately obvious analogs for the shields in my Imperial Guard collection, I thought it would look cool on the arm of of this Scion. For close-quarters action I switched out his laspistol for the great compact stub-pistol. I love it!

And finally, I have decided to use my already-painted Vostroyans to represent a Solar Auxilia force. I have pulled out the models armed with lasguns to form three different 20-man lasrifle sections. This has left a few heavy weapons teams awaiting an indication from Forgeworld on how they'll fit into the new list. A search for spare Vostroyan models, coupled with the arrival of the package from Victoria Miniatures, lead to this lascannon team. I'm excited to get my hands on some more : )

Cheers
Dave