Arabian Knights: Tallarn, Praetorian Old School Guard Army!

 Old School here with a look at a Tallarn army I recently picked up that includes some very old models. I got the army from a dedicated hobbyist who quit the game in 3rd, but maintained this army in very pristine condition until finally we met and he made a deal with myself and Lord Commisar Vogrin. I apologize for the poor photo quality as I set the army up and then realized I was missing my real camera. These pics were taken by cell phone, but I think any old school player out there can appreciate this many Tallarn, Praetorian and Steel Legion models painted in force.

So all in all, the army contains some very old models and that in and of itself makes it a very cool thing to see on the table from a hobby perspective. Aside from that, there is a lot of stuff here to choose from when making an army, making this a very good army to just pick up.

The fellow I purchased this from was in love with the idea of the Afrika Corps of the old Zulu wars and with that said, he created a force that branched across several Guard lines, but for the most part maintained a very cohesive theme. Some of the tanks were painted a different color, but it translates well enough across the force (and tanks can always be fixed with a good airbrush).

This phot mostly just displays the large chimera armoury, along with a couple squads of Tallarn and a healthy amount of Tallarn officers and Sgts, including a couple Al' Raheim models and the old Commissar Yarrick model.

 Here we have some Praetorians, led by Lord Solar himself, along with a very healthy group of Leman Russ battle tanks, Hellhounds and Exterminators and a few rough riders. The Praetorians blew me away when I saw them as they are models that you NEVER really see ... not even on Ebay. They just simply are old school cool. Also in this photo are some old plastic storm troopers, the ones with berets. I have literally never seen these models and had to be told what they were! There is even a heavy weapons team of them, which can't even be fielded anymore!

 Over here we see yet more Tallarn, led by another Al' Raheim model! Fighting along side them is the random group of metal cadian models, an old Vanquisher conversion and two Demolishers. Let's not forget the old school Ogryn and the awesome old school sentinels!

 Finally, the army includes 41 heavy weapons teams. 37 of which need 60mm bases (that is going to take a while). Most of the HW teams are Tallarn, though some are Steel Legion, Praetorian and Storm trooper as well. I think the hardest part of this group is picking which ones to field. Also hidden on the giant terrain peice is a small group of Ratling Snipers.

Finally, here is the command group all together, including Lord Solar, Guant, Yarrick, Al' Raheim, Chekov, Mogul, a couple of Praetorian captains or commissars and a couple of random commissars.

When the original owner told me about the army, he mentioned it was painted and that there were a lot of tanks, but he really blew me away when he brought it all out. He also brought some Gorka Morka Terrain and a bunch of other old cardboard/plastic terrain. He even had the 2nd Ed battle cards for everything laminated - like I said, a lot of care and effort went into this army and it is obvious across the whole group.

Vogrin also grabbed a pair of old Griffons, sentinels and a ton of cadians out of the deal, which should help bolster his inquisitorial guard force!

The first thought I had before I ever saw this army was to try to flip it for a better price by peice mealing it out as I know there is a lot of value to the models across the board. That is the money-side of me.

The hobby side of me looks at this as the sum of a man's hobby career and not only that, but an army that is likely to never be seen unless it is feilded. How many Tallarn armies are out there? How many Pretorians do you see? The hobby effort and the cool factor of the army really tug at the old heart strings and I think I will likely keep it.

I like the idea of having a painted army that could be improved without a TON of work and adding models would be simple. Plus I could have the cool old hobby army!

Well, I didn't write this article to toot my own horn, so tell me what do you all think of it?