Valhallan 8th Ice Warriors

Platoon Flag Carrier

2010-03-01T13:43:00.000-08:00

Continuing my assault against similar looking models in my army, I whipped up a flag carrier from a couple of pieces of pinning wire and some green stuff. I also plan to make a company standard in the future as soon as I get some decent plasticard; and I plan on making it more exciting than this one (just need to get a workable design first)!

First Valhallan Basilisk Painted

2010-03-01T13:15:00.000-08:00

First of all apologies for no posts recently; real life has got in the way of my painting campaign. But to make up for it I have a couple of posts.
So this is my first Valhallan Basilisk fully painted. This is one of a few camo ideas I'm going to use for my artillery. It's done quite simply: Base coat of chaos black. Heavily dry brushed in a mix of 1:2 scorched brown:bleached bone. Then using one of the foam pieces you get in blisters, sponging on skull white. It gives quite a good rustic snow effect. I'm going to use this for my 'older' looking basilisks, while the new ones will have a more factory fresh and uniform camo of light greys and whites in a classic camo pattern.

Vox Caster Variants

2010-02-14T15:33:00.000-08:00

Just to mix up the squads a bit I'm converting a couple of models. This is the first of the simple conversations: I just put some Catachan commlink backpacks on a few different miniatures.

Heavy Weapon Snow Bases

2010-02-14T14:50:00.000-08:00

I haven't written in a while so this is the first of several updates I need to make. I have been experimenting with bicarbonate of soda mixtures to make the perfect bases. It took a lot of trial and error to get it to the right consistency but I settled with roughly 1:1.5:2 water:PVA:bicarbonate. It fizzes up give a lot so you need to keep stirring it to let out the carbon dioxide. I stuck mine in a pot and gave it a shake every minute or so (make sure you keep the lid off when not shaking or the pressure will build up with humorous consequences!). I'm going to use this to base most of my miniatures, but since so few are painted at the moment I used this batch for my heavy weapon bases. I need about 15 60mm bases and at £2.50 for 3 from GW that's quite an expense. So I got some cut from plywood; worked out pretty well at £1.50 for 25! I also got some resin rocks and made up some sandbags to add a bit of variance and plan on using some razor wire as well. These are two of them:

Winter/Snow Camo Patterns

2010-02-02T13:07:00.001-08:00

Exams are over, Uni's back in the swing of things and that means I can get back to the project. The first order of business is making a bit of variety in my army by producing a few camo patterns. I looked through lots of real winter and snow camos as well some 40k ones. These are the ones I've chosen: A mainly white with black smudges camo; a winter pine forest camo with catachan green splodges; and a uniform grey and black geometric pattern from the GW website. I reckon with the pure white uniform as well these will add great variance in the way my troops will look. I might even add some in brown and/or tan coats; maybe to represent veterans or conscripts. See what you think:

Pattern 1: black smudges

Pattern 2: Catachan Green Splodges

Pattern 3: Grey and Black Geometric Camo

Apologies

2010-01-24T16:17:00.000-08:00

Apologies for the lack of posts recently. January means exams for us lazy students, so I've had no time for WH. But I will have some exciting posts soon; New camo patterns, and cool winter bases!

Valhallan Fluff/ Info

2010-01-14T14:52:00.000-08:00

Greetings all! I know I have a couple of Valhallan fan's reading my blog and this is for them (no update on the army, I'm still in the process of removing flash etc. and drilling 100 odd lasgun barrels... Fun!): I recently got hold of White Dwarf 183 from March 1995. It has a good 5 pages on Valhallans including their background story and some tactics! If I can get hold of a scanner I'll pop a couple of pages up on here. Also I found out who the Valhallan designer and sculptor was; the famous Alan Perry. That's all for now, hopefully next time I will have an update on some different camo patterns in response to the feedback I got (Thanks for that BTW, its much appreciated!).

White Dwarf 183

Off Topic: Converted Emperor's Champion

2010-01-13T15:05:00.000-08:00

Something off topic: just thought I'd show off my Converted Emperor's Champion that I've been working on for my Templar army. Still a bit of blending work to be done but I'm hoping to enter him into the singles category for the Golden Bolter competition; I don't expect to win anything, but hey why not!

Couple More Basilisk

2010-01-13T13:30:00.000-08:00

Not much to update you on. I have however finished the other two of my Basilisks that came in the Battery boxset. The Command Basilisk:

It has this extra command unit on the side. I haven't seen these anywhere else, but if I'm wrong please correct me.

Also a battle-hardened Basilisk:

Needs a bit of a clean up, and I think I'll add some sandbags on the sides when I get some more green stuff

Painted Valhallans Ahoy!

