+ inload: Gatebreaker infantry +

 + Another step closer +

The claviger-wielding Rift Team had come through here; as evinced by the heavy percussion fractures in the solid plate of the deck and walls – and the aerosolised gore still hanging in the microgravity. 

Member-Cardinal Boegnor picked his way over the brittle bodies of the Sa; the rest of the sweep group following in his footsteps. His face was puckered into its usual scowl as he took in the dead; his unflickering eyes set deep in creased, leathery skin. 

'Just dead Stilties,' he growled, 'Nothing of salvage here. Move on'. He waved his squadmates forward, two fingers of his bionic hand indicating the route.

+++

+ Five more Gatebreakers polished off; which makes for three ten-man squads ready for the field. As before, these are a mix of easy-build Assault Intercessors with bits and bobs from various other kits; all with the aim of suggesting the Gatebreakers' poor supply lines – and looking cool, of course! +

+ I quite like incorporating asymmetry – like this Mark III helm – into this army, as it adds to the hodgepodge, salvaged feel. While this force's bases show scrubby plants and soil, this sort of look also helps to reflect the Chapter's void-boarding specialism. +

+ Use of reliable close-in weapons like flamers and snub-bolters help this group fit in with the background, too. Besides the equally low-tech grenade launchers, this is the only special weapon in the army so far. Not sure whether to embrace the reliance on small arms, or scatter a few special weapons in. What do you reckon? +

+ Mark VII helm, pauldrons reinforced with molecular bonding studs, and a backpack covered with extracts from the Tenets of the Ten Divine Princes. Again, nothing hugely remarkable, but little variations and details like this add up across the army. +

+ I've deliberately used pieces from various different Chapter and Legion upgrades. The main advantage is giving me access to loads of cool bits; but it also stops the Gatebreakers from looking like they owe too much to any one particular Legion or Primarch; which in turn hopefully raises some questions and makes the army more engaging visually and conceptually. +

+ The flip side of using such a wide range of material is that you need to be careful to make it a bit more neutral. This White Scar helm, for example, has has the cheek decorations trimmed away, the radio ridge on top squared off, the topknot plucked, and generally been tidied up to make it less distinctively of the Fifth Legion. I find converting pieces like this quite fun – you're basically cutting away the bells and whistles to find the form beneath. +

+ ...and last today, Member-Cardinal Boegnor; one of the officers of the Gatebreakers Ninth Strikeforce. I've used an arm from the Space Wolf Primaris upgrade spread here, though you'd be hard-pushed to tell: the stock component is completely lacking any features that would identify it as such. +

+ This is the other nice part of expanding your eye to look at other ranges and sub-factions when building your models; you realise that there's frequently nothing beyond the label that identifies a particular component as 'belonging' to a particular group. It's easiest to see on Space Marines, but the principle applies across the GW range – and beyond. +