+ inload: Iron Warriors trio +

+ inload: Scions of the 242nd +

'Footsore no more.' Ostrod murmured, half to himself. It was a peculiar half-honour. He wouldn't be making landfall with the rest of the 242nd Grand Company. Instead, he was being made a Palatarch of his own Chain. Sergeant, he thought for a moment, before considering that there was no reason – none at all – to use the old Terran term now.

+ Ostrod +

Promotion and transfer. He, along with two others, were on a shuttle to liaise with a new Grand Company. The other two sat opposite him in the mostly-empty bay. Masked behind his helm, he sat rigid as his eyes scanned them.

One was unfamiliar. Ubricz he knew in passing. In their plate, he could be the twin of Ostrod. Identical armour; only details differentiated them. Ubricz had a rigid approach to armouring; as coldly efficient and unsentimental as the Iron Circle that he so admired. Besides the temporary transfer marking that had been stamped above each of the new officers' primary hearts, Ubricz's armour was unmarked by any personal honorifics or personalisation. Ostrod felt a peculiar sense of shame at the spiked pauldron and pseudleather apron he bore; the skull-shaped finials at the end of each strap seemed somehow opulent; needlessly boastful.

Ubricz sat as rigidly as his observer, hands resting on his knees. Besides the occasional rocking of the shuttle, he might easily have been an empty suit of armour.

Admirable, for an Iron Warrior.

+ Ubricz +

 

Spitefully, Ostrod looked for faults. It came easily to him. He noted the non-standard backpack – doubtless some recent replacement. Even Ubricz, it seemed, was not infallible. 

Frustratingly, that seemed to be it. Even the combat blade at his belt was perfectly placed for cross-draw. 

Dismayed, he looked for criticisms in Ubricz's armament. Newly-issued bolt pistol – that matched his own – and a chainaxe. Peculiar. An unusual, though not frowned-upon, choice. The axe swapped speed and finesse for power and reach. Ostrod smiled thinly. 

Variance. Weakness.

Satisfied, in some strange, unplaceable way, Ostrod turned his attention to the third warrior. Ident-runes flagged him as 'Ixod Konstantz'. The Space Marine bristled and turned to Ostrod with a clanking of heavy plate and grind of pistons. Ostrod barely stopped himself – shamefully – from flinching. Active reports. Konstantz had clearly tweaked his armour to alert him when being scanned.

+ Konstantz +

Ostrod looked away, feigning disdain, and the other Legionary turned back to the combat-ready slump he had been in before. He had, in any case, seen all he needed. Konstantz's armour was older than Ubricz's, or his own. Mark III plate, battered and war-worn. Ostrod wondered if it was a 'pure' set, issued as Mark III; or a mongrel suit, adapted and refined from a suit of Crusade armour like that worn by the other two on the shuttle.

There was something of the fanatic in Konstantz, Ostrod considered. Bristling, reactive, angry. He even wore trophies: an old ork tooth – judging from the discoloration, from some ancient battle – and a human skull. Ostrod couldn't help turning back for a second.

No, not a human skull.

That had belonged to an Astartes.

+++

+ Commission complete +

+ After a wait for the final bits, these three vicious warriors are all finished and ready for deployment by their new commander. I thought I'd get a few shots of the finished models, and post up a couple of thoughts and notes. +

+ Everything looks swish in a bell jar! Trazyn the Infinite would be proud +

+ This was a really enjoyable project – small, self-contained, and a welcome return to a favourite army of mine. I always judge the success of a commission by whether I want to keep it afterwards. I'm pleased (if slightly regretful!) to say that these three pass the test. +

+ Part of the reason that I keep coming back to Space Marines – despite thinking of myself as a Guard player at heart – is that they have such a broad and deep background. Each Legion, Chapter or Warband seems to riff on the basic concept of 'Space Marine' slightly differently, so there's a joy both of familiarity with the shapes and building blocks, and of opportunity in going slightly further or in a different direction with each model. +

