Vox Stellarum: True-Scaled Horus Heresy

[MikhalLeNoir]

I am such a big fan of your work. Marvelous.

[Umbral]

Ya know what this game needs? MORE NIGHT LORDS!!!!! These are some guys I finished a while back and are part of an ever growing list of things I forget to post. 

But anyway these are some Night Lord Destroyers, attached to the Son's of Horus, to help make sure their job gets done properly  

 

 

 

 

 

I used the forge world Renegade Enforcer heads for these guys to help make them stand out from the Nyonpa Night Lords (they're not friends)

 

 

 

 

 

 

I tried to make it look like the paint was flaking off these guy's due to their use of rad weapons and phosphex.

 

Now whats a squad of Destroyers without a Moritat to lead em eh?

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

and here's a nice group shot of the cheeky buggers 

 

[Pearson73]

Those Night Lords are terrifying, really nice idea swapping in the enforcer heads, they work a treat.

 

The peeling paintwork is well done also.

[Kizzdougs]

Fantastic work, bro!! The Night Lords look fantastic :tu:

[Brother Pheidias]

I am enthralled, nothing less! And you've used *those* Jump Packs

I am deeply sorry for the smiley-overload, but I simply cannot contain myself! And get that Moritat over to the MDRClubhouse, I'm throwing it at Facebook as of right now!

[bluntblade]

Yes. This is how scary Night Lords should be.

[Ryltar Thamior]

 

I am enthralled, nothing less! And you've used *those* Jump Packs

 

I am deeply sorry for the smiley-overload, but I simply cannot contain myself! And get that Moritat over to the MDRClubhouse, I'm throwing it at Facebook as of right now!

to be fair, I think Umbral kinda started it with all those uh .. "grinning" skull-helms on his Raptors :P 

 

Also, what's the link for the fb page? 

[Gorgoff]

Sweet Baby Jesus O_O

Those models... DAMN what a sight.

Aureate!

I even looked that word up, because special models need special adjectives. :)

[Brother Pheidias]

 

... also, what's the link for the fb page? 

 

 

MDRC on the Facebook

[Ryltar Thamior]

Realized I've been a bit lax in keeping things ticking over update wise. Partially because we've kept getting so frenetically distracted with other projects :P 

 

I haven't painted an Iron Warrior in aaaaaaaaaaaages, and as my hobby-skills have been developing I've started doing a lot of the converting work for my side of things myself. 

 

 

This is the first true-scale I've actually gotten to a 'finished' state - although there are four or five XIXth Legion that've been *nearly* ready [just awaiting that certain .. something, to really make them 'work' as what they're suppoesd to be] which have been sitting around for hte past few weeks (and a Space Wolf just waiting for a head and neck asssembly, now that I think about it), along with a Knight Errant who's just awaiting his force-staff that turned into a bit joint effort, that you'll no doubt be meeting shortly. 

 

 

Anyway, the concept with this miniature just started iwth the leg-posing and my endeavour  to use a grave-warden torso to make the truescaling process easier [i don't use greenstuff for various reasons, making it a bit of a mission to put them together otherwise out of plastic and resin]. He's spent quite awhile in 'development hell' awaiting my deciding on what armament, backstory, and combat role to go with. 

 

 

It started with the hand-flamer [after I decided that Mk.VI and the Bhutagana would be the best fitting place for the torso and leg arrangement ... oh and got part of the way through an experiment of sorts using classic skeleton heads on the power-pack for something a bit intimidatory and chaplain-esque]. From there, over the next few days, stuff just kept happening. A ... power-pick? from the Dark Angels Ravenwing Command fitted admirably with his arm posing [a previous experiemnt with a heavy flamer seemed a bit awkward, although I've filed the "shooting hand-flamer, also lugging heavy" for future reference] , and also suggested perhaps a combat engineering role.

 

 

That lead on to me choosing to revisit an old concept i'd had sitting around in a workbook for a Forward Observer - entirely appropriate for the trench-running vibe of this force :D ; hence the .. is it a cognis-signum? and comms gear mounted on his back-pack. 

