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So I have recently received a very small inheritance. N\But hey, free money is free money. Thank you granny. So I figure I ought to go and spend it on something nice and I have bought myself a nice little starter army for the new Horus Heresy update.



I think the hardest decision was actually picking a legion. For now, I'll just be working on Word Bearers. I've never really gotten to build anything really evil and chaotic so this seemed like a good time to start. Hopefully in the future I can add some demons and cultists. By sheer coincidence my FW order arrived the exact same day I went and bought everything else at my FLGS. So I will take that as a sign I have made the right choice.

Now, of course, like a fool I have started off with building all the characters. But they don't require collecting pieces for kitbashing so they're easy to throw together.



For the bases I wanted something that really gets across the cultic theme of the Word Bearers. So I'm sculpting a tiled floor with some demonic runes carved into the stone. I have also cut up some paper and scattered it across the base. Almost like they're raiding some forbidden archive.



Of course, after spending two days sculpting two bases, I think maybe this is too much work for my entire army. Maybe I'll save this for just the character models. The scattered papers isn't hard.

Next I'll do some conversion work on the dreadnought. I found some cool STL's hopefully you find it interesting.

This is looking very promising. The bases are are amazing, nice work.

Really great bases. Is the apothecary a 3d print?

 ph34r wrote:
Really great bases. Is the apothecary a 3d print?

Yes, I found it on cults3d. Not the most posable options but what's there is well sculpted and easy to print.





This is Jabin Hazor, the Broken Scribe. Working on his backstory, but basically he was once an artist that specialized in illuminating manuscripts. Adding all those illustrations you find in medieval literature. So, of course, he ends up in a clumsy dreadnought with a mace for his right hand. He's not happy about it.

Let me tell you. Sculpting flames is not the easiest thing in the world. Lots of waiting for some flames to harden before adding some.

Dreadnought looks great. If he can’t illuminate a manuscript, at least he can make some nice monochrome red abstracts

Ten tactical marines finished. Hopefully I'll have more troops done in the future, but I think I'll hold off for now. I'd hate to finish all my troops, only for GW to release the Word Bearers upgrade kit. That would suck.



As cool as the corvus armor is, I personally think the heresy is a good fit for the traitor legions. Especially when I'm going for an army deep into the civil war. Lots of mixed armor and equipment. 3D printing parts has certainly helped stretch the starter box and give me some variety. But I'm starting to see the flaw of 3D printing, which is a lack of standardized scale. I'm learning the hard way to start with a few test prints just to make sure everything is a good size.

Really cool builds you’ve started with here Mr Nobody. The 3d prints work well, but I agree with the frustration over non-standard scales. The Mk5 bits look super cool though, on their own and mixed in with beakie bits. From what I gather though the new beakies and earlier Mk’s don’t match too well either. Looking forward to more progress

Alright, we have some termmies done. I found these awesome stl's for chaos themed pauldrons and I thought they looked suitably metal.



Although, I think I printed them a little too big... Are they supposed to be that size?

That dread is great! Also, the termi shoulder pads do seem a little on the large size.

Good job on the dread and the squad, also the cataphractii look very promising!

Thanks for all the compliments so far. It's encouraging to know I am taking a productive direction. Now I must break the habit of blindly trusting the scale of STL's.



Here's a squad of despoilers. Made from a whole hodge-podge of stl's and a few forgeworld bits, I'm abit ahead of the curve when it comes to GW plastic kits. I'll be curious to see if some some future tactical box will allow one to equip their marines as despoilers. But for now I'll depend on my printer.




I'm particularly proud of the sergeant. The Word Bearers can upgrade their plasma guns to warp fire guns, so I added flames to the plasma pistol to help denote this. I figure it's more practice for sculpting flames.

Great stuff, I'm doing Word Bearers too. So far, I've used mostly 40k Chaos models for my tac, heavy, warpfire, and despoiler squads, but I'm looking to add more of a Heresy feel to most of the rest of the army.

 ArcaneHorror wrote:
Great stuff, I'm doing Word Bearers too. So far, I've used mostly 40k Chaos models for my tac, heavy, warpfire, and despoiler squads, but I'm looking to add more of a Heresy feel to most of the rest of the army.

Nice. I have a few chaos bits myself, but I'm saving those for more elite choices. I wanted to show alegion that was partially on their way to slipping fully into chaos. So your higher ranks are privy to the primordial truth, but your rank troops are still green to the whole chaos thing. Maybe I'll build a diabolst or two in the future.

A now for the biggest piece in the AoD set, the spartan tank. I'm a little bummed out because I built the track units and then found a bunch of stl's for alternative tracks. A missed opportunity for some extra chaos bits.

Before I got the whole thing built I wanted to do something simple for the interior. So threw on some zenithal highlighting an then airbrushed over it with the clear angron red. That should give it some properly broody mood lighting.




And then for the exterior I found some crucified corpses and some strung up space marines.



I wonder if I should add some chains. Maybe I can find more corpses to drape over the engine in the rear.

That’s a nice job on the interior to the Spartan, really cool!

Great idea with the red-lit interior!

