Chronicles of the Venak'Tor Nox - Night Lords WIP thread

[Trysanna]

 

Figured I've finished enough models for this collection to warrant a highlight on the first page.

 

-Objective Markers-

 

-Kaygil Jathea - Corsair Queen-

 

-Lord Kharon - Chaos Sorcerer-

 

-Slave-Knight Tor'vek - Chaos Terminator Lord-

 

-Second Claw - Chaos Legionaries-

 

-Centurion - Chaos Dreadnought-

 

-Cult of the Red Angel - Raptors-

 

-Fourth Claw - Khorne Berzerkers-
 

-Chaos Rhino-

 

-Chaos Vindicator-

 

--------

-Khârn the Betrayer-

 

-Azrakh the Annihilator-

 

-Noise Marine-

 

-Daemon Prince-

 

-Abaddon the Despoiler-

 

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I'm awful at introductions, but yes, another Night Lords army blog. Inspired by the Night Lords trilogy and about a decade of "I should really get around to that", this is less of an army project as I don't really play 40k these days and more of an art project for myself. Hilariously, it took me 8 months to settle on a basing scheme, but more on that in a second. The first thing I built and painted for the army was a set of objective markers. The inspiration is rather obvious, of course, but the Souls series provided me with a ton of inspiration for the project, from the ashen waste basing scheme to a general sense of mood I want to approach the Warband and their current engagement.

 

The basing was a nightmare to decide upon. I wanted something that contrasted well with the midnight blue and bronze of the Legion, but nothing too complicated or that'll take away from the models. The final bit of inspiration was the Kiln of the First Flame, this wasteland of ash choked ruins of a once great empire, now crumbled, broken and near forgotten, its inhabitant shadows of a past greatness. There's a lot of fun parallels between the series and 40k. The large base belongs to a Venomcrawler, which currently is awaiting priming. And inspired by the all the Heresy nonsense going on right now, I added a single lost soul to the warband, a forgotten remnant of ancient glory.

Some actual Night Lords are on the desk at the moment, though I have no idea when I'll get around to finishing them as I've been distracted lately playing through Final Fantasy 7.

Edited March 26 by Trysanna

[strongbow]

Very compelling start, looking forward to see this develop.

[Pearson73]

Really nice basing, the SoH looks sharp too!

[Trysanna]

Some photos of a couple Chaos Marines and Cultists. Not going to share photos of the entire squads until they're all painted, but I wanted to show off the bit of conversion work. First up are two of the Chaos marines. The whole squad was given the classic Nostroman bat wings, but I aimed for something sleeker and less cumbersome than the old metal upgrade kit, fantastic as it was. The wings are taken from the undead Black Knights kit, trimmed down and attached to the helms with a little bit of greenstuff to smooth over any rough spots. I also added some bats taken from the Cursed City box to make the Champion stand out a bit more, a theme I'll be carrying forward with any squad leaders and a few characters.

The Cultists were a bit more involved. I wanted something a bit more unique than some dishevelled horde, so I used an Escher gang as the starting point. I really want to like the Escher models more than I do, mostly coming down to the footwear on the base models. Just the most lazy, boring, sexist of design work. So I fixed all that and gave them some big stompy boots stolen from some Genestealer Cultists, which they should have always had. Sensible footwear in an industrial hell-hole. Imagine.

And lastly, a flamboyant and eccentric Noise Marine. I love this model, it's such a great updating of a classic, and I love seeing this type of ridiculous sonic weapon make a return. If I ever play 40k again, I'll probably proxy them as a Dark Apostle, inspiring the mortal elements of the warband with the power of music.

I have a squad of Terminators mostly assembled, a couple more characters to photograph, and an old metal Chaos Dreadnought I've been avoiding assembling because pinning metal miniatures makes me weep.

[Fabalah]

I can't wait to see the Noise Marine painted up, they are going to be rad as hell!

[Shovellovin]

Whoa! Lots going on in this thread; lots of really awesome and imaginative stuff. I love the toned-down batwing helmets. I also like the bats added to the backpacks. 
 

The Eschers also look good. I like the footwear swap. Excellent work! 
 

The noise marine as a dark apostle is a really fun idea. I can’t wait to see everything come together. 

[Chronotonic]

MORE...give us moreeeeee

 

I like the use of the new Noise Marine for a Dark Apostle...  

 

It seems fitting...

[strongbow]

Love the conversions on those Night Lords especially. They look great!

[Aeternus]

Some great work here, and always happy to see another VIIIth legion thread pop up :P 

The bat wings on the helmets are very nicely done, and even if I'm personally not a fan of the actual bats on the champion it should definitely make for a very characterful mini! 

