So it Begins, or continues...

Right, better late than never.

So I am the elusive 3^rd member of this blog you may  have been hearing about from my bro’s, you may call me Vangar, not my real name, rather my username, but I like it, you may also call me your liege lord, because that is what I am now. Deal with it. You wish-Daniel

Anyway I'm sure you’re all dying to know where I've been all this time. Well I haven’t been sitting idly these past few months. While I haven’t made time to buy and build things, due to university essays and Christmas and whatnot, I've been planning and pondering. Perhaps another reason I haven’t posted is because, unlike my fellows, my style of building and painting doesn't accommodate WIP’s, allow me to explain.

The method

While my bro’s have already thrown up a load of picture of model parts, built and sprayed (but unpainted) units, to be sprayed and painted as a whole model or unit, I don’t do that. I paint my models while still on the sprue, normally I put bodies, heads and legs together, but that doesn’t work for this project. As such, my models come out completely finished. Now there are pros and cons to this method, the con is that it takes a very long time to churn out an army, because I have a to do it a few models at a time, however, the pro, which I consider to be worth the time taken, is that the army is completely finished by the end of construction. I will never have the issue my colleagues do, which is that they end up with an entire army to paint; I’m not sure poor Daniel has ever wholly finished an army as a result, not that he seems to mind (except when I bitch about it to him of course >:3). The tragedy is that even though I will not have a working army for months after my bro’s, by the time I do, my nice shiny army has only bare resin and mat black armies to face. Such is the way of things.

The story so far

So the reason I post now is that I’m finally making some headway in the legion, as it stands at the moment, I have 5 marines done, I know, impressive right. When I first started collecting the parts for the project I tried to do a counter to follow my progress, like the mark system the ultramarines use in know no fear. Unfortunately it became hard to track the hours when it moved into weeks and months, so I gave up, but this is what I managed to keep track of:

[Mark-00.00] (12:00pm 28.11.2012)- first forge world thousand sons order purchased

 [Mark-34.51]- Bases ordered from secret weapon miniatures

[Mark-37.03]- Parts for Phosis T’kar are purchased on eBay (body, legs, head & weapons), and other parts are negotiated through owned bits (hand) and future kits (bolter, arms & backpack)

[Mark-84.57]- parts for helmet crests bought of bits and kits

[Mark-316.14]- paints, sprays and test models purchased from games workshop

[Mark-794.46]- rearranges and de-flashes infantry components by body type

[Mark-816.12]- begins attaching crests to heads

Man, several hundred thousand space marines managed to destroy each other in only 24 hours, and here I am, now in the thousands, with little to show for it. Moving on though, it should be apparent (and if it isn’t, it should be made clear now) that I am the blogs dedicated artist, and I’ve produced both banners for the site so far, and will probably doing bits of art or doodles here and there where appropriate. But this is also important for my legion building. You see, I didn’t want my army to end up like Paul's, being... well, alpha legion-like, in that all his marines look identical (shut up Paul, you know it’s true). No, I wanted every marine to look slightly different and unique, but you can’t just go building and expect this to just happen, I needed a plan, a roster, thus it was I spent a day and a half making this:

Pretty good right? Every marine i have so far planned to the last detail (ok, almost), I will add and update this roster as time goes by, and every time I update, however yonder that is, I will indicate my progress through said roster. I will also likely refine the method and build a roster for the Night Lords, I’d do the same for the salamanders, but I feel like all I’d have to do is make a single mark II marine with a phobos bolter and paste it 60 times, seems rather dull.

Lastly I may as well leave you with some indication of what the army will actually look like, so I took this picture of the first regal marine of the legion, you should be able to tell who he is on the roster.

That’s all for now my loyal subjects, Magnus be with you.

