+ inload: Silver Stars markings and honorifics +

+ inload: Silver Stars Legionary markings +

+ We covered the basics of the Silver Stars paint scheme in this inload [+noosphericinloadlink embedded+], but it doesn't really touch on the markings and so forth. Since I've had a couple of people asking about them – and very pleasingly, have seen some examples painted up by other hobbyists – I thought I'd scribble down my notes on the various sigils and markings. +

+++

+ Esoterica +

+ Before anything else, it's worth making the point that the Silver Stars are (out-of-universe) intentionally slightly unclear, and this has been intentionally built into their marking scheme. They are, after all, supposedly the returned Legion of a lost or forgotten Primarch; or possibly a renegade Chapter masquerading as such behind an abomination; or perhaps the time- or dimensionally-displaced results of some Other event. +

+[identquery: unresoved – all records REDACTED]+

+ I think a big part of the appeal of the lost and forgotten Primarchs and Legions is that we don't know who or what they were, what happened to them, or why. Giving definite answers to those questions misses the point. The key to their presence in the project, therefore, is to provoke curiosity – to cause viewers to think 'I want to know', rather than to answer said question. At root, I'm far more interested in creating a space for others to explore the Chapters of the Partisans and Pentarchy and the myriad groups of Imperial forces, both orthodox and secessionist, that are about in M33, than I am in the Silver Stars. They are effectively a plot device, rather than characters. In short, the qeustion of whether they are a lost Legion or something else entirely is more important than the answer. +

+ The downside to that, of course, is that it makes it difficult to give guidance or answers on markings and colour schemes – after all, if you're going to explore the space, you have to have some answers to create a sense of verisimilitude and believability – after all, even picking a name and colours is in some way pinning things down. To that end, I have framed my own answers to the various questions about the true nature of Volnoscere and his Silver Stars, but they will remain obscured. Is this scheme the scheme of one of the Lost Legions? If so, has it changed since Unification? Who can say? +

+++

+ The basics +

+ With that important proviso out of the way, let's get stuck in. Here's Legionary [REDACTED]. The basics of the scheme are armour as white as bone, as green as the ocean, as rose as coral; and with gold accents. In terms of placement, the helm and upper torso is turquoise (Citadel Hawk Turquoise), the remainder white (Army Painter Mummy Robes covered with Citadel Apothecary White, and highlighted with Valljo Off-white). +

+ The placements of accents varies according to armour mark and rank, but banding – on the shoulder pad rims and collar – is usually a muted gold. I'm afraid I'm a bit crap on metallics: I've usually stuck with my comfort zone of Boltgun Metal and Chainmail, and never learned the new paint names. Suffice to say it's a mid gold that's knocked back with a layer of Seraphim Sepia wash and Leviathan Purple added to recesses wet-in-wet. +

+ Legion markings +

+ Silver Stars bear what appear to be Legion symbols both on their left pauldron (as typical for Space Marines), and on the centre of their torso. The marking is a white, four-pointed star made up of four small, unconnected right-angled triangles. They typically appears to be rotating anti-clockwise on the pauldron and clockwise on the torso (both suggesting forward movement); but occasionally run in the opposite direction, which indicates a form of intra-Legion specialism or honorific termed Manawa. +

+ Whatever the direction of travel, and wherever it appears, the Silver Star symbol is near-universally rendered in white (that is, heraldic silver). This necessitates rose banding (Citadel Screamer Pink, for those painting their own) on the pauldrons in the form of an heraldic pale (a vertical stripe). +

+ Pauldrons are occasionally completely rose, or the rose band is a fess (a horizontal stripe) or a bend (a diagonal stripe from top left to bottom right). The colour also often appears on the belt buckle in a bend, and on the helm. Many Silver Stars wear plumes or headdress; any fabric or organic material is dyed coral-rose; and in their absence, a pale is applied on the top of the helmet, occasionally continuing over the faceplate. +

+ The right pauldron bears squad designations. Some appear to be alchemic symbols, commonly – but far from exclusively – those for Tin/Jupiter (♃), Gold/Sol (☉), and Bismuth (🜘). Others are more esoteric or unidentified, such as the example above. +

