A Dark Song - Kobrakei's painting log - Darkshroud

[JeffTibbetts]

Yup. Termies look awesome in that scheme. I like the Deathguard dude breaking it up a bit, as well. For some reason that white looks a bit thick, though. It's not quite as clean as your usual look. Were you trying something new there or just struggling with white, as we often do? 

[Kobrakei]

Thanks Jeff! Yeah, put it down to struggling. White's just a pain in the butt to get right, and the photo is a lot kinder than it actually looks. It's come out fairly reasonable on the chapter symbol, so if you don't look at the Apothecary too much it works out ok ;)

[JeffTibbetts]

Haha. The struggle is real! It's all good. Remember, 2 feet, not 2 inches. :D 

[Aqui]

The Laniidae's background is very interesting

[Kobrakei]

Thanks, been working it over in my head for the last few days, although I was struggling to think of a name for them. Turns out the shrike comes from the family Laniidae...:P

[Draakur]

Rad :tu:

 

Still love your Chapter.

[Kobrakei]

Thanks, it means a lot :)

[Kobrakei]

 

'A buttrflight flaps its wings in Neu-Tukyo and a hurricane devastates L'Angelos'

 

- Ancient Terran saying, based on the teachings of the Mathematica Chao, M2

 

The Crimson Shrikes Librarius is known for its ability to affect battle and war through the psychic influence of information, using their powers to disrupt enemy deployments and supply lines into a state of chaos before a single bullet is fired.  However, among this powerful cabal the head of the Librarius and Chief Librarian of the Crimson Shrikes Brern Wehial is famed for his ability to directly attack the enemy though information alone.

 

 

All wars create a local infosphere of orders and commands, movements and reports known to the Adeptus Mechanicus as a noosphere. The method of the Librarius is to insert information into this noosphere, mimicing original orders and commands with subtle differences, whereby it will be picked up by enemy forces and misinterpreted. Uniquely, Wehial's powers allow him to pull information from the noosphere and directly change it. Kill-code and hypnotic controls are weaved in and placed back as a Trojan Horse, working its way through the higher echelons of the sphere until it reaches an intended target. When the time is right, Wehial will trigger the info-bomb, causing untold damage to the local enemy noospshere and anything wired in.

 

 

The most famous of these events during the Shrine War is the death of the enemy Reaver Titan 'Severius Gamus' and its slaved Warhound pack. Wehial plucked a small piece of scrap-code from the noosphere whilst in orbit above the planet of Urexes VII, changing only two letters within the code and returning it to the sphere. The code hunted for seven days until finally meshing itself within the info-spine of 'Severius Gamus'. During the battle for the capital of Urexes VII, Wehial triggered the hidden code, immediately off-lining all of Severius Gamus's systems and Warhound slaves. This opportunity was not passed up, and Knights 'Cerulean Invective' and 'Martyr Blue' of the house Erritian made their first Titan kills of the campaign. 

 

 

Wehial can be seen above. A towering Astartes, even for someone clad in Terminator Armour, he wears a a 'Crusader' type helm and wields his force staff 'Star-Render'. His armour is the colour of the Shrikes' Librarius as per Codex tradition. However, unlike his brother Librarians, both of Wehial's arms are coloured black in instead of the standard left, an honour only afforded to the Chief Librarian due to his place and importance within the Chapter.

Edited July 23, 2015 by kobrakei

[JeffTibbetts]

Man, you're on a roll! I love the fluff for this guy. Really interesting and unique. His colors are so dark and brooding, the red just blows up next to everything else. One small thing that might add to this would be to use a stronger contrast for the eye lenses? A red would really draw attention to his face, I think. 

 

Really nice, overall. Are you working towards a Librarius Conclave now? 

[Kobrakei]

Thanks Jeff! 

 

I really enjoyed painting this guy, he absolutely was a joy, and truly one of those models that seems to almost paint itself. The eyes do blend in a bit, but that's more due to the smallness of the Grey Knight helmet eyes. They're not so bad in real life, and with the rest of the Shrikes having green eye lenses it would feel a bit wrong to change that. A little sacrifice I guess

 

I'm also quite pleased with the fluff. I had a few ideas swirling about, due to wanting to make him more powerful than the other Shrike librarians. Obviously with the subtle powers they have that would be quite tricky, but I think I cracked it.

