The Stagnation of Loasgheist and Kill Team Custodes

[Xanthier]

So I usually just patter around painting titans mostly and the oidd skirmish project, and recently I was introduced to the game Per Dolorem Silentio - a fairly rules light skirmish with reasonable granularity to make bleak and gritty little warbands. Now I love me some Realms of Chaos skirmishing, but I've done that a few times now. However, I've never done a project like that for 40k...

So after bouncing ideas around in my head I settled on a lone Iron Warrior - separated from his legion and with dwindling supplies, only his prowess at scavenging, tinkering and frankly browbeating menials as his respite from the looming stagnation of existence. The idea of this sole marine, forced to wade through grime and much as his existence gets bleaker and bleaker, his paranoia and fatalism rising, really got it's grips in my head.

 

What kind of things would such a lone marine do? Who would his followers be? I figured for an Iron Warrior, he'd likely have a few menials as chaff, but his true companions in this meager existence would likely be some for of automata or cybernetica, such as servoskulls and the like. Clearly he'd trust his own creations more than other people, so I started scrounging bits and got to work!

 

So far I've actually already managed to assemble and paint up the first 3 members of the 'drove', the warband for PDS. Legionnaire Dardanos himself, and two of his closest (and let's admit only) companions - the Scout-skull Recon-1-T01R3 and Servomule CR4T3-05.

 

 

The groups thus far together -

 

It's been a long, long while since I've painted an Iron Warrior and it was bloody good fun! I figured I'd go beyond what I did for my old army and really work in weathering and tone, whilst maintaining a fairly shiny meta. The bases are pretty simple muck in keeping with the barren grime I imagine Loasgheist to be - some godforsaken world either encroached upon by warpspace or entirely within it.

 

The ongoing plan is to paint up another 2 or so servo-servants of differing types, and then add a few of the chaff mortal infany Dardanos graces with the purpose of being meat shields. I also have a few ideas bubbling around for possibly a rival of sorts, or at the very least a competitor...

Edited September 16, 2021 by Xanthier

[BadgersinHills]

Looking good! Dardanos is a really characterful mini, and the little servo skull is so cute. 

[Brother Dallo]

Lovely models and an interesting premise.

 

Keen to see more!

 

Dallo

[Guest Triszin]

Servo robo is adorable

[Naryn]

Love this concept, and the execution on those minis is flawless. Absolutely oozing character. Great work!

[Pearson73]

Dardanos looks brilliant, great use of parts and posing, plus that excellent dirty metal paint job!

[Sherrypie]

Cool little setup, the lonely, bitter marine is captured well in this model. Had a read of the PDS rules as well, evocative work though maybe a bit on the light side before one starts tacking on their campaign specific add-ons to it. Do tell how it feels on the tabletop, if you've already played.

[Jukkiz]

i see some dark angels parts, is that MK. IV backpack middle and... can´t figure out the leg? FW Space marine character upgrade?

Mule is nice nod to deep rock galactic, i assume, Very lovely start here

[Xanthier]

Cheers guys! Glad the project is well received. I wasn't aware of deep rock galactic before looking for storage robots to work from and I'm glad I found it, the mulebot has a great design to add greebles to!

 

As for parts for Dardanos, his torso is forge world death guard and the legs are FW Iron Hands.

 

Concerning the rules Sherrypie, yeah they're pretty lightweight. I've not played yet, but it feels like it'll be an evocative beer and pretzels game - the mechanics are light enough that you can basically structure everything around a storyline which is nice. I can put more effort on that rather than overly stat/army crunching.

 

I've been continuing to paint up Dardanos' little friends, and got two more done - the Mediskull V4-c1n3 and the protector bot 53-RF.

 

 

I should probably at some point add some scraggly little branches for dead shrubs and the like for basing detail, but for now the models themselves are painted at least. Left to do I reckon is 1 more cargo mulebot, and 4 mortals - already made them, so it's just a question of applying paint when I get more spare time and coming up with backgrounds.

[oldschoolsavant]

How long has that Epic knight languished in a bits bix ? Nice to see the classics repurposed ! :)

[Guest Triszin]

:D

[Xanthier]

He's been in the bitzbox for a hell of a long time, poor little guy.

 

I did managed to get round to painting up the first of the mooks - went for similar techniques to Dardanos and the bots, but just faster. These poor guys are going to be meatshields after all.

 

[Pearson73]

Really nice glowing optics on the mortal, they pop out from the dark drab main tones.

[space wolf]

Really cool concept, and better execution! Love the glowing effects that contrast with the gritty was of the paint job. Very cool posing as eell. Well done

[Shovellovin]

First, excellent work on your Iron Warrior, Legionnaire Dardanos, and his retinue. I think you have a great idea; the lone warrior with his followers. I'm interested to see this project grow.

