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

[Major_Gilbear]

Looks very good - especially that chequered vambrace! :)

[deathspectersgt7]

Looking Good Brother . But can't forgive your Heresy :P . But will look in from time to time on any Swordbearers updates in the future.

[Spaced Hulk]

Thank you brothers

@ Major Gilbear: The chequers took forever to do, and I'm still not 100% happy with them. It didn't help that they're on the really curved surface of a gauntlet. I think the next ones I try will be on a shoulder pad instead.

@ DSS7: Are you sure I can't persuade you to give 30K another chance brother?

Calibanate 'Bladesworn' Veteran Squad, Circa M31

[Major_Gilbear]

Those Empire Greatswords really suit the Marines' stature! :)

[Greenz]

The great Spaced Hulk returns!!! Albeit momentarily ;) I had a feeling the 30k forum had stolen you away from us. I'll have to search around for your work over there now

 

Great looking models, as always. I'll echo the comments on the checkered pattern, superb

 

How's Aldous doing?

[deathspectersgt7]

  Nope .

[Spaced Hulk]

@ Major_Gilbear: Indeed, the Greatswords kit is extremely useful for anyone wanting to build close combat DA. I should also say that Grey Knight swords are equally invaluable, as they give you the hands to attach the fantasy blades to  .

 

@ Greenz: Cheers brother  Yes, just a flying visit for now I'm afraid. There's a link to my new 30K blog in my signature now.

 

Aldous has unfortunately had an accident with a Revenant Stasis Grenade Launcher, and so is currently frozen in time. I dare say he'll escape from stasis at some point though  .

 

Thanks again 

[Spaced Hulk]

Bit of a random update, as I'm still focussed on my 30K Dark Angels at the moment. However, Brother Arkley's Paladin Challenge was too tempting to pass up, so I've decided to build a character to tie both armies together - Tomas Mathias, the First Sword Bearer.

Great Crusade/Horus Heresy:

Tomas Mathias, Squad Sergeant,

Cader-12 Despoiler Squad

Seventh Chapter of the First Host

Ordination of the Firewing

The Dark Angels Legion

Post Scouring/Destruction of Caliban:

Appointed First Chapter Master of the Adeptus Astartes 'Sword Bearers'

So he'll be painted up as Despoiler Sergeant (basically a close combat equipped tactical squad) for my 30K DA. However, background-wise, he'll also survive the Heresy to become the first Chapter Master of the Sword Bearers. I'll post painted pics and some more fluff for him when he's finished.

Edited October 21, 2016 by Spaced Hulk

[Greenz]

I just saw this posted up in the Paladin challenge. I'm not going to lie, I'm 1 part excited to see the Hulk posting here, and 1 part dreading this will be all for a while (cursing 30k)

 

Jokes aside, wicked model as always Hulk! His pose is extremely sinister, I love it

[deathspectersgt7]

A BIG LIKE on Tomas Brother.  Checked Yours and Mr Bears threads in aod .  But I couldn't post anything I started to shake and sweat so had leave very quickly.

[Augustus]

From which business end do you want the business? Awesome model!

[Spaced Hulk]

Just realised I didn't add any completed pics of Mathias here after the Paladin's Challenge! Doh! There's a bit of fluff to accompany him as well, and there's also a 30K datafile for him in my Vengeance of Angels thread (link in my sig below).

Great Crusade/Horus Heresy:

Tomas-Mathias, Squad Sergeant

Cader-12 Despoiler Squad

Seventh Chapter of the First Host

Ordination of the Firewing

The Dark Angels Legion

Post Scouring: First Chapter Master of the Adeptus Astartes 'Sword Bearers'

The Knight dreams.

His broken body drifts helplessly through the cold void. All around him lies the detritus of battle, a vast grave yard of ruined ships and splintered wreckage that conceals the innumerable dead. The battle for Sarum has finally reached the surface, and the victims and casualties of the first phase, the void war, have been left behind by the advancing armies.

