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So, the other day I finally got out of a bit of a hobby slump (to be fair to myself, I'd been steadily, but very slowly, painting some Nurgle guys for AoS but mostly/only because I meet up with some friends once every week/fortnight and paint) and felt the urge to do something creative. So I found some styrofoam I had lying around as well as a ship I bought in the local thrift shop a couple of years ago, decided to build a harbour and got to work. I initially just placed the styrofoam sections in different setups to see what might work, then started brainstorming ideas. Once I got started on the "real" work, I was in danger of feeling overwhelmed a couple of times, so I forced myself to just focus on one section at a time, rather than trying to have some grand vision for everything all at once. I'm happy to say that this worked out for me and I managed to get quite a lot done, while still leaving some areas of the terrain set undeveloped. Hopefully some good ideas will materialise soon :)

+ THE CLAWS IN OUR STARS + + A REFLECTION ON PAST GLORIES AND MY JOURNEY WITH THE ASTRAL CLAWS INTO THIER DARK FUTURE + [THIS IS A WORK IN PROGRESS] In my last post, I mentioned I was a long time Astral Claws afficionado. It all started with White Dwarf 101 and the two-page pull of the Badab War, and Lugft Huron and his Tiger Claws. It was that nascent time for 40K, when things were just kicking off, and everything was still punk-struck and the grimdark hadn't bleached my bones white with the careless aeons of the darkness between stars. It was the age of tiger-stripe-clad Whiteshields, of a Goff Rock Band, of RTB 001. We fast-forward many years to Imperial Armour, and the heady products of the Specialist Games Team, and the notable Alan Bligh. They took it seriously, they improved on 99% of the source materiel and expanded it over and above what could be expected from such short snippets regarding the Imperial Commander who would become the best Villain of 40k (IMHO) and most serious threat to the Imperium outside Ol' Armless himself. I've been fascinated with this for decades, but never went forward with it in all my years of throwing dice on the tabletop, I had seven Space Marine armies, 1st and 2nd Ed were Blood Angels, which continued into 3rd Edition and joined then by the Black Templars, Imperial Fists, Crimson Fists and Salamanders. Scythes of the Emperor in 5th, and finally Space Wolves in the back end of 5th to the mid 6th, which is when I left the Tabletop. It was about that time (possibly into 7th Ed?) I happened on a thread by Noctus Cornix, called 'The Bitter End' in which he began to detail and build a small force around a host of characters, complete with IA-style vignettes about their last actions of the war, their defiance and desperation as the Palace crumbled around them, just like their world. I had most of a Space Marine Battle Company (when you could buy it from GW) on a sprue, and, with the release of Primaris, I realised these Firstborn, as they were newly dubbed were pretty much for the chop. I'm not going to get into the argument here, it's a dead horse I'd rather no-one beat. I decided on one last charge of the Astral Claws, one last steel and sapphire charge to coalesce my collection into one solid force, instead of dribs and drabs of different Chapters. I kept most of the models I was proud of, but the rest got a makeover - or cut to pieces and binned if they couldn't be salvaged. I continued to read Noctus' snippets, I immersed myself in the character of the Badabians and Imperial Armour IX/X, and I worked. In six weeks, I had a fully assembled battle company, 111 infantry models, and 11 tanks mostly built, mostly painted and mostly based, with Lugft Huron and a TDA bodyguard at their head, Silver isn't hard to paint, so I was happy enough with that. I'm not a great painter. I tried to do some flourishes how the IA/FW boys did them, and some weathering to scuff everything up. I think I did ok. Them I ran them over the tabletop for one last time, against a WAAC dude who literally erased them as the Imperium did. Then they went into boxes or case-foam and that was the end of them. With the release of the new Red Corsairs, that infatuation was rekindled. I am not a Chaos player, never really have been despite a couple of dalliances with it in 3rd and 4th Ed. I just couldn't get on with it. Maybe I don't like playing the villain - even if sometimes people tell me I'm good at it. These though, were Renegades. They weren't just acceptable, they were almost permission. I began building, converting (you can see that in a previous Blog entry) and now, I have 40 models built awaiting my terrible painting skills. Not bad for a couple of weeks. I broke out the old models, the Astral Claws of yesterday's Imperium, and looked at them with a strange, divorced, fondness. The Tiger Claws still had their hooks into me, and it merely feels now like two acts of the same play. This new version of the Astral Claws will likely never grace a tabletop, but at a time of my life when I'm having a spot of trouble, building my pirates and making terrible use of the Giria from even worse films and stories, has certainly helped. The war for Badab is over. The war of vengeance begins. All hail the Tyrant.

Finished up the diorama, Unexpected Finds, which was painted in about 3 days over six/seven hours. I now know why the really good painters do things in sections, as getting into some of the areas was not easy and I had to do more clean-up than I wished. Still happy with it, especially since it was basically a "free" diorama that I was able to put together with leftover/unused kits that were sitting around my hobby space. Up next for painting is finishing my Votann vow for this this month and then starting on my first Sanctifier kill-team member for the 12MoH campaign (my already finished Interrogator has requisitioned some of the Ecclesiarchy's finest crazies to help out). Hopefully next month I can get a good start on the Nightbringer conversion for modeling, though the beginning of May will have me getting my butt kicked at the Rocky Mountain Open tournament before that.

I'm a member of Yaktribe because I occasionally mess about with Necromunda and for a long time it was the default organizational tool for that game. Now, I mainly hang out in their hobby boards because I can post about my minis that aren't 40k. They have periodic contests of differing topics and this latest one was Hallowed and Haunted: make something that is sacred, uncanny, or cursed. I had some leftover models and decided to wipe something up- in this case an Ash Wastes scavenger and his hired guns who stumbled on something that they really shouldn't have. Luckily, it is 40k-adjacent so here it is in WIP form.

So who is the Chapter Master of the Howling Griffons? Is it Kenot Friche or Alvaro? Alvaro (Lexicanum) Alvaro is the current Chapter Master of the Howling Griffons. During the Third War for Armageddon he led the First Company of the Chapter from the Battle Barge Force of Destiny, where they engaged in the persecution of a company of Night Lords Traitor Legionnaires under the command of the infamous Daemon Prince Periclitor. At the conclusion of the Indomitus Crusade, he and his Chapter were among the Imperium's forces that Lord Commander Guilliman led to Ultramar's defense, during the Plague Wars. The original version of the Dark Imperium (Novel), states that Alvaro is the current Chapter Master of the Howling Griffons. Kenot Friche (Lexicanum) Kenot Friche is the current Chapter Master of the Howling Griffons and he is leading its forces that are taking part in the Plague Wars. In the 2nd Edition of Dark Imperium, Kenot Friche is stated to be Chapter Master of the Howling Griffons So who I am I choosing as my Chapter Master... Kenot Friche. There is no information about him outside his name and this allows me to forge my own narrative for my Howling Griffons. As part of that goal as my own force but still wanting to keep them aligned as Ultramarine Successor Chapter, I am using Ultramarine keyword for them. This will allow me I have a very cool Chapter Master model in the Form of Marneus Augustus Calagar in Armour of Antilochus. And if I decided down the line to add more Howling Griffon version of Ultramarine characters I can add Chief Librarian Varro Tigurius, Master of Sanctity Ortan Cassius, Antaro Chronus (commanding the Land Raider Excelsor) and Scout Sgt Torias Telion. So as the title says this is the mock up stage and there will be lots of of work to de-Ultramarine Calgar. Enough talk its preview time Calgars head versus Wolf Guard Terminator Head I am using for Chapter Master Kenot Friche How the head looks in the Armor which working title is "Panoply Renomee". Look at all the U that have to be change With the 1st Company Captain Barrau De Sescas, Regent of Mancora Hopefully the holiday has passed I can get back to painting.

Adepticon 2026: A Word on Competitions. I did the Long War Doubles tournament Friday (everyone has a bit of grey in their beards these days, we aren't getting any younger). I also did the Team Tournament Saturday and Sunday. THis was a lot of late night and early morning shenanigans. I'm getting too old for this. Now, this year team events were part of an overall best-in-show type of award, now called the adepti-cup. This is new to me as I missed out last year. So, we aren't just competing against other teams - we're competing against the whole convention. Yikes. But... we can't let the old Bolter and Chainsword down. We've got to represent. I think the convention was said to be over 8,000 last year (I'm sure it was much more this year, frankly it's gigantic now). So, can we compete with the fantastic castles and sweeping imagery of titanic Sigmar displays? Can we compete with the near-golden demon winning paint jobs of kill team team events? No. But, I can give it all I've got. How it Ends. As to the Adepti-cup we got invited to the showcase. That in itself feels like a big honor. On Saturday night, invitees line up their armies and get judged (this year by Sam Lez, Courtney Devries, and other big names in the miniature world). We didn't place. Which, if I'm honest the rushed work on this really did show up close. If i only had another week or two... But... Fear not brothers! In the end we did take best display in the team tournament. Lots of displays were amazing. Like really really great stuff. This was the hardest competition I've ever been in (well except that one year where a necron player built a digital board that interacted with QR codes on models., that was genuinely insane). We got real lucky. On to the Display. The team wanted a 'Pacific Rim' movie theme. I didn't really know the movie, but the team was set on it. So that's what I went for. For today's entry, I think I'll just start with the water effects problem. I wanted each section of the board to have some kind of 'showstopper' element to it. Here are the main points on the board: Rock formations + Hangar (with fog machine)+ Reaver Titan Landing pad (rotating lights)+ Void Shield Generator (working lights) Crane + Billboards and Terrain kits Wall Sections, AA guns Ocean Effects + Statue of Liberty + Kaiju (Giant Nids) Vintage Monster Movie Posters + skullls Space and Transportation. So my jeep only fits about 38.5 inches wide, 31 high, and 61 inches deep. This board had to be broken in to at least 3 parts in my mind. The full statue of liberty had to be cut down down. I made my own base for it. This was a filament 3d print. So it had a lot of lines. This required automotive primer and sanding. it did get fairly smooth though. I went with Vallejo for the copper. Using some dark blue under coating in the shadows the patina really jumped out. I should have added seaweed and bird poop along with drawing a lot more into the highlights and shadows. But... time is short. Good enough for now. But we did get hurt in the ultimate judging for painting. I keep kicking myself for not starting on the board earlier in the year. Pro Tip: always measure 3x. And, after you've measured go and fit it into place as a trial run anyway. Turns out my jeep door takes up another 4 inches when closed... Display Base The display board was based around the idea of a sea wall. We envisioned monsters coming out of the water. So, for practicality of transport i kept the wall separated and disassembled. I constructed a base for the wall with room for the giant door to move and open. Water Effects The key to the whole project was a youtube video of a guy who built a wizard's tower and made huge waves really pop. I loved it, but could i do it??? It was at that point i figured we had a cool enough idea to actually make this board. He however used resin, which he poured on plastic sheet/bags then just before fully curing he found it flexible enough to fold into wave shapes to be mounted on his board. His project was positively amazing. I do not like resin though. I figured I'd try something cheaper: Caulk, silicone type 1. It's super sticky and also miserable to work with - but only to a point. Using a tongue-depressor/popsicle stick you can smooth it out. I used about 5 units/pipes of caulk on this board. I've seen people use caulk to make molds (which is also miserable). Basically you can fill a bowl with water and dish soap, inject the caulk and then start to work it. The idea is that it's not supposed to be sticky. I never got it to work. So i just spread it on the table. Now, the caulk is unruly. It needs to be smoothed out. The trick is to work in layers. Layers here - unlike painting - take a loooong time to dry. But, you can get great effects. Over the top of the caulk I just used super heavy gel medium (or you can buy super expensive model supply wave effects if you want...). Now, there's another important point here. Ultimately i painted several coats over this caulk. This means the transparent properties of water effects that i thought i needed were not really needed. See-through transparency is important for things coming out of the water - alien arms, legs, etc. But, by and large i'd say sculpt heavy waves in air-dry clay over crumpled tin foil. This would be very inexpensive. Only a small thin layer of caulk then water effects over that. The Fear. I will say, putting the caulk down was a very nervous moment. I felt like if it didn't work we were absolutely sunk and I'd have ruined a lot of time and effort... Painting Water Here you can see I'm coming in with Kroxigor Scales and Akhellion Green (which is inexplicably a deep blue...). You could use any paint you want really. I thought about doing more of a muddy water, but i figured it wouldn't translate well in miniature. I wanted deep ocean blue. Interestingly since i had used various wave and water effects some were not dry. Woodland scenics actually goes on white. So at various points while painting you could see white streaking under the waves. I guess what i'm saying is that there is definitely a cool effect just waiting to be captured by a better painter. Anyway, i came back over the tops with white. I got a bit careless here and should have used some masking (time crunch was really really bad though at this point). Below here i had mapped out all the colors. This ended up being unnecessary as i used a lot of paint on the waves themselves. Depending on your strategy you may well want to 'underpaint' like i did here though as you could have a board where it does show. Ok, this part was the show time moment. I used 3-4 types of woodland scenics water effects. None of them were super necessary. Just get some superheavy gel medium of any brand (MIchael's, Hobby Lobby, etc). If it's clear that's better as it's easier to see what you are doing. Most of them are white until they dry. So, below here i have just the normal water effects. This stuff is only good to be poured maybe 1/8inch. It also doesn't make waves. You can pour it out on plastic to make waterfalls and such as it is flexible. Anyway, you gotta mix this with the snow flock to make the white caps on the waves. This is messy. The super heavy gel might have been better, but I ran out of most of it. This was good enough. The ratio of mixing is really up to you. If you go more heavy on the water it'll be like a slush. If you go heavy on the snow flock it'll be super detailed - but it won't stick to anything. So, I kind made a slush to spead on the wave, then made a snow heavy batch to spread on top of that to get a lot of detail and contour. This one is just going back to show the design layout. I was originally going to put all turrets out there, but somehow I could only find 3 vengeance batteries. As they are $250+ on ebay now i'm not buying more... Anyway, i would later find that statue of liberty STL and was thrilled. I will say building my wall was actually a complete disaster. I'll have to do a separate section on that. The STL was great. It solved the problems, but I'd originally planned a very different wall. Here are the experiments on the water effects. Early colors were off. Early texture experiments started to show some promise very easily with rapids/wave texture just by tapping the popsicle stick on the water effect. Here i used super heavy gel. One major problem though, which persisted all the way through was wave design - straight lines hitting shore seemed ok, but waves are actually very complex patterns. I never did get it quite right. However, with some reference photos and working in layers i think anybody could beat me here. It's totally doable. As I looked at the board more i realized that you basically look at where the wave hits and where it would bounce off to. Just keep layering. This photo shows how textured the caulk is naturally. So this is just me smoothing it out as best i could. I will say if you sat with it and kept combing it up ward for hours until it dried you could probably get some neat effects - just super tedius work though. And, why not just go over this with gel medium to smooth it? Way easier solution. It was here i felt the colors were coming in right. I felt we could do the project. In hindsight... this was only 3/4 to 1 inch tall. Meanwhile my waves on the board are 3-4 inches tall. I think my waves are a bit thin and should instead be beefy and fat. Admittedly that'd have taken another couple barrels of caulk, but it'd have looked cooler. Ah, the last photo before the caulk went down. A tense moment... Ok, thanks for reading. I think I'll stop at water effects here. I'll have to do separate entries on the other stuff. Electronics is not my strong suit and we brought in legos for the win!

