Word Bearers Word Bearers [Serrated Sun] Log

[TheHyperion]

Hello Everyone!

 

About a month ago I made a post about going to start up some Night Lords. Yesterday my box came in of Kill Team: Legionaries which I will be using as the start of my Night Lords force. Currently I hope to be able to listen to the Night Lords audiobooks when I get to painting them. I did spend a good number of hours yesterday gluing up some models and printing off some bits such as the heads and the legion shoulder pads. I hope to turn this post into a bit of an log of the progress on my warband's fluff and painting as time goes on as a means of motivation.

 

I plan on playing boarding action with this force once I have enough points. Right now my roadmap of sorts is to take a squad of terminators and a Master of Executions with this into boarding action but if anyone has any ideas or inspiration to share that would be fantastic! My main opponent is likely to be Black Templars and maybe the occasional Salamanders. For now, here are my 10 legionaries with some minor kitbashes with the old Khorne Berzerkers box. Also I figured I would note that my warband will likely be more pro using-chaos-as-a-tool and so things like the balefire tome are within the means (I liked the idea of incorporating the chapter's foresight abilities into the game somehow.)

Edited March 5, 2023 by TheBloodSpitter

[Dr_Ruminahui]

Those night lords heads look great on those models - looking forward to seeing this progress.  The legionaires box has a lot of cloth tabards and such that I think go really well with the night lords aesthetic, whether painted as cloth or flayed skin.

 

Curious about the thought process for the khorne head on the guy with the big axe and whether that is something you intend to carry across other units as well.  Goes well with the old background (RT, 2nd ed) that had the night lords as a mostly khorne aligned legion (back then, many of the various legions that are now unaligned had a god preference, and for night lords it was khorne). 

Edited February 13, 2023 by Dr_Ruminahui

[TheHyperion]

On 2/13/2023 at 10:42 AM, Dr_Ruminahui said:

Those night lords heads look great on those models - looking forward to seeing this progress.  The legionaires box has a lot of cloth tabards and such that I think go really well with the night lords aesthetic, whether painted as cloth or flayed skin.

 

Curious about the thought process for the khorne head on the guy with the big axe and whether that is something you intend to carry across other units as well.  Goes well with the old background (RT, 2nd ed) that had the night lords as a mostly khorne aligned legion (back then, many of the various legions that are now unaligned had a god preference, and for night lords it was khorne). 

Thank you for the kind words! The idea was to try and make the warband unique and do little tweaks that make each character a bit different to paint but not add a ton more to the work load by adding a bunch of detail to the troops. I was also aware that Night Lords used to be Khornate (albeit from the old Space Hulk Campaign book.) In my headcanon maybe that marine was a World Eater at some point but joined the Night Lords for whatever reason. I also have 2 spare old berzerker kits laying around and some of the bits are useful. The chainsword on the one with the clawed hand is actually also from that kit since there are no left handed chainswords in the normal Legionaries box.

 

Sadly this was the end of the line for those marines are they were anyways. I had a head totally shatter on me with very minimal handling of the model (not the head) so I decided that if it was breaking before even painted that I should probably do something different. To me the iconic part of Night Lords is their winged helmets and it is hard to land the right thickness of the wings but also make them stable for play/modelling. I ended up removing all the shoulder pads and NL helmets and am switching to Black Legion. I haven't posted an update due to printer failures but I managed to stick the Black Legion symbol to some blank shoulder pads I bought in Blender so I should hopefully have some Black Legion marines soon.

In the future I might use some of the Night Lords heads on a character model like Haarken or a Balefire Tome to add more variety. The 8th Legion is still really neat to me but I wanted to be able to do justice to what I was painting. 

[Dr_Ruminahui]

That's too bad that the helmets ended up being too fragile - that must be a huge disappointment.  Nice use of the old berzerker bitz - I'm not familiar enough with the kit (other than their weird running poses) to have noticed.

 

I look forward to seeing these guys progress as a black legion project.

[TheHyperion]

For the past few days after I shifted armies I had been struggling with some printer issues since I had recently switched resin types. I ended up switching back to what I had been using and got these shoulders first try after about a week or so of wrestling with it. The shoulder pads parts were from a couple of sellers online but I was able to put the Black Legion symbol onto 17 different versions of the shoulder for some variety. Overall a fun little project for now but I am excited to start painting.

 

If anyone has some tips on painting black easily/quickly let me know. Currently shooting for more of a tabletop standard than any sort of display piece. A lot of the guides I have found on youtube seem to end up more grey than I would shoot for. I have the rest of their scheme figured out though I think. Also if the heads look a bit tall I was unable to remove all of the resin in their necks so I had to shave down the base of the heads a fair amount from the box.

 

Definitely a bummer Night Lords didn't work out but I might find a way in the future to sneak in some bits on models that fit if I can make them less fragile.

 

I am looking forward to having a nice force of Black Legion though!

