++A Cloak of Foes Felled++ Thunder Warriors in 30k

[WAR]

Those are so awesome man! I love this thread

[Majkhel]

So much hoodie-goodnes! Great work! 
And good luck with the new family member! Keeping my fingers crossed that all goes well and smooth :)

[Yosef Hausakluif]

That Recon squad looks great. Love the converted .50 Cal anti material rifle conversions and The mix of thunder warriors and smaller soldiers grouped in the squad too!

[TheTrans]

Those are so awesome man! I love this thread

Thanks man, glad you're enjoying it! 

 

So much hoodie-goodnes! Great work! 

And good luck with the new family member! Keeping my fingers crossed that all goes well and smooth

Thanks mate, they almost look like gigantic Eldar Rangers! Thanks brother, very nervous/exciting times!! :D 

 

That Recon squad looks great. Love the converted .50 Cal anti material rifle conversions and The mix of thunder warriors and smaller soldiers grouped in the squad too!

Cheers! Yeah there will be some militia scouts eventually, so they are some trial models for them.. you know..standing infront of the recon squad for even more extra cover saves! 

[Xin Ceithan]

The painted Thunder Warriors look great!

 

And the recon squad is gorgeous!

[Shield-Captain]

I realized I never commented on this thread but these guys are great and I can'twait to see the stormbirb. This is some seriously considered stuff. I love the vivesector especially.

 

I was wondering where you got the helmets for the normal(?) Thunder Warriors from? Was thinking about doing some Unification Era Custodes and the helmets look amazing.

[TheTrans]

Hey gang,

Apologies for the huge delays between updates! Between the birthing of my first born spawn (and the existential exhaustion that comes with it) hobby burn out and a lack of events I was getting a bit over the Legiones Cataegis force.

But have recently went to the amazing Preferred Enemy 2020(1) held early January and the hobby mojo is back in full swing!

I've been wailing away on the 'mortal' drop troops which is a bit of a slog, but have kept myself sane by doing some work on the Cataegis Recon Section.

They aren't quite finished yet, but here is some fluff and pics!

The Nevidimyy, or better known as the Unseen, were the primary combat element of the XXth prior to the Ararat Betrayal.

During the Unification wars their ability to move unseen through enemy lines and infiltrate the most heavily fortified and patrolled city-states was the stuff of legend. Over two terran centuries of continued clandestine action has only increased their already formidable skills.

During the Great Patriotic War, while the bulk of the XXth’s remaining Cataegis had been outfitted as heavy shock troops, there were still many uses for the Nevidimyy, their role ranging from High Value Target elimination, Force Reconnaissance, Pathfinding and Counter-Intelligence operations.

By far their most ubiquitous use during the Great Patriotic War was as scout-snipers. Their main armament is a monstrous anti-material rifle, that is a modified version of the ShVAK 30mm Autocannon usually mounted on light armoured vehicles. In the hands of the Nevidimyy, these modified autocannons act in a very similar role as a standard sniper rifle used by the Samolet-Razvedchiks, except of course for the fact that they are more than capable of knocking out light armoured vehicles and infantry from extreme ranges.

Quite often the only indication of an attack from the Nevidimyy for an enemy unit is its squad leader instanously turning into a haze of atomised blood and armour, with the rounds report lazily following seconds later. Generally this beginning onslaught is if not enough to rout an enemy, at least pin them in place.

On the extremely rare occasions that the Nevidimyy have somehow been ambushed, or that the enemy have forced a close in assault they are no less deadly. While they are snipers and scouts without equal, they are still Cataegis and warriors of the XXth. When forced into melee they are no less vicious and proficient than their shock-troop brothers and will generally annihilate any infantry and armour that was foolish enough to attempt assaulting them.

Probably my favourite of the bunch. Sort of has this "back in my day we used iron sights, so buggered if I know how to change the range from imperial standard yards to Metres on this scope..."

He certainly looks quite squad and short, but even crouching he towers over normal human (and..well normal marines).

Not overly clear, but this guy is running forward with his combat blade drawn (which would amount to a sword for a normal human). I didn't want a snarling face on this guy, I feel the recon cataegis still are mentally all there, so even though this guy is running forward to butcher some peeps, I imagine there isn't any glee, or blood lust to it, just a workmanlike necessity.