+ Besides the squad markings, the Legionaries frequently bear symbols on other areas, usually over the additional Astartes organs (symbolically, if not literally) – most frequently the secondary heart (right of the torso), and the sus-an membrane and catalepsean node (both on the helm). These are again alchemical symbols – occasionally modified – including that for calcination/Aries (♈︎), colgination/Taurus (♉︎) and scruple (℈) alongside the squad designation markings listed above. Considered unlikely to be personal honorifics owing to their frequent repetitions within groups (though this could equally demonstrate a close kinship or bond), these patterns may serve as markings to indicate larger formations, such as Company, Millennial or Wing. Equally, they may instead have a ritual, apotropaic function within the Legion. +

+ In addition to these markings are wedge-shaped numerals that usually appear within the belt buckle in black, but occasionally elsewhere, including on the front of the pauldron (as in the example above), on the helm, or on the rear of the backpack. These numerals are almost always identical, so do not seem to indicate squad, company etc. markings. Finally, the left knee appears to occasionally be decorated; seemingly according to purely personal preference. +

+ Notably, the Silver Stars rarely, if ever, seem to use numerals besides the aforementioned cuneiform. Similarly, script of any kind is notable by its absence. +

+++

+ Over to you +

+ I hope that's given a bit of clarity on how to go about painting and detailing your Silver Stars without giving too much away. If you do paint one up (or indeed any of the Partisan Chapters), I'd love to see and share it here – please post it on Instagram with the tags #somethingsarebestleftforgotten and/or #warofthefalseprimarch, or on the + Death of a Rubricist + Facebook group. +

+ inload: Painting Silver Stars +

 + War of the False Primarch: Painting more Silver Stars +

+ Come and see. +

+ An inload looking at some work in progress painting on my Silver Stars for the War of the False Primarch, ahead of their not-quite Index Astartes. +

+++

+ [REDACTED] +

Are they? Aren't they? Lost or Forgotten, disguised traitors, a sinister alien artifice – or something entirely more esoteric?

The meat of the narrative in +Some Things Are Best Left Forgotten+ is, I feel, is in the five 'canon' Pentarchy Chapters, and the eleven(ish) Chapters of the Partisans, but the Silver Stars offer key background that gives the others something to shine against.

They were always intended to (and will) remain fairly anonymous and underexplored, but I thought it'd be underserving the people who have painted up some examples to not have any info, so rather than an 'Index Astartes' article, they'll instead have an 'Index Apocrypha', a bit like the Rogue Trader era-inspired Spacewolves Chapter [+noosphericinloadlinkembedded+], with the details left deliberately unresolved.

In short, you're going to get a look at the various theories surrounding them (and goodness there have been a lot!), including lots inspired by ideas that followers of the project have asked.

+++

To that end, then, I've been polishing things up. A further ten Silver Stars are nearing completion, along with the chap at the top of the inload, who is an as-yet-undiscovered character, bearing a Heat-Death Nihilation Mace and a sword, which may or may not be rainbow-hued.

The process I've been following is from my original recipe for the Pseudolegion, which you can inload here [+noosphericinloadlinkembedded+]; and they're getting to the stage that I'll need to add the markings, which you can dig through here: [+noosphericinloadlinkembedded+]

First up, three regular ol' Tactical Marines/Legionaries. As usual when building models, I aim for a couple of more interesting poses for every half-dozen 'normal' ones. That sort of proportion means that the army as a whole looks suitably military and determined, but there's interesting stuff to look at if you want to. 

Here, two carrying boltguns help to frame and set off one throwing grenades. All are in the curiously anonymous Mark II 'Crusade' power armour (or at least a very good replica).

Plumes are seemingly de rigeur this millennium for the Silver Stars; they add a little flourish, but don't seem to have particular relevance to the individual's status.

A volkite caliver-bearing Veteran here is flanked by two Pseudolegionaries with chainswords. 

... and because I can't resist setting up a shot or two in action, you can see how these will be used. If you'll forgive me showing a glimpse behind the curtain, it's surprising how few individual models you need to give the impression of a crowd.

