The Vengeance of Angels: Legion Praetor Complete 11/10/18

[Spaced Hulk]

Tomas Mathias, 'The Bearer of the Blades', Squad Sergeant,

Cader-12 Despoiler Squad

Seventh Chapter of the First Host

Ordination of the Firewing

The Dark Angels Legion

Inducted as part of the initial wave of recruits from the First Legion's adopted home world, Tomas Mathias was a Calibanate Legionary renowned for his belligerent temperament and lethal proficiency in close combat. Assigned to a Despoiler Squad during the purgation campaigns which concluded the Rangdan Xenocides, Mathias rose quickly through the ranks. Promoted to squad adjutant and then sergeant after just two months of active duty, this rapid progression stands as a testament to both his natural leadership ability and the extreme attrition the Dark Angels suffered, even during these closing acts of the conflict.

Despite multiple commendations, Mathias would remain a squad level commander until the final years of the Great Crusade, refusing further promotion for unspecified reasons, although it is highly likely that the bonds of brotherhood forged during the Xenocides outweighed any other ambitions. By the time of the Heresy and the 38^th Expedition Fleet's deployment into the Golgothan Wastes, his Despoiler squad, Cader-12, were well established as the principle heavy assault line unit of the Seventh Chapter. Equipped with modified Mark III power armour, Mathias and his Despoilers specialised and excelled in the brutal, uncompromising combat of boarding actions and Zone Mortalis missions.

These skills and resilience would be tested to their limits during the Golgothan Campaign, first against the Xenos marauder fleets that reaved across the Wastes destroying all in their wake, and later during the intense ship-to-ship assaults against the World Eaters and their Mechanicum allies. This would culminate at the Second Siege of Sarum, where Cader-12 would spearhead the assault on the Twelfth Legion battle barge 'World's End'. They were still embattled deep within the traitor warship when a reactor breach tore the entire vessel apart, resulting in the loss of almost every soul on board. Against all odds, Mathias was later recovered from the wreckage by First Legion search and rescue teams. Despite suffering grievous wounds, he would survive and go on to serve loyally and with great distinction throughout the remaining years of the Heresy and beyond.

Arms, Armour and Livery

Depicted immediately prior to the assault on the 'World's End', Sergeant Mathias is clad in a distinctive suit of artificer enhanced Mark III 'Paravane' plate, an armour sub-type already noted for it's increased protection and void resilience. Like all members of the First Legion, he displays a complex system of heraldry and iconography, incorporating both Terran and Calibanate influences. In addition, the symbol on the left knee pad has been positively identified as the 'Red Sun', a battle honour widely associated with one of the final, apocalyptic battles of the Rangdan Xenocides.

Amongst the brethren of the Seventh Chapter, Mathias was known as the 'Bearer of the Blades', an informal title derived from his favoured weapons, a matched pair of Martian broadswords. The Despoiler Sergeant acquired these relic power blades during his first deployment at Rangdan, taking them as replacement weapons from a fallen War Hound Space Marine. Although Mathias wielded these broadswords throughout the remainder of the Great Crusade, they would be lost forever during the assault on the 'World's End'. The Sergeant would later state, somewhat sardonically, that he had finally returned them to the Legion of their former owner.

* * *

So, Mathias is finished, and I'm really happy with how he's turned out. I've ordered some of the new plastic Mark III marines from ebay so he'll be getting a converted Despoiler squad to lead at some point in the future.

@ Forward Assist: Thanks for the suggestion mate Obviously I chose to make some of the smaller plate areas silver in the end, which I think has the same desired effect.

@ depthcharge12: Neither actually. They're a rare subtype of armour from a small, independant forgeworld.

Or in other words, they're from Anvil Industry

I would have preferred to use actual Mark III arms, but none of the ones I currently have matched the pose I wanted for him. And as he'll almost certainly be equipped with artificer armour, I decided a little bit of variation wasn't too much of an issue.

[Brother Pheidias]

I'd still suggest doing the collar silver too, but he's looking badasssss...

[Aramis K]

Really nice and characterful, I think the extra touch of silver on chest is just the right amount.

[Soric]

As if it hadn't been said by enough people already, your Despoiler sergeant looks awesome. A brilliant combination of parts and paintwork have really resulted in a characterful model you should be understandably proud of. Looking forward to seeing the unit he leads into battle :)

[Dantay VI]

Your models are really cool, and you got the black of Mathias' armour spot-on.

 

The other prime infiltration units would be the recon marines, effectively power armoured scouts, they are also a non-compulsory troops choice, whereas the seekers are fast attack.