Paintwise that chipped and weathered green on the Son of Horus is ace, really fits the 'sea green' aspect and he looks suitably baroque with the use of the CSM parts. Also a fan of the objective markers, should definitely stand out well on the field.

Looking forward to seeing some paint on the NL and what else you come up with :D 

[Trysanna]

No painting to show off yet, it's been too damn warm here for that, but I have some squad leaders and a couple characters assembled and ready for priming. First up are the Champions of 1st Claw (Terminators), 3rd Claw (Legionaries) and a Raptor cult I've yet to name. The Terminator squad is pretty standard, I didn't feel the need to change anything about them beyond adding bats to the Champion, but the other two squads were a bit more work. The main Raptor kit is a bit small compared to the new Marines, so I opted to use the updated kit with some Jump Packs fitted to their back, which required a bit of greenstuff to make it all fit nicely. 3rd Claw was built from the Plague Marine kit, as I wanted a heavily armoured squad to contrast to 2nd Claws sleeker appearance.

Next are a few characters, a Sorcerer and Terminator Lord. The Sorcerer was built using a lot of bitz taken from a Master of Possession, while the Terminator Lord is a hefty conversion I did a few years back. I've made a few minor alterations since then, like a new Combi-Bolter and some bats. I'm a bit undecided on the helmet, as I think the tusks are a bit too much, blocking the view of the chest.

And the final character and first Xenos member of the warband, an Eldar Corsair Queen. I wanted to expand the idea of what this warband could be, not wanting every member to be Astartes, and that quickly evolved into the idea of having some non-human members too. A couple Squat engineers deep in the bowels of a ship, Eldar pirates that sail alongside the Night Lords as they raid the Imperium, Kroot mercenaries that are just as bloodthirsty as any cultist of Khorne.

Another involved conversion, using Yraine as a starting point. The sword is taken from a Howling Banshee, as I didn't want to use Yvraines famous and recognizable weapon here. Everything else is pretty straightforward, just a lot of sculpting and fiddling around with parts to get the look right. I'm hoping to prime her soon, along with the Noise Marine, Cultists and Venomcrawler.

[Chronotonic]

I like the ripple effects for the feet...I mean all of it is awesome and the idea of the squats in the boiler room makes perfect sense...

[Pearson73]

Digging the Corsair Queen, looks very cruel, lithe and dangerous. The ripples are a great touch!

[sockwithaticket]

The change to the Escher's is so simple, yet the impact on the whole look of the models is transformative. Nice touch.

Also really like the use of the bats, don't think I've seen anyone do that before.

[Surreal Cruelty]

The Noise Marine in Nightlords paint style, will definitely make me think of the cover of Metallica's "Ride the Lightning" if you go all in with the lightning bolts.

I second the use of the bats are a great addition.  I also like your Master of Possession/Sorcerer conversion.

[Khornestar]

Very fun stuff! I love the bats everywhere, I think they are as cool a visual element for Night Lords as are lightning bolts. Looking forward to more.

Edited July 18, 2022 by Khornestar

[strongbow]

This is great, love the idea of adding characters from other factions! The Corsair queen looks awesome, I especially dig the ripple effect on the floor. She looks suitably ruthless/nasty, perfect for Night Lords.

Have you thought about how these disparate forces find each other to become part of a warband? It's really inspiring stuff, this.

[Trysanna]

Thanks for the kind words everyone, glad the bats and Corsair Queen have been received so well.

On 7/18/2022 at 7:29 AM, Surreal Cruelty said:

The Noise Marine in Nightlords paint style, will definitely make me think of the cover of Metallica's "Ride the Lightning" if you go all in with the lightning bolts.

I second the use of the bats are a great addition.  I also like your Master of Possession/Sorcerer conversion.

I hadn't quite connected them with Metallica, but now that you mention it, that's such a rad idea. I usually associate certain songs to what I'm working on (I listen to a ton of music while hobbying and it's a great source of inspiration for me), so I might just throw on a ton of Metallica when I paint them, especially since Stranger Things just did something like what I'd imagine this Marines whole vibe to be. Could probably work in some red lightning bolts instead of the traditional blue/white too. God I've gotta get them primed.

On 7/23/2022 at 9:48 PM, strongbow said:

This is great, love the idea of adding characters from other factions! The Corsair queen looks awesome, I especially dig the ripple effect on the floor. She looks suitably ruthless/nasty, perfect for Night Lords.

Have you thought about how these disparate forces find each other to become part of a warband? It's really inspiring stuff, this.