 

I then reasoned that a forward observer .. who's obviously quite keen to be "observing" from veery close up given his armament [to the point of, no doubt, calling down artillery bombardments on his own precise location whilst storming breaches and such] .. in such a 'doomed' force as teh BhutaGana would bear quite some marks of his service in the form of battle-damage; and while i *may* have absent-mindedly rendered it a little imperfectly here and there, I can always touch that up later.

 

 

Next step'll be a name, and some more comrades for him.

 

As well as uh ... finishing off those XIXth Legion who're sitting there on the shelf mocking me with their incompleteness at present :P 

 

Stay tuned for me going through and posting up stuff that's come to a presentable state [painted or otherwise] in the intervening four months! I'll also poke Umbral into doing likewise. 

 

We have .. such sights to show you! 

[Ryltar Thamior]

One more. This time, armed with a Parashu.

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Ryltar Thamior]

pinging to make sure it gets kept during the UPCOMING PURGATION OF SITE TOPICS. 

[Ryltar Thamior]

It's ... been awhile. But, for various reasons, I've gone back to the Heresy era for a bit. This time, a departure from my usual Mk.VI Iron Warriors, and not even that closely proximate to the various other forces I've done so far. In fact, a whole Segmentum away. And *much* later in the Heresy timeline. 

 

 

Anyway ... first two Heresy-era truescaled Space Wolves for this new phase of project. A bolter-armed veteran stalker, and a somewhat more 'bespoke' outfitted champion of some description. 

 

 

I've stuck to my guns on refusing to use greenstuff for these truescaling efforts, and slowly but surely I'm managing to get a 'process' for this down which works for me, and doesn't take interminable ages to do. Mostly. This leaves me to pursue the challenge of attempting to turn some occasionally rather 'awkward' terminator leg sculps of various persuasions into viable bases for 'dynamic' or at least 'realistic' posed miniatures.

 

 

Although at the moment, my biggest annoyance is attempting to work out how to mount all the additional stowage, gear, sidearms, grenades, etc. that I usually put on my Marines [because seriously - it doesn't make 'realism' sense IMO for Marines to *not* be carrying additional ammunition or other gear (even though I haven't worked out a place to put such on the bolter armed Wolf here - particularly to represent specialist ammunition); and I wouldn't feel right claiming they had side-arms and close-combat weapons in the absence of those on the actual miniatures themselves]; as the way in which terminator legs go up to the hip makes for a comparatively limited array of belt-space to moiunt things on to begin with - even before we get into whether it's "realistic" for the Marine in question to be able to reach something thereupon for quick-draw in combat. 

 

 

But anyway, I like to think I've accomplished my goals with these two. There's a few areas to learn from, as ever, but I'm relatively pleased with how the bolter-wielding Marine has managed to take what's otherwise a pretty 'ho-hum' part of many Marine forces, and turn it into a .. how did somebody describe one of my other Astartes? "comic-book panel come to life" or words to that effect. 

 

There's a real sense of purpose and momentum achieved by having him striding forward, presumably possibly at a bit of a clip , shouting a challenge or roaring his defiance - and in either case, no doubt almost certainly intimidating hte foe! - bolter very much raised and in an active-firing pose [even if it *does* obscure the face from certain angles - in fact, all the better!] . [in ffact, that's antoher thing i'm rather pleased iwth here - the fact i've managed to get one of my *less* preferred heads from the modern Space Wolves plastics to look, in my humble opinion, pretty good rather htan "cartoonish" as many of them regrettably seem to be. 

 

Meanwhile, the champion-ish Marine was part of a series of exercises in making that rather static and staid looking pair of grave warden legs 'come to life'. [there's one other Space Wolf using the same pair of legs presently being worked on, although started earlier] - which was surprisingly difficult, as other than a *very slight* bend to the right-hand knee, there's really not very much to it. And Marines simply standing stock still, feet planted firmly and equidistently on the floor ... does not well translate into actoin-packed Astartes, of the sort I felt needed to be built to go with the running bolter Marine and such - still less up against Umbral's ... "other wolves" so to speak. 

