Where many were, how few remain - A loyalist SoH project

[MrBear]

Progress is slow as always, there are multitudes of things at work that demands my time, and/or energy it seems... Still, who said that hard work never pays off? I've gotten a quite substantional pay raise for my efforts so there is definitely a FW order being placed in the near future. 

 

There has been some painting though, with emphasis on the word 'some'

 

 

Not much to say about these guys yet, they are a bit greener than last time though...

 

I've also started to plan (and bought) some stuff for my Night Lords as it might be time for some variation in what I paint, but that will have to wait until these guys above are finished. 

 

Cheers!

[Brother Dallo]

Looking good. Are they just standard Cataphractii? Do you have plans for any SoH embellishments?

 

Congrats on the pay increase.

 

Dallo

[MrBear]

It might sometimes seem like I'm off hibernating like my namesake, but there tends to be periods at work where I'm as busy as a one-armed paper hanger. This last month has been such a period... Good thing my Christmas holiday starts tomorrow so I can get some more work done on these guys:

 

 

 

Not as much progress as I would have wished during this time,  and still lot to be done but we're getting somewhere. Got to get these guys finished so I can paint some Night Lords in January as I've planned to do....

 

 

Looking good. Are they just standard Cataphractii? Do you have plans for any SoH embellishments?

Congrats on the pay increase.

Dallo

 

Thanks buddy! Just standard Cataphractii these guys, with some few minor things added later on to give a further SoH feel. A wolf pelt, some skulls, FW shoulder pads etc.

 

The pay increase was most welcome, and I've already used some of it for some more stuff from FW. Not as much as I would have wanted though as I had to spend a 'fully armed Warlord' amount of money to keep my car road legal, but enough to get some future goodies for this army.

[deathspectersgt7]

Looking good Mate .

[MrBear]

A few brush strokes here, a few brush strokes there, and voilá: (some) Progress!

 

 

 

Easier to show on just one guy than on the whole bunch, they're all in the same 'phase' though. Main armour is finished and the gold aswell (even though the light makes it look 'flatter' than irl).  Just over a week until I'm going to the Canary Islands for a vacation so we'll have to see how far I get with these guys before then, giving my Night Lords some reinforcements in January stills feel realistic though. Starting to paint them that is, finishing said reinforcements is another thing. 

 

Looking good Mate .

 

Thanks buddy!  Going to try to keep my steam up to get these guys finished as soon as possible.

 

 

Tonight I'm going to follow the old Swedish tradition of getting fairly hammered. I don't know how you people abroad celebrates it,  but Christmas Day evening + Swedes = plenty of drinking. So there might not be much painting tomorrow...

 

Anyways, Merry Christmas fellas! Or as we Swedes say, God Jul! 

[MrBear]

So, how did things go? Well... My head didn't like me much on Boxing Day that's for sure. The Canary Islands were nice, coming back to -25 degrees, snow storms, and catching a cold not so nice.

 

Oh... That's not what anybody here is interested in, stupid me... 

 

Lets have a 'preview' of the Terminators instead:

 

 

Yeah, they're finished (even though I might go back and correct those darn little details I never notice before taking photos...), but before showing anything more there is that background scene I need to write first. So they aren't 'officially finished' until a couple of days I guess. See you then! 

[Pearson73]

Nice work, I like those markings on the knee plates. I know he's not quite finished, but I feel some gore and heavy scratching wouldn't go amiss on the chainfist's blade.

 

Glad you enjoyed your Christmas holiday too!

[bluntblade]

And on the adjacent gauntlet

[MrBear]

Nice work, I like those markings on the knee plates. I know he's not quite finished, but I feel some gore and heavy scratching wouldn't go amiss on the chainfist's blade.

 

Glad you enjoyed your Christmas holiday too!

 

 

And on the adjacent gauntlet

 

Cheers mates! Scratching was among those 'little details' I forgot to do actually, rather easy to do late at night when only two guys have chainfists I'm afraid. 

I hadn't really thought about gore, but it was a good suggestion!  I couldn't get quite as good light conditions today so the scratches and gore isn't as visible as irl, it should give a general idea though.

 

[MrBear]

So, time for a 'proper' update at last. I'd better warn in advance for rather large pictures though...

 

 

 

 

”Ambition

is like the sea wave, which the more you drink

the more you thirst – yea - drink too much,

as men have done on rafts of wreck – it drives you mad.”

