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Aurelius Rex's LPC 2012 Vow Complete!


Aurelius Rex

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For this year's LPC vow I have decided to return to my Scions of Dorn DIY chapter. I have chosen a biker force from the Sixth Reserve company, with a bike mounted captain and command squad, along with an attack bike squadron. Thanks to a Ravenwing battleforce box I picked up over Christmas I have now got enough bits for the force, and have been painting them up over the last week. It's not complete, especially as I have got bogged down with making some proper sized bike / attack bike bases (like the ones from Dragonforge) but have got some very poorly lit pictures of the current progress on the attack bikes.

 

 

The sergeant's bare plasic and primer attack bike, with the gunner angled off-centre. The blue back-pack will end up green. There are a few very minor tweaks and conversions, like the blank chest-plate and the sergeant's skulled shoulderpad which came from a chaos marine.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v732/AureliusRex/Scions%20of%20Dorn/Fast%20Attack/Attack%20bike%20squadron%20X/AttackbikeWIP0.jpg

 

Shot of the squadron at the moment. The other two bikes and crew are nearly finished bar some highlighting and minor details. You can't see the company designation on the right kneepad in this picture, but the Sixth Company has a horizontal red bar on a yellow field, a simplified version of the captain's own heraldry. The bases should give me plenty of room for detailing the terrain, although not set on exactly what form it will take.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v732/AureliusRex/Scions%20of%20Dorn/Fast%20Attack/Attack%20bike%20squadron%20X/Attackbikeswip1.jpg

 

The tactical arrow and tenth squad 'X' can just about be made out here. You should also be able to see the Mechanicus shoulderpad on one of the gunners, as the bike has frequently suffered from mechanical failures in recent battles and so the captain has requested one of the brother-adepts from the chapter's armoury accompany - who would normally crew a much more complex armoured vehicle - to placate the bike's tortured machine spirit.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v732/AureliusRex/Scions%20of%20Dorn/Fast%20Attack/Attack%20bike%20squadron%20X/Attackbikeswip2.jpg

 

A shot of the Scions of Dorn stylised 'S' chapter symbol.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v732/AureliusRex/Scions%20of%20Dorn/Fast%20Attack/Attack%20bike%20squadron%20X/attackbikewip3.jpg

 

Well, as I catastrophically failed the last two LPC's, this is at least a good start at fulfilling this year's one! :)

 

Regards,

Aurelius.

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Regarding the bases, I only had one big round base and so I kitbashed four out of a template drawn off the round base and some plasticard, stiffened with sprue reinforcement. Not ideal, as despite taking great care to smooth and shape the edges the filler I used is not quite as smooth as that of a plastic base. Good enough for a kitbash, and once it is painted black I would probably be the only one to notice, but it does leave a niggle... Overall I would recommend using the much simpler version of piecing it together from the component bases if you have them available.

 

As to what theme to use for the bases, I think it would have to be something to contrast against the dark green of the attack bikes themselves. Probably something quite light in colour.

 

I have seen the GW tutorial on basing bikes and it is interesting, but not exactly what I was after. The Dragonforge site bases were very interesting for inspiration, especially the idea of having the 'heroic' characters on a slightly elevated level of base. http://dragonforge.com/Painting%20service/...d_base_sets.htm

 

The bases themselves would have to be generally quite flat, as any too large an obstruction would mean that the attack bike would simply crash. This is more important for the attack bikes than the normal bikes, as there is almost no clearance for the sidecar. There will be a nice piece of space on the base - mainly in front of the sidecar - but by necessity it will have to be detailed with something quite low-profile, but of interest.

 

I usually go for a textured / layered tan oil shale rock for my Scions - almost a light terracotta colour, but think that the shale itself won't fit as well here. The ruined cityscape idea of levelled walls crushed into the ground used by Dragonforge is a possibility, but could be tricky and time consuming. The tarmac'ed roads (with road markings) on the GW tutorial looked quick and easy, and it makes sense that they would try to use roads because of their potential difficulty with obstacles, but beyond the 'novelty' of the road markings, which might wear off pretty fast, I think it might look too boring after a while.

