Sword Bearers and the Unforgiven (Updated 1/07/23: Angels Redeemed)

[Dark Rage]

Lots of melee weapons, very nice, like that sword and axe combo.

[deathspectersgt7]

Well done Brother the headhunters look great .I compeleted putting together a Sword Bearers assualt terminator squad and a squad of HOD tonite.

[Spaced Hulk]

Cheers guys! 

 

@ recon0321: The Revenant Gladius blades are from Anvil Industry. The Mire Long Blades are from the Catachan sprues (the Command one I think). I just removed the handle below the cross guard and attached them to some loose hands from my bits box.

 

@ Dark Rage: Thanks mate. Originally I was going to arm the entire squad of Headhunters solely with twin combat blades, but then I thought that a power axe would be a useful addition. Fluffwise it'll allow them to decapitate particularly monstrous opponants

 

@ deathspectresrg7: Thanks brother Looking forward to seeing your Penitent Terminators (might help me decide how I'm going to paint mine eventually) and the Hammers of Dorn!

 

Edit: Just noticed I'd duplicated one of the pics of the Assault Veteran. Have replaced it with another image now. Anybody else been having trouble posting pics? I ended up switching internet browsers last night because Explorer just didn't want to co-operate. Using Chrome now and everything is working fine, but just wondering if anybody else had had the same problems.

Edited December 1, 2013 by spacedhulk

[Spaced Hulk]

Finished five more Assault Veterans:

Battle Brother Almeric, armed with 'Starfury' pattern plasma pistol, combat knife & bolt pistol.

Battle Brother Coll, armed with 'Balefire' pattern flamer (vambrace mounted) and 'Eviscerus' pattern chainblade.

Battle Brother Arvan, armed with power sword, bolt pistol and chainsword.

Battle Brother Maelon, armed with Astartes War Maul & 'Vengeance' pattern bolt pistol.

Battle Brother Gothryn, armed with a bolt pistol & two handed power mace (counts as a power fist)

In game terms these guys count as a Company Veteran squad. Still need to build another four models (making it ten man) and write up some background for them.

Thanks for looking

[deathspectersgt7]

Now you have to tell me where you got the head of the mace from.This guy Rocks!!! And the other ones are'nt shabby ether.

[Spaced Hulk]

Cheers brother :-) The mace head is from the Warhammer Chaos Knights set.

[Bryan Blaire]

Spaced Hulk, :tu: on all the latest guys! They look awesome. Very creative use of the bionic banner arm!

 

My C&C, you gotta find a way to extend that Eviscerus chain blade! It looks awesome with that hilt, but it is just too long for the blade length.

 

Where is Brother Arvan's chainsword from?

 

The Louisville Slugger Mk. 2 is also very cool.

 

Fun stuff dude!

[Spaced Hulk]

Cheers Bryan  As I've said before, the new marine kits are a lot of fun to work with, and I've been itching to 'weaponise' the Ravenwing banner arm ever since I saw it 

 

The Eviscerus is a little short, but I do quite like how it turned out, as it looks pretty brutal (which is what I was aiming for with this squad). I went for that particular hilt because I wanted the marine to have a two handed chainsword (to use alongside the arm mounted flamer). I have tried extending chainsword blades before (by combining two together) but I've never been pleased with the results, as you can always see the join. Will probably leave it for now (it'll be a while before I get round to painting these guys anyway) and see if inspiration hits me at some point. One of Forge World's heavy chainswords would probably be the best sized blade for it, but I'm loath to buy expensive resin just to cut it up.

 

Arvan's chainsword is from the Space Wolf kit with a minor modification (replaced the wolf tooth pommel with a skull one from a normal chainsword).

 

Thanks again mate! 

Edited December 17, 2013 by spacedhulk

[Dark Rage]

Really great job on that squad, some really great poses and weapon conversions there, really like that mace and the pose of that first marine with the combat blade.

 

Great stuff!

 

DR

[Spaced Hulk]

Well, it's Christmas Eve, and I've got time for one last pic update before Christmas Day:

First of all, another member of the Assault Squad: Battle Brother Elgan, armed with plasma pistol, bolt pistol & a pair of combat knives.