His armour, the Mark III suit that has been his second skin through so much war and tragedy, is now inert and lifeless, a coffin of steel and ceramite to carry him on this final voyage through the abyss. His weapons, the twin swords that were his trademark amongst the Seventh Order, are now lost. One blade cast into space as the ship broke apart, the other trapped within the Cataphracti torso of a Twelfth Legion Berserker. A challenging fight and a victory worthy of remembrance, followed ironically by this slow, ignoble death in the eternal darkness.

With life support failing and the vox silent, his mind and body have responded in the only manner that is still available. He has entered the Sus-an state, a self induced coma of suspended animation that is a Space Marine's last refuge before death.

And so, oblivious to his surroundings and even his own, inevitable fate, Mathias dreams.

* * *

He dreams of a world of perpetual rain, a cold, dark land of swamps and marshes, of sodden, windswept moors and grey, desolate mountains. He dreams of a jagged peak towering over an entire continent, a rocky spire that reaches beyond the dense cloud cover to the very edge of the planet's atmosphere. It is a hollow mountain, it's cavernous interior carved into a labyrinthine network of caves and tunnels, dungeons and oubliettes. And he dreams of the knights who will make this mountain their home. Like Mathias himself they are Astartes, but their livery bears no resemblance to any of the Emperor's Legions, either loyal or traitorous. Some wear gleaming armour of burnished steel, embellished with green war-helms and pauldrons that remind him of the haunted forests of his home-world. Others are clad in plate as jet black as his own, but each and every one of these dark knights hides their face behind a grinning, deaths-head mask.

He dreams of an eternity of conflict amongst the stars. Of battles won and wars lost, of hidden shame and a never ending quest for redemption. He dreams of broken swords and the destruction of fortresses, of treachery and corruption most foul, and of brother fighting brother until everything they created is undone. He sees the death of hope and the victory of shadows. And finally he dreams of mirrors, endless walls of mirrors, reflecting all this pain and suffering again and again into the very depths of infinity.

* * *

He is still dreaming as the First Legion recovery ship pulls his broken body from the void. From this moment to his death, many centuries in the future, the memory of these dreams will forever haunt him, although will never be able to recall their exact details or meaning. They accompany him throughout the horrors of the Heresy and the vicious, hate-filled Scouring that follows it. Through the destruction of Caliban and the birth of the Unforgiven, they continue to lurk, unbidden, at the edge of his conscious mind. Even as dreams and reality begin to merge, as his own Chapter is born and the deathworld of Mire is discovered, Mathias does not remember fully why such events seem so familiar. In his lifetime of service, it is the only time his eidetic memory will fail him.

Or perhaps it is simply intentional. A deliberate, if sub-conscious, decision to ignore the visions of the future he was granted, so long ago.

Some things, after all, are better left forgotten.

Edited December 20, 2016 by Spaced Hulk

[Interrogator Stobz]

Wait, what? You put paint on a dude?

:lol:

 

Great job too :tu:

[FinylCut]

Spaced Hulk:

 

Your dual wielding sergeant is awesome. Great colors, free hands, and pose. The swords look like a metallic green to me - very unique!

 

Thanks for sharing.

FC

[Spaced Hulk]

@ Stobz: Don't sound quite so surprised brother, it does happen occasionally But thanks mate!

@ FinylCut: Cheers mate! The blades have actually got a bit of a mirrored finish, so the green sheen is the reflection from my cutting mat It does look pretty cool though, so I may try to replicate the effect with a green wash or shade at some point.

If it's ok with the mods, I thought I might add some more pics of my 30K DA here (if only to prove to Stobz that I do pick up a paint brush now and again ). Painted models only, as there's quite enough of my bare plastic pile of shame in this thread already

The Reborn, Veterans of the First Rangdan Xenocide

Hunter-Killer Squad, 76th Battle Company, 7th Chapter, 3rd Order

The Dark Angels Legion

http://i1372.photobucket.com/albums/ag344/mat_at/IMG_20161227_145605_zpsfm4zvvfn.jpg

http://i1372.photobucket.com/albums/ag344/mat_at/IMG_20161227_150730_zpsxcnom8pi.jpg

http://i1372.photobucket.com/albums/ag344/mat_at/IMG_20161227_150548_zpsndn7dale.jpg

Knight Sergeant Kalaziel, commander of The Reborn, Veteran of the First Rangdan Xenocide.

