The Azure Consuls, Rah-booty Gilly-mun

[obsidian quacker]

*Edit: Trying that as a title for the heresy elements. Basically hopefully as far away from other people's company choices so I'm not trampling over other people and hopefully not canon. The 40k chapter name I cannot however come up with (Solved!). Cobalt something sounds a bit too easy, sons of something names never fit well with me, In the name of Gulliman's pretty facial features, it's much easier to come up with a Black Templars Crusade (The zeal calls to me, being my favourite chapter for fluff) name with how I'm planning the fluff in my head.*

A bit of a boring post first, if you've seen the painting challenge then you've seen this first bit before.

A lovely introduction to some of the pleasant chappies and their toys.

WP_20160910_14_33_29_Pro by obsdian quacker, on Flickr
Un-named Terminator squad


WP_20160910_14_39_27_Pro by obsdian quacker, on Flickr
Honourable Aberecon, 3rd Dreadnought of the 223rd, freehanded the name on the scrollwork too, very smug about that

WP_20160910_14_33_07_Pro by obsdian quacker, on Flickr
Captain Phraen Alphoesus of the 2nd company

And fluff!

Report on the founding of the 223rd Ultramarines sucessor chapter Part 1


(Torn up scraps of manuscript found in disposal. Content points to being dated after the incident at the unknown forge/industrial planet 223-24)
scrap one

++Script begins++

(Note to self: Personal note left for future reference. Not to be included in broadcast. Do not destroy)

++Audio only section++ (PN: previous images as a backdrop)
Another great victory for the marines of the 223rd +++/OOC(please see the known companies during the heresy thread to see what's wrong, it was all a co-inky dinky, i swear)OOC/+++ ! (Personal Note: Must ask how that name came about, content for a future edition?) Decendants of the proud Ultramarines, our 'Spearhead of Ultramar' (PN: a nomer I attached as an alternative), proud crusaders of our great lord Roboute Guilliman.
Recently I had seen first hand the very site that victory had been achieved against the foul greenskin invaders and can now bring you sights you could never seen aboard our vessel (PN: I've seen quite a few but nothing has came close to this so far). I had the honour of travelling in one of the mighty Land Raiders along with the honourable Phraen Alphoesus, Captain of the second company along with members of the first company (PN: six Cataphractii armoured marines did not leave much room, not very talkative and the incessant jolting of the vehicle could not give a decent shot of the captain as he sat quietly, entranced). From what I've gathered, the area we are travelling to has already been cleared of greenskin prescence leaving it free for us to show you the corpse of the greenskin warlord. (PN: It was not completely safe, a few of the greens were playing corpse and more managed to wander back into the area. Vid capture of the conflict and aftermath is separate, had to clean the marines before vid capture) The honourable dreadnought Aberecon is waiting at our drop off which will prove to be a treat for you viewers. It's been twenty seven years since he was last awoken and his heroic accomplishments already prove to be popular stories. I must say that I am eagerly anticipating the moment I meet the legend himself.

Scrap two
(PN: When we did stop the captain did voice his displeasure at my coming along stating it 'a waste of time and resources', I can't not come, thing like this need documenting. The people aboard the ship need to see what this is all about, what they do and why and too much has been forgotten. Not much of a talker, Issuing short commands, "put your rebreather on", "Wait Penn", "proceed") The Honourable Aberecon stands over there, keeping watch. Veteran of hundreds of battles and a relic from earlier times. He's a living library of knowledge of previous incarnations of the chapter and will only impart his knowledge to a chosen few. No doubt faithful viewers will remember the edition detailing his triumphs.

Scrap three
What you can see is the industrial architectual magnificance of a factorum district, no doubt a primary target for the invaders, righteously denied (PN: Tall rusty metal buildings, stretching into and disapperaing in a dirty ochre sky, I'm ashamed to admit I had to sit down to let the nausea pass. Honourable Aberecon (formerly Dandian Aberec) noticed and made some mocking remark of a filled rebreather (highly toxic atmosphere caused by manufactorum destruction) followed by , as hard to believe as it is for something more machine and prone to sleeping for decades, a metallic chuckle! Humourable Indeed!). The damage caused in this conflict is clear indication of the need to eradicate this menace and even now we have citizens assisting in the clean up of the district. (PN: edit out capture of human casualties), a clear example of the endurance of the Imperium we serve. (PN: Play down the threat of the orkoids. We can't have morale among the crew dipping to a low)
(No other scraps relate to these assembled here)


