Atia's Thread (Legions Imperialis: Sons of Horus Kratos pg. 107)

[brother tycho]

That contemptor is gorgeous!  You've pulled off that showroom shine and I don't mind it at all, and that's coming from a weathering by default camper

[Atia]

Your Ahriman looks really good.

 

I have noticed something cool with the Ashen Circle....

 

If you leave the backpacks off and lay the bodies down, they make really convincing corpses

 

Sorry I am a loyalist till I die!!

Haha glad you like Ahzek (does he count as loyalist?^^). Well, I will work on some smaller stuff in the next months, plan is to finish two or three 1k points forces, and I think there will be some loyalist stuff too :P

 

That contemptor is gorgeous!  You've pulled off that showroom shine and I don't mind it at all, and that's coming from a weathering by default camper

Thanks! Both Ahriman and the Contemptor are actually weathered a bit, but it's very modestly done :)

[Arkangilos]

I'm going to guess squats are one of them? ;)

[Atia]

I'm going to guess squats are one of them?

Indeed - my current plan is to do the following stuff in the next months, preparing for 40k's next edition:

 

- Horus Heresy Thousand Sons

- Squats 

- Talons of the Emperor

[TRIBUN]

I love your metallic red! Well done.

[Atia]

I love your metallic red! Well done.

Thanks buddy - speaking about red ...

Ashen Circle

Serving alongside the Destroyers of the Word Bearers Legion, the Ashen Circle was a unique formation created for a unique purpose; the destruction of culture; learning and faith. These Space Marines were member's of the Legion's original Iconoclast faction, charged beyond the battlefield with hunting down works of false doctrine and those who purveyed it, consigning both to destruction and eradicating flame.

On the battlefield, their task was deemed no less important by their Legion; seeking out those things which gave the foe the heart and courage to fight: charismatic leaders, priests, battle flags and champions. These they singled out, dragged down with the hook-blades of their axe-rakes and destroyed with brutal fervour, often making plunging attacks far in advance of their own lines in order to do so, with no thought as to their own survival.

On world after world the Ashen Circle tore down libraries and churches, parliaments and sepulchres, first so that the Imperial Truth might be set up in their place, but later so that far darker creeds could take root and fester.

Edited April 1, 2017 by Atia

[Arkangilos]

Looking great!

[Augustus b'Raass]

Beautiful work as always, Atia. You're getting better and better, and it's a pleasure to see. Particularly your metal weathering is top notch, now.  Can you enlighten us on how you go about doing that?

[Atia]

Looking great!

Thanks =)

 

Beautiful work as always, Atia. You're getting better and better, and it's a pleasure to see. Particularly your metal weathering is top notch, now.  Can you enlighten us on how you go about doing that?

Glad you like them buddy 

 

I'm usually using either GW washes (brown, black and purple ones), texture paints like Vallejo rust effects (they have two, one dark and one more orange like but it's not a "dry paint" so better to use than GW ones) and/or weathering powders. The cool thing about the pigments - there are so many ways to work with them. If you add a layer of varnish on top (like purity seal), they will loose the texture and blend into the colour, allowing you to shade and tone something (that's what you also see on the shoes). I'll experiment with enamel thinner on my tanks in the future in order to preserve the texture on stuff like tracks - can't wait to try that out!

Edited April 2, 2017 by Atia

[Kriegsmacht]

Great Jumpers Atia. I like the red and black together on your minis.

[Atia]

Great Jumpers Atia. I like the red and black together on your minis.

Thanks buddy

I started to work on my Eversor Assassin while waiting for some bitz for my Squats and Thousand Sons - hope you like the red

Edited April 3, 2017 by Atia

[Claws and Effect]

Nice,Eversor.

 

One of my favorite anythings in 40k.

 

Love them little drugged out death monkies.

[Atia]

Nice,Eversor.

One of my favorite anythings in 40k.

Love them little drugged out death monkies.

Thanks buddy

The brown base part isn't 100% finished yet (paint needs to dry) buuuut here he is - my lovely cute death monkey!

"Krieg"

Nihilator of Clade Eversor, Agent of the Officio Assassinorum

"Fear me, for I am your apocalypse."

