Children of the Imperium #2: The Blood Angels Watch captain

It's a busy time of the year, not just because it's Christmas for some people.  I tend not to do Christmas-- or any other festive thing for that matter-- because I'm morbid like that.  This is how I've maintained such a small friend pool.
Posting once or twice a week will be all I can manage at the moment, but it ought to be fine.


I hear very little about the deathwatch nowadays.  Alright, aside from video games and novels, but  there is hardly anything in comparison to the other armies.  The ordo xenos is probably one of the most important organisations in the Imperium, and not enough is done with them.

I was first introduced to the deathwatch in Graham Macniell's  novel Warriors of ultramar; in the climax, Ultramarines 4th captain Uriel Ventris becomes a Watch captain and fights a Tyranid Queen on board a hive-ship.  It was an incredibly exciting read, Macniell is my favorite Warhammer author; it made me interested in the deathwatch and led to the creation of this miniature.

 Also, in Macniell's Ultramarines series is a character called Pasanius, a flamer-wielding Astartes whose armour was put together from regular and tactical dreadnought parts.  Not quite like I've done here, I'm sure-- but I wanted to do this anyway.  I paired a Grey Knights chest with a chaos terminator back and filled in the gaps with greenstuff.  The combi-grav looks a bit tacked-together I suppose, but I think I'm more of an artificer than a tech-priest so a weapon's functionality is secondary to it looking interesting and original.
I'm mad, I know.

I do have a Death Company frame in my collection; don't ask why... I don't even do Blood Angels.

The shield on the arm is a Tomb Kings icon.  I thought, seeing as it was a Blood Angel, I should give the power blade a more rosy tinge-- it was actually because there was a bit of red left accidentally on the dry-brush.  The martyred saint on his back was a skeleton soldier with a servo-skull for a head; I cut the handles off several Grey Knights icons to make it look like it was being held on like that.

And that's that.  I'll try to post again later this week.

D

Two pencil drawings I did of Midna

Okay, I'll admit it, Midna is among my most favorite Legend of Zelda characters of all time; not just because Twilight Princess was my favorite game and not just because she's a twili imp.

Also, she's a major challenge to draw.

I drew the first one several months ago on an A3 page, so I could pack in the detail into the fused shadow.  I always prefer to draw any characters as I remember them, rather than copying from a picture.

The second one was only in my A4-sized art pad, because I'm nervous drawing on anything bigger.  I was disappointed by the fact that the twili you saw in the game were very tall and flowing, but Midna's true form was human-shaped.  I wanted to draw her as I thought she should have looked-- not trying to say mine is better than anyone else's, just how I thought.

That's it for now.  I might slow down a bit on posting now or I might wear myself out too quickly and become bored/angered by the thought of blogging.

D

A bit about my Space Marine Chapter

 After a good long while of writing, I've decided to post a bit about my Chapter to try and encourage others to actually try when inventing stories in the 41st millennium.

From left to right, assault, tactical and devastator

Name: Sagodjur Fjorlag
Successors of: Imperial Fists
Successor Chapters: None
Allegiance: Imperium
Colour scheme: Ochre and black

I'm still developing the Chapter's history, so do bear with me.

The Sagodjur Fjorlag, or Fate Gryphons in low Gothic, are a loyalist Space Marine Chapter founded in the 2nd founding; though presumed initially-- and incorrectly-- to be founded in the 13th cursed founding, along with the Crimson Slaughterers and the Death scythes.  A little-known Imperial fists sucessor, that was wiped from existence in a horrific struggle with the Necrons mid M37.  For canon's sake, I can never play against Tyranids, or collect legion of the damned, so that's kind of sad but oh well.

It's a tank

 Quite unlike their progenitors, they rely most heavily on lightning fast air assaults, with jump packs  equipped to over half the companies.  To begin with, when they only had a handful of Astartes, they would implant gene-seed zygotes into the gryphons they bred specially for carrying a fully-armoured Space Marine into battle; though at the time it seemed to work fine, and such a thing is no longer necessary, it left the Chapter with certain... mutations that, while some being short-term benefits eventually led to their downfall.  The psychic nature of the gryphons, coupled with some curse left on their world by the Thousand Sons during the Horus Heresy, increased the psychic might of the Astartes in general.

Lexicanum Snerra

They became a fleet-based Chapter early M34 when a Necron tomb woke beneath the surface of their Chapter world, Nastrond.  Extermanitus was performed, but not before the Chapter managed to save a few thousand of the populace aboard a Space hulk captured a century past.  The Chapter now draws recruits from the hive within the space hulk.


