WBRBloom's Black Legion: Tales from the Warp.

[WBRBloom]

Warning: This topic is going to be a heavily narrated trip down memory lane. It is intended as both a personal voyage as well as taking others with it.

 

Of course I am exaggerating. 

 

Hi everybody! I am WBRBloom. If anyone ever wondered this screen name is also as old as time, and derives from the Ad&d Ravenloft scenario 'When Black Roses Bloom'. But this is a Warhammer 40k forum, innit? So let's get to it!

 

Our story begins back in the far away 1990. Little WBRB was almost at the end of grammar school (grade school across the pond), it was summer, and he and his family were returning from a day at the beach. They all stopped at a very big super market, one of the biggest back then in Greece, to do some Sunday shopping before heading home. It was about a month before schools started again, and the holiday (Christmas) TV ads were still far away (this is very crucial). The new games were still a few months away from being announced.

 

As he usually did, little WBRB wandered off to the toys aisle. He browsed the G.I. Joes a little bit (they were now being replaced by scale models rapidly), and he was never really interested in car toys and such. He then moved further down the isle, towards the board games. Nothing he hadn't seen before, Ghost Castle, Mysteries of old Peking, the usual. And then, he saw it.

 

HeroQuest.

 

Deep inside another dimension, face battling barbarians and evil magic.

 

HeroQuest.

 

On a quest for adventure in a maze of monsters.

 

It was a wall of HeroQuest boxes, an endless wall of HeroQuest boxes. The rest were history.

 

To speed things up, WBRB got his hands on one of those boardgame copies, played it and killed orcs and goblins, but since he was already involved into scale models he also noticed the painted miniatures that adorned the inside of the box and he learned a (very) basic way on how to paint miniatures that was included at the back of the quest book. Apparently, there was this company that designed the miniatures, called 'Citadel', and it made more games than HeroQuest. 

 

Enter 1991 (yeah, things in Greece tend to have a year delay), and Space Crusade. Space Marines. Chaos Space Marines. Genestealers. Orks. Gretchin. Dreadnoughts. Oh my..

 

It is now 2003. WBRB, fresh out of his Navy service and having one of his first jobs, one that allows him for some disposable income, decides to start actually collecting, and playing, Warhammer 40.000. He had found about that game a few years back, in 1995 or 96, when an older friend of his introduced him into the hobby stores that sell it. He was fascinated but never had the money to buy/play it. But now seemed like the best moment.

 

He went into one of the local hobby stores and browsed around a bit. He picked up the 3rd edition rulebook off the shelves, and looked at the different armies. He remembered an old diorama he had seen in one of the White Dwarf magazines, one called 'Horus against the Emperor'. It had Sanguinius at his feet and Horus was wearing a red terminator armour with dual lightning claws. Scattered across the spaceship's bridge, were the bodies of red armoured space marines (Khorne Berzerkers, he found out later). 

 

He wanted that. He liked Chaos. He liked the underdog, the villain, the bad guy. He wanted to be that bad guy so badly, that he did not hesitated any further. Grabbing a few more things, a blister pack saying 'ABADDON THE DESPOILER' the Chaos Space Marine codex a squad of Chaos Space Marines, some paints and a couple of paintbrushes, he walked towards the cashier.

 

These models still exist to this day. Abaddon, painted and stripped a couple of times, has only seen battle a few times back in the day. But the cost of him being the same as a Land Raider, deterred the writer from using him anymore, only on specific missions.

 

He now awaits undercoated, with some basic colour added, to be painted and used as a normal terminator (he will probably be dipped in acetone before long and stripped, then re-painted):

 

 

 

 

 

   

 

I wanted his sword to me reminiscent of the original colours of Drach N'yen, but also have a little bit of its own character.

 

The Chaos Space Marines have been all built, converted or scattered along the four winds of Chaos. I will eventually post pictures of all my infantry units, but I cannot possibly find the original marines from that box (although I do know they exist). 

 

Instead, I am leaving you with the pictures of the Hand of Death, one of my original dreadnoughts, painted back in the day. This must be one of the most active units in my army. It has been in almost every battle played since 2003. The banner is freehand (not my best work though).

 

 

        

 

More stories to come.

Edited June 23, 2025 by WBRBloom
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[Tallarn Commander]

Thanks for the trip down memory lane. I love Hand of Death and his banner!

[Brother Christopher]

I'll just tag on to what Tallarn Commander typed.

