Slow but Steady Catches The Loyalists

Well, a long time since my last update, well over a month and a half. Last time the Night Lords were seen, they were preparing for a forum meet-up at Warhammer World and Black Library Live. It was an amazing weekend, met some great guys from The First Expedition, killed various legions during our games and found out much about upcoming BL stuff. Hopefully I'll be at the Horus Heresy Weekender in a couple of weeks but it depends on whether I can get out of working.

While up in Nottingham, I bought pretty much all the infantry planned for the army and apart from the seeker claw, they're all built. And with the recent release of Breachers, Recon and Thallaxii, they've also been added to the army, the Breachers are unbuilt as of posting, soon though...

XXIXth Claw, XIVth Company. The last but one of the Company's Claws, their autocannons reaped a high toll on Cherautii light armour and infantry during the advance on the Senate House. 

Once I got the guns and ammo belts to sync, these guys were easy to do. I may add the other 5 of them at some point, I'll have to see how they perform in game first but not for a while, I'm not going back there. Slightly annoying to store in my case, the barrels keep getting slightly bent, I'll have to work something out.

XXIInd Claw, XIVth Company.  Led by the Nostraman sergeant Ticarius during Cheraut, XXIInd Claw had always attracted the more brutal marines within the company, having a long established reputation for excessive force both on and off the field. The members of XXIInd Claw had, by the time of Cheraut slain more brothers in 'duels' than the rest of XIVth Company put together. Several members of the claw bear chainaxes, a weapon that while usually associated with the World Eaters can also be found wielded by warriors from the Night Lords, Blood Angels and Space Wolves Legions. A couple of claw members bear the topknotted helms gifted to them by the Luna Wolves Legion during XIVth Company's deployment alongside them at the Siege of Vatarian.

I plan to make that a occasional part of the army, both the topknots in general and also little references to XIVth Company's deployments with brother legions, whatever form they take.

VIIth Claw, XIVth Company. Also led by a Nostraman, not that you'd know with him missing a head. I'll likely wait for the NL conversion set FW will make at some point for his head, I'll see. And yes, the Vox is lacking a left arm, I need the pointing one from the Rapier crewman but can't get my hands on one at the moment. But E-bay may be my friend here. The last of my Tactical squads for now, no real difference except for the Claw leader's heavy chainsword.

1st Claw, XIVth Company. Known as the "Knights of Terra", a counter-point to XIVth's Company's nickname "Sons of Terra"; many outside the company believed the names though correct in theory, missed out one key word "Forgotten", though the word's location within the nicknames varied depending on who was speaking. The only claw within XIVth Company to be completely Terran in composition, a state of affairs they have maintained since the company's founding on Terra, selective recruitment ensuring the squad's purity in their eyes at least, when all around them dilute themselves with Nostraman blood.

Game wise, they're a Legion Veteran squad but background wise, they are just the senior tactical claw within the company hence why they are kitted out the same as a normal tactical claw. There will likely be a couple more marines built with heavy and special weapon options so they can be a bit more tactically flexible.

And their new ride, a 'gift' from my cousin. I had to do a fair amount of cleaning and re-building to get it this far but she's pretty much done, just needs a pair of combi-bolters on top and a rear hatch fashioned somehow then spraying.

 XXIIIrd Claw, CIInd Company. CIInd Company, one of the Legion's 4 Recon Companies was deployed to Osmium and as is standard practice with these companies, immediately broke itself down into decentralized squad formations, assigning themselves to the other Legion Companies as needed. XXIIIrd Claw linked up with XIVth Company as it pushed towards the Senate House and spent the following battle eliminating Cherautii commanders and engaged in counter-sniper duels across the Plaza.

This is half the squad planned, it was just going to be 5 marines but having built the kit, I like it enough that I want to do more. Likely they'll be in the next order.

And half of Legion Thallax Cohort Munda-46. Same as the recons, they'll be doubled in size in the next order, with the addition of a pair of special weapons, likely a multi-melta and either a second multi-melta or a multi-laser. Or maybe both, if I E-bay a lone Thallaxii. Started painting them today, the lone one is at stage three of painting, the others are both stage one, being just the metal. Hopefully I'll have them done by next weekend.

I've got a forum painting competition I need to get done by the weekend, if not sooner since I'll need pictures. I can't show you yet due to the rules but as soon as it'll all up on the forum, I should be able to put it up here, same with the last one. It's a bit different to the usual power armor you've seen on here. That and slowly working on my entry for their short fiction competition. And hopefully myself and Vangar will get the last couple of Night Lord force org charts completed quite soon as well so they can go up on my DA page and probably here. It will all depend on our separate working schedules. But anyway, until next time people.

The Promised Update

Well here it is, I can show you how stripping my Salamanders is getting on.

It's not very well, purely as I haven't had enough time to sit down and scrub them clean, but when I've tried with a toothbrush the paint has started to strip so it looks like with time I'll be able to get them ready for painting by the end of May.


















 My latest order from Forge World arrived yesterday, and my goodness was it a good one!

