The Legion of Taurus return to Kill Team

[firestorm40k]

Greetings Frater  Some of you may remember the Chaos Space Marine army I built between 2007 and 2014 clad in brazen armour, bearing iconography of bull's heads and down turned horns, the Legion of Taurus were more than an army - they were an ongoing narrative told through games and campaigns with friends at my local gaming group. I took a break from the hobby in 2014 which lasted until the previous version of Kill Team was announced - it drew me back, and since then I've painted two 40k armies (5th Ed style Marines, and Death Guard) and several Kill Teams. 

I also painted a Legion of Taurus Kill Team in 2020, before the current rules were even a rumour! I actually painted two Kill Teams to tie with the Legion of Taurus, one using the Servants of the Abyss rules. Sadly I can't use all of those models in this edition, but I can still put together a decent roster using the Heretic Astartes list from the Compendium:

A few months ago I picked up the Nachmund expansion for the game, intending to make some more Legion of Taurus Chaos Marines using the new Legionnaires list and upgrades. Here's what I've assembled - held together with blu-Tac  and requiring some green stuff to complete the conversions:

Over the next few months I'll post my progress painting these, but in the meantime here's some of my usual poorly written fiction to set the scene..! 

Spoiler

He can feel Lord Ash'karanoth before he can hear his deep, thudding footsteps approaching. The changes - the blessings - radiate from the former Second Lieutenant, and would be enough to overwhelm any mortal from many metres away. But not those who have also been marked by the True Powers, like Daggaton himself. He lowers to his knee, but his head is still straight - only those chosen, such as him, are permitted to gaze upon the Commander's transformed visage.

Darkness fills the chamber, shadows creeping from each corner. Then a unworldly, purple-tinged glow begins to stretch from the entrance, the un-light preceeding Ash'karanoth as he enters. Daggaton raises his head, then glances up to meet the gaze of the figure towering over him. Already a brutish figure, taller than most of the warriors in his cohort, Daggaton's kneeling form barely reaches to the top of Ash'karanoth's shin.

"Hau'Lekch, my friend - rise." Ash'karanoth's voice ancient basalt, grinding as it tumbles down into an infinite abyss. Daggaton stands to attention, his gaze not wavering from his Commander's face, even as the power of the gods renders his form something beyond mortal senses. "I have a task for you. The great Tauran has a task for you."

Daggaton felt a twist in his chest at the name of their master, the bull-headed God they serve - a mix of pride, ambition, and obeisance to the Powers Tauran exemplifies. "What are my orders, my Lord?" he responds, taking all his will to keep anything but calm away from his voice.

"Our Master has decreed that the city must fall, and all within it slaughtered," Ash'karanoth continues. "The lackeys of the Corpse believe they are safe within their walls and behind their shields. But their hours are numbered. We will attack again, in force, one hammer blow that will smash their final resistance. We will not repeat the failures of others." His commander pauses, and Daggaton believes there was the trace of contempt in that last statement - rightly so, for those arrogant fools Minagorath, Kayyin and Dor'magatth had paid for their failure at the first assault against the city walls. The power of Tauran had turned from them, and their lives were forfeit to the impotent fire of the defenders.

"Before we attack, we must be sure of victory. The defences will fail, and you will make this happen: Hau'Lekch Daggaton, my Master of Hosts - Tauran has given you this task. You will find the cracks in their defences, you will use these to bring them asunder. And then our final assault can begin, and Tauran's prize will be fulfilled."

Daggaton met the soul-piercing gaze of his commander for several moments before he responds. "I accept the honour of this command. I accept the order of our bull-headed god. As Tauran wills it, so shall it be."

A predatory grin splits Ash'karanoth's horned visage. "Very good, my friend. You go with Tauran's blessings." The un-light fades, the shadows withdraw - and Daggaton is alone in the chamber. Ash'karanoth's voice echoes to him again, as though from another plane of reality. "Do not fail me. Do not fail Tauran." Daggaton nods to himself. The failure of their former commanders would not be his; he will pick his very best warriors to make this so. They will bleed the enemy - or they will offer their own in penance. 

