Taking Hell Part Two: The 9th Roane Deepers!

Ah yes! A Part Two. I actually got some progress on the 40k Gallipoli project. On Monday I recieved my Victoria Miniatures order. First up was the Tallarn, which I assembled a couple days ago.

But alongside the noble Desert Raiders, was three and a half squads of “Van Diemens World Devil’s”, Victoria Miniatures love letter to their homeland. Australian as all get out, with all the fixings. Slouch hats, big knifes, and big bush packs for carrying all that gear. As is, they make excellent jungle troops, a perfect alternative to Catachan Jungle Fighters if one wanted a less Vietnam and more Kokoda Track feel.

But, as I stated in the outline for this project, these men would become Roane Deepers. If you are reading this first and haven’t read the outline, the Roane Deepers are from Dan Abnett’s Gaunt’s Ghosts series, a side-regiment known for lax discipline and a carefree attitude, but hard as nails on the defense and dogged on the attack. Mr. Abnett has described the Roane as influenced from the ANZAC’s of WW1 and WW2, and it was from here that I took a different route then some others. Many had done the Roane as a Western Front WW1 army, complete with Brodie Helmets. This is brilliant, and I’m standing on the shoulders of giants. But I decided on an altogether different angle…the debacle that was the Gallipoli Landings.

What that meant was no Brodies for starters, as I wanted Aussie “Slouch” Hats(Kiwis, don’t be offended. I’m looking for Lemon Squeezers and I asked Victoria Miniatures if they had any plans to do any!), and stripped down equipment. I would use GW Lasguns to give them a 40k feel, and paint their tucked in fatigues as blue undershirts, which are so common in depictions of Gallipoli.

But first, to assemble them. Lets see how that looked.

First things first, I forgot to mention it the other day. Man, has Victoria Miniatures resin improved over the years. This stuff was absolute gold to work with. Any flash cleaned off really easily. There were a few mold lines/slips, but I missed a lot of those sadly until I saw them during painting. It is what it is, and minor enough to be forgiven here.

Unlike the Desert Scorpions, I had better luck giving these Roane Deepers their lasguns. It took a little finesse, but I got them looking mostly like they belong.

Now, I was on a bit of a roll, so I decided to toss some paint on them. Why these guys and not the Tallarn? Simple! I had English Uniform spray, and didn’t have a Tan spray. The Tallarn will wait till I have paint. In the meantime, the Roane will play!

I’m not the best painter, and I take a few shortcuts, the main one being that I prime the models the colour that they will have the most of. In this case, the brown fatigues.

The shirts I decided would be a light blue, which is excellent for contrast here. They certainly will pop on the battlefield!

Lets see how I cracked on!

With the Guardsmen out of the way, lets take a peek at the Officer and Standard Bearer! There were a joy to paint, and I really enjoyed the challenge. I kept them simple; A Guardsmen is a Guardsmen, no matter how fancy.

First, the Platoon Commander!

Now the hardest one…the Banner. Oh boy.

I won’t say he was easy, but he was far easier then I thought. Deciding the colours and pattern was the hard part, really.

I was going to make this a game of guessing, but I copied the colours of the Australian Defence Force Ensign. I left out the military crest, but kept the pattern and added a number, in this case, a 9. I feel that it makes for a simple, yet evocative banner.

It was a fun days work! I have some more memory testing tomorrow, so this was a fun project before some not so fun mental gymnastics. These Roane weren’t overly hard to paint, and I can see a squad on them being done pretty quickly.

I have the other 30 left to build, and I need to order 30 more to make a competent list. But at least it has begun, and it is no longer just a project in my head.

I’ve done a lot of research into Gallipoli for this project, and enough so that I might collect a historical army for the period. I might not wargame it(that doesn’t seem like a particularly fun part of the war to fight with dice!), but I feel the itch to get some Gripping Beast metals.

Anyways, that is all I have for today. I hope you like it! Happy War-gaming wherever you are, and have a great day!