Honor of Volistad Restored!

So for our New Years premier project we are restoring the Honor of Volistad!

Techpriest Eisen Castus oversees the refit

This Imperial Baneblade served faithfully on Volistad in purging the Ork hordes from it's lands. It underwent a long term stasis storage maintained by the Mechanicum of Volistad before being gifted to the Vostroyan 42nd Armored Company after their galant defense of a Forgeworld during one of the Tau's "expansion phases." Notable victories during the Damocles Gulf campaign brought the Volistad and accompanying armor, mainly artillery pieces and Leman Russ demolishers, honor and experience in dealing with the Tau menace. Giving their history in battling these blue skins, the 42nd was allowed to take part against the enemies of the Imperium at Medusa V.

With a Mechanicum Shrine nearby, the priests repair armor and weapon turrets.

Deployed as part of the secondary front, following the early defense of Medusa V by PDF and Imperial Guard forces, the Volistad was given the honor of escorting the Imperial Governer during the evacuation of his household. Unfortunately, their convoy was targeted by the Tau and the Vostroyan 42nd Armored was woefully depleted.

Following the Imperial withdrawal from Medusa V and it's subsequent destruction at the hands of the Great Enemy the 42nd Armor was folded into the Armageddon Steel Legion 343rd who had been rotated offworld to refit and replenish after an extended tour in the planets surrounding Armageddon.

The main cannon and turret required extra rituals to fully restore.

Tech Priests assigned to the 42nd, and lead by Enginseer Eisen Castus, spent a great deal of time restoring and re-consecrating the Baneblade while renewing it's Machine Spirit with anointments and rituals. The 42nd Armored the joined the 343rd Steel Legion who were also assigned elements of Catachan and Cadian specialist units, mostly in the form of Sniper and Special Weapons squads.

It's last deployment saw taking vengeance on the dishonorable Tau who had ambushed it at Medusa V. The 343/42nd were deep inside the ruins of an Imperial capital and engaged with elements of a Tau hunting cadre. Under cover of darkness the Volistad used the wreckage of several buildings to move into contact range with the Tau and once unleashed, reaped a hellish retirbution on from their alien hides. This drove the Tau from the sector and quickly allowed Imperial units to retake landing fields and prevent further deployment of the treacherous aliens.

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This was a very smooth refit. Mainly just re-gluing the turrets, re-attaching the center body and replacing the head and heavy stubber belonging to the crew. It's amazing how much damage a young child can do to a mini.

However, I will say that the Baneblade was the WORST kit I have ever put together. The larger pieces were all warped, tabs were mis-aligned to the point where I had to remove them from the center body structure to make it attach to the tread sections. Even now there are still sections that do not fit together and have gaps.

That being said, it is a glorious piece once fully assembled and painted. The original construction and painting time was a full 24 hours broken up over a 3 day weekend.