+Die Trying+ - the Sable Spectres march to war

[Prospekt]

Thank you everyone! 

 

As usual the fluff and paint work for the finished librarian are absolutely impeccable! I love the weathering you have managed to achieve and how subtle and subdued every element of the paint scheme is, which combines into an fantastic whole. 

 

Regarding the Iron Warriors successors, the scheme looks particularly brutal and suiting for a son of Petarubo, my one question is if they are loyalist primaris it would be a bit on the nose and arouse suspicion if they were in Iron Warriors scheme plus the old legion symbol. So are you going to have  a subtly different Chapter symbol to go with them?

 

 

The Omen's a stunner – another excellent example of your understated, atmospheric style. The trisklelion symbol ties in very nicely with the paint scheme and conversion work to sell the character. Great stuff – and those antlers are inspired!

 

Regarding the Iron Warrior successor, he's looking lovely; though I can't help but wonder why not just run with a group of traitor Iron Warriors – perhaps as an opposing force for the Sable Spectres? It's clear you've got the chops for conversion work, but even if you wanted to run with a kitbash (swapping the heads/backpacks), or pure Primaris models, they'd look great.

 

 

The idea of Primaris using Traitor gene seed is a slippery slope, even with the fluff hints. Very easy to come off ham-handed if they're a completely known quantity using their parent-legion's colours, etc IMHO.

Fantastic paint job though

 

These are all excellent pointers that have been made, and justly so! If you'll indulge my rambling and thoughts on Primaris IW Successors:

 

The concept of Primaris Astartes and resurrected traitor legion chapters is, without mincing my words, a narrative disaster which has strayed quite far from what 40K ought to be. I've already penned some of my opinions on why the idea of a Marine-Marine is silly and damaging in the first post, and even more so when you bring the fallen legions 'back'. However, I believe that this throwaway bit of fluff was written in the same vein as the hints at the two lost legions: it allows hobbyists to take the ghost of an idea and really run with it, giving us space to carve out our own background in a forgotten space of the Imperium.

 

This is the challenge that I would like to approach when it comes to Primaris Astartes. Certainly I could just make them "counts-as" regular Astartes, or use the statline of Primaris as a truer representative of what the original Adeptus Astartes should have been, and I could also play them as regular Iron Warriors...but I would like to see how far I can get working under the directive of GW HQ in this strange new universe of 40K, and I would also like to use my creative energies in taking such a setting and restoring the grim and dark to it. Simply put, the challenge is: can I take this mess of background and infuse it with the same bleak and gothic aesthetic that so captivated me as a child? 

 

That was the mindset with which I approached writing the fluff and coming up with a colour scheme for the Sable Spectres, and it's the same scaffold through which I consider the idea of Primaris Iron Warriors.

 

The way I imagine it, Belisarius Cawl sees himself as bound to the Emperor of Mankind, less so Guilliman. Not only does he believe wholly in the Emperor's vision, he also believes that it is his sacred duty to realise it. The Emperor's vision of a perfect weapon was twenty-fold: twenty legions, each with their own unique function. Twenty honed tools with which to break a galaxy's back and bend its knee before the throne of Terra. Executioners, headhunters, tacticians...it was the weakness of inferior gene-stock which led to the collapse of this original vision, but Cawl wholeheartedly believes that he has a rectified solution to this problem. In his mind, the Imperium has spent far too long as a frail and beleaguered phantom of its former self. Now its Lord-Commander looks to the stars and seeks a new Crusade for mankind to reclaim its rightful position as a species on an eternal offensive. And what better tool to crack open a shelled-up, hemmed-in galaxy than the finest siegemasters the stars have ever known?

 

Unbeknownst to Guilliman and in direct contravention of his orders, Cawl musters a new Chapter of Primaris Astartes from the genestock of Perturabo. He retains their colours but strips them of their disgraced chapter icon, handing them their great commission: to deploy far beyond the Cicatrix Maledictum, wrench the foeman from his fastness, and let the alien, traitor, and daemon know that there is no safe place to hide. It is a gambit built along expectations of suicide, but a blunted spear head can always be built again.

 

The Warriors march again under banners not seen since the Unification Wars, and Cawl sends the re-christened Iron Legion out into the dark stars. Yet the legacy of their traitor sire sits uneasy amongst the Chapter - what does it mean to grapple with your existence as the prodigal son of a fallen father? Or the greater brother of a lesser firstborn? Among the Legion a new unofficial moniker takes root, and many will respond to no other title than the Iron Orphans. Some Orphans leave their pauldrons with the bare hazard marking of disgrace, whereas others reclaim their old Legion symbol, determined to redeem it through blood and fury and fire. 

