Painting has been a little light since my last update, but Heavy Support Squad Teutates are now all finished up to the same stage as squads Krysaspædes and Andarta and ready for the mass decaling and basing to come. In the previous chapter, I’d said that I had planned to begin working on the characters in the force next, but then I had a bit of a rethink on the latter stages of the project, so that's changed quite a bit - more on that below!
Since my last update, spending has been kept to a minimum, with around £10 being spent restocking the couple of Citadel paints I use to highlight the purple armour plates of my Emperor's Children and picking up some plastic mkIII arms and legs to supplement what I already had stashed in my bits box for one of my planned changes to the force. I was also lucky enough to obtain some Legion Flamers through a trade on Heresy Trading with the aid of a super nerdy post from Tarvitz himself asking for help from other surviving loyalists on Isstvan III.
 |
| Super-nerdy posts need super-nerdy images! |
Work continues to be busy despite the world slowly beginning to emerge from lockdowns and restrictions, but over the last couple of months I’ve actually found that I’m encountering a couple of different ‘issues’ around sustaining the project. The first is the fact that it’s the summer holidays which means a bit less hobby time – though with this it’s just a case of trying to maximise the hobby time that is available as before.
The second is a bit more difficult to counter though, especially as I’m well known for being a bit of a hobby butterfly! I’m involved with a couple of pretty cool collaborative projects (The War of the False Primarch and The War for the Eye lead by the amazing Apologist and Commissar Molotov respectively) which it’s awesome to be a part of but means I’ve been ‘distracted’ from painting Emperor’s Children at times, but I’m also finding that I’ve a desire to work on some other projects as well. The lure of a couple has been too strong, though it was nice to take a break and paint up some Adeptus Titanicus Knights as well as a couple of the fantastic characters from Cursed City. There are a few other projects I’ve yet to fully dive into but they’re there (I’m looking at you Aeronautica Imperialis, Adepta Sororitas and Kruleboyz and now a Kill Team as well…).
Ultimately, I suppose maintaining focus is one of the ‘curses of the hobbyist’ but I also think it’s best to work on what you feel like as forcing yourself to paint something just isn’t going to yield good results and I want to be able to look at the Emperor’s Children and feel that I’ve painted them well, so I feel that taking some time on other stuff is OK in the long run.
So, the bit I’ve been most looking forward to this time: what have I been up to since the last update other than finishing Heavy Support Squad Teutates? Well, as I mentioned above, I had a bit of a re-think on what I wanted to include in the army which was inspired by a couple of things:
Inspired by a passage in ‘Betrayal’ about the loyalist Astartes on Isstvan III being ill-equipped to fight the Traitors due to the weapons they had to fight the rebels (which I cannot seem to find now for love nor money, but I'm sure it's there!), I decided that I wanted to include another ‘rarely seen on the table top’ unit in the shape of a Tactical Support Squad equipped with Flamers. A search through my bits box yielded almost everything I needed other than legs, arms and flamers but having acquired those as described above, I set to work building Squad Latobius (named for a Celtic sky and mountain god worshipped by the people of Noricum, now modern Austria and Slovenia).
While I was assembling them, I decided to use the up-armoured helmets traditionally worn by Legion Breacher Squads, on the basis that the additional ablative plates would function almost like welders' masks and this seemed like an affectation that some Legion squads might adopt, particularly those who favoured fire. This also provided another opportunity for some kitbashing as I fashioned a plumed helm for the squad sergeant, in keeping with the other power armoured squad leaders in the army. I’m beginning to plan the heraldry of the squad now and one of the things I think I want to incorporate on the sergeant is white abdominal plating similar to the colour plate on page 111 of Betrayal.
 |
| Tactical Support Squad Latobius assembled and ready for priming. |
Although I'd originally thought I'd include Ancient Rylanor, adding Squad Latobius meant I needed to drop him if I was going to keep to my goal of a 1000pt force, but this gave me the opportunity to incorporate something that I think might be even more cool into the army.
