Sword Company

[Disruptor_fe404]

Sword Company, Part 1

 

Heavy rain pelted the ruined hab-block as Corin and the Revenants picked through the rubble, dark clouds shrouding everything in a dim grey hue. Baxa knelt to inspect the still-warm body of a local PDF member.

 

Corin commended the man's soul to the Emperor; the foul xenos had been eluding them for most of the day. He heard in the distance the dull, repeated thumps of a dreadnought stalking the city.

 

In a building across the ruined road, Regaas scanned the ruin his battle-brothers were in, looking for movement. He was about to move on when he spotted the dim green glow of their quarry's weapons.

 

A single shot rang out from Regaas' boltgun, and he was rewarded with the sight of one of his metallic skeletal targets falling from the knee. Runes appeared on the displays of every member of the squad, marking their targets.

 

"Engage! Bring them before the Emperor's judgement," Corin bellowed as he drew his boltpistols.

 

Oros silently hefted his plasma gun, seemingly pointing at the wall ahead of him, before firing multiple blasts through the wall and into the Necrontyr warriors that his integrated auspex told him were on the other side.

 

Baxa and Avon advanced with Corin through the ruined walkways of the building and into close quarters with the metallic skeletons. Bolter fire and gauss arcs illuminated the room with hellish glows. Then Corin saw it, weaving through the packed ranks of the Necrontyr.

 

Taller than the others, a tattered cloak draped across it's shoulders, it clutched a long staff in steely skeletal fingers.

 

With steady bolter fire, Baxa and Avon scythed through the warriors closing in on them, and Corin unleashed a storm of bolter fire at the Lord.

 

It did little good, the Lord was upon them.

 

Baxa and Avon stepped aside to give Corin room and to keep any warriors from getting too close.

 

Corin caught an overhead swing of the Lord's staff with his pistols, the crackling head of the weapon mere inches from his faceplate. Corin kicked out and leapt aside as plasma raced through the space where Corin just was and lanced into the Lord, and the thing dropped its staff. Corin could feel rhythmic thuds shaking the building, and the Revenants ducked behind cover.

 

The glare of an angry star bathed the room in harsh light, and the wall disappeared to reveal a dreadnought, plasma cannon smoking. Venerable-Paladin Ward punched into the building, his seismic hammer catching several warriors before slamming the Lord into the back wall.

 

The Lord stood up almost immediately, and reached out for it's staff. Borne by arcane energies, the staff flew back into it's grip and with a wave of it's hand, the Lord and warriors were shrouded in darkness, and then faded from sight.

 

With but a thought, Corin's armour opened a communcation channel to relay his findings to his Company. Findings that his Captain had no doubt been watching via auto-sense feeds.

 

"Edge-Captain, Necrontyr presence confirmed. Phase-transfer capabilities sighted and ground infantry encountered."

 

Acknowledgements echoed through Corin's mind as the rest of his Company assimilated the information.

 

***

 

Squad Corin, the Revenants

 

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v515/Disruptor_fe404/Warhammer%2040K/Sword%20Part%201/01_Troops1.jpg

 

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v515/Disruptor_fe404/Warhammer%2040K/Sword%20Part%201/02_Corin1.jpg

 

The leader of the Revenants, Paladin Corin is a distinguished warrior, with centuries of experience under his belt. Like all Paladins of his Chapter, Corin has modified and embellished his equipment to better accomodate the combat style that has given him his title of the Hailstorm; heavier plating on the front to afford better protection as he blazes away at the foe with both of his Spartan-pattern boltpistols.

 

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v515/Disruptor_fe404/Warhammer%2040K/Sword%20Part%201/03_OrosAvon1.jpg

 

Knight Oros carries a standard Ragefire-pattern plasma gun, but has integrated an auspex into the weapon, allowing him to target enemies behind opaque objects as long as the auspex can detect them. This has earned Oros his title of the Sight.

 

Knight Avon serves as Squad Corin's battlefield scout when the situation calls for it, ranging ahead of his battle-brothers with stealth that is somewhat unexpected from an Adeptus Astartes clad in gleaming silver power armour.

 

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v515/Disruptor_fe404/Warhammer%2040K/Sword%20Part%201/04_RegaasBaxa1.jpg

 

Knight Regaas, the Judge, is the squad's sharpshooter. Regaas has earned the Marksman's honour multiple times, as commemorated by the gold-encased bolter shell affixed to his pauldron. Regaas' bolter is permanently set to semi-automatic fire, allowing him to use a smaller and lighter magazine for his weapon.

 

Knight Baxa is the squad's flanker, usually appearing in places where the enemy least expects him, blazing away with his compact Hellion-pattern bolter.