 

Eventually, the idea for a pointing lightning claw [perhaps raised in single-out challenge?]What could be more Vlka Fenryka .. ]   and raised pistol entered into my head; with the Iron Warriors Mk.IV helm, which we've tkaen to calling a "Huscarla" pattern after its use on two Wolf Guard for my Agents of the Sigillite project a few pages [and many many months] back, nicely completing the impression (that of a medieval-influenced, but still sci-fi and highly hardened killer super-soldier) alongside Cypher's plasma pistol for a somewaht ornate, hand-crafted, 'relic' feel. I should possibly have given this miniature something to more clearly demarcate a wolf's claw rather htan a 'mere' lightning claw - but too late remembered the Fellhanded i have sitting here. Perhaps I shall instead demarcate its enhanced power with a fine paint-job featuring a prominent and appropriate Rune instead! [Oh and as applies the backpack ... I did consider giving him a standard Mk.III; or even some of the Wulfen ones i have here for just such an eventuality [i shall post another WOlf with just such outfitting a bit later - 'borrowed' from my Webway Wolves project ]; but eventually, decided to go with a fine one from the modern Wolves plastics - reasoning in my head that a) it's preety close to Mk.IV power-pack *anyway* [which goes nicely with the helm], and b) due to the nature of this campaign myself and Umbral are gearing up to do, there's ample scope for 'prototypes' and 'advanced' tech by Heresy standards. Besides which, it doesn't look overpoweringly out of place at least partially due to the rest of the miniature. 

 

Anyway ... 

 

 

Here's a scale-shot next to a partially finished Adamantia Auxilia. As you can see, the Wolves *tower* over the Mortal. Just as it should be! Meanwhle, the Mk.III plastics, and some cunning use of spacers [i have literally used most of a Burning of Prospero set of Mk.III legs on these for the armpits etc.], help to further 'fill out' the "bulk' needed - not least due to the sheer size of the Grave Warden legs. 

 

finally, a front-on shot to show a bit of the 'enemy's eye view'; and actually display some of the posing otherwise hidden via perspective or a bolt-weapon. 

 

 

 

Also, I apologize for the smalll size of the picts - I forgot to post them in a larger format on the site i'm using for hosting ... so while I *could* go with the "ridiculously over-large fill most of your screen" iteration, that seemed a bit OTT. I'll endeavour to format properly for hte next round of uploads. 

 

Which will be, most likely, the *next* two truescale Astartes for this project - a somewhat offbeat/atypical Night Lord (one of a trio) and a Salamander (in Mk.VI).  

 

and maybe I might explain a bit more of what we're up to this time :D 

[Markus_]

Looking good! Solid poses on the marines.
I get what you mean in regard to avoiding the use of greenstuff on models, as a few touch ups here and there isn't bad, going for a full army where every model requires extensive mashing of bits and tinkering it can get a bit overwhelming at times. I think the gear mounted on their belt area is believable enough, if it's not plausible to reach with one hand they could always use the other.

Looking forward to see what you come up with next.

[Gorgoff]

A good way to put ammunition and such on a marine is by putting it on their shoulder pads. :)

Only got my Instagram profile to show an example:

https://www.instagram.com/p/BjMDk-kj57c/?utm_source=ig_share_sheet&igshid=131la3i68hnt7

 

Anyway those conversion of yours look great.

[Ryltar Thamior]

 

realized i forgot to get around to posting the Night Lord ... 

 

 

Now, I said he was a bit 'offbeat' ... 

 

 

... as you can see, he's rather "different" to what you'd perhaps be expecting from a VIIIth Legionnaire. 

 

 

 

 

and now that we've got my own chronic indecision over photo-angles out of the way ... the obligatory scale-shot:

 

 

Right, now as the observant among you may have noticed, this is not your ordinary Night Lord. Not only is he sporting a Raptor Imperialis pauldron on his right ; but he's tactically equipped for the decidedly *un* craven-cowardly engagement style of running up to somebody big and deadly-looking ... and hitting them in the face with a hammer. Occasionally from somewhere at least partially behind a very large, very prominent =][= shaped storm/boarding shield.

 

The reasoning behind this Marine, is he's yet another of my 'loyalists from Traitor Legions' , and will be deployed toward the very heart of the Sigillite's ongoing shadowy operations, accompanied by two other VIIIth - a chap with lightning claws, and a figure with some form of close-ranged fire-support in mind. They will therefore form a trinity handily equipped to take down most foes through their shared, combined action - whether slow-and-purposeful (in which case, use the swift-striking claws on point, following the ballistic softening, and preceding hitting it in the face with a hammer), fast-and-deadly (in which case, shoot it as much as possible, and absorb hits with shield pending coup de grace from claws), or whatever else. 

