# Fall of Malvolion Project



## Alexious (Apr 13, 2009)

THE FALL OF MALVOLION PROJECT

Hello everyone, those who have shown some interest in my home brew fluff will know that I have begun a Lamenters Space Marine Army which is slowly starting to take shape.

For those of you unfamiliar with the Lamenters, they are an interesting chapter with an even more mysterious past. I first came across them when I got my 40k Compendium and they had two minor mentions, one was the picture of a marine, the other was their reference in the Badab War, fighting alongside the rest of the rebellious forces, before commencing a 100 year crusade in pennance for their rebellion. 

When GW and others have published anything on this obscure chapter its been a single line of text or a reference here... very little to go on, until the Short Story was published entitled the Fall of Malvolion. I read it and became fascinated by the idea of the Lamenters and began at once to collect as much information on them as I could. However like most of you out there who collect something more than the big 4 or "add on" chapters, finding information which is relevant and also can be used to theme a force is difficult.

The Lamenters interested me for two reasons.

1). I like plain Vanilla Marines. Sounds strange? I have always kept a large Ultramarines army as I always have seen it as the measuring stick of each and every other force out there, no matter what edition of the game I have played. 

2). They were cursed and had a twist... they were from the gene seed of the Blood Angels. I never liked the Blood Angels, as they were not shooty enough for me, too much close combat but I liked the idea of the curse and I loved the idea of a chapter that had beaten it... but had to pay a price in another way.

After reading the fiction, the line that after 39 minutes the last Lamenter died had always stuck in my head. So i ran with it...

I scoured down what I could find, and came to some conclusions, with even some input here in the Home Brew Fluff Section. About what would survive a Tyranid planet invasion, or escape, or perhaps even not be present when a Chapter goes to war.

I knew from the Fluff that their were maybe 300 Lamenters remaining. Parts of the Chapter perhaps not present, parts that had escaped and parts that had barely survived. Choices time...

I ran with the idea that I had to create a force that was thematical, as I prefer themed armies to others and I am strongly anti-cheese. So how to handle it... I came up with the following, which is what I have based the army around.The remains of the Chapter, with Ordo Xenos support a the final stand of the Hive City. It appeared pretty natural that the Ordo Xenos would have been on Malvolion as it fell to the nids. The story itself really details the Mordian Iron Guard as they flee or attempt to fight the onrush of what is more than just a standard invasion, its death incarnate by digestion literally.

The Story mentions a Hive City so I was ok with that as a basis, and I assumed the Ordo Xenos would have deployed via a major population centre to watch what was happening and issue orders as overall command. The Lamenters we know are drop podded in or part of them were. But it made sense that they would have deployed the chapter to defend where they thought it was possible to hold the enemy.. on an agri world, the lone Hive City seems to be the place to hold them back. Especially as it would appear the planet had few other defensive capabilities like Macragge had when it was attacked.

So onto the Lamenters....

These pics are of the marine Lamenter that have been developed so far. I like the look. Ignore the Tactical marking as it is a trial figure just to see if we could do it correctly. But I was quite pleased with how it turned out.



















So they were doable to an acceptable level of painting... that was replicatable. Great...

The colors were quite interesting, yellow and black... tiger or bumblee bee immediately sprang to mind. But I wanted to avoid that, and keep it simple, but continue the theme. This is where the Ordo Xenos came in and I had to decide on what I would even design as part of the Ordo Xenos...

I came down on the path that to base them off the Ordo Malleus was a better choice than the Witch Hunters. It allowed me to field a legit list, while still giving flavor to the chapter and Ordo Xenos. All I had to do was change what I called somethings and bamo! Instant Grey Knights... became Lamenter Themed Requim Squads. (See Homebrew Fluff for how I am doing this). And the Ordo Xenos was easily represented in the lists by an Inquisitor and Storm Troppers.

Wanting to keep the theme current I came up with this as a scheme on my Ordo Xenos Storm Troopers. (Deathwatch will be standard tactical squads or I may even make them Sternguard vets.. which is more probable.)




























As you can see I used Karskins but I liked the type of plates they had amd detail compared to the other Storm models. (I have already the beret french types for my guard). As this was going to be the final stand, I wanted dramaticas... so I am building as this project rolls forward a cathedral and flagstone floor for these guys to be set up in. (Thats another side project which I will detail here as it develops). Hence why the Karskins and all of the figures look as if they are advancing through a flagstone floor area.

