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Long time git, first time P&M blogger. This is a serious attempt at trying to document my rare moments of progress or smashing things together into something passable. Also, I'm hoping to harvest more and more neat and zany ideas from the others around here to further add to my army.

First off, a bit of info? My army is basically the D-99 drop list from Imperial Armour 4 - the Anphelion Project. I am aware that the list is more than a fair bit broken and useless, but I really love the background, plus the veteran composition of the army saves me the hassle of having to buy whole platoons of Elysians, something that would drive me most certainly insane. Frustration over sweet models aside, I really like the whole "spec ops" theme that the list has going for itself. The idea of having a small elite force of Guardsmen swoop in for a quick raid or lightning assault really appeals to me. Plus I've got a big mancrush over things like Gothic Serpent and other such airborne operations. Granted, these Elysians are fragile and brittle little men, but lalala I'm not listening. Plus I get to make up all kinds of neat names for "special" patterns of vehicles, which means squat in gaming terms but is still a nice touch. My stuff is mostly chosen and built around the infamous "rule of cool" (which has no official guidelines or rules come to think of it) and whatever pops into my mind at that moment. Hence an unarmed Valkyrie being turned into a medevac bird and my Sky Talon having fuel tanks instead of weapons underneath its wings.

Anyway, my army is called V-Company, which might stand for Vampyr if I can find proper decals for it. Failing that, it will stand for "Victoria" or "Victory" squadron.

Background (may be changed at later dates as I change my mind and see what future army lists might bring).

+ Classified +

+ Classified +

+ Classified +

+ Classified +

Current organization.

Headquarters.
Company commander and command staff – 5 strong, containing some of the company specialists

Combat personal.
First squad – 10 strong, standard operatives squad outfitted with carbines
Second squad – 8 strong – soon to be 10 strong, CQB squad outfitted with shotguns
Third squad – 10 strong, issued with silenced weapons and NV goggles

Combat support personal.
Three sniper teams (1,2 and 3) – each team has one designated marksman and one spotter

Aircraft.
One "Prometheus" pattern command Valkyrie with multi-laser and rocket pods
One Valkyrie with lascannon and hellstrike missiles
One Valkyrie with multi-laser and rocket pods
One "Nightstalker" Valkyrie with multi-laser and hellstrike missiles
One "Lifesaver" pattern medicae Valkyrie, unarmed and loaded with fuel tanks for an extended operational time frame
One Vulture gunship with Punisher cannons
One Vulture gunship with lascannons and hunter-killer missiles
One Valkyrie Sky Talon with fuel tanks for extended operations

Motor pool.
One Tauros pattern assault vehicle with grenade launcher
One Tauros pattern assault vehicle with heavy flamer
One Tauros Venator Rapid Assault Vehicle with lascannons
One Tauros Venator Rapid Assault Vehicle with multi-lasers and hunter-killer missiles
One drop Sentinel with multi-melta
Three drop Sentinels with heavy bolters

Various equipment.
Four drop zone beacons
One drop zone transponder
One supply drop crate (a.k.a. "coffin") with grav-chute

Pending supplies and reinforcements or planned future additions and conversion projects.
Three Valkyries with multi-lasers and rocket pods
One tank hunter special weapons squad – 6 strong with three meltaguns
One assault special weapons squad – 6 strong with two flamers and one demo charge
Fourth squad – 10 strong
Pararescue squad – five strong
One “S-Valk” Valkyrie gunship with multi-laser, rocket pods, hellstrike missiles, nose-mounted grenade launcher and autocannon pods

I haven't got a lot of passable stuff to show just yet, so here are some WIP's:


My current allotment of Valkyries, Vultures and Sky Talon.
F.l.t.r rear: Hybrid Vulture with Punisher cannons, resin Vulture (unarmed as of yet), Sky Talon with fuel tanks and my WIP medical Valkyrie.
F.l.t.r front: HQ bird, first squad, third squad and second squad birds.


WIP of one of my two Venators. This being the lascannon variant minus HK missiles.


As I said I like the little details here and there to make things stand out. Like this passenger. No cutting or greenstuffing required, just build a model using one of those silly running legs.


A first serious attempt at weathering.

I envy you...

First serious attempt of weathering a success

Looking forward to see you army take shape. Ive always loved the concept of an all airforce army...

Looks great, man. I've actually been working on an all-airborne regiment, myself, with a special forces feel. I'll post some pictures when more significant process has been made.

Can't wait to see how your project goes, though. Sounds awesome!

Woot nice to see you still into the hobby brook

aromasin wrote:I envy you...

Why that? Because of the flyers?

ghosty wrote:First serious attempt of weathering a success

Looking forward to see you army take shape. Ive always loved the concept of an all airforce army...

Thanks, I've been bashing my head against the wall with the weathering. The last thing I want is to make it look like a flying tank with scrapes and scratches everywhere.

Gear wrote:Looks great, man. I've actually been working on an all-airborne regiment, myself, with a special forces feel. I'll post some pictures when more significant process has been made.

Can't wait to see how your project goes, though. Sounds awesome!

Please do share your pics, progress and thoughts with us, I'm always itching to see what others can come up with.

LunaHound wrote:Woot nice to see you still into the hobby brook

I've never been out of the hobby, I've just been very hesitant of sharing my stuff with others.

Woo Brook!

Looking good dude.

Make sure you play "Ride of the Valkyries" every time you see them (in your head.)

sA

NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!

That is one cliché I was hoping to avoid.

Really like the weathering on those valk wings, nicely understated. Will be watching this one for inspiration myself.