+ One of the things that I wanted to do here was make use of bits that had appeared since I last worked on my Officio Monstrosa project – in the example above, a Space Marine Heroes series 2 Terminator. These figures are push fit and include integrated bases, which I think is one of the best things GW does in helping to create evocative poses. There are obvious drawbacks (for multiples, matching existing basing schemes), but where they work, there's no substitute for how integrated bases help with the posing of figures. +

+ A disdainful upright posture for this marine. I wanted to convey a confident, dutiful impression for this marine, so kept him largely clean. The resting chainaxe implies he's not at all on edge about executing his duty – the angle of his pistol suggesting finishing someone off, rather than honourable combat.+ 

+ As a rule, Iron Warriors are bitter and resentful types, restrained and efficient, and I wanted to get that across. As we know, 40k doesn't have any goodies – and it's sometimes good to reinforce that with a slightly swaggering, bullying posture for villains like the Fourth Legion. You don't have to be screaming to be evil. +

+ A plainer, battered and more traditional look for this last Iron Warrior, up-armoured in (appropriately enough) a battered Mark III Armourum Ferrum breastplate. With most Space Marines colour schemes, I think it's easy to fall into a trap of doing too much of their accent colours – Ultramarines with more gold decoration than blue, for example – and this is particularly the case with black or metal schemes, where any addition will draw the eye. The hazard striping so common to the Iron Warriors scheme has been restricted to the chainsword, where it adds Iron Warriors flavour without being too eye-catching. The combination of yellow and black is retained in a simpler, cleaner form on the pauldrones. +

+ Modern-looking Tactical markings and trophy-hunting makes for a stark juxtaposition. You can suggest a lot about an army with little details like this. +

+++

+ To finish, here's a little group shot. Onwards to victory! Iron Within! Iron Without! +

+ inload: Operation Gauntlet and Gates of Antares +

+ Operation Gauntlet +

There are roughly two weeks left to get involved with the #FalsePrimarchGauntlet challenge/event. You can read about the rules and deadline here [+noospherciinloadlink embedded+]. I've been given a sneaky peek at some fantastic entries already , so I'm excited to share those with you over the Christmas break. +

 

+ For my part, I'm building and painting Riverhead of the Kapihe. The Kapihe is (or appears to be) the False Primarch's way of contacting and directing the war effort. Mostly – but not exclusively – Silver Stars, it includes officers and talented individuals who act as liaisons with the other Partisan forces, whether they are Astartes, Guard, Mechanicus, Ecclesiarchy or any of the other branches of the Imperium that have joined his cause. + 

+ Riverhead – whether this is a personal name or some form of codename is unclear – will reveal a little more of the mysterious Pseudolegion's structure and size, so I'd better get tidying that up. +

+ Oh, and painting him! +

+++

+ It's not all darkness +

+ The Grim Darkness of the Far Future is likely a common thread for most readers, but sometimes it's nice to dip into a different sci-fi setting. A lot of the PCRC are into Star Wars or Dune or similar, for example. One such setting that's intrigued me for years is Warlord Games' Gates of Antares, a less space opera, more hard sci-fi universes – that still allows for skirmish-level personal combat for fun 28mm gaming, of course!. +

+ You can read more about the various factions, along with a slightly intimidating(!) amount of material in the Nexus here: [+noosphericexloadlink embedded+]. Careful, it's a rabbit hole! +

+ Back in 2019 I mentioned, as part of my 'Painting an army of your own' series of articles [+noosphericinloadlink embedded+], that I picked up a couple of sprues of the Panhuman Concord Combined Command (C3) soldiers while Warlord had a sale on. +

+ I've been working on an Iron Warriors commission recently [+noospherinloadlink embedded+]. I'm waiting for one last backpack to be delivered before I can finish it, so thought I'd have a chilled-out evening and put together some models. Digging through the Cupboard of Opportunity, I stumbled upon the C3 troops. It's not a great picture of the sprue, I confess, but then, you can go and look at it on Warlord's store. +

