Heresy Era Night Lords

It's been a while since I've posted any models on the site which is a bit disappointing really seeing as I'm the site admin.
So it's time to correct this by updating my own Night Lords army.

The Eastern Fringe

Many months have passed since the Isstvan V dropsite massacre and the Night Lords have been dispatched to the planet Tsagualsa on eastern fringe by the Warmaster to launch a genocidal campaign against the Imperial strongholds of Heroldar and Thramas.

Getting started

This was intended to be a Captain for a Pre-Heresy Alha Legion force. It was an experiment to see if I could come up with a different method of constructing truescale marines and was built and painted in around four hours.
It was never intended to be anything other than a side project but it proved to be very succesful inspiring others to try their hand at the process.

WIP Construction




WIP Painting Scale shot


Side shot of extended true scale bolter

Developing the Concept

The test piece was meant to be pre-heresy but I figured that for the proper version I'd tackle and armour variant you don't see very often done properly the Corvus or MkVI suit.
Here's the result:



Originally I planned to have this guy as a Alpha Legion Captain leading a LatD army I wanted him to be a Captain so decided to make him look as though he was giving orders to the rebel Army soldiers.
This idea really appeals to me as it demonstrates the combined arms tactics of the original armies of the Imperium. This, however , was quashed by the news that LatD was now only a "fun" army and wouldn't be allowed at tournaments.
The MkVI armour just screamed Night Lords to me so with a quick change of allegiance he swopped legions replacing my old Night Lords Captain Artibeus in the process.

Re-inventing Captain Artibeus

The problem with the helmet was that Artibeus was originally one of the original members of the Night Lords regiment that fought in the Unification Wars on Terra which later became the Night Lords Legion with the commencement of the Sol campaign.
Natives of Nostramo, the planet that Konrad Curze was discovered on have pale skin and completely black eyes, lacking an iris altogether. To clearly show he was a Terran I'd need to have him without his helmet on.










I also decided that he'd need a bigger bolter so began to scratch build one but it was just darn ugly so I opted for the second ed sickle mag version instead.
I also wanted to make the equipment a bit more characterful so rather than have simple belt pouches I added bandoliers to his thigh plates from which he could hang his equipment.

Painting Artibeus




Originally I used a rather lengthy process of drybrushes to achieve the colour I wanted for the Night Lords. However, now with the release of the Foundation sets an alternative presented itself in the form of Necron Abyss. I then went over this with a couple of coats of Midnight Blue and highlighted with a Regal Blue/Midnight Blue mix.






Here is a shot with the original Captain Artibeus. The newer version is set well into the Heresy and so I decided to make him look a little grittier with a shaven head.



I toyed with a snow base to create a strong contrast but botched it up big time. I abandoned that idea and went for a simper city fight style base instead.

As you can see I changed the backpack as I felt it was too gothic and used the original devastators pack instead. The idea is that it is aimproved comms system that allows him to command his company more effectively. I initially painted the grenade red but it drew the eye away from the rest of the model and opted to later paint it black.
As it seems that HQ choices will no-longer have access to the humble bolter I added wrist mounted single shot plasma gun that counts as a combi-weapon.
It's not one of my better paintjobs and I'm not one hundred percent happy with it but I wanted to call it a day and get on with the rest of the army.

One Down...Thirty to go

With Captain Artibeus out of the way I could concentrate on First Sergeant Mollusos. He was orignally a native of Nostramo who was convicted of murdering a foreman at one of the planet's space docks. Artibeus saw potential in him and took him under his wing when he was recruited into the Legion becoming his mentor.
What the Nostramo officials didn't realise was that he had killed several times before they captured him and should have been classed as a sadistic serial killer.
Eventually he became First Sergeant of Artibeus's company and now that the Heresy is well underway he has become his personal enforcer and assassin, Artibeus gave him his own Mk III armour that he wore during the Sol campaign.

WIP Shots

Creating the Beast.







To me Mollusos has always been a bit of a monster, a savage and cunning killer who's aggression is curbed only by Artibeus. To represent this I wanted something that looked like he was emerging from the shadows to slaughter his unsuspecting foes.
I choose the MkIII Iron Armour as it has a more aggressive quality to it and was used extensively in ship boarding actions.

The First Squad

Well, I'm ploughing ahead with the first three members of the tactical squad now. Most members of the unit will be wearing MkVI plate armour (as it's my favourite) with maybe some MkIV and MkV thrown in.



As before with the Captain these guys are scaled to be seven feet tall when compared to a guardsman. I've made the basic armature and will now begin adding the armour.



With Mollusos and the first squad well underway i've decided on a Truescale Terminator. With two Night Lords characters already in the army I decided that a member of another Legion was in order.
I thought long and hard about this one and asked people for ideas but it seemed a Word Bearer would fit in nicely with the story.
The idea is that the Warmaster has sent him as an emissary to ensure that the Night Lords stick to the plan and protect the flank of the spearhead heading for Terra.
For now here is the basic armature I'm working on for the Word Bearer Terminator. It's really basic at the moment but I want to capture the feel of a much heavier suit than the regular plate armour.
He'll be in the red armour rather than the granite grey as it's quite late into the Heresy at this point.

The Dreadnought.

I haven't got a name for this guy yet but I figured that he'd fit well with the new look of the army. I'm modelling the bases of the models so that it looks as though they are striding through the ruins of the empire they helped build. Hence the aquila and the fallen bust of an Imperial hero of old.

Ver nice Doghouse. Any chance of a step by step tut. on the termie marines thing?

Cheers mate, I'll see what I can do. ;)

Quick Update

I've managed to get a bit more done to the first marine, mainly bulking out the torso and thighs.

Update



More progress on the torso and I've started to define the legs a little.







I've been thinking about including Imperial Army models to bulk the army out for Apocolypse now and have included this shot to show the difference in size between these marines and a DKoK themed field surgeon rather than a regular GW plastic guardsman. If I do go ahead with this I want to use either the FW DKoK or FW drop troops as they suit my style of modeling more.
This is the original guard model I used to base the scale on whilst brainstorming with Philip Sibbering (the twisted genius that did the False Gods cover) who was a great help with the scale and measurements to get the original Astartes right.

howd you paint the purity seals on Artibeas(sp)?

Basecoat of Snakebite Leather then add a little white and go over it. Then I just keep adding more white and repeating untill I'm happy, once it's done I give it an extremely watered down wash of Scorched Brown. :)

Amazing Doghouse. Nothing short of outstanding work. :blink:

what a model ....thats incredible, witch colour skame you used for the blue?


other question its very dificult to work like that with the green stuf? :D

that chaos imperial guard beside the marine is awsome how did you paint that....can you tell me please

Any recent updates doghouse? You truely are an inspiration.

Thanks guys. :)

mortarion17: The blue was basically midnight blue over a black undercoat, I then went over this with a midnight blue/regal blue mix. It's a bit of a tricky colour to perfect but worth it when it works. :)
The guardsman was mostly a snakebire leather basecoat which I then went over with a brown ink wash.
GS just takes practice, lots and lots of practice. :)

thewordofblake: Well I'm currently working on a new truescale tutorial for the these guys here so you may well see a combat squad of Astartes soonish.