Starting my Relictors

[demented]

Hi all,

I woke up this morning with the itch to paint some Relictors. I have been wanting to do an army of these 'want to be good' heretics for a while so hope I do them justice.

The army will be set just after there starfort was destroyed; there on the run from the Inquisition and trying to regroup with any surviving Relictors forces.

This should provide me with some nice modelling opportunities and also lots of hooks to take on the various Grey Knights forces floating around.

As a starting point I'm painting up a Terminator Librarian I had floating around. Colour scheme is WIP at the moment so feel free to post feedback on the choices as it progresses (In particular on how to paint faces!)

Base Layer

• Undercoat - Black
  
• Gold Metal - GW Tin Bitz
  
• Silver Metal - GW Chainmail
  
• Armour - VLC German Grey
  
• Skulls - GW Khemri Brown
  
• Parchment, Horns and Robes - GW Bestial Brown
  
• Purity Seals - GW Orkhide Shad
  
• Psychic Hood - GW Shadow Grey
  
• Rear Armour Vents and Lightning Bolts - GW Astronomican Grey
  
• Flesh and Book cover - GW Dark Flesh
  

Stage 01

• Gold Metal - GW Shining Gold Layer
  
• Silver Metal - GW Badab Black wash
  
• Armour - VMC Grey Green
  
• Skulls - GW Devlan Mud Wash
  
• Parchment, Horns and Robes - GW Snakebite Leather Layer
  
• Purity Seals - GW Knarlock Green
  
• Psychic Hood & Rear Armour Vents - GW Asrumen Blue wash
  
• Lightning Bolts - GW Bubonic Brown Layer
  
• Flesh - GW Ogryn Flesh wash
  
• Book Cover - GW Bestial Brown Layer
  
• Base - GW Deneb Stone Drybrush
  

Stage 02

• Gold Metal - GW Burnished Gold
  
• Silver Metal & Armour - GW Badab Black wash
  
• Skulls - GW Leviathan Purple wash
  
• Parchment, Horns and Robes - GW Devland Mud wash
  
• Purity Seals - GW Scorpion Green highlighlt
  
• Psychic Hood - GW Asrumen Blue wash
  
• Lightning Bolts - VMC Flat Yellow
  
• Flesh - GW Dwarf Flesh layer
  
• Book Cover - GW Snakebite Leather highlight
  
• Base - GW Gryphonne Sepia wash
  

Stage 03

• Gold Metal - GW Gryphonne Sepia wash
  
• Silver Metal - GW ChainMail drybrush
  
• Skulls - GW Kemri Brown & GW Bleached Bone layer (1:1 Mix)
  
• Parchment, Horns and Purity Seals - GW Deneb Stone layer
  
• Robes - GW Snakebite Leather
  
• Psychic Hood - GW Ultramarines Blue
  
• Lightning Bolts - VMC Flat Yellow
  
• Flesh - GW Elf Flesh layer
  

At the moment it looks quite dark and is a pain to photo! Hopefully as I get more highlights on it will show up better ;) I will post a higher quality picture up once the model is finished.

Please post any tips or suggestions regarding Relictors armies as I would be interested to hear what you feel would be fluffy choices/touches for the army :lol:

[MNONE]

Awesome. Was thinking of these guys not long again.

 

But - maybe set them a little later? Maybe they've just emerged from the Eye of Terror and are looking to prove the righteousness of their course of action. In their retreat they've lost a lot of decent equipment and have had to raid daemon worlds to get hold of artifacts to replace them.

 

So:

Many sergeants carry minor daemon weapons (count-as power weapons) - use some of the less 'warped' looking swords carried by Warhammer Chaos Warriors and Marauders. Something that has a minor daemon in it that the average sgt.'s will could control. There's a good cleaver-like axe for the knights that'd do the trick, and a Warriors champion sword that'd work. More ornate looking gear could be relic blades for vets or characters. There's a hammer somewhere that'd do for a thunder hammer, or even a power fist if other players were feeling generous and you're clear about it before hand (for WYSIWYG).

If you want to change it up and avoid all the close combat weapons being daemonic, give someone a regular power weapon or CCW and create a bizarre daemonic weapon to represent some kind of combi-bolter or a plasma pistol (daemonically possessed bolt pistol that spits out green fire?). This could also be used to 'spice-up' the heavy- and special-weapons in regular squads.