+ Theoretical +

+ Converting figures is slightly addictive – you get into the habit of doing it, and eventually you find you can't bear to put familiar models together without modifying them in some way. If for no other reason, I always find it a treat to put together something unfamiliar like this: it lets you off the hook a bit! I apologise in advance for the constant comparisons with GW and 40k, but it seems the best way to explain things. +

+ The sprues are good quality, the material immediately familiar to anyone who's put together a GW sprue – similar in texture, colour and hardness. The details are slightly less crisp than I'm used to from GW's more modern kits; and in this they're more akin to slightly older kits, like the previous iteration of Ork boyz, or Space Marine Tactical Squads. The sprues have a similar amount of used space to these, too – slightly more gappy than a typical modern GW kit, though with not as much empty space as GW's oldest kits like Eldar Guardians or Cadian Guardsmen. I hasten to add. however, that the details are still clear; I don't want to damn the kit with faint praise. +

+ I like the aesthetic – the clean, smooth lines still have some interesting detailing; recesses and visual interest without being 'over-greebled'. They reminded me more of a Star Wars Stormtrooper, the more recent Dune adaptation (or given the large all-in-one yoke design, perhaps Toy Story's Buzz Lightyear) than anything baroque or gothic, so quite a nice change of pace for me. The guns struck me as straight out of the later Star Trek films or Halo; convincingly polished future sci-fi. +

+++

+ Practical +

+ A squad (Fireteam? Cell? Unit?) of C3 soldiers. The alternative weapon is visible on the right of the image, and I couldn't quite resist the urge to make some tiny conversions by repositioning a couple of legs and arms. +

+ The sprue includes parts to build five human (well, panhuman) soldiers and one large drone, all being secured with polystyrene cement. It includes enough standard weapons and heads for you to build a uniformly-armed squad, along with options for one soldier to carry a specialist weapon of some sort, an alternative pose with the standard kit, and an unvisored helmet (that is, the helm's still on, but you can see the figure's face. The drone (which I have not yet built) also has a second kit option – I assume another weapon type, but perhaps one is some sort of scanner? +

+ As you can see above, the figures are quite slight. There's a certain amount of hero-scaling, but the look is very much more realistic than GW's. That's either going to float your boat or not, but it strikes me that it does open up conversion possibilities with Warlord's WWII and Ancients kits. Not having any to hand, I can't guarantee that – but given the ease with which plastic can be cut and stuck, things like hands and heads would be a nice way to add a bit of variety. Here, the more realistic scaling and lack of exaggeration on hands works in the kit's favour: at tabletop distance with the right paintjob, you're not going to notice the lack of a glove or gauntlet. +

+ The design is fairly familiar – each figure typically coming in six parts: left arm and weapon (including the right hand on the grip), a handless right arm, a two-part torso, set of legs, and a head. They go together fairly painlessly. The torso in particular is neatly designed to hide the join, and fits snugly onto the legs. You can invisibly open up a little more space to turn the waist by trimming the back of the stomach armour. +

+ The arms were the only slightly frustrating bit. The 'shoulder' connection point is not quite flat but not really a ball-and-socket fitting either, so I found the arms 'swum about' a bit as I glued them, or drooped if I left them to dry unsupported. Nothing disastrous, but with such a tiny connection at the wrist, it's easy for them to drift. Everything else was very quick and clean. +

+ Beyond the options listed above, there are no additional bits and bobs, which I thought was a bit of a shame. Having said above that I like the clean aesthetic, it would still have been nice to have a few more alternative heads, arm poses or kit. I'm not talking bags and webbing, as that wouldn't jive with what I understand of the setting, but something like whatever the Concord equivalent of a map and compass is would have been nice – or perhaps a communications device. In fairness, perhaps that's specific to this faction, and they don't need (or want) to carry additional kit? +

