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[Disruptor_fe404]

Grail Company, Part 2



Latham ducked under the Hive Tyrant's first attack, and swung his blade in a wide arc, a feint to see what the hulking beast's response would be. It dodged casually, ignoring him altogether, it's attention focused on the Knights and Squires just behind him.

A cleaving sweep tore through the armour of Squires Santrel and Arvin, while boltpistols pitted the carapace of the beast. Superficial damage.

Taking advantage of the beast's ignorance, Latham pressed the attack. A slash tore through one of the Tyrant's legs, another gouged a chunk of carapace off it's abdomen. The beast still focused on Latham's brothers, impaling Knight Baum on a talon and laying Knight Mandel low with a sweep of it's barbed tail. Latham gripped his blade with both hands and drove it deep into the monster's exposed flesh.

The Tyrant roared, deafening and disorienting, made worse by the scream's resonance in Latham's mind. As the psychic interference faded, Latham silently intoned a prayer against spiritual corruption. The Tyrant whipped around menacingly, its attention on Latham now, talons scything at more Knights in it's fury.

The sound of their Captain's voice bolstered the resolve of every Sentinel on the battlefield.

"Zeal and valour! We end it now, brothers!"

Gerhardt saw the opening the beast had left. With a savage, guttural shout, he vaulted forward and into the air, above the heads of his fellow battle-brothers. Gerhardt took his power axe in both hands and buried it in the back of the Tyrant's head, just where skull met spine. The beast went limp, and crumpled to the ground. Lathamfreed his blade from the monster's carcass and, stoic as usual, motioned to the swarm of smaller Tyranid creatures closing on them.

Gerhardt looked back at Knight Sigvald, who nodded quietly. Latham's Fortitude surged forward with an unintelligible battle-cry.

***

Paladin Latham, Grail Champion



Like his Captain and many others in Grail Company, Paladin Latham has Squired with the Black Templars and that storied Chapter's doctrines have greatly influenced him. Latham himself is a veteran of countless battles and has earned his position as Grail Champion many times over.

In battle, Latham is a frenzy of cleaving sweeps and arcing slashes, punctuated with bursts from his wrist-mounted, underslung boltpistol. Latham's armour has been reinforced in many places with additional protective plates, and many a devotional seal lend spiritual fortitude to the hallowed shell. The armour plate on his right arm incorporates his Captain's heraldry and Latham's own version of a Crux Terminatus.

Mounted on Latham's backpack is a Company relic, Latham's by right of prowess, borne by every Grail Champion before him. Like his Captain, Latham's weapon is ancient, using an energy field to bypass armour rather than a superheated surface.

[Disruptor_fe404]

Squad Latham, Latham's Fortitude



Should Squad Latham ever split up for any reason, Knight Sigvald is the leader of whichever part of the squad that Latham does not lead. Sigvald is known to the other members of Latham's Fortitude as the Guardian, due to the fact that Sigvald surviving a battle is usually followed by any mortal wounds suffered by any other member of Latham's Fortitude being recovered from in miraculous fashion, a fact that has not escaped the notice of Errant-Captain Alaric.



Knight Torhen is the squad's designated sharpshooter, though in this squad, this means that Torhen is adept at getting inside an opponent's reach and delivering point blank gunfire to his opponent's head.

Knight Arun is the squad's outrider, often keeping his distance from the rest of Latham's Fortitude to keep watch for flanking counterattacks or for peripheral threats to the safety of his battle-brothers.



Knight Roald is often found at the forefront of the fighting, usually alongside Latham himself, where he serves as the implacable bulwark around which Latham's Fortitude rallies.

Knight Buell fights in a brutal and unforgiving manner, using his chainsword and boltpistol as a distraction while his elbows and boots do the real damage.



Knight Dietrich is one of the longest-serving members of the squad, and has incorporated the service studs he has thus earned into his helmet, and the eagle's head over his left shoulder represents the Emperor's protection.

Knight Mandel is the squad's rearguard, tasked with finishing any targets that Latham's Fortitude have laid low but not killed.



Knight Gerhardt is known as the Slayer, for his uncanny knack of of landing the finishing blow with his power axe on many a monstrous beast that has been weakened by Latham. The paired purity seals on his shoulder pad were awarded for Gerhardt's exceptional record in a single battle: laying low two Daemon Princes of Khorne within a minute of each other; while the stacked purity seals represent his tandem kills of a Tyranid Hive Tyrant and Carnifex on the same day. To say that Gerhardt is a likely candidate to one day ascend to Grail Champion is an understatement.



Knight Baum is the youngest Knight in Latham's Fortitude and has earned no battle honours as of yet, but has thus far proven to be a devoted and savage warrior.

Knight Kurtz is acknowledged to be the most pious member of Latham's Fortitude, and the devotionals and prayer scrolls he carries attest to the Reclusiam's confidence in his future.



Squire Arvin is the most promising of the neophytes in Grail Company, and has already earned an artificer-crafted combat blade for his honourable deeds.

Squire Orman has an uncannily cautious nature, a trait that has saved the lives of many a Knight, leading the more senior members of Grail to believe him to be a great leader in the future.



Squire Bertil has all the makings of a promising warrior, but has yet to prove himself over a number of campaigns, a situation that vexes many of his superiors.

Squire Linder carries a shotgun, as well as myriad multi-function shells for the weapon, including but not limited to Shifter-pattern tracker shells and Noise-pattern mechano-interference shells.

