We’ve Got Zenos!

My Mrs was showing me up to a few mates the other day.

I’d made a comment about something expensive that she’d bought that i didn’t see the point in…..

‘What about all those models you bought that time that cost you so and so?’…

‘THEY WERE GOING OUT OF PRINT!’…I said …way too abruptly for anyone’s comfort…

The next weekend i found myself knocking a few of my wee Elysian men together to put together a couple of test schemes.

Paint Scheme is as follows:

Primed Black and given a white ink zenith.

Fatigues:

1. Base- Warcolour- Cool Grey 1
2. Layer – Vallejo- Silver Grey
3. Glaze/wash – Warcolour- Cool Grey 3
4. Highlight – Vallejo- Silver Grey

Armour:

1. Base- Vallejo – Black/ Olive Grey(1:1)
2. Edge Highlight – Vallejo – Olive Grey
3. Highlight – Vallejo – Olive Grey/ Khaki (1:1)
4. Wash – MIG – Grime Shader ( Once insignia etc are applied)

Webbing:

1. Base – Vallejo – Olive Grey
2. Glaze/wash – Vallejo -Black/Olive Grey/Glaze Medium/Water(1:1:1:1)
3. Highlight – Vallejo – Olive Grey
4. Highlight – Vallejo – Olive Grey/Green Brown(1:1)
5. Highlight – Vallejo – Green Brown/ Dark Yellow(1:1)

Weapon(Boots and Carapace):

1. Base – Vallejo – Black
2. Edge Highlight – Warcolour- Cool Grey 3
3. Highlight – Warcolour- Cool Grey 1

The grip was painted the same as the webbing.

Exposed steel:

1. Base – Vallejo Metal Colour – Gun Metal Grey
2. Wash – Citadel – Nuln Oil
3. Highlight – Vallejo – Silver

Skin:

1. Base – Vallejo – Medium Flesh
2. Wash – Citadel – Reikland Flesh shade
3. Layer –  Vallejo – Flat Flesh
4. Highlight – Vallejo – Light Flesh

Visor:

1. Base – Vallejo – Deep Green/ Black (1:1)
2. Layer/higlight/blend or whatever – Vallejo – Deep Green
3. Layer/higlight/blend or whatever – Vallejo – Light Green
4. Edge Highlight- Vallejo – Lime Green
5. Watered down Wash – Citadel – Thrakka Green ( or what ever the modern equivalent is)

Initially i had wanted to make the whole army HL Marine based. But i think i’d loose the plot painting 60 odd troops the same colour.

So i thought i’d make some of the troops a little more resonant of something you’d see in COD.

To keep the army cohesive ,the armour and webbing can be the same colour but i decided to change up the fatigues.

Scheme 2 is as follows:

Desert pattern Trousers:

1. Base – Vallejo – US Field Drab
2. Wash – Citadel – Seraphim Sepia
3. Highlight – Vallejo – Green Ochre
4. Highlight – Vallejo – Iraqi Sand

Dark Top:

1. Base – Vallejo – Black/ Field Blue (1:1)
2. Layer – Vallejo – Field Blue
3. Highlight – Vallejo/ Vallajo game colour – Field Blue/ Wolf Grey
4. Wash(Watered Down) – Citadel – Nuln Oil

Visor/ Long Las-carbine lense:

Base – Vallejo – Orange Red

Highlight/layer – Vallejo – Light Orange

Highlight/ Layer – Vallejo – Violet Red

Highlight/ Layer – Vallejo – Royal Purple

Edge Highlight – Vallejo – Golden Yellow

I was pretty chuffed with the lens effect on this guy….

The rest of the model was painted similarly to the first.

This Company is meant to be a diminished force,  so i imagine them all to meet the Elysian Criteria to be recognised as a Veteran. This is the red stripe on his shoulder guard. Done using Mephiston Red from Citadel.

The Company number is on the right shoulder guard. A little scrappy, but they will do until i can find some decals that will suite.

Some of the washes gave some surfaces a bit of a gloss finish so i used some matt varnish on them to finish.

After a lot (…….A LOT!) of clipping and counting components i managed to work out the regimental structure to what is left of the 3rd Company to the 87th Elysian Drop Troop Regiment.

So during my hobby hiatus, i have collected a lot of books that have kept my hand in as it were.  One book that I’ve dug up was ForgeWorld’s Imperial Armour Volume three: The Taros Campaign. This has diagrams that show the regimental structure for the Elysians.

So from this i can now say I have  a Drop Company with two Platoons ( a Drop infantry Platoon( 1st and 2nd Sqaud) and 1x Heavy weapons Platoon)

Additional to this it seams that i have a small Squadron of Drop Sentinels and a pair of Tauros Venators that make up a small mechanized recon attachment.

The organisational charts show that each squad have their own Valkyrie drop ship. …i might have to buy a pair….

Oh and maybe 1 or 2 Vultures too…..my wallet is already aching like a punched kidney…

So if you hadn’t already realized from the title, the theme to the army is ‘HALF LIFE’ based.
I loved the Marines in that game, and i especially loved the way they dropped into Gordon Freeman’s life. This of course was by rappelling out of the back of an Osprey.

It was brilliant how their gear was so obviously issued in a hurry. Yes they were wearing urban camo to run about an underground industrial facility in the Navada Desert, but all of their webbing and equipment was still Green and drab.
I think the only thing that was painted for the desert in that game was the Striker type APC that shoots at you outside.

So the basis for a background will probably be something around making planet Fall to a desert mechanicum  facility that has accidentally ruptured a ‘Regia Occulta’ that they were observing or something. ( Read Dan Abnett’s Eisenhorn short story ‘Regia Occulta’, then that will make sense)

I also like the idea that they are an almost depleted regiment of Elysian Drop Troops attached to an Imperial Navy Ship of some sort. This is also somehow reminiscent of the fact that the Elysian Models are no longer available.