The Blue Gnoll: Super Sexy PhotoShoot

There are no two ways about it, there's no debate to be had. Forgeworld's Vulture is a gorgeous model! Even if you made no effort to straighten whatever pieces came bent -- and in my kit there were quite a few -- you'd be hard-pressed to screw up the look of this model. You would have to try and make it look bad, because by design alone, the model makes you look good. (And maybe a little more wealthy than you are.)

My friend Cain and I were fortunate enough to get the last two Vulture's at Chicago GamesDay. Considering where we were in line, this is no accomplishment, and they were probably the ONLY to in the inventory that day. Below are some of the pic's from the super sexy photoshoot we arranged to showcase the models:

Cain's been collecting and playing the Imperial Guard since 1998-99. His army reflects the wide range of models Games-Workshop and Forgeworld have produced in that time span. His Vulture Paint scheme was inspired by Russian attack helicopters and the only real adjective to describe the work on his Vulture is "perfect".

With a camoflauge upper hull and an aircraft gray underbelly, Cain combined Games-Workshop Imperial Guard, Baneblade and Vietnam era Attack helicopter decals to make his aircraft extra sexy. As if that weren't enough, the weapons array below have all been built with small magnets so that he can have any configuration allowed by the rules.

I've only been collecting and playing guard for a few years. When the first "Armored Fist" set was available, I picked one up and was lost to the Guard since. While a Valkyrie seemed to me the next logical step to take collecting and fielding, rumors of a plastic Valkyrie were enough to redirect me to the Vulture.

With my paint scheme I took a radically different approach. My Guard army hails from Calth, a world in the Ultramar Empire, controlled by the Ultramarines. My scheme for troops and vehicles reflects a bastardized version of second edition Ultramarines, so my Vulture is a natural extension of this painted in a dark blue with red accents to the weapons. Also, because of its support role, I imagine the Vulture spends more time in flight hugging terrain like an attack helicopter rather than dropping from the sky, so I used a very dark blue for the entire hull top and bottom:

My weapon racks are fixed to the bottom so this Vulture is forever armed with Hunter killers, Lascannons and the heavy bolter on the nose. The Hunter killers are the new style ones that come with every IG tank kit. While I think they look goofy on the tanks, on the underside of the Vulture's wings, they look like so many angry hornets.