 

As for a Conclave...I can't say I haven't thought about it, although ot'd be only one more Libby. He'd probably be a conversion, as all my Shrikes have helmets and I don't fancy chopping into any of the Finecast Libbys. So it'll either be a second plastic Libby with a different pose, or I'll use the Sternguard/Grey Knight kit to make something fitting. It won't be for a while yet, as I'm looking at either a trio of Centurions, a three Dreadnought squadron or an Assault Squad next. Any thoughta on which one?

Edited July 23, 2015 by kobrakei

[JeffTibbetts]

I'd like to see an assault squad, personally. Would their jump packs be all black? Might make for a fairly unique squad. Although dreads would be cool, I think you need more bodies on the table and a full squad always looks so dang good. 

 

As for the fluff, I think one of the reasons I really like it is you don't have to do anything different on the tabletop to represent his unique abilities. If you happen to pull Dominate, that would probably be the closest thing to it as they receive conflicting orders or their armor/weapons malfunction. Even something like Invisibility could be explained with this fluff. Really, it's just a fun way to think about how powers can be different mechanically, but have similar effects. 

[Kobrakei]

That's exactly how I was going to paint them...get out of my head :P But seriously, I think it'll look awesome, and there's a couple of fun part swaps and conversions in the unit that'll be fun to paint. Saying I need more bodies though...it'd push me up to 55 marines plus HQs's so it'd be an even more solid core.

 

Of course, this is all after my next two knights are done, and they aren't too far away...

[JeffTibbetts]

Maybe you should be going for a Demi-Company so you can use the Gladius Strike Force. You mentioned at some point you don't use the Raven Guard chapter tactics, right? What do you use instead, if you don't mind me asking?

[Kobrakei]

I normally go for Imperial Fists, as I find the re-rolls very useful and also really like Pedro Kantor. I like lots of obsec units and he means I can throw some more in while still using Sternguard (I love those guys!). The Gladius is something to strive towards and I'm not far from that, but I find it quite restricting and not ideally suited to the kind of army I tend to play so it won't be somthing I'll use too much, plus I like to have full units where possible and that gets expensive quick in a Gladius.

[JeffTibbetts]

Hmm... Not to pimp my blog, but did you read GreyCrow's guest series on the new codex and Raven Guard? He makes a very strong case for getting the Gladius together, using minimum tac squads. You'll likely already take something in the Assault category, but I'm not sure what you're planning for Devastators (you mentioned Centurions, and those would count. So really you just need at least 15 Tacticals and then one of the Auxiliary Formations, many of which are awesome. 

 

The reason I'm bringing it up is because they give you rerolls. And lots of them. So you might be able to actually go RG tactics and gain the benefits, whilst retaining rerolls (and likely gaining some in the mix). Also, I'm pretty sure the entire thing gets ObSec, but I'm not 100% sure about that. Really, go check it out. It's a four-part series, starting with this one: http://tibbsforge.com/raven-guard-tactics-part-1/

Edited July 24, 2015 by JeffTibbetts

[Kobrakei]

A little preview of what is coming next.

 

'A hunter creates the conditions for the kill. But a killer will only concern himself with the slaughter. We do not hunt. We prey.'

 

Knight-Gallant Yudzen Korbas, Midnight Hurricane, The Great Attractor, Jackylwalker. Pilot of 'Cerulean Invective'.

 

[JeffTibbetts]

Nice! That gore looks intense.

[Kobrakei]

Yeah, it's come out pretty well. Just used Blood for the Blood God and gave some thought as to where it would build up. I did want it to be half oil half blood to represent some daemon engine kills but couldn't quite work it out.

[JeffTibbetts]

Cool idea, but that would be kind of hard to do convincingly. I think mixing black or dark brown would just make the blood look darker/streakier. Maybe there's a cool way but it's not coming to me either.

 

Did you do more than one layer? I have a pot of BftBG but I've barely touched it yet. 

[Kobrakei]

That was my first thought. I think with the formulation of BftBG and normal paint the mix doesn't work very well, and with how dark the background colours of the chainsword are any decent effect from it is lost. I painted a few layers on, but it was more about concentrating it where the blood would congeal and pool. If anything I was trying to get a chunky effect, but it still came out very well for my second use of it.