Today's WarComm article just straight out called me out... "After all, if you really like sneaky Space Marines AND heavily armoured elites, why should you have to focus on just one?" Well damn.....I love Terminators, Scouts, and Phobos marines. So how does this work? "Depending on the size of your game, you’ll be able to choose a number of Detachments based on their Detachment Point cost, ranging from 1 for those with gentler rules or narrow unit focuses, to 3 for those that affect your whole army with significant boosts." So I now can take 1st Company Task Force and Vanguard Strike Force, possibly. "The new edition introduces the Upgrade tag on some Enhancements, which means they can be applied to up to three non-Character units while only counting as a single choice – though you will need to pay their points costs individually. This gives you even more ways to personalize some of your favorite units and mark them out as more elite or experienced warriors. Great for both gameplay and narrative purposes!*" Really an interesting idea. Helps with the narrative idea I have about my 1st Company Captain in Terminator Armor personal Retinue having swords instead thunder hammers. "Characters that join units will now be designated either Leader or Support, and a unit can have one of each attached to it.** Some armies could do this before with special rules – such as for Space Marine Apothecaries – and now it cleans it up for everybody. You also pick which units they join when you build your list, rather than at the start of the game, which, let’s be honest, most of us were doing anyway." Again calling me out. Characters have squads assigned to them during list building, before the game. "Finally, Detachments will also grant you one or more Force Dispositions that you’ll pick from when building your army. There’ll be five in total, and when you get to the tabletop, you’ll compare yours to your opponent’s to find out which mission you’ll both be playing. " I like this style to pick missions. But.... "There’s loads more to talk about as far as missions are concerned, so check back in with us tomorrow for a first look. Otherwise, the rules for building your army will be comfortably familiar, so you can focus more on coming up with cool thematic armies and mixing Detachments that call to your hobbyist soul" * And opening up new possibilities for conversions! ** Leaders can run around on their own if they like, but Support units must be attached to a bodyguard. Important distinction. Now I wonder if this will signal the end of my Exorcists. as they were all Phobos, and my Howling Griffons are Terminators and scouts.

Hi Folks, And what about homemade terrain? I have started talking about it there: In general anything special and personnal (in terms of scenery) will require being able to adapt oneself, find new solutions by proposing taylor made templates… an example bellow is my elevated road; it requires 3 large rectangle templates. Very specific? May be, unless we will require adapting ourselves to this new rule setting. But does it needs to be depicted as a terrain? Maybe rules will clarify it in the future, if it is assimilated to a hill covered by some specific rules for example. Or it will be a neutral part, with only terrain area associated to another stuff set on top of it (wrecked stuff for example)… But in general, many of existing elements we may own could be combined on a template or be set on combined templates. Dragon teeth for example – and this even goes in the sense these elements are supposed to be set on a battlefield… Needs stuff to populate the back of the template Fits. No need to do much more really. Or? A very convenient piece of scenery that can be adapted to sizes Sometimes it fits even if the design was not made on purpose It is good to be what you are supposed to be. This is what I meant by stating that " adaptation will be required" Concluding remarks: Although non exaustive (I do not own all and every item of terrain sold by GW over the past years and I haven't checked all the terrain I own neither) this inventory may bring to some concluding remarks, as far as we might conclude anything based on the (limited) current info available: 1. The trend may be toward smaller terrain stuff, especially to populate the 6" by 4" template size. 2. Lines are not that new but may be tricky if one wish something more developed than just a wall. 3. For existing collections, scenery “fillers” such as crates and drums or small piles of debris can be invaluable to improve the outlook of the areas and define better their edges. 4. Trees are “One size fits All”. This is a clear invitation for a revival of Jungle boards à la Catachan Codex. Nostagia… It also reminds us that terrain area are in no way a “new thing” 5. The era of big terrain is probably over, or at least will be limited, except for some very specific combinations of the biggest rectangular shapes. Yet it will limit the number of such elements to probably one or 2 main figures. Future proposed layout may however change the distribution of sizes or includes new ones. A great way to customize rules and layout for missions à la Cityfight or Apocalypse! Wait and see what GW will bring us for missions beyond “standard” ones. 6. Can we expect a revamp of the ranges for terrains? In a certain measure yes, but not that much as most kts already fits into the templates. Most but not all, some “classics” are a tad bigger… especially Sector Administratum. How will this be handled while these ruins and building are poster kits for GW? 7. Printed areas (reversible for triangles) have the potential to improve the outlook of any table. But maybe clear acrylic will be favored by owners of collections of terrains? It is my way (probably) Terrain area are not a new thing. The real new thing is that they become Objectives too. It may be a game changer in proportions that remain to be assesed. At the moemnt there are more questions than answers such as: "will we get other special ruels per type of terrain ("hazardous terrain" anyone? "hills" maybe? other specific defensive bonuses beyond the "hidden" new rule?...)", "how will the "sticky objective" rules for unist be affected/would these units be impacted in a sense or another?"... No option than waiting for the full corpus of rules, knowing that we are a few weeks away from the release and that we have had so far very few insight on rule changes, meaning that the focus on the terrain from last week may eventualy be a non event vs. other things thta may come to light... That's all folks PS: Am I out dated? Nope, you still have Necromunda and KT to shine!

Hi Folks, While I have had an insight on the potential impact of the teased terrain area templates shared by GW on WarCom (#New40k – Take cover with updated terrain rules) and in line with the rule changes for 11th, I kept on playing with my mobile phone and cardboard templates, just to see how my more “corporate” pieces of terrain fit in this whole perspective. Let’s have a look. 1. Battle for Maccrage One of my favorite set. The crashed Aquilla lander was one of the most characterful set issued ever. Even if very narrative and of limited impact gamewise as the debris offer limited challenge as LoS blockers. But the story behind was great. This kit suffers a lot with the new templates and is clearly challenging fo fitting it into the new frames. Yet it is not impossible. Crashed stuff requires tricky arrangments... And as far as electric fence and beacon are concerned, these are great line or 40mm objective marker (not shown). 2. 3rd Ed starter I do not follow a chronological order; indeed “Maccrage” set was 4th Ed and these elements bellow are 3rd. But it doesn’t really matter. This kit will be perfect for any area with corners marked with ruins, trees that can do almost anything and barricades or tank traps for small terrain elements. For ruins some generic pics of any other type of ruin will give the same render... see other sections. I can see trees making a come back on table... being a very versatile element 3. Kill zone Sector Munitorum Containers are the broadest solution for medium size rectangular areas. Combinations of multiples containers and servohaulers or crates will allow filling the largest templates. You can do almost anything. Armoured COntainer is the new Lego brick 4. Kill zone Fronteris and Nachmund Kill zone fronteris building fit large rectangle, even if there are some room in front. They also fit the combined triangles. Fence do great lines. Their combination will be needed to build an array of lines and a grox corral. This will lead to table designs less symmetric excepted in special designs. Anteanna does its role on a small rectangle. Landing pad is borderline. It fits only on combined triangles, even if it is a little bit oversized. But it is more or less OK. Fits, fits, fits ... err OK, fits 2 is too long, 1 is OK. These lines are going to be a touchy topic This series of scenery elements perfectly fulfill most not to say all of the new terrain features we could associate with the new templates. That's all for the moment. More to come. See you

Just got some bits in and went on a little building spree. Included in the order was a single stele from the Necron Convergence of Dominion- did not really realize how big they were. It will still work for the base of my Nigthbringer count-as, but might just have to make the angle it is resting on a little more extreme, as it being 7 inches tall itself means that it is almost as big as the Nightbringer alone. So, that is on my project log to potentially get done next month. The rest of the order was a AoS Daemonsmith that I think just looks cool and will work great as a Grimnyr (though I need to get some COGs to go with him now), a 30k DA body, some Necromunda Hired Guns, and the Sanctificer killteam. Grimnyr Pretty happy with this very, very simple conversion. The base model has so much swagger that I didn't need to do anything other than put on an Ironkin helm and then give him the fire-hand/staff that are options for the Daemonsmith kit (pretty sure that it isn't a legal AoS loadout, but it looks cool). DA Decided that I wanted to give my Riven some DA units beyond just the Lion (and occasionally dropping in some HH termies as Deathwing), so I was looking around. I'm not super stoked on the Inner Circle Companions models as I think they are ok but not how I really expect the Risen to look like. The HH Deathwing Companions fit that bill much better, and they even are armed with a bunch of swords to make it closer to what they should be. So this was a tester model before I went whole hog and bought a bunch more and I think it worked alright. I'll probably get a couple of sets of the Companions to max out two 6man ICC squads. Necromunda brats I like the idea of the noble Houses sending some of their troublesome scions down to the underhive and having them fight their way up. Nothing too special here, just a swap of weapons on the female to give her a plasma pistol and powersword. Sanctifiers A great set of Eccleasiarchy-aligned crazies, and really the only thing I did was switch up the heads for the models. I'm not a fan of the preacher's big cowl variants, so gave him a more subtle head, and the others I just switched around till they spoke to me. These will be painted up for the 12MoH campaign.

Hi folks, I am still working on my bitz box cleaning. While I have focused on the major volumes (Paretto approach) in the initial stages, while I get closer from the end of the pile, I have changed my scheduling approach, working on some small, sometimes self standing, miniatures. I have for example a lonely Ork, a ooP CSM Raptor sergeant… and parts of the original Cypher miniature. Parts as I miss the plasma pistol and the back-pack. The latter has been used on a SM kitbashed Chaplain years ago. As for as the pistol, it is… somewhere. Probably. After diving into my bitz box I recovered some parts of various origin to be used for kitbashing the model. Instead of doing another SM, I have decided myself for a proxy Inquisitor. The Robe and the grim hooded face helped in making my decision. That and the recent work I have done on a small allied contingent based on RT entourage from Necromunda miniatures and =][= henchmen. An Inquisitor was a good add-on. The missing arm was recovered from bitz from HH SM sprue and FW resin bitz: a good old thunder hammer. Pauldron is from the vehicle sprue from SM range; as my allied contingent goes along AdMechies, I had previously defined a narrative with my =][= force being associated to Ordo Machinum : cyborgs obsessed by gathering of lost (xeno? heretek?) technology require being supervised. Do we all agree? Back pack is an old one with built-in banner pole. Afterall, Inquisitor hide in the shadow but wander the battlefield with big sigils and banners as invitation to shot them down… The inquisitor will be named with a very close reference to an infamous French inquisitor who developed his dark legend by a large scale witch hunt (Nicolas Remy - 900 trials for witchcraft and demonic acquaintance between 1577 and 1592). Ordo Hereticus or Malleus would have been a better affiliation maybe? Whatever, his proxy in the 40k setting ends up in an Ordo Minoris, satellite of Ordo Xenos. So let’s introduce Niklas Raymi : It is the first time I’ve painted a robe à la Dark Angels’ style. Black armour is a reminder of a close bond to the militant arm of the Ordo Xenos (a.k.a. Deathwatch) and red on pauldrons remind close “relationships” with AdMech. This model closes my April pledge for 12 MoH’ s challenge. As far as my Imperial Agent faction is concerned, I guess I have finished my hobbying journey with them so far. Let’s now have some games and only then I will see if I stay like that with these or if I add more. But it is not my top priority atm. See you. PS: guess what: I found back the lost plasma pistol arm...

I know I haven't been posting like I used to, as my mental health hasn't been all that awesome lately. A bunch of stuff I expected to occur in life went the opposite way. So I built a little (finished my ODST Tempestus Aquilons), painted a little and withdrew into myself and haven't played a game of 40k or Kill Team in a while. Recently, I've decided that I'm going to build the army I always wanted for years, but could never afford. Plus I listened to others who said it was dumb, or not competitive, or various other reasons not to build it. I fell in love with the War of the Webway in the Horus Heresy novel Master of Mankind. It had Custodes, Fallen Knight Houses, Mechanicus, Titan Legions, the Emperor all fighting in the most bizarre locations possible against insurmountable odds. I absolutely loved it. I've never played Horus Heresy and no one in my area plays either... But. I thought it would an awesome 40k army. So that's what I'm building. Right now, I have absolutely no idea how to build that, but I did preorder the Legio Custodes Battle Group. 12 Custodian Guard, 1 Callidus Grav-tank, 1 Dreadnought, and 1 Shield-Captain, all for 255 bucks. It sits around 900 points in 40k terms. The Internet says I need Sisters of Silence, Assassins, an Ordos Xenos Inquisitor and other useful stuff. I want to wedge in a Knight. Is this a good idea? Probably not. I'm terrible at picking out color schemes. And will want to create an army that looks like it could have been in the War of the Webway, but is playable in 40k. I've spent too much time researching whether this unit fought on Terra and if they survived into the current timeline... (Thinking that I should maybe have a unit seconded to a Titan Legion, then I know that I'll never be able to duplicate the Legion Heraldry and then move on). It's all a little obsessive. And probably not the best for me. So I'm asking for help. Any suggestions on how to reasonably build this fever dream? Colors, units, allies, anything you can fill in takes one more piece of anxiety away.

