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"Regardless of where the blame truly resided, many within the Iron Hands Legion, now fatherless, dealt with this traumatic crisis on a personal level in a simpler and more direct fashion; they went violently insane."

- Horus Heresy Book 2 : Massacre


For me, if the Horus Heresy is about one thing, then it is about the death of hope. Mankind stood on the edge of a golden age, a pax imperialis, free from fear, free from superstition; but that fragile dream has come crashing down, and in the best traditions of tragedy, the Imperium contained within itself the seed of its own destruction.

It is a setting that I find perhaps far more compelling than the 41st millennium. Its characters seem more recognisably human and that makes the darkness all the darker, the tragedy all the more tragic.

For a while I had been in a hobby slump that I couldn't shake, this is until I realised that it was indecision which had made me grind to a creative halt. On the one hand, what had enticed me back to this hobby after a gap of over 20 years was the amazing miniatures I had seen coming out of the Inq28 community. So, my first tentative steps to rediscover the joys of painting and modelling revolved around acolytes and death cult assassins and their ilk. On the other hand, I had begun reading the Horus Heresy novels and had fallen in love with the stories and setting.

Yet the Horus Heresy hobby seemed the complete antithesis of Inq28. One was about creating small bands of lovingly crafted conversions, the other about 20 man tactical squads and giant tanks.

The solution was so obvious that I could not at first see it. The novels I loved to read were not just about huge battles; they were also about individuals. They were as much about small bands of Astartes, as much about the ships' crews, the astropaths, the remembrancers as they were about Drop Pod Massacres and Titan Legions.

An idea began to germinate and it has taken a long time to take shape.



The Doomed Ship

"... in the aftermath some Iron Hands units and, in some cases, entire Clans shunned the Medusan Council's assumed authority and went their own way, consumed by their own hatred and need for revenge."

- Horus Heresy Book 2: Massacre


Ferrus Manus was dead. This terrible news filtered through the galaxy, astropath to astropath, until it reached the escort ship Euripides. Now, lost and leaderless, the Iron Hands astartes aboard the Euripides will have their revenge ...

One ship, its crew; the space marines and mortal men and women who call it home.


Automatically Appended Next Post:
Work is in Progress

There is more to life than space marines. One of the things I love about the Heresy era is the way that each fleet is a real community. Astartes, Imperial Army, emmisaries of the Mechanicum and the ship's crew all live and work together. So, having blown all my money on massive, leather bound books, I decided to begin on some crew ... while I wait for the Iron Hands to muster.

Lycia Jesh is the youngest, but perhaps most talented astropath aboard the Euripides.



Sooner or later, anyone who likes to convert GW miniatures must make something out of a cairn wraith. It almost feels like a rite of passage. How to make something both interesting and original out of a miniature which has been done so many time before? Well, this is my attempt. I'll write up some background on young Lycia when she's finished.

This sounds like a fantastic idea!

This sounds like an amazing idea, and already you have a great start there with your Astropath

Thanks Edreynaline and Marine_With_Heart

Sometimes, when I'm kitbashing, I have a definite idea what I'm trying to make but often I just playing around with no idea. There are those wonderful, organic kitbashes where everything just seems to work and then you sit back and try to work out what it is you've actually made. This was one of those cases. A while ago I made this chap;





Then he sat in a drawer ...

Now he's finally starting to get some paint and an idea is forming about who he is. He's still a long way from finished. I'm calling him the Quartermaster, though I don't have an actual name for him yet. He is the one who keeps the weapons and equipment of the ship's crew and he cannot resist tinkering with them, like a far future version of Q from the Bond movies.



Neither FW or GW make rules for spaceship crews and I doubt they ever will, so I'm going to use the Inquisition rules for my crew. The Inquisition is perfect in that it allows me to have a collection of the weird and wonderful that still feels human, far more so than any other published codex. With the Quartermaster I realised I could get a (counts as) Jokaero into the crew. Jokaero's are physically weak but can shoot powerful weapons so the Quartermaster is an old man and his weaponised servo skull provides a rational for his ability to shoot.

