Emperor's Children Characters

My love for the Emperor's Children is based on the Horus heresy novel Fulgrim and to some extent Angel exterminatus and others. Besides having a playable force and trying out the rules for 30K my main goal has been to recreate the notable characters of the Legion. Here I present a list of what I have completed and plan to do:

Done:

• Saul Tarvitz: Captain 10th. One of the most well known. Lead the loyalist resistance on Istvaan 3. Fights with custom broadsword. 
• Eidolon: Lord Commander. Arrogant and in lead of the traitors. Fights with thunder hammer and sonic enhancements.
• Vespasian: Lord Commander. The good and loyal of the Lord Commanders. Fights with a blade. 
• Solomon Demeter: Captain 2nd. A bold warrior who despite being quite arrogant in his own way remained loyal and payed the price. Custom bolter and chainsword.
• Fabius: Chief apothecary. Attempted to better the genetic code and appearance of the astartes by incorporating xenos organs and connecting the brains pain sensors with those of the pleasure centre. Uses his medical kits etc.

To create/add:

• Fulgrim the Primarch. ForgeWorld model is a must.
• Julius Kaesoron: Captain 1st. I will probably use the sergeant of the Cataphractii terminators. In the books he is described as fighting with various weapons such as sword, lightning claws, glaive and power fist. I might go for the sword.
• Marius Variosean: Captain 3rd. First of the noise marines, I will use the orchestrator of the Kakophoni. Would be nice to create a pre-heresy version as well.
• Lucius: Captain 13th. I have started on Lucius and am going to use the Palatine Blades Prefector as his base model.
• Ancient Rylanor: Dreadnought. ForgeWorld has even got a bundle for him but I just finished another Dreadnought and wont add another for some time. 

Non-astates to add:

• Bequa Kynska: The famous composer which became mad after hearing the music of the laer. I want to add her as a decorative piece to the army. Not sure about the rest of the remembrancers.
• Fabius' Children: Secret project...

So what do you think? Have I forgotten anyone? Is it a good list? Mad? Stupid? Let me know.

Ideas for an Emperor's Children 1000p army list

Yo! So I thought I would share my initial ideas for a 1000p force of Emperor's Children and the models needed to complete it.

HQ: Solomon Demeter (Legion Centurion) Artificer armor, Refractor field, Combi-weapon, Heavy chainsword. 90p.

Troops: Assault squad. 9x assault marines 1x sergeant, 2x power weapons. 270p.

Troops: Tactical squad. 9x tactical marines 1x sergeant. 150p.

Elites: Contemptor dreadnought talon. Heavy conversion beamer, heavy flamer. 220p.

Elites: Palatine blades. 4x warriors 1x prefector. 135p.

Fast attack: Legion jetbike sky hunter squadron. 3x hunters. 135p.

Total: 1000p

Perhaps not the best, balanced or competitive list but it contains cool units and is reasonably "fluffy". The points can be re-arranged in many ways to create variation. For example, the conversion beamer is expensive and a cheaper weapon could allow the jetbikes to have a multi-melta. Or perhaps allow for more power weapons in the Palatine blades squad. The list has some anti-armor and long distance fire-power in the dreadnought but that is it. It is mostly dedicated to close combat with a lot of mobility coming from the jetbikes and jump infantry.

At the moment I have plenty of HQ-models, a full tactical squad and a half assault squad so there is quite a lot of work to reach even the low level of 1000p. Stay tuned in other words :)

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!