An Introduction

A quick welcome message!

After many years of posting on numerous Warhammer forums (you may or may not have seen a poster called Pacific with a small picture of a visored Squat as an avatar!) I've finally decided to get all of my painting and modelling efforts in one place. The focus of these for the last year or more has been the World Eaters, but not the red-armoured and axe-wielding mentalists of the 40k universe, but the rather their more evocative and less understood guise as a Legion taking part in the Great Crusade.

To be perfectly honest this project started as something as an experiment (and a joke!) after a gaming colleague of mine jibed that I could only paint dark coloured miniatures. I have to say that looking at the dark stained rags of my Vampire Counts and the drab grey hull's of my Flames of War German Panzers I felt inclined to agree with him!

At the time the first Horus Heresy series books had been released. I was already a great fan of the Card Game series and the corresponding book, and the great narrative introduced by Abnett and co. sent my interest into everything pre-heresy into overdrive! Although I was drawn to many of the Legions described in the literature concerning the Great Crusade, it was the story of the traitor legions that really piqued my interest. I have to be honest and say that I've always rooted for the bad guys when I'm reading a book or watching a film; Whether its because in the time honoured traditions of Hollywood I know that their days are numbered and I'm simply pining for the underdog, or because I find their character often so much more complex (and easier to relate to?!) I'm not sure. But, to put it simply, images of a Black Templar yelling, "I smite thee heathen!" before he retires to his spotless bedsheets and ironed pajamas do nothing for me. A bit of dirt on a character is very important to me, and the traitor Legions have that in spades!

So why the World Eaters? Well, they satisfied the already stipulated criteria - they are white! Secondly, I thought that they would be quite easy to characterise; the infamous chainaxe, drawn into Imperial posterity as the weapon of the crazed berskerkers of the blood god, but here used against the enemies of the Emporer is instantly recognisable; The use of antiquated armour, retro jet packs, dynamic posing - all of this presented an opportunity to create something that was not only instantly recognisable but also iconic. I hoped that in the end younger players, or those not entirely conversant with 40k background, would be able to look at my miniatures and, after some initial confusion, would understand exactly who those white coloured guys (who aren't White Scars!) with chainaxes and liberal dosings of claret are.

And the final and perhaps most important reason? The narrative surrounding the World Eaters is undeniably powerful - indeed, few tales are more emotional than the failure and fall of a Hero. I wanted to produce a snapshot of the legion as they once were, at their pinnacle and before they crested that mountain and began their inexorable slide towards heresy and chaos. They're at the forefront of mankind's expansion through the galaxy - a golden age for those on the right side and a time when anything seems possible. But despite this not everything is as it should be, and the faint smell of spilt blood drifts ever closer...