Imperial Assault Group - Laserburn / Imperial Commander

Back in the mists of time somewhere around the mid-eighties I bought the figures for an Imperial Assault Group as outlined in the Laserburn supplement Forces of the Imperium. I also bought an Imperial Black Guard platoon. The Black Guard got painted, naturally, because they were the elite troops, but only part of the Assault Group got painted. Cut to twenty years later and I finished off the Assault Group. Then a couple of years ago or so (time is somewhat nebulous and illusory, as is my memory of it, so the exact time frame is not clear to me without looking it all up), I fettled the Assault Group a bit. I also decided to give them some transport and bought a bunch of GZG High Tech Grav Armoured Carrier Sleds  plus a few other bits and pieces in the GZG Christmas sale. Then, in 2014 I fettled the Assault Group again, giving them shiny new bases and a quick dip to bring out the detail some more. The transport, however, languished on my painting desk for months. Half of it was painted, but the rest remained part-painted right up until Christmas. In a bid to maintain the tattered shreds of sanity that remained after working at my wife's shop through December, I resorted to finishing these off. The last parts were painted on New Year's Eve and they are now ready to take to the field.

Imperial troopers scream into combat from orbit:

The High Tech Grav APC in the front rank is the command vehicle and carries a five trooper command squad. I figured that these guys were less likely to deploy rapidly from their transport. The front grav sled carries the support squad, while each rank of five grav sleds carries one attack group (platoon). The grav sleds are open so that the troopers can deploy rapidly using their jet packs.

The Assault Group with the command squad assembled for inspection

Just the vehicles

I did buy the figures for a full Imperial Combat Scout Platoon sometime in the nineties. I have since sold their Partizan Scout Cars. Instead of building a full Scout Platoon, I plan to paint only a few squads and sell the rest of the figures, because it just makes more sense to have a squad or two of Scouts supporting the Assault Group, instead of deploying whole platoons of Scouts as my battle force. If 2015 goes to plan, then completing the Scout squads will be my goal, as will painting the tanks I bought to support the Assault Group. Let's see how much I get distracted, eh.