Second Vendetta Crusade

[sibomots]

What do they say, 'When in doubt, write fluff' ? Maybe, maybe not...

Vox chatter picked up serendipitously after the Second Vendetta Crusade command made landfall for a Command and Control Intelligence Reevaluation. Compliance was uniform and Zon and the column of leadership on board Vendetta Crusader Catena Gladius gave orders to secure domain.

<fluff>

Black Templar Brother Norta took a step on the uneven ground.

CRACK

Norta looked down and shifted the gravel away from under his boot. It was a cracked humanoid skull.

Lugs, his Brother Templar came over vox, 'What did you do Nort?'

'I stepped on it.. Nevermind.. Take a look if you want.'

"Hmm interesting.... I wouldn't have stepped on it had I known it was there.... Did .. not .. expect .. that.", Norta said to himself.

The two other Black Templar were still investigating some 50 meters up the ridge line, but Lugs trotted over and looked at what Norta was looking at.

'Norta, Sibomots you scan captain?'

Nothing. Norta depressed gain function.

'Norta, Sibomots?'

Nothing until a static pulse rocked Norta's helm. Norta thought, "Hmm yea, let's reset that.."

Norta grinned, waiting for signal.

'Sibomots here, OK Norta. I copy. Guys stop what you're doing, make haste to my position. I want you all to see this.'

Brother Norta raised a hand at the Brothers with a gesture. They already knew what to do.

Before the vox went full quiet, the team was already en-route. Norta paused his thoughts on the news of the humanoid remains they found.

The squad turned, vectored to the position. Their helm guide pulse sequencer, not part of standard issue armor was a recent add-on cooked up by the old man Sibomots himself. In a moment the four Brothers -- Norta, Sol, Carn, and "Lugs" (short for Lugmelta.. why they didn't call him Melta for short, Sibomots couldn't fathom. Must be an inside joke. For that matter who named him Lugmelta? ... Not now.)

Sibomots pointed down to the gradual slope and up along the full rock clad mountain ridge.

'This is where we're going to build the Keep.', Sibomots said.

Grinning, with his Helm clipped to the side, he glanced at his Brothers, and asked, 'Whadya think?'

'Lugs, you can have a room to yourself, finally!' , Carn joked.

'Hey I need the space Brother, I take special care of this', Lugs motioning all over his pristine polished Ceramite plate.

Sibomots took an inhuman deep breath in and sighed. "Yes, this is going to work out just fine."

Sibomots re-attached his helm, tapped sig-vox. The others of the squad were shoving each other around chatting. Sibomots, turned to his squad and tapped his helm while looking at his guys. They knew to clamp it. Sibomots turned away, not annoyed, but away to relay command so he could copy clean.

'Sibomots, Vendetta Crusader'

'Vendetta Crusader, go ahead Captain'

'Deploy the team. This is it. I want plots and excavation in full throttle in 12 hours. You have your orders.'

'Vendetta Crusader, Confirmed Captain. Out''

Norta walked over to Sibomots alone.

'Captain, we gotta show you something too. We found something you need to see.'

Sibomots pulled out a ancient human skull from his satchel and tossed it to a reflex trained Norta's grip.

'Does it look like that, Norta?'

Norta examined the object in his insulated gloved hand. 'Yes. Exactly, Sir.'

'Don't vex just yet Norta. Looks like a Code-23 human biologic remnant. Keep that and the pieces you found. Get yourself and the team up to the Gladius with those. Deliver to the analysis chamber. I want to know the where and what.'

'Sir!'

Sibomot's favored unit hustled back over the ridge out of sight. He looked up and could recognize the pulse fire as myriad engines were in glide path descent from the Crusader in anchored orbit. The equipment was arriving. Alone, Sibomots walked slowly down along the slope and scanned the rock face. And so begun the building the Keep before the Second Vendetta Crusade.

</fluff>

+++=== The Project ===+++

The project I started in 2016(?) to build a hand-made (no patterns, no kit) from scratch Keep based on images and ideas drawn from older BT Codex (or current Codex for that matter). I cut out, assembled, and tried to get the start on this. I then put it aside for a while.