 

***

 

Venerable-Paladin Ward, the Steel Wrath

 

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v515/Disruptor_fe404/Warhammer%2040K/Sword%20Part%201/05_Ward_front.jpg

 

Paladin Ward was laid low protecting the previous Captain of Sword Company. His efforts, while bold, were for nought, and the Captain was felled by a heretic's krak missile. Ward himself was mortally wounded while protecting his Captain's body, and when Ward's own near-lifeless body was pulled from beneath a pile of traitors, he was rewarded for his tenacity with the iron sarcophagus of a Dreadnought.

 

As a former member of a Command Squad, Ward has won many battle honours, including a Company award for valour, and censers awarded by the Chapter's Reclusiam for his unflinching faith.

 

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v515/Disruptor_fe404/Warhammer%2040K/Sword%20Part%201/06_Ward_right.jpg

 

Ward's devastating plasma cannon is complemented at close range by an underslung heavy flamer. Usually mounted on the left arm, Ward found the heavy flamer too unwieldy to use with his choice of close combat weapon and opted to more evenly distribute the weight of his armaments.

 

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v515/Disruptor_fe404/Warhammer%2040K/Sword%20Part%201/07_Ward_left.jpg

 

The seismic hammer that Ward uses is a fairly new variation of the standard Dreadnought armament, one optimised for consistent and considerable damage against armoured vehicles.

[Dosjetka]

Very, very, very nice. I really like this ^_^ Maybe weather your Marines though? A tad too shiny IMO.

 

What's up next? :tu:

 

Ludovic

[lee265]

Leave th armour shiney i looks great. I also like his flamer on the right.

[Gv0zD]

Niceeee! Good minis. I like the weapon conversions to Paladin Corin and Knight Braxa :)

As Ludovic said, maybe a bit withering would be done? IMHO it will add the impression of their battle experience. Even though they are shiny knights, they are too badass to care for their shining :)

[Validar]

You, sir, have managed to give each of your tactical marines personality and story - which they deserve, being veterans of a hundred battles.

 

Respect.

[Brother Nezulius]

Very creative work! I always love looking at mini's that are a bit different then the rest.

 

The paintjob is nice and clean. Thumbs up!

[Hyaenidae]

AAAAGGGHH! MY EYES!! I'm blind from the bling! :) Nah, I'm kidding, looking forward to seeing some more!

[The_Minsk]

I love your bolter patterns, great looking, I will have to steal the idea

[Firepower]

Great conversions and fluffing. The super shine was quite impressive too, though I'm torn between it and a bit more dirtied look. As is, it gives the impression "Oh yeah, we're so damn good that even dirt won't dare touch us!".....which they very well may be :lol: .

 

I think i can figure out how to steal that helmet design, but the Paladin's shins...is that just plasticard? I'm also fairly surprised what a dramatic difference it makes to simply turn the ammo clips around on the pistols :huh: .

 

Keep up the good work!

[Nacho Wolf]

I love that last marine, the bolter looks sweet! Any chance of a tutorial

[Captain Mick]

Great looking models, well done :) .

[Gitsplitta]

Love the stories as companions to your models, really gives them that extra zing. Nice job on the models too. May I ask what metallic you used?

[Disruptor_fe404]

So when I said in May that it'd only take two weeks to post the first installment of Sword Company, I was lying. Horrible, blatant lies. The delay wasn't even due to not finishing painting in time. Still, the original intention was to just show off Squad Corin, but since the post is so late, I'm including Venerable-Paladin Ward too.

 

This is the first part of my 1500pt force using Codex: Dark Angels (they have cheap VenDreads!).

 

Model-wise, Corin is a reasonably obvious (to me, anyway; maybe it's not obvious enough... probably a good thing actually) Master Chief shout out, from visored helm to sickle-mag 'submachineguns' to the design of the ad-hoc up-armour plates.

 

Oros was the result of a friend and myself wondering whether Space Marines could 'wall-hack' with the techonology available to them. I'm considering adding an 'aimbot' to a model at some point, likely in the form of a servo-skull. These terms would likely be more familiar to anyone who played in the Counter-Strike betas.

 

The Hellion-pattern boltgun is me wanting to translate a G-36C into Warhammer 40,000. The jury is still out on whether it worked; it's recognisable, but I'm not actually sure it looks all that good. The photo is actually a little dark to make out much, not that there's a lot of detail on that particular weapon. Still, I don't regret putting little conversions on Marines. The next squad even has a tommy-gun.

