Calth: An Apologist and Doghouse True Scale Project Log

[apologist]

Reactions – even posthuman reactions – could not compensate for the speed of the Word Bearers. Caught cold, two boltgun shells blew out the leading Ultramarine's chest. Broken but unshattered, the chestpiece contained the detonation that reduced the warrior's torso to a frothy pulp with a deep, meaty thump. Gan Har stepped forward as the warrior collapsed, his boltgun raised to his shoulder and already firing at the shadowy figures behind the slumping Legionary.
 

Two rounds whined past his head in return – but too slow, far too slow. Priming a grenade, he ducked back into cover as a Predator rolled past. The vehicle, resplendent in crimson, trundled forward as its sponsons belched heavy firepower at the retreating Ultramarines.

 

Legion warfare was a fractional affair. Gan Har had killed creatures tougher than Astartes. He had killed creatures faster than Astartes. Never had he killed anything like a Legionary. The combat – as always – was intoxicating; but more than that, it was exhilarating.

+ Prior to the launch of the orbital shipyards, Trenchant Ridge had been an important industrial area on Calth. The hard-working nature of the inhabitants had gradually – but inexorably – led to its political sidelining; as the refineries contributed to the raising of the planet's orbital shipyards. In turn, these glittering star-cities took over the burden of building voidcraft, undermining Trenchant Ridge's original purpose. Snow now drifts over the urban sprawl, the remaining population of bromimum miners and manufactory workers spread thinly amongst the towering hab-blocks and spoil heaps. This was the location of one of the many smaller battles that contributed to the Calth Atrocity.

 

Trenchant Ridge had little ritual value, and was thus of secondary concern to the Word Bearers. However, as a functional atmospheric port, it needed to be captured or silenced. The Chapter of the Terran Born led elements of the Fire Masters Titan Legion and attendant skitarii alongside numerous cultist cells in a drop assault on the city. They were met by Trenchant Ridge militiamen, Calthan Planetary Defence forces and the 190th Company of the Ultramarines. +

[Grizzly_bear]

Sooooo this is like the 10th thread you've made.......sort it out D to the house lol

 

Great WB btw. And apologist them ultras are just stunning too.....

 

D.house....battle worns the way to go ;)

[Doghouse]

Dorns_fist: Ah you must be new here... :D

 

I've started hundreds of threads over the years mate but the main problem is time and resources but most of the time it is a case of I have an idea that I REALLY want to share and get it out there so others can try it. ;)

 

That and I have a really short attention span. :D

 

 

 

Nice ideas guys it's starting to form a basic idea now that we can build on.

 

Praetor/first sergeant coming up next...

[Doghouse]

I'm not having much luck with my camera at the moment but I have managed to get a relatively dark shot of the wip praetor.

 

I'm probably going to use him as a first sergeant if the Wordbearers have such a rank. Keeping in with the RT feel I'm using a powerfist to denote that he is an officer of some description, I'm not a fan of powerfists to be honest but this one seems to be in keeping with the theme. I did toy with making it a lightening claw but it seemed to detract from what I was going for. As with many of my character models I make I have gone for a bolter rather than say a plasma pistol or bolt pistol purely because it is such an iconic weapon of the Astartes to me. 

 

http://i152.photobucket.com/albums/s196/Mutt2050/wordbearer1.jpg

[Doghouse]

I so need a Warhound for this army...

[Doghouse]

I'm currently production lining my marines at the moment to try and catch up with Ed but I am finding myself wondering just how far we could actually push the production values on this project.

The battle at the end really needs to be something a bit special to be honest given the work we are both putting in and a series of pictures at the end of the blog kind of seems like an anticlimax to me. I was thinking it might be possible to put together a simple history channel style mini documentary of the battle from both perspectives using the game itself as the setting.

[apologist]

Hey, now we're talking. Have to rope some people in to take some decent pics :)

 

Love the First Sergeant. Even if there isn't a 'canon' rank, that's part of the fun - there are sure to be senior sergeants or junior captains etc. Besides, the Word Bearers had their own rank naming system too, based on Colchisian. You could either make something up (p'raps based on Mesopotamian naming, or say that the Terran marines of your Chapter preferred to use Gothic (i.e English) titles.

[Doghouse]

I'm sure we can put something together mate.

Ok quick update because I can't sleep. Sadly still not great pictures as most of the washes aren't showing up and I tend to paint most of my minis using them.

I must admit I am really enjoying painting these guys. The approach I am taking is first and foremost I want these guys looking like Astartes and the character model has turned out much better than I hoped. Once they look like marines then I add the custom chaos markings. I still need to decide on what to use on his right shoulder, I may have a look at the old RT painting guide for ideas but not sure yet.

Tempted to make more variant armours now but really I want to try and get these all mkvi because it is my favourite.

Coming along nicely now though and I NEED that Warhound now...

Captain/Praetor/First Sergeant

http://i152.photobucket.com/albums/s196/Mutt2050/wordbearers4.jpg

Captain and test model

http://i152.photobucket.com/albums/s196/Mutt2050/wordbearers3.jpg

[Doghouse]

I've been looking into the background material for these guys and it looks like the Chapters are named after constellations near their home world so I need a bit of a rethink. What I need now is a Chapter name and then have these guys a company of that chapter composed of mostly Terrans that has been given the nickname of the Terran Born.

 

I've managed to nail the Legion icon now and I am confident I have an easy enough technique to mass produce it now, I'll get some more pictures up asap.

[deathspectersgt7]

They look Super The Chaos symbol free hand looks great want to see the Chapter symbol.

[batu]

They look amazing doghouse ! Epic stuff.

[Doghouse]

Cheers guys.

