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Sweeeeeet.

I don't even know what bits you are using anymore. But they look fantastic man bravo.

Awesome work, love the mix of parts, just spent a good 20mins studying some of the pictures to work out what came from which kit or had been very nicely sculpted.

Cool sets of minis, not to sidetrack you with ideas but one could even make some kind of new skirmish wargame with these beast guys. Especially with that shrine thing, although you've only done one.

Thanks a ton guys! Always glad you like them

I'm very lazy when it comes to sculpting, or rather I try to make my dudes entirely out of plastic wherever possible. Definitely need to branch out into sculpting some more, but it's quite a fun challenge trying to make everything from plastic

I'd absolutely love to make a little skirmish game with these guys as it stands, there's a pretty awesome little fan-made ruleset called Age of Munda which being very liberal and freeform has basically everything you need to represent any little gribblies you can come up with I especially like the quirk of non-pistol guns having a minimum range (representing the enemy being too close to risk using a rifle and having to resort to close combat weapons).

Now I just need to do that social thing and find someone to play with

Alas, I don't have an update quite yet. I've got a load of models painted and ready, but need to collar my mate with the good camera again

However, I've just come back from holiday to these absolute beauties:



Sweet Mary Mother of Mutants, they're perfect not only are they pretty much tailor-made for crows, but with a bit of tweaking and paint-schemes to emphasise different bits of their clothing they're perfect for about half a dozen other ideas I've been wanting to do

I can tell I'll be bankrupting myself on Cawdor sprues as soon as these come out...

I'm still anxiously awaiting the future-crow Cawdors, but until then here's a little distraction



They're hegri. Grey-herons. Hernshaws. Crow-fishers. Wade through the lowland salt-marshes hunting fish and birds. Mudlarks by any other name, just a different culture.



Cowardly things. Most of 'em got wiped out when the draugr came. Not much good for fighting anymore, but they make good scouts.



They've still got a few villages left, down on the heronmoors. Funny places. All built on stilts.

Complete and utter diversion, but I saw this piece of art while scrolling through IG and it was just too cool not to do something with.


Marshwalkers by Tom Simpson

Plus, I've had a neat idea about a wasteland scavenger using a bow with grenade-arrows for a while now and it's great to actually put that into plastic

Also, we've experimented somewhat with the photos for these. Not using the LEDs for the lightbox, but using diffuse natural light and a really long shutter. Still needs some fettling for brightness and it's a bit dependent on conditions, but you can see a lot more detail that would otherwise be obscured by shadow. Here's high res to take advantage of that

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Those Hegri are fantastic conversions, what a great use of Kroot bits.

The paintjob is spot on and reflects the grittiness that the models convey.

That's very cool. Sort of a sub-species. Great stuff, man.

Thanks guys!

I've got a bit of a collection of sub-species going on now. Took a little family photo


Left-to-right: Shrike, Mudlark, Crow, Grey-heron

Back to our usual programming now with two more Crows. Thought the warband was getting a bit top-heavy so here's two more regular duders also started a bit of an odyssey into the history of the Crows, so that's our next stop



Curious, is it not, how such lowly scavengers could come to possess two ships as sizeable as Huginn and Muninn. At least, my employer certainly thinks so. Posing as a trader, for the Crows adore traders, I discovered that they pilot their vessels from an auxilliary bridge on the engineering decks. Sensing a lead in my enquiries I loosed a number of my diminutive spy-skulls into their halls and tunnels. While some appear to have been eaten by the feral beasts that roam their decks, the survivors reported some astonishing revelations. Upon the true bridge of the Muninn there lies the corpse of an ancient Astartes, bearing the legionary insignia of the XIX, resplendant still in the commander's chair. The crow-mutants appear to have constructed a makeshift shrine around it, with offerings of bone, food and trinkets littering the area.





This is but the first clue of the myths and origins of the Crows. More to come! Til then, here's high res photos

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Very cool paintjob, and very cool bit of backstory. Screw Warhammer Adventures, when's this becoming officially supported?

Two new crows look good, and the story grows...

The Hegri look very cool, great work all round

Love the idea of the shrine. What a great use of that model. Keep it up, man.