2010-01-08T15:10:00.001-08:00

I finally painted the first of my Valhallans. I decided to go with a white uniform to match their environment (in keeping with the fluff). I've got three painted atm but there will be more to come:

Voxcaster

Valhallan Flamer

Valhallan Trooper

I was worried that a white colour scheme wouldn't have much contrast, however, I'm pretty damn happy with how these guys turned out. My general painting formula was:

Primer: Skull White
Basecoat: Astronomican Grey
Wash: Badab Black
Layer 1: 1:1 Astronomican Grey/Skull White
Layer 2: 1:2 Astronomican Grey/Skull White
Layer 3: Thinned Skull White
Layer 4: Thinned Skull White
Extreme Highlights: Skull White

I also tried a couple of different techniques for the bases. The flamer has the GW snow baser on it. I personally don't like this... It has a very fluffy (not 'fluffy') look to it, not the right type of snow for me. I also experimented with bicarbonate with PVA for the Troopers base, this is closer to what I want. I might take some advise from Müller's Minatures from Valhall.

Since it has been snowing pretty heavily I couldn't resist taking some photos of these miniatures in the snow. Have a look:

Valhallan Basilisk

2010-01-07T05:41:00.001-08:00

What did I want all those sandbags for? My slightly converted Basilisk of course!

Vahallan Basilisk #1

I decided to make a converted interrior gunner (another use for my Pig Iron heads) instead of a tank commander/ stubber gunner to give it a unique look and because I dont plan on spending any points placing an extra gunner on my artillery.

How To Make Sandbags from Green Stuff

2010-01-06T12:43:00.000-08:00

A quick and easy tutorial on how to make decent sandbags from green stuff.
You'll need:

4-6" of Green Stuff
Modelling knife/ Stanley Knife
Pot of water to make sure your fingers/work surface don't get stuck to the green stuff
Sieve/ Strainer/ Metal Gauze/ Netting

Step 1: Grab your green stuff and mix it together until you can no longer see and yellow or blue streaks.

Step 2:
Roll your green stuff into a long thin cylinder about 8" in length and 1/4 - 1/2" in diameter.

Step 3: Grab your knife and cut the green stuff into 1/2" chunks:

Step 4: Flatten out the chunks and round off the edges. Use the side of your thumb to rub off any fingerprints.

Step 5:

Using the knife score a line into the edges of the bags.

Step 6:

Grab your sieve

Press the gauze gently into the top of all the sand bags. This gives them a nice material texture. The finer the netting of the gauze the more realistic it will look.

The Final Result:

Looks half decent and doesn't cost a lot. Use them on bases, heavy weapon emplacements, defence lines or anywhere else!

Command Squad

2010-01-06T08:47:00.000-08:00

Ok then, Cadian Command Squad + Pig Iron heads + small big of Green Stuff = Valhallan Command Squad. This is my first proper attempt at Green Stuffing, so don't laugh! I'm happy with everything apart from the over sized megaphone on the commander. I'm going to down size this. But for now this is how my command squad looks:

Valhallan Commander with (oversized) Megaphone

Valhallan Sniper

Valhallan Medic with Bedroll and Bandage

Valhallan Voxcaster with Bandolier

Valhallan Company Standard Bearer

Pig Iron Heads

2010-01-06T08:06:00.000-08:00

Just got some Pig Iron heads through the post:

They are the Militia winter head sprues: 20 heads for £4. I plan to use these heads on Cadian bodies for veterans, and for my command squad.

I also bought some Catachan commlinks to make some cheap voxcasters (£7 a piece for a Valhallan voxcaster). I got them off a quality guy on eBay that I've bough off before who mainly sells bitz: miniaturmen07. Check him out if you need a few bitz 'n' bobs.

The Army Begins

2010-01-05T14:33:00.000-08:00

Look what came today:

An Imperial Guard Basilisk Battery boxset from a couple of years ago (now oop) that I found on eBay. It's just the same as 3 normal Basilisks but has an extra sprue with 'command' extras on; basically its an aquilla shaped targeting computer that goes on the side of one of the Basilisks.

Also another great buy:

This came from a guy on eBay who had an old shop, with these beauties in. They must be at least 10 years old, because of some of the OOP stuff in this lot. £150 got me:

HQ 1 x Captain Chenkov.
HQ 2x Lieutenants.
HQ 1x Primaris Psyker.
HQ 2x Commissars.
HQ 4x Special weapons including three comms troopers
Troops 4x Tactical squads.
Troops 2x blisters with troopers and sergeant.
Heavy 4x Heavy weapons, including 3x heavy bolter and 1 lascannon.

So putting this with the rest of my stuff this makes:

Men x50
Sgt x7
Lt x2
Cpt x2
Commissar x3
Primaris Psyker x1
Flamer x6
Grenade x3
Melta x2
Voxcaster x8
Heavy Bolter x3
Lascannon x4
Mortar x7
Basilisk x3

This should be a good start in an awesome army. I think I'll unpack it all and get a look at the challenge I've made for myself.

