12th Atrean Dragoons - WHM-6L & 6th Close Support Group

In the final book of the original Gray Death Legion trilogy the GDL face off against Colonel J. Langsdorf and his 12th Atrean Dragoons on the icy world of Helm.  While the GDL tries to clear its name after being accused of a pretty over the top war crime (because something like tax evasion or fraud would be too easy and Comstar likes to play life on hard mode apparently...) they are engaged in a running battle with the FWL unit.  The good Colonel runs the show from his Warhammer, which I have represented here with the Capelan variant of the WHM-6L - because why not?  I wanted to branch out and get one of the cooler variants into my collection and it makes sense to me that Marik would have a captured Capelan machine or two.  But what really stands out in this novel, often overlooked, is Marik's prodigious use of airborne ISR.  There are at least half a dozen mentions of the GDL being tracked from high above by Boomerang spotter aircraft; and since BT does not have anything close to a high altitude SAM systems you can pretty much keep track of an enemy with impunity so long as they don't have aerospace cover or you control the grav well.

Boomerangs are little use in a tabletop
engagement but in campaign play, super
useful to have around...

This book is also a bit of a teaser of the coming weapons renaissance in that it is the pivotal discovery and propagation of the Helm memory core, harbinger of all kinds of new and exciting tools of war which would set the stage for the later clan invasion... And of course assist FASA in producing sourcebooks with new Mechs to keep fan interest.  They had kinda wrote themselves into a corner with the whole lostech angle; if you want to keep producing new content that is.

I originally started this project not knowing there was a Turning Point (HTP) Helm scenario book.  Once I discovered that I immediately got a copy and dug into it to discover a complete canonical TO&E for the 12th Atrean Dragoons on Helm.  Seeing that the 6th Close Support Group had a lance containing a Boomerang spotter plan as well as 2 Vedette medium tanks and a Maxim Heavy Hover Transport (classic era vehicle designs) I bought myself some IronWind Miniatures and completed the lance.  For the record the artwork for the Vedette is awful, a terrible looking tank - but the miniature is actually pretty good.  When you visit Iron Wind and look at the Vedette you almost don't recognize it due to the angle of the picture, but trust me its the right one.  Hats off to making that artwork look like a legit tank and not something built from legos.

All are done in Vallejo Cold Gray as a a base coat.  For the Warhammer I used Vallejo flat green for the highlights and my standard Vallejo gunmetal and Games Workshop earth shade wash for the metallic and weapon highlights.  On the Boomerang and ground vehicles I used a Vallejo US Olive Drab for the top camo splotches and blue gray on the bottom of the Boomerang for that camo pattern.  The Boomerang has a large prominent cockpit so I did a mix of the blue gray and a gray black to darken the hue and give it some contrast.  I used Army Painter Brown Battlefield and Snow base to give it that cold weather feel.  I really like how this turned out and will go back to it for more conventional aircraft cockpits to keep the distinct from there capable aerospace brethren.

This completes the GDL novel trilogy, however I intend to do the full company from the scenario book in the near future.  I also stumbled across the short stories detailing the GDL predecessors, Carlyle Commandoes (...even though I already painted that lance...) so I may visit that pre-quell as well.  I was very happy with how this series came together, seeing as how this trilogy is the bedrock of the early succession wars story telling and set the stage for how the early sourcebooks and novels got put together.  

Sources:

Price of Glory, Novel.

Turning Points:  Helm Scenario Pack