 

That's a venerable, foul, heretic machine there. I'm looking forward to reading more and seeing more old heretics.

[Firedrake Cordova]

Well that's a walk down memory lane - I got into the hobby via Hero Quest.

 

I remember that Horus Heresy/Emperor diorama - it was done by Mike McVey.

[WBRBloom]

57 minutes ago, Firedrake Cordova said:

Well that's a walk down memory lane - I got into the hobby via Hero Quest.

 

I remember that Horus Heresy/Emperor diorama - it was done by Mike McVey.

 

Yes, @Firedrake Cordova, that's the one! How I loved that diorama.. 

 

I was so obsessed with the twin lightning claws, and the terminator armour as a whole, that as I kid I tried to built a suit and envisioned how one can make the lightning claws actually work in real life. 

 

Sadly (?), it only remained as sketches and blueprints...

 

I think there is a company, somewhere, that makes these miniatures as a tribute, either in metal or STL files for printing.

[Rusted Boltgun]

I hope you don't mind me posting this in here @WBRBloom

 

Not the greatest photo but the best I could do!

[WBRBloom]

Not at all @Rusted Boltgun! 

 

I am a little bit ashamed, as I've been in Nottingham twice, but did not had the time to actually visit Warhammer World 

 

The missus and I have discussed this though, and at some point we are going to visit just for that, and have a whole day to myself. To my defence, we were travelling from London up North again, and we were just passing by Nottingham, so it was just a visit for a night.

[Tallarn Commander]

It’s a wonderful place. You will enjoy the trip.

[WBRBloom]

Next in our trip, the few first finished miniatures (yes, even with that awful flock from Citadel on the base).

 

First, we have one of the most classic CSM sorcerers with a bunch of old metal cultists. By the time I actually started playing, cultists were no longer really a thing, and no one was fielding them in games (unless you had them already and you were a hardcore Word Bearers or Alpha Legion player, but I never saw one). So I only managed to get these three models from blisters.

 

Seeing how I couldn't actually get a squad out of them, I was using them as thralls upgrade for my sorcerer (back in 3rd edition using a thrall during your psychic turn, allowed you to use an extra ability).

 

 

 

 

 

Then, one of the first CSM lords. It's quite funny that I still recognise colours on him that don't exist anymore, such as the Midnight Blue on his banner:

 

 

 

 

 

And finally, one of my most priced miniatures (although not a CSM). An actual LE2 miniature. Unfortunately I don't have the hexagon base that he came with. 

 

So, I got this little guy, for a little less than a fiver, at a store in Bristol, my first year there. I save him from a box of random models. Apparently he was loved (albeit sold to a store with 2nd hand miniatures), as he was painted, had freehand on his shoulder but he was also based. I am very tempted of stripping him and painting him in the Leetu colours as described in the HH novels, but I haven't decided yet.

 

 

 

Edited June 26, 2025 by WBRBloom
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[space wolf]

Love the 2e love you have here. Im 11 years old again....just please tell me youre not building khornate terminators.

[WBRBloom]

On 6/26/2025 at 6:07 PM, space wolf said:

Love the 2e love you have here. Im 11 years old again....just please tell me youre not building khornate terminators.

 

Thanks @space wolf! An no, I'm not building khornate terminators. My dark heart belongs to the Black Legion, although I am a huge fan of Angron's background and story (hence he's quote is in my signature).

[Dr_Ruminahui]

I'm kind of late to the party here, but thought I would throw in my own 2 cents.

 

Funny that Hero Quest was your gateway to the hobby - Hero Quest was the first GW game I played as well.  Back in 1993 I translated it into Spanish after being asked by a schoolmate to do so, so he and his friends could play together, then ran them through the box scenarios + a couple a made myself (as an aside, I remember having to explain skirmishes as "little battles" after they were unfamiliar with the word ("escaramuzas") my dictionary gave me).  My real gateway was first ed. Necromunda, though, which was the first box I bought myself though I had played the original Space Marine (what would become Epic) in the meantime.

 

As for the old painted mini, its primary value to you is clearly sentimental - so my question would be, which is of more sentimental value to you, its OG paint scheme or whatever (presumably better) paint job you give it now?

 

If you give your cultists 2 friends and some conversions, you could turn them into a Dark Commune squad.