Nothing overly exciting to this guys pose, I imagine he has been shot at or what not and has hastily popped behind a wall for cover or some such.

I really like this guy also. I don't know why, but his face gives me major Sam Neil vibes from the Event Horizon. He is also crouching (not abundantly clear) over a nuncio vox (not in pic), hence why his finger is pointing down as he'll be prodding some buttons, none of this 'no we stand here' sort of madness haha!

Hope you gusy enjoy them, will hopefully have them all done and dusted in the next couple of days! Will reawaken this plog and keep it significantly more updated over coming weeks as there is a good whack in the pipeline that is running toward complete.

I realized I never commented on this thread but these guys are great and I can'twait to see the stormbirb. This is some seriously considered stuff. I love the vivesector especially.

I was wondering where you got the helmets for the normal(?) Thunder Warriors from? Was thinking about doing some Unification Era Custodes and the helmets look amazing.

Sorry for the late reply brother! Thanks mate! Yeah Mi-24 has been painted, it just needs its weathering passes and a base!

Those helmets are from Kromlech (or max mini eu) and are called like 'Iron Lord Helmets' or some such, then with a custodes plume booped on top!

The painted Thunder Warriors look great!

And the recon squad is gorgeous!

Thanks mate! Hope you enjoy the almost completed recon squad!

[Naryn]

Wow, love these guys. The pale faces peering out from all that vegetation is so viscerally distressing.

[Bjorn Firewalker]

The snipers look great in their ghillie suits! Why did you describe them as serving in the "Great Patriotic War"? Are the snipers from an alternate universe, e.g., where Horus does NOT turn traitor, but Guilliman does?

[TheTrans]

Wow, love these guys. The pale faces peering out from all that vegetation is so viscerally distressing.

Thanks mate! Yeah I was a bit worried they'd be lost in the Ghillie suits, but, nope..they stand right out haha.

 

The snipers look great in their ghillie suits! Why did you describe them as serving in the "Great Patriotic War"? Are the snipers from an alternate universe, e.g., where Horus does NOT turn traitor, but Guilliman does?

Thanks mate! Wanted some real vegetative look to their cloaks as opposed to a camo coloured rag. 

 

Ah the Great Patriotric War is part of the fluff of this planet they are currently set on (and where they are getting their mortal troops from). I've got some WiP fluff if you're at all interested haha. 

[Bjorn Firewalker]

Considering the Imperium is a theocracy, it makes more sense to frame the "war" in theocratic terms, e.g., "Great Orthodoxic War" (the "Orthodox" referring to zero tolerance towards any deviance from the Ecclesiarch's teachings).

[TheTrans]

Considering the Imperium is a theocracy, it makes more sense to frame the "war" in theocratic terms, e.g., "Great Orthodoxic War" (the "Orthodox" referring to zero tolerance towards any deviance from the Ecclesiarch's teachings).

Have a squiz at this mate. Hopefully will make it a bit clearer. So their story is set during the heresy, so there isn't really any 'religion' on this current planet. They are nominally on a compliant world, when the heresy drops there is sort of 3 factions vying for control, pro-imperial, pro-warmaster and the CGVP, or the Consolidated Glavnaya-Vozdukh Party. Just leaning into pulpy soviet tropes and what not :P. 

 

Would love your thoughts on the fluff booklet (very wip!). 

[WAR]

Glad to see you are still creating these master pieces!

[ShotgunFacelift]

Epic world building. Love all the water effects

[Ryltar Thamior]

I immediately caught the "Great Patriotic War" reference. 

I'm taking a look through the fluff booklet now. I'm a few pages in and it's decent what you have done here - it's well written, and has a good amount of the 'feel' of 30k black book writing etc. The concept for the world itself is pretty nifty - both in terms of the resonancies you've put in for contemporary Earth (IL-2s and Mi-24s indeed) and the broader 30k setting, as well as the actual setup itself of floating islands amidst a sea of clouds playing host to a tripartite power-struggle and sleight-of-hand subversion. 

I also appreciated the post-facto /  retroactive justification element around why massed artillery etc. didn't seem to impact the forces of Unification engaging in their frequently depicted mechanism of warfare. 