Thelial Wyrmbane, 'The Beast Slayer'

Paladin of the 36th Order

Ordination of the Deathwing

The Dark Angels Legion

Thanks for looking, and Happy New Year!

[deathspectersgt7]

​WOW !!!! on the Beast Slayer . Has too be my favorite to date. Great Fig,

[Spaced Hulk]

Sword Bearers: Reforged

In the rocky wasteland of Mire's Great Northern Expanse a new sea has been born. It is a vast crater, three hundred miles in diameter and almost two miles deep, with sharply sloping sides of black glass. The perpetual rain which dominates the planet's eco-system has filled this immense basin, forming a new inland sea far from the existing oceans. However, unlike every other body of water on Mire's surface, this Black Lake (as it's few visitors have named it), remains both lifeless and crystal clear in it's clarity. Lethal radiation levels, combined with highly concentrated acidity, ensures that even the most basic bacteriological life forms are unable to survive here.

To the casual observer, there is nothing to indicate that this was once the site of one of the greatest Imperial bastions of the Eastern Fringe. For the vast crater is all that remains of the mighty Fenspire, the mountain fortress monastery of the Adeptus Astartes known as the Sword Bearers. The calamity which overtook this chapter and their home world remains a mystery to all outside their order, although it is widely believed that Fenspire was deliberately destroyed, it's immense atomic reactors purposefully overloaded on the orders of the Chapter Master himself. Whether this is true, and if so, why this drastic course of action was implemented, have never been disclosed by the surviving members of Chapter. Rumour and speculation are naturally rife on the subject, with theories ranging from a parasitic xenos epidemic, a massed daemonic infestation or even civil war within the Sword Bearer's own ranks.

With the survivors remaining as secretive and uncooperative as their First Legion Primogenitors, it is unlikely that we will ever discover the true nature of this disaster. However, what is painfully apparent is that the Chapter remains a pale shadow of it's original self. Deprived of their fortress monastery and it's great forges and arsenal, and even more importantly the gene-seed reserves used to create their next generation of warriors, there seems little possibility of survival, let alone reforming as an effective military force.

As with so many Adeptus Astartes Chapters in these dark, benighted days, their only chance of recovery appears to be the Primaris program. If Lord Guilliman chooses to offer them this, his great hope for the future, I can only pray that they are wise, and humble, enough to accept it. Sadly, from what I have seen of this infamously stubborn Chapter, I doubt this is the case.

- From the initial report of the Mire Planetary Survey Team, led by Explorator Valmak, Long Range Reconnaissance Group.

We stood upon the precipice. The only survivors of a doomed brotherhood, the last sons of a dead world. For ten thousand years we had served as the lords and guardians of these domains, our noble history replete with both glorious victories and honourable defeats, but never before had we drawn so close to extinction. With our companies gravely depleted, our fortress destroyed and our home-world rendered nigh uninhabitable, it seemed inconceivable that we should survive, let alone rebuild our strength and numbers. Indeed, many amongst the survivors favoured committing to one final, apocalyptic campaign, a vain glorious last stand that would see our Chapter consigned to the annals of history. Perhaps ashamedly, I was one of them.

Fortunately, wiser heads than mine prevailed. As the galaxy burned and the Imperium descended into darkness and chaos, we clung stubbornly to existence. For over thirty years we lived on the very edge of destruction, waiting for help which many feared would never arrive. Salvaging whatever we could find in the war torn systems that had once relied upon us for protection, we abandoned all notions of honour and duty in exchange for our continued survival. Once we willingly gave our lives to defend the Imperium, but now we fought only when victory was guaranteed. We had no choice, for we could ill afford either casualties or defeat, but it was a policy which sat poorly upon us. It seemed the proud Knights of Mire were no more, replaced with raiders and marauders in scavenged armour, little better than the renegades we had so often hunted in the days before our Fall.