BrookM wrote: That is one cliché I was hoping to avoid.

It may be cliché, but at least it's an epic cliché.

Weathering is amazing, really gives a great feeling of motion. Well it does for me anyway.

Looks pretty sweet, man. Hope you'll have more to show us soon!

Cool, good work Brook. I've just bought a load of elysians in preparation for IA:8. Weathering looks great!

How ironic, an Elysian + Necron team-up recently beat my Dark Angels + Crimson Fists team-up. Course he was using 2 planes (one of them flying valks and... a thunderbolt I believe he said) in a 1000pt list (each person had 1000 pts) with like a ton of OMGWTF missiles on them. And of course his troops had those super-one-shot demo pack things (str 8 AP1 large blast I believe).

But enough ranting, great work on the painting!

I'll be watching this with great interest - I like where it's going

Brook, make sure you nab the new set of weathering powders. The "Bone Dust" color and "Faded Green" might do wonders for old/weatherbeaten paint on the wing surfaces for you.

Also: Pretty dang spiffy, mate

BrookM wrote:NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!

That is one cliché I was hoping to avoid.

Ah you prefer 633 Sqaudron then? Seriously looking good. The Elysian vehicles look really nifty exactly as I imagine Tallarn Gravedigger Chimeras look.

Wow, these look awesome, hope to see more. If you want to weather nice try a sponge, I have just begun weathering with a sponge and I think it works awesome!
Hope to see more.

nice army

I love elysians! That is one big army. hope to see more soon!

Awesome. Subscribed.

What I meant by the envy was that you have the money to buy it all.

I would LOVE to have that many Valkyrie's, let alone FW

BrookM wrote:NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!

That is one cliché I was hoping to avoid.

well, then just enjoy the smell of napalm in the morning!

seriously looking great! i'm envious of you and your Vultures!

BrookM wrote:Thanks, I've been bashing my head against the wall with the weathering. The last thing I want is to make it look like a flying tank with scrapes and scratches everywhere.

The best way to figure out how to weather aircraft is to look at pictures of military aircraft that are currently in theatre.
Scratches will mostly be found around crew access points, and on the leading edges of wings and other hard edges.
There will be oil trails around hydraulics such as the rudder, aileron and elevators, but they will not be headed downward, instead they will be moving towards the rear of the aircraft as the airflow while moving pushes them in that direction.

I found online about a year ago, a very effective way to show the wear that occurs from pilots and crew walking on the painted surfaces of the aircraft, but it mostly applies to fixed with aircraft with the wing either midway up the fuselage or at the bottom of the fuselage (Not the top, like on the Valk/Vendetta).
Simply get a silver colored pencil, and with a very find point on it, make dot small dots on the surface where the crew would be stepping to embark/disembark. On say, a Spitfire or Mustang this would be along the wing where it joins the fuselage, as crew would climb on to the rear of the wing, walk up it, and them climb in the cockpit.

But since this wont apply to your aircraft, I'd reccomend just studying pictures of combat aircraft while they're on the runway. The best way to do this is to go to an airshow and take a TON of pictures. Not even pictures of the entire plane, but mostly pictures of the control surfaces, wheel wells, exausts and so on.

Thanks for the suggestions guys and info guys!

Currently on the desk is an Elysian command squad, the regular one, not the HQ set, that I'm going to use to crank out a new lasgun toting commanding officer (my current power fist wielding CO isn't really fitting in with the rest of the army theme), a medic for my medevac Valk and three pararescue men laden with equipment and a scratch-built stretcher a-la what the Rangers in Blackhawk Down carry around. I'm also thinking of slightly converting the gunner of my second assault Tauros into a Valk doorgunner, seeing as that thing is a bent and misshapen piece of miscast gak.

Pics happen when they're done.

Cool, can't wait for more pics!

BrookM wrote:seeing as that thing is a bent and misshapen piece of miscast gak

Your Venator was miscast? Sorry to hear it, i hope you've told forgeworld to send you another!

Very cool, i wanted to do an entire army like this but decided it would cost to much on my budget

Also do you think you could get away with using vultures as leman russes in a normal game?

Vitruvian XVII wrote:Cool, can't wait for more pics!

BrookM wrote:seeing as that thing is a bent and misshapen piece of miscast gak

Your Venator was miscast? Sorry to hear it, i hope you've told forgeworld to send you another!

Oh no, not going there again. I'm going to go ahead and try using a hair dryer and a lot of patience to get some shape back into that thing, then convert it into a recon vehicle of sorts.

Young_Logan wrote:Very cool, i wanted to do an entire army like this but decided it would cost to much on my budget

Also do you think you could get away with using vultures as leman russes in a normal game?

Using flyers as battle tanks?

Not something I would do. A Vulture is a Vulture and my opponents are cool with that.

Psst. Brook....
If you call them and say "suchandsuch in my last order was horribly miscast" while at the same time placing an order for new stuff--they pack the miscasts in.


Automatically Appended Next Post:
Er, that is to say the replacements for the miscasts.

I'm out of cash for the time being, so unless I get my magical tax money soon no new orders. I'm going to just improvise, I'm in no mood to listen to a dozen well-meant apologies and having to wait half a year for the replacements to arrive.

Tiny update: One of the four Pararescue members. You might want to click the image and make use of the excellent gallery zoom functions for a better look.With exception of the arms and pistol an entire resin model. Arms are from Empire Militia set, backpack is from the Krieg range. The thing on his wrist is supposed to be a durable watch, but I might remove it after all.