And, of course, that last line whispered is excellent as a closer. Well done. 

[Lord_Ikka]

Dang, that booklet is nice! Good fluff and setting. Where'd you get the black book-style background, if I may ask?

[TheTrans]

Glad to see you are still creating these master pieces!

Thanks mate! Churning through them at the moment, one must strike while the hobby mojo is hot! 

 

Epic world building. Love all the water effects

Thanks mate! To me the fluff is there to help convey more depth that the models sometimes can't bring to the table.

 

I immediately caught the "Great Patriotic War" reference. 

 

I'm taking a look through the fluff booklet now. I'm a few pages in and it's decent what you have done here - it's well written, and has a good amount of the 'feel' of 30k black book writing etc. The concept for the world itself is pretty nifty - both in terms of the resonancies you've put in for contemporary Earth (IL-2s and Mi-24s indeed) and the broader 30k setting, as well as the actual setup itself of floating islands amidst a sea of clouds playing host to a tripartite power-struggle and sleight-of-hand subversion. 

 

I also appreciated the post-facto /  retroactive justification element around why massed artillery etc. didn't seem to impact the forces of Unification engaging in their frequently depicted mechanism of warfare. 

 

And, of course, that last line whispered is excellent as a closer. Well done. 

Ah good, I was slightly worried it may not have been clear enough haha.

 

Thanks man, glad you're enjoying it! If you have any input, feel free to fire away. Figured I'd allow the real world to help me out with some naming and what not..that and I've always loved the old Hind helicopter! Yeah really want to that its sort of positing that the thunder warriors are the good dudes.. but when you sort of look a bit deeper.. they really not haha.

 

Yeah always wondered how any infantry worked during the Unificaiton wars as the only fluff you ever really get is 'ma massed infantry chuuurge' which stopped working what..earlier 1900s? So wanted to sort of have an excuse why they could work, which then lent themselves back to being the XXth cataegis and how they've managed to screw with the imperium for as long as they have. 

 

Glad you liked that bit! Thought it was hopefully like a tiny little 'shiver down spine' moment.. it no doubt was for the generalisimus. 

 

Dang, that booklet is nice! Good fluff and setting. Where'd you get the black book-style background, if I may ask?

Thanks mate! There is a folder/link on the Australian 30k facebook page with the whole lot pre done up on there! 

[TheTrans]

So still trundling through on the Recon Warriors. They are rapidly nearing completion. Apologies as always for the garbage fire pics!

I've started putting the 'rain drops' in as well as the water run offs. Hopefully they get the 'feel' across.

The below guy is the squads apothecary. The Death Mask and Bionic right arm are part of the 'induction' process to join the Cult of the Mountebank.

Doesn't show the rain drops overly well on this pic I'm afraid haha.

Again terrible pic, but at least it shows off some of the rain drops also!

Hope you boys enjoy and I'm hoping they conjure the feeling of a heavy rainfall, sodden battlefield.

Also got a 550pt game tonight using Aus30Ks 30k Crusade rules which will be awesome fun, see these sniper boys fare!

Cheers,

Nick

[Bjorn Firewalker]

Again, impressive work on the ghillie suited soldiers.

[Majkhel]

I love the Apothecary! Great depth!
For the rain - I feel it gets better when you manage to form actual drops on those strings (like on the Apothecary). But I'm definitely getting the feel of dampness from your shots. Great work! 

[TheTrans]

Good morning gang.

Only tid bits done in the last few days (mainly sorting rain drops and splashes on bases, boring I know.

But in other news myself and mate got a couple of 30k Crusade games in for the Stilling of Bharteth campagin!

I took some happy snaps and whipped up a fluffy battle report.

Bharteth hive, while being plundered, fought over and dismantled by Loyalist and Traitor legions alike, given its vast size, there many areas that had yet to suffer from the attentions of either faction..

Tercious-Sector Zeta-32a was one such area. A small contingent of men from the 1st Anglia Expeditionary Fyrd were ordered there by the Secessionist command. Given its low priority only a few reinforced Ceorl--Grenadier Sections, with minor Dugoth reconnaissance support, were sent in to investigate one of the reported ‘null zones’.