 

After thinking about it, the Dragonforge idea of 'Parched Earth' is closest to what I want to go for at the moment - http://dragonforge.com/for%20sale%20images...set%201%202.jpg - and think I could theme it to the light terracotta shale of the rest of the Scions.

 

This is going to be quite an area to cover, so if anyone has any ideas of how to do this on a reasonable timescale, or if you have any other possibilities for how to base the squadrons, then please shout out!

 

Cheers,

Aurelius.

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  • 3 weeks later...

I put the last finishing touches to the attack bike squadron last night and have taken some pictures of them. The first is the leader of the squadron - Sergeant Parval. The scrollwork on the chest worked better than I had hoped, and seemed more interesting than the previous breastplate bearing the little skull.

 

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v732/AureliusRex/Scions%20of%20Dorn/Fast%20Attack/Attack%20bike%20squadron%20X/AttackbikesquadronParval1.jpg

 

The second attack bike was originally going to be the sergeant until I modelled Parval. In the picture you can see the company designation which is shown on the right kneepad. It is a horizontal red bar on a yellow field, which is a simplified version of the captain's own heraldry.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v732/AureliusRex/Scions%20of%20Dorn/Fast%20Attack/Attack%20bike%20squadron%20X/AttackbikesquadronParvalII.jpg

 

 

The third bike in the squadron has a cursed history, frequently suffering from mechanical failures or attracting the bulk of enemy fire. To combat this, a brother-adept from the chapter's armoury has been tasked with soothing its tortured machine spirit. The adept isn't a full techmarine, but has been inducted into some of their secrets, and his talents would normally be used to crew one of the chapter's armoured vehicles. In modelling terms his shoulder pad and chestplate bear the mechanicus symbol, and this bike has been given the most battle damage. The broken Emperor's Children shoulderpad was a fun addition too! :P

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v732/AureliusRex/Scions%20of%20Dorn/Fast%20Attack/Attack%20bike%20squadron%20X/AttackbikesquadronParvalIII.jpg

 

The theme for the bases is that they are fighting over red iron oxide desert terrain, although just beneath the surface sinister verdigris'd glyph plates can sometimes be seen. :tu:

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Really nice work!

The poses are great, as others have mentioned the sergeant pointing out a target to the gunner is particularly good. I also like that you've modelled the purity seals as if the bikes are moving at speed. It's a small thing but it helps add the impression of movement. Nice stories for each bike too...particularly the ill-fated bullet-magnet one. I pray to the God-Emperor that the techie's presence helps.

 

Love your chapter symbol too, by the way.

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Thanks for the comments, guys. :D The bases are something that I'm working on developing... I have used the verdigris effect a couple of times before in various things, and thought it would be a nice idea to have some mysterious brass glyph plates showing through the scree and rubble of the desert. The intention is to have the brass glyphs form up in the shape of a Chaos 8 pointed star, and that when the miniatures are racked up in their storage boxes you can see the design in full... That's the intention, but not sure if it will work in practice!

 

The verdigris effect has been used in a lot of things, and I used it first for a Games Day entry in the Duel category propably arount 2004 or 2005. The only board appropriate things in the pic are the Deathwatch shoulderpad, but wanted to put it up as it illustrates what I wanted to go for with the effect on the Necron:

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v732/AureliusRex/Duel/Duelfront.jpg

 

As to the bases, I used about 50/50 filler (polyfilla in the UK) and pva to produce a smoothish splat of 'bronze' on the base, then let it dry a bit and used a modelling tool to indent or carve some suitably mystic designs into it. I am still working on how best to design something that works - it is a learning process. Once it is completely dry it is painted with a turquoise basecoat, - scaly green or hawk turquoise IIRC.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v732/AureliusRex/Scions%20of%20Dorn/Fast%20Attack/Attack%20bike%20squadron%20X/Attackbikebase1.jpg

 

Then drybrush with the bronze, to leave the turquoise in the indentations as it has not been as scoured by the sand and winds.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v732/AureliusRex/Scions%20of%20Dorn/Fast%20Attack/Attack%20bike%20squadron%20X/Attackbikebase2.jpg

 

After that... glue various grades of sand to the base and add different things like small rocks or debris to break up the larger swathes, leaving off the metal areas that have been uncovered and building up to the red colour desired.