 

Alfryd de Nisson, Anglish poet ca. M02

 

 

That night I slept like an innocent child, my exhaustion overcame me as soon as I laid myself down, and kept me from the waking world for a full ten hours. Snicker all you like boy, you know I've all but given up on seeing you wake early enough to greet the sun. Sleeping like that is a young man's folly, when one feels immortal, and certain that the sands of time will never run out. One day child you will find that Time cares nothing for your thoughts regarding that matter, and you will start to treasure those ever diminishing hours that you have left, judging them far to valuable to spend on such frivolity as sleep...

 

Be that as it may, I slept, and the world below me slept aswell, or so it seemed. It is perhaps no grand surprise that one such as me, a novice in the ways of war, thought that the Asans' resolve would crumble after the violence that we had witnessed. That none of the Fleet's officers did otherwise is more... omnious I'd say. While there is nothing I can do to prove it, as all that could have done so are either long since dead or fled into the Eye, I suspect that the events down on the planet were manipulated by someone, or that the warning signs of a new, and 'expanded' revolt were hidden from those that would have reacted to them.

 

No matter how it was arranged, it all started just after I had awoken from my long sleep. With my heart almost jumping out of my chest as the warning sirens began to howl throughout the ship, causing me to rush out of my quarters in panic, still half-clad, to find out what was happening.

Not that anyone I met seemed to have a better clue than me at first. Every new crewman or fellow Rememberancer crossing my path voiced new rumours, and they all grew more and more fanciful as fear fed the imagination of us uninformed, low-ranking mortals.

 

That state of panic lasted for exactly 2 minutes, until the sirens stopped and the dry voice of an Astartes informed us that much of Asan II had risen in full revolt against the rule of the Imperium, and that military forces throughout the Fleet should prepare for deployment to the surface.

Such an anouncement might have killed the panic in our hearts but it did not make things any less chaotic to my eyes. While the Astartes would have been been organised from within seconds of the first alarm, the crew and the mortal soldiers, were not, and getting prepared for what needed doing took them some time.

 

What I did you ask? As soon as I had gathered my wits I ran towards the hangars as if my life depended upon it. A bit dramatic? Yes, in retrospect it is, but I think all Rememberancers had a dramatic flair, and I was no different. My conversation with Ulyss Melek had convinced me once again of my purpose, and I wanted to witness the deployment of the Astartes and the soldiers with my own eyes. How else would I be able to write down anything?

 

One thing I had not calculated upon though is the fact that the universe almost seems to have a sense of humour. As I rounded a corner at full speed I suddenly found myself colliding with something massive, and the next moment I was flying through the air before crashing down on the floor. While I was trying to get myself up I heard a booming laughter that could only come from one source, Grishal Baar.

 

Most Astartes you see would have been perplexed by the situation, and almost all the rest would have been showing signs of anger had a mere mortal ran into them. Not my friend though, he continued to laugh as I rose from my prone position, and he explained that he had come looking for me as I would certainly be interested to see what was happening. He must have found me a most humourus sight because when I asked him if the deployment was not already in full motion he just laughed more, and said that it would still take some time to deicide what assets to deploy where as coordinating an improvised planetary assault was not something that even Astartes did particulary often. He then gave me a wide grin before asking if I would like to witness a deployment by teleportation.

 

How could I resist such an invitation? Even in those golden days teleportation was among the most mysterious of techno-arcana, and only the most elite warriors used it. Any Rememberancer worth his title would have jumped at the opportunity. I am a little ashamed to admit that I answered his question with the lack of restraint of a mannerless child shows when offered sweets... Not that Grishal Baar cared though, he just laughed some more before he led me towards the 'Teleport Bay'. Without him those doors would have stayed closed to me, and even with him by my side it was clear that my presence there was met with a certain lack of...approval from those present. The chamber itself was larger than I had imagined it though, but in retrospect it is obvious that such scientific wonders must take much space.

 

A group of five Astartes were preparing for their deployment, all of them clad in massive Cataphractii armour. So terrifying did they look that I felt pity for the rebels below, to face these warriors could mean nothing but brutal death. While it was the first time I had seen him in this armour, I had met the one leading the assault, and I doubt that the Asans were ready to engage Kotyk and his 'Kingslayers'. Not even the rebelling PDF-command in the bunkers that were their target.

 

Grishaal Baar that had told me about the Cthonian tradition of 'Kingslayers', not that they were named as such with the distinct lack of kings, and civilization, on Cthonia. So instead of a more brutal and litteral translation he spared my mind from images I could gladly live without, and gave them a title I could relate to. Regardless of their true title though, many 'kings' and gangleaders in the Cthonian tunnels kept a 'guard' of highly skilled killers whose main purpose were to slay the leaders of enemy gangs as soon as possible whenever fighting erupted. Not unlike the mission these 'Kingslayers' had been given I guess...