By the way, Daggaton is the chap at the front of the first pic of the Kill Team - I painted him to use with rules for Obsidius Mallex, so sadly can't use him in the game now; but I've included him in the pics as I was pleased with how he turned out!  There are more pics on my Instagram: 

https://www.instagram.com/p/CJ33tjsnQrN/?igshid=YmMyMTA2M2Y=

Anyway, I will post pics as I progress with this new, expanded Kill Team. Thanks for looking! 

[firestorm40k]

On 7/12/2022 at 8:21 PM, Trysanna said:

Lovely to see the Legion return! I remember looking at your original thread a lot, the brass and red was so striking. The new Marines look great, glad to see you keep the bull horn look!

Thank you Trysanna  In the future I'd like to make a full 40k Legion of Taurus army with these new models, but I'm keeping it small scale in Kill Team for the time being. 

The last couple of evenings I've had the Green Stuff out and I've been fixing the conversions where I've added the signature horns to helmets, and giving any skulls on shoulder pads horns so they bear the symbol of the Legion of Taurus:

 

Once the putty has cured and set I'll be able to prime these ready to paint - so I'll have more pictures soon. Thanks for looking! 

[firestorm40k]

After several weeks, I return to update this thread!  We went on holiday, and I had a Sisters of Battle Kill Team to finish painting, but now I'm ready to get stuck back in to these Taurus Legionnaires. After some final assembly, they were ready for priming:

Despite the hot weather, I managed to do this at the weekend - now they're ready for base-coating. 

First coat - Runelord Brass:

This is the first of several steps to get the shaded, glossy armour that denotes this army. 

I'll post a step-by-step walk through of how I paint that in due course; but if you'll excuse me, I need to get painting 

[Kythnos]

Glad to see the Legion back! I really enjoyed following your army's progress back then and am looking forward to this new start :-)

[Freakshow668]

Hashut be praised, these make an old Chaos Dwarf player happy. Anything chaos and bull related makes my heart sing. Fantastic work on the helmets.

[Dosjetka]

Very happy to see the Legion return! You're off to a solid start; looking forward to the next update and the eventual army.

[Reyner]

Been a long time man nice to see them back.

[firestorm40k]

Thank you @Kythnos, @Freakshow668, @Dosjetka and @Reyner for stopping by this thread, and for your kind words! 

Painting this squad will be quite a slow process, so far I have given these their first wash, with more to come. Part of the reason it's slow is because of perfectionism on my part  but also because I tend to work on 2-3 different projects at once (I'm currently painting Star Wars Legion Rebels and building a Heresy force at the same time). 

Slow painting progress used to frustrate me (it was a factor on the burn-out I went through a few years ago that contributed to a 4 1/2 year break from the hobby), but now I'm very comfortable with this rate of work. 

It also helps that today's range of paints, including technicals, washes and Contrast paints, make a lot of painting tasks so much easier. 

Speaking of which, here's my recipe and process for doing the armour on these Chaos Marines. Back when I started the first Legion of Taurus army (15 years ago, erk! ) I used Brazen Brass, shaded with Brown Ink, then highlighted mixing Mithril Silver with the brass, up to a pure silver highlight. It was a bit of a b*tch to get right, it could be quite time consuming. 

Now, GW have the perfect paints for this - Runelord Brass, Canoptek Alloy, and Cryptek Armourshade Gloss to shade (sadly they've discontinued this paint - good job I stocked up on a few before hand!).  Here's a step-through with one of the miniatures I painted for the first Kill Team, almost 2 years ago. 

First, I base coat with Runelord Brass (one-to-two thin coats) over white primer:

Then I give a thinned wash of Cryptek Armourshade (2:1, more Lahmian Medium than the wash) over all the armour:

Then I give another thinned wash (1:1) on the lower parts of the armour, where I want it to appear darker/more shaded:

Then I give the lowest parts, including panel lining, some more of the Cryptek Armourshade Gloss:

I then begin highlighting, touching up with Runelord Brass, then adding Canoptek Alloy:

Finally, highlight the edges and highest parts with any silver - I think I used Stormhost Silver. 

As you can see, it's a process with several steps, and this time I've got to do it on 10 miniatures - it'll take me a few weeks, but I'll post progress as I do. Thanks for looking! 