Lance-Corporal Aldith Royse and his unit cautiously approached the target null zone. It was barely perceivable as a shimmer in the air, the light refracting in odd ways as it passed through the non-void of its centre. In the building to their right, Ceorl-Grenadier-Two had hastily taken up an overwatch position of them and the street, while Ceorl-Grenadier-One had gone out wide of the formation to close on the target from the east.

Royse double checked the load signifier on his Anglia-Pattern Bolt Rifle, it showed a full load set for 3 round bursts. It was a magnificent weapon, it fired devastating munitions at a staggering rate, enough to disable even light armoured vehicles. Its kick was ferocious, but this was generally kept under control by the armoured exo-suit he and his comrades were so handsomely equipped with. Anglia had been lost in Old Night for many centuries, but the artisan-sages of the burrow-holds had managed to keep some of the secrets of the humanities golden age alive and Royse was glad of it!

Royse was knocked out of his reverie when a large detonation thundered out from behind a high rise to the squads North-West, immediately followed by a huge plume of smoke and debris that had been kicked high into the air. The Ceorl-Grenadiers looked quickly to Ceorl-Thegn leading them.

“Fear not lads, was ju….”

One moment the Cerol-Thegn was there, quelling the units fear, the next, from his thighs up was replaced by a fine red mist, armour particles sparkling in the air as they caught the dim light from the system's sun.

Before the men could react, the unit's heavy thermal-gunners were dispatched in a similarly gruesome fashion. The squad under heavy fire, didn’t break or run, but did attempt to find what cover they could in the fire lane that had become the road way.nRoyse looked toward the men of Ceorl-Grenadier-Two in the building next to them, their Ceorl-Thegn was yelling for them to move, to get off the road.The squad around Royse started taking more horrific casualties from the unseen foe. More of his friends and comrades turned into atomised flesh and armour. He and the handful of survivors managed to clear the roadway into the relative safety of a destroyed hab-block to the west of the road.

The world around Royse had turned into a hellstorm of roaring white noise, debris and weapons fire. Off to the East, where Ceorl-Grenadier-One was advancing, there was constant high pitched whine or what Royse assumed was a heavy laser weapon firing on full auto. To the front of them he could hear massed whomps and see dust clouds being kicked up in a field almost a kilometre away. He looked back to Ceorl-Grenadier-Two for guidance and spotted those men being killed by the same staggering fire as his squad.

To the north there was a huge crash, Royse and the 3 remaining men of Ceorl-Grenadier-Three looked up and gaped in abject horror. Out of a high rise in front of them a giant burst through the rock-crete wall of the structure, immediately followed by more human sized combatants.

The enemy soldiers were in what looked like flight suits, with only partial armouring on their shoulders and knees. They each carried a long las-type rifle firing through the slit of a large tower shield they held to the fore.

But it was not them these oddly equipped warriors that were the prominent threat. The monster that had punched its way through the wall was striding towards them. It was almost twice the height of the soldiers with him, huge in bronze burnished armour, a red top knot flowing out from his helm and a large fur lined cloak billowing out behind his fast moving form. In his hands he held a huge, glaive like weapon, a dirty red liquid lazily leaking off the blade and burning its way into the ground.

“F...F...Fire!!” one of Royse’s squad mates yelled.

They did.

Royse fired his bolt rifle in 3 rounds bursts, the kick shaking his aim wide multiple times. He could see at least a handful of hits on the now charging giant, which did not slow its advance. Some of the giant's followers dropped as they came on through the rubble but it was not enough, the bronze-clad giant was amongst them. Quicker than thought he had split Wybert in twain with his great polearm, then on the upswing cut Noll’s legs out from under him. Iseut backed away putting his bolter up in front of him to ward off an incoming blow, but the giant simply punched his armoured gauntlet through the bolter then squarely into Iseut’s faceplate. The faceplate simply rocketed back into the helmet, blood spurted out of the ruptured neck seal and Iseut slumped to the ground.