When aid did finally reach us, it came from a totally unexpected quarter. However, in addition to the wargear and the ships and the 'reinforcements', also came the grim realisation that our fears were justified, and that our brotherhood truly was destined for extinction. Not through the crucible of war or the machinations of our enemies, or even from the malignant horror that has torn the whole galaxy asunder, but from that harshest and most inescapable of fates. Obsolescence.

The Chapter will endure, even if our kind will not. We will keep our colours, as a reminder of that we were and all that we have lost, but we are Sword Bearers no longer. That title belongs now to our so called saviours, and we, the true knights of Mire, have renounced all claim to it. For how can we call ourselves such, when the relics entrusted to our keeping no longer exist? We take a new name instead, to remember till our last breath the blades that were broken and reforged in the ashes of our own home world.

I lead both Astartes and Primaris now, Ashen Blade and Sword Bearer alike. I fight alongside the Primaris and when my time comes I will die with them. But by the Emperor, how I hate them.


+++ Pic Capture: Subject identified as Byran Tor, Lieutenant Commander of the Sword Bearers, First Knight of the Ashen Blades +++









Edited October 9, 2017 by Spaced Hulk

[Chmur]

Do you want to know more?

YES!

 

Great read, great model. Looking forward to this thread.

[deathspectersgt7]

yes !!!!

[Pearson73]

Nice white, very stark but clean. Paintwork on the face is strong too.

[Greenz]

Awesome! So glad to see you back over here Hulk. Terrific read, and wicked paint jobs. Those white robes in particular are fantastic

[Spaced Hulk]

Cheers guys!

@ Chmur: Thanks for the kind words mate! More updates are incoming, but they probably won't be as frequent as I've posted in the past (I've got a 4 month old Neophyte now who is quite demanding of my attention ).

@ deathspectersrg7: Cheers brother! I guessed you'd probably still prefer to see updates here rather than in my 30K thread

@ Pearson73: Thanks mate! I was always very doubtful of my ability to paint white (and white robes in particular, which is partly why the earlier iterations of the Sword Bearers all had brown robes), but I've been practicing with white for my 30K Dark Angels and I'm pretty happy with the results I'm getting now. I've probably improved at painting faces as well, but I think there's still plenty of room for improvement there!

@ Greenz: Thank you kindly brother, I'm glad to be back too My 30K First Legion are still ongoing, but 8th Edition has got me fired up for 40K again, so I'll be splitting my somewhat limited hobby time between the two from now on. Again, glad you liked the fluff and the model.

With the topic so long now, I don't like posting without adding some sort of content, so here is what's currently on my work bench. Thanks for looking!

[deathspectersgt7]

Looking Good Brother  . I check out your 30k thread now and then along with Mr Bears . I see you have some Primmies I will be doing some  as Omega Marines  . 

[Spaced Hulk]

@ deathspectresrg7: Cheers brother! Appreciate the feedback as always.

So new edition = new army. Despite my initial misgivings about GW advancing the timeline, I've accepted and actually become quite interested in 40K's 'brave new world', and I must admit, I love the new Primaris models!

However, I can't bring myself to completely abandon the sons of Mire or their colour scheme, so my new army will be the Primaris Successors of the Sword Bearers (plus a few bitter veterans of the original chapter who managed to survive the destruction of their fortress monastery).

I'm thinking of starting a new thread over in the WIP forum to chronicle my progress, but I'll continue to update this thread occasionally as a compilation of all my First Legion projects, from the Sword Bearers to my HH Dark Angels.

As a start, here are my first two completed Primaris models. Thanks for looking!

Edited October 9, 2017 by Spaced Hulk

[Othniel's Blade]

Simply gorgeous.