 

They would also leave your elites slot free for veterans and terminators.

 

Which legs did you use for Mathias?

[Spaced Hulk]

@ Brother Pheidias, Aramis K & Soric: Thanks guys! Glad you liked him

@ dantay_xv: Cheers mate . The legs are from the FW Iron Hands Mark III Tactical set.

Quick update for today is another WIP - the second of the three Chaplains attached to the Seventh Chapter.

Unlike Chaplain Acheron, (who's deliberately generic enough that I can use him as a regular Centurian if necessary), I wanted this model's role/rank to be much more obvious. I'm not completely decided on the backpack yet, as even for the First Legion it could be a bit too much 40K than 30K (I have used a similar censer before though on the Delagatus Consul, so I might be over thinking it), but the skull mask and crozius are definitely staying.

[SalvationOfReason]

Keep the backpack! The way I see it, the Legion as a whole becomes heavily inspired by the knightly orders on Caliban after the Lion is found, and more and more Calibanites are recruited to the Legion, with many monastic/knightly aspects being incorporated.

Even barring new recruits, the Lion has many members of the Order enhanced to near-Astartes levels, such as Luther, who bring with them many of their established traditions and mythos.

I guess what I'm trying to say is, the brazer fits the model, the theme, and the Legion, and looks damned good too!

[Soldier of Dorn]

Goddamn it, why isn't the DV Interrogator-Chaplain available separately? I don't want to pay eBay prices for those bits, but they're just so good.

 

Anyways, nice work on him. Keep the censer-pack, for the reasons Salvation mentioned. Lovely work.

[Spaced Hulk]

@ Salvation of Reason: Thanks for the feedback mate . Yeah, I'm going to keep the backpack. Like you said, it fits the theme of the post-Caliban Legion, and apart from the skull mask & crozius, the model isn't too obviously a Dark Angel otherwise. Now I'm wondering how I could build/represent a squad of the enhanced (but not Astartes) members of the Order .

@ The Psycho: Cheers mate The DV Chaplain really is an excellent model, which does make it surprising that it's never been officially re-released. Actually I've just realised that this Chaplain model actually contains parts from all three of the most recent DA Interrogator Chaplains: Helm & Crozius from Seraphicus, pointing arm from the Finecast Asmodai, and backpack from the latest (power fist wielding) model.

Unfortunately the painting bug has abandoned me this last week, so not much progress to report on that front . As usual though, I have been building yet more models to add to my unpainted queue. If I leave them bare grey plastic, do you think I could get away with just calling them Unification Era Angels of Death instead?

Dreadwing Moritat WIP

Tactical Support Marines with Meltaguns:

And finally an assortment of Veterans/bolter marines to bulk out my infantry options, as I've decided I wanted at least one DA Vet squad to be able to proxy in both BaC and BoP (I'm thinking the the Rangdan Vets and Bladesworn are a bit upgrade heavy to use in either game)

[depthcharge12]

Kinda curious where you'll be going with your Dreadwing. I'm rolling with Ironwing for the moment until Dreadwing rules come out - they do overlap with Spartan assault tanks, glaives, destroyers, and such.

[Spaced Hulk]

@ depthcharge12: To be honest, I'm really cautious about adding too many Dreadwing units at the moment, for obvious reasons. 

 

That said, I'm really liking the idea of a Mark III Destroyer Squad at the moment, and that seems like a fairly safe bet. The Mark IV assault squad I'm currently building will probably end up as Dreadwing as well, but I'll be leaving the iconography off until we get more definitive information.  

[Lord_Ikka]

That Moritat is great. I especially like the third holstered pistol, feels like he'd just drop one plasma when it overheats/runs out of ammo and just keep blasting away with a new one .

[Spaced Hulk]

Cheers mate  That's actually the exact image I had in mind when I built him! 

[Charlo]

Bruh - you're really making it hard to choose between BA/ DA when that next next book comes out :P

[Soldier of Dorn]

Bruh - you're really making it hard to choose between BA/ DA when that next next book comes out :P

Charlo, man. Come on. I think we all know which one you're gonna choose. ;)

[Charlo]

 

Bruh - you're really making it hard to choose between BA/ DA when that next next book comes out :P

Charlo, man. Come on. I think we all know which one you're gonna choose. ;)

I like to entertain the thought... It really does depend on the rules for both!

[deathspectersgt7]

​Looking Good Brother . I will have to purge the taint but I can handle  a few minutes here . Great looking Bolter boys . 

