Praetorian Delihan Army - 99 Psyonic Detachment

Afternoon everybody!  Today sees the next update in the ongoing exchange project between myself and Lord Gordon.  This basically involves painting up some of our models in each others' colours, the aim being to have liaison or exchange officers.  The first project, Lieutenant Marcus Rhyn, was intended to be a background thing that I'd build up over the weeks.  However, it looks like he might be cutting his teeth earlier than planned!

After the death of Lieutenant Creticus, my previous platoon commander, I'm short on reinforcements (in other words, I've not converted any new Palladian officers to take his place), so he's going to be acting First Lieutenant and commander of First Platoon until I can get a permanent replacement.  Should make an interesting backstory ...

Anyway, the last project was such a success that we decided to work on Astropaths as well.  This was Lord Gordon's suggestion - I've never even thought of Astros/Psykers before.  I decided to expand it a bit to include Psykers and a Primaris Psyker too.  Being a historicals fan, I liked the 'pure' Guard armies of infantry, tanks and artillery.  However, after falling in love with the new Ratlings, I bought a squad and tried them out in battle.  Now I'm fully converted on abhumans and psykers (no pun intended), and when I saw some of the destructive powers in the new Sixth Edition rules, that clinched it.

Anyway - on to the models!  I decided to use the vanilla GW Sanctioned Psykers.  I really really like the look of these models, and I thought I'd get them quickly, before they go over to FineCast and become unusable.

My big problem with these models is the similarity between the three.  Individually, they're all works of art, but together they look a little bit boring.  I didn't fancy converting them because they look so cool!  I can't decide which one I like the best.

But for the Master Astropath (I call him the Mastropath) I had a special treat.  My good friend Headologist gave me a treat in the form of an old Necromunda Psyker model, which I stripped and repainted. (As an aside, I found nail varnish remover and a 24hr soak to be the best way of stripping the paint, followed by a quick toothbrushing).

The banner was a bit wobbly but that wasn't a problem.  I wanted to get rid of it because it looked absolutely ridiculous, just turn it into a sort of staff.

Painting was a bit hard.  Under the exchange officer program, they have prescribed Praetorian Delihan Army uniform colours, but because these fellows are wearing cloaks, I decided just to pick similar colours.  My favourite part of all the models is definitely the faces.  I used the same Kanrak Stone/Drucci Violet/Pallid White Flesh (or whatever their names are) combo that I used on my Chaos Renegades, to give them a pallid, deathly look which I really like.

What I haven't done is thought about how they're going to be integrated into the army, both on the table and more importantly fluff-wise.  I've decided to call them '99 Psyonic Detatchment' - and I'll probably just throw them in at the deep end against Headologist's Space Marines to see what happens.

Anyway, hope you enjoyed these and look forward to the next update soon!  All the best, and happy gaming!

His vision clouded by the destructive Binding Ritual,
the Primaris Psyker surveys the battlefield from his
vantage point, the collective efforts of 99 Psyonic
Detachment mentally illuminating the area