When developing a Chapter, it would only make sense to include things you enjoy; base their style after what-ever point of history you like most.  For instance, I chose an ancient Scandinavian theme, giving my battle-brothers Norse names; not unlike the Space Wolves, but not so feral, and from my knowledge they had next to no successors, so there we are.
I also like to include references-- some subtle and some less-than-subtle-- to some of my favorite video games and songs.

My mascot: 1st Sergeant Alone with a Dream and his helmet bearer Starfall

3rd company sergeant with a power fist modeled off Link's power glove from Hyrule Warriors

3rd chaplain with crozius and volkite caliver

When I was a young child, the first ever picture I saw of an Astartes was an Imperial Fist, therefore, it was set in my mind that the proper Space Marine colour is yellow; that was why I chose ochre for the main colour.  I am a big fan of Games Workshop's artist John Blanche and the Silent Hill game series-- only 1 through 3-- so my painting sort of leant towards the darker, messier style.

Remembrancer sketch of a Fjorlag assault Astartes

That's it for now.  I might post the Chapter's history later, but this is a basic overview.  I hope I encouraged someone with their story.  Remember this; Warhammer 40,000 is a fantasy story, not Sci-fi like so many people think.

D

Children of the Imperium #1: The Ordo Xenos inquisitor

I enjoy building and painting unique figures, even if I can't game with them.  The 41st millennium has such rich lore, I feel it would be a bit silly not to make a few characters not related to any army in particular.
I hit upon the idea of a small series of miniatures some time back.  "Children of the Imperium" is a showcase of the lesser-thought-of people of Warhammer 40,000.

First in the series is this: An ordo xenos Inquisitor lord in Terminator armour, with power fist and plasma blastgun.
 

I always wanted to pair a Grey knights terminator front with an ordinary terminator back; this is the result.

I made the cape by rolling out a sheet of greenstuff.  Not very good, but it was my first cape I ever made myself.  The power sword was from another inquisitor model with the handle taken from a nemesis hammer.  The power fist is actually an ordinary Space Marine's, the legs are from the old Dark Angel's veteran sprue and the plasma gun was a chaos one.

I have several other miniatures for this series, so I know I can carry it on if I wish.  Should I do so?

D

Figma Link re-paint

Well, I should be biking up to the gym this morning, but it's raining so very hard, I couldn't get there without getting unnecessarily wet, so I'll put it off to-day.  I don't think missing to-day will be that much harm.
Instead, I want to show a project I recently finished.

I took the Skyward Sword Link figurine by Figma and re-painted it so it was more my style.  His name is "Beregond", which is not a rip-off character, but simply the name I prefer to give him when I play Zelda.  Fortunately, the figurine can come completely to bits without breaking, so I did that to undercoat each part individually.  Remembering he had pink hair on one game, I wasn't sure whether to give him yellow hair or pink, so I made him strawberry blonde.  His eyes I knew I couldn't do without failing dismally, so I covered them with blu-tac when I undercoated the face.

I painted the tunic borders white and added the black cheques with a brush-tip pen.  The gold on the boots was a bit of a pain, but somehow I managed it.

Extensive use of washes here.  It took me a good many hours, but it was fun and I learned a few new things to try on my Space Marines.  I hope I can encourage others to have a go at re-painting.

D

Painting guide: Obligatory how to dry-brush an Imperial power blade with an extra step

I know it's been done a thousand times before, but I want to write a quick how-to for painting a power weapon for Warhammer 40,000.  I want to put more content on my blog, also I simply felt like it.

To begin with, I actually knew nothing of dry-brushing and marvelled at the swords shown in the old Space Marine codex showcase.  Nowhere could I find a decent guide, so I sort of bluffed my way through until I developed a decent technique on my own.  A technique which, I later found to be the way almost everybody else works; dry-brushing.  There's also air-brushing, but I can't get mine to work for me--

So--

From darkest to lightest; Macragge blue, Sotek green, Calgar blue and Ceramite white because I have no more White scar left.

I use two brushes; a dry-brush and a stippling brush for the extra step which I believe you can already guess.
  I cannot stress enough how important it is to keep your dry-brush dry.  Constantly.  Never mind about leaving paint on the bristles, you'll just have to scrape it off on a cloth or hand like me.  If it gets even a little wet, your dry-brush is ruined.  Forever.  That happened to me once and it was most disheartening.  As for your stippling brush, though, you don't have to worry about that too much; my stippling brushes were nice to begin with but got used too much.

Firstly, I might note I prefer to undercoat with the White scar spray can and brush Abaddon black over.  I guess it's my past as an artist starting from white.