 

Unfortunately the photos (or rather, the lighting plus the sculpting of the sarcophagus) don't allow one to see the name written on the sarcophagus scroll, but trust me, one is there! Also, the first shot of Ward is somewhat blurry, but I think it's enough to make out the details. The flamer mounted on the right was my attempt at correcting the ridiculous gorilla-arm syndrome that would have occurred if the flamer was mounted under the seismic hammer.

 

On the subject of the glaringly shiny armour: As a whole, the gleaming silver aesthetic I've cultivated for my army isn't going to go anywhere, it's a form of portrayal of my Chapter that I'm pretty much adhering to. And as Firepower says, they're just too badass to get dirty!

 

Firepower: Yup, that's just plasticard on the shins, squeezed into shape around the contours of the shins. He also has plates on the outsides of his thighs (cuisses, I'm told they're called) which are a little harder to see in the photos, and reinforced chest armour... which can't be seen at all in the photos. Helmet was made with plasticard and ForgeWorld brass-etch. And the boltpistol mags... well I cheated on those and used reversed boltgun mags.

 

Nacho Wolf: The carrying handle was made from the handguard of an ork weapon, the sight behind it from something that I can't remember, but anything round and of the right size will do. Shave the handgrip down so both sides slope toward the centre, and cut a chunk out of the top at a 45degree angle from the barrel. Remove eagle/skull if you wish, drill cooling gaps in if you like. Use a cut-down chainsword hand for the foregrip, and you're good to go.

 

Gitsplitta: Mithril Silver is the metallic I use. Basecoat of that, Chaos Black wash, and a thinner coat of Mithril Silver over the top. The darker metal is straight Boltgun Metal (I found Chainmail to not have enough contrast against Mithril Silver).

 

Next post (not actually sure when it will be!) will likely be the other Tactical Squad, 10-strong. The post after that will either be the remaining two Venerable Dreadnoughts, or a whopper of a post with my counts-as Azrael, his Command Squad and their Land Raider.

 

As far as direct inspiration goes, I don't think I had any in mind when putting any of these models together, so no credits and/or acknowledgements today. Which I guess means: Thanks for Halo, Bungie!

[Gitsplitta]

Gitsplitta: Mithril Silver is the metallic I use. Basecoat of that, Chaos Black wash, and a thinner coat of Mithril Silver over the top. The darker metal is straight Boltgun Metal (I found Chainmail to not have enough contrast against Mithril Silver).

 

I'm amazed. The grain looks fine enough I would have sworn it was something else. Looking forward to seeing the army progress.

[Disruptor_fe404]

I'm amazed. The grain looks fine enough I would have sworn it was something else. Looking forward to seeing the army progress.

 

I'm actually really happy with GW metallics. Very little thinning out/bleed-through on their silvers (Boltgun Metal, Mithril Silver, Chainmail, Tin Bitz), and it only happens on their golds if you leave them to stand for long periods of time.

 

Next up is another Tactical squad (Squad Kovacs, 9/10 models complete, 5/10 based), hopefully I'll have pictures ready in a week, two at most. Hopefully.

[Terminatorinhell]

I love the gun conversions, any idea on how to make an ACR?

[chaplain belisarius]

wow! i like these...do they have a knightly theme? :)

[Disruptor_fe404]

Terminatorinhell: If you mean this ACR, it'll be pretty simple. Stock from plasma gun, smooth down the top of the bolter, find something suitable to extend the barrel, remove detail on front of gun if preferred.

 

chaplain belisarius: Not as a theme I push. Their ranks follow the Brotherhood of Steel mostly because I was playing Fallout Tactics at the same time I started playing 40k, and I liked the ranking system.

[Terminatorinhell]

Thanks for the method Distruptor_fe404, I will try it out!

[chaplain belisarius]

they look ace...are they a fists successor by any chance? :)

[Disruptor_fe404]

chaplain belisarius: They most certainly are. Either Third or Fourth Founding; whichever of those two Foundings in which Games Workshop hasn't named all the Chapters created. The Sentinels are old.

 

Small update! Squad Kovacs: 9/10 models completed, 8/10 models based, narrative at 0%.

[Brother of the Temple]

The conversions are very nice, the sgts helmet looks good.

 

The paint scheme took me a second but I really like that too. The gold and silver look good together.

 

It's nice to see another DIY successor of the I.F's.

[chaplain belisarius]

thought so..dorn fits the knightly theme rather well!

 

more pics coming soon? :)

[Disruptor_fe404]

Oh snap. Next squad is complete, narrative needs a few finishing touches. But Cataclysm hits tonight, and I haven't taken any photos of the next squad, so it's unfortunately going to be delayed, for at least a week, but more likely a lot longer than that!

 

Still, I'll set up some reminders for myself so that I actually do it this weekend hopefully.