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BELLIGERENTS of BADAB HOWLING GRIFFONS One wound of many. So, I'm not painting a lot of Space Marines these days, between my Tau Crusade Army and fun I've been having over in BFG. That didn't seem right. Now, I can't commit to a major project, but I can certainly muck around with single models, right? So begins BELLIGERENTS of BADAAAAAAAAAAB!! The crowd goes wild. Wanted to start out with something fiddly, so I've knocked out a Howling Griffon. Not just any Howling Griffon, however, this is a highly specific little conversion... You should see the other guy. Now, I'm not going to promise to do every model like this, being directly based on one of the original pictures, but some certainly will be. It's fun! I don't have a full army in someone else's scheme in me, I'm not built that way, but I can do a model in an existing style. Also, great excuse to try out some more freehanding! Now, I need to decide who's next...

Just a quick update from me today. Since I had a few moments in this busy week, I thought I'd tackle some low-hanging fruit for the Sigmar VI project and do some bases, this is generally because the Howling Griffons are Imperial and therefore lazy, where the Secessionists have to work for a living - er, I digress. I haven't really done many of the desert-themed ones before, so it was something nicely different from the lunar Khymara set ups I've been working on, and the warm tones are hopefully interesting to the eye. These are for the Eliminators (or true-scale scout snipers...) I mentioned, kindly donated by mad scientist, Huron advocate, and friend, @Xin Ceithan. Of the actual lore and significance to the Badab War of Sigmar VI, again, I could find nothing. Once more it's one of those throwaway little titbits, (like the mission legions, IMHO, I was there in the beginning, when Horus slew the Emperor, and to be honest he's doing a bad job of it, because he's had a four goes so far...ahem) that serve to just deepen everything. I did come across a few folks who'd done this before, a French chap over on DakkaDakka (If I can find the thread again I'll credit him - I'm a lazy Corpse Worshipper, see?), that came up with the idea of the Griffons doing a Heresy Raven Guard, becoming a guerrilla force, applying themselves in places where they could make the difference with reduced numbers. They had lost one of their Strike Cruisers and much of their heavy materiel at Khymara, so this makes a lot of sense, and opens up a few possibilities. Anyway, thanks for reading, and have a good one!

SESSION FOUR: I was harping on about doing a medical diorama based on the Howling Griffons actions at Khymara, and thought I had the parts, but I do not. However, I do have legacy models I will never use, belonging to armies I no longer have - I might have mentioned that. Anyway, I got to reading again, and found the segment about the death of Chaplain Armand Titus, hero of the Caradryad Campaign, which was the last action the Griffons prosecuted before the Badab War. Now, Khymara was a defeat for the Griffons, with the Executioners Space Marines butchering 70% of the 250-strong Loyalist Force. They had them at their mercy, but left them alone as soon as they became ineffective and all objectives were complete. One of their number refused to surrender. Armoured in his Dreadnought sarcophagus, and equipped with a power fist and twin-linked lascannon, he fought until his destruction. When the Griffons emerged to find him, they came upon his body, carefully laid out, surrounded by the broken weapons of his enemies, and a torn Executioners banner in his silent fist. Unfortunately, the Chaplain Dreadnought model is both expensive and rare, so I would never hack, chop and slice it up. I could do a little tribute to that magnificent end, though. I did drill up and hack his lascannon arm as well, with one of the barrels burst, but I have lost the image. I'll replace it if I remember. The model is technically finished, but I would like to try and add the banner, or maybe a Griffons' banner to add more colour to it. In other news, a very kind and generous soul (who is also obviously influenced by the Warp, obviously) has sent me some miniatures to complete another project mentioned earlier in this blog. I did have some bases like the one under the dreadnought made up, but this was wrong for the proposed camouflage scheme for the Sigmar VI Insurgency Force, so I made some more which will be desert themed. I do have one problem with this - there is almost no official fluff about Sigmar VI at all. I will have to do a lot more digging. Well, that's it. Hope you enjoyed, and thank you everyone who comments and reads the blog.

