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. 

 

            The warband that became known as the "Harbingers of Taelus" were one of the scattered remnant fleets of Iron Hands  in the aftermath of 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: the isolated Taelus system. 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 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.

 

******

 

Greetings fellow hobbyists, 

 

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. 

 

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. 

 

Edited April 19 by Smoke Frog
Fixed intro

[Pearson73]

Looks great, think it's the first time I've seen a really gritty dark scheme for the Sons of Medusa, as opposed to a bright one. Excellent job with the shoulder pad, I wouldn't have guessed it was greenstuff!

[Smoke Frog]

Thanks! Yup that was fun to sculpt. And I also like the color scheme! Really wanted to do a metallic green but dirtying them up a bit really helped it look better. 

 

Here is the WIP, pretty straightforward:

 

 

Edited November 30, 2024 by Smoke Frog

[Deus_Ex_Machina]

That´s a nice metallic green. Good job!

[Smoke Frog]

"Make war and move on, and again, and again, until nothing breathes which stands against us. All else is sophistry and pretty lies.”

 

– Ferrus Manus upon being asked of his Legions role in the Great Crusade

 

 

Enjoyed doing another test paint of three legion tacticals. Forgot pistols/pouches on these three, may add them later. Got a few more tacticals and a breacher/immortal squad assembled and on the painting desk next. 

Edited April 18 by Smoke Frog

[Smoke Frog]

Long before their primarch had been discovered and rebranded his legion into the Iron Hands, the veteran core that went on to become the war-clan Clotho were recruits born from the brutal population of Old Albia. Veterans who had fought in the tight-corridors of the Mican Aggregation space-hulk and exterminated the xenos Lyasx in the airless frozen caverns of Oberath, their crowning achievement had been on the invasion of planet designated 02-34, later known as the “Battle of Rust.” Historians record the exploits of the “Stormwalkers” destroying the ork lines using a massive armored spearhead, and slowly massing intractable firepower.

 

[Smoke Frog]

Upon the discovery of their Primarch, Ferrus Manus, the legion was reforged in his image. The Terran-born were reorganized and subsumed into the Medusan culture; the cadre of veterans who formed the core of what now became Clan Clotho was no exception. Very quickly a new mindset enveloped the Clan and the legion as a whole: the hatred of weakness. Gone were the days where mindfulness of the costs or niceties of war were observed, replaced by a belligerent reputation lacking patience or tolerance of weakness of any kind. The majority of the legion centered within the 52nd Expeditionary Fleet, the Clans themselves competed heavily on the battlefield to demonstrate their commitment to their Primarch’s wishes.

 

 

Three more tactical marines painted. My green wash died on my just prior to doing these guys so I went and bought some more. 

 

For myself I went ahead and documented the color scheme for these guys before I forget:

 

[Smoke Frog]

The strength of the Iron Hands legion was centered on the 52nd Expeditionary Fleet, commanded by Primarch himself. Despite this, Clan Clotho was sequestered away from the bulk of the legion. Instead they were ordered by Ferrus to bring the Taelus system near the Moirae sector into the Emperor’s compliance, along its maze of wealthy asteroid mining colonies.

 

 

It is true some of the rank-and-file, and even leadership of the clan, privately feared that they had shown themselves to be unworthy in their father’s metal eyes. The clan threw themselves into their assigned task with vigor, stamping out any perceived weaknesses found in their ruthless campaign across the sector. It was near the end of this campaign that the forces of Clan Clotho received notification of new orders: to make all haste to rejoin their legionfather to confront the mounting rebellion at a far-off system known as Istvaan...

[Smoke Frog]

“…the Gorgon has been beheaded! The Gorgon has been beheaded… I say again, the Gorgon has been beheaded! Ferrus Manus is dead!”

 

–planetary transmission on repeat, voxcast across all Xth Legion frequencies during the chaotic retreat from the Dropsite Massacre.

 

 

Legion Vexilla conversion was inspired by praeterres on Instagram. I like how both of them turned out, along with the Tortuga Bay helmets. 

 

[Smoke Frog]

When the news arose from Istvaan V that the Primarch Ferrus Manus was dead, killed by his brother Fulgrim in single-combat, Clan Clotho and several other disparate forces of the Iron Hands had only just arrived in system. What greeted them was chaos: brother turned against brother in a nightmarish maze of twisted space debris high above the planet.  Their father was dead, their legion command was decimated and veterans nearly wiped out.

 

 

Quickly they came under fire from the cannons of the traitor ships arrayed above the planet as they desperately tried to the dropsite, but the guns of the enemy voidcraft were too many. What started as confusion quickly changed to anger, despair, and shame as the clan was forced to retreat back the way they had come, outgunned and hopelessly outnumbered by the victorious traitors.

 

With bitterness and a final curse to the traitors hounding them, the surviving ships of the clan turned and fled back into the void.

 

 

First tactical squad of 15 legionnaires is complete! Still need to paint the bases, but man I love how they look with the dark-black rock. Its like they are fighting on a night world or the colorless Harkonen homeworld. 

[Smoke Frog]

Demand perfection. Brook no weakness.

Plan. Train. Rehearse.

Fight. Review. Repeat.

And after all that he still rushed to his death at the hands of his brother.

 

He was no god, only a man.

 

- fragment attributed to revered Dreadnought of the Harbingers of Taelus, Dreadnought name is unspecified. 

 

 

Heraldry of the Harbingers of Taelus. 

 

The Gorgon’s Head. No extant records remain of the markings, heraldry, or previous company designations of Clan Clotho during either the Great Crusade, nor during their veteran’s days as members of the Stormwalkers. What is known is that during the heresy, the remnants of Clan/Harbingers began using several variants of what became known as the Gorgon’s Head: a stylized representation of their now dead Primarch’s head, wreathed in long hair in the manner of serpents, as a symbol of both their grief and rage.

 

 

Armor Coloration. Both prior to but especially during the Heresy it is known that members of the Clan often incorporated dark green or green-tinged metallic tones into their armor plating. This was most visibly used by veterans of both the Rust and Ullanor campaigns, and though the practice had been heavily discouraged it seems to have had a resurgence after the legion was shattered at Istvaan.

 

 

Mark of Shame. Alongside to the use of the Gorgon’s Head, many members of the warband took to changing their helmet coloration to white as a mark of shame and penance. Speculation as to when this practice was first observed is rampant, but some historians cite Lord Selok as the first to have started this practice. Equally possible could have been the growing cult of loyalty around Seloks leadership, and considering his role as both Iron Father and previously a member of the chamber Apothecarium it is not unbelievable that his visage would have been a source of strength for the Clan during the harrowing events unfolding around them.

 

 

Dreadnought with No-Name for now, he was a Blood Angels dreadnought I purchased at Adepticon this year. He was at a discount/pre-assembled, just had to add some texture to his base. 

 

Enjoyed the checkerboard pattern and the medusa head to his other knee. And the poor attempt at a binary prayer on his armor too!