+ inload: The Houses of Nestis and Temporis [GuestpostID: Lucfier216] +

+ Houses of Suffering and Shadow +

+ Being a bit buried under various data-screeds in the real world, it's with great pleasure that I'm able to showcase another of the PCRC's armies; our resident painting machine Lucifer216's beautiful Knight forces. +

+ A few months back, we played one of our inaugural games of 8th edition 40k pitting the Iron Warriors' 242nd against the combined might of Nestis and Temporis. This would have been an absolutely dreadful match-up in 7th edition, but in 8th it remained tense, dynamic and exciting – which went a long way to convincing me of the success of 8th edition. +

Knights make a fantastic spectacle against the low-rise buildings of Purefinder Chaunterwick.

+ Since the game, I've been keen to get my ever-busy chum to give us a write-up of his gorgeous force; and he was kind enough to oblige. Enjoy! +

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Hi all,  Lucifer216 here, long-time friend of Apologist and a member of the PCRC (Plastic Crack Rehab Clinic). With the recent release of the new Imperial Knight codex, we both thought it was a good time to take a look at my own ‘force’ of Knights – though really that should be ‘forces’ as I ended up plumping for two Knight Houses instead of one.

Let’s face it, it’s difficult to resist the lure of big stompy giant robots, and when the Imperial Knights: Renegade boxset first came out, I leap at the chance to get my hands on what for me (lack of posable legs aside), is one of Games Workshop’s best plastic kits.

So, why two Knight Houses? Well, I was a bit torn. On the one hand I really wanted to try out Candy Red as a scheme, having it seen to great effect on a number of armies and I also (inspired by the dark and characterful background of House Vyronii and House Orhlacc) wanted my own shadowy and gothic Knight House. At the same time, I wanted to give my Warhound Titan, the Animus Dominus, some company and expand its background. I also wanted to create two Knight Houses that are very located in the Antona Australis sector [+Appendnote auth:Apologist+ Antona Australis is 
the PCRC’s little postage-stamp sized section of the Galaxy, which you can read about through the tab at the top of the blog].

Enter Houses Nestis [+noosphericinloadlink embedded+]  and Temporis [+noosphericinloadlink embedded+]. House Nestis is an Ancient Greek-inspired Questor Mechanicus house with plenty of references to mythology and a big focus on duality, while Temporis is a Questor Imperialis house, whose pilots are also navigators and possessed of a sinister mien. For more of on their background, click the hyperlinks above.

I painted the knights using an airbrush for the most part (doing their frames all in one go, with the exception of the Reginae Obscurae as I bought it later), and really enjoyed doing a fair bit of freehand. I’ve never considered myself much of an artist, but I’m really pleased about how it’s come out.

It hasn’t been all plain-sailing and some practical lessons learnt include:

• Write down the exact colour scheme as you go (I have forgotten the recipe for House Nestis’ red, which is going to make expanding it tricky)
• Tamiya Clear Red dissolves FW Clear Black which I used for shading so you shouldn’t go back with it. 
• Avoid using mixtures of metallic for the basecoat of large areas. I’m not amazingly happy with how the metallic trims have come out and the mix I used seems to have given it a slight texture in places. I opted for using  Retributor Armour on the Reginae Obscurae which has given a much better result. 

Enough pontificating – let’s move onto the Knights!

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+ House Nestis +

+ Enyo and Klymene+ 

+ Designate: Enyo +

The knight armours Klymene and Enyo have fought alongside each other for centuries and embody the obsession with duality that permeates Janusian culture. Enyo, a bellicose Knight Errant piloted by Domina Eris, is always on the move, constantly searching for fresh targets for its thermal cannon or crashing headlong into melee. Enyo’s thirst for carnage is endless and prior to Eris’ ascension, three aspirants died in the attempt to meld with its machine spirit. Her supremacy over the armour’s machine spirit has come at a cost for it is a jealous steed – making the discomfort of disconnection almost unbearable, though the only outward sign of it is her burning gaze and haunted manner.

+ Designate: Klymene +

In contrast to its sister-engine and as might be expected of a Knight Crusader, Klymene is patient and methodical. The armour’s teardrop heraldry reflects both the sorrow the Sito Sisterhood feels under the yoke of the Iron Fathers and the suffering that House Nestis inflicts upon its foes.