Next up (and to prove that I have actually still been painting as well ) are some completed squad pics:

Combat team Hain, 4th Squad, Sword Bearer's Third Battle Company:

Unidentified Revenant 'Headhunter' Assassination Squad:

Fire Team Durand, Third Company Veterans:

Granted full access to the Fenspire's extensive armouries, the Veterans of the Sword Bearer Battle Companies often form dedicated Fire Support Squads. These heavily armed units accompany the main battle line, providing overwhelming firepower and specialist weaponry wherever they are most needed.

Here's a group shot of all my currently painted models:

Still a bit of work to be done (things like squad markings, campaign badges, the jet exhausts of the jump packs) but overall I'm pretty pleased with how they're looking.

And finally for today, here's a new character who plays a prominant role in a short story I'm currently writing:

Penitent Techmarine Malachi, The Oath Breaker, equipped with a multi-bolter and power field generator.

Ruleswise, he counts as a Techmarine armed with a storm bolter & boltgun (the multi-bolter represents both), PFG, servo arm, auspex & melta bombs.

Thanks for looking, and Merry Christmas!

[recon0321]

Great work spaced hulk love the tech marine good use of bitz....the middle launcher arm works great for a servo arm....MERRY CHRISTMAS

[deathspectersgt7]

These look Great Brother .The HH are my favorite.

[TearsOfTheRaven]

The story and modelling behind these guys is phenomenal. Where is the multi bolter for that awesome techmarine from? I know its anvil but what kit? Edited December 25, 2013 by TearsOfTheRaven

[elmo]

Here you go: Widow maker

 

Great work :)

[Spaced Hulk]

Thanks guys , glad you liked them and hope you've all had a good Christmas.

Another pic update: First of all another Assault marine (2 more to go)

Battle Brother Cai, armed with chainsword, bolt pistol & 'Zealot' pattern power axe.

Next are test models for two new Revenant Airbourne Infantry squads. These units will either be deployed by Drop Pod or by Night (Storm) Raven gunship.

Unknown Battle Brother, Revenant Execution Team

Although primarily a fast attack formation, Second Company does maintain a number of specialised long range support units in the form of Execution Teams. Equipped with modified sniper boltguns and rare special issue ammunition, Revenant Executers are capable of engaging enemy forces at any range, eliminating threats to the bike and assault squads before they reach enemy lines.

(In game terms, Executers will be represented by allied Sternguard Veteran Squads.)

Unknown Battle Brother, Revenant Murder Squad

Murder Squads are amongst the Celerem Mortem's most notorious warriors. Heavily armed shock troops, their skull war helms are modified with built-in chem injectors, allowing them to administer a massive dose of combat drugs during battle. With their abilities boosted by such prohibited stimulants as Frenzon & Satrophine, they become truly terrifiying opponants, the physical manifestation of the Shadowcaster's fear inducing effects.

(In game terms, I was originally going to field Murder Squads as allied BA Death Company. However, I think I'm going to use Forge World's Carcharadon Chapter Tactics to represent the Revenants now (so that they'll all have the Fear special rule), so these will probably be a standard Tac squad armed with additional close combat weapons (the other bonus the Carcharadons get). The effects of their combat drugs is represented by the Rage effects Carcharadons get when they defeat an enemy unit in combat.)

Thanks for looking, C&C are welcome as always

Edited December 26, 2013 by spacedhulk

[deathspectersgt7]

These are looking really cool. The Revenant Murder Sqd member is well done.The tubing is great!!.You have out done yourself Brother.

So what did Santa Cleese bring Ya?

Edited December 26, 2013 by deathspectersgt7

[Spaced Hulk]

These are looking really cool. The Revenant Murder Sqd member is well done.The tubing is great!!.You have out done yourself Brother.

So what did Santa Cleese bring Ya?

 

Cheers brother!  Glad the Murder Squad marine looks ok, the tubing was a bit of a pain in the  to line up. I'm thinking now that he could do with either some more equipment or some purity seals. Probably purity seals actually, as one thing I learnt with the Headhunters is that the black needs some brighter colours to contrast with. Also trying to decide what colour to paint the Execution Team's robes. Possibly a very dark grey?

 

Santa brought a nice little pile of GW goodness: new Tacs, Sternguard, Vanguard & a Deathwing Command Squad (so expect to see some Penitent Termies in the not so distant future). What about you mate? 

[deathspectersgt7]

Cash going to replenish my bits and order some more stuff from shapeways.