 

And definitely go visit Warhammer world - 8 years ago or so my wife and I went on vacation to London (from Canada) and I managed to convince her for us to go on a day trip to visit, and I'm really glad I did.  Picked myself up a FW resin Proteus land raider (this was before it was in plastic), which remains the heaviest model in my collection. 

Edited July 8, 2025 by Dr_Ruminahui

[Brother Christopher]

Almost all of these models predate 'my time' in 40k but I absolutely love seeing these. What you have here definitely is a big part of 40k history.

 

The cultists' sculpts are a bit silly (looking at them, I get strong Terry-Pratchett-esque vibes. But the sorcerer and lord seem more familiar. They're not 'serious' in the modern 40k sense but you can see in them clear hallmarks of the the direction 40k took. I personally find the lord you've posted to very similar to the entire line of Space Marine pewter commanders: there was the Black Templars Castelan, Captain with Power Sword or the Games Day (1999?) captain with power fist: all with a cape, a raised weapon and an oversized gun.

 

On 6/26/2025 at 1:38 PM, WBRBloom said:

So, I got this little guy, for a little less than a fiver, at a store in Bristol, my first year there. I save him from a box of random models. Apparently he was loved (albeit sold to a store with 2nd hand miniatures), as he was painted, had freehand on his shoulder but he was also based. I am very tempted of stripping him and painting him in the Leetu colours as described in the HH novels, but I haven't decided yet.

 

I'd say go for it! I think it might be fun and satisfying to revisit a model as ancient as this one.

[WBRBloom]

Thank you very much for your kind words people, and apologies for the radio silence (I was in Greece for a little more than ten days and now I'm catching up my stuff).

 

I might get on with Leetu, once we finish with the painting challenge.

 

Now, next in our trip is my second metal dreadnought. This guy was sitting on my selves for a while, and painted him for a tournament last Christmas. I wanted a dreadnought with a different output (lascannon and missile launcher) as well as some close combat punch (hammer and dreadnought cc weapon).

 

Unfortunately, older models don't really get two close combat weapons, so I had to make him a hammer out of greenstuff and spare parts. I still need to finish off his banner, but I think he came out ok. I still love the absurdity of the stuff the older editions had. For example, the torso and the head are very awkward in size and then you get some amazing detail on the dreadnought claw. It baffles me.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Edited July 22, 2025 by WBRBloom
Fromatting.

[Firedrake Cordova]

Nice to see older models getting some love  

 

I'm not sure that hammer's big enough  (/jk)

Edited July 22, 2025 by Firedrake Cordova

[WBRBloom]

So, about a year ago I started this topic. Then summer came into play, then life came into play, then painting and whatnot. Then I stopped posting for a while.

 

However, what I managed to do with the time that I took away, was to finish my army. Yes. I painted every CSM miniature that I had ever bought. Well, to be completely honest, I painted every kit I ever purchased and can still be fielded legally (at least until 11th rolls out), so older character models, such as the metal Abaddon, Lucius, Cypher and the likes, are still tucked away. They will be painted and displayed next to other characters (Khârn and Typhus being the others, as well as the old metal Ahriman), but not just yet.

 

This was a project that started back in 2003, when I first bought Abaddon the despoiler for 3rd edition (see the posts above), and the bulk of the army travelled with me from Greece, to England and finally to Scotland, where it got its opportunity to get painted.

 

The whole army is complete. This means that it is based and varnished and ready to take on the lackeys of the False Emperor at any time. Not all of them are painted to my current painting standards and not all of the bases are exactly the same (some of them were created used basing paste from GW, until I decided to revert to simpler ways of basing), but they are otherwise finished.

 

You might notice that some of them have different colour rims. For example, berzerkers and anything Khornate has green, while plague marines have brown. This is a sort of colour coding them, for my own amusement, and to also play on the opposite colour on the colour wheel (reds and greens) or to play on the overall colour scheme (nurgle with green and browns).

 

Thank you for coming to my Catechism Ted Talk.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Brother Christopher]

All of this makes me feel around 15 younger. Great work. I'm loving the army shots. And the feels, too. 

 

Having finished them must feel great. And don't worry about discrepancies between individual models' standards. They're absolutely gorgeous as a whole and share a uniform aesthetic. And this is, I think, what matters in larger and longer projects.

[WBRBloom]

41 minutes ago, Brother Christopher said:

All of this makes me feel around 15 younger. Great work. I'm loving the army shots. And the feels, too. 

