Beyond the Praetors of Calth

[The Yak]

Mouthwatering.... Some serious business happening here.

 

Must say I love your Campaign thread over on Warseer, great battles, great fluff and g-g-g-g-great miniatures.

 

That fist is a real beauty

 

Nice.

[Plague Angel]

Iron Hand, Ultramarine, Novamarine, Iron Warrior or Salamander?

 

Nova nova nova

[apologist]

[1000Heathens]Sometime soon, I'm gonna need your secrets for your truescaling, good sir.

*waves mechadendrites around* Not the omophagea!

Let me know if there's anything I can help with – I've had loads of great inspiration from truescale luminaries like Doghouse, Lamenter and Synapse; and it's good to share

Great work all round bud, you've reminded me to sculpt trims for the shoulder guards.

The shoulder pad trims are probably the most fiddly bit of the process, but there are a few ready-made bits that work nicely out of the box. The Imperial Fist here uses a shoulder pad from the Forgeworld Captain Culln in terminator armour – the only work was gently scraping away the Scorpion symbol.

Very nice stuff mate!

Especially loving the Imperial Fist.

As soon as I get my shoulder pad problems sorted I'll be getting my IW ready for the fight.

Ta – and great to hear from you. We must set a date for that game at some point; I always work better to a deadline. In fact; remind me to let you know about the (rather nebulous) PCRC invitational.

[

Plague Angel] Nova nova nova

Argh, too many ideas for this guy! Thanks all for your thoughts

[Moonstalker]

My apologies if this has been answered already in this thread, but can you tell me where you got this helmet?

 

[apologist]

Certainly. It's from Forgeworld – the Minotaur Chaplain special character, Ivanus Enkomi(?)

[Chickenleg]

Great work overall, you have put a lot of time into your marines and they are great.

[apologist]

Thanks very much, Chickenleg – great to have encouraging posts!

+++

Forces of the Scallop Stars: 8

+ Clan Company Trago +

+ For the eleven years of the war, Guard regiments, mercenaries and Ministorum Orders were regularly retired from, or cycled into, the front line by Imperial High Command; creating an endless meatgrinder of fresh forces to confound the orks. The Astartes pledges were a different matter. +

+ Unbeholden to the High Command, some Astartes forces – like the Ishilites, Chapter Castellan and Valedictors – served on the frontline for the entire duration of the war. Others, like the Ultramarines and mysterious Sons of Spectra, withdrew after a certain time or event as they felt their pledge had been kept or honour satisifed. Still more were forced to back-line duties by casualties, emergency or, in the case of the Scarlet Blades, their destruction. +

+ Nevertheless, eleven years can be a long time in the void. The vicissitudes of warp communication and travel meant that requests for support – sent decades before current events – were received throughout the campaign. One such request was received by Clan Company Trago, an Iron Hands force serving in the Prodigium Os subsector. Once their xenocidal campaign against the Sheen was completed to his satisfaction, leaving the nascent alien empire in ruins, the Clan translated to the Antona Australis sector and joined the Purges in the fifth year of the war.

+ They served with laudable devotion throughout the remainder of the campaign, though their understrength disposition – following the Sheen campaign – meant they were largely restricted to support and void operations for a number of years. +

+ As befits a founding Legion associated with reverence for the Machine, the Iron Hands of Clan Trago exhibited a number of different armour marks during the Purges:

+ Mark VI

+ Mark IV

+ Mark III

+ Mark VII

+ While some are touched by the loathing of the flesh known amongst those of Iron Hand geneseed, the Clan sternly prohibits physical excision except in cases of damage. As a result, the Clan exhibits fewer visible bionic upgrades than typical; sleeving essential replacements beneath armaplas and ceramite.

+ Following core Iron Hands beliefs of self-reliance and strength, those of Clan Trago make full use of their post-human anatomy; though those who do suffer injury are quick to argue the case for bionic or augmetic replacement if it will help them return to the field of battle more swiftly.

+++

A bit of a side-project, these were used for a blogpost on painting black and using a limited palette. The link to my blog (Death of Rubricist) is in my signature if you're interested. Hope you like 'em!

[apologist]

More Iron Hands – built and painted the army in a frenzy over the weekend – on my recently-homemade board:

 

 

 

+++

Also. here's my next WIP, a Great Crusade-era Ferrus Manus:

 

 

Having done the flexible undersuit sections and bulk areas earlier using greenstuff, I'm blocking in the basic shapes of the armour at the moment using a mix of greenstuff and ProCreate.

 

 

I really like the FW model, but he didn't quite fit my image of Ferrus (not ugly enough!) I thought I'd use this force as an excuse to build a model earlier in his career. Ferrus was the third Primarch found, so he was fighting during the early Crusade. We don't hear much of that, and I thought it'd be fun to build a younger, ambitious Ferrus and record his exploits.

 

That leads to a couple of questions – while his armour will (almost necessarily) be an artificer-made one-off, should I add some details that link it into a particular armour mark (e.g. studs for a proto-mark V; ring-shaped sections for mark II etc.), or do you think a purely individual suit would be better?