They also had to fit the scheme of the lamenters with the 4 main color theme of yellow, black, white, red, and some green (minor)

The next part of the project switches now to the Chimera that these troopers will have and after that switching back to marines for the next section. The HQ figure will be Mephiston... but done in yellow. Should be quite interesting to see how the figure turns out. (I will use him as an Epistolary but call him my Chief Librarian).

The idea of this army and the theme was inspired by a short story and numerous articles about what shoulder pad Lamenters armor should have their chapter symbol on... strange inspiration... but I do love a checker pattern as well and something different you dont see at every GW.

I am indebted to my painting partner, who is also experimenting as well as he finds his feet with yellow! and also helping turn this army into a reality... of over 10 years worth of marines from 87 through to 2008 have been involved or are about to be. Cheers Todd!


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## zxyogi (Dec 7, 2009)

That was an interesting read,will follow this thread!


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## Ste (Aug 28, 2008)

Looking good, i was interested by what i read  and nice yellow to


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## Alexious (Apr 13, 2009)

Ok so now after some more fluff and other stuff being developed we come to a new problem.

Mephiston.

At the moment he is going to be primarily yellow. All good and the scheme works well with him. But.... his backpack looks crap! He appears to be equiped with a marine banner pole from 2nd edition days. Which is fine, but it really does not suit the model at all.

Thoughts so far;

Empire General Standard with the Reaper to replace the top

Corpse cart bits with the braziers and lanterns

Conversion lab mechanical wings

Anyone else have an idea of what to use? I even have considered the amethyst wizard scythe but think the roses are a bit... non 40kish.

Ideas welcomed!


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## Alexious (Apr 13, 2009)

Ok Chimera is basically finished which the stormies will be transported around in...

I was amazed how well it came up, considering the color scheme of makig the yellow a main color.

In essence the Stormtroopers are part of the Ordo Xenos section of the work and the Chimera is their transport. I stuck with black as it matched deathwatch as they are kind of the only main color that I can find for Ordo Xenos forces.

You will note that the Chimera is named Lamentors... I did this to show that they have fighting together with the Space Marines for some time. After all the Lamentors are on crusade, so it appeared fairly obvious to me an Inqusitor could be assigned to them for crusade duties, and they honored the stormies in a previous conflict by allowing them to name the Chimera after the Chapter. 

Enjoy... again fantastic work Todd... yes the gun nozzle is missing, its being put on before its finished.

Still would love some Mephiston suggestions for the backpack guys!

On that note today I also ordered some stuff from Pegasus Minatures to make my cathedral.... gothic ruin for the force to fight through and over. I also ordered some tyranid bits... so I can make it decidedly anti nid flavor or nid infested... any ideas in general of how to do excessive flora? As in rapid growth type alien growth? Have been looking at aquarium stuff but its very... fake looking. Any ideas welcomed..... also any other ideas are welcomed as the force or theme of force develops.

Cheers. Alexi.


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## Alexious (Apr 13, 2009)

More done on the Inq section of the list.

This time Arbites which have become part of the Inq Stormies section and as the remenant of the PDF forces still fighting as the nids close in on the sole hive city...

These guys will eventually get their own Rhino or Chimera. Am thinking of doing a Chimera for them with a HF turret or HB turret. 

Thoughts and comments appreciated.





































They are painted circa 1990 style, straight from evy metal paint job copy. I loved these figures. The Judge himself is my all time favorite 40k model. IF you cant love a man with a shotgun in carapace armor wearing a great coat... then I don't know what love is.... 



Next we have one of my Inq and his acolyte and Servo skull. As always the pics dont do the figures justice. The yellow black theme is to tie in with both the Lamentors and the entire Inq idea of the deathwatch and Ordo Xenos. If death watch are primarily black, am taking that as a base. As most Stormies are black and red, I chose yellow to match the Lamentors but to also try and show a different division within the Ordo Inq. )Red seems a primary color for the Ordo Herectic stuff and Gold and Bronze seem standard for the Ordo Mall, so chose yellow as a nice clashing color.











As part of the Inq retinue, I loved the idea of a sanctioned psyker playing the part of the henchmen instead of an astropath. I think the role is well suited as the Mystic to the Sanctioned Psyker as they have Inq markings on them already.

I went with black as the main theme again. They kinda look starship trooperish psyker division.... but its still Inq. 





























