From The Skies! The 23rd Elysian - Ride of the Valkyries...

[Hrolf the Cunning]

Really nice army mate, I really wish GW would spend more time fleshing out the various subcomponents of all the factions rather than continuing on with their breakneck speed of recycling. I think they could quite easily make as much money, if not more by doing this at a slightly slower pace with an emphasis on quality (of both rules and models). Checking out your army made me appreciate the potential diversity out there if people were willing to take advantange of it.

[march10k]

Nice flyers but where are the troops?

 

Hah...if you're playing guard right (in 5th...sadly, you have to dismount to score in 6th), your boots never get muddy.  I had three or four games where my boys never dismounted their chimeras...I imagine that a good elysian general can manage to win without ever getting his infantry models out of the case, too!

[Honda]

 

Hah...if you're playing guard right (in 5th...sadly, you have to

dismount to score in 6th), your boots never get muddy.  I had three or

four games where my boys never dismounted their chimeras...I imagine

that a good elysian general can manage to win without ever getting his

infantry models out of the case, too!

 

You speak the truth. In their last 5th edition game(s) at War Games Con, Armageddon narrative track, I only deployed boots on the ground once. The table was green with Orks and the good guys just looked out the window and said, "Uh, yeah, if it's Ok with the pilot, we promise we'll just sit back here real quiet like so that we don't distract anybody".

 

We ended up winning the track 3-1-1. In a lot of cases, the Orks had brought every new toy from FW that they could plus they had Eldar "allies" and as a result, the Imperium actually had more boots than the Orks...which was just fine by me. Their war machines were just brutal though.

[Honda]

Wow, long time...

I've been wanting to add some units to my Elysians for awhile now, in particular a SWAT team or two to help develop the story around the 23rd in the wake of the Taros campaign, soon to be reborn as the Black Company.

I'll be working on that as we go, but first some of the new assets.

If you are familiar with the movie "Blackhawk Down", you know that along with the Blackhawk transported Rangers, there were Delta Force assets accompanying then and they were transported by Little Birds. I loved that concept and have wanted to add that "look" to the army for quite awhile if you have read some of the earlier posts.

So here we are. First off, one of the Delta/SWAT teams, geared so that I can use them in Kill Team games, but more importantly as an Inquisitorial sponsored asset attached to the Elysians.

The Black Daggers

Special weapons (1 x Melta, 2 x Plasma/Flamer/Lascutter)

Shooters

Cheers,

Edited December 28, 2018 by Honda

[Honda]

Perhaps a little mood music to get things started....

Ok, I meant to post this above, but got rushed, so you get some SRV for being patient..

Here's my Little Bird (Arvus) start. As usual,the early parts of working with resin are always the most entertaining.

It's hard to believe that I've had this kit for four years and I'm now just getting to it, but then sometimes that happens.

Once I get more of the bits together then I can start looking at how I'm going to SPECOPS it. I want to to wield the twin autocannons as that seems like a good multi-purpose load out. Considering how low it sits on the ground then I'll have to come up with something interesting.

Cheers,

[Trickstick]

I forgot the Arvus lighter was still a thing! Looking it up, it seems to have lost its weird targeting rules. I think autocannons are probably the best guns it can get, although I would be tempted by the cheaper twin heavy stubber pair. That could look nice and with hitting on a 5+ you won't get much use out of them anyway. Battlescribe is disagreeing with my index points on all those twin guns, so not sure what the final price would be.

 

Have you thought about doing some decent lines? That could look cool, and could lead to a nice base too. I don't know if you would want to waste models having them descending though, and I always feel that infantry on flier bases are a bit weird. Just the roped could look nice though.

[Bjorn Firewalker]

Excellent work on the infantrymen. I like the urban warfare camouflage.

[mertbl]

Dude! I want more fan fiction! What happens next?

[Captain_Krash]

Great to see this back in action. 2013 was awhile ago. Keep up the updates!!! Also happy to see someone still playing Elysians!!!!

 

Krash

[Honda]

The first three weeks of December were pretty lively from a work perspective, so I'm happy I made it to my holidays for some R&R.

While I am still engaged in the knife fight known as the Arvus build out, I found the rest of my SWAT stuff and put together another squad.

I'm going to change the scheme a bit and do something different. I am looking at developing some variation of these images:

The key here will be an olive green suit with some combination of black equipment.

Now, I'd like to say that I'm going to paint on POLIZEI on all my guys because that was the original intent for this exercise, but I don't know that I could pull that off nor do I think the figures have space to make that happen. So we'll see what the end result looks like.

I would also like to have a shield bearer in the squad as well, but I don't have any more figures like this, so most likely there will be a third squad I'll have to cobble together so I can have that "look" along with some other things like that big thing SWAT teams carry to bash down doors, though melta guns seem a log more effective doing that.

I also found some unbuilt remnant Elysians that I will put together for a possible 4th squad. This group has some of the old lascutters in it, so maybe they'd be better with the shields and door basher. We'll just see.

Cheers,

[Honda]

And there were shepherds living out in the fields nearby, keeping watch over their flocks at night. ⁹ An angel of the Lord appeared to them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were terrified. ¹⁰ But the angel said to them, “Do not be afraid. I bring you good news that will cause great joy for all the people. ¹¹ Today in the town of David a Savior has been born to you; he is the Messiah, the Lord. ¹² This will be a sign to you: You will find a baby wrapped in cloths and lying in a manger.”

¹³ Suddenly a great company of the heavenly host appeared with the angel, praising God and saying,

¹⁴ “Glory to God in the highest heaven,
and on earth peace to those on whom his favor rests.”

Merry Christmas brothers, peace to you!