And that's 2000 pts of Word Bearers. But let me tell you, that land raider was cursed. Rather fitting for a chaos army... Every piece had some kind of print failure. Most of what you see is a second or third attempt at printing. I've had that sort of problem with any other stl. Next I'll need to kitbash some diabolists. I also want a squad of support marines all armed with plasma guns and upgraded to warpfire blasters. But hopefully I'll start some painting soon.

That army looks pretty good. Are you going to be adding any Gal Vorbak?

Tre Bien

These are amazing as a fellow Word Bearers player I am inspired truly by that Dreadnought with the huge mace...

Thats kicking all sorts of ass keep it up!!

 ArcaneHorror wrote:
That army looks pretty good. Are you going to be adding any Gal Vorbak?

Thank you.

Once I save up enough money, I'll probably buy a few more FW pieces. But I'm torn between the Gal Vorbak or the Ashen Circle. So hard to choose.

The Land Raider looks scary, fits very well for the Bearers of the Word. Loving the mixtures of bits and Armour marks. Looking forward to seeing more great paint work too.. oh and Gal Vorbak

And we have paint on models! I thought I would start with the sergeants. Perfect for figuring out exactly how I want to set up my paint assembly. The first two colours I can put on with an airbrush and then the final two highlights I can put on by hand. The model on the left was with more drybrushing while the model on the right was a more manual layering of paints. It's all a little more orange than I like, but still a decent colour. I think I'll try putting a gloss on the whole and then give a wash with a more maroon colour.

That’s some great dry brushing, I’d have thought you’d layered them both if you hadn’t said. I quite like the colour at the moment, but intrigued to see how the maroon filter works on them.

I'm really proud of this paintjob. I've used more levels of layering, mixing colors together for transition layers and really took my time. No extra maroon yet. I was too scared to cover the whole thing in a wash and perhaps cover up some of those layers. So I just went a little heavier with the gal vorbak red and a little lighter with the word bearers red.

I plan to run this guy as a centurion instead of a praetor. Maybe a chaplain or diablost.

Sweet! The layers look great and I love the ethereal green on his flames. He looks like he’d make a good diabolist to me

Have to agree that the Tartaros Praetor is amazing, great job on him. He could easily pass as Chaplain or Diabolist...there is just so much potential with the Consul options.

Had never realised how chunky the Gal Vorbak are.

The Illuminator
The Broken Scribe

Jabin Hazor was once a great artist. He was famous amongst the Word Bearers and their imperial cults for his miniature illustrations. Jabin brought a visual beauty to the written word with a delicate love and careful dedication. A rare characteristic for an Astartes. From the Codex Gigas which four men needed to carry. To the hermit’s hymn book; no bigger than a thumb.. So beautiful was his work that he was even responsible for the illuminations in some of Lorgar’s most popular works.

Like many of his brothers the destruction of Monarchia left a mark on Jabin’s soul that would never close. To see his art discarded, either burned or left to rot on a shelf. It broke him. So when his primarch began his new works the broken scribe was all too willing to throw himself into the work. The Book of Lorgar. Jabin went on many pilgrimages with his primarch. Uncovering ancient archives and delving into lost libraries. The Aurellian shared many secret works with his scribe. Alien diagrams, strange geometries and proscribed artworks.

But what the Lorgar found does not neatly fit inside the human mind. Not even the transhuman. What Lorgar wished to share was not meant to be conveyed by our arts. To give form to the formless; to convey meaning from primordial chaos. It comes at a price. No one knows what happened to Jabin Hazor in those late hours. Some say his illuminations summoned something. Others say the work drove him mad. All that is known was that Jabin was found as a bloody ruin before his completed work. The broken scribe indeed.

Jabin Hazor was a great warrior as well as artist and a legionnaire so close to a primarch was greatly respected. So it was decided that Jabin would be interred within a dreadnought chassis. A cruel jest by the universe for gentle Jabin Hazor. He strides into battle now bound in the words of his primarch. Banners of parchment and vellum of unspeakable origin. Reliquaries and triptychs containing demonic bones and powerful spells. The greatest irony is the mace that has replaced the right hand of the artist that was. A crude and thrice cursed weapon dripping with witchfire. Its touch could melt iron and burn flesh and with a deft swing, the warp born flames would spray anyone who strayed too close.

After this none could really say how sane the dreadnought was. Ranting and raving; sliding between poetry, riddles and unknown tongues. And yet, there were those that listened. Whatever the secret language is, the neverborn speak it. A sharp eye can catch the Gal Vorbak watching him. Demons turn at the sound of his sermons and even infernal engines paused when he spoke.

Mercy to those who witness the works of Jabin Hazor’s right hand. Either the pen or the maul.

Great kitbash, paintjob to match, and excellent background history. Looking forward to know more about your legionnaries!

I figured my Word Bearers are going to need either more Diabolists or Chaplains. So whipped up two of them. A basically took the DA chaplain and the dark apostle kit and swapped the pieces around. But the wind is blowing their cloaks and flames in opposite directions! They looked like they were standing in a tornado, it looked ridiculous. Just a small speed bump.

Here we have some vindicator twins.

Anyone got any good names?