The bikes are a beautiful kit, nice and simple to put together, only issue being the back part taking longer to stick than anything else. They will fit perfectly in my Emperor's Children army and fit the fluff too, which is a big bonus!

I'll leave you with a picture of my production line for this evening for after Dr Who!

Salamanders Update

This is very early, but I've just got in from my paper round. As in yesterday's post I plan on starting my Salamanders over again, but for this I need to strip them of their paint, hence why they are sat in a tub of Cillit Bang as we speak... this being because it was the only degreaser that I had around the house and without access to a car I chose not to go and buy some Dettol. Whilst prepping the models to strip, I actually counted them and decided that I should go the full distance and buy special bases for them, hence my second order from Secret Weapon of the week being placed just now. The bases I have settled on are a set of Trench Work ones, along with one of these for the Relic Contemptor, two of these for the other Contemptors, and one of these along with a flight widget for the Assault Ram. Now the way I've ordered the last base, Secret Weapon will drill the base to allow the stand to go into the base, as the one from Forge World that I've got at the moment just isn't stable enough in my opinion.

This order wouldn't have been to bad, until I counted 62 marines, so 70 bases needed ordering, taking the total of the spend to nearly £100, fortunately for me my parents are willing to lend me the money of the bases as I've just spent the last week working near enough solidly on a bitch of an essay!

I'll hopefully be able to share some photos of my progress of stripping the models later today or tomorrow so stay tuned in to see how the process is getting on.

Captain Cryptus of the Emperor's Children's Twenty Seventh Company

Sergeant Cyrptos was originally assigned to the 27th Company, and had seen many victories during the Great Crusade. It wasn't until the aftermath of the cleansing of Laeran towards the end of The Great Crusade that Cryptos was promoted to Captain of the 27th Company, in part because of his expert skill with the blade and ability to kill anything that stood before him, but also for notably saving Captain Lucius' life when a Laer took him off guard, Cyrptos slicing the xenos' head clean off with one fell swoop of his combat blade. Since that day Lucius has sworn to pay him back for his actions, Lucius' arrogance does not allow for him to be in anyone's debt, except perhaps Chief Apothecary Fabius. As a result, it is common to see the two of them fighting alongside each other on the plains of war killing like for like, Lucius in an effort to remove the debt, Cyrptos to maintain his position of power over the 13th Captain. This relationship was tested when Lucius was assigned to the first wave of legionaries sent to crush the rebellion upon Isstvan III, while Cyrptos was not. Captain Cryptos was however, part of the second wave during the Isstvan III betrayal, during which Cryptos personally executed the Captain of the 11th Company, Vester. There is a belief that Cryptos planned to seek out Lucius upon the field and prove once and for all that Lucius' life was his to take. Whether they did face one another is unknown, though based on both surviving the betrayal it is unlikely; if they did fight, they did so without any real malice.
Armed with a power sword Cryptos was a born swordsman, and regarded as one of the best in the Legion, only bested by Lucius, Kaesoron and Cyrius. Records of Cryptos' actions after Isstavan V are scarce with some saying he was killed by Primarch Vulkan's Pyre Guard on that blood-stained field, though other accounts talk of him being assigned to the legion's reserve during the battle. It is not until Terra that we actually see any solid evidence that Cryptos still remained with the legion. He was present during the fighting, but all Legion records say on the matter is that he died in the final hours of the Siege but to whose hands it is unknown. The Emperor's Children have their own opinions and they keep them well, though the other key figure in Cryptos tale refuses to be drawn on his rival's fate...

We've been a bit pre occupied

Right we haven't really kept up with the blog well since Christmas. This is a group issue as we haven't really kept an eye on each other and pushed them to keep posting. To solve this, I propose we have a schedule as to when we will post just to make things easier to keep track off.

Since my last post I've been active but not nearly active enough. I've had a tone of work to get done, 10000 words in essays... I haven't painted any more Salamanders yet, which is a real shame, but I have built the assault ram and one of he predators I got for Christmas. I've decide that I am going to strip all the models down and start again, as I'm not happy with the way the base coat has actually applied to the models, and will go down a pure GW paint scheme this time round.

Although I haven't been painting Salamanders, I have been painting some stuff. I was fortunate enough for my Uncle to offer to buy me some stuff from Forge World, the outcome being an Emperor's Children force being born. I am currently nearly fully painted on my two 20 man tactical squads with a couple of surprise units being processed at Forge World right now, more about those when they arrive! I'm currently finishing off the gold trimmings base coat and rivets on the last 10 marines before highlighting them and then adding some battle damage to the whole model. I then need to complete the power packs, bolters and sergeant's plumes and then I'm done! I'll add some pictures when I'm done and find time to take some proper ones!

Up next for the EC is a Praetor version of Lucius, and the parts are slowly dropping through the letterbox as the days go by, just the legs and base to arrive now!

Hopefully we'll have a regular schedule set up over the next couple of weeks.

I'll leave you with a picture of Captain Cryptus of the Emperor's Children's Third Company.