Colonel Elvo Returns

I have been building an Adeptus Mechanicus Imperial guard army since the Hallowed days of Third Edition 40k. It started as more of a aesthetic choice and my fascination with the Adeptus Mechanicus background. Then in late '04 /early '05 I found Tim Huckleberry's home grown Adeptus Mechanicus codex. There were all kinds of modeling opportunities and rules for models like Imperial Robots that had been dropped from the Imperial Guard codex.
Tim's AdMech Codex was a work in progress and I came up with the idea for my basic trooper conversion, that allowed me to easily do weapon swaps if a units options changed. Then came the new Guard Codex with doctrines. I choose to use cybernetic enhancement and chem inhalers to model the my Guard army. None of the Tech Priests I had modeled up really matched what I wanted with my new commander so I built Col. Elvo, in all his stormbolter wielding and power fist swinging glory. I also built four veterans with stormbolter to form his command squad. If you haven't noticed I really dig stormbolters. Elvo may not have been the optimum load out for a Guard commander but I had fun fielding him anyway.
As they always do another Guard Codex came out. I had to go back to the drawing board. One big issue with the new codex was that the stormbolter option was removed. Col. Elvo was no longer a legal model. His command squad was also out of date so I converted them over to special weapon troopers. I debated about leaving Elvo on the shelf and waiting for another codex to make him legal again but came up with a better plan. He would return to the table as a proxy for "Iron Hand" Straken. The conversion was simple, I just removed the stormbolter and the meltabomb from his backpack, then added a plasma pistol and a necromunda shotgun to his backpack.

Col. Elvo in his former colors but No more.

The new Elvo reequipped and a new paint job.

A rear shot of his back pack.

Another shot showing the shotgun and the bionic arm detail.

I know what you are wondering " Why does Elvo have a Pompadour hairdo?" For a long time I have been contemplating building a group of Flying Elvises to use as a stormtrooper squad. Jump suits, styled hair and Hell guns. I sculpted a Pompadour hairdo on a catachan head with sunglasses and I liked it. When I started building my new commander the head was on the desk and cried out to be used and Elvo was created. He is definitely one of my most favorite models and now can be returned to the table to fight the good fight.