The Primaris Psyker is from the current IG range, as are the other two psykers. I have an older psyker figure, who looked a bit.... hmmm whats the term... metrosexual without the metro part.... (if you get my drift). But I am saving him for my rouge list which is going to be genestealer magus and coven themed. (Another side project long story).


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## Lither (Apr 2, 2010)

Great painting. I couldn't paint that well.


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## Alexious (Apr 13, 2009)

Some additions to the Inq retinue


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## Asamodai (Oct 19, 2008)

Nice army. I'm realling liking the concept and the way you're applying the cohesive colour scheme to both elements of it. 

To that end, the blue scribe seems out of place but the paint jobs themselves are great.


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## Alexious (Apr 13, 2009)

Thanks for the comment and the rep man!

The army thats being done here is also a bit experimenting with different color styles and schemes. I was kinda scared that the entire army would end up bumble bee looking when it was on the board with too much yellow and black. Hence I wanted the retinue to break it up slightly as they are meant to be so varied in most of the fluff I have read from killers to psykers to whatever else the Inq may have picked up along the way. Also from years ago in RT, blue was the color of the Adeptus Administratum, which is where I assumed scribes would be schooled in the first place. We did manage to give him a yellow hood. It was super tempting to make the robe purple... but it would have been too Chaos feel for my liking.

As for the priest, well he is a mad ranga so he could wear what he wanted. 

So far the most challenging aspects have been from style are the hair on the damn figures especially the Inq range and Psykers when your using black and yellow as base colors across the force. The Primaris Psyker I have labeled Colonel Sanders as he looks to me like the KFC guy... LOL. And the Inq himself went from white through to blonde and then to dark brown. (Must be metrosexual).


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## Dagmire (Oct 9, 2008)

Damn my work computer for not letting me see pictures 
I will be back on tonight to check out the pi9ctures. The fluff sounds very cool and Inq forces are very close to my heart. Good to see someone else that likes to play fluffy Inq lists.
D


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## jimmyhoppityhop (Aug 10, 2009)

loooovveee the inq stormies!!! how did you get your hands on them?

man give them a chrimira (damm my forgetful mind). i dont just love those models, i want them!!! man gw have to start making them again!!!!!!


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## subtlejoe (Sep 23, 2008)

lovely models. nice clean cut painting. very bold, but very detailed.


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## Dagmire (Oct 9, 2008)

Looking very nice. I like the fact that you added track guard to the chimera. Whilst yellow is not my favorite colour i think your painter (is that right?) has done a good job in keeping quite cold.
Will be following with interest.
D


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## HOBO (Dec 7, 2007)

Very interesting background Lexi...I love the Ordo Xenos involvment (both my SM armies are Deathwatch-modelled).

I love the yellow, it's very well done..I cheat when I do it, using Iyenden Darksun as a base. I might steal part of your colour scheme for my PBS actually.

As Dagmire also noted I love the clean lines that Track Guards give to the Chimera...all my IG Vehicles have them as I dislike the bare tracks.

Aren't Kasrkins great...all 50 of my Vets are the Kasrkin models (oh the expense, but damn the expense).

The Empire 'grim Reaper' standard...I use that as my Death Wing - esque Company Standard...Deathbringers Chapter.

It would be great if down the track GW give us some more background on the OX, but I have doubts they will.

Someone commented on the blue Sage, I love it..Retinues are made up of eclectic individuals united by a common cause and similar philosophies, so I see no need to standardise the colour scheme, but the common thread (yellow) is a nice touch.

Consider me subscribed!.


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## Alexious (Apr 13, 2009)

Thanks all for your comments. 

To answer your comments, I am doing the work alongside a professional painter, designing units, purchasing old figures etc to theme the force and then change it as we grow it and develop it. We spend maybe 3-5 hrs a week fleshing through ideas and what might be a good idea and then I send him off to paint stuff and I think about schemes and I consult on the side with color management etc so we get the right affects, to match the force to the theme.

I however do build all the scenery... which I will start posting up shortly. The entire force is going to be done on a Custom Battle Board, all 8ft x 4ft in a flow from open fields through a Temple/Church central section which had fallen into ruin to a light industrial oil drilling stations with landing pad. The idea was to produce the outskirts and old ruins of the Hive city as it fell under heavy Tyranid Attack. I had to decide on why the Lamenters were there and had comitted the entire chapter to defending Malvolion so came up with the premise that the Temple/Ruined Shrine section of the board would be an ancient Lamenters sacred shrine area that had been long forgotten on the outskirts of this lone hive city.