 

I couldn't find in my bitz-box anything that looked much appropriate for a Night Lords storm-shield, so went with Hector Rex's. Which nicely played into the Sigillite vibe thanks to the =][=ness. Grave-Warden legs once more, and an interesting experiment utilizing a White Scar Mk.II helm - which goes surprisingly well with the Night Lords vibe, imo. I'll be making a note for future use around the lightning-bolts on the cheek-plates for Unification Wars modelling. 

 

But yeah uh .. good grief that took awhile to get the posing right. [and i did realize i inadvertently left off a fill-in between thumb and wrist on the right hand. ]

 

Also, if anybody's got any good ideas vis a vis Night Lords appropriate shields ... I'm all ears! 

 

[...I may or may not wind up attempting to model a small string of severed ears on something at osome point in the future] 

[Ryltar Thamior]

Churr for positive feedback all :D 

 

Looking good! Solid poses on the marines.
I get what you mean in regard to avoiding the use of greenstuff on models, as a few touch ups here and there isn't bad, going for a full army where every model requires extensive mashing of bits and tinkering it can get a bit overwhelming at times. I think the gear mounted on their belt area is believable enough, if it's not plausible to reach with one hand they could always use the other.

Looking forward to see what you come up with next.

 

Churr :D And yeah, tbh my aversion to greenstuff is less about the effort-intensiveness - after all, my present modus operandi for constructing truescaled torsos [vaguely reminiscent of the 'Doghouse Pattern' perhaps], is to take a plastic terminator front [either Cataphractii or Tartaroi], take a regular plastic Marine torso back, cut down the projecting bits around the arm/shoulder/collarbone area and lower ribcage/upper love-handle area if present on Tartaros armour , so as to bring together the front and back halves in a manner that will enable the torso to sit a litlte high on the back of the terminator legs [most of htem have a rather high mid-section - occasionally which must be cut-down either in whole or just down hte back], and then manually rebuilt by hand the back of the chestplate by utilizing sections of cataphractii shoulderpads that've been cut down to fit (usually after putting arms and shoulderpads on, so as to not obstruct those unduly with posing]. 

It's *still* less work than attempting to get hte modern-day GW NON-snap fit Primaris plastics to do interesting and individual things IMO ... but yeah uh ... 

anyway, my reasoning for not going anywhere near greenstuff is, quite apart from it potentially being another skill to learn ... i'm a bit leery about too much build-up of it having a long-term numbing effect upon skin it comes into contact with. The nerves in my hands don't really work right *as is* [hence, I can't properly write - and the fact that I occasionally manage passable paint-jobs, or even upon rarer moments, small-scale free-hand detail painting [mottos - in cyrillic script, no less - on the sides of my 15mm  WWII Soviet armour, for instance] is a source of continual amazement to me] - so after reading about what happened to one of the Perry Brothers in yesteryear, I've just never found much interest in getting to grips with the green. 

Not that I habitually go around firing War of the Roses cannons, of course - although a shoulder-mounted RPG was ... another story - but yeah.

And in the mean-time, the knowledge that I can't simply 'sculpt' a part I might need .. well, it has indeed upon occasion lead to me becoming more "creative" with what I have to hand instead, thus producing arguably more 'interesting' results. There's a particular miniature I've completed hte modelling on but haven't finished pain(t)ing for my Harii log wherein an arm had to be made out of something like seven or eight individual pieces, a number of which I hand-carved out of bits of sprue or things, which demonstrates this. Or the time I ... for some odd reason ... ran out of appropriate bitz of flagellant chain and so started hand-sculpting chain links for a rifle-sling - which was a slow exercise in madness, but I digress. 

And yup :D the gear-stowage as and where is has def been done with "can they plausibly reach this" in mind, so i'm glad the effect's come across on closer inspection. 

Hope the latest offering just uploaded is up to muster. Although I couldn't *quite* work out how to mount a pistol and grenades on him, I kinda decided htat he probably didn't need them given his comrades. 