Watching the horror unfold before him, Royse was unaware of the enemy soldier that had gone around the flank of their defensive wall. The soldier with no true close combat weapons fired point blank rounds into Royse. Although the bolts all found their mark, Royse’s exo-suit protected him from the impacts. He swung his bolt rifle’s butt up and hammered it with the exo-suits muscle fibres into the enemy soldiers tower shield. The blow was devastating. He heard a crack as the shield gave way, splintering the enemies forearm behind it. With a yell of agony the enemy soldier was knocked to the ground. Royse moved forward, intent on killing some of these assailants before being butchered. He leveled his bolt rifle at the prone man and before he could loose a trio of rounds, started to rise up off the ground.

He looked over his shoulder into the eye-slits of the armoured giant. It had lifted his exo-suit bulked weight well off the ground with one arm. The other hand had firmly locked around the bicep armour of his right hand like a vice. It then started pulling, Royse strained with all his might, with all the exo-suits enhanced strength, but his bolter arm was pulled wide of the kill shot, then wider still.

Royse started to scream as he realised what was happening. The pressure grew and grew in his shoulder joint as the giant simply started to pull his arm out of its socket. Restraining bolts pinged off, the rubber undersuit started to sheer through. The pain was so staggeringly immense Royse blacked out.

He awoke moments later, on the ground, looking at what seemed to be a overly familiar arm a few feet away, in a growing pool of his own blood. Warning sigils scrawled across his visor, the exo-suit explaining in exacting detail that his body had suffered critical trauma. But it was not these warnings that Royse was focused on… He was looking at the building that Ceorl-Grenadier-Two had occupied. It was aflame, no, not just aflame. It was a true hellish inferno engulfing the entire hab-block.

The men of Ceorl-Grenadier-Two had quickly and skillfully retreated out of the building into a textbook firing line in the street. The giant was charging toward them. Royse’s failing heart filled with pride as he watched the veteran Ceorl-Grenadiers open fire on the approaching target. All the bolt rifles had been set to full-auto. The hurricane of fire billowed into the giant warrior, peppering his cloak with bolter holes, blowing away much of his wargear, a round even cutting through his gaudy top knot...but much to Royse’s and the men of Ceorl-Grenadier-Two’s horror the giant strode through the fusilade unabated, thundering into the tight formation of exo-suited figures and sending many of them flying!

Royse was roughly kicked onto his back, his vision now rapidly fading. He looked up and spotted the enemy soldier he had wounded standing over him. His towershield was gone and his left arm hung limply by his side, but his rifle was unerringly pushed onto the visor of Royce’s Helm.

“For the Tattered Prince.” the enemy stated and squeezed the weapons trigger.

Royse’s world went black.

Field-Legate Fyodorov orders forth the Samolet-Strelokss of Section Beta, under the protective over watch of the Nevidimyy

The skirmishers of the Samolet-Pozhar Sobaka Sections prepare to flush the enemy forces from the ruins.

Samolet-Strelok Section Beta take up defensive positions east of the null field.

The Razvedchik-Podderzhka Support Element also set up in a defensive postion covering all angles of approach.

Ceorl-Grenadier-One moving through the ruins east of the null-zone.

Ceorl-Grenadier-Two takes up defensive positions in a ruined hab-block

The Duguth Recon element make ready their demo charge.

The Nevidimyy begin to fire upon the men of Ceorl-Grenadier-Three

Ceorl-Grenadier-Three being decimated by the accurate sniper fire.

Field-Legate Fyodorov butchering his way through soldiers of the 1st Anglia Expeditionary Fyrd.

Hope you enjoyed the write up and some (un)happy snaps!

Again, impressive work on the ghillie suited soldiers.

Thanks mate, will get some pics of other stuff soon ;).

I love the Apothecary! Great depth!
For the rain - I feel it gets better when you manage to form actual drops on those strings (like on the Apothecary). But I'm definitely getting the feel of dampness from your shots. Great work!

Thanks mate! Yeah I need to give some of the other 'drops' a few more passes with the wet effects to bulk them out a little bit!

[Bjorn Firewalker]

Impressive work on the models and the short story. Are Royse and his squad fighting Custodes?

 

Nitpicks, with my emphases:

The squad under heavy fire, didn’t break or run, but did attempt to find what cover they could in the fire lane that had become the road way.[ ]Royse looked toward the men of Ceorl-Grenadier-Two in the building next to them, their Ceorl-Thegn was yelling for them to move, to get off the road.The squad around Royse started taking more horrific casualties from the unseen foe.