+ One thing I would definitely have liked is some bits to allow slightly more varied and dynamic combat poses. It's slightly difficult to put my finger on, but much as GW's figures were once infamous for their 'combat squat', so these figures are all quite upright; in a fairly restrained 'advancing' posture. A kneeling set of legs would add a little variety, as would a set of more braced, widely-spaced legs. Likewise the arms nearly all carry the rifles in a fairly similar way, allowing for postures like firing from the hip. I would have liked a set held up to the eye, as in this detail from official artwork by Thomas Elliot [+noosphericexloadlink embedded+] +

+ Secondly, having the sprue line run across the front of the heads is a bugbear of mine. Perhaps there's some production reason for it, but even the most minor bit of flash or slippage can ruin the focal point of a model – particularly where, as here, there are straight horizontal lines running across the piece. +

+ Those are, however, minor criticisms of what's a nice solid sprue design and production. With the game seemingly in some form of limbo – either quietly fading or perhaps awaiting a second edition (as the shots of the awesomely creepy-looking new Isorian promise to herald) – it's unlikely we'll see a revised plastic sprue for the Concord. Indeed, if Warlord are intending to revisit Beyond the Gates of Antares at some point, I'd much rather they used their plastic budget (or however they decide to work things) to expand the forces available than revise a not just serviceable but quality kit. +

+ Brave C3 soldiers storm an alternative future timeline' neatly showing a size and aesthetic comparison with a GW Intercessor. +

+ inload: Sons of Horus Terminator Praetor and rescaling +

+ The scales fell from my eyes + 

+ Warhammer Community revealed a rather smashing new Terminator model for the Horus Heresy; back banner and all. In line with the rumours of a new boxed set and general reboot for the Age of Darkness, I was interested to see that the base looked rather small... +

+ Photoshop mock-up, using the base as a common reference. Note the similarity between the Imperial Fist and Sons of Horus, and the marked difference between both and the others. +

+ The Imperial Fist Terminator Praetor has been noted as being quite big – considerably larger than other Terminator models. I visited Warhammer World recently, and compared the Imperial Fist Praetor with the recently-released Ultramarine one – idly hoping the Ultramarine one would be a matching size. Alas, the Ultramarine Terminator Praetor seems to match most of the existing models. I'd therefore assumed that the Imperial Fist was a bit of a one-off – perhaps a simple artistic decision or even a scaling error. +

+ The release of the Sons of Horus figure, however, leads me to think that there's a rescaling going on. The Mark VI boxed set that's been floating around certainly seems to show the marines being closer in proportion to the new Chaos Marines than the older kits – perhaps the same is going to be true of the Terminators. +

+ Of course, perhaps this is an example of character models being slightly different – the Character series has long been a slightly different scale to the plastics and line troops, and the rumour images of the box seem to suggest that the included Terminators are the old kits. +

+ Time, presumably, will tell – but I'd love to see a rescaling for the Terminator kits, particularly if they're proportioned like this lovely new model. +

+++

+ inload: Iron Warriors commission +

+ Getting back to the Officio +

+ I was commissioned through this blog to build a trio of Iron Warriors line officers, along the lines of my own Officio Monstrosa project [+noosphericinloadlink embedded+]. Happily, the chap who's retained me is happy with how they're looking, so thought I'd share them here to talk through a few notes, in case they're of interest to anyone. +

+ After a bit of discussion back and forth, the brief was pleasingly open – three Iron Warriors that could conceivably be loyal to the Emperor or Horus (so no obvious Chaos symbols or motations), each armed with chainsword and bolt pistol, and with the cool helm with the additional Legion symbol mask from the  Forge World Iron Warrior upgrade pack. The figures would be used as sergeants or similar, so needed to be fairly restrained in pose – bothing too dynamic. Beyond that, and urban rubble basing, I was given free reign. +

+ I don't do a lot of commission pieces, but the principle I always apply to them is 'would I want this in my personal army?' To that end, I spent some time roughing out some ideas, then got stuck in. Coming back to older techniques or processes – in this case Terminator-based Trusecale (you can find the process yourself through here [+noosphericinloadlink embedded+]) – is always interesting, as you find ways to refine or go further as new options open up, or you simply refine your skills. +