 

A good way to put ammunition and such on a marine is by putting it on their shoulder pads.
Only got my Instagram profile to show an example:
https://www.instagram.com/p/BjMDk-kj57c/?utm_source=ig_share_sheet&igshid=131la3i68hnt7

Anyway those conversion of yours look great.

Oh wow ! Thanks for the link to your instagram feed - just took a brief scroll through, and there's some very cool stuff in there .. not least, the heads :P The apothecary is a pretty intriguing spin on the concept, both in terms of the narthecium-ish claw and the mechanicus-ish pistol ; and the integrated bolt-weapons in the Greek-esque shields is legit as well . Some pretty cool use of photoshop etc. to 'bring to life' some of those shots as well; and I think you've given me some further ideas with the ACAV-ish Rhino ... but that may be another story :P As may be what I am presuming are mortal Helots - which I totally have needed to model up some of, so the flagellant-esque miniature bearing the bolter, and the rather er .. Russian looking chap with the hat, as well as what appears to be a Goliath juve based on Catachan HQ body, are firmly in mind!

As applies what you were *actually* linking to direct my attention to ... yup, I see what you mean about the notion of utilizing the large, bare spaces of the shoulder-pads as additional mounting areas for stowage. And I just saw the Marine whose shoulder-pad appears to be bearing quite a few meltabombs... 

Now, I haven't previously gone down this path , largely due to the aesthetics involved - despite my habitual (over?-) commitment to 'realism', I've always liked teh shoulderpads of a Marine to very much be loud-and-proud statements of who they are and where they're from. Even if it's something as simple and unadorned as a plain-ish monomolecular bonding studded Mk.VI pauldron. 

But you make a good point, and particularly as applies Iron Warriors , especially those who're kinda uh .... persona non grata with the Legion all up [this is my 'main' Heresy force, insofar as it's the one with the most miniatures actually completed, as well as at least one squad that's at least something approching fieldable - I keep getting side-tracked doing one-off 'character' type builds , you see ... I need to get back to cracking on the BhutaGana!] , practicality should definitely come first. 

However, this raises a further point, as i just started 'experimenting with some elements in response to your photo ... and I've encountered a *further* issue - namely, due to the rather larger broadness of my Truescaling torsos , it doesn't appear that the Marines i've built will actually be able to reach across their chests to access material stored there :/ 

So while I'm grateful for both the idea itself, as well as ... everything else that's set my mind a-spinning with potential possibilities from scrolling through your feed [seriously - some very legit concepts for me to play around with that've been derived from looking at same], i may have more searching to do yet on this front.

Although what I *would* say is that this *did* give me an idea for utilizing those shotgun-ammuntion-bandoliers from the Storm Trooper kit , possibly lengthening them out with additional units, and putting htem in a shoulder-pad mount - but with an additional lengthener tab so that they might be pull-and-released as necessary by the Marine in question perhaps in the manner of 'specialist ammunition' [c.f the not entirely dissimilar webbing from the Sternguard Veterans sprues]. 

We'll see how it plays out. 

Also, on a more general note - if anyone has ideas , thoughts, concepts, whatever - please don't hesitate to post 'em. Even if I don't wind up doing anything *directly* with what's raised, it always helps to set the mind a-further spinning, and generally to produce other, additional output in whatever dimension further dwon the track. 

 

[Ryltar Thamior]

 

For my next trick ... truescaled Salamander in Mk.VI armour; equipped with a heavy flamer and thunder hammer - as well as, by the look of it, one *seriously* incensed disposition. 

 

Puts me in the mind of a Terry Pratchett quote we've found ourselves living by of late - the one about how sometimes it's better to light a flamethrower than simply curse the darkness. 

 

 

Now, no doubt there are some fluff-purists out there taking issue with the fact that he's in Mk.VI plate. After all, even though the Salamanders, along with the Iron Warriors were shipped early field-evaluation iterations of the Mk.VI [then known as Mk.V armour, prior  to its earning of the 'Corvus' sobriquet] ... and it seems rather likely that , as with the IVth, they may have basically concluded that it wasn't well-suited to their habitual style of engagement - a la Mk.III. But the dark days of the Heresy are not a time for outfitting in the manner of one's original choosing; and for whatever reason, this Marine's making the best of the theoretically less 'grunty' Mk.VI plate. 