So Update time Belial is in hand, so New Captain to replace Levithan Captain Howling Griffons Dice are supposed to be here today Ordered both Iron Hands Characters Ordered Land Raider For my local Gaming Groups upcoming narrative campaign, I need to focus on building/ painting my 1k list so the list I am leaning towards to Running a Terminator LT and a Terminator Apothecary as my HQs. Starting highlighting the colors Starting to block out colors for LT

Hi folks, DISCLAIMER: No link to be found with my recent paint jobs on inquisition and inquisition-like organizations. For them ignorance is power. To be applied to all and any of the other ones except the wise =][= itself. This is more related to the capacity you (I) have to control yourself (myself). Specifically, as a matter of compulsory purchases. I have faced this dilemma recently as I have been very tempted to buy the Aeldari Corsair box. A good bargain was offered by a reseller and the box was at 160€ more or less. A real opportunity. I almost hit the purchase button but at the last minute I've refrained. Because of a single question that came to my mind: do I need this? I already have difficulties to align a Aeldari force of 1500 pts out of my 4000 pts gathered collection for a single game, do I need extra 700/800 pts? Of course the miniatures are gorgeous and can technically fill tactical roles that are missing. But is a tactical role that does never hit the table really missing? Of course not. I therefore scanned the content of the box and I have asked myself what might be the content of it that I would really commit in the medium range? The answer that came was a pair of Starfangs, Yriel and maybe one or two units of Skyreavers - most of the box in fact. Not this one... But will these need to be bought now (and should it include also Karseth and one more Voidscarred unit)? I had to conclude that it was a big No. At short term only Yriel could be in fact on the rooster list, but more for a painting project than for a gaming purpose. I therefore gave up the idea of the box, knowing that the units I have in mind will still be available with a decent discount on a stand alone basis later (To understand better that statement it has to be considered that, for miniature collection, Medium range scales for me in a 2 to 4 years row. It would even not be surprising if I might decide myself at dawn of 12th Ed probably...). This is the second time it happens to me this year. A few weeks earlier it was with the Battle-pilgrims and Vulturax automata. The price reduction was so appealing that it made me feel like it was not that important paying a little bit more than a bare Vulturax model if I had also 16 footsloggers and a Marshal. But I do not play HH (yet) with AdMech and all models that could have been easily proxied from this box are either fully sourced in my 40k army (I already have 3 Marshals) or are not that needed atm as I still have backlog to paint (why would I store for months a Vulturax as a potential Fusilave proxy if I am going to build it this summer? Why would I proxy Skitarii Vanguard with Battle Pilgrims as I never field all the Vanguards and Secutarii I have?). Once again I had deliberately occulted the fact that the bargain at online reseller will still be there in a few months for the Vulturax. No need to hurry. Even if this bargain will probably be lower in a few weeks... ... Neither that one ... But reaching this awareness has not been that of an easy task; the way it stepped was more likely related to asking myself: “You have to choose between buying models for ToW and finishing these 2 army of yours you game with monthly, or keep on buying in all directions stuff you do not need”. Compulsory purchases used to be my way of doing during 15 years (this is how I have started Aeldarii when they were still called Eldars). Then I had a long hiatus of 10 years with limited purchases. Over the past 4 years I have managed canalizing my bad habbits. It is certainly not now that I should fall back in that bad practices again... I want here to thank Saint Wallet and Holy Amex for reminding me the basics of proper cash flow management… The result has therefore been unexpected: I went back building up a list of purchase, rating priority orders and even looking for alt sources. SOmething I did not do for 10+4 years. And even before it was done without real purpose or backbone. Hunting bargains through Ebay (sometimes), Resellers (often), and (for ToW) 3rd party models is now part of the process. These sources clearly compete with official GW channel and sometimes even beat them in quality and often prices (com’on!: 100€ for a unit of 16 slayers (inc. command group)? Being genuine models of Warhammers’ Mecca is certainly not a sufficient enough reason for justifying this price. And what to say of a 5 men strong unit sold 50€ - 10€ for 5 g of plastic??? It is not that I am not greedy but...). And if I have a list, what is written on it for 40k? - Yriel - Dark Reapers And later: - Dark Eldar Reavers ... But these, maybe. Nothing more... Until release of the new AdMech Hastarii models and IK Destrier. And even there, it will this time depend on the rules. This has been a serious reduction, hasn't it?. Will I hold the bar? What is remarkable though is that I did not set any date in front of these entries. So it remains a relatively opened wish list that may evolve in the next months; I haven't bought anything for a while ('xcepted 2 MTO pieces on scenery in December that have been delivered last week) and I am still working only with models and kits from on my backlog. But I feel like I might commit these purchases rather sooner than later... See you. Future will tell

Have you ever wanted a unit to work in your army but never could? Like a unit or character that you love in the lore, but because the game, aren't able to make it work. I have this feeling about World Eaters Terminators. I love terminators, no doubt about it. When my brother bought box of 2nd edition loyalist terminators, they brought fear into my then Dark Eldar force. That thick 2+ save was a menace, until i got some Incubi. - When I started my World Eaters collection, I of course wanted Terminators too. They were suppose to be the elite of the elite. Body guards of the Chaos Lords. So i got these guys. If you notice there weapons are all over the place, you got a pair of combi-bolters, combi-flamers, combi-melta, a power fist, a chainfist and a reaper autocannon. A very jack of all trades with both anti-infantry and anti-tank weapons. While I did enjoy them, I would buy 3 more to make 8 (the holy number of Khorne), the mixed role weaponry made me don't want to use them. Then the meta would shift, into Terminator suicide unit (Terminicide units). Little 3 man anti-tank buster units that you deep strike in behind tanks, hopefully pop the target and then died from the counter attack. This seem like a joke to me. The uber elite terminators being used in such a expendable manner. I would then use Raptors in this Anti-tank role because that would make more sense the lore that a World Eater force might use Raptors in this way. So my Terminators got shelved and when terminators moved to 40mm base, i would then sell them. Then something would happen, Forge World released the Red Butcher Terminators in like 2014. I wanted them, but of course it was Forge World and therefore, super expensive. So I went to eBay, and found someone who was selling the bodies but not the arms or the bases. During the my Raptor crazed, I had a large amount of Lightning Claws laying around. I got 10 of them and I gave them pair of Lighting Claws. Soon after power weapons got changed to accursed weapons and lightning claws build got nerfed. When the World Eater Codex was announce, everyone was hoping for Red Butchers. Then the Eightbound were released, everyone scratched there heads. The Eightbound and the Exalted Eightbound have taken the spot that the Terminators used to have, or at least what we wanted Red Butchers to have, as a heavy assault unit. Now Terminators are in this strange spot now rules wise. They are not the best unit in melee, and they do have some shooting, but its not great shooting. These terminators are also showing there age, The new berzerkers are taller than these fellows and I just don't use them. So I'm thinking about selling them, with or without their arms. I haven't made up my mind. Thanks for reading my rantish ramble. More World Eaters are on the way

Hi Folks, This is the second entry related to the topic. First can be found here: 1. Vertigus, Bheta-Decima and Charadon – Mechanicus sector like stuff Generally speaking all items from these series will fit the templates. There are however some comments. First about gantries: if they fit the largest line, the amount of these is rather imited atm and as such the over representation of gantries will tend to disappear of be reduced. Unless it is combined with other kits such as ferratonic reactors. Gantries (only support show) fits if straight The ferratonic reactors, if we talk of these now, are in an uneasy position: they fit 6" x 4” but adding structures rapidly increase the size of the template needed. And if a platform such as the one from Bheta-decima is used, then the model is clearly out of the smallest template. It really needs more space than this small rectangle 6" x 4"... ... So does it (Why can't this pic be bigger???). This 6" x 2" is definiticely too narrow Pipes are great lines, even if they are not always that perfect vs. sizes proposed. A single pipe is too short and once combined with other elements they can be lightly too long… Plasma dissipator goes well on small rectangle and the big reboiler too. Adding a chimney complete the outlook of the area. Small 6" x 4" rectangles Pipes will always be pipes. And lines are OK Dissipators on a 6"x4" (plus a Maccrage set tank trap on a 6"x2") The Energy hub from Bheta-Decima season (my second fav scenery after crashed Aquilla lander) will become what it was supposed to be: a big centerpiece that will require 2 big rectangles. Overwise it ends out of the area defined by 2 combined triangles.. The plasma container fits a small rectangle if one ignore the stairway. Big center piece with confortable surroundings... Not a single inch left free. But it fits in 6"x4" In general it fits. But some elements of terrain look dated once you compare them to the new rules. Let say they can be used but I would not be surprised if they end up being phased out from the pictural staging used by GW for depicting boards and gaming settings. 2. Volkus Volkus introduces terrain elements that fits perfectly (L shape ruins), debris that will complete any shape nd big building that fits just within the templates. Here again the terrain rules looks designed to absorb these recent kits. I am Volkus, but I could have been Sector Mechanicus We all fit, even if the use of debris for small 2" large barricades is may be not the best use 3. Others and bigger stuff (Derelict Manufactorum, Sector Administratum…) Necromunda market goes well with large line and small rectangle. Other stuff, sized as per container or over standard elements of scenery also fit well. No issue there... ...Neither there Careful building will be require not to exceed sizes... Some will still be oddballs or to be set inside another piece of scenery But bigger elements such as Sanctum, Derelict Manufactorum… can be a little bit oversized vs. templates. Even by combining templates, they will not fit in all cases but only under specific combinations. From a mission design point of view, this may limit the options and opportunities as a combination of 2 big rectangles looks the main (not to say only) possibility for these models that will become center pieces. Sanctum Administratus for example will require 2 big rectangles. It would have fit better with a wiser arrangement of templates for example setting them side by side on the SMALL side. But it is still 2 big rectangles used... Looks like anything larger will be problematic in standard template distribution... That's all for the moment. More and some personnal conclusions latter See you

Hello Renegades and Heretics! This is the model project of my heretical Astra Militarum, The Blood Grey's and there witch coven allies The Bloodspeakers. If you want to know about the lore of these group that I have cooked up click on the link below. Bloody Grey's Lore Back in the day, My brother and I would play Combat Patrol, but this wasn't the modern Combat Patrol that we have today. It was a small scale 400pts games meant to be played in about 40 mins. We thought it was a cool way to start new projects. I would start my Tyranids, and my brother would start his Imperial Guard. I believe he started with Catachan Jungle Fighters. I remember flamer teams and jungle snipers, but it would morph into a Tank Company as our point level increased. With Russes, hellhounds and basilisks. My brother would later join the Navy, and he gave me his little tank company. It had about 20ish tanks and I would sell most of the company on ebay and trades. Mostly to fund my World Eaters and Tyranids. Then the era of Chaos Soup started. I wanna say it was 8th edition, but from what I can remember was that you could run Leman Russ tanks in a World Eaters list under the Chaos keyword using the Forge World Renegades and Heretics rules. By then I had sold most of the tanks. I think I only had these 2 tanks at the start of the Soup craze. They serve me well during those days. I then started adding infantry squads and heavy weapon teams. To make it look like a cohesive force I turned them into traitor guard and even made a little bit of lore to why these guys were following my World Eaters around. They were turning into a full army in their own right, not just some filler force to add some fire support to my World Eaters. At one point is was a mech-guard list with dudes in transports. This is one of the newer tanks that I added. The army is now what I call a standard Guard army. With large blobs of infantry and a few armoured assets to deal out the pain to the enemy. I still need more, another executioner is on the list, as well as the newer Rogal dorn. But with 11 edition coming I have pumped the breaks on buying any more models for the Bloody Greys. Once the fallout of new edition is settle, we will see if there's more room for more heavy metal.

So, I've been far too serious with my writing. I wanted a little fun. This is a passage about 329. It's as cheesy as you like. It was quite fun to go all in, full bore, to absolutely ham it up with the best of them. It was quite enjoyable. So, take it for what it is - an overblown passage glorying in the totally over-the-top narrative. Thoughts most welcome! ===== The first sign was the light. It came on above the bunker doors without warning, washing the concrete walls in a dull red pulse that seemed too slow for alarm and too deliberate for fault. Men looked up at it from tool benches and ammunition crates and half-finished conversations. Nobody spoke. The pulse came again. Red, then shadow. Red, then shadow. Piotr had been carrying a crate of feed belts across the floor. He set it down without meaning to, as if his hands had made the decision for him. The bunker had gone still in the way places only did when everyone in them had heard the same wrong thing and was waiting for the next. Then the engine turned over. The sound hit the room before most of them understood what they were hearing. It was not the bark of a starter or the cough of an idling carrier. It was deeper than that, heavier, as though something buried had just forced air back into itself after a very long time. The floor trembled. Dust leapt from the rafters. A spanner skittered off a bench and rang once on the concrete. At the far end of the bunker, 329 sat in its berth beneath the work lamps, black and immense and still half-hidden in shadow. For one heartbeat it looked unchanged. Then one of the Vulcans twitched on its mounting. No one moved. The red light pulsed again. The second engine note came harder. The V10s caught properly this time and the whole bunker filled with their roar. It rolled off the walls and came back thicker, a wall of sound that swallowed speech before it was made. Men nearest the berth stepped back on instinct. One crossed himself. Another simply stood with his mouth slightly open, rifle hanging from his hand as if he had forgotten what it was for. The first chain drew taut. Piotr had never thought about how thick those restraint links were until he saw them under load. They had always just been there, black with old oil and bunker dust, hooked into floor anchors sunk so deep into the ferrocrete no one questioned them. Now they stood out in a single brutal line from hull to floor, each link trembling under the strain. The tracks bit. Only an inch at first. Steel on concrete. A low grinding lurch more felt than seen. Then the Vulcans began to spin. That was when the dread truly arrived. The howl rose slowly at first, almost buried beneath the engine mass, then climbed through it, sharper and higher and impossible to mistake for anything except what it was: a weapon system coming awake. It cut through the bunker and into men’s bones. Piotr felt it in his teeth. He saw two troopers near the wall flatten themselves against it as if distance measured in inches might still count for something. Krystan ran for the blast doors. He came out of the side access at a stumbling crouch, boots slamming the floor, one hand catching briefly on the edge of a workbench before he drove on. He did not look at the men nearest him. He did not look at the chains. His attention was all for the door controls. He hit the release housing with his palm, hauled the emergency lever down with the other hand, and threw his weight into it. The shutters above the main doors juddered. Too slow. The first restraint failed with a crack of tearing metal and a spray of rust and stone. Not a neat snap. It ripped free of the floor anchor and whipped back along the concrete hard enough to leave a bright scar where it struck. Somebody ducked. Somebody else shouted something Piotr never heard over the engine. 329 leaned into the slack. Smoke poured from the exhausts in black, heavy folds. The hull shifted another fraction forward, then another, slow and terrible and entirely certain. The bunker had not become dangerous because the machine was firing. The bunker had become dangerous because the machine was moving and there was suddenly no doubt that it would keep moving. Piotr backed away without taking his eyes off it. Around him, the others did the same. No orders were needed. The lane in front of the berth emptied in seconds. Men knew better than to stand there and pretend courage had anything to do with what came next. The doors were half open when the remaining chains gave way. One anchor tore clean out of the floor and bounced once across the concrete. Another parted with a hard metallic report that vanished into the roar. For an instant 329 seemed to gather itself, not like a beast, not like anything alive, but like a mass of machinery resolving an obstacle and finding it insufficient. Then it came forward. The Vulcans’ scream climbed again. Dust boiled around the track guards. The turret traversed a few degrees as it rolled, not searching for a man or a face, but moving with the cold, unsettling confidence of something already deep inside its own logic. Piotr saw the red target laser flick once across the far wall, then disappear into the smoke. Krystan was still at the doors, hauling them wider because there was no other sensible thing left to do. Not because he had yielded. Because if he did not, that door was going to stop being a door. Daylight cut in across the threshold in a harsh white seam. 329 went through it. For one moment all Piotr saw was the top of the hull passing under the hanging lamps, armour plates shuddering under the loaded torque of the engines, smoke dragging behind it, one spinning barrel group blurring so fast it no longer looked made of parts. Then it was in the open and the bunker seemed to exhale around the space it had left behind. No one moved for a second. The red light kept pulsing. The roar receded by degrees as 329 rolled out into the yard beyond, but the howl of the Vulcans remained, high and terrible and impossible to hear as anything except promise. Somewhere outside, men began shouting. Not the steady cries of work or drill. The ragged, uncertain shouting of people who had just seen something emerge that should, by any sane measure, have remained buried. Piotr swallowed and found his throat dry as dust. He looked at the broken chains lying across the floor, at the gouges in the concrete, at the empty berth under the lamps. Then he looked towards the open doors and understood, with the sick clarity of a man who has just realised the rules are different now, that whatever was happening outside, the worst part of it had not been the noise. It was the certainty. For a few seconds before 329 had moved, it might still have been possible to believe it could be stopped. Now no one in that bunker believed that any longer.