+ This marine, who I mentally named Ostrod while working, uses one of the Terminators from Space Marine Heroes series 2 for the legs. These figures have much more interesting poses than most Terminators, and come with rather nice integrated bases. As with the others, you'll note he's missing his backpack – they hadn't yet arrived, so will be added after the rest of the model is painted in each case.+

+ I've tried to keep the pose fairly neutral, so that he looks good during games. Whether pictured in combat, mid-strike, or simply advancing warily, he should provide a nice focal point for a squad  without standing out too much. The addition of a bit spiky pauldron – as usual, from Master-Crafted Miniatures – gives him a suitably brutal feel without being too obviously Chaotic. +

+ Iron Armour and Iron Warriors go together like particularly violent ice-cream and jelly, so a warrior in Mark III – Konstantz – in mid-strike seemed fitting. The torso's a cast of a converted torso I used for my own army, which married the bottom of plastic torso with a sculpted upper. The legs here are from the Grey Knight Terminator set, with the thighs considerably bulked-up. I've added to the heavy, solid feeling with plenty of pouches and an arm from the Gorgon Terminator kit.+

+ The final marine is levelling his bolt pistol, as though to execute a downed enemy. This sort of pose looks good in isolation or as part of a dedicated vignette, but can look odd in-game. To avoid any visual awkwardness, I placed him on a slightly modified Stormcast base. This raised him up a little further than the others, which makes the pistol gesture make sense outside of the very specific places he might otherwise need to be in. +

+ As noted elsewhere in the blog, I tend to prime figures before considering them completely finalised, as it helps to stop your eye being thrown off by all the different colours or plastic, resin and putty. While I remained happy with the other two, this figure (Ubricz) was the only one of the three that I altered after priming. The original, with a chainsword, is shown above, the final version below. +

+ Why the change to chainaxe? Mostly, it was to better convey the almost casual disdain with which this marine is treating his downed foe. For me, the slung chainaxe resting on the shoulder better encapsulates the arrogance and cruelty of the Iron Warriors. Secondly, the more relaxed pose fit better with the posture of his legs. I thought he looked too alert and wary before, with his chainsword down, which didn't 'read right' with the ponderous confidence suggested by his legs. +

+ Secondly, I thought the chainaxe was both a bit different – while part of the Iron Warriors 'thing' is a mass of faceless soldiers, complete uniformity of armament is a bit boring. It's easy enough to 'count-as' a chainsword, but adds a flavourful Horus Heresy-era touch. Together with a small skull trophy slung on his shoulder pad, it also hints as background influences on the Legion, with Khorne berserkers a part of the Iron Warriors. Is this warrior a future axe-happy lunatic, lost in slaughter? Will his discipline survive? Little things like this add much to the story of a piece. +

+++

+ Painting next; as per request I'll be using the same approach as for my own army – so keep an eye out for another inload soon. +

+ inload: Gauntlet: Dramatis Personae of the War +

+ War of the False Primarch event #2: Gauntlet – Dramatis Personae +

It is the thirty-fourth Millennium. Or perhaps the thirty-third. Few now stand securely enough both to claim different; and to be heard.

All is unsure, all is uncertain. Under the benevolent eye of the High Lords of Terra, the Imperium basks in a golden age. The heretics of millennia past are extinguished or contained; the xenos empires that threatened mankind's manifest destiny broken or scattered. Humanity is united in the worship of the enthroned God-Emperor, whose words are revealed to the Ecclesiarch of the Imperial Church.

This is one truth.

Others say that the Emperor is dead, or as good-as; that His dream has grown rotten beneath the surface. Others claim oppression, or restriction, or loss. Tales of predation by aliens; of harrowings by pirates and heretics and monsters, emerge daily, and are suppressed by His Inquisition, for fear of disturbing the flock.

In the galactic north-west (if such an antiquated system has meaning in a galaxy as vast and wondrous as this) tales emerge of another truth. Tales come of the return of a legend, so ancient that the High Lords believe the word all-but forgotten.

Primarch.