— Dictatus Eversor

In many ways an Eversor Assassin has more in common with a living bomb than with a human operative. Rather than taking out a single target like the other Officio Assassins, an Eversor Assassin is usually employed to clear a large number of targets in a short amount of time. In essence, Eversor Assassins are one-person special forces units. In fact, because of the amount of ability-enhancing drugs running through his or her body, when an Eversor Assassin is brought down and killed in combat, the drugs will react violently to the metabolic onset of death and cause the Eversor's corpse to explode, providing a final opportunity for the Assassin to kill the enemies of the Emperor. In order to act so efficiently, an Eversor Assassin is fielded with a wide variety of weapons and combat tools, including a weapon known as an Executioner Pistol that can fire neuro-toxin-coated needles as well as explosive bolts like a Bolt Pistol, powerful Melta-bombs for destroying tanks and heavy doors, and a potent chemical cocktail of drugs that gives the Assassin incredible reflexes, enhanced durability and survivability and a single-minded rage to kill his targets.

Edited April 6, 2017 by Atia

[Arkangilos]

Wow that thing looks great! I wouldn't want to have to fight him :o

[Kriegsmacht]

Looks good Atia...I think the suit is missing a highlight.

 

 

Nah just kidding.

 

Also great name.

Edited April 6, 2017 by Kriegsmacht

[Atia]

Wow that thing looks great! I wouldn't want to have to fight him

Hehe :P

Always beware the death monkey!

Looks good Atia...I think the suit is missing a highlight.

Nah just kidding.

Also great name.

:P Glad you like him!

Currently working on .... something

Mhm, for what could this base be?

[Kriegsmacht]

Interesting....i've got nothing.

[Arkangilos]

Wow that thing looks great! I wouldn't want to have to fight him

Hehe :P

Always beware the death monkey!

Looks good Atia...I think the suit is missing a highlight.

Nah just kidding.

Also great name.

:P Glad you like him!

Currently working on .... something

Mhm, for what could this base be?

:o

[Aramis K]

My guess, Squat grav frigate.

Something large and flying - one round foot suggests the new flight stands for the Overlord airships.

Love the floating air mines.

[Augustus b'Raass]

Please let it be a the beginning of a squat army using the new dwarf models. PLEASE?

 

Also, great assassin. I love the fluff you always erite for your stuff. Feels like a historic document.

[Atia]

My guess, Squat grav frigate.

Something large and flying - one round foot suggests the new flight stands for the Overlord airships.

Love the floating air mines.

We have a winner  - stay tuned for pictures on Saturday the 15th!

 

 

Please let it be a the beginning of a squat army using the new dwarf models. PLEASE?

 

Also, great assassin. I love the fluff you always erite for your stuff. Feels like a historic document.

Yep! I'm currently working on the first 5 Clan Warriors. Now let me warn everyone who thinks about melta - these guys will be 5 normal Kharadron duardings dudes. For one I have to paint them and the frigatte for GW, but the more important point - these guys are already what I think Squats would be. I will do some conversions, some new units and so on, but some stuff will be stock and 1:1 usable in both games (similiar to Daemons). These guys have power armour, guns, chainswords and backpacks after all.

 

What I will do too - I'll write quite some fluff for them and their various units, and I'll write rules for them once 8th hits. They are also meant to be 30k squats, so probably no boltguns - it was a terran weapon and the Stronghold armies wouldn't use them en mass (yet?). 

 

Also glad you like the Eversor <3

Edited April 9, 2017 by Atia

[Augustus b'Raass]

SQUATS!!!!

Done by Atia! 

Also, was "eeryoe who thinks about melta" a typo?

[SW1]

SQUATS!!!!

 

Done by Atia!

 

Also, was "eeryoe who thinks about melta" a typo?

Nah ... Just a request not to get trigger happy for nothing? :p :devil:

 

And yessss ... I was looking forward to this!!!

Edited April 9, 2017 by SW1

[Charlo]

Exciting. What colours are you going for? I'm heavily considering the classic green but with some orange details. Won't lie, this guy is a big inspiration right now:

 

 

I'm so tempted to grab some for some nifty plastic alternatives to Mechanicum units, as a little ally to my Talons in 30k. All that high T and low I is just ripe for conversion fodder...

 

I'll eventually build up some Militia with Cybernetic enhancements and Abhumans so I can get the basic dudes and artillery in there too...

 

At the moment I'm thinking:

• Balloon Guys: Thallax
• Admiral: Arch Magos with Abbeyant & Jetpack (he even has extra space for guns!)
• Other characters: any other type of tech priest
• Small Boats: Vulturax (they the right size?)
• Large Boats: Maybe Thanatar? Again sizing

What are you doing/ what do ya think? :D

[Atia]

SQUATS!!!!