 

All are aware that their expedition to the dead worlds beyond the Great Rift is a likely one-way trip. And even so, none harbour bright expectations of a victory procession or triumphant return to Holy Terra. They have inherited the heavy sins of their father, and will stalk the stars hated by foe and despised by friend. Yet still the enduring legacy of Perturabo burns bright through the veins of every Orphan, and for all the weight of their unsteady existence, they will prosecute the foe with stubborn violence until the last of them falls.

 

 

Beautiful stuff all around in this thread! Especially love the Iron Warrior Would you mind me asking how you did that amazing iron?

Thanks Observer! The recipe is fairly simple:

 

1. Over a black undercoat, apply a basecoat of roughly 1:1 Abaddon Black and Leadbelcher. There should be a tad more black than iron - you want a suitably dark basecoat to peer through the layers of weathering and suggest depth.

2. Apply watered down Mournfang Brown into all the recesses.

3. Stipple Typhus Corrosion over the model, leaving patches of the black iron basecoat showing through.

4. Dip a piece of foam into Leadbelcher, and 'chip' the armour, especially the edges, with it.

5. irregularly highlight the extreme edges with Runefang Steel - think a sort of feathering technique, using tiny chips instead of an unbroken line for the highlight.

 

Excellent work! I would love to know how you do your red eye lenses with glowy effect!

Cheers Jorre! It's done by applying a drybrush of Khorne Red (with a tiny bit of abaddon black to tone down the striking red) around the lens, roughly marking out where the light would fall. Next, apply watered down khorne red around the lens, making sure that it doesn't exceed the previous drybrushed area. Then mix some Wild rider Red into your Khorne Red and do the same again, not exceeding the diameter of the previous khorne red layer. Finish off with pure Wild Rider Red as an edge highlight along the lower and upper lens, and paint the lens itself with a mixture of Wild Rider Red and Averland Sunset.

[Bjorn Firewalker]

If Cawl IS using Iron Warriors gene-seed, I doubt he'll be stupid enough to say so, as any Iron Warriors they encounter will be sure to use the argument, "We're brothers!" to sway the Primaris to their side. It's more likely he'll repeat the claims regarding the Silver Skulls, i.e., "You [Primaris Marines with Iron Warriors gene-seed] are noble sons of Guilliman, though the exact date of your Founding is lost knowledge. What? The Iron Warriors claim they're your brothers? That's a lie- what else can you expect from traitors but lies, betrayal, and a stab-in-the-back?" meaning any Iron Warriors they encounter will fight harder to eliminate "those who betrayed our Primarch," in turn forcing the Primaris Marines to fight harder against them.

[Prospekt]

If Cawl IS using Iron Warriors gene-seed, I doubt he'll be stupid enough to say so, as any Iron Warriors they encounter will be sure to use the argument, "We're brothers!" to sway the Primaris to their side. It's more likely he'll repeat the claims regarding the Silver Skulls, i.e., "You [Primaris Marines with Iron Warriors gene-seed] are noble sons of Guilliman, though the exact date of your Founding is lost knowledge. What? The Iron Warriors claim they're your brothers? That's a lie- what else can you expect from traitors but lies, betrayal, and a stab-in-the-back?" meaning any Iron Warriors they encounter will fight harder to eliminate "those who betrayed our Primarch," in turn forcing the Primaris Marines to fight harder against them.

Yup, that makes perfect sense and would be the logical step for an Imperial commander to take - but sense and sensibility aren't quite the direction I would like the concept to take ;) Your suggestion is an ideal solution to a perplexing problem, but to fulfil the vision that I have of the Ultima Founding, I want to present the solution as a problem in and of itself.

 

I'd think 10000 years of aging circuits oscillating between nostalgia and ennui have made Cawl something of a romantic eccentric, and in my head he wouldn't be able to pass up on the poetic justice of sending secret Primaris chapters in the colours of the original legions, far into the shadow of the Imperium Nihilus to combat their erstwhile brothers. Hurling War Hounds in white and blue at the slavering World Eaters, for example, would be Cawl's way of saying "Here - this is exactly what you were supposed to be, down to a T, but better. And what you failed to become will be the last thing you see before you die."

 

Yet the awkward reunion of the Iron Orphans stumbling across the original Iron Warriors is exactly where I want them to be. Whether they are hated even more intensely as false sons, or the subject of recruitment efforts from their true brothers, this is exactly where I want to reveal the vulnerabilities of the questionable underbelly of the Ultima Founding.