 

Second, I'm very interested in Per Dolorum Silentio. I'd love to hear about the games/adventures/stories that Dardanos and his group are involved in. I like the idea of a ruleset where you're free to create models and not worry about rules; instead focus on story.

 

Third, what is "Realms of Chaos skirmishing"?

[grailkeeper]

That fella looks great! What did you use for the helmet?

[Xanthier]

Thanks guys. Once I get some games in I'll definitely write them up for here. Realms of Chaos skirmishing is basically any skirmish level game with the old warhammer Realms of Chaos fluff - a champion and his motley warband roving the chaos wastes searching for artifacts, powerr and ultimately ascension. Old versions of Warhammer had it, and more recently GW made a Path to Glory system in a white dwarf, then AOS skirmish and the current Path to Glory is only vaguely similar.

 

The helmet's a feudal guard helm from The Maker's Cult, I 3d printed it (and the arms with gun, and legs) for this guy.

[Freakshow668]

This is excellent. Love the character of the models, well done.

[Xanthier]

Cheers!

 

I ended up getting sidetracked by another project (or two) rattling around my head, but I did quickly blitz the last 3 mooks for this motley group -

 

With the exception of a last mulebot left to paint up, the drove is pretty much done - certainly it already has more painted models than I'm likely to start with! The second mulebot will be for when the warband expands and I'm hoping to get several games in soon enough to warrent it's inclusion!

[Noctem Cultor]

Great looking group, I like the grimy worn look as you haven't pushed it to far so it detracts from the models. Keep up the great work.

 

-Noctem

[Xanthier]

So I went on another change of pace and figured I'd get another small project done - a Kill Team for the new edition. I wanted to go elite (mostly so I don't have to do too many models) and wanted a chance to have fun converting or something similar. Whilst I was tempted by Heavy Intercessors, in the end I chose Custodes.

 

The models always seemed a bit squat to me compared to their artwork, and I also noticed that the model shoudlerpads are frankly massive compared to the art. Easy enough fixes I figured!

So, I went about finding some suitable pads and printing at 90% scale, and extended shins by 2mm and the waist by 1mm and got this -

 

I felt that worked pretty well, so did another pair of legs and they really seemed to be far more proportionate to me at least -

 

I wanted to avoid gold and red as much as I could, so went for something I've not seen a huge amount of before, though it's out there - silver and blue. Initially it was a bit dicey, but I went back and kept adding more glazed shadows and darkened the weapon and shield wings to help break up the silver. It's not perfect, but I really wanted these guys to be super bright and clean, and so I avoided any real kind of weathering.

 

 

Since that worked well enough, I batch painted the next 3 today to get the initial kill team ready -

 

Since a box comes with 5 and plenty of weapon options, I just need to get 1 more body and I'll be able to make a pair of halberds too for options, and I dug around my stash and found the old assembled, but never painted, unit of Sisters of Silence from when the prospero box released! I had to lop their arms off, but since I knew where their spare parts were, all 5 are now sporting trendy S0S flamers.

So effectively, 4 models down and 7 to go for these guys, with a full Kill Team already finished.  Manageable!

[Shovellovin]

You’ve made subtle changes that have really enhanced the look of the models. How’d you extend the waist? Just used a bit of putty?

 

I really need to stop dragging my feet; I need a 3D printer for things like this. 

[lhg033]

He's been in the bitzbox for a hell of a long time, poor little guy.

 

I did managed to get round to painting up the first of the mooks - went for similar techniques to Dardanos and the bots, but just faster. These poor guys are going to be meatshields after all.

 

Saw this didnt twig that he was kneeling and thought you had made a 40k , grimdark Jawa and really liked it!

 

Still awesome having seen the side pic to see he is kneeling.

 

Beautiful work on all of these. The mooks are by far my favorite.

The silver/blue Custodes really works well - its a bit elves/fantasy but in a good way.

[Xanthier]

The waist was ended with a spare sliver of plastic from a sprue, just anything really.

 

Cheers lhg033, I get you on the whole elven thing, silver and blue's pretty much their niche really.

 

I did get round to doing more painting, so can cross off 4 Sisters of Silence off the to paint list.

 

 

I need to finish up making a spear custodes and I have 1 more flamer sister to paint up. After that I'll just need 2 more bolter sisters and another spear custodes which I need to get, and the team will be done for now till more options appear should they get expanded.

I've had multiple bits of feedback saying I need to deepen the shadows, go for more contrast etc, which is fair, but I can't help but think that'd detract from how bright they are overall. Ah well.

[Brother Captain Vakarian]

I’ll throw a vote in the “don’t change them” corner.

 

1. They’re too pretty to change (no, seriously, that blue and silver is gorgeous. Sometimes bright is ok).

 

2. You’re happy with them, which is what actually matters for your models.