Tallarn Desert Raiders (Imperial Guard\Astra Militarum): Part 1

The Tallarn Desert Raiders, a Middle Eastern inspired Imperial Guard army, were released in the mid-1990s.  The Tallarn guardsmen were sculpted by legendary Games Workshop sculpture Michael Perry; the heavy weapons platforms used by the Tallarn heavy weapons teams, the focus of the next post in this series, were sculpted by Norman Swales.  

Sergeant, Guardsman with Plasma Gun, Rocket-Launcher Team & Guardsman with Lasgun

5 Guardsmen with Lasguns; all unique sculpts

The 10-man squad Tallarn Desert Raiders box set is still available through Games Workshop’s online store; they are an excellent way of adding some ‘old school’ flavour to your Imperial Guard/Astra Militarum army.  The box set costs $50 Canadian, which works out to $5 per miniatures; a descent price for high quality metal Games Workshop miniatures.  The squad box set contains the following models:

• A sergeant with a plasma pistol and a close-combat weapon
• A Tallarn guardsman with a plasma gun
• A two-man Tallarn rocket launcher team
• 6 Tallarn Guardsmen with lasguns (all unique sculpts). 

I ordered my Tallarn Desert Raiders box set through the GW site, and received these miniatures within a couple of days.  I received free shipping on my miniatures, since this order exceeded $80 Canadians (I added a squad of Valhallan Ice Warriors to this order). GW also provides the option of having your orders delivered to one of their retail stores (free shipping); this is a great option for those orders under $80, where a shipping charged is applied.

 

Sergeant with Plasma Pistol, Guardsman with Plasma Gun & Guardsman with Lasgun

Guardsman with Lasgun & Rocket-Launcher Team

Four Guardsmen with Lasguns

‘Green Stuff’:  I found the ‘slotta’ components of the miniatures (the part that sits inside the slot in the base) were a little too high relative to the bases; this caused the miniatures to tilt on their bases.  This is an easy issue to fix, and I had one of three options to choose from: to remove the ‘slottas’ from the miniatures entirely, to file the bottom part of the ‘slottas’ off, or to elevate the area around the slot in the base with some epoxy putty (‘green stuff’).  I decided to go with the ‘green stuff’ option, as I needed to use some ‘green stuff’ to fill in the gaps between the ‘slottas’ and the slots in the bases.

In my next post in this series I will be building a Tallarn heavy weapons team.