Tactical squad MKIV

Whoho! Forge World delivers as usual! The start of my tactical squad with 5 mkIV marines and upgrades for the Emperor's children. I want my force to be mainly mkIV because it looks soo good and seems less bulky than both mkIII and mkII. The 3rd Legion prefer speed and mobile units and the mkIII seems to cumbersome. I want to try to paint all types of armor so they will probably also be in the army but not in as large quantities. Assembled and painted models inbound.

Eidolon

Undoubtedly one of the most well known Emperor's Children, Lord Commander Eidolon is second only to Saul Tarvitz and Lord Fulgrim himself when it comes to popularity. I knew that I just had to have him in my collection!

I based my version of Eidolon of one of the four Masters of the Chapter models (GW). The thunder hammer works perfectly since it is his weapon of choice and the pose as well as all the ornamentation really makes him look as the self centered arrogant bastard that he is, I love to hate him!

Once again I swapped the back pack to a MKIV version to better fit in the 30K universe. I love that the shoulder pad already had a wing modeled onto it. It really looks like the Emperor's children icon. I also like that most of the Masters of the Chapter models have the aquila on their chest which doesn't matter since the 3rd legion had copyright to wear them. Mohahah

I wanted to make the hammer look as though it was made out of marble and I think the effect is really cool. Unfortunately I have forgotten which colors I used because my local Games Workshop manager helped me in the store. If anyone wants to know I could probably ask her once again.

Solomon Demeter 3

How to play the Captain of the 2nd Company? I thought of basing him of the Centurion in the FW Horus heresy books. The Centurion has a solid statline befitting a Space marine of high rank. With BS 5 he will perform well with shooting and WS 5, I 5 and three attacks will ensure that he is dangerous in close combat as well. At the same time the Centurion has significantly lower stats than the Praetor which is good because Solomon shouldn't perform as well in combat as his superiors (Vespasian and Eidolon).

I was considering upgrading Solomon into a consul but there weren't any profiles matching his personality. The Champion of the Legion would make him much better in close combat but I was planning on giving that to Lucius (unless FW gives him special rules as with Saul and Eidolon). Perhaps upgrading his weapons to master-crafted could represent the customization he put into them. Please comment with any suggestions on what profile YOU think would best fit Solomon Demeter.

Solomon Demeter 2

Following up on the fate of Captain Solomon Demeter today. I painted him in the classical purple with golden trims. The cape is black, highlighted with dawnstone. The left shoulder guard became white which I plan on giving my assault squad later. I heard some arguments about white not being used according to "fluff" and that this was a bad thing introduced by the guys at Forge World but I say that it looks cool and therefore stays. 

 The chainsword is golden which I think brings out Solomons extreme care and modifications of his weapons. His friend Marius (Captain of the 3rd Company) accused him for being superstitious, note befitting a man of his rank nor appropriate in a universe free of gods (haha jokes on him!).

 Not sure what mark the armor is supposed to be but it doesn't look too new and could work even for a 30K model. I added a MKIV backpack which gives the model an older appearance.

 Blue is my spot color and doesn't it work well with the purple? I will ad a painting tutorial later explaining in detail which colors I use.

Ending with a nice close up. Demeter is described as having short dark hair and a tan from the light of several suns. I used cadian fleshtone with a wash of ogryn flesh and highlighted with more cadian fleshtone. The hair is a mix of chaos black and dawnstone, small stripes of dawnstone and a wash of nuln oil to top it of. I like how he is a contrast to what most of my other characters will look like: pale and very blonde, the very image of their Primarch.

Solomon Demeter

Captain of the 2nd Company, Solomon Demeter is a charismatic leader within the Emperor's Children. He is described as being very confident in himself and not afraid of going into the part of the battle where the fighting is as fiercest. Almost as predictable as the master-tactician Horus himself:
"How can we defeat the enemy, master?"
"One word.... Spearhead!!!"
Anyway, as a prominent character in the novels I of course wanted to add him to my force (well it isn't much of a force yet...).

I based my model on one of the Masters of the chapter from Games Workshop (GW). The head is from a blood angels kit as is the chainsword, both added to my bitz-box from "the Raven". In the novels Solomon fights with a heavily customized bolter and chainsword. I think that the scope and ammunition-pack makes the bolter seem customized. I exchanged the power sword with a chainsword and the extra details makes it seem lavish enough for a captain. The sword is described as having an eagle worked into the handle and this is something that I failed at representing but I'm still happy with the result.

More on how I went about painting Demeter in the next post!

Lord Commander Vespasian

The first character I recreated from the Horus heresy novels was Lord Commander Vespasian which I completely based of the commander which is included in the Forge World MKIV command set (Forge World). The model itself I believe is elaborate enough to represent a Lord Commander (which is approximately equal in rank to a Praetor) and also matches the few descriptions available for Vespasian (he is described as having classical features which I interpret as a typical Space Marine with short hair etc.).

Vespasian is described as having high moral standards and I found him to be a stark contrast to Eidolon (his equal in the Legion) in the novels. This doesn't really match the way I painted him and the expression of the model (man he looks pissed!). Perhaps he is shouting orders in battle, perhaps he has just been betrayed by his own Legion or perhaps he just dropped a hammer on his foot.

I plan to play him using the rules for a Praetor in the Horus heresy books from FW. To the standard artificer armor and bolt pistol I will add a paragon blade (S+1 AP2) as well as an iron halo (4+ invulnerable save) which seems befitting of a man in his position. I think he is described as being deadly with a blade and the paragon blade gives instant death on to-wound rolls of 6! This sums up to 150p which is a bit too much for a HQ in a 1000p list, at least that is my opinion. However, for larger lists such as 1500p it works fine. Perhaps joining him with a close combat unit will optimize his performance.

Why the Children of the Emperor?

Why, you might ask, why choose the III legion? Well the first contact I had with the Emperor's Children probably came through the Games-Workshop webpage. I had just started playing 40K after my friend "The Raven" cunningly sowed the seeds of miniature gaming in my mind, much like Erebus. Although I can't remember it precisely, I probably came across the Noise marines and wasn't impressed at all, iiiscch!

As my hobby interest continued to grow "The Raven" once again intervened, this time clutching Horus Rising in his talons. It was in the first three books of the Horus heresy novels where I came into contact with Saul Tarvitz, Lucius, Eidolon and the rest of the 3rd legion. This escalated after reading Fulgrim and I knew that I had to cast aside the false Emperor and become one of the Children.

What I dreamt of, whilst crying over the Forge World prices, was to build my own III legion and to recreate the characters that I had grown to love from the novels. The release of the Horus heresy books by Forge World was the required spark and thus I started my collection. Here are my first two models: A standard bearer and a commander who I have chosen to represent Lord Commander Vespasian (more on him later).

The icon and the text are both freehand painted. The icon I based of the legion symbol. The text was a real pain to paint, especially in the recesses of the banner.

That's all for now! This was how it all started for me. Stay tuned for "The Raven's" story as well as more information on Lord Commander Vespasian.

So it begins...

It will take some time to get used to using the blog and sorting out the layout and all the technical parts but hopefully we will be running soon and uploading pictures of our models etc.

Damn he looks good!
//Vespasian