It’s month five of the March to Terra. Some Legions overflow with recruits, while others struggle to press any Marines they can into service as the Warmaster draws nearer.
You can check out parts 1, 2, 3, and 4 here to see where we’ve gotten to so far, and as a reminder, here’s which Praetor is taking on which Legion:
- Magos Sockbert IV Legion – Iron Warriors
- Soggy: V Legion – White Scars
- Bair: VII Legion – Imperial Fists
- Rockfish: VII Legion – Imperial Fists
- Jack: IX Legion – Blood Angels
- Liam: IX Legion – Blood Angels
- Beanith: X Legion – Iron Hands
- Fowler: XII Legion – World Eaters
- Lenoon: XIII Legion – Ultramarines
- Contemptor Kevin: XIII Legion – Ultramarines
- Serotonin: XIV Legion – Death Guard
- RichyP: XVII Legion – Word Bearers
- NotThatHenryC: XIX Legion – Raven Guard (and Legio Astorum)
- Lupe: XX Legion – Alpha Legion
Jack
I spent another month without a whole lot to show for Heresy, but I did manage to paint up a flying brick to stick some slow models in (who am I kidding I’m never putting this on a table or painting another one in my life).
Lenoon
I have a looming deadline coming up with the next instalment of the Hackney Area Tabletop Enthusiasts’ Club Heresy series, so instead of being sensible and shoring up my list, getting to a comfortable 2k and revelling in the experience of having a nicely painted full army, I’ve made a stupider choice – splitting my painting forces to try and rush a 2k and a 1k force with no repeat models.
A big part of that has been getting the Spartan “Ça Irat” (a mix of Ca Ira and Irate that makes no sense but makes me laugh) up and running, using the same methods as the rest of my army; a sponge and the big messy brush. I’ve not painted a tank using these before and it was an interesting experience. I think I’ve just about pulled it off, though I am waiting for a new set of doors to lighten the freehand burden.
Following up with the Spartan came a Rhino, so there’s at least two targets to slam a thousand lascannons into. This time I tried salt weathering and airbrushing – not a combination that the tank enjoyed, because it dissolved the salt which then spent a week happily precipitating out of the paint, giving it a “lovely” covered in crystal look.
The big conceptual thing this time round is that I’ve just flat out decided to include female and female-presenting marines in my army because it’s my fucking galaxy, not yours GW and so I can do so as I like. My recon squad have been the stand out heroes of my lists so far, and they got a (female) reinforcement and some new freehand incorporating diagonals and diamonds inspired by a trip to the British Museum to pick up new patterns. My Praetor then walked into view, and came out with her own background and motivation to explain her slightly tired, thousand-yard-stare pose that she ended up in.
Praetor Amenirdis, once-Tithe-Lord of the Masale system, knows that her task will end in her death. The only question is whether she will live to see the skies of her native Terra just once more, or if a warrior’s grave on the eastern fringe is all that awaits her at the end. Each step taken is one further from Command of the 296th Chapter of the Ultramarine Legion, and another slow pace along the road of skulls and the path of vengeance.
On the day she didn’t do a lot though even when demoted to a Champion so I could squeeze in more toys (regrettable choice), she still held the line with the very irritating fearless-in-challenge buff letting her reliably chop through some traitor Word Bearers and Sons of Horus.
Contemptor Kevin
I have a ton of Heresy models to get through – ten primed Sons of Horus Tactical Marines, another squad of Ultramarines Veterans, a Leviathan Dreadnought, and I built a squad of Fulmentaris Terminators and a Sons of Horus Kratos Tank.
So naturally for this month, I painted a total of 2.3 (repeating) models: a Sons of Horus Land Raider Spartan, and the top half of Roboute Guilliman commanding the Land Raider Proteus Flame of Illyrium.
The Land Raider Spartan was a relatively straightforward job, though it took a bit longer than I was expecting because of an unexpected dogsitting weekend and not wanting to bring my paints to my friend’s place. But it had been sitting on my table for awhile primed, and I wanted to get the big model *off* my table. Plus, it serves as a great backdrop for my toys.