[firestorm40k]

Woah, almost a month between updates - but I did say that I'd be taking my time on these! I have finished the shading and highlights on the brass armour; time consuming yes, but with the new paints it's much easier than when I originally did this army between 2007-2014!

I didn't have time or energy to get individual pics tonight, here's a close up of the Balefire Acolyte, to show the transition from dark to highlighted brass:

Next phase of these will be the trims, which will be based with leadbelcher. The next update - hopefully sooner than a month! - will be when that's complete. Thanks for looking! 

[MithrilForge]

Great stuff, Always like to see a step by step Plog    Even over time (understandable ...I'm also a Glacial slow painter ) Nice to see that the updated Colours from GW are helping make The legion of Taurus a more user friendly project !! 

Look forwards to seeing More work in the future.

 

Cheers, M. 

[firestorm40k]

18 hours ago, Mumeishi said:

Great stuff, Always like to see a step by step Plog    Even over time (understandable ...I'm also a Glacial slow painter ) 

Heh  Thank you - in my defence, it's only when I'm painting something to a 'display' standard I take my time (in the last couple of years I've taken to batch-painting armies, I've managed to get a few done quite quickly - like these Nighthaunt, painted in 5 months, or the infantry for my Death Guard army, which took me 6 months). 

Getting into the details takes longer, not least because I have to break things up or else repetition sets in (that's when I find I start to get sloppy). So I find I have to have 2-3 projects on the go simultaneously - as well as these Chaos Marines, I'm also painting Rebels for SW Legion, and a Heresy Imperial Fists army. 

I chip away at these almost every evening - here's the last two evening's work, leadbelcher based on the trims etc of 4 1/2 Legionnaires:

I'm hoping to have this stage done by the end of the month - then I'll get bogged down with leather belts, pouches and other gubbins  Thanks for looking! 

[firestorm40k]

Just to confirm that a) I've not abandoned this log, and b ) I am indeed a slow painter  here's an update:

I'm still on the trims, now on the highlights. This is quite detailed work, and I find not only do I have to take my time, but I can only do max a couple of miniatures at a time - else I get bored/frustrated, and start to get sloppy. So here are the first 4 (though since this pic I've done another):

As the metallics are the biggest proportion of these miniatures, understandably these take the longest time to paint. But progress is progress, regardless how slowly it is..! 

[firestorm40k]

So almost another month has passed  but there has still been progress; although I said I'd finished the metallics, it then dawned on me I needed to do the backpacks, so I went through the process again. Here we are, a few weeks later:

 

 

This has made painting these feel a bit of a slog at times, true death by a thousand cuts. I've not enjoyed painting these as my first Legion of Taurus Kill Team I did exactly 2 years ago - and I've come to realise why, previously I 'only' painted 6 Chaos Marines in this scheme so progress felt faster and more rewarding. I guess the secret to enjoying painting these is to do smaller squads, not a full squad of 10. 

 

This has also made me realise this is what made me a bit burnt out with painting my original Legion of Taurus army 10 years ago - I struggled with it the most when I had to do squads of 10.

 

It's a useful lesson, as I intend to expand my Kill Teams to a full army - I now know that when I paint more Chaos Marines in the colours of the Legion of Taurus, I'll do them 5 or 6 at a time, instead of big squads. 

 

Anyway, next for these are all the parts that will be black - shoulder pads and gun casing. More pics soon(ish) Thanks for looking! 

[firestorm40k]

I've been tardy with updating - last month wasn't the best for us, with multiple bouts of illness, then to cap it all the family pet was badly injured. Our pet cat was struck by a car, came home with a broken leg - which sadly the vet wasn't able to save, so it unfortunately it had to be amputated  He'll be OK (currently adapting well to having 3 legs), but it's been an emotional roller-coaster for us - and unsurprisingly, it's not left me in the best frame of mind to paint. 

 

However, over the last couple of evenings I've returned to these Chaos Marines. I wanted to get the entire roster finished by the end of the year, but I don't think that's realistic - so in order to get an actual Kill Team done in the time, I'm concentrating on just 6. Hopefully I'll get these done by the end of December 

 

Up to this week, the most significant progress was with these was on the joints between the armour (base coat Fortress Grey, wash with Basilicanum Grey, then highlight Codex Grey/Fortress Grey):

 

And I also did the leather pouches & belts - Dryad Bark base, then mix with Tanned Flesh/Bugman's Glow to highlight, up to a just the fleshy tone for the final highlight:

 

 

More pics soon - hopefully a lot sooner than previously, there's not too much left to do on these now (I'm sure that's not famous last words..! ) Thanks for looking! 

