Warhammer 40,000: Royal Volpone ‘Bluebloods’

Featured in the second (Ghostmaker) and third (Necopolis) novels of Dan Abnett’s Gaunt’s Ghosts series, the Royal Volpone Regiments are made up of the noble families from the world of Volpone. The Royal Volpone are described as proud and arrogant, looking down on the other Imperial Guard regiments, in particular the Tanith First-and-Only (“Gaunt’s Ghosts”), whom they regard as ‘peasant rabble’.

Royal Volpone ‘Bluebloods’ (front)

Royal Volpone ‘Bluebloods’ (back)

Inspired by Dan Abnett’s Gaunt’s Ghosts series, I painted five Royal Volpone miniatures.  The Royal Volpone regiments are features in several of the background stories/flashbacks in the Ghostmaker (the second novel) and fight alongside the Tanith First-and-Only in Necopolis (the third novel).  As well, General Noches Sturm, the disgraced commander of the Royal Volpone 50^th Regiment, is one of the central characters in Traitor General; the eighth novel in the series.

Mr. Abnett provides a minimal description of the Volpone regiments; in the Ghostmaker, Milo comments on how tall the Volpone soldiers are, and wonders what kind of food these troopers eat on their home world that makes them so big.  Thus, selecting the miniatures and colour patterns for these miniatures were drawn from my imagination.  I imagined the Volpone regiments having a regal, aristocratic and disciplined look; thus, I felt the Mordian Iron Guard captures this look.  Due to their cherished nickname, ‘the Bluebloods’, which emphasizes their noble upbringing, I choose navy blue as the primary colour for these miniatures.

For more images of these miniatures, please visit the Royal Volpone ‘Bluebloods’ section of the Old Guard; a website dedicated to Games Workshop’s Warhammer 40K miniatures, with a focus on the classic range of Imperial Guard models from the 1990s.