SESSION THREE: I'll start altering the titles of the Blog entries to advertise a little better what's on the menu, since the entry names are kind of sterile and hide the content from those who might be looking for something else. Hope that helps everyone. +++++ ECHIDNA'S CHILDREN ++ THE KHYMARAN DRIFT ++ + BADAB SECTOR = LOYALIST CONTENDED + 'Twixt the barrows of Khymara, The dust of rock and bone, There Echidna's Children play, In their shattered domes, Scions of the Emperor, Slaves to hearth and throne, Twixt the barrows of Khymara, Do the Corpses make their home.' - Garrad Abarex, Astropath and Strifeward of the Third Dynast of Mancora. 1: COMBATIVE MEDIC Theoretical. A term used by the Primogenitors, and before them, the XIII Legion, a rhetorical device to prepare the mind for action, for the execution of a preferred eventuality. Tiber Mahlo found the latter disproportionately amusing, since it succinctly underscored his current predicament. The chainaxe in his shoulder. Scarlet runes in Mancoran Dialect helpfully informed him of the Practical as adamantine teeth driven to a blinding whirr, made contact and began to harrow his alabaster warplate. He couldn’t hear the weapon growling, since Khymara IX was utterly devoid of atmosphere, but he did notice the grey-green dust from the world’s surface clogging where it mixed with Astartes blood from previous victims. He had about three seconds to live. Then again, so did the bastard trying to kill him. With a jarring parry, Mahlo knocked the weapon back with his elbow, provoking sparks and flecks of ceramite to skitter across his visor before pinging off to oblivion in the low gravity. The clack-slam of his Reductor went right through the flexsteel of the Executioner’s neck, aimed at a point Mahlo was all too familiar with. Behind it lay the arteries and meat of the Space Marine’s absurdly well-designed neck, but also the fleshy gobbet of a single Geneseed cluster. The sickening noise as Biscopean cartilage parted for the invading metal never failed to force clenched teeth, when he powered through, severing the cervical vertebrae and the vital nerve clusters. A rune spoiled his vindictive moment with a green pulse to indicate the death-blow, and incidental geneseed recovery, was successful. It was a first. He used the corpse as a shield to hide from supporting fire given by the Scions of Dorn who called the meatbag comrade. More Astartes plate was turned into flinders by the hurricane of fire as they tried to bring him down; just as aware as Mahlo that the man he was holding was dead. This was an utter shambles, the Howling Griffons stationed here called for recovery of their wounded, and Mahlo was forced to leave the protection of his Rhino APC, clearly marked as an Apothecarion Transit, to enter the bunker complex which comprised of four stations, housing an augur array, telecoms units, and a remote surveillance drones. What was left of them. He fought the Executioners with bursts from his Umbra-Ferrox bolter, mindful of ammunition consumption, the firing-bolt assembly hammering a predictable chugging that tallied in his mind along with the cortical-interface in his visor. Never rely on technology, Tiber! The Emperor gave you a brain, did he not? Nothing must be a surprise. Kordus. The Chief Apothecary. Even in death, Mahlo could hear the admonition. He wondered if the Head Surgeon had been surprised by the Executioner's power fist when it punched out his thoracic cavity, spilling bloody bone and gristle onto the bland canvas of the inhospitable steppe of the moon. Probably not. Throne, what a desolate place. Even the Caradryad Sector, harbouring the Night Worlds, had some glimmer of...existence. Here there was little divorce from the hard reality of war. The enemy were clad in almost as motley a panoply as his own Brothers were, some in gleaming blue-steel, others marked with dark lozenges of Codex disruptive patterns, more still in the blue-white lunar amoeba. Being Page to Baron Armitage instilled a certain interest in the heraldry, but the brief nostalgia was rapidly discarded when his power plant hit the door sill leading to the under-complex with a jarring crunch. Abandoning his erstwhile, now limbless Astartesian shield, he banged a cipher with an elbow, tossing a krak grenade out with the corpse to cover it. A blast of displaced grit and pressure warnings eclipsed as the door opened to admit him, staring into the muzzles of two bolters clasped by Howling Griffons from a different Company. + Peace, brothers,+ he assured, although it was both hollow and pointless, since his IFF would have already painted him as friendly, but the mortal adepts in thier control pulpits seemed to relax. Perhaps this was the bedside manner Kordus was so keen for him to develop. +++++ This probably belongs in another place, but since it's not an official Cabal of Dead Ink project, and it marries the theme of the Blog so far, I thought it best to put it here.