You know, there are a bunch of parts of the warbands lore that I just haven't filled in yet. A lot of it is various ideas of squads and characters thrown together over the years, which I suppose is appropriate given it's a pirate fleet, but no solid narrative or timeline I have mapped out. I think they may be a small fleet belonging to some larger warband, with a 'home' located somewhere in the Eye, as I had a neat idea for a Dark Mechanicum forge world they'd be allied with years ago, but I think I want to scale down the scope of what I'm doing with the warband so I'm undecided if I'll keep that aspect. I have a couple ideas for the warbands mercenary allies, like a band of Kroot hanging around simply becuase they like all the fresh meat or the Corsairs initially being bought with a share of slaves from some raid, and sticking around because the pay is good. It's a bit more involved than that, I have ideas for some sort of intimate relationship between the Corsair Queen and the Night Lords Commander, but I'm still figuring that all out.

--------------------------------------

I did manage to get some painting done today, despite the  heat. While batch painting is faster, I decided to tackle the squad one at a time, so I don't get burnt out doing 10 marines worth of trim at a time, and to make progress much more tangible. This lovely Legionary took a few hours, but I'm pretty happy with the result. Not the best thing I've painted, but it'll work for a basic Chaos Marine.

Visually the squad won't vary much from this look, though I may go back and add some lightning bolts, but I don't want to crowd them visually. We'll see how I feel once I get some more members finished.

[Urauloth]

I love that sorcerer conversion so much. Absolutely inspired.

[strongbow]

Like the sound of that lore development! Many possibilities and intriguing questions. ADB's work is so good when it comes to seeing how disparate characters can end up 'bonding' in weird ways and terrible situations. I take it that's been a big inspiration for you?

[Trysanna]

12 hours ago, strongbow said:

Like the sound of that lore development! Many possibilities and intriguing questions. ADB's work is so good when it comes to seeing how disparate characters can end up 'bonding' in weird ways and terrible situations. I take it that's been a big inspiration for you?

Oh, absolutely. I can't count the number of times I've read the Night Lords trilogy, particularly Soul Hunter. The book might solely responsible for reigniting my interest in Chaos and the hobby in general. Betrayer is also amazing, the Angron reveal thread has multiple paragraphs of my rambling about how much I love Angron entirely because that book is one of my favourite bits of the setting ever. It especially made the World Eaters, and Chaos Marines in a broader sense, so very sympathetic to me. I adore how broken so many of them are, especially Angron. His writing nails the darkness I like in the setting, though I have a hard time articulating why. It's a lot of things, like the mood, pacing, how much time we have to sit with characters, how brutal the fights can be, and how triumphant the victories, while forever having this background radiation of greatness lost, and decay, and always being just one step from destruction. It nails the tone of this setting that is so important to me, but also makes it a bit difficult to enjoy some aspects of it.

To ramble a bit longer, and spoiler warning, Master of mankind is about the Emperor. (shocking, I know!) I feel like a lot of the fandom would expect something glorious, something awe-inspiring, that wouldn't be too far from Imperial propaganda of the 41st millennium. And there is some glory to it, particular Zephon landing the first blow against blah (I might have cried, I love that stupid Blood Angel so much), but there's this overtone of dread to the story that grows and grows, until the ending reveals that the foundations of the 40k Imperium was built into its literal foundation with the reveal that there was room for 9,000 more sacrifices. It left me feeling awful and sickened, it's so good. His novels gives me the same feelings works like Dark Souls, Berserk and Pathologic 2 do.

I'll stop myself there, as I could probably talk at greater length about each of his novels and all the stuff I love about each of them.

[Dr_Ruminahui]

I love the flayed skin of his loin cloth - could you share how you got that effect?

Good to see another Canuck around. :)

[Trysanna]

44 minutes ago, Dr_Ruminahui said:

I love the flayed skin of his loin cloth - could you share how you got that effect?

Good to see another Canuck around. :)

Of course! I plan to do a tutorial at some point, but hopefully this will suffice for now.

Basecoat your new and stylish flayed skin Bugman's Glow
Wash with Carroburg Crimson
Layering with Bugman's Glow, keeping the recesses dark
Layered with Bugmans Glow/Cadian Fleshtone, 1:1. You don't have to be super clean with this, I went with a slight stippling method for some texture.
Highlight with pure Cadian Fleshtone
Thin some Carroburg and deepened the recesses a bit, giving the skin a bit more red
Selective edge highlight of Cadian Fleshtone and Screaming Skull, 1:1.
The snazzy blood on the bottom was done with some thinned Blood Angels Red and Khorne Red, thinned down and messily applied

Hope this helps!

[Dr_Ruminahui]

Thanks, that's great!

Edited July 29, 2022 by Dr_Ruminahui

[Dagoth Ur]

Oh man, I just love how dramatic all of these bats are. Takes me back to the early Castlevania games and I'm a here for it.

[Chronotonic]

The bat-ears are what they should have done in the late 90's when they came out with the first upgrade kit for the Night Lords...

 

10/10 would approve as part of the upgrade kit