 

On Cthonia such men were treated as princes, given anything they wanted as a reward for the risks they would take. Grishaal had laughed though, and pointed out that most 'princes' dreamed of being 'kings' themselves, leading to more gangleaders dying from the blades of their own 'Kingslayers' than from those of their enemies. I had laughed with him then, but little did I know that I would one day come to see his story as a dark omen of what would come...

 

 

 

 

Kotyk, or the 'Kingslayer' as he styled himself, was a dread sight to behold as he had the most scarred and brutal face I have ever seen, and it did not help that he had the personality to match it. Harsh, even for an Astartes, and willing to do anything to prove himself before his Primarch. He was one of the most vocal critics of Jakhem Strom's strategy...

 

 

 

Sarson, full of pride he was, and skilled enough to almost justify it. A much sought after opponent in the training cages as other warriors wanted to test their skill against his. Few of them liked him though, no matter if they won, or more likely lost. There was something... 'sour' in how he was, and few managed to oversee it.

 

 

 

Demos 'Half Wolf'' was sort of a nostalgic in his own ways. He had no doubt in the wisdom of Horus, nor his decision to rename the Legion, but he still kept the wolf pelt he had worn as a Luna Wolf. One could in a way say that he stood with one foot in the past, and one in the present with. It would surprise me if he could even have guessed what his future would bring...

 

 

 

 

 

They named Milus 'Stoneskin' as he had never taken a wound serious enough for him to need the care of an Apothecary. His brothers made good-natured jokes about how they should call him 'Stonefeet' instead, as his armour would make him so slow that they would be able to slay any enemy before he was close enough to get harmed. His answer to these jokes you say? Nothing but silent smiles and an ever increasing kill count.

 

 

 

Arasham had a fire burning in his chest I would say. He was always eager for combat, but not from bloodthirst or the thrill of combat. No, while he had been born a wild ganger in the tunnels of Cthonia he had take the ideals of the Great Crusade to his heart, and each battle was one step closer to fulfilling the Emperor's vision. I can not make the claim that I knew him well but that doesn't matter, it was clear to anyone that met him that he had a noble soul.

 

 

So that's the 'Kingslayers' finished. I didn't manage to get the best light for the pictures so the red markings doesn't really show but the pictures are pretty ok otherwise. C&C is of course welcome though.

 

What's next? Well, it's time to move back to the even further future for a little while, and paint some Night Lords while I think about what I want to paint next for this army. I have a couple of ideas so I'll let them fight it out in my brain for now. 

[Pearson73]

Squad looks good, the gore and scratches on the weapons really helps finish them.

[MrBear]

Squad looks good, the gore and scratches on the weapons really helps finish them.

 

Thanks mate! The gore was a good suggestion as I would most likely not thought about it otherwise; I'm normally not using it much as I'm a bit afraid of overdoing it.

[outlanders_luke]

Solid work MrBear! Just reading through this log now.

The pelts really add that something to the models they were a good find, and I really like thst chaplain too!

[deathspectersgt7]

This went very well with my morning Coffee. Well done Mate really liked this group.

[MrBear]

Solid work MrBear! Just reading through this log now.

The pelts really add that something to the models they were a good find, and I really like thst chaplain too!

 

Thanks man! Trying to add small things here and there to make them look a little bit more individual aswell as keeping in character with their legion.

 

 

This went very well with my morning Coffee. Well done Mate really liked this group.

 

Glad you liked them buddy! Might be a few cups of coffee before I manage to finish something new again though as i haven't even stared painting the Night Lords yet. 

 

 

As for this log? I think the next thing is going to be... long(ish) range destruction. 

[LilShah]

My favourite termie has to be Stoneskin. The fact the only embellishment he needs is the single skull with a chain hook running through it is pretty bad ass.

[Brother Pheidias]

That's looking great, nicely understated green SoH Termies, a rare breed!

[MrBear]

Slowly painting some Night Lords at the moment (as astute persons might notice below) but a little something related to this project arrived in the mail today...

 

 

 

 

As I (some day in the future) intend to actually play some games with my Sons of Horus it might be nice to have a rulebook more recent than one from 2004. There were some other stuff in the package aswell, but that will have to wait for a while. 