Done by Atia!

Also, was "eeryoe who thinks about melta" a typo?

I'll give my best to do them justice!

SQUATS!!!!

Done by Atia!

Also, was "eeryoe who thinks about melta" a typo?

Nah ... Just a request not to get trigger happy for nothing?

And yessss ... I was looking forward to this!!!

Indeed. I'm honest with you - if I would have got pictures (just the pics) without any additional informations, or just the sprues, I would have said Plastic Squats are back. They are perfect for me, and I want to build upon the GW releases instead of radically changing them!

Exciting. What colours are you going for? I'm heavily considering the classic green but with some orange details. Won't lie, this guy is a big inspiration right now:

I'm so tempted to grab some for some nifty plastic alternatives to Mechanicum units, as a little ally to my Talons in 30k. All that high T and low I is just ripe for conversion fodder...

I'll eventually build up some Militia with Cybernetic enhancements and Abhumans so I can get the basic dudes and artillery in there too...

At the moment I'm thinking:

• Balloon Guys: Thallax
• Admiral: Arch Magos with Abbeyant & Jetpack (he even has extra space for guns!)
• Other characters: any other type of tech priest
• Small Boats: Vulturax (they the right size?)
• Large Boats: Maybe Thanatar? Again sizing

What are you doing/ what do ya think?

My colour scheme will be golden armour with thunderhawk blue for the suits, black for gloves and shoes and cream details - basically the scheme they used for the WD battle report. I originally wanted to do them dark blue and golden but that would have been too much like Ultramarines, and the Space Wolves grey isn't taken by a Legion in 30k!

I already wrote a little overview about Squats on Battlebunnies - here we go:

Howdy Guys and Girls :)

Today I want to talk a bit about an upcoming project of mine - the Squats. As some of you may know, Space Dwarfs are one of my dream-projects and GW's upcoming release of Kharadron Overlords will give me enough material to convert my own Squats or use as cross-over models for both systems. So let's talk about the basics - what are the Squats fluff wise and what I want to do with mine!

The Fluff - Squats, and Empire within an Empire

"Do not underestimate the Squats. They survived for millennia cut off from the Imperium and assailed from all sides. Their determination and resilience is an example to all."

- Leman Russ, Primarch of the Space Wolves Legion

"The Squats (Homo sapiens rotundus) were short, stocky and physically hardy Abhumans who were adapted to the heavy gravity conditions that predominated on the worlds they had settled near the core of the Milky Way Galaxy. Of all the Abhuman types encountered by the Imperium, they most closely resembled baseline humans. The Squats' ancestors were human colonists who reached the heavy-gravity mineral-rich worlds around the galactic core during the time of the initial expansion of humanity beyond Earth's own Solar System during the Dark Age of Technology, many millennia before the emergence of the Emperor of Mankind and the dawn of the Age of the Imperium. The colonisation came at the right time, as Old Earth's own mineral wealth had been largely depleted. The worlds at the galactic core were rich in rare and unique strategic minerals, but in terms of the existence of life they were barren and unsuited for human colonisaton. These worlds were dark and bleak planets. Their gravity was intense, usually two or three times that of the Earth. Their atmospheres were either thin or non-existent. Even those planets that did possess atmospheres were continuously blasted by tremendous radiation storms produced by the massive black hole located in the galaxy's core.

Once settled, these planets became rich Mining Worlds. The colonists were forced to become self-sufficient, providing their own underground hydroponically-grown food. Due to the hostile nature of these worlds' surfaces, the colonists formed underground societies. During the long isolation of Mankind produced by the Warp Storms of the Age of Strife, the Squat race genetically adapted to their new homes, evolving or genetically engineering themselves to better suit their environment, becoming far tougher, more resilient and physically shorter with a denser skeletomuscular system than found in the baseline human genome. The Squats had some of the best scientists and engineers in history who explored the frontiers of human science and technology without the constraints of religion and ritual, in contrast with the dogma-bound humans of the Mechanicum who followed a very different path on Mars during the same period.

As the Imperium of Man emerged from the Age of Strife and began to reunite the scattered worlds of humanity, the Squat Homeworlds were rediscovered and contact with the Imperium was established. The Imperium found that a distinct culture had developed on the Squat Homeworlds, and that the Squats had moved outwards through the galaxy, extending their own domains. Often they settled harsh planets similar in climate to their Homeworlds, but they also occupied more conventional worlds able to support normal human civilisations."