 

Perhaps he is used to operating as a marine apart - a solitary figure, for whom the enhanced sensory capacities [in addition to the targeting lense over his left eye] of the Mk.VI would be of greater utility; although I somewhat doubt, given his armament, that there's *too* much priority given to the potential for greater stealth operation afforded by the Corvus. 

 

 

In any case, a cursory look up and down on him, would appear to suggest that this is not 'standard' Mk.VI - but rather something which the Marine in question has painstakingly constructed and augmented by hand [and er .. hammer - possibly not the thunder hammer , he may have a smaller one for forging purposes. I nearly put one of hte Flagellant sprue ones onto his belt, but then realized how .. puny that would look in his hands unless he were, say, carrying out reflex tests on his fellow Astartes' knees] in order to function more akin to his liking. 

 

This helps to explain the somewhat 'bulging' chestpiece - it's hte result of the rather underarmoured and exposed Mk.VI breastplate being up-armoured in such a manner as to cover the power-cabling [how he's getting aroudn the heat-sink issue is perhaps another matter - integrated interior coolant? Overtaxing the powerplant of the suit in a bid to channel thermal exhaust faster to rear-mounted ports? Sub-plate spacing allowing for a certain degree o finternal dissipation? Not worrying about the suit 'running hot' on grounds that the stronger sensor profile in the optics of his foes is .. uh .. kinda redundant as a concern given the HEAVY FLAMER he's firing out front? We'll see ... - although this *does* give me an idea around his potential utilization of said heavy flamer to interfere with infrared/heat-seeking materials of his foe, in a manner similar to WARPAC tanks burning fuel off their engines in orrder to produce a thick smokescreen which not only obscured *visuals*, but because the smoke was at a very simiilar temperature to the tank ... ]. 

 

He's also, now that I think on it more properly, presumably made a very deliberate decision vis a vis the Mk.III vambraces and other panoply on his *left* side (albeit compensated for somewhat by the notably thiinner Mk.VI arm armour on his right), to go with the characteristic studded Mk.VI up-armoured left plate in teh direction he'll not only be taking fire from, but which will presumably be experiencing significant additional heat as a result of his own armament in use. 

 

 

Meanwhile, considered from the rear, it's just occurred to me that the series of plates at hte back of his calves and thigh are somewhat closer to how Mk.II armour, and therefore Mk.III are intended to work. While the obviously *very* thick ceramite etc. plating of the *fronts* of his legs, despite its Mk.VI shape due to hte greaves, is likely, again, considerably up-armoured - perhaps made possible through weight-saving on the back of the leg. Perhaps not, leading to some "slow and purposeful" style of maneuver - perfectly characteristic for a Salamander! [yes, i'm old enough to remember the Index Astartes article which posited them as Initiative 3 ... ] ; and the 'patchwork' nature of his armour plating about the back futher helps to show exactly this somewhat less than 'as the Fabricator-General Intended approach to personal protection in action. 

 

Anyway, I digress. 

 

I did wonder about what to do for additional weaponry beyond the "illuminator" , so tos peak ... and felt that smaller blades would be average, whle a hammer seemed almost de rigeur, especially given an 'artificer' background. But then, as I said above, a small hammer didn't seem right ... so i wound up building him [well, re-hafting , really - it's a modern-day vanguard veteran thunder hammer ... it'll be interesting to see where the haft from it winds up :P ] a more *appropriately* sized weapon. And then attempting to work out a mechanism by which to affix it to his armour for easy access - all he has to do is reach back, unlatch it from the belt with the flick of his thumb, and set to swinging. Although i now realize that i may potentially have mounted the hammer *upside down* from where it "should" be . Oh well :P [oh also im not quite sure what the er .. tube or spike i mounted on his back back-pack is there for - perhaps it's for wall-breaking once hit with the thunder-hammer :P ] 

 

 

All up, he's therefore going to be a *remarkably* 'heavy-hitter' in both senses of the term. Not the swiftest of the Marines being built for that project [wait til you see some of the VIII and XIX I've got going ..] - but then, for where he's going, he isn't going to have to run very far nor fast to 'catch' Traitors. They'll no doubt be oming - swarming - to him! 

