+ inload: Of the Nine Winds +
+ Of the Nine Winds, what can be said? They were not made to be tethered, but circled about the axis of the world, driving the weather and bringing gladness to the beasts and birds. All was well in the vault, 'til the Eye of the Hawk rose and pierced the veil between the land of the spirits and the land of men. Then the Nine Winds were disturbed, and lashed about with the thrill of true freedom. +
+ So great was their strength that the World Pillar itself trembled as they rushed about in gladness and celebration. This would not do. The Great Eagle descended from its eyrie. She saw that the Nine Winds had grown vigorous and headstrong since they had been made, that they would no longer be content to circle the realm as she had wished them. With flashing eye, she pronounced that the Nine Winds would henceforth be loosed to travel the world and bring their eyes and mouths and appetites and interest to every corner of the world-bowl. +
+ The winds rejoiced, for they were lusty and keen. However, the Great Eagle made one condition, to which the winds must agree. They would be yoked in turn throughout the year, each taking its turn to drive the weather. +
+ The winds conferred, and agreed to share. In turn, the gentle east wind and the wind from the south and the summer wind set themselves to the yoke, driving the weather, and all was well. When the time came for each to be freed and pass the yoke, the driving wind was released joyfully, to explore the land and sky once more. +
+ And so it continued, with the sunning-wind and the wind of the mountain water and the north wind taking their turns. And then it came to the youngest wind, the wind of the year-turn. The wind of the year-turn was gentle and compliant and revelled in freedom, and the Hawk spoke with it. The Hawk planted silver words in the wind of the year-turn's ear, and told it that before his turn to drive the weather, he should explore more, go further, find more. And so the wind of the year-turn did not return at its alloted time. +
+ Drunk in freedom, the wind of the year-turn gadded and flew about in the deepest corners of the land and the highest corners of the sky, and all men and beasts and birds were gladdened by its innocent joy. All save the north wind, whose shoulders were chafed and back was barked with driving the weather... +
+++
+ Jetbikes +
+ I'm far more known in my gaming group for infantry than anything else, and so jetbikes are a bit of a departure for me. I built some years back for a Horus Heresy campaign weekend run by the Tempus Fugitives, but was a bit dissatisfied with my conversion. +
+ The new (well, relatively new) Scimitar jetbikes are great models – combining classic hotrod action with a slightly snigger-inducing profile; brilliant for the oblivious Astartes. Not everything has to be po-faced, after all. +
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| 'Compensating? I don't know what you mean.' |
+ Jetbikes are a classic sci-fi trope, and in 40k terms are really evocative of the Horus Heresy, when whole companies could be mounted on them. Of course, I couldn't just use regular riders (pilots?), and so I set about converting an Astartes to fit on top. +
+ As you can see, he's a big chap. I've had to sacrifice his backpack to fit him in (though looking again, the official model also is sans backpack – maybe they plug into the bike and draw power from that?), but I'm relieved to see that the posture is still convincing – I was a bit concerned he'd appear cramped or squashed, but there's enough space for him to fit nicely. In fact, I think he seems to fill that space of the (enormous) jetbike pretty well. +
+ Here's a picture of the component parts – the torso and legs can be separated to allow some more variety in posture, but the basic shape is solid. The hands and forearms came from the original rider: I prefer to use normal size hands and heads for my larger marines, to help with the scale. +
+ The sculpting's far from finished – the upper legs in particular are only basic bulking, and I'll be refining and smoothing them out to finish. +
+ So the inevitable question, what are these for? Well, stay attuned to this comms-channel to find out more of the Nine Winds... +
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