I'm gonna make me a me a Valdor Heavy tank.  I've never played one on the board so I don't know whether they are effective or not.  However , my regular opponent has started to field a Cobra, so I am looking for a cheap heavy tank to counter it.  I've had the kit kicking around for a while, so perhaps its time to build it a s a counter to the Cobra.
As with the post on the Banewolf Squadron, I'm going to look for some context for the model in order to try and give some direction to the build and add some flavour to the model.  I do this by asking three questions: What is a Valdor; Why Does the Regiment have one?; When is this Valdor depicted.

So...

What is a Valdor
What do we know about the Valdor Tank: The Valdor is an Imperial Guard tank weighing in at 96 Ton 11.6 meter long variant of the Malcador tank.  It has a crew of 5, with a Commander; Driver; an Enginseer and 2 gunners.  Its size makes it a Heavy Tank in the Imperial guard.  It is believed to have been developed in the years immediately afHter Horus Heresy, at time known as the Scouring of the Imperium.  There are references in ancient texts to the Valdor being used to counter the Enemies superior numbers of Land Raiders.
Its main gun is a Neutron Laser.  This horrific weapon breaks down the material it touches at the molecular level, releasing a massive Elector Magnetic shock as a consequence.


Very few forge worlds now have the level of sophistication to construct the Valdor in any numbers, or even maintain so they are more often seen in the hands of Adeptus Mechanicus forces.
There are three listed forge worlds still producing these tanks:
- Lathe-Het
- Cyraxus II; and
- Mars.
There is no record of these world producing different patterns but given their vastly separated location it seems entirely feasable these machines designs may have shifted over the millennia of separation.

Only a precious few ever make it into the hands of Imperial Guard regiments, and even then they are usually very Venerable and honoured regiments or they hail from worlds with close ties to the Adeptus Mechanicus.

Why? and When
Why, why would the 291st Panzer Grenadiers have one? While the regiment may have picked up a wreck from its time as a foot regiment on Vraks, however the campaign on that world is nearly 200 years after the period the 291st is depicted in.  'Now' for the regiment is the Praxedes VI Campaign 747.M41, where the regiment participated in the Imperial attempt to resist Tau annexation of the world. The war ground to a bloody stalemate as neither side was willing to commit the strategic assets to bring the campaign to it conclusion.  Two years into the war the Eldar intervened after Necron artefacts were discovered.  Eldar had no qualms about deploying strategic reserves to destroy the the ancient foe and anything that stood in their way. Scorpion superheavy tanks  were soon roaming the shattered trench works of the Tau and Imperial forces.
This Valdor was readied from the divisional stores and deployed on loan to the 291st Death Korps.  The regiment was singled out for the honour after destroying the first of Scorpion with meltas and demolition charges in a sustained close assault, waves of Eldar were thrown at the wreck site in a vain effort to recover ruined hulk. The 291st repulsed all of the attempts and eventually handed over the hulk of the tank to a grateful Adeptus Mechanicus. The Valdor was was re-consecrated to the machine-god in the Desert colours of Praxedes VI in order to combat the Eldar Super heavy tank.
Whilst it has only just been moved out of deep storage, fresh from showers of sacred unguents, the Tank has not been left untouched by the planet.  Praxedes VI has a sulphur rich crust. Dust from this world quickly invades any cracks or scratches in the in the protective coatings of a vehicle and begins insidious corrosion of the metal underneath.
This vehicle is a fine example of the rapid surface corrosion that occurs anywhere that the dust can get at bare metal.
The honour of receiving the tank granted the regiment limited rights to place their own recognition decals on the doctrinally approved sections of it holy hull.

Overall painting plan and method
Undercoat: Halfords Grey Primer
Basecoat: Citadael Chaos Black
Top coat: Vallejo Air:
Mapping: Vallejo Air:
Camo Pattern: Vallejo Air:
Decals
Matt Varnish
Chipping:
Filters: Burnt Umber; Black
Spot Filters:
General Rusting
Fuel and oil staining
Detailing

And now the confession: I really Really should have written this first.  I haven't, Ive gone straight in and jumped from 'Top coat' to 'Filters'  I have just reallised this as I have looked back at the Banewolf Squadron, log and seen what order i did that in.

I'm hoping I can still recover this tank and I haven't just wrecked it like I did the first Desert coloured Vendetta. in that case, i rushed and sprayed the matt varnish before applying the decals.  Decals don't stick to spray on matt varnish.  I hope they stick to Windsor Newton oil washes.