Anyway thanks for the positive comments. Appreciated.


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## HOBO (Dec 7, 2007)

Are you making the Board modular?...can be hard to do for a themed board though.


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## Alexious (Apr 13, 2009)

Yes I am, I am using MDF in 295mm x 200mm sheets. So they are rectangular. But it allows me to really make the most out of a small area, finish it and move on. Its been a long learning process for me and I am enjoying it a lot. I am going to use bigger sections of MDF when I have too for a central cathedral element eventually.

I am finding the Pegasus Terrain to be of great use! Its basically hey want a ruined Church district.... come see us!


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## Dagmire (Oct 9, 2008)

post pics?


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## HOBO (Dec 7, 2007)

Alexious said:


> Yes I am, I am using MDF in 295mm x 200mm sheets. So they are rectangular. But it allows me to really make the most out of a small area, finish it and move on. Its been a long learning process for me and I am enjoying it a lot. I am going to use bigger sections of MDF when I have too for a central cathedral element eventually.
> 
> I am finding the Pegasus Terrain to be of great use! Its basically hey want a ruined Church district.... come see us!


Going modular is the way to build a board that's for sure...gives a board a longer-playing lifespan by it not becoming boring after a while.

I was kept busy for many months building my group's two 8' x 4.5' CoD boards...used 24 Manufactorum kits alone to make one building.

One other mate of mine used some Pegasus pieces on his Fantasy board I think..Fountains, Bridges and such.


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## Alexious (Apr 13, 2009)

Update with some terrain pics for my ruined city/cathedraly church district kinda...

Took them outside as I could not get them into a light box, so excuse the backgrounds. Am fairly happy with the results. As they are terrain and not figures for the project, I added them to my blog.

http://malvolion.blogspot.com/2010/04/pegasus-terrain-part-1-building.html


The board plan and other pics can be found here if your interested.

Am learning a lot about terrain hobo as you said, its something I have never really been into but its one of those things that I am enjoying more and more as I do it. The problem is not getting carried away...


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## Alexious (Apr 13, 2009)

Scout Scout for Lamenters now finished.

Sgt has full tactical symbol on the shoulder pad with a yellow cloak, the others have just a 4 square chequer pattern to say they are not full battle brothers as yet.












I think the cloak really came out well on the sgt figure.













Next we have another acolyte for the Inq retinue. I think the red really defines this figure well.















And lastly.... my Inq lord in Terminator Armor. I wanted to give him a more harsh look, so I went with the darker skin tone, just as something slightly metahumanish like the Salamanders are with black skin, he has a chalky purplish tone to his.

They yellow again is to tie the figure in with the rest of the army. The red was done as its a strong clash color and black was starting to get a bit too over the top. But I think it works well.


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## Asamodai (Oct 19, 2008)

Something about the Inquisitor doesn't look right, like he's out of proportion. I think his heads too big.

Good job on the scouts though. I wish my cloaks came out that well.


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## MaidenManiac (Oct 2, 2008)

Asamodai said:


> Something about the Inquisitor doesn't look right, like he's out of proportion. I think his heads too big...


Thats one of the classical RT era Inquisitor Lords and they have the "old" kind of TDA and yea, they look a bit goofy but have a huge nostalgic value:grin:

Neat work on the scouts, your army is coming along nicely


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## Khorne's Fist (Jul 18, 2008)

I really love that old Iquisitor model, along with it's brother the ordo malleus deamon hunter. The head _is_ a wee bit too big, but as MaidenManiac said, they are classicly nostalgic.

Loving where this army going, by the way.


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## Alexious (Apr 13, 2009)

The inq is a classic model, and thanks for the comments guys.

It's a bit of a pain at the moment, as I am considering and having to pick options carefully with a mind that GK will probably come out at some time in the next year and change everything (hopefully not too much).

Your right about the head, its a bit largish for the figure, but thats part and parcel of the old citadel range. However finding a decent Inq figure is rather difficult to do thats Ordo Malleus. The options at the moment are rather limited if you want him in termiantor armour, which I feel ordo xenos would have access too as a matter of course. (After all the standard squads have better type of bolter and high tech even for other SM chapters, so things like Terminator armour would be fairly common amongst their Inq lords)

Plus something about a Inq lord charging from a LRC backed up by a squad of Deathwatch and delivering a hearty hello to some Xenos scum at bolter and sword point seems rather in tune with how they would operate. Especially in regard to a tyranid incursion. 

