Macro Lens Adventures - Loyalist EC & DKoK

[Stofficus]

Hello good denizens of the internet, I bring you something adventurous: me playing with the macro lens of my wife's high quality camera and my models which hope to endure such scrutiny.

I have one completed project - a Death Korps of Krieg kill-team which would not look amiss somewhere around Verdun 1916, and one ongoing - my loyalist 34th Millenial of the Emperor's Children (currently using Chaos SM 'dex rules, because the HH died hard locally when it didn't switch to 8th, quelle dommage).

At some point, these halls will be joined by my Adeptus Custodes supported by the Saturnyne Rams (Solar Auxilia), and a venerable horde of Kasrkin which I will use for....something, but that is for later.

At any rate, without further delay, On ne passe pas (transliterated "we shall not fall," the slogan of the French victory at Verdun, 1916 - also a damned catchy WW1 propaganda song):

Quartermaster Q-721-56X-187, Kill Team leader

With kill-team engagements generally lethal at the best of the times for the Imperial Guard, the Death Korps tends to assign commissars, quartermasters or other supporting specialists to command positions to ensure minimal wastage of resources on what the Korps largely considers distractions from the decisive mass engagement.



Assorted specialists - comms specialist (I'm an army signals officer in actuality, so if you give me an actual radio guy, I can't pass the option up), flamers, plasma and melta weapons represent the principal lethal arm of the kill-team - aside, of course, from the trusty bayonet with some guts behind them.



Standard riflemen, with several veterans assigned to see the mission through (note: veteran in the sense of the Korps can mean having survived a few weeks of combat, perhaps an entire campaign from start to finish in exceptional circumstances - the seniormost Marshal in Korps history commanded his unit for an astonishing 12 years)



18 Korpsmen, given the right target, can breach the most steadfast of defenses.

Or they might all charge a tank, anything is possible.


Moving on to a more august, but perhaps markedly more human force, I give you the posthuman supersoldiers of the IIIrd Legion:

This is my main army at present, having loved the idea of the loyalists from traitor legions fighting an impossible war, born on little more than hatred and need for vengeance on the blasted hellscape of Isstvan III. When FW left the little tidbit of an entire millenial of the IIIrd returning from a far-ranging operation to find the galaxy in flames, and their legion fallen to madness and treachery, they decided to bear their colours proudly, uphold their sullied lineage and fight to the last and potentially getting concealed under the auspices of the Raven Guard once the Scouring got going, well, that was my hobby fuel.

Ignore the minor fact that I use Chaos rules for them, as I find the loyalist book quite lacking for making big blocks of OldMarines somewhat lacking.



Ancient Herakon, Leviathan Siege Dreadnought. In contrast with the usual parade-ground perfection of the IIIrd, this Ancient refuses all but the most critical repairs until such time that the last traitor has had the life crushed out of them - preferably by himself.

Thus far, the Ancient has made notable work of an unidentified xeno-strain of a scale well beyond that observed on Murder, multiple alpha-class Eldar war constructs, as well as several cohorts of the insidious Alpha Legion masquerading as otherwise loyal legions, and an entire company of the XVIth.



Rylanor, the Unyielding. Believed destroyed at the great betrayal on Isstvan III, the 34th found the renowned ancient clinging to life, his sarcophagus crippled by the final orbital bombardment which shattered the remaining loyalist forces under Saul Tarvitz. The 34th went to Isstvan looking for answers to the madness that welcomed them back to "civilized space," and found something more than that - a guiding light in the darkness, a piece of their legion's soul bent to war.



Ancient Ioannes - a breacher in life, Ioannes has maintained his masterful appreciation of the systematic destruction of things larger than himself, using his ironform to hunt ever grander prey - even xeno Knight-class constructs need fear his studious application of fusion beams and servo-enhanced might.



Ancient Belriose spent much of his life commanding the auxiliaries of the Imperial Army, rather than amidst the ranks of his brethren. His adaptation to confinement within the legion's ironform has not been without difficulty, but he has lent himself with dedication towards the targeted destruction of the enemy's command and control, recognizing from his own time among the living that without leaders, the mightiest foe will crumble and fall.



Palatine Prefect Lucius Vespasian [my counts as Lucius the Eternal] - a champion of the millenial, having slain human warlords and xeno tyrants in equal measure in either honourable single combat, or the flurry of a confused melee - the context and target matters little to the Prefect, only that he might measure himself against their blade.



Captain Theuros Baktrioi, commander of the Millenial's terminator cohorts and 2nd in command. Always one to take on change with hesitation, 34th's stalwart thorakityrannos has pushed for continued operation of martian Volkite weaponry and pre-unity pattern armaments wherever possible, in spite of the fact that he is not one of the famed 200 of the IIIrd to survive from the days of Unification.



Commander Basil Komnenus, Terran-born master of the 34th Millenial, the Last True Champion of the 200. As befits his position and veterancy, the Commander has a diverse collection of wargear, and the above represents but one of his preferred combinations to take to the foe.



Herald Flavius Zophian, bringer of the Imperial Truth. As the 34th spent decades away from the slow slide towards the Heresy, the more modern role of Chaplain had yet to fully develop within the 34th, remaining instead as the bearers, icons and enforcers of the Imperial Truth within the legion, and without - should the expeditionary fleet's iterators prove insufficient for the task at hand.



Callsign 1-1, the first squad of the first company of the 34th Millenial, lead by Palatine Ieudemius



Callsign 8-1, the first squad of the heavy support company of the 34th Millenial



Legionnaire Vilius, Chemos-born heavy bolter specialist, and Sgt Chiasson, who holds the unusual distinction of being recognized as one of the millenial's top swordsmen, commanding a unit which never intends to let its enemy approach within 300 meters.



Callsign 1-2, the second squad of the first company of the 34th Millenial.


And there you have it, a little bit of my personal headcanon, and the fruits of some aggressive use of a macro lens and my own, hopefully passable painting.

Upcoming, I have one more totally-not-a-noise-marine-squad to hammer out before getting into some more characters, touching up an old Land Raider and who knows what else might draw my eye (note, I have ~40ish unbuilt Mk III marines, and more than a few ideas how to use them).

[Pearson73]

Really nice work, the paler uniform works well on the soldiers of Krueg. The chipping on the EC dreads is well done too.

[Bjorn Firewalker]

Good job on the Kriegers. Will your Emperor's Children loyalists have places in M40 (post-Heresy) games, maybe using Ultramarines or Black Templars Chapter tactics?

[Stofficus]

I have been running then them as chaos space marines, as to be brutally honest the loyalist books don't offer good options, either in fluff or crunch, for representing a legion style force. I've considered Deathwatch for the customization and decent crunch, but I can't argue with noise marines and that helforged 30k units don't have the same choice restrictions as Relic options. Besides, I basically have fury of the legion with endless cacophany.

 

I am, however, open to alternative suggestions.