Short story: Flayed ones

***

Reason had vacated his mind long ago amid the howl of the ordnance away on the blood-slicked hillock.  The screams of dying mortals around him bled through his battle-helm without cease in waves of pain, but he savoured it now when once it was simply ignored.  Half his vision was dull from muzzle bright and half hazed with the blood pounding upon his eyes; so late into the siege he had forgotten about the agony his legs were in.
So late it was.  He had seen the sun set twelve times to his left and that world's distraught parody of day was escaping the sky a thirteenth time with no relief, no end to the horror that had awoken under their feet.  Fated, all had been slain below the mould-riven firmaments and cast out as an infant's ragged corpse from the slit belly of its mother.

The carpet of bodies caught his last empty clip and he cursed to the sky for his lack of foresight.  Would that he had remained with his own squad at the gate, and not try to save those mortals whose open ribcages now splintered underfoot!  At the least he would have ended it all and been worthy of forgiveness!  But that way was cut off now and he was abandoned.
With a scream of defiance, he tore his chain-cleaver from his back and bared his empty bolter at the shimmering mass of blades before him, daring them to scale the last fifty feet of ceramite and cut him down.  Amid them, Three and two, they wore skins of the PDF he had seen marching in a month ago, and he laughed at them; so proud they had been that day, glittering blue and bayonets sharp-- VANITY!  Their faces stretched now, once so pious moaned in hollow apathy now, eyes that shone soulless into his own now, all closing, closing, flayed and glittering, blood and rust, Doom!
Doom!

But the dawn did not rise upon that awful descent.  That day there was mourning in the darkness and in the rusted depths; five return when five should not have, one departed, led into madness and never to return. 
And the silence bore witness of the silence, the dead mourning the dead in a voice that was never heard and would never still; for he was no longer.

***

So there we go.  How was it, did you like it?  It was more a paragraph than anything... but it was fun!  I wasn't really sure who I was writing about when I began, and that made it exciting.  Who was this martyr?  The picture wasn't at all accurate for a reason; I want to try and write to inspire you in your own 40K stories.
I've been thinking to write about titans next, so maybe next time I'll have some collegia fluff.
Thanks for reading!

D

Ork... thing kitbash

Introducing Bogfilla "Zogme" Pobjoy-- the Bad Moonz oddboy who desperatley wants to be a mekboy when he's bigger.  He earned his unfortunate nickname from when his boss told him to make him a trukk in four days (reduced to two, seeing as he was so up himself).

Zogme Pobjoy spent the first hours whipping his boyz into finding him a decent hull to work with while he gathered as much dakka as he could find.  There wasn't much to be found, but he made do.  The first day was over and only then was an empty rhino husk found, but nobody was particularly keen on working with it bar Pobjoy himself.

So here's the (almost) finished assembly; a dakka hedgehog called "We wuz rushed, dammit".

 The dakka side; Zogme Pobjoy was only ever intending on driving in one direction.

3rd command veteran Hvergi disapproves of this project

The not-so-much-dakka side.  Someone didn't know what they were doing...
Pobjoy, despite his enthusiasm hasn't the faith his creations will work, so he always has a plan B up his oddboy sleeve.

 ***

So that's that, for now.  Apart from a bit of chain to tie some things down and more dakka, I think that's assembly done.  Shock and horror, I'm out of greenstuff now!  I'm going to have to find a new source somewhere off ebay...

D

short story time; a good idea?

Nice piece of stolen art...

Some blogging acquaintances were talking about blog content and what is interesting/expected of a blog.  I for one am quite fond of the little bits of fiction written about figures a blogger has made; a particular favorite being Eternalhunt (you'll find a link down the side).

Where was I going with this...?  I haven't been posting for a while because I haven't had enough content to show; spamming pictures of the one thing really doesn't appeal to me and I have trouble being verbose.  Plus the fact that I am in the middle of so many projects just now and my painting is SO bloody slow that's hardly anything to rely on--
So I then had a thought; I do need a bit of short story practice anyway.  What if, once a week, I write some 500-800 word bit of fluff and publish it here?  Perhaps with some form of illustration to go with it, that sort of thing.
What do you think?  At the least it'd get me posting on a more regular basis while I'm in the middle of so many projects-- my own fault, I admit-- and it'd be something nice for you to read, too.

Short story, once a week-- would you like this?  Please let me know!

D

Anacharis Scoria kitbash: a lot of greenstuff later

 

...That was a thing, I suppose.  This is why I haven't posted for a while or done much painting.

Not sure how to start this post off, so I'll start from assembly.  Not sure what possessed me to attempt this.
 Anacharis Scoria, pretty much the primarch of the Dark Mechanicus.  My first mechanicus figure, too-- and what an undertaking it was!  I started with a CSM warpsmith's cape and plonked a dark eldar grotesque body on top.  A legion praetor's head was the closest I had to his proper face, and a few necklaces stolen borrowed from mum and my sister helped to flesh out the area underneath the cloakes.

The cloakes, I might note are cut from a vampire knights cavalry sprue-- the exact one escapes me-- built up with greenstuff later.
I wasn't really sure where I was going with this build; all I knew I wanted was the look of a strait-jacket and horse skulls somewhere.  While being the archmagos of the dark admech I don't think Scoria would be so awfully corrupted as his successors; a chaos star and a toothed, fleshy blade on his weapon would be enough for him, I believe.
Another thing was that leg.  A relic of past life as a mortal, he has no use for it anymore seeing as he can levitate.

Not very structurally sound, but oh well!
I wasn't sure what to make of his weapon, the voidain scepture.  It is two-handed, but he only has one hand available-- so I gave him another.
So here he is all nicely painted up.

 

 

 

So that's that!  I can't remember if I already filled in my paint-a-miniature-as-a-gift bingo square, but here we are anyway!  A G+ acquaintance and fellow blogger 30kplus40k collects dark mechanicus, I know he would very much like him...
Bye-bye for now.

D

Hobby update : I've been a bit lax

I can't believe I haven't posted since march.  I'm sorry, very sorry-- but this means the update will be longer, not sure if that's a good thing or not...

Firstly, I've been a fool and assembled more Angels Encarmine instead of painting what I've already got.  I'll have to stop now-- I'm out of Night Lords shoulder pads.  The metal librarian conversion I was originally intending for the Sagodjur Fjorlag, before scale became a problem in my mind.  I shaved the mask off a dark eldar hellion and it made a nice batty face.

And two captains.  The one on the left will be the DC commander.  Unless storm shields aren't allowed...

On a less serious note I'm having a go at making a cherubic host to carry the helmet for my 3rd captain Baldr.

more WiP, including a musician

7th command is coming along slowly, very slowly.  From left, we have; Dormouse, Queen (sergeant) and Carpenter.  D'you see the theme?
The first one I finished was Hatter.

Not sure if the photos show it, but yes-- I gave him an in-this-style-ten-and-six in his hatband.

Also I'm still striving to get 7th captain Thunraz right.  I think this is it, after about five incarnations...
Not sure if his weapon would count as a chainaxe or a thunder hammer, but I'm finally happy with it!  Especially the Blanche-esque wing crest.

and people question the fact I play loyalist.  Really, I ask you...

So that's that.  A lot less painting than I'd like, I know that much-- and now with the 2016 space marine sprue sitting on the bench I'm not sure if any will get done at all, but oh well-!
Bye bye for now.

D

Secret side project for a friend