Praetorians
So GW no longer sell Praetorians. I assume this happened as part of their archive clearout. Something about keeping costs down so they can make more land raider variants I think..
But this is a problem, since I’m still wanting to build a Praetorian army. So I’m having to improvise. Fans of the Mordian Iron Guard will be distraught to know I’ve just bought several from ebay with a view to scalping them and sculpting on some pith helmets.
If the Phoenix Club project ever goes ahead I hope to buy some stand ins from there too. However I’m seriously considering getting some kit and casting up some hasslefree heads with pith helmets. It would save time, and converting a cadian to a praetorian isn’t too hard without doing the helmet.
Tanks are also in the works. I wanted something suitably old school looking for the Leman Russ. I considered a MK1, but I don’t think they work with turrets and I didn’t fancy it, especially since my pre heresy land raider already nudges in that direction. So I decided to look to WW2 russia for inspiration. Which inevitably led me to the Ragnarok. But rather than do a standard recreation I’ve just done an “inspired by”. It’s probably going to end up closer to the KV2 itself than the Ragnarok.
For Chimera’s I wanted some WW2 russia apcs to match the tank. Erm, problem, since there aren’t any. I know they made use of M3s and the like, but they didn’t seem to have any dedicated vehicles. So I rummaged around and I’ve come up with one I think will work. I’m going to run it through Maya and see if I can design something I like.
To tie everything together (this is the vaguely clever bit), the Leman Russ are going to be called Bromhead pattern Russ (since they’re not really ragnaroks, having different armaments). The chimeras are going to be Chard pattern. Then all the tanks will be enumerated with the serial numbers of the VC winners from Rourke’s Drift.
The ogryns are of course under way, wearing Praetorian gear. They still need the Sgt Major to order them around.
It’s all coming together, and if I can pull off the rank and file I reckon it’ll look pretty decent. Still need to work on my heavy weapons.. I think a trip to Col. Gravis’ blog is in order.