The walk of Icarus

Flight commander "Icarus" Hayles has the dubious honour of the most shot down living thunderbolt pilot in the task force. Due to frequent rescue efforts by ground forces, the Icarus has become a specialist liaison between naval assets and ground troops. Here he can be seen co-ordinating Thunderbolt operations to assist in the Grav-Chute Deployment of the F Company Assault Platoon. 

I spent a while pondering what to do for a fleet officer for my Death Blades.
I wanted a rogue trader era model that could be used as an officer of the fleet, but would also fit in with the 1980's models that make up the army. For a while I thought about kit-bashing some conventional Cadian and old school plastics, or even using the current officer of the fleet model. That model has a lot of character, and looks the part. However in the end I decided to stick to my self imposed rules of no recent models, and started hunting around for something suitable.

The Smith

Pict capture of 9th Necromunda "Death Blades" F Co. Red Platoon Commanding Officer Lt. Freidrich "The Smith" Adrianus, and attached Command Section.

As a former ganger from Necromunda, The Smith took command of what was to become Red Platoon after challenging and killing the then leader Madcap Stratton during a frenzy of internecine gang fighting that spread through the Death Blades upper echelons upon rumor of their induction into the Imperial Guard. 

What to do with Green Platoon

The Imperial Guard section in the Rogue Trader Compendium, circa 1988(ish) was a fun way to build an Imperial Guard army. The core of the Imperial Guard army was composed of different, customisable platoons, based on one of a couple of basic human platoon types, tactical and assault, which could be upgraded by giving them bikes, horses, land speeders or whatever resulting in either a basic infantry platoon, or a specialised platoon.  The army could then be wielded by a budding general to make a holistic force greater than the sum of its parts. The fact that the myriad of upgrades were made on a platoon level, rather than a squad level, created a flexibility was both limiting and liberating. It was from a time when there was more emphasis on infantry and less on vehicles, so consequently there was such a diversity of upgrades available with the platoon designs. 

I'm currently refreshing and adding to my army of the time, and one of my dilemmas that I'm having is what to do with Green Platoon.