After I finished painting the Spartan, what should arrive at my door but the long-awaited Land Raider Proteus! I have been planning on purchasing a Land Raider Proteus for years, and now the time had come to fulfill one of my dream projects.
In the Horus Heresy novel “Ruinstorm”, there’s a picture in which Guilliman is standing out of the hatch of his tank, the Land Raider Proteus Flame of Illyrium as he leads an armored spearhead against various Chaos Daemons. From the moment I saw the picture, I wanted it. I was not keen on trying to do a conversion with the older resin Land Raider Proteus, however.
The *new* Land Raider Proteus is the best tank kit that GW has ever produced. Even amongst the other amazing Heresy models, the Land Raider Proteus goes together easily, relatively straightforward, and doesn’t even have some of the tricky balance issues that the Sicaran and Spartan had. I was also able to build it with the treaded sides easily able to be taken on and off for priming and painting. Because the Proteus lends itself so well to sub-assembly, I could easily see myself buying more for my armies.
At this point, I chopped up a Guilliman Forge World model in half, and mounted the two halves back together in the Proteus hull. I had to use a little bit of green stuff to make Guilliman sit solidly in the hatch, but it’s more-or-less invisible on the finished model. I also had to cut away his sword scabbard and the tassles held by the Hand of Dominion, and then repose the left arm so that it would be raised above the treads to the tank.
For the sides of the model, I wanted to try something new to break up the endless blue and gold that is kind of a pain to paint. The Liber Astartes book notes that Ultramarines vehicles have a marble finish for senior commanders on them, so I set about trying to give my take on the Flame of Illyrium a marble finish:
It’s probably not quite as good as what I could achieve if I had an airbrush, but it came out more-or-less how I envisioned. I am exceedingly happy with the centerpiece of my Ultramarines Tank Army!
Soggy
Since our last update I’ve been a bit all over the place for hobby progress, due to events such as Golden Demon or UK Goonhammer Open taking up my time or games like Darktide sapping my free time. When I was able to focus on the hobby it was incredibly productive and I was able to crack out a variety of units for my Fifth Legion force.
December/January is going to be another write off for me sadly as I’ll be overseas for a month, however I have an event to get ready for by the end of January – I’ll finally be painting some bikes for my White Scars!
NotThatHenryC
This has also been a relatively quiet month for me, heresy-wise. I also had to get ready for the UK Goonhammer Open, but that meant painting a Dire Wolf and some grav weapons for my Legio Mortis, rather than any Raven Guard or anything. On the plus side the event was awesome and I got to smash a load of titans. I also won all my games apart from a doubles match (clearly the other guy’s fault) – which is the most important thing.
I did manage to get a bit of paint on my Warhound. I think last time I said something about working on this and nothing else and I can of course report that I haven’t stuck to that in any way whatsoever. I did manage to get out my fancy Vallejo liquid gold to do the trim (there’s quite a bit, it seems) and block in a few panels in blue. So it’s starting to take shape, albeit with tons left to do.
Meanwhile I have been writing an article about the Custodes list in Liber Imperium (which you can check out here). This inspired me to stick together some Custodes and Sisters of Silence that I’ve had lying around since around the time Burning of Prospero came out. I got hold of a few axes from the Warden kit for some of these Sentinel Guard. The painted ones were done many years ago but Retributor armour and reikland flesh shade still creates a decent effect. I might now redo these in my fancy vallejo gold if I can be bothered.
Also long-unbuilt were these five Sisters of Silence (also from Burning of Prospero) and this Kharon Pattern Acquisitor. This is one of those models I loved the idea of but never found a home for in an army, but I’m excited about the possibility of running it. I magnetised the front bit and stuck a bit of brass rod into it for basing, as the bit of plastic it originally came with was long gone. The base came from under an unfinished knight, so hopefully I’ll remember to order it a new one some day.
