The Brodian Guards

I started playing Warhammer 40K sometime in summer of 1998 with the release of the 3rd Edition. My first purchase was the Imperial Guard Praetorian XXIV Boxed Set which had only been out a few months. The boys in the pith helmets were literally "the reason I got into the hobby" back then. I stumbled around a few months without a set of rules of my own (Chris 'The Last Outrider' A. and his friend Mike 'Horrible Dice Luck' S. teaching me what I needed to know). My fiancée (who is now my wife of 11 years tomorrow) picked up the Sisters of Battle (Argent Shroud). ) The 3rd edition released that fall semester while I was at UNT. They later released a new box set; that was when and where I picked up my first Space Marines (who are incorporated into my current Imperial Fists found on this blog) and the Dark Eldar that I today chop up to use for basing.

Various things happened to my loyal Imperial Guardsmen through the years. For a time I thought I would never see them again (there was some miscommunication and even a divorce of a family member involved). However, on Oct. 29, 2010 at a combined Halloween+Birthday party for a relative... things worked out. All of my lovely Praetorian Guards are once again in my possession.

So... after an interval of 12 years... here they are (in a 12 year old paint job):

Thumbnails link to larger images

Needless to say, there is a lot of work to be done to get my boys back on the firing line. All my vehicles are gone so I'm left with the infantry. However, since the infantry represented my largest monetary investment from back then, that's the important thing. I literally have pounds of Praetorian metal miniatures in varied states of assembly, priming, and painting that all need to be sorted out and dealt with. What a glorious mess. I love it. My Guardsmen are back!