 

Some relictors carry warp-touched fetishes which grant them certain abilities, e.g. preternatural senses (as in a replacement for an auspex? or just something to look cool) - something like this, or perhaps other similar minor chaos bitz.

 

Commanders have adapted other daemonic items to replace gear such as adamantine cloaks (or whatever the damn things are called) and iron halos - e.g. this banner top, or similar things (there are plenty of others, I just happen to think that one looks pretty cool, and is nice and noticeable as a "Chaosy thing" that won't disappear amongst all that loyalist armour).

 

Other additional items/totems/fetishes - curious relics that squad leaders or their men have been granted to aid them. Find something cool and chaotic, find a wargear entry that might plausably match up effect-wise, et voila! Stuff like this marauder horn would be awesome, or if you're a good modeller the marauder regiment drum.

 

A specific suggestion: a terminator assault squad who have been granted the use of shields recovered from the personal guard of a barbarian sorcerer king who lived on a daemon world - TDA boys carrying Chaos Knight shields instead of the regular ones.

 

 

And in general, lots of purity seals to ensure the purity of mind and soul required to operate in the EoT (and which the Relictors still believe they have, hey, maybe they do!?) administered by the remaining chaplains, and especially prominent on those considered worthy of carrying the foul relics they have accumulated - just that, lots of purity seals, any you have left over or can beg, borrow or steal. See how one or two of those very long ones from the DA ravenwing look on the relic-bearing marines, perhaps, painted with lots of illuminated script.

 

 

The idea is that you could make them really stand out as Relictors by having a good number of chaos-y items scattered amongst them, and their violent near-destruction gives an ideal reason for why they have had to break out some of their store of artifacts.

[Mr Yellow]

Can't say I've seen a Relictors force ever done before, looking forward to see how this develops. Nice that I caught this at the beginning too.

[Nomus Sardauk]

Many sergeants carry minor daemon weapons (count-as power weapons) - use some of the less 'warped' looking swords carried by Warhammer Chaos Warriors and Marauders. Something that has a minor daemon in it that the average sgt.'s will could control.

 

Bloodletter Hellblades? Maybe you could sculpt purity seals wrapped around parts of the blade and handle to represent protective wards designed to help control the Hellblade's malevolent power?

[MNONE]

Many sergeants carry minor daemon weapons (count-as power weapons) - use some of the less 'warped' looking swords carried by Warhammer Chaos Warriors and Marauders. Something that has a minor daemon in it that the average sgt.'s will could control.

Bloodletter Hellblades? Maybe you could sculpt purity seals wrapped around parts of the blade and handle to represent protective wards designed to help control the Hellblade's malevolent power?

That might well work. Daemon-touched rather than daemon-posessed. It would probably need to be shortened somewhat though, to look less like an obscene zweihander and more manageable.

[Lord Ragnarok]

Many sergeants carry minor daemon weapons (count-as power weapons) - use some of the less 'warped' looking swords carried by Warhammer Chaos Warriors and Marauders. Something that has a minor daemon in it that the average sgt.'s will could control.

 

Bloodletter Hellblades? Maybe you could sculpt purity seals wrapped around parts of the blade and handle to represent protective wards designed to help control the Hellblade's malevolent power?

 

I used Blood Letter Hellblade for my Artekus model. Every model wielding a daemonic weapon has more than average purity seals. Many have them on the weapon. I like this idea. '

 

He looks great btw.

[Grimdarkness]

Good start this look's promising.

[demented]

Hi Guys,

Thanks for all the coments so far. There are a lot of great ideas above this post and I shall be keeping them in mind as the force comes together.

The hellblades look a bit long but I should be able to cut them down and bits from the Warriors of Chaos set will be making an appearance (One thing I have plenty of is bits!!!)

The hard thing will be to not go to far with the chaosy bits; I still want them to look like Space Marines with a few touches here and there so I will have to restrain myself.

One thing I never considered was the 'staying pure' whilst wielding the Daemon weapons. I love the idea of extra purity seals and the like to keep the marine pure of soul. Consider the idea stolen :)

Couple of updates on the Librarian which is steadily nearing completion. I hate the early nights here, makes my photos so much darker!