[Shamansky]

 

 

I would also like to have a shield bearer in the squad...

 

https://artelw.com/#w--ul-id-570-2/LEU-Riot-Control-Squad/p/118238199/category=27134181--w

[Honda]

While I get some paint on the next SWAT team, I found some remnants from my first Elysian efforts.

Two lascutters

Here's that advanced sensor that was a fun and thematic model. Not sure it does anything in 8th. I don't recall seeing anything for it in the IA: Imperium, but I could have missed it.

And under the theme of "No one gets left behind", an objective I put together quite awhile ago and will work up for the army.

And then Captain Obvious showed up to assist...

Cheers,

Edited December 26, 2018 by Honda

[Honda]

Aaand we're back!

While figuring out the "green" scheme for the second squad, my mind wandered back to the Arvus and how I might arm it and given my general theme.

For those not familiar with the front of an Arvus...in particular, note the under nose sensor pack...

Now one of the things that makes arming this puppy difficult is the odd angles on everything that makes it such a cool looking aircraft. You'd think the slab sides and flat wings would work for you, but the reality is that there isn't a lot of real estate to work with.

That caused me to keep coming back to the nose and how I might make that work. I considered pursuing an option similar to how the MI-24E bears its cannons....

...however, in the end I settled on something a little simpler.

So I scraped flat the "headlight" on the front, cut off the larger camera/sensor and moved it to the right. Next, I cut the gatling barrels from a Repulsor Onslaught turret mounted cannon and will attach it to where the larger sensor used to sit.

Seems like it will work and look cool. More angles...

As you can see, I still have plenty of mold lines and gaps to work through and I also have an appointment with a bowl of boiling water and warped resin ahead of me now that the engines and exhaust cones are put together.

Still working on the color scheme. I'm split between a dark green sort of like this...

Or something more like this because it fits in with the rest of the Elysian army better. Also, I think it's cool looking.

Still a ways away from needing to pull that trigger just yet.

Cheers,

[Honda]

Hello resin my old friend,

I've come to talk with you again,

Because a vision softly creeping,

Left its seeds while I was sleeping,

And the vision, that it planted in my brain,

Still remains,

Within the sound, of resin...

* All apologies to Simon and Garfunkel

Ok, a whole lotta resin stuff going on these past few days, so what follows is a short recounting of the joys of resin.

Warpage of the non-Empyrean variety

And now some construction, which resulted in...you guessed it, undiscovered warpage.

Now there's a couple of different ways to deal with gaps and mold lines. A lot of times, you can get away with bits of sheet plastic which will give you a smooth flat surface. Other times you just have to do hard labor.

An armored prow, to better protect the pilot

And the reason we do this boys and girls, is the belief that eventually it will look like something you'd be proud to make jet noises with.

So, the light at the end of the tunnel is getting closer.

Cheers,

[Honda]

Well, the Arvus Lighter Mod. X "Little Bird" for my SPECOPS/SWAT team has passed the construction milestone.

There was a a fair bit of fiddly modeling, drilling and pinning, gs patching and what not, but in the end I like how the model looks and it will fit in nicely with my Elysian army when complete.

As soon as it warms up a little more, I'll get to primering. In the meantime, here are a couple of fly-byes for the crowd.

Having survived this effort, I could see getting a second one of these at some point down the line.

Cheers,

[WarriorFish]

You made it look easy :P Nice work now you just need to paint it :lol:

[Honda]

<Tag with "I always do what WF tells me to do" :P >

Some color on it...though a tad washed out in the pics. There is a bit more green in there than is coming out in the images.

The paints I used to get there.

Cheers,

[walter h]

Wish they hadn't stopped producing these models

[Honda]

Wish they hadn't stopped producing these models

 

 

It is back in production on FWs site.

 

Not sure of the age of the mold, but as you can see, even when the kit was relatively new, the mold wasn't the best.

 

Still worth it though.

[Honda]

Ok, Little Bird is done. I like how he eventually turned out and he'll be a nice addition to the Elysians.

I used artist charcoals for all recess work and then followed up in some recesses with AP Dark Tone. This matches the previous techniques I used for all my other Elysian flyers.

Since everyone loves an airshow fly bye...

...also, friends don't let friends fly alone....

...the business end of pain. My <counts as> Vulture with Punisher cannon. At some point I'd like to get a real Vulture and put four missile pods on him because <fireworks>.

This pic also points out that I need to go back and "black glass" all my Valkyries (4), Vendettas (3), and <counts as> Vultures (2).

Yay me.

<note to self> Get better pics with like, real terrain.

Cheers,

[Danny Cyanide]

Looking really good! Makes me want to get back to my Elysians sometime soon!

[Bjorn Firewalker]

I'm surprised how big the Arvus looks, compared to the Valkyrie/Vendetta. You did a good job on the model.

[Honda]

I'm surprised how big the Arvus looks, compared to the Valkyrie/Vendetta.

 

 

I think that has to do with the angle of the shot, it's not that big.

 

Think of it in the context of a Tom Cruise movie. He always looks like he's six feet tall. He ain't anywhere near that, by a long shot.

 

Also, I started the "black glass" treatment on the Vultures and a Vendetta.

 

Counting Little Bird, that's 26 panes down, 84 to go. Yay!

[Honda]

I must admit that as an adult, I had a little too much fun laying all this out today. I'm not saying that jet engine noises were audible as I was taking pictures, I'm sure that sound was probably the guy next door mowing his lawn.

Anyway, I finished the "black glass" treatment for all the canopies. All 110 of them, not that I was counting each one or anything.

Still love this army to death.

Anyway, enjoy. I still do.

Out of the dark they came...

Cheers,