( Materials/Methods: 1/4" pressboard, 3/16" birch plywood, bandsaw, drillpress, pnuematic-pinner (think air powered nail-gun but very small headless nails aka -- "pins", and misc parts sculped by hand from pine (soft easy sand) etc.. )

Fast forward years... BT are back in business, literally and figuratively.

So, after finishing the latest Indomitus model painting vow, I got some models that are worth billeting into the aforementioned Keep.

Prior to the actual Crusade, some planet-fall action takes place. And the Keep, and required structures are next in line. Going to try to think of a courtyard section to envision an honorarium (open air, stone) dais to place rememberances of fallen Brothers of the last Crusade (something about the Armageddon Books is pulling me in that direction.. don't know why).

Anyway... the start (re-start) of the Keep.

+++=== Next Steps ===+++

Much more to follow as I get around to finishing the woodwork, prime, putty (plaster more like) and so on... The 6' x 4' table isn't pictured but that is the footprint of the whole model terrain idea.. Keep, Honorarium, Field.

All of the Space Marines and the Redemptor Dreadnought were completed in the last Indomitus Vow 2021-2022. Models are in the pictures to show relative sizes and format.

Views:

The Keep:

Command Deck:

"The Front Yard"

Edited February 3, 2022 by sibomots

[Khornestar]

Oh that is super cool and quite special! Looking forward to seeing your progress.

[Marshal Reinhard]

That gonna end up being a terrain piece or a crazy display cabinett?

[sibomots]

That gonna end up being a terrain piece or a crazy display cabinett?

 

Oh... terrain.    Not furniture.

 

---

 

'We need to call a doctor!'

 

"Why?"

 

'Well, Jim went to get a cup out of the cabinet but, in response a model reacted, YOUR model --- fired an active defense artillery round from YOUR model to defend the "Keep?"  I didn't know our cabinet had VOX capabilities?? What about Jim!?'

 

"It's only 28mm scale. He'll be fine...."

Edited February 4, 2022 by sibomots

[sibomots]

6-Feb-2022: Weekend Progress

Primed Keep (clear primer + grey/black primer)

Texture -- smeared in and sculpted plaster-of-Paris for rough-in stone texture (will engrave mortar seams later)

Goes on wet, color changes as it dries.

And mostly dry...

Cut out individual windows (these are clear primed now, and will get re-primed with color -- leadbelcher actually then black wash).. .But they are all measured, cut, sanded, primed (clear)... Once the plaster work is done, then I'll put them in (no use in the dust getting on the windows.. yet).

Facade Heraldry -- had to make these from scratch.. Preferred to use some acrylic plastic, but I didn't have any in stock.

So I just cut them out of thin ply, shaped, sanded.. then clear-primed. They'll get a shot of white primer then get hand-painted with Templar Crosses.

How the heraldry goes on.. Above each window on a raised mount.

All going smoothly so far. I'm probably going to have to get the air-brush out to do the final coats of color, next weekend.

[Bjorn Firewalker]

Impressive work so far.

[Brother Christopher]

I am a huge fan of your work and will impatiently be looking forward to seeing how this develops and where this goes. Everything looks stunning and - considering your choice of material - will be pretty solid once finished. The project appears to be a massive endeavour - I wish you all the zeal and tenacity and motivation to complete this.

 

Best of luck and - please remember - that there are people who want to see this finished! ;)

[sibomots]

Thanks.   The last patches of Milliput are more than dry now.  I haven't been into the workshop in about a week.   

 

I did pick up some tubes of acrylic paint that I will mix with medium and use to air-brush the whole thing.   I  just need to get back into the shop to sharp-knife trim and sand the putty around stone-work.   

 

But primer-wise, plaster-wise, it's going OK.   I used to have a YT channel that I actually posted the videos on making the original Keep about 5+ years ago.

 

But I lost the passwords to the channel and I have no way to recover them.  They are comical now, in hindsight.   I ought to just re-do it all over again, build another one.   

 

Like an idiot, I vowed to finish it end of February under the 12-Months of Hobby.  I will take a crack at it later this week.  Just needs knife/sanding and then air-brush.