Blood on the Sand

Zso Sahaal crouches atop a ruin overlooking the dead. Smoke curls up from the burning hulks of the Salamanders' vehicles, wrecked by the fire of those they once called brothers and the Talonmaster watches as his warriors check all those dead are just that. A knife here, a bolt round there, the red blood of Nocturne mixes with the black of Isstavan's sand. The 139th Company of that legion had run from the Dropsite, fleeing  the fate decreed for them and all of their like. But no longer. Sahaal and his 3rd Company was one of many companies from all 8 legions now revealed under the Warmaster's banner, tasked with hunting down the last remnants of the first wave legions. The Iron Warriors and World Eaters sweep the Lurgan Ridge to the west, hunting down the Raven Guard and their coward of a primarch. Others sweep to east of Sahaal, the loyalists will not leave Isstavan alive, of that the Talonmaster is sure.
Sahaal's column had detected the Salamanders 4 days hence and had spent that last 39.48 hours in pursuit, finally running them to ground in the wreckage of one of the planet's few settlements. Pressed against the wall, the Salamanders had seen no option but to fight, it was that or dying with wounds to their backs. As it was, it had been no choice to it. They fought, and they died. The bodies of many sons of Nocturne lay in the sand, along with both of the Salamanders' Contemptor brothers, one lacking anything above the groin after a meeting with the VIIIth Rapier carriage. A Caestus ram burns in the village, wrecked by the attack run of a lone traitor Avenger fighter which also hosed the Salamanders' counter attack with it's formidable firepower before vanishing into the skys once more.
Sahaal's vox clicks as his second activates a link. "All Salamanders confirmed as dead, we count 54. At least all except those who broke off at battles end. Auspex reads 10. Requesting permission to pursue them?"
" Granted. What were our losses, Librarian?"
"3 dead, 9 wounded. I have not heard back from sergeant Zalon's assault claw though. You were with them captain, can you elaborate?"
"All are casualties, 4 are dead, 6 are wounded. Find the apothecary for them now. Special attention to be given to brother Vankas if he lives, he stood by me when all others around him fell."
"Indeed captain. And why did they fall?" A silence pregnant with meaning invades the vox, it is a unspoken truth that to accompany the Talonmaster in battle is a virtual death sentence.
"It is of no matter. Apothecary now."
"Yes lord, I will fetch him momentarily."
"Are we done here? The joys of pursuit call to me."
"Almost captain. We have a prisoner."
Sahaal smiles behind his faceplate. "I'm coming to you."
His jump pack ignites with a roar of turbines and he leaps off his perch, and descends towards the librarian  standing in the shadow of the Salamanders' predator, its magna-melta staring forlornly up into the sky. With a thump, Sahaal lands and straightens, maglocking his helm to his leg as he does so.
" What killed this then?" he asks, tapping the tank with his claw.
" I did" Brother Helcon booms as he strides past, his assault cannon and claw stilled once more, barely a scratch marking his sarcophagi.
" Impressive" the raptor says, raising a hand in acknowledgment. " Now, that prisoner?"
The librarian motions to a gaggle of marines to one side who wander over. Sahaal recognizes them as 8th Tactical Claw, and a lone warrior of the Atramentar as well. Held limp in their hands is a warrior of the XVIIIth, his helm crest marking him out as a sergeant.
" Would you like to interrogate him now or after we have run his brothers to ground?"
" Now, it think. Before he builds up his defenses."
Sahaal turns to the captive Salamander and gently lifts his helm up. "Can you hear me, cousin? Do you know who I am?"
" I...hear you. And I know you."
"Very good. Name, squad designation and company?"
"Aliso Vorren, 2nd tactical squad, 139th Company, XVIIIth Legion."
"Perfect. For formality's sake, I will ask you this now.Where is your Primarch, where is your legion rally point and how many of you survived the Dropsite?"
Vorren chuckles. "Go screw yourself, I'll not talk."
There is a harsh metallic crack as Sahaal's gauntlet meets the sergeant's helm, snapping the astartes' head back against his powerpack.
"That wasn't very fair, was it? I did ask you nicely. So let's try this again. Where is Vulkan, where is your  rally point and how many of you scum still live?" The claw blades slip through the sergeant's breastplate and into the flesh beyond.
"Ugh...I'll still not...agghhh...talk."
"Are you sure?" The claw twists, rending Nocturnean muscle under its touch.
The Salamander screams in pain, Sahaal's claw has reached the abdomen. "I..Will..Give..You..Nothing."
The claw withdraws with a shluck. "Somehow I believe you. But I say this, you will talk. If not to me, you will talk to him." The bloodstained claw rises to point to the VIIIth's Librarian  "Well, I say talk which implies you have a choice. You really don't. Satalinus will rip what I want from you, whether or not you co-operate. Remove his helm." A pale and blood-drawn face is revealed, a Terran it seems. "Release him."
The Salamander falls to his knees, blood pour from his wounds. "No....the anvil tempers me. I..Will..Never..Break."
Satalinus steps closer, hand reaching out to rest upon Aliso's forehead. Sahaal smiles. "Trust me, you will. Our Librarius specialize in cracking stubborn prisoners' minds open and Satalinus is one of the best. One final chance, sergeant Vorren, tell me what I want to know. No...?"
A goblet of blood-speckled spit strikes the embossed skull on Sahaal's breastplate, and begin to slowly slide down onto the midnight blue plate.
The Talonmaster laughs to the sky," We have our answer then. Begin."
The screams echo from the ruined walls, the sound music to the Talonmaster's ears.




