Sternguard Project!

[Lemainus]

I've been brainstorming on how I could make my own Sternguard for quite some time, and I couldn't quite come up with a suitable look or feel. Originally, I wanted to have the whole squad crouching, because of the implaccable and far-reaching "hunker down and shoot" tactics they would seem to embrace...

 

...but that leave a lot of the modeling opportunities flat and boring for someone of my skill level. (A lot of you could just GS-Fu a fleet of unique crouched legs. When I use GS it's like watching a quadriplegic snowboard.)

 

So that was scrapped.

 

I considered all kinds of new bits and bobs and bodies and heads and nothing. felt. right.

 

And then, bright and shiny on eBay, lay the VERY FIRST box set I ever laid eyes on, back in 3rd Edition, when I was nought but a thirteen year old:

 

the old school Blood Angels Death Company.

 

I confess, I nostalgia'd so hard I gave myself a nosebleed, and then I realized: these bodies were to be my Sternguard. Kitted, blinged, rocking some interesting shoulderpads and some forgeworld bolters. Oh hell yes.

 

Anyways, I'm still waiting for a lot of the bits in the mail, but I got started converting the Sarge for the squad, Jeyne Amadius Reiko:

 

 

 

 

http://i10.photobucket.com/albums/a126/JohnnyK3886/Oh%20Dear/Sternguard/JeyneAmadiusReiko1.jpg

 

http://i10.photobucket.com/albums/a126/JohnnyK3886/Oh%20Dear/Sternguard/JeyneAmadiusReiko.jpg

 

http://i10.photobucket.com/albums/a126/JohnnyK3886/Oh%20Dear/Sternguard/JeyneAmadiusReiko2.jpg

 

 

Pardon the shoddy pictures, but all I have is a cam at the moment. As the minis get assembled and painted up, I will locate an actual digital camera.

 

(He will be shooting his combimelta with one hand, because that is how big bad motherf***ers do things.)

[Lemainus]

“Be silent, Initiates, and shall ye hear an excerpt from the annals of the Book of Deeds.”

 

They were assembled all after the feasting of the day, given long rests after the sport of the tournament. A long day, they had seen – longer still were the days to come. Once every two years, the fete was had; games and contests of both might and wit amongst brothers fostered goodly spirits and forged friendships – and rivalries – that were part of the soul of the chapter. Scouts of the 10th company gave Uriel their quiet attention immediately, hushing themselves with reverence for the Chapter Champion, Blessed of the 1st Company.

 

It was not Uriel, however, who had the story to tell. He contented himself to listen.

 

The voice boomed from the darkness; lights and displays flickering on in response to being awakened from a long slumber. Cogs turned, gears buzzed.

 

“I… have not spoken of this in some time, Uriel the Blessed.”

 

“You tell it much better than I, Baphamet.”

 

The scouts bowed their heads to the Ancient Baphamet, Dreadnaught.

 

“Long have I been entombed within ceramite and plasteel. Long have I had adamantium for skin, and oil for blood.” The floor trembled as he moved forward, enormous metal frame lambasted and pitted from centuries of bullets, acid-splashed thereupon, forever-stained with the foul blackness of ensorcelled lightning. “Longer still, though, have I been in service to the Emperor.”

Night grew thin and dawn drew near. There was nothing in the blackness fading to purple-gray save the three remaining Sternguard. It had been a masterful ambush; it had been a slaughter – for both sides. One does not ambush a Space Marine. The bodies of Heretic and Loyalist alike lay smeared across the hewn dirt like a red paste, some places darker than others.

 

I could see my brother – my Brother – had spearheaded the counterattack. He had succeeded where we would have failed – he had saved three members of the TDA team; it was too late for me. The magicks and bullets of Chaos had left me without body, from waist down. My arm had been taken from me, and one of my hearts. I could feel the wreckage of my armor twisting within my chest as I breathed. My Brother could see that I saw him. I beckoned, and he came.

 

I told him, "Tomaz, I swore this anointed weapon would rage until the end of days - until the fall of man."

 

"There shall never be a fall, so long as we stand. Speak not such heresy, blood."

 

"No Heresy, my blood. None indeed, Tomaz. I can no longer heft its mighty frame, nor direct the benediction it screams. See my oath true, brother. Wield this in my stead. Carry its hellfire to light your way, bringing the Emperor's wrath into the darkest of places. Aenfinitas. Until the sun sets on the Imperium of man."

“So it is that my blood brother – your battle brother – Tomaz, carries with him my assault cannon. He has wielded it for three decades, now, and has carved upon it my own oath, supplanted with his. That day his piety and sense of duty gave me the strength to stay alive long enough to become what you now see in front of you. That day, he preserved me for all time. It is the Deed that created Ancient Baphamet – see to it that you will one day inspire such things on the battlefield.”

 

"Until sunset, then." Uriel smiled, fist to chest in a salute for the revered Dreadnaught.

 

“Until sunset.” The murmur echoed through the assembled scouts.

 

“Until Sunset.”

 

http://i10.photobucket.com/albums/a126/JohnnyK3886/Oh%20Dear/Sternguard/Tomaz10.jpg

 

Front on.

 

http://i10.photobucket.com/albums/a126/JohnnyK3886/Oh%20Dear/Sternguard/Tomaz8.jpg

 

Rear Detail

 

http://i10.photobucket.com/albums/a126/JohnnyK3886/Oh%20Dear/Sternguard/Tomaz4.jpg

 

Detail Shot.

 

"Why the knife??" I hear a lot of you asking.

 

Well! The chaingun is just SO BIG that even after having the techmarines and servitors modify his armor to be able to make good on his oath, the recoil is still very difficult to contend with! So Tomaz has been known to "anchor" himself, as it were, with his trusty combat knife, before laying down a bulletstorm the likes of which only he is capable.

 

The shield is there as a protective measure, obviously - the better not to get shot! Lack of visibility is addressed, if you'll notice, by a little auspex screen I added to the side of the weapon, to make it seem as though he has a method or manner, some kind of tech, that enables him to track targets without actually SEEING them physically. (The grand notion behind the mods I made is, like, if he finds himself holed up and has a firing point, he can safely blast away without providing his quarry with anything to shoot back at.)

 

He will have a shoulderpad! Technically, he's still WIP because I have laurel-wreath and termie honor pads in the mail, and he will not be complete until they arrive and are attached!

 

I would love some criticism, comments, whatever you got.

 

Oh, lastly, in the game, I'd play him as a "counts-as HB", so with an agreeable opponent that enjoys the Rule of Cool, he can still be fielded.