There's a closeout sale on Vallejo Paints at Hobby Lobby. 0.99 each. I bought all of them left at my store: Will any of them help me paint my Custodes? 1 × Brass 1 × Bronze 2 × Flat Green 1 × Old Gold 1 × Gold 1 × Camo Dark Green 1 × US Dark Green 1 × Hull Red 2 × Dark Gunmetal 1 × Dead White $12.71 for the whole batch, not bad right?

I will be the first to admit, 329 is my pet tank. I try not to let it be the case, but I love the monster I have created. Unfeeling, unknowable, unpredictable. It is my Beast in the Basement. I wrote this short scene a few days ago while I was away. It'll not likely be included in the story, but was a fun exercise. Krystan is reviewing camera footage from the previous day. He's trying to work it out. 329, the unknowable puzzle. He doesn;t like missing pieces and he's trying to wrk it out. He never will, of course. I do like the line "Not because he had yielded. Because if he didn’t, that door was going to stop being a door." Quite pleased with that one. Thoughts, constructive criticism all most welcome. Thank you. ===== He waited until the bunker had emptied. The others had drifted off by then, back to watches, tools, food, argument, sleep. Krystan stayed where he was. Someone had cleared the maintenance bench for him without being asked. A lamp hung low above it, yellowed with age, throwing a hard circle of light over the recorder unit and the square of clean cloth he had laid beneath it to keep grit out of the ports. He had already checked the obvious things. No command input from the cradle. No manual ignition. No override key inserted. No remote wake order carried through the maintenance stack. That should have been enough. It wasn’t. He sat on the stool, broad hands on either side of the recorder, and listened to the bunker breathe around him. A fan turned high in the ducting. Somewhere beyond the wall, old pipework clicked once as the night temperature dropped. Beneath it all lay the absence where 329 had once sat. The berth looked wrong without it. Not empty, just wrong. He thumbed the unit on. The screen flared, dimmed, and resolved into a fixed internal camera feed from high on the bunker wall. The image quality was poor. Dust had filmed the lens. One edge of the picture had been browned by old heat. Below sat 329, enormous and still beneath the hanging work lamps, all mass and armour and dead paint. Krystan himself moved in and out of frame near the left track run, lamp clipped to his chest, one hand on a spanner, the other braced against the hull. The log stamp rolled into view. BUNKER CAMERA 03 LOCAL TIME INDEX: 04:17:09 VEHICLE STATUS: DORMANT CRADLE STATUS: UNOCCUPIED In the footage he leaned in to check one of the road wheels. Nothing remarkable. A man doing his work. Head down. Shoulders set. No ritual nor drama. Then the red warning lamp above the blast doors came on. Not flashing. Just lit. Krystan froze in the frame. On the bench, his hand tightened slightly against the wood. Overlay text appeared, sourced from 329's subsystems. LEGACY SUBROUTINE REQUEST SOURCE TREE: ARCHIVED / RESTRICTED AUTHORITY: UNRESOLVED QUERY: EGRESS PATH AVAILABILITY A second line followed almost at once. ACCESS DENIED BUNKER DOOR: CLOSED RESTRAINT STATUS: ENGAGED In the footage, he straightened and looked up at the lamp. He mouthed something. Then he turned towards the cradle hatch, then back to the door, then back to the hull again, already trying to think it through. The first movement came a second later. The right-hand Vulcan twitched a fraction on its mounting. A systems cascade rolled across the lower third of the screen. PRIMARY BUS POWER: LIVE SECONDARY GENERATOR: SPIN-UP TARGETING GIMBALS: INITIALISING BARREL GROUP A: INDEX TEST BARREL GROUP B: INDEX TEST The red lamp began to pulse. Once. Then again. Measured. Steady. Too slow to be a panic alarm. Worse for that. Krystan watched himself take one step back in the frame. He was not panicking. He could see the look on his own face. He stepped away, calculating, nervous, A shade of fear passed across him. DIAGNOSTIC QUERY OPERATOR COMMAND: NONE REMOTE COMMAND: NONE WAKE SOURCE: ARCHIVED / ACCESS DENIED Then the engine turned over. Even through the recorder’s old speaker, the sound came through ugly and huge. Not a clean ignition note. A deep mechanical punch that shook the camera on its bracket and rattled loose tools across the bench below it. Dust leapt from the beams. A coil of cable slithered off a crate and vanished out of shot. The exhausts coughed black into the rear of the bunker. PRIMARY GENERATOR: IGNITION SUCCESSFUL DRIVE TRAIN: LIVE MOBILITY STATUS: STAGED RESTRAINT LOAD: 12% On the bench, Krystan sat perfectly still. In the footage, he wasn’t still at all. He moved quickly now, not towards the cradle but across the bunker floor, angling for the blast-door controls. His head turned once as if still hoping for some obvious explanation. Breach alarm. Fault. Misfire in the dormant stack. Something. Whatever he thought then, the recorder did not tell him. It only showed him moving. The left track bit. Only an inch. But it bit. The chains took the strain and held. For the moment. RESTRAINT LOAD: 31% RESTRAINT LOAD: 44% RESTRAINT LOAD: 58% The hull shifted forward another fraction. The V10 engine roared. That was the part the recorder had held onto most clearly. The noise filled the bunker until there was no room left for anything else. Not speech. Not thought. Just engine mass and the rising mechanical whine as the Vulcans began to spin up, their terrible howl rising. BARREL GROUP A: 18% OPERATIONAL RPM BARREL GROUP B: 18% OPERATIONAL RPM EGRESS PATH: OBSTRUCTED ROUTE PRIORITY: SURFACE ACCESS In the footage, Krystan reached the blast-door panel and slammed a palm against the release housing. His other hand was already hauling the safety lever down. He did not stop to stare. He did not waste time trying to soothe the thing or understand it in full. He saw the load in the chains and the half-truth of the opening door and moved because he knew what would happen if he did not. The first restraint on the right side went, torn asunder from its anchor. A spray of rust and dust, then slack chain whipping back along the floor. RESTRAINT FAILURE: STARBOARD FORWARD RESTRAINT LOAD REDISTRIBUTION The hull drove forward another inch. Then another. The remaining chains drew taut in a single brutal line from floor anchors to towing lugs. Even through the grit on the lens, the tension in them was visible. Links trembled. Mountings shuddered. The whole berth taking the load. RESTRAINT LOAD: 83% RESTRAINT LOAD: 91% RESTRAINT LOAD: 97% Krystan was still fighting the door mechanism. The blast shutters juddered and began to rise. Daylight cut across the threshold in a pale seam. MANUAL EGRESS OVERRIDE: ACCEPTED BUNKER DOOR STATUS: UNIMPEDED At that exact moment the left-side restraint assembly failed. Two links parted. One anchor tore free of the concrete and bounced once across the floor. The camera shook again as the hull lurched into the slack. RESTRAINT FAILURE: PORT FORWARD RESTRAINT FAILURE: PORT REAR MOBILITY STATUS: UNRESTRICTED The bunker doors were only half open. 329 moved anyway. Slowly at first, then with the loaded inevitability of something that had already resolved the obstacle and found it insufficient. Smoke poured from the exhausts. Dust boiled around the track guards. The Vulcans were spinning faster now, their howl no longer buried beneath the engine but rising through it, sharper, more focused, the sound of a weapon system coming properly awake. EGRESS PATH: CONFIRMED CLEARANCE MARGIN: INSUFFICIENT PATH EXECUTION: CONTINUE In the footage, Krystan threw himself out of the machine’s path and hit the wall shoulder-first. He turned his face away from the exhaust wash and reached again for the emergency release, hauling the doors wider because there was no other sensible thing left to do. Not because he had yielded. Because if he didn’t, that door was going to stop being a door. The hull passed beneath the camera. For a moment the screen held nothing but top deck and smoke and the blur of one spinning barrel group along the edge of frame, too fast now for the eye to separate into parts. BARREL GROUP A: 64% OPERATIONAL RPM BARREL GROUP B: 64% OPERATIONAL RPM SURFACE ACCESS: CLEAR DEFENCE TREE: ACTIVE - ECM ACTIVE. ABLATIVE - ACTIVE. TRIGGER SOURCE: ARCHIVED / ACCESS DENIED And then 329 was gone. The last seconds of the feed showed only the empty berth, chains dragged broken across the floor, dust slowly falling back through the light pouring in from outside. Krystan stood in the doorway, one hand braced high against the frame, looking out after it. No command was entered. No explanation appeared. Only one final line remained at the bottom of the screen. OPERATOR STATUS: NOT PRESENT COMMAND: CLASSIFIED The log ended there. Krystan did not move for a long time. The recorder hummed quietly on the bench between his hands. Outside the maintenance room, somebody laughed once, far away, and a crate lid slammed shut. Human sounds. Ordinary sounds. Behind them all he could still hear that recorded roar in his head, the engine catching, the chains loading, the bunker becoming too small for what had woken inside it. On the screen the final frame stayed frozen: broken chains, empty berth, door open to the light. He reached out and rewound the log to the moment before the engine caught. Watched the red lamp pulse once. Then once again. He still did not know what had triggered it. Only that, when it happened, he had not had the luxury of understanding first. He had only had time to act. And he had.

Hi Folks, It has been a while that I have been thinking about it and the recent announcement of release for Yriel resumed this idea under the form of a small self-standing project: gathering the key Dramatis Personnae from the Ynnari narrative arc as a homogeneous collection of models. My Ynnari force is led by the Yvraine (IR$ tax) and I field the Yncarne as often as possible. But I’ve stopped myself there for a while. Now that Yriel has been released, I guess I might gather the 3 other key characters of the story line: Eldrad Ulthran, the Visarch and Yriel. The two firsts are just bellow in all their Ynnarian glory. And Yriel has just arrived in its box. My idea was to keep a link with Ynnari through colour scheme, while avoiding, if possible, over loading with red. And keeping a link with each character original background, i.e. Eldrad should remain identified to Ulthwee colour scheme. So, starting with Eldrad, some red robes (or part of his robes) were estimated to be enough. Rest of the model would stay linked to the Ulthwee traditional colors, black and bone. The model has been built with the holstered blade and spell casting hand gripping the streams of fate… For the Visarch, there are more options opened as I do not feel bound to any standard colour scheme (personal feeling). I have decided to move toward dark armor, like for an Incubi he used to be; with engravings stressed out with red. The cape is also going to be red or partly red. The helmet has been for a while a point of hesitation: Gold? Dark? Red? Whitish? Once again, I have decided to keep it linked with the Incubi, his previous affiliation, and go for a clear whitish helmet. This is the resulting pair of new models: Eldrad sticked to the plan. Even if it has since fallen from the table and the staff is broken. So glueing repairs needed tonight. I still hesitate adding some decals on the robes though. The Yncarne has also been kept close to the plan. even if I have been a little bit lazy with engraving and embossments taht do not sort out that clear in red. I have tried forcing the contrats on the pic by post processing but it is not that better in fact. Yet, on the table, the Visarch looks better than on the pic. Next step will be Yriel, the Pirate prince, who will follow a similar painting color design as for Eldrad: keep it deeply linked with his raiding party colors while adding only a spark of red to underline the association with the Ynnari. How? Future will tell. Further developments will be then possible, may be adding Lelith Esperax as a secondary character (even if she gets her own agenda) and Jain Zarr (but she will need a banshee bodyguard, so more money seen the current cost of boxed sets) … You will note that I stay deliberately One sided in this story: no antagonist, only characters joining (even if temporarily) the new born god side are considered… So no Drazhar planned. Yet none of these secondary characters is currently on my purchase wish list. See you soon with Yriel.

