Aeternus' Night Lords and general WIP thread

[Aeternus]

 

 

'Why do we kill the way we do? Why do we skin and torture? Why do we hurt those we would save?'

'To strike fear. Fear is the greatest of all weapons. Fear will cow a world when guns will not. We spill blood to save blood.'

Konrad Curze and Ashmenkai Vor on the values of the VIIIth Legion

 

As for human beings, their days are numbered, 

and whatever they keep trying to achieve is but wind!

Now you are afraid of death -

what has become of your bold strength!

Tablet II, The Epic of Gilgamesh

 

So crawl on my belly 'til the sun goes down

I'll never wear your broken crown

I took the road and I walked it all away

Now in this twilight, how dare you speak of grace?

 

Broken Crown - Mumford and Sons

 

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Hail and Welcome all!

 

After a significant (for me at least) break from hobbying since the start of the year, I worked on building up some drive to get started again over december, leading to this most recent restart of my Night Lords, the same jackals that first brought me into the hobby proper and who, in my shame, the army I've never managed to properly finish or do justice.

 

So, once more into the breach ay?

 

This log will be primarily focused around the Night Lords of the 95th company, as yet untitled, between both 30k and 40k with some models pulling double duty (notably much of the armour assets), though there will be some that are exclusive to a particular era. In addition some other legion assets or small other army projects will also be posted here, and potentially be switched over to another thread if they expand into anything approaching their own force.

 

Old Planned lore - going to be altered/revamped, though elements of the previous approach will probably be the same

 

 

 

The company is focused around Terran and early-mid Nostraman recruits who drifted apart from the legion as their actions became further out of line with the principles that Curze had introduced, and as infighting and factionalism within the legion increased. As a general timeline, this means that the company was present for the destruction of Nostramo, but that marked one of the very last actions undertaken as a part of the legion before returning to their expeditionary fleet that had been attempting further exploration of the Veiled Region in Segmentum Tempestus - the other side of the galaxy from Istvaan, leading to them not suffering from the legion purges and, y'know, the whole dropsite massacre.

As a result the expeditionary fleet, due to being largely cut off from the Great Crusade didn't know of the Heresy until they made contact after the pacification of their most recent system. While the majority of the legion and officials of the fleet held loyalty to the imperium on the surface, extended censure from both legion command and Terra and the nature of their assignments led to the fleet not committing to either side of the heresy beyond ensuring their own survival and acting on short term personal vendettas.

Ultimately, over the course of the Heresy this new 'blackshield fleet' tended to protect the most recent systems they had pacified, judging this as an extension of their original mission, though did support Imperial assets where possible. Unfortunately come the Scouring, a mixed imperial fleet consisting of the Imperial Fists and Blood Angels ran into the bulk of the Company when a retreating renegade fleet broke warp in one of the protectorate systems. Judging that there was no chance that any who wore the heraldry of the VIIIth remained loyal, the loyalist fleet fired on the 95th company. 

The company was pushed, bit by bloody bit from those worlds it had kept safe during the war, despite their protestations. Finally retreating where the loyalists could not pursue them, sides had been drawn - leading eventually to the company's allegiance's as they stand in the 41st Millennium - renegade, but with a growing internal disagreement within over more overt use of chaotic elements or attempting to stick to the 'morals' of their father; or rather what they divisively believed those should have been.

 

Alright, now I've bored you senseless with a quick rundown of the situation (with more detail to come, don't fret ), I'll show you some models! 

Starting out with some armour assets - A Sabre Strike Tank, Contemptor Dreadnought, and Leviathan Dreadnought. Alongside these is a World Eater Lord who I've been making for a mate, and figured would be a good model to try a good mid heresy white/red scheme on.

Hope you enjoy! As always and ever, CnC is very welcome, both in the modelling side and painting side. This is my first time utilising model chain, so do accept I've gone, uh, a bit overboard maybe :tongue.: Still deciding on a basing theme in general for the NL, though am leaning heavily towards sort of sacred ruins/urban concepts

Edited January 21, 2023 by Aeternus
Structural edits to revamp the thread, post BnC update

[Valkia the Bloody]

Awesome.

:D

Love the head swabs on the Dreads.

That terminator... I cannot quite place him, which components did you use?

Looks like an opportunity for plenty of gore. :D

Ave Dominus Nox!

[aznviking]

Great looking Night Lords. The poses are super dynamic and the conversions give each model lots of character.

Can’t wait to see Them painted

[Monstra Sumus]

I especially enjoy the posing of the dreadnoughts. Fantastic stuff, I look forward to more. 

[Lautrec the Embraced]

Lookin' great! Especially the really scary Levy. And those little cards are a great detail. 

[Aeternus]

Cheers all! Glad you like how they came out, always like posing the FW dreads with the amount of movement you can show with them, especially compared to boxnoughts :P

 

@Valkia: The terminator Lord is a mix of the BaC praetor legs, random tartaros torso, Zhufor pads and fist, fantasy chaos warrior head, and a 3rd party chainaxe on (I think) a BA thunder hammer arm, pretty eclectic mix :P

 

@Aznviking: Thanks, definitely trying to give each model some addditional work on this project, so hoping to also improve my GS/general modelling skills as well!

 

@NomadPainting: Greatly appreciated!

 

@Lautrec: Cheers! Very proud of the Levi, and aye, always liked the use of the tarot cards (given the legion as a whole had a higher level of precogs, find the irony amusing) so a large amount of models will have them.

 

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Managed to make some good enough casts of the bone accessories that came with the levi and other parts I have lying around, so until I find a suitable set of general body parts/skeleton bones I can get printed, I'll be using them on chains as seen here - trying to make it so that while not all, at least a fair portion of the trophy chains actually have some trophies  The hand cast unfortunately didn't come out so well and is a lot more fiddly, so the thumb was lost in transit (unpictured). 

 

Now the modelling is more or less complete I'll be starting the painting side with the contemptor, likely entering it into the 2022 Tale of Hobbyists, which I would always recommend! Grotsmasha does an excellent job running it and it provides a good opportunity to chug along and watch how some other's armies are progressing. 

 

[Doghouse]

Very nice stuff! I am a fan of Sabres but think the Leviathan is my favourite so far, really nice touches all over the models so far with the little additions you've made.

[Majkhel]

Loving your dreads, Aeternus!

[Pearson73]

Those are some lovely details on the armour, great work!

[Aeternus]

@Doghouse: Thanks! Ever since the sabres came out I just found them adorable. Luckily the group I usually play with has already approved using them in 40k with predator rules, but aye can easily see myself getting another couple of them to round out a squadron.

 

@Majkhel: Cheers, am very happy with how they came out on the modelling front, had been hanging around a while since FW did their last dreadnought promo so good that I'm making a very minor dent in a very big pile at least :D

 

@Pearson: Much appreciated!

Edited January 21, 2023 by Aeternus