Dispatch From the Front!
217.747.M41: Praxedes IV: Battle of Shield station 6.  I Battalion , XV Company, smashed the Eldar defences around the derilict shield station 6.  By now the xenos lines were thoughly in dissaray and retreating wholesale back towards the Webway gate they had arrived in.  Celebrated veteran Watchmaster Bastonikov, as always at the forefront of the fight, was cut down by howling banshees as he rushed to seize the derilict bunker complex overlooking the valley where the void shield station lay.  Batonikov Stood his ground as the Eldar witches cut his squad to peices around him.  Like the True son of the Emperor he turned at bay and slew 4 of the Xenos scum before they overwhelmed him and the last of his comrades.  The Eldar crones stormed into the bunker complex, where they were met by Colonel von Krieg.  He revenged his fallen comrade by cutting down the remaining banshees in a hail of Laz-fire.

The actions of Watchmaster Bastonikov and his brothers In arms have brought the war on  Praxedes IV within measurable distance of its end.

Prayers will be sent to the Emperor for Bastonikov and his brothers in the great Chantry of 'The Emperors Hammer' at the 3rd quater all this week.

1st Battalion; 15th Company; 1st Platoon; 1st Grenadiers (Air Mobile)

1.0: Gather all of the Fixin's for the Base

Well, its done.  The canopy has been closed up and the final dusting of weathering powder has been added and its ready to play.  The more observant of you will have noticed its already had an outing on the field.  With punisher cannons  mounted, the Vulture  acquitted itself admirably.  It was so successful that my usual opposition declared that the Vulture had just become one of his Priority targets when playing the 291st.


Top Down Exploded View:
The whole weapons range is magnetised and includes: Twin linked multi-laser; Twin linked las-cannon; Twin linked Punisher cannon; and Rocket Pods.

Front Exploded View:

I would like in the future to get the all of the weapons to round out the hard point options in Imperial Armour apocalypse, like the missile launcher.

A frend of mine has come over and brought his Cannon EOS 500D.  Most of my shots are done using my own, older Cannon EOS 400D with a Macro Lens, so I had to try a few snaps with the new camera as a contrast.
 I thought I'd try a WIP of the Vulture in the new Praxedes IV theater colours, and this is the result.  This camera is very good!  These were taken with the standard 18mm - 55mm lens on autofocus with an appeture setting of F35 and balancing the shutter speed to the available light.

The subject is my WIP vulture in the 291st theater livery for Praxedes IV campaign.  At present its waiting decals and chipping before I get stuck in in with the weathering and filters.

For all Vallejo Model Air thin all paints 3 drops colour: 1 Drop Thinner Unless otherwise specified.

Undercoat Coat:
Spray Can of Citadael Skull white.


The Exterior:
Preshading and base colour
Spray all of the panel ines with Vallejo Model Air Black (Tutorial Part 4b:  Painting Techniques: BF109 Preshading).

Apply the Basic hull colours by filling in the middle of each panel towards the outer edge.
 Top and Side Elevations: 3:1 Vallejo Model Air Sand Yellow to Vallejo Model Air :Ochre
 Belly Elevation: (3:1 Vallejo Model Air Pale Blue

Camoflage
Apply Spots of Vallejo Model Air: Burnt Umber in a random pattern


Squadron Markings Colours:
I masked the boom rings and sprayed them VMA:white.  Give the white some time to dry and mask off the White Sections with Tamiya 10mm Mask.  this leaves a perfect 1 mm strip on either side of the boom rings, I sprayed these VMA: Red to get the red pencil stipes on the outside of the boom.


The Cockpit Interior
Using this tutorial link as as a guide

Base Coat: Black Grey
Panel Lines/ Stains thinned Black /Brown Mix sprayed
Further Panel line definition by Oil wash of Black/brown
Detailing: Lead pencil to highlight the edges of crew contact areas with a metalic tinge

The Crew:
The Crew are a bit stuffed up on this model.  I painted citadael Space Wolves grey on the armour with the intention of using Citadael: Badab Black washes to give the unpainted Iron effect used on the Krieg granadiers.  But it didnt work very well.  The uniforms are VMC: Luftwaffe cam green with with a white helmet.