A few years ago I went on a bit of a buying spree, picking up no fewer than 8 mkIV Ironclad dreadnoughts from Forge World. 6 of them were for my “Veterans of the Howling Gyre” Imperial Fists and originally the other two were destined for a Blackshields army. Though the Blackshields never came to pass, I did convert one of the dreadnoughts to be equipped with a Volkite Culverin though, as well as kitbashing a combi-bolter from a couple of Umbra pattern bolters for him.
A few years ago I went on a bit of a buying spree, picking up no fewer than 8 mkIV Ironclad dreadnoughts from Forge World. 6 of them were for my “Veterans of the Howling Gyre” Imperial Fists and originally the other two were destined for a Blackshields army. Though the Blackshields never came to pass, I did convert one of the dreadnoughts to be equipped with a Volkite Culverin though, as well as kitbashing a combi-bolter from a couple of Umbra pattern bolters for him.
Ancient Barastaer of the III Legiones Astartes.
Often (somewhat understandably) overshadowed by Contemptor and Leviathan Dreadnoughts, I love the look of the Castraferrum pattern, particularly the mkIV Ironclad - there's something iconic about the slab sided armour plates and oversized 'helm' sensor suite so there was a double appeal here, I could incorporate a uniquely converted miniature, equipped with another ‘rarely seen on the table’ option and it also seemed to me that a more ‘common’ and 'crude' Castraferrum Dreadnought might have been earmarked for death at Isstvan III, thus 'Ancient Barastaer' was born.
I think that although he may have been mighty hero of the Legion in life, his internment in a Dreadnought sarcophagus and thus ‘failure’ to be able to progress closer to ‘perfection’ could have damned him in the eyes of Fulgrim, though ultimately this would spare him the fate of those who strayed from the ideals of the Pax Imperialis.
Still no games with the army yet unfortunately, but maybe later in the year? Restrictions are lifting in Scotland now, so it’s more a case of finding time to play but I’m keen to try and get the army on the gaming table when I have the chance, especially as I find that games help inspire me to put paint on models.
Before I paint anything else, I need to pick up some more grey primer – I use ‘Humbrol Grey Primer #1’ for a lot of projects now, as I find it easier to see what I’m doing over a grey primer than a black one, and Humbrol Grey is a nice light grey (it's maybe a little lighter than Citadel Administratum Grey) but unfortunately as my local Hobbycraft store no longer stock it, the rattlecans have to be mail ordered direct from Hornby so that’s on next month’s hobby purchase priority list. Once I'm resupplied, I think the first thing on the painting table is Squad Latobius, that way I’m still saving the characters and a Dreadnought as a reward for getting the infantry done.
So that's where I'm up to. I hope to have another update sometime soon, but in the meantime thanks for reading!
Detail of Ancient Barastaer's Volkite Culverin
I think that although he may have been mighty hero of the Legion in life, his internment in a Dreadnought sarcophagus and thus ‘failure’ to be able to progress closer to ‘perfection’ could have damned him in the eyes of Fulgrim, though ultimately this would spare him the fate of those who strayed from the ideals of the Pax Imperialis.
Still no games with the army yet unfortunately, but maybe later in the year? Restrictions are lifting in Scotland now, so it’s more a case of finding time to play but I’m keen to try and get the army on the gaming table when I have the chance, especially as I find that games help inspire me to put paint on models.
Before I paint anything else, I need to pick up some more grey primer – I use ‘Humbrol Grey Primer #1’ for a lot of projects now, as I find it easier to see what I’m doing over a grey primer than a black one, and Humbrol Grey is a nice light grey (it's maybe a little lighter than Citadel Administratum Grey) but unfortunately as my local Hobbycraft store no longer stock it, the rattlecans have to be mail ordered direct from Hornby so that’s on next month’s hobby purchase priority list. Once I'm resupplied, I think the first thing on the painting table is Squad Latobius, that way I’m still saving the characters and a Dreadnought as a reward for getting the infantry done.
So that's where I'm up to. I hope to have another update sometime soon, but in the meantime thanks for reading!
Comments
Post a Comment