Imperial Guard - The Orelian 2nd

The Hammer of the Emperor

Many, many years ago I started collecting Imperial Guard models.

A few years before that, I started collecting Imperial Army models!

This is the current state of my collection - a fairly massive force which - like any labour of love - is not yet complete.

You will find here some real W40K history. There are units here with models that have been Out Of Print for a very long time. If you look closely, you'll find:

• Female Guardsmen,
• A non-human Guardsman,
• A first edition Commissar Yarrick model,
• A Commissar with a weapon that doesn't exist in the rules any more (a hand flamer),
• Ogryns converted from Wahammer Fantasy plastic models

I made a few decisions when working on this army (and another one since - some day I *must* repaint the bases. Too garish), one of which was that I was tired of seeing every model ever painted and shown in White Dwarf as being a white guy. As such you'll find as you look through this lot that a fair proportion of the models are black.

HQ

The company command squad. Contains a home-made vox-caster. The commander's cape is modelled with milliput and he's armed with a power-fist taken from the first ever issue of plastic Ork models.

The original Yarrick model.

A sanctioned psyker

Commissar with Hand Flamer

Commissar with power-sword and power-fist

Commissar with combi-weapon

Commissar with power-sword and bolt pistol. Actually a tank-commander model from the Baneblade kit

Commissar with laspistol and chainsword

Commissar with laspistol

Elites

Ogryns converted from Warhammer Fantasy plastic models. The Ripper guns are made from old plastic Imperial Guard lascannon with ammo drums added and the helmets, flak jackets and berets are made from Milliput.

Ratlings! I love these guys!

Kasrkin Stormtroopers - along with the Penal Squad these are probably the most up-to-date models in this army.

Troops

Platoon 1

Platoon 1 command squad

Squad 1

Squad 2. The guardsman at the far left may have been one of the models that inspired the current "Marbo" character (who is clearly supposed to be "Rambo"). Also see Platoon Command 3 for another possibility on this one.

Heavy weapons teams - 2 x Mortars (one of the Mortar models came from a Tamiya Battlefield Accessories kit). I decided when building my heavy weapons teams to keep the "loader" models on separate bases. That way I could easily represent the loss of a "Wound" by just removing the loader

Heavy weapons teams - 2 x Lascannon and 1 x Missile Launcher

Chimera

Platoon 2

Platoon 2 Command

Squad 3. I think the front-most model may have been an early indicator of what was to come in the shape of Catachan guardsmen

Squad 4. This squad features a female guardsman (2nd from left, no helmet)

Heavy weapons teams - 2 x Lascannon and a Missile Launcher

Heavy weapons teams - 2 x Heavy bolters and an Autocannon. Note the female guardsman (centre)

Platoon 3

Platoon 3 command. The guardsman 2nd from right may have been one of the models that inspired the current "Marbo" character (who is clearly supposed to be "Rambo"). Also see Squad 2 for another possibility on this one.

Squad 5



Squad 6

Chimera

A Special Weapons team (3 x Snipers). Note the guardsman on the far right is actually female

Penal Squad

Penal Squad. I used Catachan Jungle Fighters for this squad (it's the only real representation of any of the current Guard Foot models aside from the Storm Troopers).

Fast Attack

Hellhound

Hellhound Flame Tank

Rough Riders

Rough Riders - these models are sooooo old! Equipped with 2 x grenade launchers and explosive lances

Heavy Support

Leman Russes

Leman Russ 1 - an ebay rescue job. The Heavy Bolter sponsons were actually taken from a Space Marine Predator and are metal.

Leman Russ 2

And that's it, for now.

There's always more to add to the Guard. I have a half-finished Baneblade, a box of bits to make 8 x Sentinels out of and a Valkyrie to build courtesy of my friend, Mike (check out his blog at "The Old Giant" in my links section).