Wow, I guess I missed this the first time around.

I really Like the idea for this, great kitbashes so far, looking good!

Zone mortalis is kind of meant to represent fighting on ships. If we are all lucky there may be something in the next FW HH books when they introduce the solar auxilia and hopefully the Imperial Fists.

Excellent work and fluff so far, subbed!

Thanks OneManNoodles. I think this may go down the lines of being a Zone Mortalis project rather than a full scale army. I'm very much looking forward to the Solar Auxilia. The early renders I've seen look simply amazing.

I'm collecting the Horus a Heresy books over time and I've bought the first two so far. I wanted book 2 before embarking on this venture because I want my marines to be Iron Hands. I love the idea of Astartes traumatised by the loss of their primarch and the suspicion with which they are viewed by the human crew. Nothing like a bit of tension to keep things interesting.

I'm also thinking of collecting an enemy force so that I can have little solo battles at home. Emperors Children are the obvious choice, but I'm leaning more towards Word Bearers. That's a way off though. For now I've ordered a few marines to get me started and I'll continue to kitbash crew members in between painting batches of Iron Hands.

Nice work so far. I love your inq28 stuff, so I'll be following this.

 OneManNoodles wrote:
Wow, I guess I missed this the first time around.

I really Like the idea for this, great kitbashes so far, looking good!

Zone mortalis is kind of meant to represent fighting on ships. If we are all lucky there may be something in the next FW HH books when they introduce the solar auxilia and hopefully the Imperial Fists.

Excellent work and fluff so far, subbed!

Aren't the Imperial Fists already included in Horus Heresy 3: Extermination?

 Malika2 wrote:

Aren't the Imperial Fists already included in Horus Heresy 3: Extermination?

Indeed they are and they will also be in Book 4. There is a preview of what's in Book 4 here;

http://battlebunnies.blogspot.co.uk/2014/05/horus-heresy-book-4-conquest-details.html

Great idea Inquimunda 30k seems like an excellent setting to explore

I am digging this.

Very nice man Cool concept too.

Work on the Quartermaster is continuing. His face is done and I'm starting on the fiddly details. Photographing him close up has made me realise there's a massive mold line running along his left hand though :(





However, work on him was slowed down when these chaps turned up to distract me;



I've always thought that Astartes should be going into battle with plenty of equipment, so I've made sure that each of them is carrying a post pistol and extra ammo.

And to distract me even more, my lovely over half bought me a present off ebay;



Now, I'm not sure what I'm going to do with him, but he's such a beautiful miniature, I'm too scared to hack him up. I can't just go out a get a new one if I balls it up. I've recently finished reading "Battle for the Abyss". This book is really what inspired me, more than anything else to collect the crew of a single ship. "Battle for the Abyss" features the Armsmen, the chaps responsible for maintaining discipline and security among the crew. I'm thinking perhaps the Imperial Enforcer could be the basis for the Captain of the Euripedes' Armsmen. I've got a rough idea for a simple head swap, but the difficult part will be working out how to make some Armsmen for him to lead.



Thanks for reading.

lovely conversions...
the sallet helm looks perfect on the Arbite model...

i don't know if you've seen the report from the Forge World Open Day in the News & Rumors section, but you armsmen are going to be coming up...
have a look at the Solar Auxilia troops...
they look perfect for the job...

keep up the good work...

cheers
jah

Thanks jah-joshua.

Yes, I've seen the Solar Auxilia and I'm totally blown away by them. I think I'll be looking at something else though for my Armsmen simply because I want to use the Solar Auxilia as they are intended.

Three ideas for the Armsmen
* More Arbitrators
*Plastic Stormtroopers
*Scouts

Thanks for all the replies. I'm giving Armsmen some serious thought before I rush into anything.