[Spaced Hulk]

@ Charlo: You could always do both BA with DA allies (or vice versa). 30K is a vast setting, so I'm sure there were occasions when the original Angels of Death fought together. Myself, I'm wondering if I could incorporate a Space Wolf Watch Pack into my army's background somehow.

@ Deathspectresrg7: Cheers brother, I know the Heresy isn't your favourite aspect of the hobby, so I appreciate the encouragement

Just a fluff update today while I work on building the rest of my Ironclad Veterans. C&C appreciated as always

Prologue: Rangda

The survivors gathered in the ruins of a deserted township, high on the barren, windswept hills of the Equatorial Plateau. As the crimson sun – just one of Rangda's many dying stars – sank below the mountainous horizon, their black armour merged with the lengthening shadows, blurring the hard lines of their Martian plate. Soon they were nothing but dark shades in the gloom, wraith-like mirrors of the foe they had come to this world to fight. Silent and motionless, they watched as the funeral pyre continued to grow.

It was, without question, the largest of the campaign so far. The combat engineers were utilising a macro-cannon shell crater this time, a great scar in the shattered landscape that stretched half a mile across and, in places, over fifty metres deep. It was into this immense, man-made chasm that Rangda's defenders – constituting the combined armed forces of the nascent Imperium: Mechanicum, Imperial Army and no less than three Astartes Legions; were unceremoniously disposing of their honoured dead.

At one end of the scale, Mechanicum earth-movers and Rhino transports, all retro-fitted with bulldozer blades, continually pushed entire mounds of corpses into the smoking depths of the crater. At the other, work gangs of Rangdan Militiamen and Jovian Fusiliers, cocooned in their bulky environment suits and carapace armour, manhandled bodies from the backs of cargo-loaders and haulage trucks. Everywhere the living and dead appeared intermingled, as the casualties of a score of battle zones were brought together in this one, central location, to be simultaneously purged and granted a warrior's funeral. Flamer and volkite teams patrolled amongst this ordered chaos, torching anything they deemed too hazardous to wait for the coming conflagration. Other than this, there appeared no distinction amongst the dead. The shattered husks of battle automata and tech thralls entered the chasm alongside the innumerable human casualties of the Imperial Army. Even the bloody ceramite shells of the Legion Astartes were discarded without compunction into the mass grave. In death, at last, all were finally equal.

A poor reward, Sar Amund mused, for those who died in the prosecution of their duty.

In accordance with his rank, he stood slightly apart from his brethren, although an onlooker from outside the First Legion would not have noticed, let alone understood the subtle distinctions in positioning and squad spacing. Superficially at least, the Decurian seemed little different to the warriors surrounding him. Each of them were clad in hulking suits of iron armour, the battered ebon plate far removed from the pristine wargear they had worn at the start of the campaign, so many years before. Even though this region was now considered pacified, they each kept their weapons close and ready – well used boltguns and notched combat knives, blood encrusted chain blades and plasma weapons blackened from repeated overheating. They were survivors, and they had not survived this long by being careless.

The only obvious symbol of his authority was the sword cradled protectively against his breast plate. An immense, broad bladed sabre, mono-edged and power active. Forged from pure adamantium, it was heavy and brutal, the weapon of a killer, not a duellist. A relic of the Terran Unification Wars, much like himself. In more good humoured times, it had often been joked as to which was the more venerable: the blade, or the warrior who wielded it. Such light hearted days were now just a faded memory, banished by a decade of the most savage, unrelenting warfare that Amund, despite all his experience, had ever seen.

As he watched the morbid scene around the funeral pit began to quicken, the work gangs intensifying their efforts as if by some unseen command. Almost simultaneously, a series of letters and numerals flashed across the internal display of his Paravane helm. Standard First Legion battle cyphers, transmitted from the warships stationed in high orbit above them.

“Five minutes. Visors down.” Amund broke the silence of the squad vox-net, his voice still thick with the accent of the Nordyc tribes despite a lifetime in the Emperor's service. The series of affirmative clicks across the vox were the only response he required. The Ironclad had been fighting together for too long to waste time or energy on idle conversation.

On the plain below, the earth-movers and empty cargo haulers began to withdraw, pulling back to the minimum suggested safe distance. The remainder of the labour force worked ever more frantically, throwing the bodies of their fallen comrades into the crater with a desperate energy. And with good reason, Amund knew. If they did not finish their work and evacuate in time, they would be joining the dead in the imminent conflagration.