Hi folks, A small insight on my plodding along vow for 12 MoH 2026. among the uncontrolled growths of this project it is worth mentionning the addition of a set of second hand Ryza pattern ruins. These I believe were initially released in Moon Base Klaissus (or is it Kassius?) . They have been then sold as a separate boxed set (latter reworled and lossing some parts such as the barricade with briken door and the sas entry) and finally re-released through the Hachette suscription. As far as I am concerned, I believe that the one I bought on the second hand market/flee market from the attic was from the last batch (due to the burgundy colour of the sprues). Being second hand, some parts were assemblied, some were partly painted, some were iddle parts with missing counterpart... Indeed, the wall panels are assemblied by a pair of groove and counter groove (or opposable slits?) and I ended up with two large panels that were of the same kind. A good clue that the batch was heterogenenous. Other clues were some accessories from Battle for Maccrage set included, wall panels very similar to Ryza pattern ruins but released in other set of similary designed / getting their inspiration from the intial set (with a climax with Fronteris battle zone). But the bargain was attractive. As I recently bought a hand saw for PVC tube cutting, I was tooled up to hack and saw these ruins. Note that, due to the sheer thickness of the molded pannels, cutting with any unadapted toold could have been dangerous. I werefore cut were the slits were located and ended with the "end-of-pipe" buttress and the half ruin panel. Twice. Then superglue to build back the stuff and putty work to restructure the top of the ruin for compensation of the missing part (that should have been on the part of the ruin that never came...) Painting has been quite swift and rapid. I have already painted many kits of this type with my Fornteris STC bunkers, Ruins and Mekboy workshop. Only thing is taht I have changed a little bit the colour selection to get these ruines in the blueish plascrete tone I appreciate for my Sector Imperialis buildings. Recipe has even been simplified this time: I went Mechanicus Standard grey washed with Agrax earthsahde instead of sky grey washed with Basilicanum grey. Then the usual steps of dry brushing with the Fang, Russ Grey and Ulthuan grey. Plues detailling of a few metallic details and limited weathering. The modified kit ended-up like that: For sake of bitz managment and for getting a possible platform, I also used all my left broken floor sections left from the Fronteris kits. This has been a fast paint job, the longuest step being waiting for the putty to polymerize. ANd it leaves enough eleme,nts to get 4 ruined blocks that will fit with the new scenery shadow patterns proposed for 11th Ed... Next job will be different: some special characters for Aeldarii. See you

Hi Folks, After cutting in two an armoured container for my 12 MoH plodding along pledge, I stroke again. Lastentry was a kind of first time for me using med gauze as cammo net: Two out of One – something for my plodding along - Bouargh´s miniatures´ closet clean-up - The Bolter and Chainsword I've repeated the experiment but this time multiplying small stuffs into bigger deposits. The first test was with crates, that were simulated by styfoam block with a certain benefit. As previously, adding just a few genuine scenery elements strengthen the illusion. The third attempt was with drums. This time I even tried (not to forget) taking pic of the work in progress. The main DIY material was a PVC tube, with the almost ideal diameter of 15 mm. Cut in small parts it give an almost perfect 3D shadow shape of a drum. It is important not to forget painting (at minimal effort) the parts that will be underneath the cover as it might leave some transparency. But no need for nothing clean and detailled And as it is a dump, no need for being too clean and precise. on the table top, it is general outlook that matters, details not so much. You then apply the paint and PVA glue soaked gauze and you get that final effect (still under drying process when I shot the pic). One in one the final result is quite interesting, giving options for some 3 medium sized scenery elements out of a limited amount of genuine material: 1 container, 6 drums and 4 5 crates. Shouldn't I have had left over drums and crates from previous sprues, it means that this result is almost achievable with a single Armoured Container sprue. Plus all bits you might have here or there. Not that bad... (and if you work more precisely than I did, you could use halved genuine drums and reach the same result by proper positionning of the latter and of the gauze. And in that case a single sprue would be enough. as far as crates, 2 used ones are redundant and could have been saved) Time to shift to the next project: rescue operation of mistreated 2nd hand Ryza pattern set of ruins, including uneven wall panels that cannot be assemblied being groove and groove and not groove and tongue (it is what happens with stuff from the attic, sometimes it has losts parts and you need to work with the material you have for doing something out of these...) See you.

"Captain, incoming encrytped transmission from Mancora," said the Long Range Vox Operator toward the ships command dais. Captain Jeanne DeClisson was standing in her command dais on the bridge of the Howling Griffons Strike Cruiser Firefell, reviewing all the incoming reports. She stepped down and walked over to the Long Range Vox Operator, Hudsen, and looked at his screen. + + +TRANSMITTED: >>CLASSIFED<< + + + + + +RECEIVED: Strike Crusier Firefell + + + + + +DESTINATION: Ultima Segmentum + + + + + +DATE: M42 + + + + + +TELEPATHIC DUCT: Astropath >>CLASSIFIED<< + + + + + +REF: GD/90840958940324323432/OV + + + + + +AUTHOR: >>CLASSIFIED<< + + + + + +SUBJECT: >>CLASSFIED<< + + + + + +THOUGHT: Let the foe blunt their blades against our resolve. They will be ash and memories soon enough. -Macharian Duologues Chapter 61 + + + >>RESTRICTED ACCESS<< >>PROVIDE IDENITY<< >>CLEARANCE LEVEL 6 OR HIGHER<< Placing her signet ring in the decoder, the message decrypted. >>CLEARANCE LEVEL 8 ENTERED<< >>ACCESS APPROVED << >>PROCESSING<< >>ATTACHED SECTOR DATA DOWNLOAD<< >>PROCESSING<< >>DOWNLOAD COMPLETE<< She saw the information and turned to her aide Jensen and said "Inform the Ships War Council and prep the War Room. Riley, put me in contact with the 1st Company Captain." "Yes ma'am, " they both responded immediately. Riley and Jensen began taking care of the task she had assigned to them. Orders given and immediately followed. Captain Jeanne DeClisson thought of her younger days, leading up to her becoming an Inductee of the Howling Griffons Fleet. As a young married woman of nobility on Mancora, her husband was captured and beheaded by a rival kingdom. Instead of morning her deceased husband, Jeanne DeClisson went to war, against the rival king that had killed her husband. She raised a small fleet, had a few soldiers, sailors, and mercenaries she employed. She became a master of naval warfare. Raiding, pillaging, burning and sinking the rivals ships. The spoils of war going to the men she commanded. Often she would leave few witnesses to tell the story of her vengeance. She was a Lioness among Wolves. The allies to the King that killed her husband feared her reprisal so they soon stopped shipping supplies, food, fuel, anything that the King needed. The Howling Griffons took notice. A Noblewoman seeking revenge for her wrongfully executed husband. Under orders from the Chapter Master, the Librarius of the Howling Griffons orchestrated a private parlay between just the the King and Jeanne DeClisson. The rules were simple, come alone, unarmed to the Flower Fields and broker a deal to end the war. Upon arriving to the parlay alone, Jeanne DeClisson soon saw that the King did not come alone but with his full bodyguard. The King pulled a pistol to kill Jeanne DeClisson. Seeing the violation of the rules of parlay, five Howling Griffons Scouts appeared from nowhere, combat blades drawn. With a slight motion from the Scout with the bearded face the Kings bodyguard were immediately executed by the four other the scouts before the bodyguard could react. "I am a Scout Sgt of the Howling Griffons Chapter. The Chapter requested this parlay. I am the Representative of the Chapter on this parlay. You shall refer to me as My Lord," said the Scout Sgt. "You have violated the rules of the parlay. As such your title, your land, your wealth, and your life are now forfeit. Because of this and all the other crimes, including the murder and execution of innocent people, your family name, crest and castle will be removed from the history of Mancora," the Scout Sgt said as he pointed at the now former King. The former King began sobbing and begged for his life, dropping his pistol and falling to his knees. The Scout Sgt picked up the King's pistol and said "Silence!" The Scout Sgt turned to Jeanne DeClisson said, "You are to end your war, immediately, Lady Jeanne DeClisson. This is non negotiable. Do you accept this condition?" "Yes, my lord," she said as she looked towards the ground not making eye contact with Scout Sgt. "Good. Now that is done, you have 2 options for your future. One, remarry and become a wife of nobleman, raise a family, forget everything you have done, and try to live a peaceful life," the Scout Sgt said looking at her. "Or option two. You take this pistol, complete your oath of revenge by killing him, and then begin serving the Howling Griffons as Crewman on one our Strike Cruisers," the Scout Sgt said as he offered her the King's pistol. Without hesitation she grabbed the pistol and shot the former King in the head. She went to hand the Scout Sgt back the pistol. "It is yours, now. Remember how you earned it, as you were Lioness among wolves." he said to her. "Now you begin your next life evolution, Lady DeClisson. You will serve the Howling Griffons Chapter," a voice said in her head as figure in blue armor and yellow robe with a large staff walked towards her. "Ma'am, the 1st Company Captain, is on the vox for you," stated Riley. "My Lord De Sescas, we have received new mission orders, from Mancora," she transmitted into her vox.

So once again I used the new FLGS Learn to Play/Combat Patrol day to teach another vic… player how to play via Combat Patrol. They took Strike Force Octavius so instead of using my newly completed Medusan Redoubt I used the Vanghast Swarm to go classic mode. Medusan Redoubt (IF edition) I split the termaguants up, had the barbguants and a termaguant unit hold home while the rest readied to surge forward. Opponent placed the terminators with the captain in reserve with the infernus and librarian near their home objective. I got first turn and surged forward, they did overwatch on my prime, only managing to do a few wounds. After some fire from the barb and termaguants killing two infernus, the prime and leapers (who had started at a forward position) pounced and wiped the squad out. The librarian came around the corner and after lack luster shooting, charged the prime and killed it. Figured I play a little so I backed the leapers to another objective as the psychophage came forward. The phlegm did nothing and I failed to make the short charge to the librarian. The librarian moved forward towards the forward termagaunts, this time the phlegm did a minor wound on the librarian who then killed a few guants via his storm bolter and caused a wound on the psychophage with a mind bullet. First strike melee Fast food? The captain and his terminators arrived, dropping in my back line. They fired and killed a few more of the guants the librarian shot at. They them charged in to squad guarding my home objective. The librarian tried to charge the giants he was targeting, but the casualties opened up the charge distance and he failed to get the extra distance. The captain and terminators of course murdered the guants, which I Teeming Broods a near full (9) unit into reserve. They arrived just off my opponent’s home objective. I focused fire on the terminators, after all the fire only wounding 1, no kills. The newly arrived guants managed to charge into librarian, spanning over his home objective, the psychophage almost failed to charge the librarian from near point blank range. It feed well, eating the librarian whole. My opponent was so far on VP at his point we were going to call it after the turn, which they had their final unit split fire to try and kill as much as possible and then was in position to charge the psychophage. Unfortunately they failed both charge rolls and game was called. Beating on the little guys. My opponent at least had fun and learn a few things. They were looking at starting orks, so I guess I better get to work on the ork CP as my opponent the prior week also is starting orks. Hopefully I’ll be able to test out the Medusan Redoubt this week. The berserkers for the Votann should be arriving this week, but I want to fix the Inceptors for my UM and finish Mordekai’s Judgement. Once that is done then I’ll get to work on the berserkers.

So continuing with the @Grotsmasha's Kill Team Campaign Challenge for April is a heavy. as the Celestian Insidiants do not have a "heavy" I am going with the Mortisanctus

Now with more scout action...... Chaplain Lieutenant Ancient

Firstly, mods, please deal with this in any way you deem appropriate. The passage below is loaded with my thoughts on the current situation and I wish not to disrespect my fellow Fraters. I wrote this late night in a moment of frustration, of anger, at things going on the the world at this time. For context, for those who have not followed my stories, the sound of a grenade launcher cocking comes from his Corporal, Łaska. ===== "Who the Hell do you think you are to come here, to come to the hall of the people and tell me I do not act in our people's best interests?" "I don't speak for your people. I speak for them," Michal looked to his right at the poor, chained bastards who had been picked up for loitering, sheltering with no home, veterans who had been kicked to the curb after their service. He cocked his pistol. "These are your people. You serve only those who speak in your ears loudly enough to hear. Now, look at them. Can you hear me?" "Guards, get this man out of here. I've had enough of this." The sound of the 280th's rifle bolts being cocked stopped the guards mid-step. "I think it's time for you to reconsider," Michal didn't look at him as he spoke. "No. I was chosen by the people. This is mutiny! I have authority here. And what? Who are you to come to my chamber with this? Leave. Now." "It's not me you have to worry about." Behind him came the sound of a rotary launcher being racked and readied.

Got the bits for the Nightbringer, but decided I wanted to up my game a little bit. So instead of just the Purple Sun floating with the puzzle/blackstone bits, I will take one of the Convergence of Dominion steles and use it as a base. Canted at an angle, I think it will sell the whole "C'tan that broke free" that my Necron stuff is going for. Plus, found some old FW scarabs that should make good basing material as well. Both of those are going to be shipped to me in the next couple of weeks and then the Nightbringer will come into being, as while I have the puzzle bits and Purple Sun I don't want to start building until I can fiddle with the basing bits and make sure everything works out properly. That's really the only thing I'm working on at the moment, as I just finished painting my Victrix Guard and have built all my Word Bearers but haven't started painting them yet- waiting on finishing up my Votann before I start the CSM. Thanks for looking!

+ THE SCARLET AND THE BLACK + 'Twelve High Lords, where a dead man rests, Yo ho ho and a bottle of rum, Drink and the devil had done for the best, Yo ho ho and a bottle of rum. Huron kill 'em all for the treasure chest, Yo ho ho, and a bottle of rum...' I have no Raiders and I must scream: Certain forum goers will know my undying love for the completely innocent and Imperial propaganda maligned, Lord of The Maelstrom by right, by the Emperor's Devine Will and Mandate, and by skilled force of arms and brotherhood, Lugft Huron. The Red Corsairs, unless you've been stuck in the warp, have had a bit of a make-over recently, and they're absolutely gorgeous. Huron's head? Well, it's a double-bagger, that one, but the Reave Captain is high on my list for flowers and chocolates. Anyway, I couldn't get my hands on the box, and the Raiders are too damn expensive, so I had to go and beg, borrow, steal and threaten, kill the moths in my wallet, and I managed to start making do with some decent deals on Mk II, Mk III and Mk VI Horus Heresy kits, with a CSM box tossed in. These are some of the results. As you can see, they're fairly rudimentary, but I'm trying my best to take design cues from the Raider models, including trying to build some bandoliers on the copious and thankfully bare Mk III plastrons. The objective is, of course, to reduce the amount of CSM rubbish on them, whilst also convincing the eye that they are, indeed, Bad GuysTM. I've got a few bits and pieces on order (mainly third-party bobs) that should go some way to sorting out a much better overall load for the models which add to the theme. Each of these models is uniquely kitbashed/converted, and I with the boxes, I have 50 marines at my disposal to continue the trend. I've assembled a collection of tools, parts and experience over the years, and finally, I've the lost the fear of cutting models up. The Mk VI's for example have suffered more horrendously than they did at Terra, with the sprue trembling at the sight of the razor saw. They're coming together, and I'm enjoying doing them. How the hell I'm going to paint them is anyone's guess, but I'll have a go, because the Red Corsair scheme is a magical bobbins device, where I can just splash the crimson and black wherever the hell I want. And Huron cried - 'I don't care who you are, here's to your dream!' And the Corsairs flocked to his banner, cheering with all their heart - 'Here's to you, Huron, and stolen dreams!'