[Prot]

Very nice start, and welcome aboard the dark path to victory!

 

I love those shoulder pads, where did you find them? (I also do really like Night Lords and would probably be doing them if I wasn't knee deep in Black Legion/Iron Warriors)

[TheHyperion]

3 hours ago, Prot said:

Very nice start, and welcome aboard the dark path to victory!

 

I love those shoulder pads, where did you find them? (I also do really like Night Lords and would probably be doing them if I wasn't knee deep in Black Legion/Iron Warriors)

When I bought the Night Lords shoulder pads from Red Warden Miniatures on cults it also came with some blank ones. I got a “solid transfer” from Hyfryd_designs for free which was the symbol and then in a program I stuck the two together and printing them out! Despite not making the parts myself it feels like my own little touch on them so I have been very happy with the results.

[SanguinaryGuardsman]

If you are just going for a quick and dirty 3 colour tablestop standard dont bother investing time into the black.  You wont accomplish much.  Just lay down a straight black basecoat and avoid edge highlights or anything on the black.  Focus your time investment on either the trim,weapons, head, or some other element.  If you like drybrushing check out Artis Opis on youtube.  

 

If you hate yourself and want to exist in a realm of living death and suffering then you want to edge highlight all the black surfaces with a dark grey then a lighter grey followed by painting all the trim 3 times(base,wash,highlight).   I choose this option and it made me truly hate everyone and everything like every chaos space marine player should.  

[TheHyperion]

Well I have had an interesting journey over the past few weeks for my hobby. What originally started out as a Night Lords warband, then briefly a Black Legion warband has now turned into a Word Bearers warband. The picture shows my timeline transition oh the models I have since painted.

 

Funnily enough I realized fairly early that painting black is evil. I did not enjoy it so I ended up canning the Black Legion idea for obvious reasons. Looking for new direction I went back to the drawing board. I ended up settling on Word Bearers which I honestly never thought I would. Argel Tal seemed like a cool character and I sort of changed the goals of my warband along the way. In the past I had a Khorne Daemonkin army I was building for World Eaters and though that army sort of lives on spiritually in the new codex, a lot of the units I enjoy don't quite work in it (no bikers, raptors, normal possessed, normal cultists, etc.) So my gameplan came to be to make a Khorne-aligned CSM force of the Word Bearers of the Serrated Sun chapter. I know it was disbanded in the fluff after most of them died but I really enjoy the symbol and found a STL to print of it online. In the future I might ally them with some World Eaters as well as some daemons to cap it off.

 

Even though it was more intensive, I ended up enjoying the way my Word Bearer turned out quite a bit more and the whole process of it. Gal Vorbak red is the base and I was surprised by how poorly it covers despite being a base paint. Also the helmet on his backpack is a Salamander one. Originally started painting him for Black Legion and my main opponent being a Black Templars player I didn't think the black on black would stand out much. I do think it ended up working out for the best.

 

Hoping to get to read The First Heretic and Betrayer at some point but if anyone has any other suggestions feel free to let me know!

[TheHyperion]

Another update! 

As of a bit ago, I finished painting my first full squad of Word Bearers. I learned a LOT off of these models. First and foremost that Gal Vorbak Red basically has no opacity and is fairly brutal because of that. 3-4 coats needed over black primer. Deciding if it was even worth using but that is a problem for future me. Particularly proud of the flames on my Balefire Tome, the flesh on one of the generic guy's shoulder pads. Also enjoy the Salamander's helmet and the heretical Black Templar. I might go repaint my Black Legion test models but I am undecided because I could easily get caught in that loop. I might compromise with myself and only do the one that looks possessed to have him fit in with the Word Bearers more.

 

Looking still to get a boarding patrol going to go against Black Templar primarily and am having difficulties with the next step in the list. Cannot decide if I want a Master of Executions, Master of Possession, or a Dark Apostle as a character (I know an HQ/Character isn't required but I would like to paint one) and between Possessed, Chaos Terminators, and Khorne Berzerkers as my Elites choice. Eventually think I want all of those but not sure what would be a good call now for painting, etc. End goal is to have a Word Bearers Khorne Daemonkin-type warband. Willing to take input there!

 

Also as a side note, are events still around on the forums? I may have missed it but in years past I remember a Boxing Day painting event or others and was not really sure if that's something that's still around.

 

Hope everyone's hobby is going well!

 

[WrathOfTheLion]

They're looking great! Love them.

 

Gal Vorbak is a very nice color, but it doesn't cover well. I usually do a few rounds with the airbrush and then come in with one, maybe two brush coats. I use it as the armor color though, not sure I'd layer over it.

Edited March 22, 2023 by WrathOfTheLion

[TheHyperion]

56 minutes ago, WrathOfTheLion said:

They're looking great! Love them.

 

Gal Vorbak is a very nice color, but it doesn't cover well. I usually do a few rounds with the airbrush and then come in with one, maybe two brush coats. I use it as the armor color though, not sure I'd layer over it.