I go totally distracted from the Quartermaster (he's next on the 'to finish' list, by the arrival of the Astartes and I was compelled to do a paint test. Here's my attempt to do very battered and weathered black armour by not actually painting it black;

Very nice, perfectly achieved the'black without black' look.

The Quartermaster is finished.







For anyone who's interested, background for this character can be found on my blog:

http://deusimp.blogspot.co.uk

These are all wonderful.

Very nicely done!

Just a quick update. Not much time for painting in the last couple of weeks but I did find time to tweak the Quartermaster a little.

I had some feedback about his hands not being so good. Bare hands painted black do not make convincing gloves. So, I managed to sculpt a more glove-like glove and this is the result;

I really like the look of Miletus. He appears professional and rugged like a veteran Legion serf should. Would you mind telling me where his servo skull is from? I love the integrated weapon on it!

Thanks ephrael. The servo skull is from a Forge World tech priest.

http://www.forgeworld.co.uk/Warhammer-40000/Titans/TITAN-TECH-PRIEST.html

Excellent work!

Thanks Paradigm

I’m embarrassed about how long it has been since I posted an update. The truth is that other things kept me away from modelling and painting for a while; I lost all momentum and the muse deserted me. I’ll been 2 months in the hobby doldrums and now I must make an effort to get back.



I have started to make some progress on my cairn wraith conversion. My initial thought with this miniature was that she was going to be one of the ship’s astropaths. However, as I finished working on the conversion I found myself adding more cables and a servo skull and, by pure coincidence I’m sure, was also reading “Mechanicum” by Graham McNeill. Now I’m coming round to the idea that she may be a servant of some Mechanicum Adept who has taken up with the crew of the Euripides. I love how a miniature can evolve as you work on it and how I don’t always know what I’m building.



So having decided on a Mechanicum contingent, I’m thinking of all the weirdness I can make. The Imperial Enforcer who was going to lead the ship’s armsmen may end up being a Mechanicum servant too – perhaps the Adepts factotum or herald?



Something which has troubled me is the thorny issue of scale, or rather the scale of Astartes. We all know that in the background of 30/40k, the Adeptus Astartes are now portrayed as giants; towering slabs of power armour and muscle. The miniatures, sadly, do not convey this. I had hopes to create the illusion of them being towering warriors by elevating them on their bases. It does put their heads above the heads of ordinary men, but I’m still not happy that it works.



Is that man a giant? Oh, wait, no … he’s just standing on a box.

This problem bothered me enormously until I got my hands on Horus Heresy Book 3 – Extermination. This was my eureka moment. Book 3 has rules for Strike Forces … 1 to 3 characters plus up to 350 points of troops, vehicles etc. That’s potentially just a very few models and it means the prospect of creating an art-scale, Heresy period Strike Force is not an impossible dream.

There are several people who have modelled amazing art-scale marines, but I’ve been studying how both Migsula at Legion of Plastic http://legionofplastic.blogspot.co.uk and the Spikey Rats http://spikyratpack.blogspot.co.uk do it. It’s inspiring stuff. I’ve got as far as a simple test using grey knight terminator parts as the base for the marine and I love the height and bulk it gives. Obviously it needs a lot of work, but I’m going to set myself the challenge of making a few art-scale Mk3 Iron Hands.



Thanks for reading, as always.

Loving the cloaked lady. For the scale thing their is another solution use more true scale human models than GW

 Llamahead wrote:
Loving the cloaked lady. For the scale thing their is another solution use more true scale human models than GW

Thanks!

It's true what you say about using smaller humans, but I just adore the new Solar Auxilia models.

I'd suggest checking out my way of doing it, but using Heresy models makes that a little more difficult. It does avoid all the common pitfalls of using terminator bodies though (usually weird waist proportions).

I love the rest of your project though. That quartermaster model is very inspired.