[Spaced Hulk]

Another pic update (hopefully the next models I post will have some paint on them again)

First up, the last two members of the Assault Squad:

Battle Brother Tann, armed with a modified 'Ignis' pattern flamer, storm shield & mono-molecular combat knife.

Battle Brother Gawain. armed with a power sabre, bolt pistol & duelling knife.

And finally for today, this is my counts as Ezekial:

Knight-Errant Roland Erekose: The Seeker of Redemption, Epistolary Librarian & Bearer of the Blade Durandal.

The revolver is a relic of Old Caliban, an ancient firearm originally used by a Knight of the Order and subsequently modified and adapted by the First Legion's artificers. Obviously in game terms it counts as Ezekial's master crafted bolt pistol.

As you can see, Erekose is already primed, so he'll probably be the first HQ character that I paint for the army.

Thanks for looking. C&C are welcome as always

Edited January 28, 2014 by spacedhulk

[deathspectersgt7]

Looking Good Brother,surprised on how you changed up Erekose like the pose.The Nids are on the way so prepare.

[Augustus]

WRITE THE BOOK!!!!.I saw that coming but man that was brutal for those guardsmen. I like Charon . Great job on the fig and his story Brother can't wait to hear more about him down the road.

QFT

 

Proposed title:

Sword Bearers: Legacy of Honor, Legacy of Deceit

Edited January 2, 2014 by Augustus

[Dark Rage]

Nice job on the librarian Erekose really like the stance he is taking with the sword at the ready. The revolver is a really nice touch, always how I imagined the very old bolt pistols to look like.

 

DR

[Isiah]

On the Librarian - you will be using Ezekiel's rules yes - because if you ever run him as a standard Libby I prefer an axe over the sword :yes:

 

Nice model.

 

Cheers

I

[Spaced Hulk]

Hi guys, and a belated Happy New Year to everyone 

 

@ deathspectresrg7: Cheers brother! Don't worry, Devastator/Heavy Weapon squads are already being planned 

 

@ Augustus: Thanks mate. The working title for this first set of Sword Bearer stories has always been "Shadow and Death". It seems appropriate (although perhaps a little unimaginative). I do like your suggestions though. 

 

@ Dark Rage: Cheers mate!  Quite pleased with how Erekose turned out, as I wanted to make a model that was still recognisably Ezekial (eg in terms of wargear) but with a completely different 'style'. I've also wanted to find a use for that revolver ever since I first saw it. 

 

@ Isiah: Thanks mate! Yes, he's meant to use Ezekial's rules. I'm gradually building up a collection of converted Librarians (enough to run a Librarius Psychic Choir eventually). A Force Axe wielder is probably next on the cards (although I have got the GW metal model, which has always been my favourite official Librarian, so i might just use that one unconverted).

 

 

So, time for the first update of 2014, and one of my New Year's resolutions is to start writing more frequently again. However, before I continue (and conclude) the Necropolis Siege and resolve Aldous's current misfortunes, there's a seperate short story I want to finish off, one that features two of my new character models. Here's the first part:

 

 

Desperate Allies

A Sword Bearers Short Story

Part One

 

Vega IX was a world long dead. Once a highly productive Agri-world, for over a thousand years it's immense fields and deep seas had helped feed a host of colonies across the Eastern Fringe. A radiant blue-green orb, almost a mirror of ancient, pre-industrialised Terra, it's wealthy inhabitants had prospered alongside the planet's bountiful harvests, dwelling in tall, silver spires high above the verdant landscape.

 

That world was gone. The victim of it's own star, dramatic changes in the solar radiation that bathed it's surface had rendered Vega almost uninhabitable. The intense heat that now constantly bombarded the planet had left it dry and desolate, a barren desert inhospitable to life. Whilst the land had burned, oceans had evaporated. Decimated by disease, famine and catastrophic climate change, the native human population had abandoned their home world, leaving the empty shells of their towering Hive cities as silent mausoleums, gargantuan memorials to a lost civilisation.

  

That, at least, was the official Administratum report. Investigators dispatched by the Adeptus Terra had visited the world nearly two hundred years previously, concerned by the lack of communication, and, more importantly, the prolonged absence of the Imperial Tithe. Their findings had been clear and unequivocal: this world was dead. Just another delta class planet in a galaxy indifferent to such catastrophe. Then the investigation team had moved on, and Vega had been forgotten.

