Noctus Cornix Posted February 4, 2012 Share Posted February 4, 2012 Allow me to begin with a few creator's notes. I also posted this one the Works In Progress section, but I know many of my brother just visit the Chaos section of the forums so I thought I would post it up here for you guys too. My Night Lords have undergone a great many changes over the last few years. At first I wanted to play my Night Lords as chaos hating crime fighters and all that jazz, but I quickly became disgusted by the idea as I saw many people doing the same thing and I just lost all interest in it. After which, I attempted to transform them into flat out chaos worshiping Night Lords but that too quickly created a sour taste in my mouth simply because I felt it just didn't belong. Next I tried to move on to the Punishers and try to make my own spin on them, but once again when I took a step back to look at the fluff I had created, all I did was make a post heresy version of the Night Lords and I was just making them as an excuse to be different but I just couldn't get past it. I was a Night Lord to the core. So I took some time off from the chaos all together and dabbled into some Dark Eldar and Marines Malevolent to ease my mind. It gave me alot of time to consider my options and really flesh out what I wanted. First I had to figure out what I wanted from the Legion, what really made me feel that connection to them and yet still be unique? While browsing around on the threads, I came across a small quote AD-B wrote from Captain Sevatar as to why the Night Lords were not the Emperor's sanctioned force against other legions. Over all it was an amazing excerpt but one thing really stuck with me. Sevatar mentioned that the wolves were savages trained to be warriors but 'We are Murderers first, last and always....' I can't exactly explain why, but that single line just hit me like a bolt round to the face. Murderers. Not warriors, MURDERERS. And so from there, I began to mold what little background I had into what is now my Warband, the Ankou Pact. A small warning, there will be a ton of fluff and back story going into these guys and, similar to the way my friend Nurgling6688 did with his Astral Claws blog, except I fear there will be great many more blobs of text. The idea is I want to create a small little one or two paragraph bio for each finished model (and probably a page for each HQ) and then once each squad is finished, I want to create a small short story depicting the members in some way shape or form. But I think I'll cut myself off now so I don't have you fall asleep on me before we even begin, so let's get started, shall we? :) http://i915.photobucket.com/albums/ac352/Noctus-Cornix/16thCompany.png Legio Astartes- VIII Legion Night Lords- 16th Company Alias- The Ankou Pact History Logs- The Great Crusades Chapter 1: Defeat The question has been posed by Imperial Scholar and VIII Legionnaire Commander alike, where did everything go wrong? Was it upon the death of the dread lord Night Haunter that caused the mental snap in the minds of the 16th Company, or was it upon the birth cry of the vile monster known only as the Black Blood, that the souls of thousands of Night Lords would be consigned to damnation. Each are viable answers, but the truth dates even further back in time to the years of the Great Crusade. In those times, the 16th Company was still under the watchful eyes of Captain Xeratath, one of the older and most venerated officers of the legion. His name was one that was spoken of with equal measures of fear and respect amongst the Imperium and his scrolls of glory extended out nearly as far as that of Lord Sevatar himself. There were very few among the Night Lords that could be described among the galaxy as true heroes, but Xeratath was one of them. That was until Grendel's World. Grendel's World, a planet that would ironically one day fall prey to the sadistic whims of the warband, was still just an unremarkable and meaningless speck on the face of the Imperium. In the face of the great Ork Waaghs that marched rampant amongst the star, the Legio Astartes were consigned to defending the Imperial worlds against the xenos filth that threatened to consume them. While many of the legions were granted the honor to meet the brunt of the Ork force at Ullanor, the small flotilla of Night Lords in the area were ordered to protect the worlds that surrounded the warzone. The 16th Company was among the Night Lords present and were forced to protect some forsaken rock with little reason other than 'it was the Emperor's will' and that was left to that. All was quiet on the plains of Grendel's World as the warriors of VIII Legion stood guard over the sleeping planet. They were ill at ease, the rancid stench of fear in the smell of the city inhabitants set the blood of the Astartes on fire, biting back the primal urge to of battle and death that beat within their twin hearts. Something was wrong. That same strange nagging in the back of their minds finally became a reality as the Face of Death, war vessel of the 16th company detected a Ork vessel closing in on the auspex. A second vessel appeared soon after, then another, then three more, until 13 glowing red blips swarmed over the Face of Death. The massacre that ensued shared no signs of hope for the 16th Company as the hordes of xenos descended upon the helpless planet. The Face of Death fought with every ounce it could muster to merely survive but the ship fell from the sky as burning wreckage in the first few hours. For all their honor, all their skill, and all their prowess, the Night Lords of Captain Xeratath fell before the xenos horde. They stood their ground for as long as possible, biting back against their enemy with their dying venom but death was inevitable and soon all but a handful of Night Lords made their final stand with the wounded captain. Each warrior gave their brothers a silent nod of departure to prepare for the cold embrace of death, but as luck would have it, death did not come for them. Warships of ivory and gold descended from the heavens upon the Orks, drop pods raining across the sky like tears of fire. From the pods came the Astartes of the Luna Wolves, scything through the xenos filth with relative ease where the Night Lords struggled merely to survive. Ullanor had been taken and the forces of the newly claimed War Master Horus moved forward to assist the smaller units that protected the outlying worlds. As the ashes settled upon