 

These ones came out more brown to yellow than I was hoping for, although I will be experimenting with the next lot of bikes (the Anti tank bikers) to see if I can make it more reddish and iron oxide rust than these ones.

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  • 4 weeks later...

Part two of my Vow is now complete! Bike Squadron Tesseract has been tasked with anti-armour duties, but is currently under-strength following the chapter's defence of the Cadian system.

 

First is Sergeant Tesseract himself, armed with meltabombs. Tesseract has only recently been promoted to sergeant, and has not yet earned the right to wear the white helm of a veteran.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v732/AureliusRex/Scions%20of%20Dorn/Troops/Bike%20Squadron%20Tesseract/BikeSquadronTesseractSergeant.jpg

 

There are two meltagun armed battle-brothers. The first's bike is actually on a camber, as though he is steering around an obstacle, but the photo doesn't quite show it properly:

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v732/AureliusRex/Scions%20of%20Dorn/Troops/Bike%20Squadron%20Tesseract/BikeSquadronTesseractmelta1.jpg

 

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v732/AureliusRex/Scions%20of%20Dorn/Troops/Bike%20Squadron%20Tesseract/BikeSquadronTesseractmelta2.jpg

 

And finally there is a Multi-melta armed attack bike. The last squadron of Attack Bikes were armed with heavy bolters so this was a little different.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v732/AureliusRex/Scions%20of%20Dorn/Troops/Bike%20Squadron%20Tesseract/BikeSquadronTesseractAttackBike.jpg

 

It comes outside the scope of this vow, but I would be looking to add a couple of extra bikers to the squadron.

 

 

As a bit of a tester model for the third part of the vow - Captain Arconis and Command Squadron Khaeval, I have also painted up one of the veterans. In light of this he has the white helm and the longer mark 4 Apollyon pattern chainsword:

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v732/AureliusRex/Scions%20of%20Dorn/HQ/Command%20Squadron%20Khaeval/CommandsquadronKhaevalChainsword.jpg

 

Next up is the captain and the rest of his command squadron, composed of the apothecary, standard bearer, company champion and a biker armed with a thunder hammer. :tu:

 

Regards,

Aurelius.

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Beautiful!

Always a pleasure to see more of the Sons.

Excellent painting and I particularly like the choice of white for weapons, it offsets the dark armour nicely.

Looking forward to seeing more of the command squad.

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Lovely work as always Aurelius, whenever I see glossy green marines with a big 'S' on 'em I know I'm having a good day! Great to see you back in the saddle (if you'll pardon the pun) and well on the way to completing the LPC this year B)
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  • 3 weeks later...

Glad the last squadron went down so well - thanks for the nice comments! :lol:

 

@SCC - Regarding the 'glossy' nature of the Scions' armour, I no longer use green ink to give then the gloss finish, although hopefully the highlighting gives the impression that their armour is scrupilously maintained and polished to a high shine.

 

A couple of additions to the biker command squadron today - the completed company champion and apothecary!

 

Company Champion Khaeval

Veteran Sergeant Khaeval, as company Champion, leads the Sixth Company’s command squadron. He is a relatively simple adaptation of the really nice plastic company champion, with his tabard trimmed, the combat shield stowed behind the seat until needed, and a power sword adapted from the Blood Angels so that the blood drop has become a jewel on the hilt.

 

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v732/AureliusRex/Scions%20of%20Dorn/HQ/Sixth%20Company/CommandsquadronKhaevalChampion.jpg

 

A quick word about the bike fairing… It is obviously taken from the Ravenwing bikes, but I have used it for all of the command squadron and independent characters to mark out their higher rank. It is a lovely piece and very striking with white wings, but I decided to go with gold for the feathers as it ties in with the normal bike detailing and the chestplate aquilas of the marines. I was very happy with how well the gold wings turned out, with some rich, dark colours on the shading and mithril silver highlights, although thanks to my hit-and-miss photographic skills this has been largely washed out on the photos. Oh well!