Most recently I’ve got hold of a few more Sisters and some Escher bits. I’m using these to convert Prosecutors with assault needlers and Sanctioners armed with bows, to represent Vratine Nemesis Bolters (or possibly non-Vratine ones if points don’t allow). These are the Prosecutors.
And these are the Sanctioners. My headcannon is that they fire some sort of anti-psyker-tipped arrows, but mainly this came about because I can’t see SoS crawling around with sniper rifles. Archery suits their aesthetic better, in my opinion.
I have a few more conversions planned including all the bits I hope to make into an Abyssal Knight and Silent Judge. I’ve got 10 more unbuilt sisters who I plan to make into 5 more prosecutors, 4 with greatswords to join my existing 5 and make a Raptora retinue, and a Vestal. I might give one of them a standard just for fun, if I can find a suitable bit. I’ve also got a plan to turn some Escher jetbikes into SoS ones, which will involve spare SoS bits and probably green stuff. No idea if/hot that will work but the models are cool.
My Raven Guard haven’t been entirely forgotten. I’ve been a bit unhappy with painting vehicles all black for them (boring) so I thought I’d try out a camo scheme. This rhino (which is converted from an old Mars hull, spare Land Raider bits and gubbins) is serving as a test model for digicam. I think it’s going quite well, though I have only about half covered it so far. Luckily, the camera can’t see round the back.
I’ve written all sorts of lists for all this stuff, or various combinations of it. Sisters of Silence look like a fun combination with Ravens I think, or the Custodes would be a really powerful one. Luckily the Warhound can work with any army, so long as there’s another 2250 points worth of it good to go.
Bair
Another slow month for me for Heresy while I work on other projects. From my games I realised I needed to add more ranged anti-tank and the thought process kinda shifted very quickly from a melta kratros then (in order): melta predators, laser destroyer rapier batteries, another land raider, and finally a Leviathan with melta. The first 3 ideas there would have added what I actually originally wanted in the form of ranged anti tank, given that the Leviathan’s melta is only 18″ range…but hey, Leviathans are cool (and also just generally quite good). The other arm had to be a claw because you can’t turn down S10 Brutal 3 attacks in this game, especially when you’re needing to get relatively close. I’ve had 2 games with this guy so far and he has: killed a rhino and then died while simultaneously killing a Contemptor in combat after being charged. So it’s clearly made its points back so far. Oh and I gave it assault cannons because even though it costs 40 points over the heavy flamers they are: legion specific so I want to take them and very pretty good with 8 rending shots. They’re just the forgeworld ones made for cataphractii terminators trimmed down on the back and slotted in (with a lot of superglue).
I also kitbashed and painted the Forgeworld Fist Praetor in Tartaros armour. Again, wanted legion-specific wargear so gave him a fist from the Cataphractii set that I had laying around which just fit on perfectly without any cutting needed – that’s to represent a solarite gauntlet. He’s gonna need a command squad, maybe get that built and painted in time for the next one of these.
Lupe
Liam
The best way to get an army painted is to get the “vegetables” done first, and then focus on the toys afterwards – otherwise you end up with lots of unfieldable toys because your basic guys are still primer-only, and everything sits on the shelf.
Naturally I’ve ignored this completely and painted nothing but Dreadnoughts for the last two months, with two more Contemptors and a Leviathan going into the army:
I did also paint our review copy of the Deimos-pattern Predator, which feels a long time ago now, so I have progressed to having Painted Tanks which I understand is an important part of the Heresy experience.
I have one more Leviathan sitting on my desk, but in the spirit of getting the army actually painted I am focusing on the Despoilers first, with two of the ten painted and two more in progress right now. My goal for the sixth update is to have two painted Troops so that I can actually meet the minimum requirements for a detachment, and perhaps also a Rhino or two to mount them in. As a stretch I will also look to get another Praetor painted so that I have one rocking an Axe of Perdition rather than a Blade.
