The regiment advanced with colours taut in the wind, shouted orders cutting through the din.
The regimental commander, Colonel Audacian marched ahead
of his troops. Sword drawn, he called instructions to his orderlies, remaining
calm despite the impending carnage.
The heretic defences were still out of range. But without
warning, a hidden bunker burst open and three rhinos sped out. Captured and converted
to heretic purposes, they opened fire with deadly bursts from their twin
bolters and guardsmen in the front rank fell to the hail of shells.
Audacian pointed at the oncoming APCs with his sword.
Orders were barked from the lines and a ten-man support squad dashed into firing
positions. Their sergeant, Hakeman, was well known to Audacian for his
meticulous aim whilst under fire.
“Hold fire!” Hakeman ordered, even as the three rhinos
bore down towards him and his men. “Find your target and await the order.” His
men trusted him absolutely and held firm.
Just as it seemed inevitable that the tanks would crush
him and his men, Hakeman gave the order.
“Fire!”
Three lascannons fired a volley and each hit its target. Two
of the rhinos exploded, fuel and ammunition igniting to destroy the vehicle and
the doomed heretics within. The third took a hit to its track, spinning in a
wild circle before over-turning.
After a moment’s pause, a hatch was thrown open. Smoke bellowed out, and then the heretics came, in shock, but still driven beserk by
their battle lust. They launched into a mad charge towards the imperial guard
ranks, firing side arms and readying grenades.
“Finish ‘em boys!” the heavy bolters and lasguns in
Hakeman’s squad opened fire, immediately wiping out the heretics and sparing further
imperial losses.
Audacian gave a small nod towards Hakeman, who acknowledged
him with a salute before returning to the line with his squad. The commissar by
Audacian’s side looked almost disappointed that so few of his men had fallen.
But he looked back towards the heretic fortress and a small smile flickered
across his cold face.
There would be plenty of opportunity for the guard to
prove their devotion to the emperor with the ultimate sacrifice.
I’ve dreamt of painting these figures for a good 35 years.
Since getting the plastic imperial guard box as a seven year old, I’ve always wanted
to recreate that John Blanche artwork and now is my chance!
And I must say, I’m bloody loving it! I didn’t make life
easy for myself this month: After a hectic December I started January with an
army that still needed priming and assembly, far from ideal! So much of the
month was spent undercoating the main body of the army.
In the end I had about a week for the actual painting.
Again, not ideal! I’ve had to skimp on some detail, but I’ll come back to that
later!
Once I got going, I
decided that this is one of the best things I’ve ever done. These miniatures
are absolutely fantastic and it’s an honour to be coating them in thick layers
of original Codex Grey!
I’ve largely stuck to the schemes and details from the box
art and painting guides in White Dwarfs 109 and 110. The slight deviation is
the regimental numbering – I’ve decided to mark the type of squad, rather than
regiment or platoon number. As this is a support squad, they get an “S” (turns
out an “S” is harder to paint than I imagined!)
Now that I’ve finished all that priming and got into more of
a groove, I’m excited to crack on and to get more done in February.
For the emperor!
Points:
Support Squad (3 x lascannons, 2 x heavy bolters, 4 x
lasguns, 1 x sergeant): 445 points
And finally, my offering to Jaako, the Goblin Overboss:
Chorsheema the Impaler, Goblin Champion. Sculpted by the late, great Bryan
Ansell himself!