I'm off next week so expect lots of updates, no idea how many marines Ed currently has but guessing it's atleast a couple of squads by now.

Quick update, another not brilliant picture but should give you an idea of how he is shaping up. I'm not sure if the book should have writing on it or not though so have left the pages blank.

Still need to work out what to do with the other shoulder pad but the icon is coming along nicely

http://i152.photobucket.com/albums/s196/Mutt2050/wordbearers6.jpg

http://i152.photobucket.com/albums/s196/Mutt2050/wordbearers5.jpg

[deathspectersgt7]

!!!!

[Kriegsmacht]

Sweet iconography on the marine. The book and fire look great :)

[batu]

The icon looks wonderful. The 3d effect is very cool. I am not sure if there are inscriptions on the book pages, but I think they are blank.

[Doghouse]

Cheers guys

It is quite an easy technique to do the icon which was one of my biggest concerns when I first decided to take these guys on. I've done a bit of research now into the word bearers and I have come up with a starting point for the army. I'm going to do them as the third tactical company of the Tri-Fold Crown Chapter who are known within the Legion as the Terran Born (the company not the chapter) as an unofficial nickname due to the high number of Terran veterans in their numbers.

Both Ed and myself are sticklers for details and this Chapter seems to suit my needs. For those that aren't in the know the Word Bearers were organised much the same as the other legions but used mass infantry units backed up by auxila, so an infantry heavy force is ideal for my needs. I toyed with the Broken Scythe Chapter at first but after reading a little more they are a heavy armour company that use squads in vehicles armed with flamers which isn't really what I am looking for.

So I settled on the Tri-Fold Crown, mainly because they are described as an attrition company but also because the Chapter icon is a flaming skull. I had already settled on giving the Captain a helmet painted as a skull as a nod to the old RTB01 Legion of the Damned marines and the simple addition of flames make this look like he is wearing the chapter icon on his helmet.

I'll post more pictures later.

[apologist]

Great stuff - love the updated First Sergeant. That freehand Legion symbol looks great; it'll look particularly striking across a group.

 

Having the Terran-born as a company within the Tri-fold Crown is a good idea. You could model a flaming crown on a Company champion or something, perhaps?

 

+++

In terms of the Ultramarines, they're coming on well. I've got three Legion Tactical squads at a table-ready state, with forty or so of those completed to the standard I want. Once those are finished, I'll be tidying up the Dreadnoughts before working on a new Captain.

[sheep]

Ooooooooooohhhhhhhhhhh yeah!

 

Two of my fav modellors working together? this will be amazing (and already is).

[malika666]

Hmm, have you also considered adding facial tattoos for the guys with bare heads?

 

By the way, I doubt you'll be including these guys in your army, but I noticed that the Gal Vorbak models by ForgeWorld kinda look like the Rogue Trader era Chaos Space Marines. What I really love about the retro projects is how guys like you and Apologist managed to 'update' that old feel of the game, kinda like what you've been doing with the marines, but Apologist also did with some Ork models. However, don't the Chaos Space Marines also deserve some love? Whilst a full blown Chaos Space Marine might seem a bit odd, the Gal Vorbak do provide the opportunity to go retro on the design whilst still remaining a Heresy era thing.

[apologist]

I'd promised to show how I paint faces on my earlier blog, and thought it'd fit in nicely here. It's a long tutorial, so it's 

on my blog, Death of a Rubricist.

 

It explains how to do this face, on one of my WIP marines:

 

 

Hope you like it! :)

[batu]

Very interesting technic Apologist. Thank you very much for that tutorial. Great stuff

[Doghouse]

Sheep: Sheep!!! Hello mate, where you been hiding?

 

Malika: I have done possessed truescale in the past and it was really fun. I'm not sure if I will be adding facial tattoos though as the brush I have at the mo is a bit crap and not great for detail work. I may do some possessed MkVI guys if I get the chance.

 

Apologist: Superb stuff mate, really nice skin tones. :tu: Sounds like I am going to need to put the peddle to the metal to catch up.

[A D-B]

Jesus Christ, man. Even for you, these are phenomenal. 

[Blood Angel Scout]

Doghouse/Apologist

 

Wow.......Words escape me looking at your works, likes don't do justice and this is going to become a battle scene....I don't even have anything to say to that...mind is blown.

 

Watching in stunned silence

 

BA Scout

[Doghouse]

A D-B: Cheers mate. I think between me and Ed this is going to be a really fun project to work on and we are going to pull out all the stops. I think everyone has one great army in them and I intend this to be mine. If you can offer any suggestions for the Word Bearers though please feel free to chime in, both Ed and myself are keen to get as many ideas from the forums as possible as we are aiming for narrative most of all.

 

Blood Angel Scout: On behalf of Ed and myself thanks very much. Always been a bit fan of Ed's Ultramarines and this seemed like too good a thing to pass up. I hope we don't disappoint, despite the masses of catching up I need to do. Think it's something like 60 marines to my two at the moment but I do have nine more under way.

 

 

I'm a bit torn at the moment, I want humans in my force as allies. Mainly because that is how I see a Legion operating but also to get the scale of the marines across. I'm not really up to date on the Heresy rules but I hear that FW released a Navigator model, I've had this one character for ages that I have been waiting to squeeze into an army and this may be my chance using those rules if they suit. A female remembrancer that has become a servant of chaos who accompanies Captain [insert name here]. Sort of a one woman Mornival that guides him in most of his decision making, corrupting him to do the will of the Dark gods.

 

My dream force for this would be Marines supported by rebel Solar Auxila or Mechanium forces with a Warhound as a centre piece. But the question is which of the two do I use?