Elysians Catch a Lift

Elysian Drop Troops will not be much good if they can't get a ride to the battle! I have started with the Valkyries, and I finished my first one for them over the weekend - here are some pictures.



The paint scheme is a very simple green, which will work with both the Elysian troopers and the Bundesguard if they ever need to fly somewhere. For a weapon load, I went with the rocket pod and the multi-laser. From what I can tell, I think it makes the most sense, and plus I love the look of the rocket pods. Three of these things flying in a squadron will be able to lay out a fairly high volume of abuse. This will be the weapon combo for the balance of the Valkyries in this force, although I will do a couple of "Vendetta" gunships as well (which are armed with several lascannons and are great at killing vehicles).



Although the scheme is basic, the models are actually a pretty slow go, as I like to paint the cockpit and the pilots, and even a cursory effort there tends to slow the project. Besides, as I have ranted many times, I am not at all a patient model builder, so this part of the project will be slow going for sure.

Compouding this challenge is that Valkyries are not all that expensive points-wise, meaning a 1500 point army will be able to field quite a few of them! A good problem to have, but one that will slow down the production.

I'm torn on the notion of adding door gunners to some of the models. It will be a pain model-wise, for one thing (even though it will look pretty cool if I can pull it off) but I am also not sure if that is a good investment in points or not. How often will the heavy bolters come to bear on targets, vs. the rockets and the multi-laser?

I'll probably do the next one with door gunners anyway, for a looks-cool-factor if nothing else (it can be the CO's ride or something) and wait till I get some game experience with the Valkyries to see if the door gunners are worth the trouble.