Army List

2010-01-03T16:39:00.000-08:00

So I spent Christmas trawling eBay and forums for Valhallan miniatures. They're few and far between but I managed to get a good haul (I'm still waiting for the main bulk to come through the post - hopefully they haven't gotten lost!). I had a good idea of what I wanted in my army and I stuck true to it. So this is my first provisional army list:

-HQ-

Company Command Squad (105 Pts)
-Voxcaster
-Company Standard
-Sniper
-Master of Ordnance

-Troops-

Infantry Platoon 1

Platoon Command Squad (90 Pts)
-Voxcaster
-Flamer
-Commander Chenkov

Infantry Squad 1 (70 Pts)
-Voxcaster
-Metla
-Mortar

Infantry Squad 2 (65 Pts)
-Voxcaster
-Flamer
-Mortar

Infantry Squad 3 (65 Pts)
-Voxcaster
-Flamer
-Mortar

Special Weapons Squad 1 (50 Pts)
-Grenade Launcher x3

Infantry Platoon 2

Platoon Command Squad (35 Pts)
-Voxcaster

Infantry Squad 1 (60 Pts)
-Voxcaster
-Flamer

Infantry Squad 2 (80 Pts)
-Voxcaster
-Flamer
-Lascannon

Conscript Squad 1 (263 Pts)
-Send in the Next Wave
-27 More Conscripts

Heavy Weapons Squad 1 (75 Pts)
-Heavy Bolter x3

Heavy Weapons Squad 2 (105 Pts)
-Lascannon x3

Heavy Weapons Squad 3 (60 Pts)
-Mortar x3

-Heavy Support-

Ordinance Battery (375 Pts)
-3x Basilisk

Total: 1498 Pts

So the tactics are pretty simple with this army; stay still and bomb the enemy to dust.

The CCS will have to stay still so I can use the Master of Ordnance, so they find some cover and start issuing orders.

Platoon 2 is the cover for both the artillery and Platoon 1. Looking at it now I might have gone overboard with the Conscripts, but they will make excellent meatsheilds for the basilisks and mortars. Also whilst Chenkov is still alive they will carry on rocking it with Send in the Next Wave. Basically they will all stay stationary in a defensive formation: The Mortars and Bolters mopping up any infantry that weren't taken out by the Basilisks, whilst the Lascannons take on any Heavy Support that might be kicking around.

Platoon 1 will capture objectives and can act as an axillary meatsheild. They can also draw fire away from the artillery and occupy anything that might want to hit the Basilisks/Weapon Teams with a sword/powerfist.

So the highlight of the army is the artillery: 4 Earthshakers (3 from the Basilisks and 1 from Mr. Ordnance). Should bring the pain to most infantry. Hopefully with 1500pts there should also be some good scattering effects if they miss.

Obviously this will be great against horde armies, with downfalls against mechanised armies; especially armies with two or three Landraiders in. Anything with armour value 14 could be a problem. Also deep striking Termies and Dreads could cause issues. But hey, its a fun army and I'll see how it plays!

The Valhallan 8th Ice Warriors

2009-12-21T04:23:00.000-08:00

Welcome to my Warhammer 40k blog. This is my first blog, so I hope I will keep it up to date with all my latest goings on!

About six months ago I visited my local Games Workshop hobby centre (Manchester Arndale) and the lovely guys in there got me back into 40k after a 10 year stint. I decided to pick an army that had just come out when I was collecting almost a decade ago: Black Templars (yep, that puts it into perspective how long ago it was). So over the summer I made, converted and painted up a decent 3000pt army of CCW Initiates, Neophytes, Sword Brethren and LR Crusaders. I still have more to do, including some Assault Termies with Forgeworld stormsheilds and a currently untouched Chaplain Grimaldus; but there's just so many marines you can paint before you get bored. So a couple of weeks ago I decided to start a new army. I wanted to go back to my first and one of my all time favourite armies: Imperial Guard Valhallan Ice Warriors!

I dug around at home to see if I could find any of my old miniatures. However, time had played its toll. I could only find about 15 figures, an autocannon without a gunner and a very dusty leman russ. At least it was a start. I set about stripping them down of my poor adolescent paint job. Whilst my figures sat in a pot of nail polish remover (kindly donated to the cause by my girlfriend), I started researching the Valhallans.

First of all I got my hands on the 3rd, 3.5th and the new 5th edition of the Imperial Guard Codex. Reading all the background in there I began to get a good understanding of how a fluffy Valhallan army might be made up: Loads of expendable men (especially conscripts) and a huge amount of firepower in the form of artillery. Now I had a rough idea of where I was headed with my army I could get about buying the essentials: HQ and two troop units.

Fortunately for me GW had not decided to revamp these, so my old 1994 models wouldn't look outdated, but most of the original models were still available through the collectors part of the GW website. Metal models are expensive so I also hit up eBay to see if I could snag me any bargains. Nothing fantastic as of yet!

Because of the lack of variance in the Valhallan models, I decided to convert one of the Cadian Command Squads for my HQ choice. I decided to use the Cadian bodies with Pig Iron Kolony Winter Heads. I thought I could also use these heads for veterans, and for a bit of variance I thought I could get hold of some of the West Wind Secrets of the Third Reich head packs. Pictures to come when and as I finish!

I also had to decide a paint scheme. I has originally painted my Valhallans like the Soviet Unions Red Army; brown and tan greatcoats with olive drab uniforms. Since I wanted a fluffy army this time round I could think of no better camouflage for an ice world than all white. I will have to experiment a bit to get a good contrast in the miniatures with all white uniforms. I'll show my attempts shortly.

This is my project for the next six months or so. Hopefully in the next post I will have something to show you!