There's about fifteen Silve Stars here, of which a substantial proportion are basecoated, as shown above, rather than finished and polished up.

+++

+ inload: [REDACTED] +

+ Conceptinload: Silver Stars +

+ Honestly, I'm impressed with how long I went in this project before giving in to the temptation to have an inload called '[REDACTED]'. The figure above is one of the Dramatis Personae for the Silver Stars – and likely the nearest thing the Legion(?) Chapter(?) will have to a public face. +

+ I've deliberately kept the lids of the other Silver Stars on, in order to make them as anonymous and mysterious as possible. I want to provoke the reader to question 'what's underneath?'. The more questions I pose, without providing definite answers, the better: at least for this early stage. +

+ So why show this figure's face? A number of reason; not least of which is the simple fact that I like painting faces. After completing Volncoscere's own (oh – we haven't seen that yet, have we?), I wanted to play around with the skin mix I'd used. This character's skin is slightly different to the possible-Primarch's, but in the same wheelhouse. The Silver Stars have some Hawaiian/South Pacific island touches, and it was fun to try to bring that out by using more cream and orange in the mix than the yellow and white I would for caucasian tones. +

+ Secondly, this figure is slightly unusual in being a combination of two very old concepts – a Unification Wars model I built a few years back, but never painted, and Ulixis the Black [+noosphericinloadlink embedded+], an Ultramarines' Captain based on the legends of Odysseus. I loved the idea of Ulixis as a wily commander, but on consideration, he didn't fit very well within my Praetors of Calth. He has a much better home here, in a possible-Legion surrounded by so many questions, and in a project that is concerned with lies and truth in the 40k setting. +

+++

+ Building and painting the Laka'i +

+ The legs and torso are unmodified – as with all the Silver Stars bar a couple made from Plague Marine bits, he's based on Txarli Factory's definitely-not truescale Crusade Armour [+noosphericexloadlink embedded+]. The arms are from the original model I had made for the Unification Wars; based on a Forge World Centurion (though I swapped out the power fist for a Mark III gauntlet). I also brought the groin-guard across from that figure, too. Although there are some South Pacific hints about the Silver Stars, I want them to be just that: hints. I've never liked the flanderization of the Space Marine Legions, and like my marines to be marines first and foremost: the cultural touchstones of each should be subtle. +

+ That goes double here, as the Legion needs to retain some level of mystery and anonymity. They need to be identified primarily as 'marines with curiously ancient armour', and so littering them with extras would dilute that very quickly. +

+ It's also worth noting that I find the best army archetypes are those that combine disparate, seemingly unrelated ideas to get a good fusion of influences. I find it helps to prevent an idea becoming kitsch, or worse, offensively stereotypical. To that end, the markings aren't a constructed South Pacific script (indeed, until relatively recently, Hawaiian had no written form), but rather combine alchemical symbols – familiar shorthand for 'esoteric' and slightly sinister to most Western audiences – and cuneiform script. Diligent readers might be able to translate the symbols and numerals about his person – but whether they read into them is entirely up to them... +

[APPENDEDIT]+ I wrote about combining disparate ideas to create a fusion concept a bit more in this inload [+noosphericinloadlink embedded+], for those interested. +

+ The Chapter/Legion symbol is the 'Silver Star' itself; an intentionally simple icon. In trying to create a Legion that could conceivably have come from the same well as the existing Legions, I wanted to use simple terms – like 'Luna' or 'Night' or 'World', 'Silver Star' has vague astronomical hints, and is also a simple phrase. That's what (well, hopefully) gives it an iconic ring to it. +

+ The colours are unusual for Space Marines. Rose, white and turquoise were chosen to give a vaguely Pacific region/Far Eastern feel – but the placement on the figures is intended to evoke the simple block colours of the 'canonical' Legions. +

+ As a closing note, someone on Instagram commented that the unpainted model looked a bit like Keanu Reeves. I couldn't help seeing it afterwards, and it still makes me grin! Unintentional stuff like that is always fun – and why is a big of why I enjoy sharing my models. Thank you all. +