Once the model is complete I won't post a stage by stage for any other models, I just like to have a note of colours used to reproduce it over the rest of the army.

Stage 4

• Silver Metal - GW Mithril Silver highlight
  
• Armour - VMC Grey Green Layer
  
• Skulls - GW Bleached Bone layer
  
• Parchment, Horns, Purity Seals & Gold Metal - GW Gryphonne Sepia wash
  
• Robes - VMC Dark Sand layer
  
• Psychic Hood - VMC Sky Blue & GW Ultramarines Blue Highlight (1:1 mix)
  
• Purity Seals - GW Thraka Green wash
  
• Lightning Bolts - VMC Lemon Yellow highlight
  
• Flesh - GW Ogryn Flesh wash
  

Stage 5

• Armour - GW Adeptus Battlegrey highlight
  
• Skulls - GW Bleached Bone & GW Skull White highlight (1:1 mix)
  
• Parchment, Horns & Purity Seals - GW Deneb stone layer
  
• Gold Metal - GW Thraka Green wash
  
• Robes - GW Gryphonne Sepia glaze
  
• Psychic Hood - VMC Sky Blue highlight
  
• Lightning Bolts - VMC Ivory highlight
  
• Flesh - GW Leviathan Purple glaze
  

Stage 6

• Armour - GW Codex Grey highlight
  
• Skulls,Psychic Hood & Parchment - GW Skull White highlight
  
• Gold Metal - GW Burnished Gold highlight
  
• Robes - VMC Dark Sand highlight
  
• Flesh - GW Elf Flesh highlight
  
• Small Jewel - GW Scab Red
  
• Base & Shoulder pad - GW Chaos Black
  

Keep the ideas comming - they are mucho appreciated!

[Anvilarium]

Your Librarian is looking awesome - love the green Purity Seals against the grey armour!

[MNONE]

He looks so good. For some reason, I really like the all-grey armour and just the blue hood. I think it's because it captures a kind of sombre air that seems apropriate for the Relictors.

Speaking of the grey, it's a lovely depth. It's a colour I always think could potentially look a bit flat (especially dark grey).

Never thought of the seals as green, but it definately works.

Perhaps a little bit of a bright colour somewhere (brighter seals or gold)? Or is that where the daemon stuff comes in, to make sure it stands out more?

 

Hellblades do look overly long, probably so even when they've been cut down; so they might work best as count-as relic blades? Or full-blown daemon weapons if you can use some kind of homebrew/hybrid list (but if you're going that route, I think you might as well go further. In my head a daemon weapon would look more... alive... than any normal blade or staff).

 

The hard thing will be to not go to far with the chaosy bits; I still want them to look like Space Marines with a few touches here and there so I will have to restrain myself.

Maybe stick to a rule of max 2 per unit? And comparatively minor ones at that. Less (or none) for any scouts, maybe one more for veteran squads.

 

 

@Urza: couldn't resist clicking on relictors.net, good to see the info is being preserved (and ready-made homebrew rules too!). One thing: if you have editing rights to the page, or know who does: the description of the Sword of St. Aquitaine states that it 'was recovered by the Relictors immediately prior to its debasement and subsequent possession by a daemonic entity'. The use of prior suggests it was (intentionally?) debased by the Relictors themselves! DOn't know if that was intended or not, but it sits a bit oddly with my view of them.

[Studio Silvernale]

Couldn't you use CSM codex and just not take demons?

[Lord Ragnarok]

, I really like the all-grey armour and just the blue hood.

Agreed! I like it for the sombre mood and because I just don't like blue libby's. Consider the idea stolen if I add a Relictor Libby in my army.

 

In terms of who gets chaotic artifacts I was always confused on how I would represent this. I settled on anything in the HQ section would have chaotic artifacts.

 

The hard thing will be to not go to far with the chaosy bits; I still want them to look like Space Marines with a few touches here and there so I will have to restrain myself.

 

Same here. I want my guys to look absolutely loyal and codex in all aspects until you see their weapons which are only held by the leaders.

[d Karma b]

MNONE: That might well work. Daemon-touched rather than daemon-posessed. It would probably need to be shortened somewhat though, to look less like an obscene zweihander and more manageable.