Thunderkyn “The Sturm‑Bon” The Sturm‑Bon are the Gardhird’s storm‑callers, a Thunderkyn battery whose fire discipline is as precise as a lightning strike. Their name comes from the thunderous recoil of their weapons, a rolling boom that echoes across the battlefield like a brewing tempest. When the Sturm‑Bon deploy, the air crackles with charged particulates and the enemy quickly learns that cover is a suggestion, not a shield. They are the storm made manifest- sudden, overwhelming, and impossible to ignore. Steeljacks squad “Sondur‑Oath Wardens” Armed with volkanite beams that sear through armor and memory alike, the Sondur‑Oath Wardens serve as the Gardhird’s executioners of ancient vows. Their volkanite fire leaves glowing scars across the battlefield, each one a reminder of the oaths sworn after the Shattered Star’s fall. They advance with measured, relentless purpose, burning through anything that threatens the Kin. To face the Wardens is to feel the heat of a promise kept. Steeljack squad “Sondur-Oath Linebreakers” Where the Wardens burn, the Sondur‑Oath Linebreakers shatter. Built for brutal close‑quarters combat, these Steeljacks crash into enemy formations with the force of a collapsing vault‑door. Their plasma swords and auroch-pattern bolters are inscribed with the same oath‑runes as their volkanite‑armed kin, but their interpretation of that oath is far more direct. They do not hold the line; they end it. When the Linebreakers charge, the enemy’s will fractures long before their armor does. Einhyr “The Sol‑Hammer” The Sol‑Hammer are the Gardhird’s spearpoint, a squad of Einhyr Hearthguard who strike with the focused brilliance of a rising star. Their armor glows with radiant rune‑etchings, and their assault drops are timed to perfection with a sudden flare of light, a thunderous impact, and then silence as the enemy line buckles. To the Solbond Gardhird, the Sól‑Hammer are more than elite warriors; they are the incandescent heart of the oath‑march, the hammerblow that turns resolve into victory.

So this is the start of my narrative, I did a brief summary for the first post on the Dengamar Strife. Here's what I have written: If you want to know more about Gul Dumir and the forces of the Bloody Greys, Please Click Here More is on the way

Well, the rewrite is going well. It has given me the opportunity to revisit characters who need a little more polish and to drop those who are unnecessary. It has also given me the opportunity to add in characters I had in mind but couldn't quite work in. For those following the story, it's gone way off WH40K as to be almost unrecognisable. It was never the intention, but it feels like the right move. Certainly the bones are there, but everything built off it is different. I am looking forward to introducing a new character, one who embodies the "they bury their own" phrase. His is the squad's Padre, Jozef. I've worked hard on him, as I don't want a priest to alienate readers, so he is a dependable man first, padre second. I was inspired by the love and care of the FDNY toward their late Father Mychal Judge who was ministering to the people at the front line. I remember that day, as do all who were around then. and the image of him being carried out of the tower by his colleagues is one that will stay with me. I hope my Jozef is worthy of being a small and humble tribute to him.

To be the hammer of wrath among the faltering hordes To light the fires of Fury and Faith This is to be the Gyve The steady blade of the Coryphaus Exemplars of the Ebon Word, faultless obedience For they are the Gyve The Gyve, Bitter Legionaries The Gyve are the Ebon Word’s unyielding line-breakers, a kill-squad of bitter veterans who embody the creed of faultless obedience and the cold discipline of the Coryphaus. They fight as the warband’s immovable center, the steady blade that holds firm while the Choral Undue plunge ahead in furious descent. Their purpose is carved into their own catechisms: “To be the hammer of wrath among the faltering hordes… This is to be the Gyve.” The anchor of the Ebon Word, the disciplined wrath that steadies the warband’s advance, and the living reminder that revelation is carried not only by zeal, but by the unbroken will to endure. Kill-team Designations Sergeant Kordin Xal, known as the Grim Brutal force, contained malice Iron hand of discipline and resolve Bring the Word, destroy the unfaithful Doom-Augur Jar Talak Seeker of truths, diviner of dead fate Bringer of the damned souls Lord of the necrotic oaths Orduk of the Embers Of the Ashen Circle, removed and rebuked For now, the joy of burning Truth Destroyer of the armor of un-Righteous Gil Zavhon Let the Gods hear the sound of my boisterous prayers Layer the screams of the enemy with the fire of cannon Glory to the Iscarne and the Uziren Juzaphen of Old Colchis Through stinging fire we stride- Undaunted! Past dead comrades we march- Unbowed! Toward the very Hells of old we come- Ever forward! Qur Norra Praise to the Word, to the Golden One Praise to the Iscarne, the Essorix, the Despoiler Death the Corpse-Lord, the fools, the cowardly For I am of the Ebon Word and the Gyve

The Choral Undue Bitter remnants of the Ashen Circle Bound soul-hunters of the Ebon Word Devoted to the True Faith Charged to illuminate the unfaithful To prey upon the followers of the Corpse-Lord Through fire, blade, and bolt To tear asunder false piety and weak worship Old hatred, blazing zealotry To teach the Word with violent fervor The Choral Undue The Choral Undue, forerunner squad of the Ebon Word They fall from the heavens like a broken psalm, their jump packs screaming the first notes of damnation. The Choral Undue are the Ebon Word’s airborne executioners, a Raptor squad whose warfare is a liturgy of terror- each strike a verse, each kill a correction to the false hymns of the Corpse‑Emperor. Their armor is inscribed with inverted canticles, fragments of scripture burned black by exhaust and flame. Vox‑amplifiers built into their helms broadcast distorted sermons mid‑descent, a cacophony of corrupted prayer that drowns out the cries of the faithful below. To hear their approach is to hear the Word rewritten in blood and ruin. They are the punctuation of the Ebon Word’s doctrine, the sudden, violent silence that follows revelation. Where they land, faith falters; where they depart, only echoes remain. Kill-Team Designations Phakurus Oxa the Epigone, right hand of the First Acolyte The Epigone, student and servant Deemed worthy of the ancient knowledge Fostered on the hidden truths Leader of the Choral Undue Tus Vanu, known as the Burdened and Iconguard Vanu the Burdened Last of his cult, lost son of the Devout of Eblis Ever upright in his faith Shackled to the Lords of the Warp Rastag Karari, Bloody-handed devotee of Kharneth Bringing sacrifice to the Word by blood and bone Rastag he is known as Driven by ever-growing tides of madness A crimson weapon of faith and fear Paccur Vok, flame-bearer Ashes drip from his feet Vok, the fire that consumes Hunter of the Corpse-God's cult Breaker of the citadel of false faith Kannak Ghor, cult-brother to Pharkurus Of Colchis-born and bred Tempered by thousand years of battle Cult-brother, sworn guard, loyal follower of the Epigone Cold fury and colder heart Kor Mardos, Newblood Of the Eye and the Chaos within Young blood seething with ancient hates and older faith Ambitious thoughts that yearn for glory A warrior who bears watching

So I've decided to move over all of my Chaos stuff to this blog, rather than just focus on just the Shrikeborn. Since I plan on now combining the Shrikeborn and Ebon Word in-game, I will combine them into this blog instead of having a blog for the Shrikeborn and a WIP forum thread for the Ebon Word. That means that I will slowly be moving over pics and lore from the Ebon Word thread into distinct posts into this blog. Since I do have a couple of fully painting Ebon Word units, they will be the prototypes for my "official" unit threads, and any current unit lore thread will be later updated to include fully painting unit pics when they get done as well as the "black book" style drawing pics that are currently there. These Ebon Word units that are done have all been painted as full Kill-teams, so each member has a minor description, but that portion won't transfer over to the newer units (I really don't want to name and lore up all my rando dudes). Anyway, this was just an explanation of what is currently going on in this blog and my brain. Oh, as far as hobbying stuff goes I will be getting some Mk IV bits to go along with some HH melee weapons I'm getting for another project, so I will soon have an Ebon Word Chosen squad and a Shrikeborn Legionaries squad in the making....

Hi Folks, What happens when your compass indicates that you are slowly drifting from your set course? You adjust your rudder… When it deals with scenery making, drifting is synonym of new rules for terrain features due to new edition. But is it really a set of new rules? Shall we look at these with attention (on the basis of the extracts of info we got so far) it is not really that of a new thing: terrain area existed prior. It is more that the rules looks like they are going more followed now that they are enclosed in the bulk corpus of rules under a standardized approach proposed to gamers. Say otherwise: you can use the proposed layout or not. But the definition of areas will remain a core game mechanics, so, even if you do not use the patterns indicated as default on WarCom (and we might get more or distinct one in the future), you will probably need to define your own areas sooner or later for all and everything that does not fit. 100% interpretation from my part yet. As far as I am concerned, I have been largely influenced in my approach by 2nd Ed use of terrain; and I have not evolved that much since. My mistake. I therefore focus on narrative terrain if such a thing even exists. This is what I have set in mind when one talk of Terrain. As such I have built or designed all my terrain collection with that bias. This and CityFight too. My current Plodding along project does not make exception. But as it is a WIP project, it might still be the right moment for adding corrective measures. So, how does it fit now? If I set the elements already built on cardboard templates cut at the indicated dimensions, the results are mild. We can see that some elements are too big to fit on the 6”x4” and too small to fully occupy the 7”x11,5”. It means that, shall I go to the biggest shadow, some additional tidbits or terrain features can be needed to define better some corners and fill the voids. One in one it is a clear incentive for getting lots of smaller terrain items (crates, broken material, piles of stuff (rocks/tires…), broken wall that will be useful for getting a better visual impact than just a shadow board half occupied. Too big or too small Still ill scaled... but there are solutions! Sometimes, combining 2 existing elements, such as these 2 fairy chimneys will be enough: 2 makes 1 Triangular shapes are also puzzling: these have been shown combined only on the given examples so far and help define bigger footprints. They will also remain perfect for L shaped ruins. Some things looks designed on purpose, some other not that much What is, however, still to be defined is the case of hills. So far it has not been really described in any publicly released info, and I wonder how it will fit into the rules. Because my hills are almost always bigger than any individual shape proposed for areas. And the smallest ones fit mostly only a combination of 2 combined 7”x11,5” rectangles. It is a lesson learned: time of large elements of scenery may be counted. Or not. Future will tell, as indeed the combinations may be more than just the 2 triangles and as the short list of sizes and number of templates may also be different in other settings than standard missions… But what is interesting too is that so far, the dimensions proposed look like they fit in (more or less) standard parcel sizes. "Narrative" elements and hills - and I save you the 40 x 40 cm "Mine" board So, how does this affect my Plodding along project? What has been done is done and I will not redo the material already “improperly” sized. Items bigger than templates will remain as a series of “narrative” elements, until we have more insight on terrain rules per type of terrain (mainly for hills and other “special” feature terrains). Items smaller than templates will probably be complemented by some piles of rocks, small craters or additional debris so that the edges of the areas will be visually defined. I will not change current mounted on bases to fit to the new sizes: I prefer an approach based on defining limits or, in the future, getting some clear PVC templates and putting my existing elements of scenery on these. But it is a personal position now/based on the few info available. I may change my mind latter on. Some lines, but enough? What will be important too is to audit the whole collection of mine as I have over abundance of some sizes while other templates are eventually underrepresented: lines (to some extend) but mainly medium rectangles; but I must measure and check the rest of my collection for that first. See you.

Skeldr Jarnvardr made a mechanical grunt. The E-COG affixing his new ankle beeped an interrogative and Skeldr waved it away. Ironkin did not really feel pain, but to make their fleshy companions more at ease they tended to utilize similar vocal signifiers during such times. It brought both halves of the Kin together, wielded them to each other. In the Solbond Gardhird, such things were not necessary but were still practiced. The Steeljack Elder looked around at the Iron-Master's domain. E-COGs and assistants busied themselves with repairs and enhancements on vehicles and Ironkin, with the Iron-Master himself stood at a plasma forge. Bright energy and furious heat poured from the forge, ignored by Kharvund as he worked his craft. Gravitonic beams carried super-dense alloys to the forge; Kharvund plunged his tools into the plasma and hammered with microscopic precision. A weapon took form, the classic short-hafted warhammer of the Kin, laden with gravic field generators and etched with the potent runes of warding. A true weapon of a champion. The Iron-Master stepped back and set the weapon down. He turned to the spectating Elder and motioned to the hammer. "Your weapon is ready, Elder Jarnvardr." Skeldr took up the hammer, read the runes engraved on the haft. Foe-Ender. A simple name, but one that had a direct and honorable purpose. He had earned this weapon by completing the first portion of his expedition, by securing assets for the Gardhird and directing his battles. He did not win every fight, but his decisions were sound and the High Khal had shown his approval. Now, as the battle leader strode back to his waiting warriors, he walked with a reinforced purpose. Just like his weapon he had been forged in the fires and had come out hardened. Whatever may come, Skeldr was ready.

Oh god, what have I wrought upon myself? This is a tad overwhelming... Any ideas on where to start?