+ inload: White tutorial: Painting the Silver Stars

+ Painting Silver Stars + 

+ Some things may be best forgotten, but how you paint a uniform isn't one of them. I thought I'd exload my approach to painting the cool white I'm using for this mysterious possible-Legion of Space Marines. +

+ Silver Stars Astartes: painting white +

+ Whether the Silver Stars are a Legion of marines or not, they seem to favour Mark II Crusade Armour. The bodies and legs are from Txarli Factory [+noospheric exloadlink embedded+]; the remainder of the figures from a variety of GW and FW kits. As always, this proves the benefit of a deep bits box: I bought the Crusade Armour bits used here years ago, intending to use them for my Praetors of Calth Ultramarines. One side project after another, I decided that it was a shame they sat languishing, so I dug them out, and was pleasantly surprised to find I had a decent little pile of them – some twenty in all. +

+ Painting Silver Stars +

_1 Assemble your marine as normal. The bases I've used here are from Unreal Wargaming [+noosphericexloadlink embedded+].

_2 Prime using Halford's Grey Primer.

_3 Paint the base colours. I block in the metals with black (though note I've used Dryad Bark for the gorget, which will be gold. You can use them fairly interchangeably, but I think I'll proceed with brown for gold, and black for silver). I've used Sotek Green for the blue-turquoise, which seems to be nigh-identical to the old Hawk Turquoise.

4_I've used 'Mummy Robes' from The Army Painter's Warpaints range [+noosphericinloadlink embedded+], a lovely smooth warm white. This takes two layers to get a smooth surface. Once dry, I overlay it with Apothecary White, one of Citadel's new Contrast range of paints. This is a lovely quick way to get some initial shading it – and perhaps more importantly, to help you identify where to pick out later.

5_ From here, it's essentially refining. This is a bit of a jump from the previous stage, I confess! Here, I've gone back over the white with more Mummy Robes, adding Vallejo's Off-White for highlights. I've also used Daler-Rowney's Payne's Grey acrylic ink, diluted with flow improver, to line the stronger shadows. I've used the same combination of colours to add weathering and scratches to the white armour – I suggest you do this sparingly, and don't make them so high contrast as you would on darker hues: white paint is obviously very high in value, and so marks look much more striking and obvious than on a low value hue.

The blue-turquoise highlights are simply Sotek Green with increasing amounts of Off-White. The gold is Balthasar Gold followed by Shining Gold, washed with two layers of Seraphim Sepia, with touches of Leviathan Purple added wet-in-wet. The two washes are also used over Iron Warriors (the modern Boltgun Metal equivalent) for the silver areas like the boltgun and backpack.

+++

+ inload: Born for death +

 + Silver Stars Predator +

+ Riverhead commands a Predator forward during the Machinedeath +

+ It's been a long painting drought for me, but I sat down over the weekend and went back to a fittingly forgotten project. I dug out this Silver Stars Predator, which has lurked undercoated and with the base metallics in place, for ages. +

+ Far too many half-finished Silver Stars here! It's been so long since I've painted one that I was glad to have my recipe recorded [+noospherinloadlink embedded+]. Turns out that having the blog as a record is useful after all! Besides this Predator, I've got half a dozen more Silver Stars Tactical marines and a squad of Terminators (you can see one peeking out from behind the Predator above) to paint, some further along than others. Having returned to the scheme after a while, I thought it best to start on something a bit special (in this case a tank) to help get back into the swing of things. +

+ A few minutes allowed me to block in the basic colours. I've seen a few different interpretations of how the Silver Stars scheme can be applied to armour (all of which look great!), but the key thing I wanted with my rendition was to balance the rose and turquoise against the white. +

+ As you can see about, I've laid in the first layer of oils. The base-coated tank was varnished prior to the addition of oils, as described here [+noosphericinloadlink embedded+]. To add some visual interest, and stop it getting too warm, I used a combination of burnt umber and Prussian blue, applying the latter very sparingly, as it proved dominant. +

+ Detail of the oils on the turret. I just love the effect, even at this stage. +

+ Oils take quite some time to dry (well, oxidise), so it's now sitting pretty. The next stage will be to return and paint the metallics. From my limited experience with oils, the solvents don't seem to play very well with metallics, making them dull or lifting them off entirely, so I've opted to add them on top, then weather them down either more sparingly than the rest, or perhaps use some inks in place of oils. +