1: Macragge blue up to 3/4 of the way.
2: Sotek green up to a little over 1/2, and a bit on the tip.
3: Calgar blue up to 1/3 of the way, and a tiny hint on the tip and a fraction along the edges.  I might add you only have to show the dry-brush the paint; you are going to want to have to scrape it off the brush onto the model.
4: Ceramite white on about 1/4 of the blade, along the tip and the edges.
Extra step 5: Take the stippling brush, get bit of watered-down ceramite white and flick the paint across the blade, aiming from the hilt up.  Again, making sure not to use too much paint at once.


And that's it, really.  You can now paint the hilt and finish the weapon.  I might post a picture of the finished miniature later.

D

Rambling thoughts on Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess

For my second post, I wished to write something at least a little substantial, so I decided I would ramble at bit about one of my favorite games of all time-- Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess.
Please note-- one, this is my opinion, mine alone, and if you disagree that's okay; and two, extreme spoiler alert... I know some people haven't played it yet.

As I didn't actually own a Wii or Gamecube at the time, I borrowed  one from a friend; he kindly let me keep it until I had won the game, which all up took about forty hours, and those were the best forty hours of my gaming life spent.
I know the game is hated by many people for its linear structure in comparison to the rest of the series, but that was one point I liked so much; it was a novel.  The focus was on the main plot, which was not the most clear of plots, but still...  Owing to its more linear style, I would not recommend it to somebody new to the Zelda series, but why did I bring that up?

Puzzle-solving left a little to be desired, but I tried not to let it bother me.  Actually, I loved pretty much every aspect of the game except for the water temple and fishing.
After catching my first two fish by sheer luck, I resorted  to Google to find out how to fish properly.  Amusingly, it seems to be the only one set thing in the Hero of Time's personality, the fact that he likes fishing. 

Oh, Link's face when he entered Hena's shop was priceless.



And horse-back combat-!  Those were some of the best combat scenes, in my opinion.

The twilight realm was presented in such a way, as if you already knew it existed, rather than having it the main gimmick of the game which now that I think of it might have been... The architectural design there was strange, but it was only to be expected.  the atmosphere of the twilight in general was amazing, too; being one of those mad people who like to photograph clouds and sunsets, you may understand my fascination.
Twilight, which brings me to the subject of Midna.
Come on, who doesn't love a grotesque, imp-like creature who finds madness and death amusing?

Except that face...

I didn't like her at all to begin with. I thought her appearance was unfitting to the story at that point and her selfish manner irritated me indefinitely-- more than did Navi, in fact.  But it didn't detract from the game at all; just a bossy, princessy person who was annoying and could be dealt with.

As time passed, she became bearable, and when she eventually got her act together and decided to help Link, I was quite relieved.  To see her finally warm up to him was pretty special, too.

The last fight with Ganondorf caught me off guard.  In the past Zelda games, when Ganon is the antagonist, it was always Ganon who Link fights last.  To cross blades with the Gerudo prince himself was something I had always hoped for, but never really expected.  I think it to be among the my top favorite boss battles of all time, Ganon from Ocarina of Time being better.

And I'll admit it, the ending sequence did bring tears to my eyes.  I know, I'm mad.  But it was all so beautifully portrayed-!

In closing, TP was my favorite Wii game ever and possibly my favorite Zelda title.  I made a lot of  memories across Hyrule Field that I will remember for a good long while.  And Midna's character development was utterly precious to watch.

There we are-- my unashamedly biased ramble concerning Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess.  Thank you for reading.

D

Favorite scene

My first post

Grace to you, and peace by the grace of our benevolent God-Emperor.

I was back and forth at length about doing a blog, several people did ask me if I had one... so here we are.  This is my first post, so I don't really know how to start.

I am a big fan of the Legend of Zelda series, I suppose that's a start.  I like drawing fantasy heroes and such, so I suppose I could upload some of my art...
Also, more importantly, I am a war-gamer.  Warhammer 40,000 to be exact.  Okay, not a war-gamer as such, but I love the 41st millennium as a whole.  As you may have noted, I field Space Marines, my own Chapter which I will introduce at some point.  I'm not that much of a painter, but I might also give hints to those nervous to begin painting-- you don't have to start out painting like Games Workshop's studio team, and you don't even have to aspire to them.

 

  There we are.  My first post.  It wasn't quite so nerve-wracking as I once thought.  I will try to post regularly, once a week if possible.  Thank you for taking notice of my blog.

For his glory and the glory of Him on Earth.

D.