Key
VMA: Vallejo Model Air
VMC: Vallejo Model Colour
VGC:  Vallejo Game Colour
C: Citadael
AOC: Windsor Newton Artists Oil Colour
CW: Citadel Wash

Playing at games workshop Bromley today. I played two games from the new battle missions book. I chose 'War of Attrition' and my opponent (Death Jester) chose 'Pre Emptive Strike'. I lost both games. The first game was a close run thing right up until the end two turns. Turn one I smashed all of the Eldar tanks, wiped out the rangers, shattered the bike squadrion and wrecked half the walkers.  At the close of turn 3 every vehicle on the table was a smouldering wreck.  The Bailed out Wriath guard wrecked both of the Vendettas with gunfire and assaults. At the end of the game it was grenadiers vs wraithguard, which is not much of a contest.  My troops ended up cycling onto the board a couple of times each, guaranteeing the Eldar victory.  Without the Bane wolves, getting rid of the Wriath guard was nigh on impossible.
The second game never came together for me. My HQ started the game standing out in the open and was  anihilated with extreme predjudice in the first turn. The banewolves didn't turn up on the board until turn five and even then arrived on the wrong flank. 
My opponent very skillfully arrived at every fire-fight on the board with maximum concentration of his army, usually facing desultory fire from one or two of my units. Both fun games though and I probably learned slot more from the second game than the first.

The 291st have a new posting!  747.M41 the Regiment arrived on  the world of Praxedes IV, a world under seige.  Tau symparthisers had invited the Tau empire to annexe the world. This had lead to its inclusion as a target for the Damoclese crusade.  With the crusade winding down the 291st, fresh from the withdrawl form the sept world of H'Rus, were redirected to the campaign to retake Praxedes.

Praxedes itself is a brown orb, too close to old father Praxedes to maintain a verdant biosphere, and made up of entirely too much sulphur for full terra-forming.

The Regiment was thrown into the battle almost immediately upon arrival. No time was allowed for theater aclimatisation, or re-equipping for the enviroment.  This saw the regiment fighing its first few encounters in the traditional Krieg black.  It wasn't until after its first 100 days of fighting that units started to be re-equiped with uniforms more fitting for the hot, barren enviroment of Praxedes IV.

In otherwords, I have decided to go for another colour scheme, a desert colour scheme, and to the releif of my wife, a brighter colour scheme.  Fo years she has lamented me "paining things black", so the new buff coats are much better in her opinion.
The method I have chosen it paint these is a hybrid of Airbrush and Brush applied washes.  I've seen a few desert painted Death Korps armies around but it was Ishkurs method that caught my eye the most.  He had some stunning guardsmen up on his site and a very simple recipie for producing them.  He is spraying white basecoat, then , then brush coating them with devlan mud and Grypone Sepia washes to achive some incredible results.
I thought to myself I could do that.  I still wanted a darker finish that he is producing, so I varied the method a little.

So here goes:
1:      Pin any grenades, Packs, democharges or other belt equipment to the body of the Grenadier
2:      Primer the body and arms with Halfords Primer "Grey" Spray

3:      Spray GW Black as an undercoat
4:      Pin the arms to the Grenadier
4b:    Superglue the power cable to the powerpack then using a hair dryer on hot setting, blow dry the power cable until it is soft enough to pull into the slot under the hellguun ans superglue in. 
5:      Using an airbrush, spray ValejoAir: Sea Grey (Much like C: Astronomicon Grey) from a high angle.  this is to try and leave shadowed areas still black
6:      Wash the Steel in CW: Badab Black (4 -5 layers I think)
7:      Wash the Storm coat in CW:Gryphonne Sepia (5-6 layers I think)
8:      Wash the trousers in CW:Devlan mud (2-3 layers I think)
9:      Drybrush the storm-coat with 1:1 C: Snakebite leather and C: Bone White
10:    Paint the leather webbing C:Bestial Brown
11a:  Paint the Face plate of the Gas mask C:Astronomicon Grey wetted out 1:1 with water
11b:  Edge the Steel with White or C:Space Wolves Grey to get the light glinting of points in the armour.
12:    Wet down V:Blood Red and wash it into the eye peices.

And your done.....
I love this method, I lined up 30 Kreig grenadiers all completely assembled and equiped  using step 1 thru 4, then powered through steps 6 thru 9 on all thirty models in one evening.  A few more evenings of detailing where it was needed (powerswords and brass work on the Grenade Launcher ammunition etc) was all that was left and I had 30 New Grenadiers!

Applying this to the Drax Method of Army planning you can see I went from a standing start to my infantry compliment mostly complete!



Next, some Vendettas, This will be like Project Valkyrie Rebooted with Desert Colours.  I did Finish the Squadron of Navy Grey coloured Vendetta's, but Now I want to re do them in a Panzer Yellow colour.

Another Friday Night game and another attempt at real time blogging uisng the iPhone and email functions.  I'm having to edit this again because once again the post has lost most of the text.  It seems that it chops off any text posted after the first attached photo.  Oh well, next time it'll work....