Next up is my first tactical squad of Lementors.... so far so good. Will post pics when they are done.


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## Dagmire (Oct 9, 2008)

REally liking the inq ret at the moment.
Giving me insperation gods dam it.


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## Alexious (Apr 13, 2009)

Ok time for an update....

First off we have my Terminator Deathwatch Librarian. He has retained his blue shoulder pad under his right arm looking at him as is the case for all deathwatch. (yes I am aware of the issue that in the pics its the normal shoulder pad for the watch). But the tactical symbol on normal marines is what would be normally showing... with a standard squad. Hence I made a choice to stay with the pad on the right as thats where chapter symbol should be. (Damn confusing pictures and deathwatch!)


















Next we have my first squad of Lamenters. 1st Squad of 5th Company...

They are the AOBR figures completely, as I wanted something to show across my range of figures from the very new to the very old... Most of my squads are a mix, but in this case, the 1st Squad is all brand spanking newbies. (figure wise).


















Does anyone have any ideas for me for how to do the librarians standard? Or has any artwork for deathwatch standards? I am rather interested in the artwork that I can use. Or do people think it would be in standard codex for them? Thoughts anyone?


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## Dagmire (Oct 9, 2008)

looking nice man, now i see why you want the old stuff.
What about a stylised I onthe banner for the Inq?
=][=
D


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## Alexious (Apr 13, 2009)

Last one for a bit....

Mephiston Lord of Death.... (in Lamenters Colors). The idea is that I will either use him as a Mephiston stand in for a HQ (treat as Mephiston) or an Epistolary libby for standard use in PA. 

Comments welcomed.

Yes he is MELLOW YELLOW LORD OF DEATH...


























Last picture is of his back without backpack. I am still debating what to put here. I liked the idea of some type of banner... but the actual banner itself seems overshadowed by the figure. (old style banner pole) The new ones are the same, as they dont show a lot in the position they are in. Ideas? Anyone?


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## Dagmire (Oct 9, 2008)

looking nce again. not sure i like the yellow on this guy but thats just me.
What bases are you using?


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## Alexious (Apr 13, 2009)

back 2 basix bases. Aussie company. They have an ebay shop too. Decent stuff actually. If i had my choice over again... I would have gone for the ruins over the dungeon floor after now getting both... but I think the dungeon floor fits well with a cathedral or city fight type scene. Both of which appeal to me a lot. 

They are a really good base, zero bubbles or problems and very fast delivery. I ordered Thursday night... arrived here Monday afternoon. That might be not that fast for you, but the physical distance involved is a different state... and its about 1200kms or so.

I suggest using the ebay shop for them.

http://stores.shop.ebay.com.au/Back-to-Base-ix__W0QQ_armrsZ1

Just make sure if you need 40mm base and 25mm base they do both for the same lot. Almost got caught with it...


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## Alexious (Apr 13, 2009)

Terminators.....

1st Company. 5th Squad. (I am old fashioned...2nd edition codex designation)










The terminators were kept as simple as possible with little adornment. I liked it more this way to make the characters pop more across the force, especially since a lot of the character figures are 25mm. I found that even Mephiston on a 25mm base did not draw my eye like a 40mm base can. So I wanted them simple but effective.










I aslo wanted the small shield designs on the hips to reflect the black/white theme without it having to be overdone with the chequer pattern. 










This was a simple but effective black white style, on the shoulder pad, just taking literally a dark angel arm and adding it to it the figure. As they are a sanguine chapter the feather does not look too out of place, and the wing actually blends quite well with the broken sword, suiting the ill fated Lamenters I think.

The sgt head is actually a dark angel head as well from the vetran sprue instead of the normal marine one, just to be another point of slight difference. 

The right shoulder pads like most of the army I have kept themed, and have now a skull added to them. Just simple transfers from the Karskin box set. It brings the entire army together a bit more.

Comments on the force in total are welcome guys or ideas of what else I can use or you would be interested in seeing for an Ordo Xenos force. Comments about the painting are also useful... cheers.

Lexi.