the fields of Grendel's World, the Night Lords came to realize just how great the toll was. The 16th company had been fully gutted like a helpless animal with it's entrails left to rot across the floor. Where once was a fully functional and highly trained unit of hundreds of Space Marines, now only a few dozen remained, with no ship or company left to call their own. The 16th Company, and Captain Xeratath would never be the same..... ------------------------------------------- And so now for the final portion of my first post (and probably the actual reason why you people are here), the modeling section. There isn't much to start off with but I thought it would be best to begin with the armor of Captain Xeratath himself. Now when I first saw the new vampire counts models from the fantasy range, the one thing that caught my eye above all else was Krell, Lord of Undeath. Now I literally drooled over this model for 2 hours and then it probably took me another thirty minutes to pick my jaw back up so I could pre order this model. Model came in and I cannot believe how happy I am with this guy. Sure it's finecast, and I hate that flimsy resin crap with a passion but I think I can overlook it with this model. There's just so much detail and bad assery that exhumes from this model, I just couldn't help myself but try and make it into a Night Lord. So here is a work in progress of him. It didn't take that long to file off the legs and keep the cap in tact. The cloak did get a few scrapes but it just makes it look better. A really big one up for this guy is that his head comes seperate. http://i915.photobucket.com/albums/ac352/Noctus-Cornix/HPIM1537.jpg http://i915.photobucket.com/albums/ac352/Noctus-Cornix/HPIM1535.jpg Enjoy. :) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hyaenidae Posted February 4, 2012 Share Posted February 4, 2012 Great fluff, bro. Glad you finally found that 'niche' for your Night Lords that we were talking about! But.... Damn you, photobucket!!! I can never see pics on the B&C at work because everyone loves you!!! WHY?!?! *sad* Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Olis Posted February 4, 2012 Share Posted February 4, 2012 I'd just like to point out that the finecast model is horribly washed out in the photos - is there any way of dialling the flash down, or toggling it off? He does look very interesting, though. Wondering what direction you'll take him as you continue to construct him. ;) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Emperors Immortals Posted February 4, 2012 Share Posted February 4, 2012 Absolutely wonderful, pleasae have an IA article coming........ Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Brother Ambroz Posted February 4, 2012 Share Posted February 4, 2012 Krell does make an impressive Night Lord. I hate messing with finecast though it is easier than metal. Looks like you're pretty decent with finecast though. Good luck noctus! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paradigm Posted February 4, 2012 Share Posted February 4, 2012 I've got the same plan for my lord. I got krell a couple days ago. I'll be watching. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lord_Caerolion Posted February 4, 2012 Share Posted February 4, 2012 I've been neglecting my Night Lords for far too long (or any real modelling, for that matter...) but I'm glad to see there are those of us out there doing the Night Lords justice. I absolutely love the background you've got going for the warband, and I cannot wait to see a completed picture of your Lord. Are you going to be having him with a different helmet, or keeping Krell's head, for a nice, evil daemonic look? You might be interested in waiting for a certain Forge World model coming out, Chaplain Enkomi, whose helmet looks exactly like Krell's, including the skull-face and greek-style helmet, but it's not the models actual face. Just a heads-up, if you want to continue the Krell look, without as much Chaos-corruption. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Noctus Cornix Posted February 5, 2012 Author Share Posted February 5, 2012 @1000heathens Thank you kindly brother and ya, I am finally glad I have found my own little corner to huddle in. :P I'm sorry about the photobucket thing. I'll send you some pictures you can actually see via pm. @Olisredan As, I said in the WIP thread, I will see what I can do to fix the images. @emperors immortals lol well thanks man, actually I think I will make an IA article when I'm done. Never thought of it. @Tanith Ghost thanks Tanith. Ya I don't exactly like finecast either (I got some of the ;) in my throat too :lol: but it is so much easier to work with than metal. @Fortnight Can't wait to see your version too my friend. :) @Caerolion Ah, brother Caerolion. It is so good to see you again. It still pains me to know our beloved Night Lord forums has slowly crawled to a snails pace, but I thought it would be best to post this blog on the Night Lord forums aswell and see if we could kick start some new activity. To be honest, I really didn't want to use his head, for the sole fact that I didn't want to seem lazy and look like I didn't take any time to be creative with the model, but in the end I decided to go with Krell's head anyway. The nice thing about the model though is that his head actually comes as a seperate piece, which is freaking amazing I might add. So, looking at his head, it simply would not have worked as it was, so I removed the helmet crest horns and filed it down to look like a simple crest you see on an average space marine helmet. From there, I wanted to keep with the ancient suit of Night Lord relic armor, make it as fancy and heroic looking as I could so I add wings. However as opposed sticking out like cat ears, I positioned them to be sweeping back like the wings your see on the dark angel chapter master's helmet. I'll show you what I mean as soon as I get my camera working again. All your support is appreciated guys. :) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Olis Posted February 5, 2012 Share Posted February 5, 2012 Apologies for posting the same thing in both threads, brother. I doubt you needed to hear it twice. :lol: Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Noctus Cornix Posted February 5, 2012 Author Share Posted February 5, 2012 It's fine my friend. I don't mind. :lol: Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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