+ I'll also be re-applying some white to clean up the tank a little – in comparison with the infantry, it's looking rather beaten-up. Of course, that's quite fitting for the article in which it'll be showcased (that of the Machinedeath on Null, in which colossal amounts of armour is destroyed), but I think I've been a bit heavy-handed with the damage at this stage – particularly as I'll be further weathering later on. +

+ There's a balance to be struck here. On the one hand, I always want to enjoy my painting, so I experiment to keep things interesting. That's the way I've found best to stumble upon new techniques and ideas... but it works against a uniform finish for an army. Personally, I don't mind a slight hotch-potch variance (in fact, for some armies it's a positive boon), but I don't want this Predator to stand out too much from the rest of the army stylistically. +

+++

+ Choosing the placement +

+ When working out paint schemes for armoured vehicles, I try to get down to a figure's eye level. It's all very well having a scheme that looks good overhead, but Space Marines are all about heraldry and announcing the Chapter's (or Legion's) presence on the battlefield. To that end, I wanted to make sure that the enemy would see the right balance of the pseudolegions' colours. +

+ I kept a finished marine near to hand for this, and considered the front of the tank as equivalent to the torso. The Deimos Predator happily has a bit of reinforced armour on its glacis plate, which echoes the collar of Crusade armour. That's a perfect spot for the metallics from the scheme, and I think the addition of the brass here and gunmetal elsewhere will go a long way to making the model 'pop'. +

+ As the glacis echoes the torso of the infantry, so the wings of the vehicle represent the shoulders. I toyed with having stripes down the sides, but while this would work well for Rhinos, the sponsons mean it's a bit of a non-starter for this Predator, making things confusing there. Instead, I decided to add a stripe to the wings. Note that I haven't filled the indented area, but rather added a freehand stripe. It seemed a bit too large an area to paint he vibrant, eye-catching pink, and would dominate the more subtle turquoise and white. +

+ If the front is the body, the turret's the head, right? I decided not to paint the whole thing turquoise (my initial plan), and instead go for a more stylised interpretation by painting a strip of the turret. In contradiction to my points above about heraldry above camouflage, having some markings visible from the air/orbit seemed a pragmatic (and dare I say more realistic?) application of the scheme that, crucially, also looked good to me. Sticking with theory's all very well, but don't sacrifice the opportunity to enjoy exploration entirely when you're doing something like this. +

+ At this point, I decided that the sides of the tank didn't say 'Silver Stars' to infantry, as they just showed white and rose. To fix this, I painted the sponson targeters turquoise. Perhaps they're regarded as the machine spirit's helms by the Legion, and thus treated as a helmet? +

+ Anyway, here's where the Predator stands at the moment. The windscreen is orange as an experiment – pre-oils is a perfect stage to test out accents that you're unsure of, as you'll seal it off and can either follow up or cover over as you choose. +

+ Hopefully I'll find some time to make further progress with the Stars soon. +

+ inload: Painting Marines Mendicant +

+ Painting the Marines Mendicant +

+ Or +

+ 'See, that's just what a liar would say' +

'Call that a knife? N-no – wait... argh!' *stabbing sounds*

+ Here you can see one of the Marines Mendicant; a sort of special forces set up by the Partisans during the War of the False Primarch – and if that's all gibberish to you, then why not transferinload to +Some Things Are Best Left Forgotten+, where you can delve and indulge in such depths of lovely collaborative models and background that even Slaanesh might say 'Ooh, not for me; couldn't manage another morsel'. +

+ For those of you who've come here to talk painting and modelling rather than lore, I thought I'd scribble down a few thoughts on painting these marines. +

+++

+ Off-road individualism +

+ Necessity is the mother of invention, and the creation of the Marines Mendicant was very much led by my desire to make the War of the False Primarch as accessible as possible. While there are eleven Partisan Chapters to pick from, along with six Pentarchy Chapters (owing to my desire to square a little circle about the multiple Death Eagles schemes and backgrounds), it was inevitable that some people who might want to get involved would be put off by having to pick an existing scheme. +

