Mark's Miniatures & RPG Blog: Part 2: Tallarn Heavy Bolter (Imperial Guard\Astra Militarum)

A dozen years ago, I purchased several Warhammer 40K blister packs from a discount box at Magic Box Hobbies, a Vancouver based hobby store. Among these figures were two Tallarn Desert Raiders heavy weapons teams: a heavy bolter team and a lascannon team. The Tallarn heavy weapons operators were sculpted by Michael Perry, while the heavy weapons were sculpted by Norman Swales.

Tallarn Lascannon (missing lascannon)

Tallarn Heavy Bolter

When I opened the blaster pack up for the lascannon team I discovered this blister was missing a key component: the lascannon itself. Not a big deal. Victoria Miniatures, an Australian based company, sells a resin lascannon kit; thus, providing a good incentive to explore Victoria Miniatures range of miniatures (the topic for a future post). Therefore, the focus on this post will be on building the Tallarn heavy bolter team.

60mm Round Base from Reaper Miniatures

Based Heavy Bolter Team (left side view)

Based Heavy Bolter Team (right side view)

Basing the heavy weapons team: In the current iteration of the Imperial Guard, both heavy weapon operators and the heavy weapon are set upon a round 60mm base. While the blister pack came with two round 25mm bases, 60mm bases are readily available. The 60mm base I used is from Reaper Miniatures. I cut off the ‘slotta’ component of the heavy weapons loader (standing guardsman) and used a combination of ‘green stuff’ (epoxy putty) and superglue to secure the miniature to the base.

Primed Heavy Bolter Team (left side view)

Primed Heavy Bolter Team (right side view)

Painting Stage 1 (left side view)

Painting Stage 1 (right side view)

Painting Stage 2 (left side view)

Painting Stage 2 (right side view)

Colour Patterns: When coming up with a colour pattern, I wanted to select a modern desert combat look for my Tallarn Desert Raiders. Selecting the right camouflage pattern was important; thus, I choose a three-colour desert camouflage pattern, similar to the desert camo pattern used by the U.S. Army in the early parts of the Iraq and Afghanistan wars. Next, I wanted the headdresses (shemagh) to standout on the miniatures, as I felt this is a symbol of the Tallarn identity. I painted the shemaghs in a dark military green (Vallejo 70.924 Russian Uniform); a colour that would standout against the camouflage, but still look the part of a desert combat uniform. I selected a dark skin tone (Reaper 9041 Dark Skin) for my Tallarn guardsmen, reflecting the Middle Eastern design influence of this Imperial Guard Army. While this post focused on building a heavy bolter team, I will be applying this colour pattern to the other Tallarn Desert Raiders in this series.