 

Oh, and of course, the obligatory scale-shot next to the trusty Adamantia Auxilia mortal. Gosh, I'm now almost certainly going to have to build a relatively 'conventional' Imperial Army miniature just to do these scale comparisons with! 

 

[Ryltar Thamior]

1x Very Angry Bird; truescale Raven Guard for our late-Heresy effort.

 

 

With this miniature, I wanted to do something *very* different to the 'conventional' feel of the Raven Guard - which is cold, calculating, sneaky[beakie?], and generally "reasonable marine". 

 

 

So naturally ... the complete 'opposite end of the spectrum', if you like, is an absolutely furious headlong-charginer berzerk type. Who's probably suffered a bit of the ol' Post-Human Traumatic Stress Disorder following Isstvan V. 

 

 

A running pose seemed like the best place to start for this; followed by a big axe to really get across the complete lack of subtlety .. as well as a knife, come  to think of it, added as a last minute thought, for double bladed [three blades counting the extra one on the axe now that i think of it] whirlwind effect in close assault. Plus two pistols because moritat-ness perhaps. 

 

 

My initial head-vision for him had a silencer affixed to the bolt-pistol - the idea was going to be conveying the fact that he is *theoretically* kitted out for the more 'stereotypical'/usual Raven Guard modus operandi ... but is so far enraged by the mere sight of Traitors in the livery of those who cut down his brothers, that he's ... going completely un-subtle full-frontal assault hurling himself at the enemy despite being equipped with a stealth weapon. 

 

I may yet make a final alteration before painting him up; although Umbral and I had a conversation a few days ago about 'silenced bolters' being a bit o fa contradiction in terms because stalker rounds effectively would use a different propellant to cause the net lack of aural signature of firing. So we'll see how it  goes. 

 

Might wind up looking a bit like a MAC-10 with a silencer :P 

 

 

Anyway, good *grief* it was difficult getting an appropriate arm and hand pose which made the axe-swing feel a bit lifelike rather than him just running forward bearing the axe and holding it aloft like a Chaplain's Crozius .. "BEHOLD! THE AXE" indeed. [which presented *further* issues when it came to the backpack not intersecting with the right shoulderpad] [and, for that mtter, the low angle of the front of the torso plus a Mk.VI head ... headcanon wise we'll just say he's reinforced the frontal armour of his chestpiece hence why it bulges out ... :D ] [oh and the cutting down of hte underplate]

 

 

Obligatory scale-shot.

 

I'm pretty pleased overall with how he's turned out. Strong 'momentum' imo and from a 'mini's eye-view', very intimidating . 

 

I might also have an interesting fluff-piece idea to go with him once he's painted. 

[Ryltar Thamior]

Because it was probably about time I got back to the BhutaGana ... the latest two glorious truescaled Mk.VI Loyalist Iron Warriors.



As you can see, it's an Apothecary, and a spec-ops seeker/headhunter type. Partsmix includes a perhaps surprising number of pieces from the Ravenwing Command box - which is an underheralded piece of useful kit for the discerning Heresy modeller imo. 



I think from memory that my initial thought was basically seeing what i could do with th two sets of Tartaros legs in question; and I didn't feel up to putting in all the conceptual work and trial-and-error for some of the more 'personalized' Marines I've been building lately. So instead went with elements that I felt the BhutaGana have needed *for awhile* , but which for whatever reason I hadn't yet done. [in particular, Umbral built me an excellent Seeker Squad sergeant *many many months ago* [like, seriously - I just checked and it's been more than a year],who's been needing squaddies; while the force obviously needs at least one Apothecary as part of the explanation for just how they've beeen able to keep going for as long as they have! (particular the older Unification Veterans)] 



The legs on the spec-ops marine were rather .. problematic, as they're a little clunkily posed for non-Terminator Armoured Marine, and addditionally the chestpiece I was using was rather difficult to reposition in a more 'side on' facing. But we more or less got there in the end. Meanwhile, hte main problem with the Apothecary was getting hte right arm/shoulder assembly to not look *too* odd/unrealistic , given my usual habit of covering it up somewaht utilizing a shoulder-pad, wasn't going t o be viable due ot the arm positioning.



