Harbingers of Taelus: Sons of Medusa in 30k

[Smoke Frog]

"The Gorgon has been beheaded!" -planetside communication from the Urgall Depression, voxcast across all Xth Legion frequencies during the height of the Dropsite Massacre. 

 

I haven't fully shelved my Deathwatch force, as there are a few projects I am still working on over there (Watch Fortress Sentinel IX), but in the meantime I have caught a bout of Heresy bug and wanted to create a character mini from my favorite legion, the Iron Hands. I hope this eventually translates into a full Iron Hands/Sons of Medusa army project. 

 

Here is my working lore blurb for this army project: 

 

            The warband that became known as the "Harbingers of Taelus" were one of the scattered remnant fleets of Iron Hands  in the aftermath the Dropsite Massacre. Comprised of veterans of primarily Clan Clotho and a handful of other forces, these legionnaires had been isolated from much of the greater legion prior to the conflict. From Istvaan V they retreated in shock and anger to one of the last locations they had been order to liberate by their now lost gene-sire. For the next decade they wreaked havoc on the traitor forces, particular in fighting the forces of the Mechanicum embroiled in their own civil war. Hidden within their newly reconquered asteroid bases in the Taelus system, the Harbingers planned and carried out harrowing attacks against traitor supply convoys and isolated strongholds in the region of space. Their truly rage reached its zenith upon learning of the outcome of the Siege of Terra and fall of the Emperor himself. Throwing themselves into the scouring, they nearly went extinct due to mounting battlefield losses and would certainly have disbanded as a fighting force were it not for the legion, now chapter council, ordering their return to their homeworld of Medusa to be re-integrated into the new chapter’s ranks.

 

Credit for this idea goes to @Ascanius and his Harbingers of Taelus: 30k Iron Hands project. Not sure if you are still out there, but I really liked your idea and decided to run with it, I hope you don't mind! Green is also my favorite color, so combining that with the Iron Hands has long been my plan. I came across @Ascanius blog and immediately knew this is what I wanted to for my own tiptoe into the Horus Heresy. I like the idea of Iron Hands wearing a proto-Sons of Medusa color scheme, which the later actual Sons of Medusa chapter adopted when they splintered off from the chapter during the Moirae schism. 

 

Speaking of Moirae, this was the name of the Fates in Greek mythology. There were three: Clotho (the spinner/the maiden), Lachesis (the allotter/the mother), and Atropos (the inevitable/the crone), who also happen to be a life metaphor (birth, life, death), and who controlled the fates/destinies of mere mortals. Clotho is not one of the names of the three clans of the Sons of Medusa of 40K (their third clan begin Megara, one of the Furies), so I figure my force can mostly be made up of marines of the (now long lost) Clan Clotho. 

 

 

So far, instead of doing a test mini or buying any actual HH marines, I went ahead and made an Iron Father conversion I have been thinking about ever since I saw @Ascanius's blog a few months ago. I present Selok Sataar, Iron Father of Clan Clotho and one of the chief leaders of the Harbingers of Taelus:

 

 

          “It is our role to ensure every being on this rock lives out their destiny as assigned to them according to the will of the Emperor. For all of you, that will is for you to die for your treachery, here and now by our Hands.” – Iron Father Selok Sataar on the rad-world of Hallam

 

 

          The exploits of the mysterious figure known as Selok Sataar are all but unknown prior to the outbreak of the Horus Heresy. He was speculated to have been Medusan in origin, having joined the ranks of the Iron Hands shortly after the discovery of Ferrus Manus and the Primarch’s restructuring of the Tenth Legion. His actions first begin to enter the Imperial record shortly after the Istvaan Massacre, where it is believed he emerged as a leader of one of the many scattered warbands of Iron Hands that went into hiding deep within the Traitor Lines.

 

          Selok Sataar is known to have led the clan through much of the Great Scouring, though it is unclear if he survived through to see the remnants of the clan reintegrated into the reforged Iron Hands chapter upon the Scouring’s completion and the reorganization of the legions during the Second Founding.

 

 

Very happy with how his shoulderpad turned out. That was sculpted with some miliput in a rough amalgamation meant to look like a Medusa head. 

 

 

Should be pretty obvious where all the parts came from, as the mini was a pretty simple kitbash of the Black Templars Castellan and the primaris Iron Father Feirros. It was painful to have to cut off those beautiful skull shoulderpads though!

 

The two tendrils on his left side are guitar wire and some tiny doohickeys from some Necron kit's weapon. 

 

 

Iron Hands symbol is also from the Feirros kit. 

 

 

Painting recipe was pretty simple for this guy. Again I was inspired by @Ascanius here. Black primer, then drybrushed on some boltgun metal to give him a silverish sheen. A coat of Poxwalker contrast and Biel-Ten Green was enough for the armor to turn a nice green-metallic color that I was looking for. The rest of him was coated in vallejo black wash to dirty up the mini. White was just some apple barrel grays worked up a layer or two from the metallics. 

 

 

I really enjoyed painting this guy! Very happy with how he turned out. I want to do the base in a yellow-desert color, maybe after I get some pigment powders. I am open to dirtying this guy up a bit more with some rust/pigments if I get brave enough. 

 

Doing a force in this scheme I think would be a lot of fun, he was a quick and simple paint job, lot easier than my deathwatch. 

 

I hope you guys like him, and I hope to return with some more Iron Hands/Sons of Medusa in the future.