 

Having finished them must feel great. And don't worry about discrepancies between individual models' standards. They're absolutely gorgeous as a whole and share a uniform aesthetic. And this is, I think, what matters in larger and longer projects.

 

Hello @Brother Christopher! Thank you for your kind words. I know exactly what you mean and I've thought about those 15 years that went by so many times, and what I could have done differently, and more thoughts running through my head, and, and, and..

 

But I try not to live with regrets, or linger too much in the past. I'm not saying that I'm always successful, but hey-ho, I guess that's the human condition.. (Blimey, it's too early and I'm sober for becoming THAT philosophical).

 

To be 100% honest with you, while it felt (and still feels) amazing, having finished the army and be able to look at it in its entirety inside a cabinet, I did had the feeling of being without purpose after so many years. I guess that's why people decide to cling on and have so many concurrent projects, either on the same army or multiple armies. But the feeling of completion does feel great.

 

But there is a catch there. When does an army/project become or feels completed? Is it when you no longer have anything to paint or is it a line that ourselves draw and say 'that's the end of the road'?

 

For me, it was the second. I decided when my army felt it was done. I decided when a model did not need any further work done on it. This is something that I've realised after a while, well inside my hobby days, and after that point I became so happy. I stopped comparing myself to content creators and instagram painters, and started painting to better myself. And that's when I really became good, when I competed with myself. And I never looked back :) 

[Brother Christopher]

I hear you and what you posted is very relatable. These are the ups and downs of a long project: a rotation of thoughts mixed with wants, reality checks and self-imposed moderation. I've started an Old Space Marines (now they're called Firstborn, but to me they'll probably always remain proper Space Marines) probably around 2010 (the forum suggests that it was at least in 2012) and am still getting distracted but they're like a child - I'll finish the last 18 models some time and will hopefully get to the bitter-sweet end of the road that you've reached.

 

 

[WBRBloom]

11 hours ago, Brother Christopher said:

I hear you and what you posted is very relatable. These are the ups and downs of a long project: a rotation of thoughts mixed with wants, reality checks and self-imposed moderation. I've started an Old Space Marines (now they're called Firstborn, but to me they'll probably always remain proper Space Marines) probably around 2010 (the forum suggests that it was at least in 2012) and am still getting distracted but they're like a child - I'll finish the last 18 models some time and will hopefully get to the bitter-sweet end of the road that you've reached.

 

 

 

Heh, funny you should mention that... I went to Greece, to see family, in March/April, and an old friend of mine gave me about 2000 points of Space Marines (yes, 'firstborn') of Dark Angels, with heavy detachments of Deathwing and Ravenwing bikes and land speeders, and I'm not sure how to proceed. I painted a couple of them, which are the marines that came with the Assault on Black Reach box (OMG, awful models), just to feel the colour scheme, as I've never really painted loyalist marines before, and I'm not sure how to proceed now.. 

[WBRBloom]

So, in the beginning of this thread I mentioned that I have all the old metal miniatures for named characters, from back when I started playing/painting. But I never got around in completing these, so they were just sitting idle, collecting dust on a shelf.

 

The last few days I got to start working on one of them, specifically Lucius the Eternal, one of the few miniatures that, while I liked I never fielded/got the time, or skill, to paint.

 

So, this is a 'fresh' take on Lucius, painted on the colours and scheme of the current plastic one. Still WIP, but not long until I finish him.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Firedrake Cordova]

Nice work. I really like how the cloth came out  

[WBRBloom]

Thanks @Firedrake Cordova, much appreciated! I am pretty satisfied with how the whole model came out, given its age, size and complexity, and I'm really looking forward in finishing it!

 

Next, I think, would be Cypher, and I had previously finished Khârn and Typhus (older paintjobs, granted), so I'll post family shots, when they're done.

 

I'll try to keep Abaddon for last, but not sure if I'm going to restrain myself 

[WBRBloom]

...and we have the finished model.

 

I think I can remember when I got this miniature. It was definitely during the Fall of Medusa V campaign (I also got the Chaos Lord in Terminator Armour back then, the one with the Kai Gun) but I can't see myself in the store, buying it (I remember almost all the models I ever purchased and under which circumstances - don't ask).

 

It was really fun, I hope it won't be another 20 years until I paint the new Lucius. And honestly, it made me want to start an EC battle force or something, really nice colour combinations!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Next in line is Cypher, Lord of the Fallen!

 

[Brother Christopher]

Great stuff. Lucius turned out appropriately hideous.