 

I am a big fan of blades like claymore and zweihanders myself, so I respectfully disagree. :) Nothing is scarier than a power-armored monster swinging one of those things (especially power/force weapons) at you.

Especially if you're looking to give chaos/looted weapons to your leaders, thats your chance to make it a unifying aspect of the army, from minor bits on sargeants/special weapon troops, to your hq and/or elites. :tu: It'd be awesome to see your take on a force axe or something equally nasty for that librarian you're painting. Its already looking just downright incredible, especially your flesh work.

This bears close scruitiny as it progresses. *grins*

[Anvilarium]

@Urza: couldn't resist clicking on relictors.net, good to see the info is being preserved (and ready-made homebrew rules too!). One thing: if you have editing rights to the page, or know who does: the description of the Sword of St. Aquitaine states that it 'was recovered by the Relictors immediately prior to its debasement and subsequent possession by a daemonic entity'. The use of prior suggests it was (intentionally?) debased by the Relictors themselves! DOn't know if that was intended or not, but it sits a bit oddly with my view of them.

 

The site is owned by myself, and I have admin rights to it. Weirdly enough, the description of the Sword of St. Aquitaine is exactly as it was in the original White Dwarf Article. I have to agree with you that the grammar in that sentence is way off! :-)

[demented]

Hi all,

I will deffinitly restrict the daemon influence to higher ranking Relictors. As you suggested HQ units and some sgts will be carrying some sort of daemonic artefact (weapon, book etc).

Urza - Everywhere I look for Relictors resources I always come across your name. Thanks for some great inspiration and keep up the good work! :)

I have continued work on my librarian. I have added the weapons and painted them up to the same stage as everything else. I am going to put this model to one side and revisit it at a later date. I will be finishing of the painting, script on the parchment and some minor freehand details here and there but right now I'm going to push forward with the rest of the army.

I include a picture of where it stands and I have included a little fluff (be careful my writing skills are almost none existant!)

I have created a rule to go with the daemon weapon just to make my games a little more fluffy and fun, providing the opponant agrees of course :)

Braxus’s Force weapon

This weapon was taken by Braxus from the dying hands of a Grey Knight that assaulted the Relictors fortress monastery.

Its broken blade was used to trap a Greater Daemon of Nurgle within turning it from a weapon of purity to a spreader of disease.

This weapon counts as a force weapon but instead of models suffering instant death after a successful psychic test Roll a D6 and consult the following chart:

[1] – Your enemy resists the poisonous rot from the blow. Only a single wound is caused and he fights on as normal.

[2/3] – The enemy’s body fights off the poison. Only a single wound is caused but there initiative is reduced to one and any movement is halved for the next player turn as there body recovers.

[4/5] – The Enemy is removed as a casualty as normal

[6] – The Rot quickly spreads to the enemies nervous system. You may control the enemies actions in the following player turn as they are possessed by the Daemon. It is then removed as a casualty as the Rot putrefy’s there body.

Thanks all and as always keep the comments and ideas comming :ph34r:

[MNONE]

The site is owned by myself, and I have admin rights to it. Weirdly enough, the description of the Sword of St. Aquitaine is exactly as it was in the original White Dwarf Article. I have to agree with you that the grammar in that sentence is way off! :-)

Ha! I see it now, it's in the old WD IA article. You'd think someone would have caught that in proofing.

 

 

I will deffinitly restrict the daemon influence to higher ranking Relictors. As you suggested HQ units and some sgts will be carrying some sort of daemonic artefact (weapon, book etc).

That kind of makes sense - only the Conclave would be entrusted with such items. Originally I imagined you could use a daemon-forged weapon as a stand-in for special or heavy weapons in one or two squads, but that does seem both a bit too far and not really in-keeping with the spirit of the background.

 

 

 

The weapon looks really good, especially the shattered blade. The green looks excellent and really malevolent.

The rules for it, also, make me smile. They don't look unbalanced and make it more interesting to field Relictors.

 

 

Another suggestion (yes! Another! I really apologise), which I'm sure you've already thought of yourself but just in case, is that you could use one - or both - of those severed heads carried by the Grey Knights, if you can get a hold of them. There's one for power armour (a daemonette, I think) and a bloodletter being merrily swung about by a terminator hand.

That might neatly underscore the 'Chaos against Chaos' aspect.

