Alternative Alternative Armies – The Valiant 44th Free Companies Levy

We’ve all been there. It happened with Da Skooderia. It happened with the Virum Nascii. That idea, the initial rush of enthusiasm… and then nothing.

Such it was with this guy – a Valiant Miniatures “1/72” German converted with cardboard, greenstuff and the now infamous granny grating into a sci-fi trooper with an unfeasibly big gun. I was pleased with the results, and resolved to make him some friends.

And then I did nothing about it. For a year.. or close to it.

But then the other week I got to thinking, “I could just go for a bit of Firefight…” – Dan offered the use of his gloriously retro Blood Angels to play the part of the Crusaders (humanity’s power armoured elites), I ordered up a load of bases from eBay and we were rolling once more!

Greenstuff for face coverings (COVID security) and kneepads – we’ll assume all troops are fully vaccinated too!

Granny grating to turn those Mausers and StG 44s into something suitably futuristic and sci fi! Cardboard cut to fit body armour plates – yeah, won’t be winning any awards on that anytime soon..

Voila, a platoon of the Free Companies’ finest!

Groundwork – I knocked up a texture paste of filler powder, PVA and some crud off the garage floor, then when that was dry sprinkled yet more garage floor crud (sawdust, cat litter, gravel chips) on them, lots of lovely texture, all for free! And crucially these days, I know to do this pre-priming…

Primed white and hit with base colours – the tan is just a craft paint, the body armour is Vallejo Russian green (a colour we’re seeing a worryingly large amount of in real life at the time of writing..)

The Valiant 44th (because that’s the number of the TRUE F1 World Champion!) on patrol!

Support weapon – triple barrelled gatling/multilaser/heavy blaster thing

Lieutenant, aka “Lute” or “first pip” (according to the rulebook fluff)

Alongside a 2nd Ed Grot and GLORIOUSLY TECHNICOLOUR Marine

The lads in action during their training missions – close assault here….

Using heavy weapons to clear a roadblock

House clearance led by Crusader NCO (who promptly got himself killed.. meaning the Levy NCO had to practice taking command… yeah, sounds like a plausible training mission!

The first mission of the rulebook campaign saw the Crusader NCO taking the squad out on a patrol, clearing a building. This saw them first ambushed by a Goblin patrol in the garden in front of the house:

Off we go, out on patrol…

Ambushed by Shia Khan Goblins!

A brief scuffle sees the Goblins cut down almost to a man, the survivor flees into the house..

Preparing to assault, but there’s a second Goblin patrol in ambush!

Fast & furious action sees the Goblins annihilated, but it’s a close run thing!

Sniper, booby trap and radpit traps all fail to slow our lads down, and here we see a celebratory picture of the lads completing their first patrol!

We’re getting the hang of “Firefight” now, and it’s a really fun game – even though the lads emerged unscathed, gunning down the opposition, it was a much closer run thing than the result might show! If you’ve never investigated this unsung 90s classic, I thoroughly advise you to do so – low model count, fast paced rules, neat campaign system.. perfect for a Friday night in when the weather is vicious!

The Levy platoon is 18 strong which leaves me 40+ Valiant models to do something with… and I have me an idea… watch this space!

Stay thrifty out there and see you soon!