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## The Wraithlord (Jan 1, 2007)

Some very nice work in here over all but I have to admit to feeling that the highlights are a tad on the thick side, especially the grey highlights on the black areas. If you can slim those down a bit the models would look even better than they do now, more natural.


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## Lawkeeper (Dec 30, 2008)

Looking great, though I think they could use some battle damage and weathering..


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## Vredesbyrd (May 13, 2010)

Lovely mix of old and new models in the army, and you've managed to bring them all together nicely with the colour scheme. I would agree with The Wraithlord in thinning the thickness of the highlights on the black. Otherwise very nicely done.


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## Alexious (Apr 13, 2009)

Thanks for the comments guys. As for the black and highlighting... will take note thanks! Its a hard one, we did 2 test figures first, one with the minimal and then one with the thick. My first comment was thats not mid 90's GW! get rid of it! To which my partner in crime told me to go f myself and showed me what happens to the yellow afterwards, as it made it look far too... whats the term... bumblebee? Hence why we accented the grey.

But I do appreciate your comments guys, both good and bad, any ideas you have are also appreciated.

At the moment I have comissioned Ron from the FTW blogger founder to make me a custom chapter master with beakie style armor and a halberd... so am looking forward to see what he can do for me. 

I am also busy working on the conversions of the honor guard (for codex use) and the command squad for either BA or codex use.

One thing that I dislike about GW is that they never make it simple! Why BA honor guards cant have half the stuff I want is beyond me.... sigh... DAMN YOU AUXILLARY GRENADE LAUNCHER, DAMN YOU!

Also does anyone have any ideas about deathwatch tactical squad load outs?

I am thinking Heavy Bolters and Flamers.... but the squad size seems to be 5 usually. And I am unaware of a SGT leading them... its always a captain? or librarian? or am I just not across the fluff enough? I also cant seem to find anything about Deathwatch vehicles, apart from one reference to a Dready. But am assuming that they would either get them direct from the Adeptus Mech... or get them from Chapters on loan... anyone have any information on that?


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## Dagmire (Oct 9, 2008)

I will have a look into deathwatch for ya.
Looking good yet again but i think maybe you could drill out the barrals. On the SB its quite noticalbe.
D


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## Alexious (Apr 13, 2009)

Its been some time since my Lamentors have had an update so I thought I would make it a good one...

(The voice you can hear in the background is my partner in crime for the project which will perhaps develop even more with IA 9 coming to do Badab War. I am hoping that the Lamentors get a special character of their own.)

http://www.youtube.com/user/TheNocturnalStudios

Enjoy.

The figures are all modern for this squad. The only thing I changed by design was to give the squad leader a different backpack to make him look slightly superior to his fellow marines. The sgt is the only figure I have in the force in MKVIII armor as well. (Was never a fan).

The helmets are in blue to reflect their BA origins... however as stated earlier in my blog, I use them in both standard config SM and BA configs at times.


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## Alexious (Apr 13, 2009)

Only a small update this time.

Army progression has slowed while I await the GK codex and how it will affect my Inq/Marines. May have to start something seperate for Inq using a load of Mordians that I have sitting around.

The SM captain was put together using.

Black Templar Chest
Death Company Legs
Dark Angel Power Maul
SM captain chest
Tactical Marines Helmet (beakies!) Which to me is still what real SM look like.

Backpack is custom with the skulls taken from WFB.

Shoulder pads are from SM captain and DA vetran sprue. Servo Skull from Devestator Marines box.

Enjoy! Comments are appreciated guys! we do quite a lot of planning with this army and the painting at times is only really 30% of the entire time we spend planning the process and what to use to make the figures different or searching out old figures for the army feel. 

http://www.youtube.com/user/TheNocturnalStudios?feature=mhum



Bases are all from Back to Basix here in Oz.

Next project for this force is 10 sternguard Deathwatch all from different chapters led by a Space Wolf Sgt.

Lexi.


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## Chaosftw (Oct 20, 2008)

Your Checkered fists look very cool! is that all free hand?

Chaosftw


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## Alexious (Apr 13, 2009)

Yep all of it....  Todd does all of it free hand. Note he does hate me.


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## Alexious (Apr 13, 2009)

As this project is fundamentally a blending of armies with a solid Lamenters base... it quickly became apparent with the new release of the Codex GK... that my Ordo Malleus allies would be relegated to Apoc games. The Inquisition however is not so easily silenced... even by GW.