In terms of loadout and such, the Apothecary's ballistic apron [iirc from deathshrouds or something] is there so as to absorb shrapnel and such in the highly likely event that he finds himself having to (heroically) interpose himself between enemy fire and the wounded [who'll quite likely have quite some exposed flesh due to armour integrity failures and such]. The drum-mag bolt-pistol (again, Ravenwing HQ sourced) is also a nicely 'archaic' feel; and the sword's a handy reminder of the fact he's not just going to be hacking and cutting the Marines on his own side ... as well as no doubt proving useful as an impromptu surgical implement. 



Meanwhile, the spec-ops Marine wound up with two blades , rather than a blade and a pistol, for sidearms, after I was test-fitting and just, i guess, really liked the 'symmetry' of the two hafts , one on each hip, and how htey looked. Besides, what's teh quote from Lock, Stock & Two Smoking Barrels? "Guns for show - knives for a pro!" - he'll no doubt be quieter using them than  bolt-pistol, at any rate; with additionally (not that this was my intent) the shorter close combat weapon paring up rather well with the full-length mono-edged sword. [huh, perhaps that helps explain the maxim from The Simpsons about how happy a man with two knives is ... "I gotta tell ya - this is pretty terrific"] THe fang on the shorter weapon may either be something showing a bit of mutual respect and bonding between this lot of IVth and their VIth Legion 'chaperones', or could be something else. 



And yes, I am aware of the placement of hte grenades - there simply wasn't anywhere else to place them on or about his belt-line that'd be feasible for him to reach. 



Also, further reason for wanting to utilize the Ravenwing Mk.VI helms - other than that much more 'old-school' - 'knightly' almost - construction (perhaps this is closer to the 'prototype' suits the IVth were intiially sent and which the BhutaGana wound up being sentenced to wear until it killed them ...], they've also got those handy comms antennae on the side - perfect both for a figure such as an Apothecary, who'll presumably be needed and  required to be responsive, all over the battlefield ... as well as for a spec-ops style Marine who may also require more independent mode of operation. 

[Umbral]

asdfg

 

 

Sup duders, as usual its been a while since I posted anything, but I have been busy building more Sons of Horus, a lot of them to be precise.

So here is the reps of the Sons of Horus XLVIII Company.

 

Lets start with the Company Commanders

 

In the center is the Company Captain(I have yet to think up names for these guys) to his right his second in command and to his left the company Chaplain and Lodgemaster

 

 

 

Next up the company's Reaver elite

 

I finally got round to finishing the first 5 I built ages ago

 

 

 

 

and then I built and painted 5 more

 

 

 

 

 

"LUPERCAL!!"

 

Here's a heavy Weapon squad to back them up

 

 

 

and much like the Reaver srg, this srg has also received some "cultural exchange" from the Word Bearers

 

Since a lot of this game is going to be tight corridor ship fighting I've also made a start on a breacher squad

 

 

 

 

Keen eyed observers may have recognised some of these marines from one of my earlier posts, with the exception of the srg, these breachers were made out of a previous truescale set i made using red butchers to make some tactile World Eaters.

 

 

Fluff wise they're still World Eaters, except they've black shielded their way into the company after taking issue with Angron's policy on the Butcher's Nails.

 

And finally the Heavy hitter of this merry band, a big bad contemptor 

 

 

 

 

and here's a nice group shot for you guys

 

[Luna707]

Holy :cuss! These guys are amazing! Your Company Commander is an absolute standout amongst this great collection. Really great bit composition and paint all around- you've managed to add a ton of character to each Astartes. This is what the Sons of Horus should look like, you've really outdone yourself here. I will be eagerly awaiting more! 

[Umbral]

Holy ! These guys are amazing! Your Company Commander is an absolute standout amongst this great collection. Really great bit composition and paint all around- you've managed to add a ton of character to each Astartes. This is what the Sons of Horus should look like, you've really outdone yourself here. I will be eagerly awaiting more! 

Thanks so much, that means a lot coming from some who's own body of work is absolutely amazing

[Ryltar Thamior]

I clearly have some catching up to do :P 

They do look excellent; very nice use of the blood technical paints; and the shading and inking on the Goliath head is legit. Inter many alia. 

[Kordhal]

The sons of horus look absolutely brutal! The contemptor dreadnought is a favourite of mine,it really conveys a sense of  a howling war-machine descending on the enemy!