 

 

 

Apothecary Wykesse

Despite having painted more than a company worth of Scions over the years, Wykesse is the first Apothecary I have painted since the original metal RT era ones first came out. The new plastic one is much nicer! The helix was interesting to paint, as were the bottles on his belt (with liquids sloshing around inside them) and the gauntlet Narthecium. Because the backpack was very large I found that I had to trim away the back of the bike seat for it to fit properly.

 

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v732/AureliusRex/Scions%20of%20Dorn/HQ/Sixth%20Company/CommandsquadronKhaevalApothecary.jpg

 

The white was interesting to do, going from the relatively small areas on the weapons and the helmets to the whole marine, but it came out pretty well, I think. I have considered a number of variations to the standard pure white apothecary colourscheme that tie the marine more closely to his chapter colour based on the old RT era designs, such as having the body the chapter colour and the limbs white. In the end I went with keeping the bike itself green and just leaving accent green on the inner part of the shoulderpads. I also tied the fact that he is the apothecary of the tactical reserve company in by incorporating the tactical arrow into the helix shoulderpad.

 

My original intention to convert the narthecium gauntlet onto an arm holding the handlebar had to go to the wall when I realised how much time had slipped by, but I would like to try it one day. Similarly I would also like to add some extra apothecarion equipment to the bike, possibly stowed back behind the seat. This could be as simple as an apothecary chest containing extra medical supplies with the helix device on the top, or something more complex. In any case, a project for the future.

 

Will post the remaining members of the command squadron, along with their captain, soon.

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Both look very good!

The wear and tear on the armour, particularly noticeable on the apothecary, is great. And I like the liquid in his vials, they look like they're sloshing about due to movement.

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Nice! It's been a while since I'd seen the Scions of Dorn. They were great when I first discovered them, and they're even greater now.

I love your attention to subtle detail on these guys with the gear packs, sword hilt swaps, etc.

Bravo!

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Thanks again for the kind words. I'm afraid that the Chaos star idea hasn't really panned out. In practice it has been more like the brass design is one vast whole which has been revealed in places. There was the tip of a chaos star revealed by the placement of the red oxide rocks and gravel, but beneath the company champion's bike, but even if you know it is there it is largely obscured by the bike itself. If I decide to do a display board for them then the bikers could be in the middle of a large, solid centre of the star, with the terrain falling away elsewhere to reveal the raised outer points further out.

 

However, that will have to wait as despite the LPC vow now being finally complete, it look a good two weeks longer than I had originally anticipated and I am now racing against the clock to get the Dornian Heresy Salamanders IA ready for posting. :)

 

Anyway, as I was saying, with Captain Arconis and the last elements of his command bike squadron complete, my LPC vow is complete! The Apollyon pattern chainsword wielding veteran was shown alongside the fast-melta biker squadron in February and the Company Champion and Apothecary were posted yesterday, leaving only the Standard Bearer, a veteran with a Thunder Hammer and the captain himself.

 

Company Standard Bearer Corvellus and the Vigilatum Standard

The banners of the Astartes are sacred, often ancient relics to their chapter, and to carry one into battle is both a great honour and a grave responsibility. Many are the tales of standard bearers dying before allowing their banner to fall, perhaps the most famous being Ancient Helveticus of the Ultramarines, but on occasion fate is not quite as kind.

 

During Abaddon’s Thirteenth Black Crusade the Sixth Company of the Scions of Dorn were assigned to the planet of Vigilatum in the Cadian system. Even as the world descended into anarchy and war, the Sixth Company fought valiantly, ending the rampage of the World Eaters of the Crimson Path warband and destroying the Iron Warrior’s batteries of superheavy artillery at Hessailis.

 

Little had done more to erode the morale of the defenders of Vigilatum than the terror attacks of the Night Lords, and yet despite killing many traitors even as they fled back into the shadows, the bike squadrons of the Sixth Company could not conclusively bring them to battle. In retaliation, the Night Lords struck back and ambushed the Scions themselves. The casualties on both sides were high, but it was only after the battle was done that they found that the traitors had taken the Sixth Company standard. Brother Corvellus had been beaten to unconsciousness, but pointedly spared to suffer the humiliation of his loss by the warband’s leader.