 

It's the true test of these supposedly perfected warriors, and also echoes the trope of the hero, far from home, caught between temptation and destruction. Will the Orphans succumb? Will they prove faithful? Or will their little existential crisis heighten with each day when they realize that they hold a claim to nothing - that not even their inherited guilt is their own?

 

Cawl sending out a chapter with traitor gene seed and original heraldry is truly problematic and has intensely risky implications - and that's exactly what I would like that little germ of a project idea to show.

[Dosjetka]

I'm very happy to have stumbled across this gem of a project. It's still a bit early in the morning for me to put my thoughts into coherent sentences but I can definitely say that I have been blown away at the quality and attention to detail shown throughout this thread. I can't wait to see more. :tu:

[Prospekt]

I'm very happy to have stumbled across this gem of a project. It's still a bit early in the morning for me to put my thoughts into coherent sentences but I can definitely say that I have been blown away at the quality and attention to detail shown throughout this thread. I can't wait to see more.

Thanks Dosjetka! More you shall get soon - things have been shifting in the shadows as of late...

 

http://i.imgur.com/IAzSSc7.jpg

"How now, you secret, black, and midnight hags! What is't you do?"

"A deed without a name."

Edited August 18, 2017 by Prospekt

[Dosjetka]

Very promising. He looks intimidating as :cuss.

[Doghouse]

Dark and gritty, very nice work. :tu:

[itasiah]

I love this thread, very very nice ideas here. Thanks for sharing :)

[Prospekt]

Thank you everybody! No Spectres update today, but I have a little something else. Been procrastinating and toying with the idea of the larger force that I wanted to build. The Spectres are a labour of love, but I also feel like they're more suited to small games of Kill Team or SWA - due to their dark colour scheme, they don't quite draw the eye from a distance. That being said, the Iron Warriors/Orphans test mini that I did up also didn't have that 'pop' that I was looking for, so it was back to the drawing board. This son of Chogoris eventually arose from somewhere amidst the mess of plastic shavings and paint stains:

 

*

http://i.imgur.com/oQPOoi7.jpg

 

http://i.imgur.com/JpiZJAq.jpg

 

http://i.imgur.com/f0htqNB.jpg

 

http://i.imgur.com/cH5ZTIp.jpg

 

*

 

Fairly pleased with the result. The mini has been painted to a standard that I'm satisfied with, and requiring less work in total than a Spectre. The contrast of red on white also means that freehand markings are much more visible (and hence rewarding), and battle damage shows up better, without needing a highlight beneath every single chip. 

 

I'm excited to build and paint the rest of the squad because they can be banged out relatively quickly, but who knows where this will go? Regardless, it was a fun break and a good exercise in trying out colour schemes at the other extreme end of the spectrum. Let me know your thoughts :)

[Magos Kasen]

Dude, that is freaking awesome. Your battle damage is unreal.

[terminatorAM]

You've managed to master both black AND white color schemes. No easy feat.

 

That son of Chogoris is also the best White Scar I've ever seen. If I had to criticize it, I'd say that it could use slightly darker shading from a pin wash. I'd also love to get your recipe for the white. Was this done with an airbrush?

[Bjorn Firewalker]

Excellent work on the White Scar.

[FuriousFerret]

Amazing White Scar, oh, and a pleasing erudition in English literary history.

[GrandMagnus]

Everything looks really great on this thread. Keep it going! :)

[Dosjetka]

That White Scar is astoundingly good. When can we see more? :D

[DeathbyWes]

Great work Prospekt, following this for sure!  Can't wait to see more.

 

-W

[Dragonlover]

So I'm mainly posting to remind myself I'm thoroughly enjoying this project log and I should read it when it crops up on the front page, however...

 

I really like your take on loyal traitor Primaris. I might have to have a play around with that myself. Also there's gotta be a better way to phrase it. The Reclaimed? The Purified? The Reforged?

 

Dragonlover

[Ammonius]

Excellent, most excellent Art on display here, both in painting and prose!

You have transformed these clean-limbed Primaris models into something truly mythic. I am thoroughly impressed, inspired, and eager for more!

[Monkeh]

Everything in this thread is amazing, but I'm about to move on to a white scar successor chapter thats more of less trying to capture the exact grimdark vibe you have here. This is incredible! 

[Pearson73]

Great Scott, but there's some fantastic work here! The colour scheme and glowing red eyes give these guys a very intimidating look, one would certainly not want to stumble across them whilst in the lonely dark of a warzone. The antlers on the Librarian are very characterful too and the pattern of branches adds to his theme very nicely.

 

The more pale, subdued colour of the Scar is well executed also and the damage looks very natural.