 

Oh, and if you think my painting area looks a little bit... 'disorganized' you should see my desk a work 

 

 

 

My favourite termie has to be Stoneskin. The fact the only embellishment he needs is the single skull with a chain hook running through it is pretty bad ass.

 

Thanks man. I'm pretty fond of 'Stoneskin' myself,  that skull sure is a statement to take him seriously. Arasham with his heavy flamer is my personal favourite though, that combined with his pointing pose is pretty hard to beat.

 

 

That's looking great, nicely understated green SoH Termies, a rare breed!

 

Thanks mate. I thought that 'regular' company termies shouldn't deviate too much from the ordinary guys so a few nods nods towards Cthonian influences, some gold trim, and a few black panels felt as 'just right'. Glad that you think the same. 

 

Time to try to make some more progress on those Night Lords now though...

[MrBear]

Well it's been a while... Both RL, and my Night Lords have been responsible for all the dust in this thread, but I've started to work on something new for this project again:

 

 

 

It will probably get some time to get the Vox Lupercal (yeah, a name in bad Latin) finished, and I know it doesn't really make this army more playable as such but this is what I felt like doing, and given that this isn't really a gaming army so... 

 

Anyway, back in the 31st millennium for a while!

 

Cheers!

[ProsperoStands]

Just want to say I love seeing another loyal 16th Legion player!

[MrBear]

Work with the Medusa has reached the point where the easy work is finished.

 

 

More time consuming things next like edge highlights, Cthonian markings, weathering, and... You get the picture I guess. Should be fun though-

 

 

Just want to say I love seeing another loyal 16th Legion player!

 

Nice meeting you pal! There's always room for more of us.

[MrBear]

It takes it sweet time to do the weathering but it's totally worth it afterwards.

 

 

 

Still a lot to do before it's finished but we're moving in the right direction! 

 

 

Cheers!

[Brother Dallo]

That's a lovely green as always. I like what you've done with the graffiti. It makes the tank feel "lived in".

 

Keep up the good work.

 

Dallo

[MrBear]

 

 

 

 

 

”An ignorant people is the blind instrument of it's own destruction”

 

Symon Bolvar, Hy Brasilian warlord ca. M02

 

 

What? The insurrection? Oh, I sometimes forget how bloodthirsty young boys can be. Very well, I was much the same at your age lad...

 

I must confess though, that I had no real lust to see any blood spilled up close that day over Asan II. While my conversation with Ulyss Melek had helped me out of the traumatic shock I had experienced while witnessing the terrible rage of the Astartes, it had not restored to me my... 'naiveity' regarding the course of battles. *sigh* I could still be 'enthusiastic' in my duties, as my rush from my quarters that day had already proven, but it was information I craved more than to be 'close enough to smell someone's last breath' as Grishal Baar would have said.

 

Witnessing the magic of teleportation with my own eyes though, that was something I could litteraly have given almost anything for, and I do not use the word 'magic' in any ironic way boy. I've spoken to quite a few Tech-Priests in my days, and while they droned on about how the 'Mysteries of the Omnissiah' could not be told to the uninitiated, and how 'unworthy' my ears were, I was usually persistent enough for me to understand that none of them could claim any proper understanding of how it all works. With it being dangerous, unknowable, and requiring almost endless chanting, and rituals the word 'magic' seems fitting after all...

 

Forgive me my wandering mind... Where were I? The teleportation deployment, right? It was a sight to behold for sure. The 'Kingslayers' standing there in the middle of the chamber, upon five seprate platforms with large, glowing...'tubes' over them. Various Tech-Priests were either chanting in High Gothic, burning a foul-smelling incense, or watching the 'gibberish' that filled their cogitor screens.  I am fully aware that I cannot claim any true expertise regarding the psychology of the Astartes, but it seemed to me that even these veteran Terminators were somewhat... 'uneasy' over the whole thing. It was really subtle I'd say, but something in their stances gave them away. Which should tell you something about teleportation I reckon, how unsafe was it if such as them felt the way it seemed?