Thanks guys! Really glad you like him eventually I plan to pull him off his base and ensconce him in a proper derelict bridge-shrine scenery tile, but he'll do for now

For now, here's the next part of the tale

Sadly, my spy-devices had reached an impasse while searching the lower decks. I let slip my hosts, and delved down into the darkened vessel. Bypassing secured bulkheads, a derelict laboratory opened before my eyes. Rank upon rank of replicae tanks stretched along the low walls of the chamber. I'm ashamed to admit a gasp of shock escaped my lips upon discovering one was still occupied!



While quite dead, the specimen was clearly a crow, remarkably preserved in the amniotic fluid. Curiosity piqued, I fired up the ancient and dusted databanks. Imagine my revulsion upon learning that this crow began life as human! It now appeared to be some form of hybrid, bearing ill-formed mockeries of the Emperor's holiest implants. But why would the astartes of antiquity conduct such gruesome research? To what end? And how had they met their demise? All these thoughts raced through my mind.

Hope you like the next twist and turn! There should be enough here now to piece together their origins, if you know your XIX

Sadly, the photo isn't quite up to standard on this one. Had to take it with my regular point-and-shoot as it missed the boat for the DSLR and the difference in visible detail is quite a lot when looking at the high res version.

Still, helps move the story along about time too as it's the second one I've made! The first I trialled clear resin casting inside the chamber but it turned out a bit milky and ruined it :S

Oh, and now I'm just itching to get hold of the Cawdor models. The next part of the story probably needs one, so they'd better hurry up and release them!

Another fabulous little model. These little vignettes you are putting together are great.

Is this the first crow we've seen without a mask? He looks pretty haunting, very good

Very nice indeed!

very cool tube guy man

I second that. Very cool tube guy!

Thanks guys! Glad you like him

And yeah this is the first mask-less Crow we've seen I was struggling for a while to find a suitable face, but while making my Frekr I found one of the other dryad heads had the perfect combination of almost-human features

So yeah he's a mix of dryad, kroot and OOP Ungor bits

Next instalment coming up!

Sadly, my inquiries were cut short by a blinking proximity alert. My hosts had fathomed the connection between my absence and the captured spy-devices. With haste, I fled deeper into the bowels of the ship. Deeper and deeper I delved into the dark until I chanced upon the entrance to a mighty cathedral, unlit and undiscovered. Sanctuary at last! Upon entry a flickering torchlight sprung to life, and a harrowing sight met my eyes. This was no sanctum. It was a morgue. Dusted skeletons littered the floor, slack-jawed and broken, firelight flickering across their ivoried limbs. Mutant and astartes alike, locked in death's embrace. For a moment I stood paralysed, until a voice echoed from behind, breaking my stupor.





"Most kin don't know," it croaked in heavily broken gothic. "Down this far they don't be-digging." The voice belonged to a black-clad raven, silhouetted in the doorway. He wasn't even aware any of them understood gothic, let alone spoke it. "Great secret of crows you now know. Of why following Wolf-gods, not Ravens." The blackbird glanced at my pistol, then to the heavy-set rook beside him. "You fight," it chimed, "Maybe be-killing us. Maybe escape. Before you try...remembering something..."



"We killed our gods."

So that's it for this little trilogy (although there is a follow-up thing coming). With that and a little background knowledge of the Raven Guard you should be able to work out where my little gribbly crows came from if not, here's a spoilered explanation:



That one little origin piece has spun off a whole load of different ideas for the crows and their religion/cosmology which we'll be getting into soon hopefully

+++Thought for the Day:+++

Trust not the mutant, for their corruption is plain for all to see.

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So good Ynead, story and all the modelling has been such a blast to experience. Is this the end of the crows or are we going to have another chapter?

That's super-cool, man. Good job.

Love the Crows! You are truly an inspiration. From fluff, to modeling, to painting. The Crows are probably at least partially responsible for my planed Kroot/Human hybrid models and I’m not sure if I could point to exact bits but your amazing fluff has almost certainly sparked ideas for my own in terms of themes and style.

Have you considered doing an article with all your amazing work collected in one place?

+1 for that. Those crows are brilliant (especially the blue green armor), and the offerings before the throne is an amazing piece.