+ To avoid this, I created the Vigilants [+noosphericexloadlink embedded+], a group of marines a bit like the Deathwatch, which would allow people to bring in one or two models of their favourite Chapter, whether of their own creation or not. Importantly, I wanted to ensure that people could share their Chapters' scheme, and so hit on the idea that the Vigilants simply painted one part of their armour red, with a yellow and black stripe (a nod to the ret-conned Field Police of Rogue Trader). +

+ That simple device means that people can join in with the minimum of effort – just by adding a panel to an existing model. Voila, a perfectly useable Vigilant marine ready to do battle. If that's all you want to do, perfect; but if it sparks a bit more interest, then that figure can be used as the seed of a Pentarchy kill team – or even army. +

+ Of course, what's good for the goose is good for the gander – and it seemed a shame not to let those hobbyists attracted by the idea of following a returned Primarch a similar avenue to get involved. I didn't want to make a direct opposite – that seemed a bit unimaginative, so instead I dropped a few hints into the ongoing narrative about a group called the Marines Mendicant, then let it stew. +

+ As the background of the project – and the Silver Stars – developed, the Marines Mendicant started to take on more of their own form. The results are in today's update on +Some Things Are Best Left Forgotten+ , in which I was able to hint at the Silver Stars' way of working without laying everything bare. +

+ As before, creating a uniform would likely put off as many people as it attracted; and in any case I felt that a single colour scheme would not really reflect the purpose or approach of these special forces/advisor marines. Intead, I picked a logo – the reversed silver star icon of the Legion, and gave some details on how it could be applied. Other than that, hobbyists are free to paint them exactly as they choose. As with the Vigilants, it can be as simple as slapping a silver star icon on an existing figure – but there's also the option of using the rose, white and turquoise of the Silver Stars scheme in alternative ways. +

+ White can be quite intimidating (even with this handy guide to painting Silver Stars [+noosphericinloadlink embedded+]), while magenta and turquoise are both beginner-friendly hues and forgiving of mistakes. Allowing people keen on the Stars to get involved without the stress of painting white seemed like a sensible idea. +

+++

+ Putting it into practice +

+ All the well-intentioned lore in the world won't help if the scheme looks crap in reality, so I thought I'd double check that it works. You can be the final judge, of course, but I'm pretty pleased with how he came out. + 

+ I opted for a vertical split, turquoise on the marine's right-hand side, rose on the left. As explained above, this is arbitrary – the Marines Mendicant use highly individualistic schemes (though there's equally no reason you couldn't paint a kill team in a set uniform; that's well within their intentionally contrary modus operandi). +

+ There was an unintentional and unfortunate hint of Alpha Legion about the scheme when seen from this angle. I wanted the project to be a proper civil war; something more grey on grey and akin to the Badab War conflict than the Horus Heresy; and so Chaos – which is too dominant a theme and threat to be anything but the focus – doesn't really fit here. +

+ Secondly, memes have rather spoiled the XX Legion for me, and while I have no problem with planting a seed that 'the Alpha Legion did it' for the whole False Primarch thing – after all, lies and truth are the point of the project – it's also a bit obvious. I therefore used lots of iconography suggestive of the Silver Stars – and also Raven Guard and Carcharadons – to provide some equally plausible other interpretations from this side. +

+ Loads of juicy little icons and symbols here; mostly taken from logic and mathematics. The tau (upside-down 'T') is a logic symbol for 'false' – a little Easter egg. As with everything, background, lore and painting are all great, but they should all take a back seat to having fun with you hobby. +

+ A back shot. Not a huge amount to say or see here, beyond the fact that I've found I really like split schemes. There's something very focussed and rewarding about getting the lines with smooth strokes of the brush. All very mindful! +

+ Chequers helped to detail this side – again, a split scheme from this side looks a bit Emperor's Children. Not as problematic as the Alpha Legion side, but still worth breaking up to distinguish it from any extant force. +