Probably not a bad call. What made me start with it is it made the khorne red slightly different in color by having it but it added a lot more to my paint time. Future squads might be painted a bit different. For me I was going for brighter word bearers and I wanted to make sure they were distinct from the world eaters I was going to paint alongside, but still keep them more in the red and less in the purple/burgundy.

[TheHyperion]

A very small update. Painting has slowed down a bit more me purely based on how long it takes to paint some chaos minis. I have dived deep back into my painting backlog and decided to paint some models from the first boxset I got: Dark Vengeance. I painted one model from the chaos side from the Chosen around 8 years ago now to represent a Chaos Lord which I had blue tacked to a larger base to be a Juggernaut. I eventually intended to go back and make a proper one but I fell out of the hobby. Now fast forward I have finally painted Lord Kranon and another one of the chosen and am working on Draznicht the Chosen Champion for the squad. The model on the left is from 8 years ago when I was a teenage and the two on the right are more recent. Plenty of mistakes still but I am very happy with how the Chaos Lord turned out and it's an interesting time piece to look back that long ago. I also realized I never had glued these guys into their old small slotted bases so they have been upgraded to the current ones. They also blend in plenty well with the new chaos line despite some weird easy-to-build detail weirdness on some of them. Hoping to finish up the rest of the squad and tackle the Helbrute. I realize these are Crimson Slaughter and not Word Bearers, but I was using them to test out a new red scheme which I think is similar to the original for my Word Bearers but a lot less work/paint.

[TheHyperion]

A small update and fast! I was able to power through the last of the Crimson Slaughter. All I have left for them is their Helbrute and a few of the Chaos Cultists. Will be exciting to paint something bigger for once. Took a family couple group photos of the models. Any weird texturing on their shoulder pads was probably the result of poor gap-filling done by my teenage self. Overall happy with how their simpler paintjob turned out and am excited to get back to painting some Word Bearers in the future.

[TheHyperion]

Expanding the warband. So far I have assembled all the possessed and the terminators. I was able to pick it up for around $200 so I was fairly excited. Still need to assemble the daemon prince and heldrake but those are a bit more backburner at the moment. Ran out of black primer while in the middle of doing my terminators. 

 

I have started my first warhammer novel with Soul Hunter and I am about halfway through it. So far really enjoying it. Might take a break from the Night Lords omnibus after it and try out First Heretic. Definitely plan on finishing the omnibus though.

 

Will post progress when there is more progress to be had. Hope everyone's hobbying is going well :)

[Rain]

The red and black on the Berzerker looks really crisp. I was always a fan of the Red Corsairs scheme, and it works just as well for Khornate Black Legion. Nice job on the warp flame on the Word Bearer as well. Green flames are always the answer when painting Chaos 

 

PS: The First Heretic and its direct sequel Betrayer are my favorite HH books outside the original trilogy. Also, I would highly recommend the Fabius Bile omnibus for some more "current" Chaos Marine fiction. A D-B and Josh Reynolds are both great writers that elevate the novels above the level of most space soldier pulp.

[TheHyperion]

Hello Everyone! Wanted to show a bit of a WIP of a new model I got: my Master of Executions. He's a former World Eater who has seen the Primordial Truth. Still needs a few touchups and I made a few errors but overall very happy with him. I have been also working on painting my balefleet battleforce and have almost finished the first squad of terminators.

 

I have nearly finished the Night Lords omnibus and so far it has been a great read. I did not expect it to be as good as it has been despite its reviews. I have been having a tough time listening to First Heretic since I mainly do audiobooks on my way to/from work and it has been sadly hard to keep my attention with it. I might skip to betrayer due to the different narrators.

 

Hoping to have news of my MoE fighting an Emperor's Champion soon!

[madlibrarian]

On 6/27/2023 at 5:42 AM, TheBloodSpitter said:

Hello Everyone! Wanted to show a bit of a WIP of a new model I got: my Master of Executions. He's a former World Eater who has seen the Primordial Truth. Still needs a few touchups and I made a few errors but overall very happy with him. I have been also working on painting my balefleet battleforce and have almost finished the first squad of terminators.

 

I have nearly finished the Night Lords omnibus and so far it has been a great read. I did not expect it to be as good as it has been despite its reviews. I have been having a tough time listening to First Heretic since I mainly do audiobooks on my way to/from work and it has been sadly hard to keep my attention with it. I might skip to betrayer due to the different narrators.

 

Hoping to have news of my MoE fighting an Emperor's Champion soon!

great model bud - nice job.

 

betrayer is an excellent book. Be careful, it may make you collect world eaters

[TheHyperion]

7 hours ago, madlibrarian said:

great model bud - nice job.

 

betrayer is an excellent book. Be careful, it may make you collect world eaters

I might already be trapped but I do hope to eventually! Lost a lot of drive to do world eaters when they got rid of blood tithe for the second time sadly.