Excellent stuff!

Awesome, beautiful and so damn cool.

Looking forward to what you do next

Thanks a ton guys! Really glad you like them

It's definitely not the end for the Crows beyond this next update there's still two big pieces photographed waiting for their time, as well as a couple of ideas I want to try out I was actually thinking how much more I'd need to get a 500pt Renegades & Heretics army and it's not as far as you'd think! I'd need a good 30 regular crows, but once the new Cawdor models come out I should have 20-ish already

I have wondered about an article of some sort, or perhaps a little blog. Hell, if I could draw a bit better I'd love to make a little codex in the vein of the stuff done for Tor Megiddo and Rhossum Secundus (google them if you haven't seen them, they're both brilliant!).

@ChaoticMind Kroot/human hybrids? Ooh count me in looking forward to that

As for now, lets take a little dive into crow mythology...

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In the beginning there was nothing. The Void. From the Void sprang the Old Ravens and their many cousins. The Wild Wolves and the Iron Men, the Sons of Eyes and many others. Despite their differences, the gods set out to conquer the galaxy together. However, none could agree on how best to do so. Tempers flared, for the gods are prideful, and fighting began. Two of the cousins were most bitter, the Old Ravens and the Many Headed Snakes, for their similarity in nature drove their rivalry.

War raged on, and the Old Ravens needed footsoldiers to assist them. So, they set out to make the crows, envisaging their children as mighty and obedient. However, through their manifold eyes and ears the Many Headed Snakes discovered their plan and were jealous. Seeking to undermine their rivals they snuck into the Old Ravens' tower and found the unborn crows. There, they gave them the gift of free will, for what use is a soldier who questions his orders.

Fearing the Old Ravens might steal their gift the first crows fled aboard their ships, wandering the Void seeking sanctuary. Eventually, they found the Wild Wolves, who tolerated their presence and scared the Old Ravens enough that they wouldn't come seeking their wayward children.

So it came to be that the crows worhip the three houses. The Old Ravens created us, but wish to enslave us. The Many Headed Snakes saved us, but are tricksy and false. The Wild Wolves protect us, as a treacherous mountain shields the valley below. Together, they represent the three virtues of the crow world: necessity, guile, and intimidation, and all have their followers.







The idea for these guys came from thinking about how the crows would view the conflict between the Raven Guard and the Alpha Legion during their creation, from a perspective way below all the intrigues and politics of the Heresy.

Who would you view in a more favourable light? Your creators/enslavers the Raven Guard, or your saviours/enemies the Alpha Legion? From where I'm sitting in crow-town neither seem like a good bet, although both have had their part in your creation.

So we end up with your typical polytheistic belief structure, with multiple gods all with their own agendas (none of which are strictly on your side), and various adherents and advocates who identify more with one or the others' core tenets

Not that the Astartes care or even know what pathetic little crow-mutants believe about them

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Oh, and the juiciest bit about this little interplay is that these guys are set in the midst of the Thorn Moons crusade...which features The Rout vs The Hydra. I sense turbulent times coming in crow society...

Thanks! Hopefully I can do a good job on them.

Re. Mythology: SQUEEEEEE!!!! As an (extremely) amateur student of mythology you’ve done a great job. It really feels like the truth of the word around them as they knew it got retold over and over until you got this interpretation. The way the legions are referred to is also perfect for how more human level beings might identify them.

Of course hitting on one of my favorite traitor legions in my preferred interpretation doesn’t hurt. Definitely love how you have the Alpha Legion as dangerous but occasionally useful/noble.

Excellent work as always. Definitely worth creating an article out of these

Thanks guys!

Extra glad that you like the mythology. Spent a reasonable while reading up African and Native American folk tales about the beginning of the world and tried to copy their tone. They use a lot of animism to represent different concepts, and all seem to have this almost children's story-like quality to them that I hope I've got across right

Makes me wonder whether a lot of oral history is actually transmitted between parents and kids, rather than between adults. Perhaps most of what we know about mythology is actually just stories parents were telling their children about how the world works...

Gets a bit f'd up when you start reading some of the Greek stuff in that light though. Perhaps they were a little more...liberal...with what they told their children than us moderns...