Squire Santrel is the squad's tracker, and the visor he wears grants him auto-sense capabilities that are very slightly more potent than those of a power-armoured Knight.

[Chapter Master Dave]

very nice painting and info on your marines 10/10

[Vissah]

Nice models and some nice reading mate.

[Brother 'Ussell]

Nice clean paintjobs!

[arbogast1]

wow, definitely one of the best armies ive seen. where did you get lathams sword?

[centurion]

Well done on the painting and the bios are excellent.

[Disruptor_fe404]

Pre/post-amble!

As promised, the second part of Grail Company; there's a link to part 1 in my signature.

Latham's sword comes from a Grey Knight Terminator. He was the very first model I completed for this army, and the relic on his backpack went through a grand total of eight iterations before I settled on this one.

Gerhardt's (somewhat astonishing) exploits are all true, and that was a good day.

Latham's Fortitude as a whole was an experiment to see how far I could stretch one Black Templar upgrade sprue, and I'm overall very pleased with the result (and my thrift).

Also, I originaly had no intention of having a shotgun Scout, but I didn't like the idea of using a Scout Sergeant model because he actually looked too old to be a Scout, and I had the shotgun model lying around (amusing, because I don't remember buying it [nor do I remember actually buying Scout models either, now that I think about it]). It vexes me that Scouts take so much longer to paint than power armoured Marines, so I'm rather happy to be done with them completely, and thus have no plans to ever include Scouts in any other armylist I come up with.

No time frame available for the third and final part of Grail Company, since I'm about to get far busier with other priorities, so Venerable-Captain Weber will be up when he's up.

Credit where credit is due:

Like with part 1, I can't really think of any models that I've ripped off/copied for these guys, though I was looking at the cover of Codex: Black Templars when I concepted and assembled the parts to make Latham.

[Burias-Drak'shal]

Great paintjobs!

[Midas]

Mind if I use an offshoot of this scheme under this name?

[Disruptor_fe404]

Midas: Wow, that's a question I never considered coming up. Well, Grail Company are just one Company of the Sentinels (my DIY), I have no qualms about the scheme, but the name gives me a bit of pause. Perhaps a similar but not the same name?

[Marshall Costello]

Beautiful models.

I really like the crisp, clean look.

The fluff/details are also a very nice touch.

[Midas]

Thanks, maybe Ill call them The Crux

[Disruptor_fe404]

Midas: I approve! Resolute without being tacky, strong without being over the top.

[Kikunosuke]

Well assembled, well painted models, well chosen colour scheme & well thought out bit of written fluff that made for some enjoyable reading. Browsed through Part 1 as well; good to see the recurring quality of your models.

Edited by Kikunosuke, 25 May 2009 - 06:31 PM.

[BigDunc]

Well done.

[verpine]

How did you paint the silver?

[verpine]

double post

Edited by verpine, 27 July 2009 - 12:11 AM.

[Honorius]

Looks good. I think the silver armour needs a bi more depth, I would give it a couple washes of black and possibly another colour (brown?) to make it look more worn down. The gold could also do with some washes. The bases look quite boring. It looks like you didn't even put flock on them. If you finish off the bases and give the armour some more depth I think it would make them look "really" good.

[Brother Tuditanus]

His bases are flocked sand, just because there is no grass and such doesn't mean anything... I personally never see why people paint said.. Or rocks... They already look like what they are supposed to... Why am I adding in countless minutes on the mini to paint them? The bases are fine to me as is, though adding a bit to them might help.

The armor, maybe it's not meant to be worn looking? I think it looks fine as is, adds a pristine, fresh off the line (i'm so bad @rs3 my armor is STILL shiny!) look that fits these guys feel, to me.

[Undertaker]

Wow! Good job! Nice and crisp painting,good poses...10/10.

[Justicar Valius]

That is awsome! I've seen worse models in the golden daemon entries for squad.

Also the head on Paladin Latham, Grail Champion is the head on my grey knight grand master. I really liked the head.
Great converters think alike, eh

[Honorius]

His bases are flocked sand, just because there is no grass and such doesn't mean anything... I personally never see why people paint said.. Or rocks... They already look like what they are supposed to... Why am I adding in countless minutes on the mini to paint them? The bases are fine to me as is, though adding a bit to them might help.

I think the base is nearly as important as the model (for painting contests), therefore I always spend extra time to make a base that links in with my character. Obviously some people don't really care, and think that the models are just for playing and if the model is painted, who can be bothered spending more time on them. I personally think that the base really finishes off the model and makes them stand out. Not every base has to stand out though, but some snow, static grass or larger rocks/rubble could make them look really great. This could determine whether you get a best painted army award, which is why I spend a lot of detail on my models and their base.

The armor, maybe it's not meant to be worn looking? I think it looks fine as is, adds a pristine, fresh off the line (i'm so bad @rs3 my armor is STILL shiny!) look that fits these guys feel, to me.

Maybe he wants them to look as though their armour has been untouched, but it still needs more depth. This will help make the model look realistic. This is all just my opinion, I'm not saying he must do this, I'm just suggesting other options that IMO will improve the quality of his models.

[lotsa_terminators]

Good paint jobs, and better reading. I love when players give their mini's fluff to correspond with IRL battles. I also love that you mentioned the Black Templar Nice use of bits too!

[onipunk]

What was your recipe for the silver? And the gold on Latham's shoulder trim? it's just that by coincidence I'm using the same scheme right now, and would love to know how you got yours.