 

I currently like the gem on the pendant, as it'll be possible to add some lightning strikes or wings around it as the centrepiece of his chest armour; but I wonder if it'd be cooler to cover it and add a gorgon device or other similar decoration?

[apologist]

Further progress on Ferrus

 

 

 

 

Armour on the upper arms, or not? The fists at least need to be visible, and while I'd prefer the forearms to be bare, I don't fancy trying to rescuplt musculature at that level.

 

I'm also wondering whether to go for cataphract style layered shoulder armour, or big ol' pauldrons.

[Dragonkin Arenis]

Cataphract-style pauldrons sounds awesome for your Ferrus, and yes to armour on the upper arms, inho, but it could work without it.

 

Looking forward to seeing him complete!

[deathspectersgt7]

YES!!!!  I always pictured the primarchs to be bulked out monsters Hulk Hogan Style.

[Hyaenidae]

Huh. I saw the model before I read the text, and I thought you were making a Thunder Warrior, lol.

 

Still, very cool! :tu:

[Athrawes]

He looks gorgeous (In an "I deserve the title Gorgan" sort of way). I think a Ferrus-made artificer Mk II set of armor would look very striking compared to other FW primarchs.

Also, Ferrus was found 4th, don't you try to edge out my Primarch

[apologist]

The Iron Hands marines also look really awesome, I like the limited pallet approach. How long did it take to paint them up?

Aside from the test model, I painted 'em up over a weekend. Very quick, thought I would like to go back and add some weathering etc.

Huh. I saw the model before I read the text, and I thought you were making a Thunder Warrior, lol.

Funnily enough, I do havea load of bulky barbarian models lurking around from an abortive Thunder Warrior project. The plan was to do something along these lines with 'em. Might have a dig around at some point

He looks gorgeous (In an "I deserve the title Gorgan" sort of way). I think a Ferrus-made artificer Mk II set of armor would look very striking compared to other FW primarchs.

Ta very much!

Also, Ferrus was found 4th, don't you try to edge out my Primarch

'We do not speak of him; nor his separate tragedy.' he murmured, near-silently.

Huge fan of Icarion and the Lightning Bearers (yeah, that's my vote); your project is a wellspring of well-thought out and executed ideas and inspiration. I haven't commented much on it, but I'll take the opportunity to encourage everyone to check 'em out if they haven't already.

(Oh, and to finish, here's one for Darth Potato, as he asked so nicely )

+++

+ inload: Brother Veridias +

Opening the helmet's grille, he exhaled raggedly. A mist of aerosolised blood hung briefly in the hot still air under the void shields.

Blinking to clear his head, he chewed the side of his tongue thoughtfully; a childhood habit that hypno-docrination had not removed.

He took a tighter grip on his boltgun and looked down at the counter on the back. Seven rounds remaining. Sufficient.

Scarred and pitted, his armour wheezed and creaked as he turned to move out; its slick motions reduced in parts to juddering, squealing protest.

Still. The walls must be held. Sacrifices must be made. He chewed the side of his tongue.

+++

[apologist]

 

 

They say you should always kill them. Ultramarines. If you make one your enemy, do not allow him to live. Do not spare him. Leave an Ultramarine alive, and you leave room for retribution. Only when he is dead are you safe from harm. That is what they say.

 

 

Highlighting completed on these fellas; just the bases, eyes and scratches to go. All the markings completed... unless I decide to add a fire-breathing horse. :)

 

[Blissful Brushes]

They look awesome. The one thing that I've always envied is your ability to pain faces, to which end...fancy giving us the secret recipe? ^^

[apologist]

 

 

fancy giving us the secret recipe?

 

Simple! I crush my enemies' heads down to tiny size.

 

Joking aside, it sounds like it'd be a fun blog post to write, so I'll see what I can do. :)

[GrandMagnus]

Great work brother! :)

[Tyrannicide]

fancy giving us the secret recipe?

Simple! I crush my enemies' heads down to tiny size.

Joking aside, it sounds like it'd be a fun blog post to write, so I'll see what I can do.

Please do consider, I'd really enjoy any of your insight on this.

The Ultras look great, though Veridias just beats them out for most attractive, I'm afraid.

Make sure to touch up that lick of yellow paint that snuck onto his right backpack vent, though. Because, you know, it'll eat away at you while laying in bed at night if you don't.

[apologist]

Make sure to touch up that lick of yellow paint that snuck onto his right backpack vent, though.

Yes, thanks for pointing that out. Had a check and it doesn't seem to be there on the miniature, oddly. Some odd camera artefact, or perhaps (more likely!) just a loose flake of dried paint from my painting table?

 

+++

Warrior-Kings of Ultramar

 

Sixteen marines completed as of last night; so just four more to my first full Tactical squad. *Dances legs down to the knees*

 

Praetor-pattern armour

Three examples of Praetor armour in the new golden (rather than old yellow) scheme. What do you think?