Of course it might depend on if you'd rather represent your most regular opponent, or where you envisage them fighting (in the EoT/just left it/still fleeing from the GK).

 

 

Can't wait to see more of these guys - as you might be able to tell it's a chapter I'd love to see more done with (I even knocked out a brief fiction piece, which I won't subject people to here).

How will you pick-out sergeants? Red/black helmets?

[Lord Ragnarok]

Red/black helmets?

[

 

I'd love to know as well, I can't figure out what I want to do with my force. Nothing seems to fit.

[Anvilarium]

First up, I love the Librarian. He looks great and the tainted Nemesis Halberd (and special rules) are genius.

 

I will deffinitly restrict the daemon influence to higher ranking Relictors. As you suggested HQ units and some sgts will be carrying some sort of daemonic artefact (weapon, book etc).

 

This is pretty much what I did with my army. To all intents and purposes it was a vanilla Codex Marines army, with a HQs and a smattering of Veterans carrying Chaos weapons. I reasoned that the Chaos weapons would only be issued to Conclave members (the Relictors equivalent of the Dark Angel's secretive society, Deathwing), and even amongst those members, only the purest of the pure with the stongest willpower would be allowed anywhere near any of their aquired Chaos Artefacts.

 

In all cases the Chaos Weapons in my army either counted as Power Weapons or Force Weapons.

 

How will you pick-out sergeants? Red/black helmets?

 

My army was pretty much Codex complaint. Sargeants had red helms, Veterans had white helms, and Veteran Sargeants had red helms with a white stripe down the center. White is a massive PITA the paint though! :rolleyes:

[demented]

Well after a nice relaxing weekend its time for another update.

Placing my Librarian to one side I have started on some Sternguard.

Taking Urza's lead on the helmet colours I decided to stick with codex designations so I tried out a white helmet on my first model.

I painted the whole helmet a blue-white but thought it was a little to much so I retried it with a grey-white and didn't paint the whole helmet. I think it looks much better now.

I still ned to aply finishing touches to the marine (Chapter symbols, scripts, bolter casing, gem on helmet, touch up the armour etc) but I can't decide which colour to go for the lenses on the helmet - any ideas?

Blue, red, green & Orange have all been through my mind but I can't make my mind up :tu:

For the sergeants I'm going to try sticking with the codex colour of Red, but not paint the entire helmet just like I'm doing with my sternguard.

Also in the image is a little sneak peak at the Heavy Flamer marine in progress.

Once again thanks for all the comments, keep the ideas rolling in!

[Brother Tyler]

I'm enjoying watching your progress and will be paying close attention as I develop my own Fire Claws (their "proper" name :tu: though the Chapter badge is a total guess on my part) force. Great work so far. Keep it up!

[Greyall]

I likes me that Librarian a lot. Always great to see someone avoid the Blues-Brother Librarian path. Killer grey, too, keep it going, mate.

[Kierdale]

Gorgeous. Beautiful painting and I love the librarian's weapons, both of them turned out great.

[Anvilarium]

Well after a nice relaxing weekend its time for another update.

 

Placing my Librarian to one side I have started on some Sternguard.

 

Taking Urza's lead on the helmet colours I decided to stick with codex designations so I tried out a white helmet on my first model.

I painted the whole helmet a blue-white but thought it was a little to much so I retried it with a grey-white and didn't paint the whole helmet. I think it looks much better now.

 

Nice Sternguard! The white helms are a pain to paint aren't they? :lol:

I have some unfinished Relictors Sternguard on my painting table at home, the main reason I haven't touched them in the past two years was because of how hard the white helms were to paint.. I had to basecoat the helms with fortress grey, and then build up around 10-15 layers of milk-thin white over the top in order to stop them looking chalky. I'm still not convinced that mine are as white as I'd like them to be!

 

You've done a great job there, keep it up!

[MNONE]

Looks really good. I like the white (those guys should stand out really well).

For eyes I think red + black has been used a lot, so maybe one of the other options. With all the daemon weapons and the Relictor's reputation you might want something sinister, but not as 'evil' as red. Green seems the most obvious, but if you want to go 'colder' maybe blue.

[Studio Silvernale]

Maybe silverish eyes. Give them an otherworldly look instead of "sinister".