So the Night Lords and Salamanders fought on Saturday, standard Annihilation game, Kill Point victory and secondaries as normal. And as normal, Paul got tabled 11-1 to the VIIIth. He gave it his best shot, I feel but he and Harry had demanded last week that I would fight like I wanted to win in my next game, instead of my usual happiness either way regarding game results. Combined with Harry's Thousand Sons crushing him last week, we have decisively proved that his victory over me in the last report was a fluke, probably caused by his damn Praetor and command squad, 2+ saves are evil now. I'm sure the day will come when he wins a game of anything but there's a saying about Hell and ice that is rather appropriate considering the weather here in Britain.
In other news, I will try to get a proper army picture up soon and images of my latest army additions. That and any stuff I actually manage to get painted.

C+C's welcome as always.

A slight update

So first of all, hope you all had a good Christmas and New Year and you all got what you wanted. So now that's over, updates.

I got paid early last month and there was much money given so yay but thanks to my mother getting the Christmas break off, no large boxes for Forge World could arrive in case of argument. However, by the time I finish typing this, the next order will be just that. The VIIIth are about to get heavy armour...(cue maniacal laugh, you'll see why when I do the unboxing next week)

So I also said that I was nearly finished building the last order, well it's done as you can see. They will all be painted; slowly but they will be painted, promise. As usually, pictures aren't great but I think that's more to do with them being purely black, sucks in all the details. It'll be different ideally when they're in midnight clad.

15th Claw, XIVth Company searching for Cherautii targets in the Governmental Plaza.

A bitch to build, mainly because of not realizing that launchers+backpacks=downward launchers. Once I'd worked that one out, it was easier to do. My advice if you want them shooting is either cut off the right vent or order the packs from here. http://www.forgeworld.co.uk/Warhammer-40000/Space_Marines/Space_Marine-Infantry-and-Accessories/SPACE_MARINE_HEAVY_WEAPONS_SET.html

 Close ups, obviously

 And the long mentioned but only recently finished assault squad. 11th Claw, XIVth Company on the hunt. Terran sergeant with power weapon, two guys with hand flamers (they probably suck but why not?) and the others. Hopefully they'll get their trial by fire this weekend but who knows.

Yer, they're badass. Not great poses though.

Once the next order is built, it'll likely be another 40 marines added after that. I'll give you their numbers and if you want to, you can guess what each squad is. So it'll be 14th Claw/ 1st Company, and 1st, 8th and 13th Claw all of XIVth Company; the XIVth Company ones should be easier to guess. I've just realized there's also the pre-existing terminator squad to number up.
Or it may be some of the stuff required for my Armies on Parade this year, mainly the board. Choices, choices...
I shall ponder on these questions.....Daniel away!