I've always been a big fan of Imperial Guard, and there's something fun about having an army of ordinary men on the field in a future full of monsters and superhumans. I do have a Steel Legion force, but when I started playing second edition, I wanted to work on a force that would be styled classically and be bright as can be.
I always wanted a guard army in the 90s and there's always been a certain attraction to Valhallans. They remain great characterful models, and the old scheme with green cammo over white is nice and striking. I've never actually painted an army in camouflage before so that was new. Like the originals, I went with quite a bold pattern intentionally as I sort of don't want it to work - I've played with camo once or twice and have seen if it actually works it will blur the details and outli es which on a miniature, especially on a table view can leave them looking indistinct and muddy.
So far I've painted about 750 points with more on the way. In old money, that makes for a command squad, psyker, 2 units of 10 men, and a Leman Russ Battle Tank. My commander is heavily converted from a battle sister using a mix of parts, and I am going to do a separate post with details of her build as it's a long story how she came about. I was tempted to use Chenkov, but I wanted something a bit more unique and it was happy to be able to use a model from the 90s that was around in the right era.
I had a spare plastic Advanced Hero Quest wizard and as he was looking sort of like a suitable psyker he got drafted to the force. Actually I bought a batch of miniatures to get hold of an old metal cannoness and he came for free. As he looked the part and was from the right era, I figured he would work well. I added a little fur trim to his jacket just to sell the look and get him to match the force.
The Leman Russ has the old metal tank commander in attendance - ready to wield that storm bolter wargear card in anger!
Actually, I haven't mentioned, but I intentionally adjusted their colour scheme a bit. Original Valhallans had dark green casings on their guns, rather than the red and yellow parts. I wanted to lift the scheme a little bit more just to make them eye-catching on the field. Looking at old White Dwarf magazines, there's a great shot on the back cover of that issue with the blood angels Blasma Cannon guy on the cover with valhallans and Tyranids. It's very early 3rd and the Valhallans are done with tan/yellow coats much like Steel Legion. I think it was an odd choice in retrospect as they were already one of the more realistic schemes in the range with the main colours being white and green snow cammo with dark green guns and fatigues. It was in the era of making things more serious for 3rd, but looking back I'm surprised they weren't just re-based on less garish bases for the new edition.
The missile launcher guy also came with only one arm - and no missile launcher at all. I used a space marine hunter killer missile and a cadian arm with a bit of milliput to build a suitable cuff on it.
The sandbag scenery is just chopped up hard board for a base with a stack off original milliput bags built up on top. Basically forming little beans one by one, I stack them and use a paint brush handle to shape the tops so they look heavy and sort of uneven, then after stacking a bunch, I score around the middle of the visible sides to make a seam.
Anyway, here's a full zoomed out shot of the entrenched Valhallan 94th - they became the 94th as that's what their metal tabs say - sculpted in 1994!
Don't forget to check them out in the Battle for Bunker 111 - a battle report here on the blog featuring this force: The Battle for Bunker 111
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