 

Grishal Baar seemed to think the same as me though, so even if I were wrong, I would not have been alone with my assumption. He looked upon the Terminators with a wry smile upon his lips, and when they suddenly vanished in a bright flash he laughed out loud in his usual way, and said that every time he saw ’the smug bastards’ deploy in that manner he wondered if they would die without glory by ’ending up being turned inside out in some damn rock’. And there again you can see the differences between us and the Astartes my lad. Where we mortals fear death just for the loss of our lives, they instead fear to die without ‘meaning’, and to fail in their duty…

 

As luck would have it, none of the ‘Kingslayers’ had any fatal… ‘mishap’ that day. Instead they arrived exactly where they were intended to, right inside the bunker complex where the command section of a rebel PDF-division were taking shelter. Seeing the pict-feed of the assault that followed made me quite happy that I had been so suddenly awoken that I had not been able to eat a breakfast. I guess that the word ‘brutal’ could be used for what I saw, but it seems inadequate to describe the images of slaughter that were transferred back to the screens we had in front of us. Truth be told it made me feel a certain pity for the rebels, much to my surprise.

 

It was no sympathy for their cause as you certainly understand, as I was indeed a child of the Imperial Truth. They had rebelled knowing that it would lead to an armed response from the Imperium, and that they, from their perspective, could only hope for ‘divine intervention’ in order to win. The latter fact is why I pitied them though, especially as I saw men and women that had been trained to the highest standards of their world being torn to pieces without any effort from the ‘Kingslayers’, and how their deadliest weapons, at best, left mere scratches upon the armour of their killers. Their devotion was misguided yes, but I could not help to feel that it ‘deserved’ a better fate than this…

 

Does it surprise you then that I only managed to look upon this bloodbath for a few minutes? Don’t play stupid, and gaze down upon your feet like that boy! Do you think that I won’t notice that you consider my behaviour cowardice? In the best of worlds, you will never have the experiences that will make you understand my point of view, but alas I fear that such a wish is unlikely to come true. We live in… ‘troubled times’ after all, and it is quite likely for you to see with your own eyes such things that you wish that you had never seen.

 

Be that as it may though, I did not retreat from the teleportation chamber. Instead I directed my attention to other screens showing the assault upon the command position. You see, the Astartes never expected one squad of Terminators clearing the whole complex and killing thousands of troops on their own, that would have been a folly. No, they had landed soldiers from the Imperial Army with the mission to capture that ground, and to their help they had assigned a Medusa that could break the outer fortifications while the ‘Kingslayers’ killed the local leaders of the resistance.

 

It was an…’epic’ sight I must confess. All those troops surging forward, and at the front there was this mighty behemoth slowly making it’s way forward. The defenders seemed to understand that this foe would spell their doom, and they focused their fire upon it, but to no avail. It just continued it’s steady approach, stopping every so often to let it’s thunderous gun roar. It was the ‘Vox Lupercal’, the Voice of Lupercal, turning every strongpoint it encountered into rubble. Between it and the ‘Kingslayers’ there was little to do for the rest of the assaulting soldiers to do, but to finish off the shocked defenders that had survived the initial onslaught.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Among the XVIth those who served as tank crew tended to be older warriors, veterans of many campaigns that had begun to slowly lose their edge, and that for various reasons would struggle to keep up with their bretheren if serving in the frontlines. The crew of the ‘Vox Lupercal’ was no exception to that ‘rule’ as both it’s Astartes had served through most of the Great Crusade.

Deiwos was nearly as ancient as Jakhem Strom and Ochys Peht, having been recruited from the civilian population of Luna after the XVIth had conquered it. He was known through the Company for his rigid mind, and a ‘by the numbers’ approach on how to do things. He could have gotten training as a Techmarine if he had wished it, but he was more than content with commanding his Medusa.

 

Kajak was slightly younger than his crewmate, being one of the earliest recruits from Cthonia, and where Deiwos wished for nothing more than his present role, one could sense a certain amount of bitterness from Kajak over the fact that he was no longer in his prime. He did his duty, but it was clear that he longed for other things than loading a siege gun…

 

 

 

 

So here we go, the Medus is finished! Decent pictures for most of it, even though I couldn't get the light to be quite right when taking the picture of the crew... Pretty pleased with the end result either way though. 

 

Not sure wether I'll paint something for the Night Lords or the Sons of Horus next, but while I'm figuring it out any C&C is always welcome.

 

 

 

That's a lovely green as always. I like what you've done with the graffiti. It makes the tank feel "lived in".

Keep up the good work.

Dallo

 

 

Thanks mate! Glad that I managed to make the first SoH tank to feel like it 'fits' in with everything rest. It's always a bit nervous with a model that one hasn't painted before. 

Edited October 30, 2018 by MrBear

[MrBear]

I was contemplating painting a Night Lord character, but...

 

 

I kinda felt that these guys, and their 8 other friends, have been waiting quite a while in my hobby storage so time to unleash some Destroyers I guess.