What I want to do with my version of Squats

The fluff above will be the base for my Squats - abhumans, part of the Imperium but still independend (basically an empire within an empire, similiar to the Mechanicum). They will also split during the heresy - some of them will stay true to the Empire, while others will want to do their own thing or even turn to Chaos (it's whispered some Squat homeworlds have secret cults of the daemonic Hashut going on hidden under their surfaces ...).

I'll try to re-use most if not all of the old 1st/2nd edition fluff about them - but probably not everything. If you look at the state of some other factions during Rogue Trader - especially Orks, Guard and Eldar - you will see that most of them used similiar stuff than Space Marines - Boltguns, Dreadnoughts, Rhinos and Land Raiders (Yes, Harlequin Land Raiders were a thing!). The same goes for Squats back then. They had rhinos, boltguns and bikes.

My Squats will be a little bit more unique - they are supposed to be their own faction, like Solar Auxilia or Mechanicum, not just Imperial Army/Marines 2.0. I want to follow Forgeworlds' way of doing the Legio Custodes - new unique looking stuff instead of "just" Land Raiders and Rhinos. I imagine them mostly using their own weapons and tanks/airships. The boltgun for example was a Terran' weapon so they should have limited access to it at the time of the Great Crusade. I think they would have their own weapon and variations - better plasma stuff, grav and anti-grav engines, laserweapons. I guess some of the squat core-STC's would be used on other imperial weapons and tanks (maybe it was the Squats assaultcannons that actually made the kheres pattern working?!).

At that point I would like to share a comment from Jervis Johnson about the removing of the Squats:

"No, the reason that the Squats were dropped was because the creatives in the Studio (people like me, Rick, Andy C, Gav etc) felt that we had failed to do the Dwarf 'archetype' justice in its 40K incarnation. From the name of the race (Squats - what *were* we thinking?!?!) through to the short bikers motif, we had managed to turn what was a proud and noble race in Warhammer and the other literary forms where the archetype exists, into a joke race in 40K. We only fully realized what we had done when we were working on the 2nd edition of 40K. Try as we might, we just couldn't work up much enthusiasm for the Squats. The mistake we made then (deeply regretted since) was to leave them in the background and the 'get you by' army list book that appeared. With hindsight, we should have dropped the Squats back then, and saved ourselves a lot of grief later on.

Anyway, the Squats made it into 2nd edition, and since we were doing army books for each of the races, we started to try and figure out what to do with them. Unfortunately we just couldn't figure out a way to update them and get them to work that we felt was good enough. The 'art' of working on an army as a designer is to find the thing that you think is cool and exciting about an army, and work it up into a strong theme. This 'muse' didn't strike any of us, and so, rather than bring out a second-rate product simply re-hashing the old background, we kept doing other army books instead, with stuff we did feel inspired by.

Now, while this was all going on for 40K, we were actually doing some rather good stuff for the Squats in Epic. On this scale there was a natural tendency to focus on the big 'hand-made' war machines the Squat artisans produced, and this created an army with a feel that was very different to the biker hordes in 40K. However, this tended to reinforce the problems we saw in the Squat background rather than alleviate them, underlining what we *should* have done with the Squats in 40K."

With that in mind I really want to do them justice - making them a proud army that will fight alongside Space Marines, Mechanicum and Solar Auxilia against Xenos and Traitors during the Great Crusade, the Horus Heresy and beyond!

So yeah - rules are not really an issue as I want to write my own homebrew red book once 8th hits - and I already started to write Shadow War Kill Team rules for them aswell.

The core of my army will be the clan warriors - using void hardened Squat carapace armour that derived from mining suits. They will get airships (using a combination of anti grav, steam and gyro technology - they were first created to mine gas giants and later found their way into the armies of the Squat Strongholds) but also classic stuff like Rapiers (already got them from Kromlech), a Rhino and other stuff. Elite and Heavy Support infantry will be my Hearthguard - one unit will be close combat oriented the other will be heavy support Thunderers, these guys will have the Squat version of power armour. Balloon Guys will be for fast attack alongside the smallest airship. I'm not sure about bikes yet especially as GW disliked the idea of Squat Bikes - and I want to do them in a similiar way to Forgeworld's Legio Custodes - take a look at the source material but make them their own unique thing instead of "just flying Land Raiders".