Solbond Gardhird versus Salamanders Mission - Warp-Nexus Destruction Battle Tied, 50-50 (Votann were Defender, went 1st). Complete Central Positions Agenda x 5, completed Prospecting Agenda x3. Gain 4 Blackstone from Central Positions. Gain the following Resources - 70 Raw Minerals from battle (40 from battle, 10 from Mining Outpost, 20 from Prospecting), 270 Biomatter (from Pioneer Fleet asset, 27 Yield Points x10). Gain 2RP from mission. Spend 1RP for Increase Supply Limit (up to 2000), add 1 Hekaton Land Fortress (Sol-Baund Citadel) No Battle Scars suffered Units upgraded Echo-Delvr Karvyr gains Viel of Ancients arificer relic (Bearer gains a 4+ Invuln save) Skeldr Jarnvardr gains Stealthy Arrival trait (if this unit Deepstrikes it gains Stealth until the next turn and cannot be Overwatched) Oath-Runner One gains Advanced Suspensors (This unit's ranged weapons gain Assault) Oath-Runner Two gains Advanced Suspensors (This unit's ranged weapons gain Assault) The Sturm-bon gain Warrior Pride (Each time this unit is selected to shoot or fight, may re-roll one to Hit roll and one to Wound roll. Overall- Victory - Tie Resources - 280 Biomatter, 90 Raw Minerals, 20 Galactic Intel, 20 Energy Sources RP - gain 2, spend 1. Total is 1 Supply limit - 2000 (using 1990) Crusade points - Goes from 7 to 12 Battle Report Mission - Warp-Nexus Destruction (9th ed modified) 1500pts. Mission was fairly simple scoring-wise: 5VP for 1 objective, 5VP for 2 objectives, 5VP for 3 objectives. Then at the end of the game there was a 20VP bonus for whomever held more objectives at the end of the battle. ** Some notes - We were doing some Crusade custom mission rules, which included the following: Infiltrating Attackers (see Deployment), Counter-Offensive and Heroic Intervention Strats cost 1 less CP (which means Heroic is free), -1 Movement and -2 Charge rolls for all units, and all ranged weapons have their range halved. There was also some shenanigans with a warp interference table, but they didn't really effect anything in this game. Enemy Force - Forgefather's Seekers Detachment. 10man Infernus squad w/Vulkan, 10man Intercessor squad w/LT, 6man Bladeguard w/Agrax and LT, 3man Aggressor squad w/flamers, 2x 5man Infernus squads, 5man Heavy Intercessor squad, 5man Terminator squad, Gladiator Lancer Reserves - Votann had Hearthguard and Melee Steeljacks/Elder in Deepstrike. Sallies had Termies and Bladeguard in Deepstrike. Deployment - Kinda weird. Look at the first pic to get an idea. Four objectives, three in the top portion of the map and one in the middle of the board. Defender deployment is a 12" stripe starting at the middle of the board and going up. Attacker deployment starts 12" away from the center of the board going down. Two stripes of No Man's Land, one on the upper edge of the board and one in-between the two army's deployments. Attacker gets 2 infantry units to Infiltrate (plus Sallies had another get Infiltrate from Crusade upgrade), so there was a squad on each of the top three objectives. Bad pics but the 2 5man Infernus squads, the Heavy Intercessors, and the Lancer are all in the lower deployment zone. Round 1 Votann turn 1 - Votann push up, with the Kapricus and Sagitaurs moving to put pressure on the infiltration infantry. Right Sagitaur drops off Trokk and his Warriors onto the right objective. Shooting from the Kapricus/right Sagitaur/Trokk's crew kill off the Aggressor squad and do a little damage to Vulkan's Infernus squad on the top-center objective. Really, really good shooting from the Pioneers on the left pick up six of the Intercessors on the left objective and the Sagitaur over there pops another two. A charge from the two-man squad of Kapricus smashes another of Vulkan's Infernus marines. The return attacks wipe out one Kapricus but the other holds on. Salamanders turn 1 - Sallies are deathly afraid of the Volkanite Steeljacks' overwatch so move cautiously around them and the Heavy Intercessors only do 2 Wounds to the Steeljacks in shooting. Mass flamers kill off the second Kapricus that had been in melee. Pioneers go into Reserves at the end of the turn. Round 2 Votann turn 2 - Left Sagitaur drops off its basic ion blaster Warriors onto the left objective, lone Kapricus gets close to Vulkan and the top-center objective. Sagitaur/Warrior/Arkanyst fire kill off the Intercessor squad and LT on the left objective, while more fire from the Kapricus and right Sagitaur hurt Vulkan's boys. Shooty Steeljacks/Thunderkyn in the middle of the board wipe out the Heavy Intercessors. A sacrificial melee charge from the Kapricus tank shocks a few mortal wounds off of Vulkan's squad but it dies in melee. Salamanders turn 2 - Both 5man Infernus squads keep moving up, staying out of Steeljack Overwatch range. Lancer moves up and torches the right Sagitaur. Terminators and Bladeguard drop down, Termies near the middle of the board right in-between three objectives, Bladeguard drop near the right objective to pressure Trokk. Melee Steeljacks Rapid Ingress to back up Trokk. Aside from the Lancer, Sallie shooting isn't effective. Bladeguard fail their charge, as do the termies. Round 3 Votann turn 3 - Hearthguard drop down (off pic) near the Infernus squad on the left of the board. Melee Steeljacks move up to engage the Bladeguard, Thunderkyn move out to shoot at termies. Shooting goes bad for Votann, as the Sagitaur + Thunderkyn take out only one termie and the Hearthguard only kill one Infernus Marine. Melee goes better, as the Steeljacks blender the Bladeguard and bring them down to just two regular Bladeguard plus the characters while only losing one in return. Salamanders turn 3 - Lancer and right Infernus squad move up to put more pressure on the right objective, termies move on to the left objective. Shooting pretty much wipes out Trokk's squad and take three of the regular Warriors on the left objective out. Melee helps out the Votann, as the Steeljacks kill the remaining Bladeguard and the LT, losing another two Steeljacks to Adrax. Round 4 Votann turn 4 - Hearthguard move up to kill the Infernus squad, while the Arkanyst gets dropped off to attempt to try the Prospecting Agenda. Thunderkyn move to get closer to termies, as does the Sagitaur. Shooting from Sagitaur/Thunderkyn/Warriors drops two of the termies. Melee takes out Adrax, but can't quite tie up the Lancer. Salamanders turn 4 - Big turn for Sallies. Vulkan and his remaining two Infernus torch the Thunderkyn, the Lancer blasts through the regular Steeljacks, and the right Infernus squad takes Trokk down to 1 Wound. Charge from the Termies does not manage to kill off the two remaining Warriors on the left objective (hooray for Fortify and 6+ saves!) Round 5 (sorry pic is sideways, can't fix it now...) Votann turn 5 - Sagitaur moves to the top-center objective to try to kill off Vulkan, Trokk dies to Overwatch from flamers. Warriors manage to kill off one of the final two termies, but can't finish off the last, lose another member. Sagitaur fails to kill any Infernus in the top-center, Steeljack Elder fails a charge into the Infernus on the right. Salamanders turn 5 - Termies kill off the last Warrior on the left, taking all three top objectives and the tie. Thoughts Whew, what a swing! Throughout the game I was consistently getting 10/15VP per turn for holding 2/3 objectives while the Sallies only were getting one. However, the last turn was massive in that my opponent managed to get 15VP from holding 3 and the 20VP from holding more. If only my final Warrior had passed his save.... Still, a very good game and one that was surprisingly even in score but not in feeling. A couple of the mission rules really, really changed how the game played. The halving range of all weapons hurt my opponent way more than it hurt me, as his super-themed list leaned into flamers so much that he only got a couple of shots off with any of his Infernus squads. It did effect my Thunderkyn though, making their conversion beamers lose out on the Conversion rule and thus missing some utility. The -1 to move everything really hurt me- 4" move on all my infantry was rough and made me pretty static. As the defender it wasn't nearly as bad, but still a bit of a hard thing to deal with. On the good side, my opponent's previous playing against/having Votann helped out, as he was so worried about the Volkanite Steeljack's Overwatch that he pretty much left the middle objective alone the entire game, allowing my Memnyr Strategist to just sit on the objective and get Central Position Agenda points. The bad side was that he also knew how fragile the Kapricus were and blasted them off the board quickly. Overall this match played out fairly well for me, as I got a lot of upgrades that will help (Sagitaurs both getting Assault means running and gunning/dropping), while not really losing out on anything that hurt too bad. Plus, no Battle Scars, which means I can finally save a single RP! So, as I said in my last game report, the next update will take a while. Currently there is one FLGS that is replacing their flooring (much needed!) and the second is expanding and doing some construction/painting/redoing stuff to get ready. So this next week will be a pause while we wait for our stores to open back up. That means I'll probably be painting, as I have my Pioneers and all four Kapricus vowed for the 12MoH as well as a mini-diorama and hopefully some Killteam Sanctifiers coming in to build (plus maybe another Grimnyr and my Nightbringer conversion...). I am also going to try to work up some sort of story/fluff for the last few reports/time period, as I've fallen down on that end. Anyway, thanks for looking and see you soon!

I have been really distracted by my Howling Griffons.....but I did get my March Campaign KT Leader done. Celestian Insidiant Alcicia Ionedes

Hey guys, back with the World Eaters again. This time we are looking at the small folk of the Skull Brethren. The Jakhal Cultists. I really liked the look of the Jakhals when they came out. They have a lot of character. Although they are a bit of a pain to build. Connecting those chains with the wrists with my ogre fingers was a bit frustrating. In my warbands lore, The Skull Brethren uses lots of Jakhals. Draxxigor Bloodhowler is the mortal commander of the Skull Brethren, he's famed for his ability to drive mortal cultists into suicidal frenzies, using his booming, vox-amplified war howls to whip the cultists up. I lost the blood backpack on the icon bearer. I know its somewhere in my room but for the life of me, can't seem to find it. I submitted and the bit is coming via ebay. When I started painting the Jakhals, I wanted to use all of the skin tones I had at my disposal, but when I used pallid wych flesh paint for this skin they started to look like the Warboys from the recent Mad Max Fury Road movie. So I chose to make another squad all pallid flesh. It helps to differentiate the units. I would like to think that the "Warboys" Jakhals are from the Apocalypse Imminent, the Skull Brethren's space hulk and they are pale because they haven't seen sunlight for ages or something like that. So there are my Jakhals, next time we will look forward to my plans with the World Eaters.