Edited December 7, 2022 by firestorm40k
Image hadn't uploaded correctly

[gaurdian31]

Sorry to hear about your cat, but glad they are recovering. Your CSM are really looking good! 

[firestorm40k]

Thank you @gaurdian31 Out cat is recovering well and adapting to having 3 legs - we've started letting him outside (during the daytime only ) and he doesn't seem to have any trouble getting around.

 

I'm still aiming to get the 6 Legionaries done by the end of the month/year - on to the stage where there's just lots of specific details to chip away at.

 

I will continue pushing on with these will be glad to get these finished! Thanks for looking 

[gaurdian31]

Your cat is looking rather majestic in that pic. Glad to hear he is doing well! Your legionnaires are coming along really nicely!  

[Kazian]

Very nice results on the washes. Planning on starting a Cleaved warband soon so definitely going to keep this bookmarked as inspiration. 

 

Also cool to hear you completed a 5ed marines army since getting back into the hobby! I have a FB project running adjacent to my Primaris one atm too. Do you have a gallery/pics of that army on B&C? :)

[firestorm40k]

On 12/23/2022 at 5:19 PM, Kazian said:

Also cool to hear you completed a 5ed marines army since getting back into the hobby! I have a FB project running adjacent to my Primaris one atm too. Do you have a gallery/pics of that army on B&C? :)

Thank you @Kazian - I neglected to create a blog or a gallery for the army on here, I can't remember why to be honest (possibly as I thought it'd be quicker to complete than it actually turned out to be..!).

 

Here are a couple of shots of the finished army:

 

And there's a post on my instagram that shows more details of the infantry side of the army - https://www.instagram.com/p/CDUC4qhHFBj/?igshid=YmMyMTA2M2Y=

 

They look more blue than they actually are (or were meant to be ), they were painted with the old Shadow Grey (now called The Fang, I believe).  I 'cheated' at the highlights by using successive washes of quite thinned paint! Bases were painted to match my original Legion of Taurus army. 

 

Please do share a link to your army! 

 

Painting of my Legion of Taurus Kill Team has taken a slight pause for a Christmas break - I'll post more pics in the next couple of days, hopefully of a finished miniature (maybe even two..!) 

[firestorm40k]

As promised, back with pictures of finished(-ish ) Legionaries! Got the Icon Nearer done, and the Heavy Gunner 99.5% done (remembered after taking the pic that I still need to paint the non-bionic eye ):

 

 

Good news is, the others aren't far off being done too - confident I'll get them finished by the end of this week..! More pics forthcoming as I finish each of the remaining 4 

 

[gaurdian31]

These are looking great! Can't wait to see the whole team together!

[Urauloth]

Looking good, I like the bronze.

[firestorm40k]

Thank you @gaurdian31 and @Urauloth 

 

Tonight I've been working on eyes - I can't be the only one who finds doing these a bit stressful?! 

 

I've also finished two more members of the Kill Team - the Butcher and the Flenser:

 

Two more to do - feeling pretty confident I can get those done by Sunday..! 

[gaurdian31]

I hate painting eyes, that's why everyone I can give a helmet gets one. You did a really good job with these, especially the butcher's!

[firestorm40k]

Thanks @gaurdian31 - I think the Balefire Acolyte looks a bit on the tipsy side..! 

 

So the last two Legionaries of this Kill Team are done - I thought I'd finished the Chosen last night, but I reliased I'd missed a horn on the Plasma pistol 

 

I'm fairly pleased with the daemonic glow from the Chosen's sword; for the Balefire Acolyte's warp-fire I wanted to do something different instead of green glowing flames, so went for a glowing pink/purple - not sure it's as 'glowing' as I'd hoped, but it's alright for a first attempt at this type of thing. 

 

I'll get some better pics over the weekend - but for the meantime, I'm happy (and a bit relieved!) to have got these all finished before New Year's..!