Iwanttoknow

+ Some Things Are Best Left Forgotten +

+++

+ GAUNTLET +

+ I ran a six-week challenge themed around Kill Teams recently. You can see the forty-four entries on the dedicated project blog, Some Things Are Best Left Forgotten, here. I've had a few people asking whether and when I'd be running another event, so I thought we'd spend the run up to the end of the year looking more closely at the heroes and villains – and those in-between – of the War of the False Primarch. +

+ This challenge/event/invitational is open to everyone, and involves creating a model (and optional background) for the Dramatis Personae that populate the region. This might be a Space Marine hero, a fantatical Priest, a worried-looking scribe or (as I hope someone will tackle) one of the High Lords themselves! +

+++

+ Rules of the event +

• +CONCEPT+ Build and paint a character themed around the The War of the False Primarch. This can be a single figure, but if you want to have some servants, flunkies, palanquins – or vanquished foes – feel free to include them

• +SUBMIT+ Send the finished pictures and up to 1,500 words of lore to me via email.
• Please contact me (via Instagram or through the Facebook groups linked below) for the email address.

• +DISPLAY+ Post a picture of your finished character to:
• Instagram, using the tags #FalsePrimarchGauntlet #somethingsarebestleftforgotten and/or #iwanttoknow
• The +Death of a Rubricist+ and/or +Some Things Are Best Left Forgotten+ Facebook groups.

• +TIME LIMIT+ The challenge begins on the 12th November at 11:02am GMT, and ends on 13th December at 02:11pm GMT.

+++

+ Creativity is king +

+ You can build and paint your Dramatis Personae as any figure from the Partisan or Pentarchy Chapter, or one of the many, many other forces present. There is a huge range of inspiration available from the blog – almost every article includes nods and mentions of figures that have not yet emerged from the shadows. +

+ Apart from anything else, it's a great chance to do a one-off model for a Chapter or faction that fascinates you! +

+ To give you some further ideas – and some starting off points for writing – here's a link to the existing Dramatis Personae articles on the blog. As you can see, they range from Inquisitors and Space Marine officers to itinerant preachers and Dreadnoughts. +

+ If you're still stuck for an idea, then I'd personally love to see some (or all) of the following:

• Banner Bearers  One of the Partisan Marines entrusted with bearing the Chapter's Caputmori into battle. These mighty standards are treated much like the Eagles of Ancient Rome or Napoleonic France – doubtless their bearers are dedicated heroes of the Chapter.
• High Lords of Terra  We've heard a lot about these dread figures, and while I've got a couple tucked up my sleeves thanks to contributors, I'd love to see some more move out of the shadows. You can see glimpses of many in this article, but here's the list of known High Lords, any of which would be fascinating to see in miniature form:
• Umbwald Oreangelo, Chancellor of the Estate Imperium
• Strakh – The Grand Provost Marshal
• Vamma Andreia Pushkin – Master of the Adeptus Astra Telepathica
• The Suzerain Belligerent
• Braxon Leionidon Mercutial, the Captain-General of the Adeptus Custodes
• Isaacsen – Paternoval Envoy of the Navigators
• Officers of the Partisans and Pentarchy  The Index Astartes for each Chapter give an overview of the characters of the broader Chapter, but there's no substitute for a specific individual. Often the only examples we see are the Chapter Masters – but every Company includes at least one notable hero.
• Members of the Imperial Guard and Navy  Long-time followers of this blog will know my liking for regular humans in 40k, and a few one-off examples of the soldiers fighting the bulk of the War would be lovely.
• Casualties  Lots of people die during the War of the False Primarch – it'd be nice to see them before they pop their clogs – or perhaps during it, in a duel scene!

+++

+ Inspiration +

Following are a few examples of the sorts of figures you might like to explore – but the more creative and unusual, the better!

