Elysian Drop Troops

A few weeks ago I played a game of Shadow War.  During this game, I was distressed to hear that Forgeworld would be discontinuing their line of Elysians.  I've never collected anything larger than a squad of these models, and I'd long since sold them on, but I thought it was a great excuse to snap up a set before they disappeared forever.  Playing against Dan's superbly-painted models was also a great motivator!  I ended up getting an Engineer Squad, which included some rather cool shotguns, and a command squad.

I settled on a 'police' theme rather than a military one, just to be different, and also decided against the grav-chute backpacks.  I also recently discovered the joys of Anvil Industries conversion bits.  Like Victoria Lamb, Anvil have made an excellent range of 40K-compatible conversion bits, including a wide range of weapons and equipment.  I wanted to add a bit of variety to the squad, so I bought about £20 worth of guns including some sniper rifles, pistols and backpacks.

As for painting, for about 15 years I've had the idea of painting a squad in the blue uniform of the Blue Shift security guards, from the Half Life PC game series.  The joy of Shadow War is that, while I put this off because I knew I could never paint an army's worth of security guards, a 10-man squad would be perfect.

The finished squad

Special weapons - meltagun, demo charge and sniper.  The two running legs were especially dynamic - they look a bit like they've just tripped over though.

Officer, with classic 90s green grenade, and one of the revolvers from Anvil.

Some of the regular troopers.  If you look closely on the middle chap (standing on the hazard markings), you can see where I've added a tactical sight to the shotguns.

The shotguns look fantastic and I didn't want to change them.  I just added red sights to the top of them to make them about 30% cooler.

Two of my favourite conversions, ballistic shields and pistols - again both from Anvil.

And that's it.  I was so enthused about this project that it took me only about four days to paint them all.  A really, really enjoyable little diversion while I prepare to move house!  Anyway, I hope you enjoyed it.

All the best,

Ed