I decided therefore to base my sternguard vets, on the deathwatch. For those of you unaware, the deathwatch are the space marine fighting arm of the Ordo Xenos. Their entire role is to eliminate Xenos threats to the Imperium under the watchful eyes of the Inquistion.

I speculated that the Ordo Xenos would have deployed forces to Malovlion. From a fluff perspective it makes sense for Crusading Fleet especially one so far out into uncharted space to contain at least a contingent of Ordo Xenos forces. (Plus keeping an eye on the potential heretical Lamenters to ensure they kept their pennance and continued on the crusade after the events of the Badab War)

A ten man squad made up of sternguard seemed to fit the bill nicely... filling an Elite Slot for the army and at the same time ensuring the flavor of the force was retained even if the IST and Inq themselves were banished to Apoc games.

I deliberately picked a diverse range of Chapters. Some known and some others quite obscure but they all share a common thread.

Sergeant. Is a Space Wolf... easily identifiable by his pack markings and wolf totems. I was inspired by the Ultramarines novel where Uriel Ventris joins a squad which has a Space Wolf Sergeant. Also as I am quite opposed to generally open helms the Space Wolf figures tend to lend themselves to open helms and faces.

Heavy Bolter. Heavy Weapon Marine... Lamenters Chapter. I did 3 of the 10 as Lamenters, 2 normal and one with the heavy weapon. It would seem pretty obvious after 80 years of constant crusade that the Lamenters would replace the losses of the squad first and foremost.

Dark Angels. Another haunted chapter, it fitted quite well in the Lamenters theme of loss and something darker sitting in the background.

Blood Angels. The progenitor chapter itself... had to be represented. Here he is the marine with the Sanguine Backpack.

Mortifactors. I had read the Badab war and how at one stage the Mortifactors had refused to fight alongside the Lamentors... it seemed appropiate that in their darkest hour that a single Mortifactor marine should be present. He is distinguished by his backpack made of skulls.

Emperors Swords. A little known chapter the only refernce too is that they were wiped out from within when their recruits and brothers turned on them due to the Alpha Legion's influence. I liked the idea of a final marine... definat yet flawed. Still serving with the Ordo Xenos. I used the Chapter Champion for the figure as it usually is armed with a sword... hence their is an echo of a sword theme.

Ultramarine. Obvious as anything... the roman pose, the cape, the almost arogance of the MKVIII armor amongst his colleagues. A leader amongst men... amongst marines, he serves as a squad leader when I divide the squad or as another Sergeant.

Last and again in the more recent MKVIII armor is a member of the Sycthes of the Emperor. Now lost wiped out to a man by Kraken... another crusading chapter laid low. He was done deliberately in this armor and pose to show how overbearing the Ultramarine was over his compatriots.

The bolters are forge world issue pattern. I picked them as they represent perfectly the Sternguard idea of multiple ammunition on a single bolter. I liked the idea of at least one heavy weapon though, hence the Heavy Bolter.

I was quite happy with how they came up... the silver deathwatch symbol showing through on each of them. The Red Inq symbol being something slightly different from the typical yellow I had used before. But the bases still lead a cohesive unit to fit the army.


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## Alexious (Apr 13, 2009)

This update brings a few things to a finish.

I have now completed the Deathwatch section and Ordo Xenos section of the army apart from a Captain for the Ordo Xenos team and perhaps a libby in PA.

First off, the Rhino for my Deathwatch team from my last post. 

The idea was to keep the Rhino completely plain. This meant it could double as a Rhino for the Arbites squad or even for the Inq himself instead of marking it as something just for the Deathwatch. The name "Lament" is just to tie it to the rest of the force overal.




























Next is the next addition to the Lamenters section of the army.. The Sanguinary Priest.

As the Lamenters are a BA successor, it was pretty important to incorporate them, but at the same time I wanted the distinctly different from their red armored brethren in the other chapters.

I picked an almost grey knightish scheme, to give the feeling of belonging to something special and involved in more than a typical apothecary. The scheme will be carried on for the Sanguinary guard and Honor Guard helmets for the Lamenters.

Hope you like.


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## CLT40k (Jun 18, 2010)

I completely <3 the checky...


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## Alexious (Apr 13, 2009)

Thanks, am unsure about the SPriest, but I like the concept of it and how they will look in conjunction with the Honor Guard and Sanguinary Guard.


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