[//Voivode Nero, 5th Company Captain+]
[//dennis_k/@the_iron_within+]

[//Inquisitor Lord Leong-Cassar. Following the Conclave of Jiam-Tertial, Inquisitor Leong-Cassar petitioned the High Lords for resources and decisive action against the false Primarch and Partisan forces. Following passionate debate it was there, on Terra, the partisan chapters were declared Traitoris Perdita./+]
[//peter_h/@pdh_neglected_fruits+/]

[//Arch-Cardinal Verashyon and his shield-guards+]
[oliver_n/@magos_nexnbo+/]

[//Citizen-soldiers from the 7th Sheervaad Ashakari supporting Red Fish operations on [REDACTED]+]
[//mike_f/@eatdrinkdeath+]

+ GOTO: 10 +

+ Okay, it's over to you! I hope that you join in, that you find it fun and that the event results in you creating a cool new character to explore the War of the False Primarch with us. +

+ Good luck – whether you’re fighting to keep the High Lords in power or in the name of the Last True Son. +

+ Please do comment below or on the Facebook groups if you’ve any questions; (or just want to enthuse) and please do share as widely as you feel appropriate – everyone is welcome! +

+ inload: Fighting, Titans and War of the False Primarch +

+ inload: Miscellany +

+Pride of place in the blog entry goes +] Flesh Eater Kill Team for War of the False Primarch. Sporting his signature LED look, it's easy to overlook the conversion work he's done to make the models look more like the Imperial Space Marines of very early Rogue Trader. Unflared legs (taken from the new Phobos armour type) along with helms cast from the limited edition Imperial Space Marine. All fit very nicely in the War of the False Primarch setting – and the autocockles are always warmed when one of my gaming group makes something for the project. +

+ I particularly like the flag borne by the squad – banners and flags rarely get the 'airtime' they deserve in this Gothic space fantasy setting. +

+ Opposing the Flesh Eaters for a very fun Kill Team game – which you can read about on Some Things Are Best Left Forgotten [+noosphericexloadlink embedded+] – was a squad of my Silver Stars. Since they've largely been built in lockdown, it was nice to get some gaming in. +

+++

+ Work-in-progress +

+ A couple of work-in-progress pieces. I'll be sorting out another six-week challenge/event for the War of the False Primarch, which will revolve around characters. To that end, I thought I'd put together an officer for the Silver Stars. This chap is not quite there yet, but he's based on the new Black Templar models. Took quite a lot of trimming to remove or adapt all the sculpted on detail. +

+ Captain Riverhead +

+ I've also been retained on commission for a trio of Iron Warriors following my process for my Officio Monstrosa project [+noosphericinloadlink embedded+]. Still working out the shapes and structure, but I've got the torso and legs on the blocks – as you can see in the example below. The head and shoulder pads are just tacked in place to check proportions. +

+ Pleased with how they're coming on; it's nice to return to older processes and refine them further. I'm using one of the Space Marine Heroes models here, which allows for slightly more dynamic poses out of the box than the Terminators I usually use. +

+++

+ And finally +

+ I popped up to Warhammer World on a secret mission recently, and while there had the pleasure of meeting two of the Baraqu gang for a game, along with some War of the False Primarch chaps – all lovely! Alas, it was a bit of a flying visit, though I did get the chance to take some pictures of the Warbringer Titan crew; the last figures I need to lay my greedy autoclaws on for my 40k-scale Titan Crew collection. They were an absolute [SCRAPSHUNTERRORABORT+] to photograph! +

 

+ inload: Kill Team Brolo +

+ Brolo: Death Eagles Kill Team +

'Make the mark count. Mark the count. Count your marks and see victory done.'