A part of him, he had to admit, was sickened by such a blatant display of disrespect. The soldiers and Astartes who had already given everything in this campaign; who had fought and died to hold back the xenos threat to the Imperium; for whom death was almost a release from the horror they had experienced on a daily basis; were now being denied even the most basic respect they had all earned a thousand times over. And but for the random, unpredictable hand of fate, the Decurion knew that he and his men could also have been so callously cast into the funeral pit.

And yet, he knew that this action was also necessary. The foe they faced was so terrible, so insidious in it's corruption, that the forces of the Emperor could not even trust the corpses of their own fallen heroes.

“One minute.” He voxed again to his squad as more battle code flashed across his visor. The remaining Imperial Army labourers were running now, racing to climb aboard the last few vehicles even as they pulled away from the crater. Only a few servitors continued to work, the half human machine slaves blindly following their Tech Priest's instructions even to their own destruction.

Yes. Sadly, this was all completely necessary. Amund was well aware of the unique threat these xenos posed. He had witnessed first hand the techno-sorceries of the Slaugth, watching helplessly as their Murder-Minds raised the bodies of the dead to serve as warrior constructs against their own kind. He had even fought against the fallen of his own Legion, re-animated and reconstructed into terrible parodies of Space Marines, puppets controlled by alien masters to fight and murder their own former brothers.

He turned away as the lance strike from the orbiting cruiser split the sky asunder, turning night into day and incinerating the contents of the crater in a single moment of righteous fury.

As Amund stood silhouetted against the brightness of the artificial dawn, his mind focussed on a singular, familiar thought. He knew they were winning this war, slowly but surely reclaiming worlds which had been invaded over a decade before.

But for the first time in his long and distinguished service, victory held the same, bitter taste as defeat.

[Spaced Hulk]

'Once the most numerous and powerful of the Space Marine Legions, their numbers would be depleted and primacy ended by decades of savage warfare, particularly in the wars of the Rangdan Xenocides, one of the most apocalyptic campaigns of the Great Crusade. The scars of these battles would change them...' - Horus Heresy Book 6: Retribution

'It is by suffering that human beings become angels' - The Dramatist Victor Hugo, circa M1.

[Candleshoes]

I love the way you manage to tell a story with your models, everything from the pose, to the arm positions, to where the head/helm is looking, and this latest addition keeps that theme going in spades.

[Lord_Ikka]

Always good conversions, you do the 1st Legion proud.

[Spaced Hulk]

@ Candleshoes: Many thanks for the kind words! It's no exaggeration to say that your previous blogs have been highly inspirational to my own hobby (I actually still have No Weapon so Savage bookmarked!), so I really appreciate the feedback. I look forward to seeing what you produce for the Iron Warriors .

@ Ikka: Cheers mate! Look forward to seeing more updates for your own First Legion too .

So, for my update tonight, I have (believe it or not), actually been painting rather than building models!

Sar Amund, "The First-born", Decurion Primus

Commander of the Ironclad

Seventh Chapter of the Third Host

Ordination of the Deathwing

The Dark Angels Legion

My apologies for the quality of the pics, my camera battery was dead and my phone wasn't particularly co-operative today. I'll hopefully have some better photo's when I post his complete background/biography. He's not quite finished at the moment, as I still need to decide and paint his personal heraldry on his right pauldron. At the moment I'm thinking of a halved scheme with chequers on one side and the crossed blades of the Deathwing on the other.

I built this model originally as a squad member of my Rangdan Xenocide Veterans. However, as he's quickly become one of my favourites he's been given a field promotion, so he's now the leader of the Ironclad (basically a heavy infantry unit I'm building using BoP Mark III plastics and FW DA upgrade helms). The model I posted in my last update, the Mark II, is his replacement in the Rangdan Vet squad.

My fluff for Amund is that he's actually the oldest marine in the army, having served as one of the original Angels of Death on Terra alongside the Emperor himself. He's also obviously the protagonist in the prologue I posted last week, and I suspect he'll make more appearances in the army's fluff as I go along .

Thanks for looking, C&C are always welcome .

[IronDrake28]

Ooooh, the bits of green and that bright gold looks great on the matte black. :)

[Spaced Hulk]

Painting projects for the next couple of weeks:

Battle-Chaplain Mordred

And 10 more Tactical Marines (bringing the squad up to a full 20 man unit)

http://i1372.photobucket.com/albums/ag344/mat_at/IMG_20161119_131947_zps1bqqc5cq.jpg

[One-eye]

I look forward to seeing them finished, they look really awesome ! That chaplain rocks !