1st Legion Build Log, Horus Heresy

[Son of Rawl]

Hey all. With Book 9 on the horizon (hopefully), I have finally sat down and made a start to my growing pile of Heresy projects that I keep saying I will start, but never seemingly do. So to prove myself wrong that it won't get done, I am looking to post my progression of this undertaking for feedback and to keep motivated with it. As I am aiming for a 3,000 point Ironwing Protocol that can be run with three variations by the end of the year.

 

To start things off, here is my first Praetor in Cataphracti.

 

And progress on the Tacticals. Trying to batch paint five at a time and seems to be working for now.

 

Group shot.

Waiting on a few parts to arrive to complete Squad Sergeants, and to work out squad markings for each dude to represent the various orders within the Legion. But I am happy with how they have turned out so far, and hope they at least are nice to look out when I get hammered in a game.

 

Thanks for reading and let me know what you think.

[jaxom]

I like it! The brown-white cloth color works great with the red and metallics.

[Bjorn Firewalker]

Excellent works.

[Son of Rawl]

Update

 

Made some more progress on the first squad, and can finally see the overall look of what the army will be once it's finished. Currently working on the Sergeant now which should hopefully be done some point next week.

 

 

Still have 21 more tacticals to go, along with rhinos before the troops choices are done. After that I am looking to add Order Symbols within the Legion, troop markings, and other little details once they are all done. As well as a way to show which Angels are from Caliban and which are from Terra, as I think there is a short story with the DA where a commander states that those from Caliban have a shoulder plate painted green for those who cleansed the world with the Lion.

[Son of Rawl]

Brushes Dust off Thread

 

Apologies for the lack of progress. But I have finished another HQ choice, and will hopefully be updating more regularly. As I hopefully will be able to allocate more time to this project.

 

 

The sword is from Conversion World (who do some excellent custom weapons). I'm trying to unite the look of the different types of swords the First Legion has access too. What I hope to achieve is that you can look at each blade and instantly recognize what type it is.

 

- Paragon Blades - Two Handed with a Blue Tinge

 - Terranic Great Swords - Two Handed with a Red Tinge

 - Calibanite Warswords - One Handed with a Green Tinge

 - Power Weapon - Any with a Purple Tinge

[Bjorn Firewalker]

Beautiful work on the swordsman. Will he be a Champion, CAPT, Chapter Master?

[Doghouse]

Very nice stuff, they are looking great.

[jaxom]

That is such a perfect pose! Are the hands and arms also from Conversion World?

[Loquille]

The First Legion are looking great!

[Son of Rawl]

That is such a perfect pose! Are the hands and arms also from Conversion World?

 

Thanks, and the sword is Conversion World while the arms are from the MKIV power weapon set from Forge World. It was originally the Heavy Chainsword, and with a bit of filing it fit quite nicely.

 

Beautiful work on the swordsman. Will he be a Champion, CAPT, Chapter Master?

Cheers and all of the above. The idea is to be able to field either a Praetor in either Terminator or Power Amour when I want, as my HQ's will either role with the Cenobites or Deathwing Companions when they come out. Those I'm really looking forward to working on and hope they get a release date this Saturday.

[Son of Rawl]

So more stuff has arrived and it is built and primed. As a rule when I have a new unit I have not done before, I fully paint one to get a general feel of what it will look like with the scheme I have. That way I can find the easiest way to batch paint the rest, and also determine if it works.

 

So here is the first of nine Inner Circle Knights.

 

And a group shot just to check if everything matches.

 

Thanks for the replies and checking this out.

[Gederas]

These are very nice. I'm going to steal that idea of how to represent the different Power Weapons for the Dark Angels. :yes:

Also, can we get more shots of that lovely Deathwing member in the last image? ;)

[Corswain]

I've never been totally sold on the Inner Circle Knights but your paint job has pushed me over the edge - he looks great!

Looking forward to seeing the rest.

[Son of Rawl]

These are very nice. I'm going to steal that idea of how to represent the different Power Weapons for the Dark Angels.

 

Also, can we get more shots of that lovely Deathwing member in the last image?

 

No worries man. I'm making my power armored squad leaders share the look of the Companions, I'm really looking forward to painting those when they come out, and I wanted to practice the bone sections they will have.

 

 

I have also finished up another test mini. I should have a sizeable update soon with some bigger stuff, thanks again for looking.

 

[Pearson73]

The latest test model looks cracking, a nice sculpt too, they've got a real bulk to them.

[Son of Rawl]

A New Update

 

So I had a small Ironwing force that was ready to go. And then the book dropped with so many new options that it has drastically changed my plans for this project. Good news though, I did have a game with it in this state before the book dropped and it was alot of fun.

 

My plan now though is to attempt to collect enough to be able to run all the Rites of Wars the First Legion has available too them. To do this I'm looking to be able to model units in a way that they can be used in multiple ways, such as Seekers as Vets, Companions as Centurions an so on.