[//Death Eagles catechism+]

+ With the Kill Team challenge receding into the past, I wanted to make sure it wasn't forgotten immediately(!). You can see all the entries in an article on our sister blog, here. +

+ Good gracious me, that resulted in more than I'd anticipated. Expecting perhaps half-a-dozen Kill Teams, we ended up with 44 – and quite a few that just missed hit the deadline – but that I hope we'll see finished and featured soon. +

+ Death Eagles II +

+ There were a number of Chapters from the War of the False Primarch that I had absolutely no concerns about seeing, but the Death Eagles II – that is, the black and bone coloured ones – were considerably harder to dig up. There simply seemed to be none at all at the 'Primaris' scale that was being used for the project, and precious few of the older scale. I'm sure there are some, here and there across the world, but not easily accessible. To that end, I decided to put together a Kill Team of my own of the Chapter. +

+ Doing little groups like this can be a lot of fun, because you don't really need to worry about any consistency in the future. You simple paint them up as a batch and enjoy. +

+ For the Kill Team, I had three main aims:

• Evoke the idea of the Space Marine XBox game 
• Avoid similarities with other black and white Chapters
• Bring out the themes of Imperial-on-Imperial combat in the War of the False Primarch project.

+ Ilmarinen's awesome transfers allowed me to put on the Chapter markings easily. If you're looking for transfers for the broader project, let me know on the Facebook group and I'll put you in touch. +

+ Space Marine backsides. They don't show much, but do demonstrate the blue-purple tinge I worked into the black for this squad. I wanted to avoid dead black and white (far too Black Templar), so instead used a magpie-inspired scheme of layers of inks and glazes. +

+ The squad was a fairly quick kitbashing exercise, with conversion work restricted to trimming, cuts and removal of detail. The figure above is a good example – but I left the Ultramarine detail on the sword. Is it a gift from a Primogenitor sponsor, or a looted piece of archeotech from the battlefield? Little decisions like this add to the spirit of the project. Note also the 'Rose of the Pentarchy' on his kneepad. +

+ The ogham script on pauldrons and elsewhere is a detail added to try to give the Death Eagles II a bit of character. A 'canon' Chapter – that is, one made up by GW themselves – the Death Eagles have little detail beyond the scheme and Chapter badge. My preference for Space Marines in general is for their imagery to draw primarily from 'Space Marine' and only secondarily from X chapter. Too much wolf spoils the Space Wolves; just as too much seasoning spoils the meal. +

+ The scheme was relatively quick and simple; I initially envisioned the squad being used as an example of what you could bash together quickly, in order to encourage people on the sidelines to get involved – but the weight of people sending awesome conversions and paintjobs over quickly made me reconsider! I think I would have pulled my finger out a bit more, had I foreseen the time, effort and energy other entrants made. +

+ Anyway, following are a few more shots of the squad; hope it's been interesting, and hope to see more work from you all. The War of the False Primarch has entered its third stage, and there's plenty to get involved with. +

+ Tactical markings were 'Codex', drawn from the Horus Heresy-era Ultramarines. I wanted to make clear that despite the Death Eagles supposedly drawing their geneseed from Corax (and the Raven Guard), the Codex Astartes was considerably more influential than Legion lineage in the the subsequent foundings – even at this point in the 40k universe's history, thousands of years have passed since the Great Crusade. +

+ The Sergeant's backpack includes a little shrine, and a double-headed aquila. When one side of the civil war picks a new icon (the skull-headed eagle icon called the Caputmori) those loyal to the High Lords and orthodoxy would likely emphasise their own beliefs. +

+ The Ogham markings are nice and clear here, and I think the blue-purple tinge to the black, and ivory tinge to the white, make it obvious that this figure is not a Black Templar. +

+ Honour the battlegear of the dead +

+ Choomph! The melta gun from Space Marine is an awesome short-range killer. It struck me as ideal for the four-man Kill Team here. +

+ It was fun to paint the face here, too; again emphasising that –despite being a Raven Guard successor – the Death Eagles are their own entity; Space Marines of their own culture first and foremost. +

+ I tried out a few washes to suggest heat burn on the melta gun here. Lots of washes. Fun to try; and I think I'll try again in future. Such experiments are perfect for closed projects like this. If they go wrong, who cares? +

+ Mark VI helms were prevalent here; both as a visual hint away from Black Templars, and also to hint at the period. With the new Horus Heresy boxed set coming out, and Rogue Trader's anniversary coming up, I thought it'd be fun to bring the idea of Mark VI becoming increasingly common in the War of the False Primarch through the sectorial Forgeworlds. +