Replaced the "n" preceding Royse's name with a space.

Quicker than thought he had split Wybert in twain with his great polearm, then on the upswing[ ]cut Noll’s legs out from under him.

Removed an extra space between "upswing" and "cut".

He awoke moments later, on the ground, looking at what seemed to be a[n] overly familiar arm a few feet away, in a growing pool of his own blood.

Replaced "a" with "an", as appropriate when the following word begins with a vowel.

[TheTrans]

Impressive work on the models and the short story. Are Royse and his squad fighting Custodes?

 

Nitpicks, with my emphases:

 

 

Will get in there and remedy the bugger ups thanks mate!! 

 

Royse and his bros are actually on the recieving end of the CVGP forces, led by a thunder warrior. I thought it would be fun to write it from the enemies perspective if that makes sense.

Edited February 4, 2021 by TheTrans

[TheTrans]

Ok so finally finalised the Samolet-Strelok Sections.

Samolet-Strelok Sections

The Samolet-Streloks are the mainstay soldiers of ZG-Mirnoye’s Samolet-Korps, numbering among some of the finest mortal warriors of Vozdukh Glavnaya. Their numbers were decimated after the Imperial Tithe stripped most of the soldiery from the planet post-Compliance.

The Tattered Prince, via proxies, instigated a secret recruitment and training regime on ZG-Mirnoye in the years leading up to the Great Patriotic War. This yielded a highly trained, exceptionally motivated core of shock troops for a larger army to be built around.

The first companies of the Samolet-Streloks were armed with large, ancient weapons supplied from the Tattered Princes very own armouries. To assist in combat operations they are armoured with durable flak-weave body gloves, overlaid with ablative ceramite plates and a large, repulsor assisted tower shield. Their suits have the capability to be completely sealed against the outside environment, allowing them to survive some time unaided in the high levels of the Smert if their An-3 ‘s internal atmosphere seals are compromised. To round out their excellent gear, each is also equipped with a rudimentary grav-chute to allow low-level aerial insertion if needed.

To foster a close knit bond between the ‘ground’ and aerial troops of the Samolet-Korps, each An-3 is flown by a member of its assigned Samolet-Strelok section, each member is rotated through this position over the course of a campaign. Given the dispersed nature of fighting on Vozdukh Glavnaya and therefore the utmost reliance on their transport, this ‘tethering’ of the transport to its infantry section has shown huge decline in complete squad losses due to not being recovered from hostile battlefields.

Apologies as always for my sub par photography skills haha.

But there is the bulk (numbers wise) of the army done (thank god!).

I think the Streloks came out pretty cool. So these will be run as Grenadiers (depending on provenance, with advanced weapons etc). Although the basic Mortian Drop Troop will be used as the mortal troops across the army, the differentiation will be between guns and shields. So Grenadiers will have the longer guns w/ Muzzle Breaks as well as the Tower Shields to represent the variety of weapons they can get as well as their increased armour save. Normal troops will have the short guns with no upgrades to represent laspistols (for the weapon teams) while anyone rocking a lasgun will be a short gun w/ scope + suppressor.

Will get some pics up of the flamer sections soon!

I've also begun work in earnest on the dieing and degrading thunder warriors, so they'll be fun to show you soonly!

[TheTrans]

No love for the poor ole Samolet Streloks ey

Any way, work continues, have put away the paint brush for a little bit to start working on the dying Thunder Warriors which will be run as Ogryns.

There will be 3 Shield, 2 power axe ones.

So the below guy, even though his body is cancering out is still pretty aware of whats going on. Good chance he'll be rocking a shield on the right arm and some form of pole arm in the left.

This guy has started to mutate out on the right arm and has obviously had a leg replaced. He'll be gesturing toward someone with a power axe.

This guy is most probably going to be rocking a shield on the big right arm, providing cover for his less crippled comrades. I need to drop his head a bit lower into the gorget as I feel its sitting unnaturally high at the moment.

These guys have been pretty fun to work on given I can go a bit crazy and not worry too much about a uniform appearence. I hope at the end of the day they'll clearly be thunder warriors, but really stand out from their less buggered kin.