+ Were I to do more Marines Mendicant, I'd be tempted to vary the scheme still more, and make more of the white area. If you're tempted to do a Marines Mendicant (or any other Chapter involved in the War), I'd love to see it. Why not share it with the #somethingarebestleftforgotten and/or #warofthefalsepriamrch tags? +

 

+ inload: Epic assistance +

+ Forgotten Kings + 

+ One of the things I wanted to do with the War of the False Primarch was to use it to give depth to some of my existing forces. +

+ As things transpired, I've barely had a chance to keep up with the writing!  As a result, some planned 'scenes' have been glossed over – I had hoped to illustrate the first Siege of Ishim and the Machinedeath with Titans and Epic forces, for example – but simply ran out of time to do so. +

+ I hope to go back and fill in these gaps – particularly for the Machinedeath, which is a pretty key moment in the War. The key notes for the battle are:

• It's where the Silver Stars are first revealed as being Legion strength
• It knocks both sides flat, and leads to the Sorrowful Years, where everyone is forced to entrench and rebuild
• During the battle, we finally see the 'Primarch' himself leading his forces against two Titan Legions – and therefore get an image of what he's capable of...
• Crucially, the Silver Stars lose virtually all of their superheavy tanks – along with huge amounts of armour – in taking on the two Titan Legions and their allies.
• The Titan Legions – Legio Punica and Legio Validus – are rendered combat ineffective, and driven back into Heliopolis for repairs.

+++

+ Call for aid! The Machinedeath on Null +

+ If you've got a Titan – or some Space Marine Superheavies, tanks or aircraft – that you need a scheme for, perhaps you'd like to help out by painting some up using a scheme that would fit in? +

+ Primarily I'm after Legio Validus, Legio Punica and Epic scale Silver Stars tanks/aircraft, but if you've got any armour/aircraft of the Pentarchy Chapters (Flesh Eaters, Charnel Guard, Red Talons, Death Eagles I/II, Carcharadons) at Epic scale, that'd also be lovely. Finally, the following Partisan Chapters were also there: Argent Heralds, Inheritors, Riven Lords, Void Barons and smaller complements of Red Fish, Jade Talons and Firebreak. +

+ Any and all models – whether Epic or 40k scale(!) would be very much appreciated. If you want to go for bonus points, the world of Null, site of the Machinedeath, is an airless (though not uninhabited) desert. Blasted sand/dust wastes are the order of the day for basing – but as you can see from my own Silver Stars, far from essential. For painting guidance, the Silver Stars are covered in this inload [+noosphericinloadlink embedded+]; and here's a quick pic. +

+++

+ The 'Twice-Bound': Legio Punica inspiration +

'Formed in the dark madness of the Horus Heresy, the origins of Legio Punica are lost, save for in the dwindling number of Titan’s machine spirits that have remained in service since the Legion's creation. Only the Princeps and Moderatii who pilot these ancient machines gain access to secrets as they bond with the Titans and are forbidden from sharing them with anyone but their crews. The nature of the inception is not one that reflects well on the Legio – and it is one they prefer to keep hidden.'

[//My Time Amongst the Machine-priests, a Memoir – Howtopher Buxcraft+]

+ Punica are the brainchild of Toby Harris, and very cool indeed! You can see  more of the Legio Punica's colours and read their background in this article [+noosphericinloadlink embedded+], but if you fancy a pop at them, here's how awesome they can look! +

+ Legio Punica Reaver by Toby H +

Legio Punica Warlord

+ Amber Kings: Legio Validus inspiration +

+ Despite existing in shared PCRC background since at least 2005, and having had a number of differently-scaled starting points, I've only ever finished one of my Titan Legion – who may be vaguely familiar to long-time readers. +

+ Mercator Stipent +

+ I can hardly ask others to supply me with pictures of my own damn Legio without giving it a go myself, so here's our first WIP entrant. If you fancy giving the Legio a go yourself, the scheme is simple: yellow with silver trim and green lenses. Chequers and the flaming circle (seen above) are common motifs. +

+ As noted at the start, I wanted to use the broader project to help develop my own armies – I write a lot of advice on this noospheric node about creating your own army and lore, but the best thing I can recommend is listening to other people and considering how their forces and stories would impact your own. +