(New assembly of matching scraps)

Scrap one
Aberecon Imparted some history to me today and it does clear up some bits. We sat in one the holds of the ship (Those contemptors are undeniable unrestrictive in movement, a Castraferrum could never do that and it did look oddly humourous seeing him on an oversized seat) and he went over the founding of the chapter away from the others. Turns out it started off as a couple of Captains from the original 22nd and 23rd chapters among some newly risen captains with fresh initiates from various reserve companies.

Scrap two
His mentionings of Alphoesus paint him as a level headed commander which I suppose make him standard fare, nothing particularly interesting. Happiest with a firm plan set in motion and focusing on the present moment and the next few hundred ahead.
It seems that he's familiar with the Penn family name. He hints at his previous battles with direct quotes from those used in the relevant publications covered by my great grandsire. I can't help but get the feeling he's mocking me.

(No more scraps relate to these assembled here)
Information does not corroborate with confirmed knowledge. Either a fabrication on Penn's part or Aberecon is steering Penn away from the truth, whatever it is we are no closer to any evidence of the founding of the chapter. All we can say is that it is from a founding after the second and somehow distantly connected to the companies of the original 22nd chapter of the ultramarines legion and perhaps others. Without any clear descriptions of the structure of the legion, it is extremely difficult to even know where to begin and from information available and the willingness of the space marines to divulge it to us, it is possible that we're not meant to know the circumstances of the chapter.
From the evidence shown, elements of the veteran company are presented. Ultramarines symbology is in use however the use of black as a colour goes against the standard protocol of company colours described by the codex astartes, perhaps chapter colour?

And...

06112016526[1] by obsdian quacker, on Flickr

06112016530[1] by obsdian quacker, on Flickr

'Blackstar pattern' Stormraven 1 and 2

Apologies for the different locations of each photo, bothe were ontop the badab poster but unfortunately the flash revealed there was some blue in the engine intakes of the second stormraven, so that was quickly fixed. Barely visible on the front of number 2 inside the shine is a one of those stylised gothic 3s, tried to edit the photo to show it but not much luck (only just really started using effects other than crop and resize), still it's better than it was.

The first time I saw our two new acquisitions, I was close to bliss. Now I'm no "more machine than flesh", devotee to machines (there isn't even a single augmentation on me) but I take joy from working on machines and I was greatly excited by the unloading of these two nearly wrecked flyers. Of course it was some new thing to play with, but this was my chance to leave a mark on the chapter's history. I was overjoyed that they chose me to lead the repair team on this over the usual mechanicum adepts, even the chapter's techmarines passed this off to me and after years of patching up relatively small repairs, regular maintenance jobs and repaintings, I've finally got a chance to completely renovate something. I could see a rough shape of what they were and in my mind I formed the picture of how they would look. I worked with a number of others on the redesigning and going through archives we discovered that they greatly resembled some things called 'Blackstars', some sort of a cross between a stormraven and a valkyrie. Now I'm experienced in the repair and maintenance of stormravens and I could see that there's a lot of cross compatability between the two with a lot of modifications. Unfortunately with the engines needing replacement and with those available we'd lose space in the transport hold but I could add magna- grapples and then they'd have the same function as stormravens. It did take a couple of months to get them both fixed, but with both techmarines, Ephrahiim and Mallel regularly visiting giving words of encouragement, greatly encouraged me and the results were my greatest works yet! I do confess the names I gave them were not very inspired but I felt it fit in with the names of the numerous types of space marine gunships. The Stormbird, Stormeagle, Fireraptor, Thunderhawk, so I felt that Thunderbirds 1 and 3 were right, 2 is reserved for another project that I've come across after finishing 1.