SESSION ONE: Just a quick one since I had some time today, and so I went delving in the boxes, the miniatures shuddering from fear and fright in the back of my attic, and I found the hull of a Land Raider Redeemer/Crusader with a goodly few bits. This fired up a few neurons, and I pored through the pages of Imperial Armour IX and found a very intriguing bit of artwork, namely the Howling Griffons Land Raider Prometheus. Well, you know, the FW kit has been out of production for ages, and there are a good few tutorials about, but I decided to go ahead and eyeball it, spending some time building the ABSOLUTE UNIT to the right. Unfortunately, I don't know exactly how I built this. I just saw parts and glue, and...yeah. I'm a little scared. I don't have the skill to completely render a full LR Prometheus, but I can have a crack at the sponsons. Unfortunately I was only able to complete one, and while it doesn't elevate, it does traverse, so I'm fairly happy about that. I've also decided on building it with assault cannons and the back of a Whirlwind launcher I found, and mounted by chopping up a spare Predator turret ring. Yes, that is the abomination (the Mazer-dubbed LR Khymera, after the Badab War Khymera campaign) to the left. I also unearthed a Vindicator...with the dozer blade... Send help?

SESSION ZERO: Welcome to the Blog! This is basically intended as a collection of projects - which likely won't ever get finished, but I don't want to clog up the WIP/HOH with my inane and meandering nonsense. You can see my very small pile of shame here, which consists of half an Infiltrators kit (Technically a Phobos Kill Team with the upgrades - I can't even remember the name), a Bladeguard kit, and two Intercessors. They've been sitting around for a while, doing not much of anything since I partially built and painted a Mantis Warriors KT, inspired by a character I've been playing in a Deathwatch RPG game over in the RPG Nook (Murderers In Black). I had the concept of a Librarian, but he didn't fit the game, and another player had suggested the Howling Griffons. Being an old hand at the Badab War, and my treasured WD101/Compendium, which sparked my greater interest in the hobby and drew me further into 40k from the 'gateway' drug of Space Crusade, I took a second look at them, and discovered a lot of ideas for the character aligned. I'll likely build the character bio etc, and leave him here for use (so I don't mess up anything elsewhere). It got me thinking, though - the Howling Griffons have an absurd paint scheme, and for me (my eyes are going) I thought it would be too much to try and paint a force of them, but then I saw a wonderful White Scars KT diorama (I forgot by who - I'll add it later) which had a complement of models on a magnificent display board. I was flicking through some Youtube channels as well, boning up on Howling Griffon lore for the character, and it struck me that the boys in Forgeworld had a partial solution, and the serried ranks of Mk VI in the Compendium came to my rescue. The Howling Griffons have three colour schemes: The classic gold and scarlet, the almost 6-colour choc-chip Sigmar VI Insurgency Force, and the Night World Livery of sable with quartered pauldron vignettes. I reasoned I could paint at least maybe one Intercessor or Bladeguard in the red and yellow scheme, the latter representing their bold attitude to oaths and honour, as well as their renowned swordsmanship. The Griffons have a lot of Psykers and the Deathwatch RPG paints them as Duellists, so this would be an excellent choice. I plan to modify the Mk X down to Mk VIII where I can, with minimal cuts to the poleyns, avoiding sculpting and other modelling work which is both beyond me and outside the scope of my time available. I also think it looks a bit cleaner, and I have loads of spare smol-marine heads. The other, sneakier miniatures will be in either the desert style camouflage, or the Night World livery, and I plan to acquire a single Eliminator who I can doll up with both (black armour, Sigmar VI cape). I can't go mad, since my budget is very, very small. I would also like a Librarian to round off the set (I'm not looking at many models - budget, budget, budget!) and the Phobos Lib looks like a good bet - since I'm weird and actually like Phobos armour. I'm not planning to do any significant conversions, but I will do what I can to make the models a little more interesting to me. Spoiler Warning: I like pouches. So that's about it for this post, I appreciate you taking the time to read it, and I know this isn't an innovative idea, but I thought it would be something to try and get me doing something with the remaining plastic crack, since I don't play anymore, and haven't rolled tabletop D6 dice since 2018. Just a note on expectations - I expect this blog to be slow. Very slow. I'll also be dumping a few ideas in here that won't be model related, but are RPG character, setting or history related, sprinkled with pics or brain-fluffs from my other projects. Be good.