XIII. The Medusan

Legionary Azuhk has joined the Immortals. The gloom that has enveloped the Astartes lies heaviest on him and, despite all protestations, Azuhk is convinced he has failed his Primarch.

"I will find redemption in killing the traitors", he told me. I hope the Emperor watches over him.

~J

Finished and I'm very happy with how he's turned out. I'd love to say he will be the first of many, but more likely he'll be the first of a few.

And because size does matter, here's a couple of scale shots;

XII. Auto-clade

This is a busy time at work and I'm not getting as much hobby time as I'd like. My first Astartes is coming along though. I'm going to try a big push this weekend to get him finished.

As always though, a big reason he's taking time to complete is my total inability to stick to one job at a time. I've been distracted working on a couple of other miniatures.

The first is a Murder Servitor. These appear in the third Horus Heresy rule book from Forge World and are described as skull faced and armed with crude cutting and stabbing weapons. I kit-bashed this creature from a Dark Eldar Wrack with a head made from a servo skull.

The second is a Cydonian Sister, one of the tech-adept assassins of the Mechanicum. More Dark Eldar bits, a Fantasy Dark Elf witch and a head made from half a servo skull, half a sister of slaughter head and a bit of green stuff to blend it all together.

XI. The Solar Auxilia

I freely admit that I have a problem when it comes to sticking at a task. I'm just too easily distracted. So, I broke off from working on my art scale Astartes to finish painting my first Solar Auxilia.

I bought these chaps on a whim because I loved the sculpts so much, I'm not trying to build an army here, so it may take me a very long time to get round to painting all twenty of them. However, they may also turn out to be a nice change of pace whenever I want to take a short break from converting. It could be good to just have a few miniatures which I build straight out of the box, as it were.

So, this one is a colour test, using the same restricted palette as I intend to use throughout the crew of the Euripides. Hopefully I can keep a unified look without it all merging into one murky mess.

X The Colour of Iron

I know some people like to see work in progress photos, so here is the Astartes in his current form. All dark and grubby and awaiting ... well pretty much everything.

I've developed a painting style which could best be summed up as, slapping it on and hoping for the best. Like my first attempt at an Iron Hand Astartes, I'm avoiding painting him black. I'd rather suggest black using shades of slate grey. This time I've added some brown in some of the recesses to add interest and warm him up a little. This Iron Hand is going a bit rusty, I think.

A long way still to go to finish him.

IX. Wall of Iron

The Astartes terrify me. Each is a colossus of ceramite and iron. Each is a glowering, melancholic presence on the ship ... and I fear, that since that terrible time I am forbidden to mention, each is slowly loosing his mind.

~J

The build of my first art-scale marine is pretty much complete and he's ready for some paint.

Since I'm aiming for the Iron Hands after the death of their primarch, I want them to look slightly unhinged and as much a danger to their allies as to their foes. This first Astartes has a chain, ending in a cruel hook hanging from his belt, next to the skull of an executed traitor. Oaths of moment are nailed to the armour of his left leg.

I was wary of taking these element too far and perhaps making him look like a traitor, rather than a loyalist who's loosing his marbles. Maybe with the next one I'll push it a but further.

VIII. Building on a Theme

When I first decided that the Horus Heresy was where my interest lay, I was faced with the problem of having to decide what the ordinary men and women of that time looked like. The release of Forge World's Solar Auxilia has been an absolute godsend in this regard and they have really helped me cement my ideas. I see many people online describing them as having a 'steampunk' look but to me they are definitely more 'deiselpunk'.

It's a slight distinction perhaps to some people and I think often anything with a retro look gets lumped in with 'steampunk', but to my mind the difference in clear. The Solar Auxilia would not have looked out of place in an episode of the old 1930s Flash Gordon. So, out with the 41st Millennium gothic medievalism and in with the Art Deco retro-futurism. Think Flash Gordon and Metropolis with an injection of the grimdark.

Someone on Dakka suggested that I might want to use cataphracti pattern terminator legs to build art scale marines. They were spot on. The cataphractii legs have that wonderful cog pattern running around the soles of their feet which fit perfectly with the Iron Hands. This is where I'm at;

What started as an experiment, seems to be working beautifully. I've hopefully managed to build a marine with the bulk, height and power I was after.

The Quartermaster is getting a bit of a make over too, to fit better with the deiselpunk aesthetic. I've lost track of how many months I've been working on this one miniature, but I want to get him perfect to be the benchmark for everything else I go on to create. Gone are the medieval, ruffled sleeves and the sword (which I was never happy with) is being replaced with an Art Deco looking laspistol. I'm also thinking of trying to remove the purity seal from his waist. Is it just too 40k looking? I don't know; some of Forge World's Horus Heresy miniatures do have what look like purity seals modeled onto them so perhaps I can get away with it.

Thanks for reading and a Very Merry Christmas.

VII. Evolution

I’m embarrassed about how long it has been since I posted an update. The truth is that other things kept me away from modelling and painting for a while; I lost all momentum and the muse deserted me. I’ll been 2 months in the hobby doldrums and now I must make an effort to get back.

I have started to make some progress on my cairn wraith conversion. My initial thought with this miniature was that she was going to be one of the ship’s astropaths. However, as I finished working on the conversion I found myself adding more cables and a servo skull and, by pure coincidence I’m sure, was also reading “Mechanicum” by Graham McNeill. Now I’m coming round to the idea that she may be a servant of some Mechanicum Adept who has taken up with the crew of the Euripides. I love how a miniature can evolve as you work on it and how I don’t always know what I’m building.

So having decided on a Mechanicum contingent, I’m thinking of all the weirdness I can make. The Imperial Enforcer who was going to lead the ship’s armsmen may end up being a Mechanicum servant too – perhaps the Adepts factotum or herald?

Something which has troubled me is the thorny issue of scale, or rather the scale of Astartes. We all know that in the background of 30/40k, the Adeptus Astartes are now portrayed as giants; towering slabs of power armour and muscle. The miniatures, sadly, do not convey this. I had hopes to create the illusion of them being towering warriors by elevating them on their bases. It does put their heads above the heads of ordinary men, but I’m still not happy that it works.

Is that man a giant? Oh, wait, no … he’s just standing on a box.

This problem bothered me enormously until I got my hands on Horus Heresy Book 3 – Extermination. This was my eureka moment. Book 3 has rules for Strike Forces … 1 to 3 characters plus up to 350 points of troops, vehicles etc. That’s potentially just a very few models and it means the prospect of creating an art-scale, Heresy period Strike Force is not an impossible dream.

There are several people who have modelled amazing art-scale marines, but I’ve been studying how both Migsula and the Spikey Rats do it. It’s inspiring stuff. I’ve got as far as a simple test using grey knight terminator parts as the base for the marine and I love the height and bulk it gives. Obviously it needs a lot of work, but I’m going to set myself the challenge of making a few art-scale Mk3 Iron Hands.

As always, thanks for reading.