06112016524[1] by obsdian quacker, on Flickr

Breacher squad with power sword and bolt pistols

From out of nowhere a dark purple cloud passed through the middle of the land raider straight along a vertical axis as it travelled across the few sun scorched wastelands left on the planet, bisecting the vehicle into two clean halves which both carried on with rapidly decreasing momentum as the engine halves failed. The left half hit a rocky outcrop and tipped over onto it's top, while the right half gradually slowed to a controlled stop as the shorn middle dragged along. Sergeant Aligan, who was in the right half, immediately made contact with the members of his squad in the left half of which there were no serious injuries and immediately ordered the exit of the vehicle and to make ready for a possible situation. The 10 members of the breacher squad organised themselves into a tight advancing formation as they approached the cloud which at first glance was of an almost negligible thickness and about half as much taller than a space marine, which gradually revealed it self for what it was as they came around to it supposed front.
"Warp gate!" Aligan cried as he realised what it was.
"Stand ground brothers! We've got the orks at a bottleneck here!"
The squad was not long returning from a successful attack on a downed Rok, splitting off from other squads to hamper purtsuit, to destroy the ork warpgates there that they were using to assault the factorums in hordes. Judging from the size of the gate this must be a smaller Tellyportah! that wasn't onboard the rok, with a lucky target.
The first five orks to exit the gate had a brief moment of surpirse as their first sight was a wall of tightly packed ceramite slabs with bolt pistols aiming thorugh the few gaps before all were shot by a disciplined firing line.

06112016525[1] by obsdian quacker, on Flickr

And a five man biker squad

Sergeant Segeattus had the location of The warp gate's source. There was no mistaking the anomaly on his bike's display in the centre of it's handlebars. After receiving Aligan's garbled distress signal, he volunteered his squad of bikers to head back to destroy the gate. The five bikers sped at full throttle across the wastes, leaving trails of dust in their wake, towards the source, there was no chatter as each focussed themselves on the mission and what could be their death. The background noise of Aligan's message was itself enough of an indication of the situation they were in. Constant roars and grunts, heavy calibre gunshots and small explosions and metal clangs and thuds of close combat, nearly drowned out Aligan's message. A rocky hillock stood in the squad's view as they approached their target and the sight that Segeattus saw was, as stated in his report upon his return, one of the most bizarre structure he had seen. A purple half oval gateway surrounded by a patchwork frame of scrap metal and orks bolted or tied onto the structure with a pylon of more scrap metal to either side with more orks restrained to these. Purple electricity danced across the structure and jolted the orks, who caused the structures to visibly shake and audibly groan with their spasms. A large ork covered in strange mechanical devices was furiously bellowing orders at underlings, beating them and for those he had lost patience with, which at this point had to be the majority of them, mercilessly building them into the structure as it gradually expanded in front of the horde of orks waited in front. Segeattus had no feeling of fear at all, no reluctance or doubt, his mind was completely concentrated on how he was going to bring down this gate. He scanned over every section of the structure, every plate, join and ork and within the few seconds he took to do this, he had found a weak point. The large ork was hap-hazardly adding bits in seemingly random places, it looked like he was trying to keep the structure together more than expanding it. With each new addition on the end, the middle sagged and each new section to the middle, the ends almost visibly bent outwards. The ork assistants were frantically fixing these new sections and paid no heed to the bikers waiting above who could not be heard over the ork crowd. A short message passed to the squad members and then each had their grenades and bombs ready.

Next post should be new, never before seen content!

And a quote from a somewhat famous person from my childhood to end with:

"Curse you you ultramarine menace!" Dr Robotnik to Sonic the Hedgehog in the 1990s (may be paraphrased)

[abadizzle]

Nice bit (well... Ton?) of fluff to accompany some sweet lookin models! I could go for better pics of those bikes for sure! What's next? Congrats on starting the p-log!

[obsidian quacker]

Post 1a (does not count as next post so no new, never before seen content!)

 

13112016532[1] by obsdian quacker, on Flickr

 

 

They haven't got all the stowage and insignias that other people have on theirs. As for what's next, it should be what I was intending to have as my third vow during the challenge.

[Dosjetka]

The Biker squad is looking suitably weathered. Nice work. :tu:

 

What's next?

[obsidian quacker]

And now for new never before seen content!

 

What's next? You ask, well after news that there could another challenge very soon I've pulled some of what I was intending to do so I'm ready for it.

 

So with a little bit of a fizzle rather than bang only 3 people in the works so far.