 

As he walked through the teeming crowds that thronged the central market hall of Vega Hive Primus, the Knight chuckled to himself. Both at the sheer inaccuracy of the Administratum's records, and at the bitter twists of fate that had led him to such a wretched den of scum and villainy.

 

***

 

His name was Roland Erekose, and he was two hundred and three years old. It was amusing, he decided, that within his own life time such a categorically dead world had re-populated so quickly. Amusing, and philosophically quite fascinating. It spoke volumes about both humanity's role in the universe, and their sheer, indefatigable will to survive, endure and prosper.

 

Of course, he had to concede that humans hadn't been alone in their reconquest of this world. And those who had returned were far from prime examples of the human species.

 

The market hall was literally swarming with bodies, a multitudinous host of human and alien forms. Erekose had travelled widely, but he'd never witnessed such an eclectic mixture of humanity and Xenos species. In the wake of the original colonist's mass exodus, it seemed the assorted dregs of the entire Ultima Segmentum had poured into the empty hive city. Outlaws and outcasts, smugglers, slavers, abhumans, Beastmen, Kroot mercenaries, Eldar Rangers, Tarellian Dog Soldiers and countless more. But despite their assorted origins and differences, the new inhabitants all shared a single characteristic: the common desire to remain hidden from Imperial view.

 

“We should kill them all.” As always, his companion spoke bluntly, his voice a harsh mechanical growl devoid of emotion. The vox implants that replaced the Techmarine's vocal chords had robbed the arcane warrior of much of his own humanity. “Mutants. Traitors. Xenos. The heresy of this place offends me brother.”

 

Erekose sighed. “I know Mal, but remember our mission. We are here for a reason.”

 

A grunting burst of static from the Techmarine's vox grill was the only response. He was right, of course. To abhor such creatures was natural: their training and instincts demanded it. However, Malachi was particularly belligerent and aggressive, even for a Sword Bearer. The rejection of his oaths to the Adeptus Mechanicus, a necessity following his induction into the Inner Circle, still sat poorly with the dour warrior. To learn the terrible secrets of the Unforgiven was shocking enough for any member of the First Legion. To learn them, and then be forced to choose where your own loyalty lay was another matter entirely.

 

It was for this reason that Techmarines were never usually admitted into the Inner Circle. Even the Masters of the Forge were excluded from the upper echelons of the Council. Their dual allegiances, to both their Chapter and the Priesthood of Mars, had always been deemed an unresolvable conflict of interests.

 

For Malachi, events had conspired to make such a choice unavoidable. Faced with either rejecting thirty years of training, indoctrination and loyalty to the Machine Cult, or a full, telepathic mind-wipe to remove all sensitive information from his memory, he had reluctantly agreed to break his ties to the Mechanicus and renounce his faith in the Omnissiah.

 

Oath-breaker. That was how he was now known. His fellow Techmarines tolerated his existence but had vowed to never again acknowledge him, forging a wall of impenetrable silence between themselves and their former brother. The Lords of Mars were not so lenient. Malachi faced execution if he were to ever again set foot on Mechanicus territory. At the same time, his skills, knowledge and intensive mechanical augmentation left him permanently isolated from the brethren of the Battle Companies.

 

He was an outcast amongst his own kind, shunned by all except those that shared the same terrible secrets. Even the First Company Veterans whose armour he helped maintain were wary in his presence. Clad in the bare grey ceramite of the Dishonoured and stripped of all insignia of his former calling, the Techmarine was a lonely, brooding warrior, embittered and twisted by events beyond his control.

 

Much like Erekose himself. Although the two of them were different in so many ways, they both shared the same isolation. They were both outsiders. They were both alone.

 

It was a pity that Malachi despised him so much, the Knight thought, with a hint of genuine sadness. Despite their differences, they were still allies, still brothers. But the resentment within his companion was palpable, easy to detect even without his gift. He didn't take it personally. 

 

He'd long since realised that the Techmarine hated everybody. 

Edited January 4, 2014 by spacedhulk

[Master Avoghai]

Seems that a nice fallen hunt is beginning...

 

I'm dubious though... Was it necessary that Malachi has to break his vow to Mars?...

 

I mean, doing that will not makes people outside the inner circle ask more question that they should?

He sill could honour his duty in machine maintenance without necessary keeping everybody aware that he doesn't want to be part of the Mars Cult... After all some DA are member of the deathwatch and some say that it allows them to gather information both on the fallen AND the level of menace of the =][=.