Game XII: The Shadam AgriComplex 0827-Epsilon
Tau vs Imperial Guard 1500pts

High above Praxedes IV things had just begun to heat up in Port Franxs, while on the planets surface, the war for Praxedes IV continued to rage unabated.  Imperial forces launched a sudden offensive to recapture the ruined Agricombine complex above the river Shadaut.  Cavalry elements of the 291st Death Korps, supported by attached Navy Vendetta's, struck at midday.  The assault was timed to strike just as Old Father Praxedes reached his zenith in the sky.  Three Vendetta's carrying 20 Grenadiers from 15th Company, deployed by wire line jump into the ruined Administratum building and took up positions on the first and second floors.  The Vendetta's having delivered their cargo shot back from the building in order to give long range fire support.





With the arrival of the Necrons, this sector had been quiet for months. The arrival of the 291st in the sector, in their newly issued praxedes summer uniforms, had gone completely un noticed by the Tau. Tau command were caught completely off guard by the sudden stroke. There was little time for planning, they simply had to scramble any available units into the field. The first to respond were a group of Kroot on a patrol through the area.
The Xenos approached from the south directly into the ambush zone outside the by now heavily fortified Administratum building.  They fought bravely and even managed a volley of fire before they were obliterated by fire directed by the Forward observer attached to Captain Fustus, and a hail of lasfire from the Grenadiers.

Tau commander  squad on ready reaction duty shot over the battle field  on a high arc, comming down just behind the Banewolves moving up the right flank to support the Grenadiers.  Tau technomagic allowed them to target a Vendetta with a hail of high energy beams and missiles as they came down. In the cockpit of the Vendetta, , alarms screamed and the consoles of the weapons officer lit up like a Emperor Day tree warning of a target lock.  The pilot reacted immediatly, jinking just in time to avid the worst of the fire, but it left the ship badly placed to return fire.



The Banewolves however, were left with a perfect opportunity.  They slewed around on their treads, and circled the Tau battle suits. Corrosive molecular acids spewed from the turrets of the vehicles, splashing over drones burning through seals and electronics alike, drones and suits alike sparked and burst apart as the acids reduced them.  The Tau commander was soon left standing alone and dragging a lump of mettal where his foot actuators used to be.



The Tau commander jumped from the ring of the Banewolves and fired directly up into the rear of the sill jinking Vendetta. One ion bolt flew true a penetrarted the thin armour of the rear loading door, and continued up through the roof of the vehicle into the Jet engines shatetring the turbines within. The Turbine came appart in an angry burst of parts and smoke, slamming the vehicle into the ground.
but the vicory was short lived and the Banewolves sun again and hosed the commander with fire. His suit was speared by Fusion beams and stubbers, finally comming appart and melting into the rapidly deepening pool of molecular acit.

Outside the back quarter of the Administratum ruins, Tau stealth suits struck from the skies, loosing rapid fire energy beams at the squad sheltering in the rubble. Caught completely off guard, the veterans of 2nd Squad bolted, back towards their own lines, firing as they went. Four stealth suits went down, caught in the hail of fire from the retreating guard. 1st SQuad, still in the rafters turned to pour more fire into them and another was killed, it was enough and the stealth suits broke for their own lines. Then Marbiov emerged from the ruins, and charged the stealth suits. Firing into their backs as he came, they were cut down.


The Tau counter attack had failed, smashed by artillery and demo charges, the Tau fell back in dissarray. The Tau tanks only just arriving, had no-one left to support. Turning back for their own lines, one Tau tank took a pot shot at Marbiov frying him before dissapearing out of view.

Reprise
The old Agricombine complex sat on a hill overlooking a bow in the the river Shadaut. Below it, spread out for miles lay the Tau positions. Within hours of the stuggle to capture it, the Imperium had moved in in force. The artillery opened up all along the line following instructions directed from the combine. Further Tau counterattacks were broken up by precision atillery before they could even get started. Soon the Tau position in the wole sector became untenable, forcing a more general withdrawl.


Imperial Victory!

Its friday night and my first friday game of 40K for a while. I have mostly finished painting the Vendetta Squadron, so I thought I'd give them an outing.
The army List was 1 Comand HQ with Creed, two snipers, Medic, and a Plasma rifle, an Astropath and forward observer (Master of the Ordinance); a Leman Russ; a Squadron of three Bane wolves and two squadrons of Vendettas; Carruing 2 Squads of Grenadiers with Demo charges.

This was origninally posted from a iPhone and I have had to edit it because somthing has been lost in the translation when it was sent :-(

Painting the cargo bay.  No 'in progress'es here, just the end result.  I have been asked in the comments if I am using the IA:Masterclass as a guide.  I am in as much as I use it as a source material for some of the techniques, such as sponging for the chips and the plan for the heat corroded metal colouring for the engine.  I am not specifically following the colour schemes.  I would argue I will end up (hopefully) closer to the Testors Scale workshop effects on the exterior.