WP_20161117_12_56_43_Pro by obsdian quacker, on Flickr

 

So we have from left to right, Techmarine Mallel, Epistoloary Nahum and Techamrine Ephrahiim. Only notable things to say are that one of the jaws on Ephrahiim's clamp has broken off and Nahum is a Blood Angels Librarian model, Bought the Deathwatch Librarian thinking it was the standard one and he has a main colour of Caledor Sky rather than the normal Alaitoc Blue.  Apologies for the picture quality, it was a bit overcast at the time, I was using the not as good phone camera and I do not have a lighting set up. I should get these done and fluffed before any announcements.

 

Another blue quote

 

"Is a Smurf's butt blue?"

[obsidian quacker]

And with the better camera

 

27112016539[1] by obsdian quacker, on Flickr

 

Raum Nahum, Epistolary of the 'Spearhead of Ultramar', former blood angel model. Started messing about with the exposure settings on the camera so there's not so much flash as there was, there's still that glossy look though.

 

The Space marine Librarian chased the man through the decks of the ship after finding him in one of the human population's mess hall surrounded by the mutilated bodies of his fellows and then somehow losing him through literally disappering as the librarian blinked. Immediately the man's now distinctive prescence could be felt almost halfway across the ship and with no hope of any assistance from anyone else due to the situation he currently found himself in, the Librarian made his way as fast as he could. Epistolary Raum Nahum had found Esiah Penn in one of the Librarium's archival chambers which was forbidden for all but the highest ranked members of the chapter's Librarius, Reclusium and command. By the time Raum had arrived all the chambers had been ransacked, books and scrolls were strewn about all opened and unfurled. Drawers were removed from desks and their contents joined the mess, shelves were emptied of books and dataslates which glowed with varying shades of blue and green illuminated the corners of the rooms. How one man could create this scene in such a short amount of time would be hard to explain, even with the fact that it seemed everybody else in the ship was stuck in time, this was clear evidence of a frantic search but the question is for what? Penn, while being known for the unofficial investigative journalist of the ship's human population, would never dare to risk the ire of the space marines by venturing where he shouldn't and the very out-of-character killings helped explain that the crouching figure facing away in one of the corners was no longer Penn. The figure was moving in a frantic, twitchy manner as if his every movement was accelerated, making strange barely audible noises and yelps and currently in the process of comsuming the pages of one of the books.

 

Still stuff to do on him, but there's an update.
 

[obsidian quacker]

No, nothing's changed here. It was all fine before. No edits at all, no sir-ee.

 

With the second challenge underway It would be better to show something other than bags of unassembled resin without cluttering the challenge thread.

 

So undercoated and partially basecoated suzerain bodies

05122016543[1] by obsdian quacker, on Flickr

 

and a nearly undercoated herald

05122016544[1] by obsdian quacker, on Flickr

Herald has already had a fall which resulted in his Icons snapping off, accidently swiped him with an arm while painting. Fixed with pin vice and part of a paperclip.

 

No blue themed quotes, it's just hurts that, 'sorry seems to be the hardest word'.

[Grim Dog Studios]

Love everything so far mate! Excited to see the Herald and the Suzerains painted up as I have a squad of suzerains lined up on my desk needing paint as well.

[Seahawk]

I'm consistently inspired. Keep up the good work!

[obsidian quacker]

Apologies that I haven't said it before but, thanks to Abadizzle, Dosjetka, Wulox and Seahawk for the positive comments. They're a help with motivation  and pushes me to try and please people with painted people.

Speaking of painted people...

 

Progress on suzerains and herald.

 

 

Only five out of the 10 but the other five are at a similar stage except for shoulder pads. The rest of the parts have been undercoated this morning along with something not very ultramarine-y. A little factoid, this is the most gold I've ever painted on models this size, I've also tried doing a plasma glow on the pistols, though it doesn't show up too well in this size.

 

 

And the Herald, please ignore the grey in the neck as at this stage I think I will as it only shows up in bright light.

[obsidian quacker]

Invictarus suzerain(s?) are done

 

[Redrandy93]

Brother nice job!   Love the Invictarus suzerain.      Keep adding to this.

Brothers,

 

What happened?      Why was my post scrambled?