[GrandMagnus]

Much better in gold than in yellow. Awesome marines.

[apologist]

Ta! Here's some more. Please do let me know what you think :)

 

 

 

[Brother Pheidias]

Lovely work as ever!

[apologist]

Thanks very much :)

 

+++

Feet
Added a little texture to the bottom of the kneeling marine's feet, to help break up the big flat area.

+++
Bubbling under
Here's the exciting (well, for me at least) bit of this blog; revealing the work in progress:

 

Marine in partial mark III
A tester for some arms, mainly.

Breachers
A fourth marine joins the Breacher squad.

 

 

The Rhino receives a basecoat of paint

 

 

A new sergeant joins some squadmates

 

 

More marines on the painting table

 

+++

[apologist]

New jobs for old models

 

The sun sets on the Primarch and his Honour Guard outside the walls of Macragge.

 

Re-using or repurposing models from one army to another is something I do quite a bit. A fresh paintjob can work wonders in livening up a figure, and is – obviously – considerably cheaper and quicker than making another.

 

The three Honour Guard figures above are a good example of figures that are good candidates for re-use. They received quick paintjobs for a specific campaign weekend, and don't quite fit anywhere in the way I now see the Ultramarines.

 

 

The three started out life as Imperial Fists , a short-lived project that eventually got swept under the carpet (though check out the PCRC's Team Fisto blog, where we've Bob Hunk is doing some awsome LED-lit marines!) They were pressed into service for the Ultramarines when I was hard-pushed for time, but have languished, virtually unused, in my army case since that campaign weekend.

 

I can't get too excited about elite troops; I much prefer the down-and-dirty line infantry. For this reason, I decided that the Honour Guard would be re-used to help integrate the new Ultramarines (the 190th) with the old Ultramarines (the Praetors of Calth). The Praetors of Calth are an army of which I'm very proud, but the later models didn't quite fit with the original image I had for the army for one reason or another. With the thirty core troops in place, I flitted from expansion to expansion; adding five Vanguard or Recon troops... and then pulling them apart and repainting them when they didn't quite fit.

 

The 190th are an attempt to breathe new life into the army as a whole. With the release of the Forgeworld Horus Heresy range of bits, it's become a real possibility to create the army that I wanted. The first step was to build a relatively substantial force of the new models; I have a bad habit of breaking apart perfectly useable old models with the intention of updating them, then getting distracted by other projects; leaving me with fewer than I had before!

 

So, with a large squad of new marines complete (see my post) above, it was time to look at updating the older models, with the intention of creating a mixed squad of Breachers that would bridge the visual gaps between the older models and the newer ones. I started by creating some completely new models, being sure to add visual links to the newer models like updated FW helmets, equipment, and legs (taken from Tartaros Terminators).

 

I then broke up the Honour Guard and rebuilt them with a mix of the older and newer elements:

 

Notice that the focal points of the Breacher marines (weaponry, helmets) are updated – this is relatively quick work that really changes the feel of the models. I also updated the backpacks (as these are a strong visual identifier for the period, but the majority of the work was removing the excess decoration on the originals.

 

I like to think that these are perhaps the same marines; simply at an earlier stage of their careers. By the time of the outbreak of the Horus Heresy, the rest of the squad must have been killed or promoted away, leaving just these three grizzled survivors.

 

As a group, I hope the newer and older models fit together well. In particular, the mix of newer and older shoulder pads in the squad (probably the most distinctive visual part of my particular method of making larger marines) links the unit both to the older and newer models. With a quick spruce-up of the paintjob – I think they deserve my best efforts – I think they'll work well.

 

 

While talking about the Breachers, note the additional marine in the back left of the image above. He's a 'transition' marine that combines elements of the older and newer aesthetics in unique ways: his backpack and shoulder pads are neither the new style nor the standard old style; instead being a unique mix that combines elements of both to assist with the unit blending together.

He required a bit of reposing. Here's the original construction (he's at the front):

 

 

While it's a pose I liked, it didn't fit with the squad. I'm being very careful with the 190th to make sure that they look good en masse; and that means occasionally sacrificing individual poses for the good of the group. With the new poses (and bits – his legs and right arm have been removed and are already the start of a new marine), the squad looks much more cohesive.

 

This concentration on the group rather than the whole also makes the most of limited resources. I only have eight Breacher shields and seven of the gladius-style shortswords. By planning ahead and scattering appropriate-looking chainswords (see the fifth picture from the top for an example) in the squad as it's built, I'll gradually work in these divergent bits of equipment on models that otherwise stick closely to the group aesthetic; further building on the integration of the squad as a whole.

 

On this note, it's part of the reason why one having something special (a bare head, a cool pose, a weird bit of equipment) often looks best on a model if it's set off by a group of standard marines – then the divergent bit becomes a point of interest in the overall arrangement as well as the individual figure.

 

Anyway, enough pontification! To end this post, here's a final shot of the Breacher squad from the front.