[JeffTibbetts]

Agreed. It legit looks like gore. 

[Kobrakei]

Time for a small update on my two Knights I'm currently painting. Cerulean Invective's carapace is comeplete, while I'm chopping through Celestial Indigo's at the moment. The painting's been stress free, which is always surprising for a model of this size. I've shaded the metal on the carapace of Celestial with Nuln Oil, but Cerulean has been shaded with both Nuln Oil and a subtle point wash of Typhus Corrosion, for reasons that will become clear...

 

Cerulean Invective. I really enjoyed painting the window port and it's the best gem effect I've ever cranked out so pretty chuffed with it!

 

Celestial Indigo. I liked the idea of a diagonal stripe running across the top, and hopefully the effect's not come out too bad. It's a little ropey in places, but nothing that distracts the eye so I'm tempted to leave as is instead of constant neatening and potential for mistakes.

 

These guys should really be painted by the end of next week or the start of the one after. Then all I'll need to do is transfers and weathering with powders.

[Kobrakei]

Time for some quick WIP's

 

Meet Squad Veun and Chaplain Beserides

 

 

I found my old metal jump pack Chaplain and decided he needed to go into the army as it's such a lovely, evocative model. I also threw in some mark IV jump packs from the Sanguinary Guard kit as they look great, but didn't want to go overboard. The new Assault Marine kit is really nice, and really had a blast putting these guys together.

 

 

The Knight twins are getting there too. The shoulder plating is much further on than when this was taken, but I've put them aside for a little while so I don't burnout. They're very straightforward to paint, but they just take ages get nice flat coats of colour.

 

 

 

 

And finally, I do actually get some games in with the Shrikes. This was back in May against my friend's very red Tzeentch daemons. Was a cracking game, and he had me on the back foot for most of it. The Shrikes fought hard, but fate was not to be on their side this day (I lost by 2 vp's!). Always fun to have a close game though. I really must get the Rhinos and Drop Pods painted as well!

[RolandTHTG]

The Knights are looking very good. The diagonal stripe is looks great. 

[Kobrakei]

 

'There is only one way to see that a war is truly won, and it has ever been thus since the first time Man picked up weapon against Man. It is the brutality of close-combat, of sword against sword, that confirms the kill.

 

The Asymmetrical - Julion Griess, M30.

 

 

'The noise those jump-packs make, well, it goes through you like wind on a cold Hel-Winter night. Course it does, it's got to get an Astartes into the sky. The first few times, you could hear the platoon collectively shudder. They started shuddering to different sounds soon enough though. The sound of sorrowful chants and chainblades. The lads were scared, because they knew they'd yet again witness what the Shrikes had done to the rebels...

 

There are some things that you don't ever leave behind'

 

Platoon Commander Yeter Kysadrix, Itenyrs IV PDF, post Shrine-War.

 

 

Above and below can be seen pic-capture of Assault Squad Veun of the Crimson Shrikes III Company, led by Sargeant Oris Veun. 

 

 

Even within the role of the Adeptus Astartes as shock troops, Assault Squads have a reputation as line-breakers beyond compare. That close-combat is still the most effective way to cripple enemy morale in an age of planet-killers would be shocking if one had not witnessed the ferocity of transhuman melee. Jump-packs are routinely used to speed the Astartes into close-quarters engagement, and also to provide attack vectors that would ordinarily prove impossible without prior planning and execution. Most Chapters use chainswords, although some of the more ferocious (cross-ref Flesh Tearers) will use the heavier, less-common chainaxe. Regardless, the effect is the same - weapons ,that when used by mortals, are notorious for lethality become terrifying in gene-enhanced hands.

 

 

Squad Veun was joined throughout the conflict by III Company's Chaplain, Ptesr Beserides. The honour of being accompanied by such an esteemed figure within the Company, along with the hypno-suggestive, almost mournful chants of Beserides, resulted in Squad Veun becoming almost unstoppable within their assigned role. Mortal enemy combatants would either retreat, or be slaughtered under the blades of Veun. The squad had the highest kill ratio of all Shrike units until the insertion of Traitor Legion elements into the War, after which they dropped into guerilla warfare methodology, using rapid Stormraven deployment to decimate supply chains and sow confusion within enemy lines.

Edited September 29, 2015 by kobrakei