 

So after scouring every detail I can find on what is needed to run the rites, what each unit can take, and how I would want the core of each force to look like. I have figured out I will need;

 

Head Quarters

Preator on Jetbike

Command Squad on Jetbike

Deathwing Companions on Foot/Jump Packs magnetized

Deathwing Companions in Cataphractii

Four Centurions in Power Armour/ Jump Packs magnetized

 

Elites

Inner Circle Knights with Thunder Hammers, Should have magnetized the ones I have already. But this way I can run twenty with each squad containing five swords and five Hammers.

Destroyers, magnetized jump packs

Interremptors, as these are nasty. In my game I took out a twenty man tactical with one round of shooting with these dudes.

Enigmatus Cabal

Tartaros Terminators, as I feel that Inner Circle dudes are a better choice if going for cataphractii

Veterans/Seekers, all armed with the Umbra Combi bolter so I can use the whole selection of comi weapons available. But it will probs be plasma 99.9% of the time.

 

Troops

Tacticals, I need more to run full squads to get centurions for the Stormwing

Assault Marines, enough for two full squads. Magnetized too for on if I want to run them as Tacticals without Bolters

 

Fast Attack

Enough Jetbikes for Ravenwing. The wallet is crying already.

 

Heavy Support

Ironwing Battle Bots, from descriptions they sound like the castlelax from the mechanicum. If someone could give a better description or more info on what these dudes look like I would be very grateful. Not mandatory, but fluffy for Ironwing.

 

Dedicated Transports

3 Proteus's. The wallet has thrown itself out the window.

Another Spartan

 

Lord of War

Stormblade, for reasons.

The Lion

 

It's not including the other toys that will be running in each rite. But this should hopefully cover everything needed on the minimum to run everything. In theory, I'm expecting to make many edits to this list as time goes by.

[Corswain]

That sounds soooooo expensive. And is pretty much exactly what I want to do too. ;)

 

I actually like your squad leaders more than I like the Companion models. Black Templar bits is a great idea too. How was it getting them to go with the MKIII? I have some around for an old 40K Dark Angel force I was working on but never finished.

[Son of Rawl]

A New Update

 

While batch painting Tacticals I got distracted and made alot of progress on a contemptor.

 

 

Still need to highlight and weather the metals, but it is getting there. The DA contemptor comes with the option of either a sword or hooded figure for the front armour section. Went with the sword, as I like the idea that this was his sword in life, and he still wanted to carry it even in death.

 

 

That sounds soooooo expensive. And is pretty much exactly what I want to do too.

 

I actually like your squad leaders more than I like the Companion models. Black Templar bits is a great idea too. How was it getting them to go with the MKIII? I have some around for an old 40K Dark Angel force I was working on but never finished.

 

Thanks, and it was surprisingly easier than I thought it would be. The main work is that the chest piece for the Templars, and the back piece of the MKIII kit are opposites. You need to cut both pips, and then marry up the gorget so the head fits cleanly. Then its just green stuff around the edges to make it look like the robe is fitting, but thats optional as the backpack and depending on where you have placed the arms can cover any awkward areas.

Some of the chests are noticeably smaller compared to other MKIII dudes, but with Dark Angels containing older non astartes like Luthor I just use it as a fluff point to represent those.

[Urauloth]

This is a new experience for me, I've never looked at Dark Angels and just... really liked them. These are fantastic, I love the use of heads and the poses. Is there more steel in the colour scheme here than usual? More bone-white? There's something special about these guys. Looking forward to seeing more of them.

[Son of Rawl]

Fully finished save for the base.

 

 

It's a shame we can't have the Mortis with double Choom.

And a group shot to see if it all matches together with previous completed units. Along with the tacticals staring at me in judgement for lack of progress.

 

Thanks for all the likes and comments everyone, its been good motivation to keep chipping away at this.

[BadgersinHills]

Good work. :) :) Looking forward for more. 

[Galloway]

Just found this and started running out of likes- they look fantastic. Cool idea with the weapon colors.

[Son of Rawl]

Update

 

After playing around with lists and combinations on what I can take on certain units. I decided to change up half of the Cenobium Terminators from swords to hammers. As they can take them for the low, low price of free, and while the swords are awesome. They really struggle against anything with a 2+ armor save.

 

I used the mauls from the Deathwing Knight set as I think they look menacing enough to be a hammer, while also suiting the the ornamentation on the Terminators in general.

 

I think it works out ok, but open to feedback if its not hammer worthy.

[WrathOfTheLion]

I think they look great. I am under the impression that this is likely what they intended players to do for the hammers when they added that option.

 

I don't think anyone would give any trouble about those being thunder hammers, the maces had to come from somewhere to make it to M41.

Edited September 27, 2020 by WrathOfTheLion

[Piano_Sam]

Those are what I intend to do for thunderhammers for my own dudes.