However, the armour’s sorrowful aspect also owes much to the attitude of its pilot, the supremely skilled Domina Atia. Her long list of honours, engine-kills and exemplary service has bred a burning resentment within her breast. She dreams of the devastation that she could wreck in the Omnissiah’s name while piloting a Warlord titan, but such power will forever be denied to her by the simple and arbitrary impediment of her sex. This bitterness is compounded by witnessing the follies of her two sons, Atlas and Prometheus, princeps of the Warlord Titans, Back-Breaker and Flame Eternal, respectively and the bloody rampages of her older sister, Domina Leda, aboard the Knight Valiant, Tisiphone. When Atia dwells overlong on this injustice, Klymene is prone to glitching, its hurt pride spilling out from the throne mechanicum as auspex-ghosts and grinding gears.

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+ House Temporis +

+ Gnosis – Knight Paladin + 

It is said of Gnosis that it is always exactly where it should be. In the madness and chaos of the battlefield, this quiet miracle has saved thousands of Imperial lives and foiled ambushes beyond counting. While all the pilots of House Temporis are blessed and cursed in full measure with the fey insight endemic to those with navigator blood in their veins, Lady Svetlana, Gnosis’ pilot, is famed for flashes of tactical brilliance that manifest themselves as migraine-bright visions of the many futures yet to be. A painfully pale and consumptive creature, given by the gothic standards of House Temporis, Svetlana is haunted by the knowledge of her own demise. Why it should be to old age and neglect in a dank, mouldering, oubliette troubles her beyond all measure.

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+ Kynigos – Knight Crusader +

Kynigos and its pilot, the lady Alla, possess inhuman patience, their favourite tactic being to stand reactor cold for long hours at a time, before bursting into motion with horrific ease, going from a cold start to full plasma burn in an instant – a feat that should be impossible for any Knight Armour. This trait first made itself known in Kynigos’ very first engagement, a confused skirmish with the vanguard of Forgeworld Bezoa as its scouting fleet entered the territory of Storm’s End and made planetfall deep in the web-wastes. There Kynigos and its first pilot, Lady Natalya, struck again and again, each time seemingly from nowhere. After the events of that day, in which the newly blooded engine recorded three super-heavy class kills, Natalya commissioned Kynigos’ distinctive heraldry to commemorate their deeds. However, Since the rites of accord were signed between the two factions, Bezoa has petitioned House Temporis to strike the markings that bear silent witness to its folly no less than fifteen times, but Lady Alla and her liege, Queen Katherine will have none of it. 

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+ Reginae Obscurae – Cerastus Knight-Atrapos +

+ Designate: Reginae Obscurae +

Given by Forgeworld Bezoa as part of the first tranche of tribute that sealed the grand bargain between it and House Temporis, the Reginae Obscurae ('Shadow Queen' in Low Gothic) has been the armour of choice for the Queens of Storm’s End for centuries. Though it has suffered grievous damage on many occasions, each time it has been painstakingly restored to its former glory. The most recent of these woundings occurred during the chaos invasion of Tsu’as. Queen Elizabeta went to glory, following her wrathful destruction of the Thousand Sons Land Raider, Fist of Ra, laid low by the sorcery of Magnus’s sons and the marksmanship of the Iron Warriors. The residual trauma was so great that Elizabeta’s successor, Queen Katherine, almost died during the rite of becoming and the fallen monarch’s spirit still haunts the knight’s Throne Mechanicum, whispering dire secrets and warnings into the young queen’s ears.

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+ The new rules +

In-game, I’ll probably run House Temporis using the rules for House Terryn as their swiftness is a good match for Temporis’ (in-universe) tendency to violate the laws of time and space, often without realising that they are. House Nestis is more problematic – I’ll probably run them as either House Vulkner (shooty) or House Raven (getting in the opponent’s grill quickly), with it being a tradition to consult an Oracle on the eve of battle to decide which of their twin doctrines they will use.

+ Expansion plans +

While I have a huge backlog to work through (I’m painting Tyranids for an event in October, and need to go back to my half-finished Mechanicus, Primaris Space Marine and Death Guard armies), I am tempted to slowly expand both Houses. I’m thinking that House Nestis would work well with a Knight Valiant or Knight Castellan, while House Temporis, given its relationship with Forgeworld Bezoa [+noospheric inloadlink embedded+] (which has lots of Horus Heresy era technology) and the fact that I’ve already got one Cerastus pattern knight, could be expanded with a few more.

Now back to your standard (and Inquisition-approved) pict-feeds…

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+ Thanks again to the ever-gracious Lucifer216. +