[abadizzle]

Oh man... I sure need to stop stalling and get some invictarus suzerain models. Do you think their shields would make decent land raider door decorations if flattened out? Or is that idea just dumb? Keep it up, buddy! I think this last batch is your best to date! Also, thoughts on the banner-man (model-wise)? I kinda regret not picking one up

[obsidian quacker]

Oh man... I sure need to stop stalling and get some invictarus suzerain models. Do you think their shields would make decent land raider door decorations if flattened out? Or is that idea just dumb? Keep it up, buddy! I think this last batch is your best to date! Also, thoughts on the banner-man (model-wise)? I kinda regret not picking one up

I think that's a great idea. The backs of the shield are blank so they don't need filing down. I'm not too sure about flattening them though, something about them makes them look like they'd appear wrong if they were flat but don't take my word for it, I don't like experimenting with forgeworld stuff. Thanks for the compliment, it's greatly appreciated. The Herald as a model I suppose is ok in that he's not character series level of impressiveness but more of  Mk x command standard bearer with ultramarine insignias so don't pay too much for him (I had to ebay mine, the problem of working into the early mornings and half an hour drive up the motorway to the nearest GW). His armour is bulkier than normal and the head isn't too bad really. I'd say it looks a bit like Calas Typhon but I thought it would look better on another model. The banner however is very thin on the pole so make sure you don't swipe it or drop him.

[Biscuittzz]

Love the black alongside the usual blue. Rarely see it done but looks great.

[obsidian quacker]

Just saying that I've put the ultramarines on hold for a bit, with the outriders from the reinforcement rush still not completely finished. Paintingwise I'd say they're done but I've had a great plan of studded armour (Molecular bonding studs) bits like mkV bits. So I ordered some microbeads for that, problem is they're going to take a couple of weeks to arrive.  So while that's happening I'm doing something less goody goody (maybe some type of adversary) and try to sort out fluff like, "where does this chapter fit into the 40k era?" And "what are they actually called?".

[Tamiel]

Looking really good. What blue do you use for the final layer of the power armour?

[obsidian quacker]

Looking really good. What blue do you use for the final layer of the power armour?

Thanks for that. The last layer is Alaitoc blue

[obsidian quacker]

Wonderful news! If you've clicked on this thread you may have ascertained what I have now decided to call this sucessor chapter (or you may have clicked on it before I've edited the title and there hasn't been a change).

 

Anyway, new content with the arrival of the microbeads and having a bit of a break while dabbling with heresy and zeal!

 

03022017555[1] by obsdian quacker, on Flickr

 

Laelius Marcianus, Lord Executioner, captain of the 8th company, surrounded by 4 members of a vanguard veteran squad.

While not a valid unit (I had to use a body to make Laelius) there are 5 more vanguard veterans in the works

[obsidian quacker]

And now a legal unfinished vanguard veterans squad with Laelius Marcianus.

 

 

 

 

 

And to celebrate the Primarch's announced return and it was my birthday...

 

 

I made a start on him. Faces aren't my thing.

[Seahawk]

Braver then me, I haven't even started my FW Guilliman yet, though I like to tell myself it's because I'm waiting for warmer weather to spray.

 

*looks ahead, it'll be 50+ degrees for the next five days*

 

Well I'm out of excuses...

[Grim Dog Studios]

Excited to see Gman finished! 

[obsidian quacker]

So I've taken a bit of a break from ultramarines for a couple of months. During that time I've done some flesh tearers and I've received some of the raging heroes sisters. In the meantime, Guilliman has turned his head around and I've lot his gladius hand so I've had to replace that with the Cataphractii Praetor sword. To be honest the gladius hand I received was a bad case of mould slippage and it was so long between receiving Roboute and opening his box that I didn't think it would've been fair for me to enquire about it.

 

On ultramarine-y things, I've still got to finish off that vanguard squad and captain, those techmarines, librarian and also a gathering storm Roboute too.

 

And one complete g-man for Wulox. I did not complete this g-man, it is a deviant art post of somebodies found with a google search that caught my interest.

 

I think I am funny

[IronDrake28]

Not gonna lie, that pic freaked me out a little bit. D:

 

You're fist & sword jump pack dude is pretty awesome, by the way! :D

[obsidian quacker]

Finally a worthwhile update!

 

From the first photo of Roboute being a mostly blue body with black bits and an overexposed face I now have...

 

 

Definitely not finished yet, but certainly has made me less worried about being able to pull off a reasonably good job on him.