 

In the years since the standard’s loss the Sixth Company, and indeed the whole of the chapter has sought out rumours of the Night Lord warband that took it. On occasion there have even been taunting hints left for them to follow, such as pieces of the ancient cloth stuffed into the mouths of murdered high-ranking Imperial officials, but as on Vigilatum, the traitors have proved maddeningly elusive.

 

Brother Corvellus has vowed to wear robes of penitence until the lost standard is reclaimed once more. The standard he now bears is known only as the Vigilatum Banner, and pointedly carries no insignia of the chapter or of the Sixth Company. It acts as a physical representation of their loss, and a focus for their burning hatred of the wiles of the Ruinous Powers.

 

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v732/AureliusRex/Scions%20of%20Dorn/HQ/Sixth%20Company/CommandsquadronKhaevalStandard.jpg

 

Having previously collected Bretonnians it seemed much more fitting for a mounted figure to bear a flowing standard rather than the conventional company banner that comes in the command squad box... can you imagine the wind resistance that the thing would generate? The banner came from an old plastic Empire miniature (IIRC) mated onto the marine banner arm, and was decorated with some checkerwork pattern to define the borders.

 

 

Thunder Hammer veteran

This was a pretty simple addition using the thunder hammer from a plastic terminator. I have done the same for several other Power Armoured marines with metal termie hammer arms and the conversion on plastic was much easier. I would imagine that given the sheer weight of the hammer a more reinforced arm would be needed to wield it, so have never felt bad about using the arm as well as the weapon. The multi-coloured cabling was an enjoyable detail, and follows the same pattern used for the previous metal armed ones.

 

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v732/AureliusRex/Scions%20of%20Dorn/HQ/Sixth%20Company/CommandsquadronKhaevalThunderHammer.jpg

 

 

Captain Arconis

Like many a Scion of Dorn, Arconis is a veteran of the Deathwatch, and as a mark of thanks the Inquisition has gifted him a cache of special hellfire rounds. To represent this he has different bolters (including a scope) mounted on his bike, which come from the scout biker kit. The relic blade comes from the Ravenwing kit, and its impressive nature, along with the double-handed grip, certainly suggest that it is something more than a simple power sword. Some choice items like the bare head and the haloed helm were dug from the bitz box – I think they were originally Blood Angel in origin but can’t be certain. Regarding painting, the face came out quite well. I added stubble effects on the cheeks, but that is a bit lost on the photo. The shoulderpad bears his full heraldry, a simplified version of which is included on each marine’s kneepad as the company indicator. [EDIT: I forgot to say originally but you may just be able to make out the half-buried Night Lord backpack on the base... a small measure of vengeance against my favourite Traitor legion. :) ]

 

As to his character, he is far more hard-bitten and cynical than he was before the 13th Black Crusade. His company has been severely depleted, with half of those who survived the horror of Vigilatum drafted to replace the losses suffered by the front-line battle companies which fought elsewhere on the Cadian system. In return they have been joined by several squads of brothers newly promoted from the Scout Company. Although a few show promise in the art of high-speed warfare, they must first be trained as mechanised infantry, and for the meanwhile the bike squadrons of the Sixth will be sheparding Rhinos into battle.

 

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v732/AureliusRex/Scions%20of%20Dorn/HQ/Sixth%20Company/CaptainArconis.jpg

 

 

 

And finally, here are each of the squadrons in group shots.

 

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v732/AureliusRex/Scions%20of%20Dorn/HQ/Sixth%20Company/CommandSquadronKhaevalgroup.jpg

 

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v732/AureliusRex/Scions%20of%20Dorn/Troops/Bike%20Squadron%20Tesseract/BikeSquadronTesseractGroup.jpg

 

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v732/AureliusRex/Scions%20of%20Dorn/Fast%20Attack/Attack%20bike%20squadron%20X/AttackbikeSquadronParvalGroup.jpg

 

Hope you enjoyed the vow - I certainly have!

 

Regards,

Aurelius.

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Fantastic as always. Great painting (especially the free hand) and love the fluff, I much prefer hearing about Chapters/Companies who've suffered losses as well as enjoyed victories, so much more characterful!
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