+ Legio Validus, for example, has a fairly dry existing history – supposedly, they were split off from Legio Victorum and settled in Sector Antona Australis. While I don't want to contradict that, I do want to add depth – and thus they've appeared, apparently asynchronously, embroiled in the War for the False Primarch... +

+ I love the secrets and lies of 40k, and felt that perhaps the reason Punica and Validus were the only two Legios sent to the region was that they aren't squeaky-clean in terms of reputation. Punica's background certainly bears that out, and Validus likewise has some secrets. Having those fall into Imperial hands has perhaps altered the political landscape for the Legio. +

+ In short, Validus was one of those Legios whose support for the Emperor in the Horus Heresy was not quite as enthusiastic as one might have hoped. As a result, their parent Forgeworld was censured and has found itself repeatedly deploying Validus in an attempt to demonstrate their (modern-day) loyalty. +

+ The Inquisition finds this 'volunteering' rather useful, and – sure of Validus' discretion – use them for operations that are perhaps best left forgotten... +

+ Orthodox troops follow in the footsteps of the Amber Kings +

+ inload: A constellation of Silver +

+ Look up to the Stars +

 

+ A quiet few days on the blogging front – though do be sure not to bypass the [+noosphericexloadlink+] to + Some Things Are Best Left Forgotten +, where I've been able to collate some of the amazing work people are conributing. Thanks in particular to those brave datascribes and inloaders who have contributed images and stories from here: they're very welcome. If you would like to contribute, pop over to the Facebook groupnode and I'll let you know how you can. There are no entry criteria beyond enthusiasm! +

+++

While I've been editing and uploading others' material there, I've also got quite a lot of my own painting and modelling done, so thought it'd be nice to show 'em off here.

+ Silver Stars +

+ Firstly, progress has continued on this are-they-aren't-they Legion of Space Marines. As with my M42 Chapter, the Gatebreakers, I'm delighted with the scheme. That always helps with my enthusiasm – nothing more draining than plugging away on a model whose colour scheme you've grown tired of. +

+ The figure front and centre here will be the model used for the Silver Stars' upcoming Index Astartes, which will (partially) explain the meaning behind some of the badges, logos and sigils here. +

+ A very messy shot of the desk that shows a few odd bits that are work-in-progress, from techpriests and Titan Princeps to Gatebreakers and Imperial Guard; not to mention a couple of more esoteric figures. A pile of Silver Stars is on the right of the image, which is the front of the desk. I often keep a couple of odd figures nearby, just to avoid getting burnt out on batch painting. A change is as good as a rest, after all. +

+ ...and the War of the False Primarch is not constrained to one scale – I've been painting up a detachment of Epic-scale marines for use in dioramas and scenic shots, in the style of the very old Adeptus Titanicus promotions in White Dwarf. +

+ Of course, there won't be any reason that I can't use these to play games – and I'm hoping against hope that I'll be able to get some tabletop gaming in against the PCRC at some point. Miss you, lads! +

+ A Deimos Predator – plucked from the Cupboard of Shame Opportunity – has been given a big 130mm base. Bit of a gamble this, but after experimenting with the base on my Blood Angels Rhino [+noosphericinloadlink embedded+], I've decided I really like tanks on bases. For whatever reason, it makes me feel that they belong a bit better. Perhaps this'll be something I make a more general part of my planning. +

'We are Legion' [citation needed]

+ As you can see, the Silver Stars are swelling to be quite a force. The scheme [+noosphericinloadlink embedded+] is relatively time-consuming, though a lot of this is down to drying times. Those with keen occulobes will spot that I've worked the white up on a lot of there, rather than starting with the black, as I suggest in the linked tutorial. A lot of my 'recipes' – particularly those of Space Marines or other heraldic scheme [+noosphericloadlink embedded+] can be approached in any order, as the parts are effectively separate: you just need to be careful and neat after the first stage is down. +

+ For that reason, I decided to start with the white on the majority of these – because it uses one of the new Contrast paints (Apothecary White), it's inherently a bit messier (as you need to slop it on). Better to go back and tidy any splodges with black and turquoise than add light on dark. +

+++