So, here's chapter two. Firstly, my apologies for the formatting. Apache Office and this forum really don't like playing ball together and it seems to remove all the line breaks, etc. Constructive criticism is as always most welcome. ===== The carrier left the district roads behind before dawn and kept going until the sky paled from black to iron grey. I must have slept in snatches, because I remember the engine note changing more than I remember the ground we crossed. Sometimes I woke to the track noise hammering up through the floor and the red compartment light swaying across faces I did not know. Sometimes I woke with my hand already at my chest, fingers over Ida’s tags through the cloth, as if I had been checking in my sleep that she had not been taken from me a second time. Nobody said much. When they did, it was low and brief, the sort of speech meant to get something done rather than fill the dark. Once, Łaska moved along the bench and cuffed a man lightly on the shoulder for letting his rifle butt knock against the hull. He grunted an apology and shifted it in closer. She said nothing more. That seemed to be enough. By the time the carrier slowed, the sun had edged its way up behind the dunes and turned the desert the colour of old bone. I heard the driver shout to someone up front. A moment later the hull slewed, corrected, and rolled down what felt like a packed-earth ramp. The engine dropped to a rough idle. The ramp came down with a metallic groan. Heat pushed in at once. Not the clean morning cold of the transit yard, but dry, used heat, already carrying the promise of a bad day. I rose with the others and slung my bag over one shoulder. My legs felt wooden. For a second I stayed where I was, waiting for someone to tell me what came next. Nobody did. Men were already moving past me and down the ramp, taking kit, hauling crates, stepping into the sun as though the place outside had been waiting for them all along. Łaska went first. Czajka followed without looking back. That was enough. I hit the deck after them. The position sat in a fold of the land where the dunes thinned and the stone began to show through. It was no parade-ground camp. There were no neat rows, no bright pennants, no polished command signs hammered into the ground. A low wall of poured rockcrete and stacked scrap marked the perimeter on three sides. Beyond it, the desert ran away in wavering bands towards a broken ridge. Inside stood a scatter of prefabricated huts, a motor shelter stitched together from corrugated plates, two fuel bowsers, a water tank squatting on a steel frame, and a cook fire under a canvas awning darkened with old smoke. Netting had been thrown over the vehicles and weighted down with stones. Ammunition boxes served as stools. A washing line had been rigged between two bent poles, and fatigues hung from it stiff with dust. Nothing matched. Everything worked. A man I had not seen before took the crate from the trooper in front of me without breaking stride and called for it to go to stores. Someone else was already checking the fuel levels on the carrier with a dip rod and a slate. Another pair had the engine deck open and were arguing over a fan belt in voices too low to follow. Nobody stood around welcoming the sunrise. Czajka stopped beside the ramp and jerked his head at me. “Bag down by the hut with the blue stripe. Then wait.” That was all. I did as I was told and set the bag where he’d said. The hut was little more than a box of patched wall panels bolted together, but it had been swept out recently. There were bunks inside, shelves cut from packing timber, and footlockers with names and numbers chalked on their lids. Some of the names had been rubbed out and written over. One locker still had its old name half-visible under the new one, the chalk not quite scrubbed clean enough to forget. When I came back out, Czajka was gone. For a moment I stood alone in the middle of the compound with my rifle in one hand and no idea who I was meant to report to. Around me, the place carried on as if I had been there for years and was simply slow that morning. I felt the old instinct rise in me — keep still, keep quiet, don’t draw eyes — but there was nowhere to hide in that yard, and not much point trying. “Here.” The voice came from my left. Gruff, not loud. I turned. He stood by the motor shelter with one boot up on a crate, signing something on a slate held flat against his thigh. He was broader through the chest than most of the men around him, his face weathered into lines the desert had made permanent, his jaw thick, sleeves rolled to the elbow. He had a manner I recognised from foremen and old squad leaders in the mine convoys, men who did not need to prove they were in charge because everyone else had already agreed to it. A laspistol sat low on his belt. A knife handle showed at the small of his back. When he looked at me, his left eyebrow lifted a fraction, not in surprise, but as though I were an item on a list he was checking against what had been delivered. “This him?” he asked. Czajka appeared from somewhere behind me, as if he had never moved far at all. “That’s him.” The sergeant looked me over once. Boots, rifle, posture, face. He eyed me, his gaze thorough. “You know how to clean that thing?” I looked down at the rifle in my hand. “Yes.” “Good.” He jerked the slate at me. “Then you know enough to stop holding it like a bloody shovel.” I shifted my grip. He watched me do it and gave no sign whether I had improved the matter. “Name?” I told him. “Mine before labour conversion, weren’t you?” It was not really a question. I nodded once. He lowered his boot from the crate and tucked the slate under his arm. “I’m Rakoczy. Sergeant. You answer to me. If Łaska tells you something, you listen as though I said it myself. If Czajka tells you something, use your ears before your tongue. You understand?” “Yes, Sergeant.” He lifted that left eyebrow again, only slightly. “That ‘yes, Sergeant’ wants sanding down. You’re not on a square in Prawa Prime. We do the job right and we do it quick. Save the polish for someone who likes hearing it.” “Understood, sir.” “Better.” He passed the slate to a waiting trooper, scratched at the stubble along his jaw, and looked past me towards the hut where I had dumped my bag. “You’ve got third bunk, left side. Locker underneath. Don’t leave kit lying about or it’ll grow legs. Water ration’s posted by the tank. Don’t wash anything but yourself till told otherwise. We’ve got enough fuel for the carriers and not much more. You can eat when the noon pot’s up. Until then, you make yourself useful.” He said it as if usefulness were the only test that mattered. A man with grease black to both wrists came jogging in from the perimeter wall and muttered something about a cracked road wheel on the second carrier. Rakoczy swore under his breath, left-handedly snatched the slate back from the trooper who had taken it, scrawled a note, and shoved it at him. “Tell Wrona he gets one chance to prove he isn’t blind. If he can’t, I’ll have him cleaning sump trays till winter.” The trooper grinned and went. Rakoczy looked at me again as if remembering I had not vanished. “You can strip an engine?” “No.” “Can you dig?” “Sir..” “Can you keep watch without falling asleep on your feet?” “Yes sir..” “Can you keep your mouth shut?” There was no change in his tone. That made the question feel heavier than the rest. “Sir.” He studied me a second longer. Then he nodded once, apparently satisfied enough for the moment. “Good. Take that bag of lime over to the far side of the wall and give it to Łaska. And don’t spill it.” I looked around until I found the sack leaning against a fuel drum. It was heavier than it looked. I hefted it under one arm and headed for the far side of the perimeter. The wall dipped lower there, following the line of the ground. Beyond it the land fell away slightly into a hard pan of stone and packed sand. At first I thought the posts set out there were range markers or a survey line. Then I got closer. They were grave markers. Not grand. No carved angels, no polished stone, no names cut deep enough to last a century. Just iron rods driven into the ground with scrap metal tags wired to them, some stamped, some scratched by hand. A few had helmets resting upside down at the base. One had a strip of cloth tied beneath the tag, bleached almost white by the sun. Someone had lined the graves carefully, each spaced the same as the next, the ground raked and tamped around them to keep the drift from covering them too quickly. Łaska was kneeling beside the newest one with a tin of black paint and a stencil plate. A flat spade lay across the ground beside her. She did not look up when I approached. “Sergeant sent this,” I said. “I can see that.” Her voice was as level as the horizon. She took the sack from me with both hands, set it down beside the open tin, and only then looked up. Close to, she looked older than I had first thought and harder than that still. Not old. Just worn into sharpness by use. There was nothing ornamental about her. Even at rest she seemed arranged for work. She glanced at the graves, then at me. “You know what this is?” “Lime, sir.” That earned me the faintest twitch at one corner of her mouth. It was not quite amusement. "Brilliant. We should put you in intelligence. And don't you 'sir' me.” She dragged the sack closer and hooked a thumb towards the line of markers. “This is where our dead go. Ground’s hard. Lime helps.” I looked back at the markers. There were more than I had thought at first glance. Eight. No, ten. One at the far end had sunk slightly to one side where the earth had shifted beneath it. Someone had propped a flat stone under the leaning post to set it right again. Łaska saw me looking. “Don’t walk between them,” she said. “You go round.” I nodded. She set the stencil plate over the fresh tag and dipped the brush. “You got a name?” I told her. She painted in silence for a few strokes, black letters appearing clean against the metal. Then she asked, “Can you dig straight?” “Yes.” “We’ll see.” There was no contempt in it. Just fact. I stood a moment longer, unsure whether I was dismissed. She noticed, because of course she did. “If you’re waiting for a sermon, you’ll die thirsty. Go find a shovel.” I went. Two men were already at the tool rack by the water tank, one sorting picks, the other mending a split handle with wire and resin. Neither looked especially pleased to see me, but neither objected when I took a shovel. By the time I returned, Łaska had finished lettering the tag and was driving the post in with the back of the spade. The sound rang out thin and hard in the open air. Rakoczy arrived while I was still three paces away. He came without hurry, carrying a canteen in one hand and a folded cloth in the other. He looked from me to the shovel, from the shovel to the ground, and grunted. “That’ll do. Not there.” He pointed with the canteen to a patch of hardpan a little way down from the last marked grave. “There. Two foot wide. Four deep if the ground lets you. If it doesn’t, you keep arguing with it till it does.” I set the blade to the earth. The first strike bounced more than it bit. The second found a seam between stone and compacted sand and shaved a curl of pale dust loose. By the fourth, the muscles in my shoulders had begun to wake. The ground was ugly work, the sort that punished the hands more than the back. I kept at it. Nobody offered encouragement. Nobody told me to pace myself. A man either dug or he did not. Around me, the compound breathed on. Engines coughed. Someone shouted for a missing socket wrench. Tin cups knocked together near the cook fire. The smell of onions and something salted drifted over on the hot air. Above it all lay the dry hiss of the wind moving over the rock and the muted, regular thunk of Łaska setting the fresh marker in place behind me. After a while a shadow fell across the pit. I looked up. Rakoczy stood over me, canteen dangling from two fingers. “Deep enough?” “Not yet.” “Good answer.” He tossed the canteen down. I caught it one-handed and drank. The water was warm, metallic, and better than anything I had tasted in days. He waited while I handed it back. “Czajka says you kept your wife’s tags.” My grip tightened on the shovel shaft without my permission. Rakoczy saw it. He saw most things. “Yes.” He gave a slow nod. “Then don’t lose them.” That was all. No sympathy. No talk of grief. He turned and walked back towards the motor shelter before I could think of any answer. When I climbed out at last, palms burning through the thin fabric of my gloves, Łaska stepped over to the pit, looked down into it, and judged it with the same expression she might have used on a repaired wheel hub. “It’ll do.” I had the absurd urge to feel relieved. She passed me the shovel and nodded towards the line of markers. “Put that back. Then get cleaned up. Noon pot in ten.” I took the shovel to the rack and found a tap behind the water tank where men were already washing dust from their hands and faces in turn, no one using more than a trickle. I splashed water over my wrists and the back of my neck and watched the mud run off brown. Beside me, the man who had mocked my boots in the carrier glanced over. “Fresh one,” he said again. Before I could answer, another voice came from behind us. “And you’re still thick as axle grease.” A few men nearby snorted. The trooper at the tap grinned despite himself and moved off with his hands still dripping. Łaska stepped in beside me, scrubbed her fingers with a strip of rag, and gave me a look in the reflection off the tank’s dented side. “Eat while it’s hot,” she said. “You’ll work better.” That was the nearest thing to kindness I had heard all morning. I was not entirely sure it counted. The noon meal was stew ladled from a blackened pot into tin bowls dented from long use. Men sat where there was room on crates, and spare track links, and the carrier hull, and the ground. Rakoczy ate standing up with his left hand, reading from a slate between mouthfuls and asking for a fuel count without once looking up. Czajka was there but no longer near me. He sat with two others under the shade netting, speaking in low tones over a map weighted at the corners with bolts. Whatever part he had played in bringing me in, it was finished for now. I had been handed over. Nobody asked me to tell my story. Nobody asked how Ida died. Nobody asked whether I missed the mine or whether I was grateful for the transfer. They made room on a crate, passed me a bowl, and went on talking around me about bearings, routes, a broken condensator at one of the pump stations, and whether the wind would strip the netting before nightfall. It should have felt cold. It did not. Cold was the orderly saying Subject 07-B into his terminal while my wife lay under a sheet. Cold was a slip of paper shoved under the door telling me I belonged now to labour conversion. Cold was the pump station, where a man could sit two watches and not hear his own name once. This was something else. Hard, yes. Dry, yes. Unwelcoming in all the ordinary ways men can be when they have no time to waste. But not empty. Not indifferent. The place had shape to it. Standards. Memory. A line of graves beyond the wall that somebody repainted and kept straight. After the meal I carried my bowl to the wash barrel and found myself looking again towards the far side of the perimeter. The markers stood there in the white heat, black names drying on metal, each one held upright against the wind. No one had needed to explain what kind of unit this was. I was still staring when Rakoczy’s voice sounded from behind me. “You planning to stand there till dark?” I turned. “No, sir.” “Good. Then pick up that ammo crate and take it to stores. After that, Wrona wants hands on the second carrier.” I bent for the crate. As I lifted it, the tags beneath my tunic knocked lightly once against my chest. For the first time since boarding, I had the sense that the place was beginning to take my measure, and that I was doing the same to it. Not trust. Not yet. But something with the same bones. Rakoczy had gone back to his slate. Łaska was already at the vehicle line. Czajka did not look over. The day carried on around me, hard and ordinary. I picked up the crate and went where I was told.

Just a little update Primed, Zenithal, and started flesh tones

So I started working on my "test" models for the Khymara Night Camo Howling Griffons with a scout squad. The Scout squad was going to be part of my 1st Co & 10th Co Imperial Fist army which I decided against. The build was based off this art work and used Black Templar bits. The actual build I drilled out the bolters, cleaned up the model line and did some minor repairs from them sitting on the desk. This is were I ended for the night since it was time for dinner

Well my Gaming Group is getting ready for the our upcoming campaign game. And once again the battles will be in the Khymara Sub Sector. My main army will be my Adepta Sororitas from the Order of the Parthenon and the other forces of Ecclesiarchy. This will be supported by an Inquisitorial Conclave to include Grey Knights, Exorcists Chapter, and the Militarum Tempestus of the Psian Jakals assigned to an Ordo Xenos Inquistor. As I look toward the future, I keep thinking about adding a Marines, non Exorcists/ Grey Knights to my list. Originallly I was thinking Mentors/ Mentor Legion, as it could be a single Marine as training cadre. Then I decided against it, and thought of the Crimson Fists But they are always busy on Rynn's World. So maybe Deathwatch and bu tthat did not feel right. Over the years I have played Raptors and Exorcists for my Space Marine Chapters.....both participated in the Badab War, where Khymara Sector is. the Howling Griffions.....but more specifically Howling Griffons- Khymara Night World Camo Scheme. and then this popped up So I guess I am going to do a small Space Marine army in Night world Scheme that are Garrisoned at Khymara.

First off....Getting old sucks. I had plans to paint models this weekend and well while watching the kids Saturday as wife was having a much needed pamper day, we started playing sports in the backyard. Later that day my right shoulder is killing me, not just the back shoulder but the front, top, and down the arm. Good ole shoulder tendonitis flare up. but this time it was is bad. Balms, OTC meds, and rest all not helping. I had to order a brace of Amazon to help with pain Saturday night. One I got the brace and put it on it relieved the pain, but I was already feeling nauseous from the pain and hobby time was a moot point. I did organize my part bins for my Adepta Sororitas and switched my large storage bin to the base toppers, so I did accomplish something... Good new is brace is helping but it could be up to 6 weeks for tendonitis to go away, hopefully it is just a flare up. I will getting bcak to work on models today....after work

Not much done, but I should have time this weekend to get stuff done....maybe Fist up the other day I built my Seraphim But forgot to drill the bolt pistol on one the seraphim... Last night, I drilled the 2 bolt pistols I missed the other day and glued the bases to the toppers and added the broken columns. I added some basing (fine gravel and tile grout) to gap fill, and add that broken column feeling. In NON 12 MoH news I finished building my Hospitaller

Got a bunch of work done today on the team. Made one mistake, gave the other Breacher head to the Tempestor Prime (aka the Leader) but I think it'll work out that my two close combat troopers have Breacher helmets.

So, I've been working on a set of rules for co-operative play for some time now (and have actually played a succesful mini-campaign some time ago, where a group of Imperial Guard veterans where sent to investigate a mysteriously quiet space station, but that's another story...). The core rules seem to work pretty well, so now I've moved on to the next step: creating "campaign packs" that allow for story-based campaigns based around randomly generated scenarios. Last weekend, we got out first game in, and I'm happy to report that things went pretty well (some things still need to be ironed out, but that's the nature of homebrew; your games are also playtesting to a large degree). Our characters, in no particular order are: Ghanz Kurtz - A squat bounty hunter who used to belong to a cult believing that the Emperor is not only omnipresent but diffuse. He prefers not to talk about whether he still holds that belief and generally lets his axe and/or plasma pistol do the talking, but he still has all the underround contacts from his cult days, which make him an invaluable information gatherer. "Stalker" - A bounty hunter who hails from House Delaque and who earned his nickname from the way he, slowly but surely, stalks his prey, tapping his cane softly on the flooring until they're literally caught in his webgun- web. He is adept at a strange coded sign language, which allows him to warn his comrades of danger without a word. Calamity Joe - A Ratskin tracker, who has turned to bounty hunting as a way of life. He is an expert marksman with his lasrifle and has a Phelynx pet that he has tamed himself. He is also something of a card shark, which comes in handy from time to time. A-C4B "Snake" - An ex-enforcer sergeant, who turned to bounty hunting after his unit was all but completely destroyed in a showdown with a (surprisingly well-organised) scavvy gang. He prefers to lead from the front, where he can inspire his comrades. Whether they believe as strongly as he does that he is their de facto leader or not is a question whose answer is shrouded in mystery, but they do seem to enjoy watching him get in over his head. We generated an overall narrative for our campaign that we then fleshed out a bit - the emerging story is that we are on a mission to get back the deed to *redacted* for Lady Ataraxia Lockhart, so we went to a small settlement called "Fallout Post" to hunt for clues. Then the location, scenario objectives, terrain and enemies for our first scenario were all randomly generated and as it turned out, some locals needed help flushing out some strange mutant sect known as "The Progeny of the Jubilant Kiss" who had rerouted some power generators for their own use. The locals promised to reward us not just with credits, but also with a clue - and since the tunnels even bore the name of our (slightly mysterious) employer, it seemed too good an opportunity for us to pass up. So, off we went. Luckily, our two objectives - the generators - were not too far off from our entry point. Less luckily, the mutant leader was blocking our way and he had a lot of followers, including some strange three-armed monstrosities who seemed very eager to stop us from interfering with their power supply. A-C4B promptly took charge of the situation (that's his version anyway), by kicking in the nearest door and opening fire with his stub gun on the three mutants guarding the first generator. Meanwhile, Stalker calmly walked up to the mutant leader and webbed him, thus neutralising perhaps the greatest danger (as we're just starting out, the enemy leaders tend to have better profiles than us, so when we saw him deploy right next to our deployment zone we were kinda worried, but the initiative deck favoured us!). Ghanz opened another door and started walking towards the fray in his well-considered manner (some of his comrades might attribute this to his "stubby legs", but he maintains that slow and steady wins the race), while Calamity Joe ran to the enemy leader and took him out, after which he took up a firing position, as more guards milled into the big, open chamber containing the second generator. While the team had got off to a great start, problems soon ensued; A-C4B's decision to charge into the fray proved to be more dangerous than he had anticipated, as reinforcements arrived for the three mutants he had engaged in melee and they all proved more resistant to his shock baton than expected. But Kurtz deftly picked some of them off with his plasma pistol, so things would probably turn out okay on that front. In the big chamber, Stalker moved forwards, firing his plasma pistol at an emerging champion, while Calamity snapped off shots at a bigger group of shotgun wielding henchmen. But huge numbers of mutants, some carrying heavy weaponry was racing down the corridors towards them.